Let us turn to God's Word, directing
you for our text, the words that we find in the epistle to the
Hebrews in chapter 4, and I'll read verses 12 and 13. Hebrews
4, 12 and 13. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the hearts. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Here then
in Hebrews chapter 4, 12 and 13, we might ask you, or what
are we to understand by the reference here to the words of God? The Word of God we read is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. What is being
referred to? Well, both Dr. Owen and Dr. Gill say quite definitely that
the reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember
how in the book of the Revelation we are told how his name is called
the Word of God. He is that Word of God incarnate
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 all
things were made by Him without Him was not anything made that
was made and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father full of grace and truth. Now John repeatedly in the Gospel,
and then again there in the book of the Revelation, it refers
to the Lord Jesus Christ by that particular name. He is the Word
of God. And when we read here of a Word
that is quick and powerful, sharper than the two-edged sword,
piercing and dividing, So we see concerning him who is that
works, that his understanding reaches into the very depths
of the hearts and souls of men. He needed not that any should
testify of man. He knew what was in the hearts
of men and that woman of whom we read in John chapter 4 when
she goes back to speak to the men in the city says come see
a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the
Christ? and it is evident here that it
is a person that is being spoken of as we see from what follows
in verse 13 neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight the masculine pronoun but all things are naked and
open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do it is the
Lord Jesus but then the point is made by some of the commentators
that This reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word of God
is something that is peculiar to the writings of John in the
New Testament. And we're not persuaded that
this epistle to the Hebrews is, as we're told in our authorized
version, part of the Pauline epistles. This is the writing
of the Apostle Paul, not the Apostle John. And if John is
that one who, in his own particular style, will make reference to
Christ as the Word, is it not strange that we should also find
Paul using the same title? We know that when Paul speaks
of the sword of the Spirit he as regards to the Word of God
as we see there in Ephesians chapter 6 where he deals with
the armor that the Lord God has provided for his children and
he speaks quite clearly of the sword of the Spirit which is
the Word of God. However Surely, in a sense, we
ought to connect these two. The Scripture as that sword of
the Spirit, and yet also the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the
one being spoken of here in our text. Are we not to understand
that what we have here is a reference to that word that is, as it were,
in the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ? we're told in the Revelation,
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And then again
in Revelation 19, out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that
with it he should smite the nations. And so when we read here, yes
it is the Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of, it's a person.
But in particular it is that word that proceedeth out of his
mouth." And what a word is that that comes from the lips of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the course of his ministry. He says, the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. All his words, they are life-giving words. David can
pray in his prayer, Quicken thou me according to thy word. It's
when the Lord comes And the Lord comes through the ministry of
the Word and the Lord speaks to us in that peculiar and particular
fashion. It's then that we feel the sharpness
of His words. The reference here then is surely
to that preached Word that is being applied by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we observed something of
that in what we were considering just last Lord's Day when we
looked at part of the preaching of Peter as we have it recorded
there in the second chapter of the Acts. And what was the consequence? Here is Peter preaching and yet
the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is the very subject matter
of his ministry and Christ is there. And we see the effect
when they heard this, it says, they were pricked in their heart
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and
brethren, what shall we do? Oh, the Word of God, quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." When
the Lord comes, now we see that the Lord was there in the ministry
of Peter, He was there in the ministry of Paul, Remember when
Paul writes to those Ephesians amongst whom he had ministered
and it's in the fruits of his labors that Ephesus, the establishment
of that local church and when he writes to them he says you
have not so learned Christ if so be you have heard him and
been taught by him. How the Lord must come in the
ministry and the Lord must speak these truths and apply these
truths that we find on the page of Holy Scripture He must bring
them into our very hearts and we need with meekness to be receiving
it as that engrafted work that is able to save our souls. Think of the great doctrine of
election And oft times we sing those lines of Joseph Hart, Though
God's election is a truce, more comfort there I see, Till I am
told by God's own mouth that He hath chosen me. Oh, we want
the Lord to come and speak to us and tell us. that we are those
in whom He takes a delight, those upon whom He has set His sovereign
love and effected for us personally a great salvation. Well, let us come to consider
the words of our text. And first of all, what we read
of here is very much a convicting work. We're told concerning this
Word of God At the end of verse 12, it is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the hearts. Now, the particular word that
we have that's rendered in our authorized version, a discerner,
is that word that literally means a judge. And In a sense it's that word
that our English word criticize is derived from. The judge sits
there and examines the matter and then pronounces his particular
judgment and it might be a critical judgment. He comes to criticize,
to condemn. We know how that men in the world
would be critics of the Word of God. How men set themselves
up and dismiss the Word of God. And even those who have professed
themselves to be Christians, the higher critics, when they
come to the Old Testament Scriptures, how they want to, they say, demythologize
it. They want to explain it away.
We're not to believe the things that are written concerning origins. We're not to believe the biblical
account of God's creation of all things in justice day. We're
not to believe that there was ever such a thing as a universal
flood. We're not to believe that these
people that are spoken of in the early chapters of Genesis,
who lived to such great ages, that these were real people.
We're not to believe that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. They want to strip the Bible
from us, they're critics of the Word of God. And even when they
come to the New Testament, oh, they deny all the truth concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and the great miracle of His birth, the
mystery of the incarnation, that a man could be born of a virgin.
that God could be manifest in the flesh and the miracles that
the Lord Jesus Christ performed throughout his earthly ministry.
Our men will come and sit in judgment on the Word of God and
be critics of the Word of God. However, here we are reminded
that it is God's Word that is really ultimately to judge men. Who is that One to whom God has
committed all judgment? It is all put into the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There we see that. Remember how
the Lord speaks in the course of His own ministry and He tells
the Jews that He is that One who in the great day will come
to judge the actions of all men. The Father judges no man, says
Christ. but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son. For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself,
and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because
He is the Son of Man. O there, at the end of time,
the Lord Jesus Christ is that One who is to return in power
and glory. But how different to His first
coming! or then he comes in all the humility
that we read of in the Gospel of Cain but at the end why he
will appear in power and glory with all the holy angels with
him the scene is to be set the judgment day will arrive and
he will sit and separate the sheep from the goats All men
will be judged, you see, by Him who is spoken of here as the
Word of God. But how the Lord, in the course
of His ministry, as we have it recorded in the Gospel, reminds
those Jews the language of John 12, 48. He that rejecteth me,
says Christ, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth
him. the word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in that day." Men will be judged by the
word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we would not be judged
and condemned by that word in that day, in the day of judgment,
then surely we must know something of what it means to be judged
by that word of the Lord Jesus Christ in this day. ought to
be judged by that word of the Lord Jesus in the day of Christ,
when the Lord comes to us. Remember our John, John the Baptist,
who comes as that one who is preparing the way for Christ,
the great harbinger. Our John speaks of the Lord's
ministry and he says, whose fan is in his hand and he will truly
purge his floor. This is how John introduces the
ministry of the Lord Jesus, his fan is in his hand Now the fan
is that that would be used of course for the winnowing of the
wheat, some sort of great spade that would be used to toss into
the air and then the chaff being blown away by the wind and the
pure grain falling to the ground. This is how the winnower would
work in those days. And John is saying that the Lord's
fan is in his hand. He's about to commence a winnowing
ministry. that ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again John
uses another figure there in Matthew chapter 3. He speaks
of how the axe is laid to the root of the tree. He says, and
now, and now, the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Or the
Lord is about to do a work. And his work is going to be a
separating work. We are told repeatedly in John's
Gospel of that division. There was a division amongst
the Jews because of him. A division amongst the people
because of his words. How he comes as that one who
will separate. He separates the precious from
the vile. Wasn't that the promise that
was given to the Prophet Jeremiah? If he would separate the precious
from the vile, he would be at God's mouth. But how much more
is that the case in Christ who is the great prophet? That one who has come in the
fullness of the time to fulfill the prophetic office. Oh, he
is that one then who must judge us in this day of grace. Dr. John Owen says that no man is
really the same after he has heard the ministry of the Word
of God, after he has heard the preaching of the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. No man can be the same. That Word will come as us either
as the saver of life unto life or it will come to us as a saver
of death unto death. isn't that how Paul himself speaks
of his ministry there in in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and he
says who is sufficient for these things ought to be those who
know what it is to have that work accomplished in our own
soul in this day this day of grace rather than that day, that
awful day of judgment that word of God quick and powerful sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, a discerner of the
thought and the intents of the heart." How strange it is when
God comes and begins to have those dealings with us as sinners. That word, it's a living word,
that's what we read of here, it's quick, it's lively in other
words. And yet, when He comes to pierce
What does he do? He kills the sinner. And those
on the day of Pentecost, they were pricked to their hearts.
Or they're killed to any hope, any confidence, any trust that
they might have in themselves. What must we do? They say to
the apostles. Oh yes, they're still, in a sense,
I believe, they're wedded to the idea of works, the idea of
the law, there's something to be done. But what does Peter
say? They're not to do anything, they're
to repent, they're to believe the gospel. Or they're to turn from their
sins, they're to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in Him,
it's in Him alone that there is salvation for sinners. Or the entrance of that Word
of God. David says, He giveth understanding
onto the simple it comes, it brings with it lights salvation
and yet there is that that is so strange and so mysterious
about it all when Paul the apostle is speaking
of his own experience remember in the seventh chapter of Romans
Oh, as a Jew, as a Pharisee, as the son of a Pharisee, he
was so wedded to the law. Oh, he was such an expert in
the law. He kept the law of God. He was blameless before the Lord
of God, so he thought. But what does he say there in
Romans 7? I was alive without the law once.
But the commandment came and sin revived and I died. And the
law which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. Oh,
when the Lord deals with us in this day, in this day of grace,
He will kill us to any trust in ourselves. The sinner must
be brought to the end of himself. Oh, doesn't Moses say, Thou turnest
man to destruction and sayest, Return, ye children of men. And what is that returning? It's
the grace of repentance. It's turning from sin, it's turning
to Christ, it's trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The discerner,
a judge of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It's what
the Lord has done with us. Has that been your experience? That the Lord has come and sat
in judgment upon you and condemned you and you felt that condemnation. and you've seen that there's
no hope in anything that you can do of yourselves it must
be all of God, it must be all of the grace of God all this
word you see what a word it is, it's a manifesting word what
do we see here? observe two things with regards
to this ministry that is being spoken of how that the The ministry of the Gospel, in
a sense, is such a great mystery. Isn't this what the Apostle is
saying? There is a mystery in the Gospel. Paul knew that. In Ephesians chapter 6, when
he's speaking there of the armour that the Lord God
has provided for his people, remember how he concludes by
speaking of the necessity of prayer. and the old hymn says
concerning that armor each piece put on with prayer but then how
the the apostle goes on to ask that they pray for him in particular
in his ministry Ephesians 6.19 he says unto me that utterance
may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel in his prayer, if he's going
to make known the gospel, how he speaks of that gospel as mystery. And there is much that is so
mysterious in the gospel of the grace of God. It's referred to as a mystery
not because it is something so unintelligible to men, but it
is something that is so profound. It's that that God himself must
make known, it's what God must reveal. This is why Paul is desiring
those Ephesians to pray for him. That he might make known that
mystery. And what is the mystery? Well,
there's a mystery in a two-fold sense in the gospel. There's
a mystery of the very content, the subject matter of the gospel
that is being preached. But then also there's the the
mystery in the way in which, in this day of grace, God is
administering that gospel. Think firstly of the content. Without controversy, Paul says,
great is the mystery of godliness, the mystery of real religion. Why is it a mystery? Because
of the person in whom it all centers. It all centers in the
Lord Jesus Christ. What is the true preaching of
the gospel? It is the preaching of the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know there are those
who think that experimental preaching is standing in the pulpit and
telling stories and anecdotes and speaking of their own experiences
and I've even heard it said that there are some who've gone to
hear a sermon and there's been no mention of the Lord Jesus
Christ anywhere in the ministry. Well, that is not the preaching
of the gospel. Far, far from it. Paul's determination to the
Corinthians was to know nothing amongst them save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And what does he say? We preach
Christ crucified. All those two words Christ, the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified. the great work of
the Lord Jesus Christ and do we not see a great mystery when
we come to consider each of those blessed truths or when we think
of the person Jesus of Nazareth and what a man is this one he
is a real man and yet never anything less than true Almighty God when the angel comes and speaks
to Mary there in Luke's gospel in the opening chapter and he
tells her quite clearly that the Holy Ghost is going to come
upon her the power of the highest will overshadow her and what
is being conceived in her womb what she will bring to the birth
is that Holy Thing that only thing which shall be called the
Son of God. All that human nature, that body,
that soul that is going to be joined to the eternal Son of
God. That is the great mystery of
the Incarnation. There's a mystery in the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ is coming into the world. and how all of
this is unfolded to us in the Gospels and God in His wisdom
has given to us a fourfold Gospel all with an emphasis is laid
upon the person that is recorded in all that he is and all that
he has done in those Gospels and he is that one who made of
a woman is made also under the law He is subject to the law
of God. He obeys the law of God. He lives
a life that is perfect in every part, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, is the man Christ Jesus, made higher
than the heavens. How the Father declares from
heaven on two occasions, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. He pleases the Father. He is
obedient to all the will of the Father. Why? We read what He
says there in that fourth chapter of John. He tells the disciples
that He has meat to eat that they know nothing of. His meat,
all that will sustain Him in life is to do the will of Him
who has sent Him and to finish His work. And that is obedience,
and obedience unto death. Even the death of the cross. Because he will die, and he will
die as that one who is the great substitutionary sacrifice. Dying in the room, in the steds
of his people, bearing in his own person all that punishment
that was there just as earth. You're familiar with these things,
but what a mystery. Oh, what a mystery. He is God. And he never ceases to be God. Throughout all his earthly life
he is God and he is man. And then he dies. And how come
this birth? and in dying how he feels so
derelict in his own soul how he feels utterly deserted of
God he's bearing the punishment of the sins of his people he's
suffering at the hands of men but worse than that worse than
that he's suffering now at the hand of his father he's making
his soul a sacrifice for sins and he cries out in all the agony
of his soul my God my God why hast thou forsaken me? there's
a mystery there is a mystery he is God's the eternal son of
the eternal father he is one with the father and the spirit
and there is no division there God is one and God is undivided
and God is indivisible and yet and yet he experiences something in his
soul as God-man and he feels that awful load that has been
laid upon him and he feels that terrible punishment even being
deserted by the father there's a mystery the gospel is a mystery
but not only a mystery with regards to its subject matter but also
when we think of the administration of it It was strange to the Jews
that God should call the Gentiles. But that was that great mystery
that was hid only to be revealed in the fullness of the time.
And remember how Paul speaks of that there in Ephesians chapter
3. Ephesians 3, 2, If ye have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God, he says, which he has
given me to you, ward, out of thy revelation he made known
unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore, in few words, whereby
when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men, as it is now revealed unto us, his holy apostles and
prophets, by the Spirit, that the Gentiles, should be followers
and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his
power unto me. Who am less than the least of
all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning
of the world has been hid in God who created all things by
Jesus Christ. And so he goes on. He's speaking
now of the gospel dispensation. He's speaking
about how God is going to administer His sovereign grace in these
last days. And there is a mystery, you see.
There is a mystery in the way in which God calls sinners effectually
to himself. There in that passage that we
just read in Ephesians, in Ephesians 3 verse 2, he speaks of the dispensation
of the grace of God. The word dispensation really
means the administration. the distribution of the grace
of God and how is that to be set forth, it's to be laid
out, it's to be explained in the course of the preaching and
the purpose of it as he says to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the gospel It's to point out the way in which
God will make sinners partakers of his grace. And how strange
is that, how paradoxical, when the Lord begins to deal with
us. We can't understand the ways of the Lord. There's such a mystery
in the way in which he administers his grace. We come under the
Word of God and we discover that that Word of God is a quick,
a powerful Word. It's sharp, it's piercing. It
slays us, it kills us to all hope and trust in ourselves. This is a mystery. How strange
is the course that the Christian must steer, how perplexed is
that path he must tread. The hope of his happiness rises
from fear. His life he receives from the
dead. Oh, we're all by nature dead in trespasses and sins and
yet we're unaware of where we are and what we are, but when
God comes and begins to administer His grace in us, then He makes
us to feel something of what we are. And we can't understand,
and we find it so mysterious to us. But then there is that
ministry of the Word of God, that ministry of the Gospel,
Is he not part of the ministry to show how God does in his sovereignty
administer his grace? Isn't there to be that tracing
out of his work in the soul of the sinner? And that's why there is that
need for what we might call real and true experimental preaching.
And as I said, it's not just telling tales, anecdotes, stories.
not just speaking of a man's own experience but it's that endeavor to try
to trace out the way in which the Lord deals with us in the
very depths of our souls and how Christ is made so real to
us and we see it in the ministry of the apostles when John in his writings is
having to contend for the truth of the reality of the person
of Jesus of Nazareth as that one who is both God and man and
he does it of course in those in those three epistles in particular
he does it also in the gospel but thinking of how he writes
there in the epistles and his great concern is to answer those
who were descending into terrible heretical doctrine with regards
to the person of Christ, they were denying the reality of his
human nature, son. Others were denying the blessed
truth of his divine nature. And John has to speak about he
had such an experience, he knew this man. And when we write in
the opening words of that first epistle, that which was from
the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the
word of life, for the life was manifested and we have seen it
and declare unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us. He is speaking of things that
he has known and felt he was so familiar with the Lord Jesus
he knew that that was no phantom spirit that was a real man, he
was there when the Lord instituted his supper the Holy Supper and
he was leaning upon the Lord's bosom and he will answer those
who are denying the truth of the human nature of Christ from
his own experience and that was the case with the
with the Apostles in the in the New Testament so also with all
the faithful servants of the Lord surely all the Lord's servants
speak of those things that they have known and found. Or John
Bunyan. What does Bunyan say? I preach
that which I did feel, that which I did smartingly feel. He felt it. It had entered into
the depths of his being, it had pierced him to the quick, that
Word of God. It wasn't just a matter of intellectual
assent to certain doctrines. No, it was that that is being
spoken of here in the word of our text, that word of God, in
the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, so quick, so powerful, sharper
than the two-edged sword, piercing. And as it pierces so, it judges
us, it condemns us. Oh, that's the great mystery
of the Lord's wise. Paul says as it is written I
believed and therefore have I spoken so we also believe and therefore
speak we have to speak only those things that the Lord himself
has taught us those things that the Lord has brought us to believe
knowing the terror of the Lord Paul says we persuade men, he
knew it I was struck I'm sure you've read Warburton's Mercies and he describes
the experience he knew when he first went to hear Mr. Gadsby Warburton says this, I never
heard my ins and outs, my ups and downs, my days and nights,
my sorrows and joys so opened up before as he sat under that
preaching and he went, you know, he'd heard of this man and he
despised him in his heart and he went as a critic and yet as
soon as that clown of a man as Warburton considered him at first
as soon as he opened his mouth and began to speak it wasn't
the words of William Gadsby it was that sort of the spirit that
sharp two-edged sword coming forth from the mouth of the Lord
Jesus Christ that entered into the very soul of John Warburton. And it's not just Gadsby, it's
others. We could go back further, go
back to Martin Luther. It was said of Luther how he
preached as if he had been in the heart of a man. Well, he
knew it, you see. He knew something of his own
heart. The Lord had so doubt with him. Let me just quote a
little extract from what Luther says concerning the Word of God.
He says, Every single word of God has in its nature this effect
to terrify and to console, to wound and to heal, to break in
pieces and to build, to root up and to plant, to humble, and
to exalt, that's the Word of God and that's what's being spoken
of here in the words of the text that word that comes when he
comes with all the power and all the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself we've referred to men, be they apostles, be
they reformers, be they strict Baptists, but of course let us
never forget that the greatest of all the preachers is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And think of the testimony of
that woman that we read of in that fourth chapter of John.
A woman of disrepute. Yet what does she say as she
has dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ, her testimony? Come see
a man, she says, which told me all things that ever I did. Is
not this the Christ? And then the men come out of
the city and they go there to where Christ is at the well at
Sycamore. And what do they say? Now we
believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the
world. Oh, it wasn't just on her hearsay,
you see. How vital this is that to hear
Him themselves. We have heard Him ourselves.
Oh friends, can we say that? Can we say that? We have heard
Him. We bear that mark of those who are the sheep. They know
His voice. They follow Him. He gives unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. And how does the Lord come? He
comes as we have it here in the text. He is that Word of God. All but when the Scripture comes,
as it were, from His own mouth, when the Lord comes and speaks
to us directly. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then,
seeing then we have a great High Priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Oh, if God does come, if the
Lord Jesus Christ is present, And if that two-edged sword coming
from his mouth and piercing into the very depth of our soul is
our experience to die, then we'll know something of the conclusion
of the matter here. We'll have to come. We'll have
to come to the throne of Christ. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of Christ, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help. in time of need, if the Lord
speaks to us, oh surely then we must, we must speak to Him,
we must call upon Him, we must seek His face, or the Lord be
pleasing, God's to bless His word to us. Amen.