And a good service so far. Dirk,
in his prayer, he talked about the written word and how grateful
he was for it, and also the living word of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Hebrews 4.12 says this, For the word of God is quick, powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is of 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 open unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing, then, that 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 feelings of
our infirmities. but was in all points tempted like as we, yet
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. I want to talk about the sword
of the Lord, the word of God. He said here in verse 12, For
the word of God is quick and powerful. Our Lord Jesus is called
the Word of God. That's one of the titles that
He has. Now, you keep Hebrews and look with me in John chapter
1. Our Lord Jesus Himself is called the Word of God. It was
by Him, the eternal living Word, that God made all things. As
our Lord Jesus Christ, before He ever became flesh,
the living Word, Everything that was done, that's why he's called
the Eternal Word, the Living Word. In the beginning was the
Word, capitalized. That was his title, that was
his work, that God did by him. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things were made by him, and without him
was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and what
light you got, you got it from Christ, and the light was the
light of men. So he's called the Word of God. He's the eternal
living Word. A living Word that God made all
things by. And I'll tell you something,
we cannot make too much. We cannot make too much of the
living Word. We cannot make too much of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Neither can we make too much
of the written Word. If you take the living Word out
of the written Word, it's dead. And if you just Without the living
Word, making the written Word come alive, you can't separate
the two. And I tell you what, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of the written Word. From Genesis
to Revelation, first promise in the Scriptures, everything
that was done was done by our Lord Jesus Christ. So if we take
and separate the Lord Jesus from the written Word, we take from
Him the very living Word. You see, the Scriptures is what
it is because the Lord Jesus Christ embodies Himself in this
precious Word. If we know anything about Him,
we're going to have to learn from this written Word. We didn't
know He was the One by whom God made all things if the Word hadn't
told us that. We wouldn't know that if the
Lord Jesus Christ was the sustainer of this world and all that's
in it if the Word didn't tell us that. So he embodies himself
in his word. And, Dirk, you read that tonight,
Dirk, where nobody knows who the Father is, only the Son.
Nobody knows who the Son is, only the Father. Now, how in
the world is anybody going to know the Father? He said, except
the Son revealing to him. You can't know the Father without
the Son, and you can't know the Son without the Father. And so
they go together, and that's why the Word is embodied in the
Scriptures. Now, in this particular text
that I've read tonight, The Holy Scriptures is what is meant by
quick, powerful, and sharp two-edged sword. The Scriptures he's talking
about. Now, I want us to look at this verse of Scripture and
just deal with it a little while tonight and break it down and
see what it has to say for us. Look at what he says. The word
of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing, piercing even to the dividing of the sunderer's soul
and spirit, and joints, and marrow, and discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Let's look at the qualities of
the Word, first of all. Look at its nature. First of
all, it's divine. It comes from God. It's called
the Word of God. That's what it's called. It's
called the Word of God. Not the Word of man. It's called
God's Word. When God spoke, this is what
He says. And look with me, I'll tell you what, over in Psalm
119, verse 89, you'll see this for yourself. Psalm 119, verse
89. We'll be using Psalm 119 in a
pretty good bit tonight. I want to show you some things
about this scripture. But look what God said here. Forever, O Lord, thy Word is
settled in heaven. So this Word that we're talking
about, this written Word, this living Word, this Word that I'm
talking about, is the Word of God, and it's forever settled
in heaven. It'll never change. Never will change. And then look
back over at Psalm 33. And I've quoted it just so many
times to you over the years. But this is what I'm talking
about. Everything God does, He does by His Word. His will is
manifest in His Word. Salvation comes through the Word.
Everything that He does, He does by His Word. Look what He said
in verse 8. Let all the earth Fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants
of the world stand in awe of Him." Why? For He spake, and
it was done. He said, let there be light,
and there was light. He said, let there be water,
and there was water. He said, let the day and the
night be separated from one another. He said, let there be feast in
the field, let there be this herb, let there be this, let
there be that, and it was done. He just said, and it was. Look
what He said. And He commanded, and it stood
fast. The creation's going on just
like He created it from the beginning. It commanded, and it stood fast.
Bless His holy name. You see, beloved, He created
the world by His Word. He reveals Himself in His Word. The scriptures are as old as
God, but He gave them to us in time. From the beginning, everything
that God had to say, and God intended for man to know, and
His will and His revelation and everything, it was always with
God. But when He started, He put all this in a book so we
could understand and see for ourselves. And not only is it
divine, it's the Word of God. I tell you, that's what people,
they've got to understand. This is not just, you can't even
throw your opinion about this. Our opinions, when it comes to
it, we say, I think it says this, I think it says that, I hope
it says... But listen, if you just take it for what it says,
it's the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And then what he goes on to say,
not only that, but it's living. He says, not only is it the Word
of God, but it's quick. It's quick. Do you know what
that word mean, quick, means? It's living. It's alive. And the Word is. It's the living
Word. It actually has life that goes with it and is in it itself. And again, Psalm 119. Let me
show you this. I tell you, these things are
so wonderful. And it's living. Psalm 119, verse 125. It's quick. It's quick. Our words, we say our words and
they'll pass away. We'll say something, they just
go into the vapor, go into the ether. They pass away, we pass
away, and our words pass away with us. But God's Word never,
ever passes away. It lives on. Heavens and earth
shall pass away, but God said, My Word shall never pass away. When we give to glory and beloved
the same word, the same God that revealed in this scripture is
the same one we'll see there. His word will never, ever pass
away. And he said here in Psalm 119,
verse 25. Verse 25. I'm over in the wrong place myself. My soul, Psalm 119, verse 25.
My soul, pleased to the dust. I mean, I'm in trouble. I'm put
down. I'm down. I'm in the dirt. I
can't get up. I've got these heartaches. I've
got these troubles. I've got these things. And then he says,
I can't get up. I don't have the strength on
that. So give me life according to your word. You bring me back
up. You quicken me according to your
word. Look in verse 154. Oh, I love this verse right here.
Two things about it. David said, first he says, plead
my cause. I want you to plead my cause,
Lord. You take up my cause. You take up my cause before law.
Take up my cause before justice. Take up my cause before your
holiness. Take up my cause before your
righteousness. Take up my cause and then deliver
me. Don't just take up my cause,
but save me from it. Then look what he says, quicken
me. Give me life according to your
word. Quicken me. Quicken me. And I'll
tell you something, beloved. The Scriptures has life in itself.
I believe this with all my heart. That if a man is ever going to
be converted, it's going to be through the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's going to be by the word of God. God is not going to save a man
by dreams, by visions, by feelings, by emotions, by being talked
into something, by going down the Roman's road or praying the
sinner's prayer. The scripture says being born
again, not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible, by the
word of God. And listen to how long it lasts.
It abides forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel you've heard. And you see, it has life. This
word has seed in it. And that's what our Lord said. He said in Matthew 13, He said
that a sower went forth to sow seed. They said, what do you
mean by that? He said, well, the seed's the word of God. And
it fell on stony ground, fell on hard ground, fell among thorns,
and then fell on good ground. And where it fell on good ground,
it brought forth fruit, it brought forth life. And, beloved, the
Scripture is what God uses to give us life, to quicken us,
and to produce the seed. And let me say this, the seed,
when it comes, no seed comes up immediately. No seed comes
up immediately. That's why when you plant a garden,
you know you ain't going to grow. You plant all your corn, all
your beans, all your You squash it, you know, you plant it, and
you go out there, and you plant it today, and you don't go out
there tomorrow and look and see how much it's come up. That's
the way it is with the Word of God. We'll be preaching and preaching
and preaching, and the seed is being sown. Seed being sown,
and then with the seed sown, eventually, you'll walk out there
and look in your garden, and there's a little old bitty green
sprout out there. And that's the way it is in life, and God's
given life to us, so a little bit of life will start manifesting
itself by listening to the gospel, enjoying the gospel, loving to
come to hear the gospel, loving to come to eat with the saints.
And then it'll grow more and more and more, and then all of
a sudden somebody will say, listen, I've got life! I've got life. And, oh, beloved, it creates
life wherever it comes. Paul, you know, he told the Thessalonians,
I know your election of God because our gospel came unto you, not
just in word, but come in the Holy Ghost. It come in power. And with it came assurance that
this is the word of God, this life, and this is not something
that just enticed you away. That's why the Lord says, the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. And let me tell you something, you can't not destroy or exterminate
God's Word. I can tear up this book. This
book can be burned up. But you ain't going to burn up
God and His Word in what He says. That's why David said, I'll hide
your Word in my heart. I read one time about some fella,
he was using his Bible, years and years, this was a long time
ago, he got a hold of the Bible. He didn't know anything about
it. He was tearing the leafs out of it, rolling his cigarettes
with it. It's just something to roll cigarettes
with to him. Real fine paper. And he started,
well, I might ought to read some of this. He started reading the
Gospel of John. God began to deal with it. That's just what I'm telling
you. It's alive. And if you start reading it and
God the Holy Ghost starts blessing it to your mind, you're going
to find somebody to tell you the truth about it. And then
back over here in our text, not only is it the Word of God, not
only is it quick and living, But it's effectual. Look what
it says. It's quick and powerful. I mean,
it's effectual. Oh, my. What did I mean by effectual? I mean, beloved, wherever it
goes, it does exactly what God intends for it to do. Intends
for it to do. Look at where 1 Thessalonians
2.13. And let's just go back about
two books, three books. And look what Paul said here.
It's quick and it's powerful. Apollos has said in Acts 18 that
Apollos was a man mighty in the Scriptures, mighty in the Scriptures,
but he didn't know Christ. He didn't know the way of Christ.
And Priscilla and Aquila, Aquila and Priscilla, got him aside
and began to show him the way of the Lord, the way in which
the Scriptures was interpreted, what they meant. And boy, God
blessed him and he really became a preacher. And God used him
mightily in the Scriptures. But look here in 1 Thessalonians
2.13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because, now listen to this, when you
receive the word of God which you heard of us, now you're going
to hear the word of God from somebody. You received it not
as the word of men. Well, that's just what Paul said. That's just what Peter said. I know as much about the Bible
as they do. Don't worry about it. No, no.
You received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth. Truth, the word of God, which
affectionately worketh also in you. Let me read. Now, what does
it do for you? You know, you know that as well
as I know that. It does something for you, sitting and listening
to the gospel, listening to the scriptures, does something for
you that nothing else in this world does. You can hear somebody
preach and say, boy, I want that CD, and you go listen to that
CD and it'll be a blessing. But it was not like being in
the service, being in the service itself and communicating back
and forth. But I know what the gospel does,
the effect it has. It convicts a man of his sins.
It convicts them of the wrongs and the errors of the way. It
converts people from the way they are to the way they should
be. And how many conversions have we had in our lifetime?
You go in this direction, God turns you back this way. And
you believe this, and God takes you and takes you from that truth
to what you thought was true and brings you over here to this
truth. And He brings and converts you. And I'll tell you something
else it does. It comforts us. Oh, the comfort the Scriptures
give us. Oh, bless His name for the comfort His Word gives us,
how it strengthens us, how it comforts us. I preached last
Sunday night on mercy, how to attain mercy. And to think about
mercy, Kim, on the way out last week, Sunday night, she said,
oh, mercy, what a sweet word, what a sweet word mercy is. It
gives us such comfort. We come so heavy-hearted. We
come sometimes with our soul so deeply affected and worried
and scared Things that nobody knows what's going on with you,
the Scriptures comes and comforts us, gives us strength to carry
on. And then not only that, but it
confirms us when we hear the Gospel, when we hear the Scriptures.
It confirms us in our faith. It confirms that what we believe
is so. It establishes us and makes us
understand, yes, that's right. Yes, that's true. That's what
I believe. We believe this. This is not
a fairy tale. And I tell you, it has the power.
to raise our hearts up, raise them up, and cause us to give
ourselves away again to our Lord Jesus Christ, and cause joy and
happiness in our souls. And then look what else he says
about it here in Hebrews 4. Not only is it quick, the Word
of God is quick and powerful, but boy, it's got a sharp edge
to it. It's got a sharp, sharp edge to it. Sharper than any
two-edged sword. It cuts. It cuts. Very cutting. I know men, and
I used to carry knives sharp enough, because I tell you, I
could do it. And I don't even carry them anymore. If it could
start flying, I quit carrying knives, because you know you're
going to take it away from you. But you just shave yourself with
it. And I know a lot of men carrying knives that way, you could just
shave yourself with it. That knife won't cut nothing like
this knife will. Oh, it's sharper than any two-edged
sword. What that means, it cuts all
over. It's all edge. It's sharp as itself. I mean,
it's all edge. Oh, my. People say, well, there's
a... The Bible, you know, has such
a change because the Scriptures make such a change in men. makes
such a radical change in them, conversion does, salvation does,
that men begin to read the Scriptures and love the Scriptures. And
it changes people so much that folks wonder, say, well, does
the Bible talk to you? Or you talk to the Bible? No,
no, the Bible speaks to us. It's the Word of God. What does
it say? What does it speak? It speaks
to our heart. It speaks to our heart. We can
ask it questions, but, oh, it talks to us, it speaks to us.
And when this sharp, two-edged sword comes along, it kills some
things. It's got an edge coming and going.
It kills self-righteousness, it kills sin, it'll kill unbelief. I mean, it comes and it cuts. Oh, how it cuts, sharper than
any two-edged sword. And look what it says, it's piercing.
even to the dividing of thunder of soul and spirit." What it
does is it pierces. Not sharp, but it pierces. You know, men's hearts are so
hard that it has to be pierced. You ever tried to find something,
you know, and try to, you know, pierce it through, get a hole
through it, and you just can't? I was trying to cut something
the other day and could not do it. Couldn't do it. Didn't have
nothing strong enough, sharp enough, didn't have wire cutters
good enough to do it. But I tell you something, God's
sword, this word God, it actually, our hearts are so hard that it
has to come and pierce. Has to pierce, has to pierce
into it. It forces its way into the heart-heart. It has to force its way into
our hearts, has to force its way into our mind. And then look
what it says, it divides asunder. It divides things. It divides
light from darkness. Over here is light and over here
is darkness. He didn't say it's going to be twilight. He didn't
say it's going to be half-light. He didn't say it's going to be
part darkness. He said light and darkness should
divide you. And it's discriminating. It says
it pierces to the dividing of sun, earth, soul, and spirit.
And I tell you, it seems to separate things. It seems an awful lot
alike. And there's a lot of things in this world that seems a lot
alike. And multitudes have that. But
it separates, it divides, as some do, it separates natural
from spiritual religion. I mean, it separates this false
from the true. It separates tradition from the
truth. It divides the outer from the
inner. Now, what do you mean by that? Well, I'll show you in Matthew
23. It divides the outer from the inner. Oh, everybody you
know, eh? Man, all he can look at is what's
on the outside. Only what's on the outside. And,
boy, back in legalism and fundamentalism, that's all we was interested
in, is how somebody was dressed when they went out in public.
That's why these Mennonites and all them, they all wear, they
wear these clothes and that, so they can be distinguished.
They want to be distinguished for their religion. The others, they want to be distinguished
for their religion. But their religion is strictly
on the outside. It's all outside. You know, you can go somewhere
and you tell somebody's got religion by the way they got their hair,
by the clothes they wear, and they wear them long dresses and
all that. But see, that's all on the outside. And what the
truth does is it separates the inner from the outer. It makes
what's outside and what's inside It shows you the difference between
the two. Look what our Lord said here, Matthew 23, 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you may clean the outside of the cup and the platter. Oh,
my, you got that thing so clean on the outside. Oh, boy. But
within, they're full of extortion and excess. Now, He's not talking
about cups and platters here. He's talking about the heart.
But he's using something that people can understand. You see
that cup there? You got that thing clean on the
outside. See that platter there? Oh, it's so clean. And I'll tell
you folks, that fellow right there, if anybody's looking,
that guy lives the best life. He lives for the Lord. He's doing
the... Oh, I tell you what, I'd love to live like him. But I
tell you what, that cup and platter with him, they're full of extortion.
Not only extortion, taking more than what it's worth, but it's
full of excess. And then he says, blind Pharisee. Cleanse that purse that's within.
The problem's on the inside, not the outside. Clean that purse
which was of them, the cuff and the platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. You get the inside clean, the
outside take care of itself. And that's what our Lord said.
And the scriptures, what it does, the Holy Ghost comes and He divides
asunder what's the inner from the outer. from the flesh and
the spirit, the religion of the head, from the religion of the
heart. It pierces to the joints and
the marrow. And back over in our text again,
look what it said. You see, the Word of God has
its own penetrating, discerning quality. How many times have
people come and they've had something on their mind, a question they
wanted to ask the preacher, and somewhere in the service the
question was answered like that. You know you didn't need to ask
the preacher. How many times have you come and you thought,
you know, something's went on at home, or something's went
on in your life that week, or something's went on in your job,
or something like that, and you come to the service, and you've
got something going on in your life, and nobody knows that except
you. And the Scriptures come along
and answers your hearts and answers your mind and deals with where
you was at and what you went through the last week and speaks
to you and gives you and exposes and makes you understand that
what you went through is the will of God. I mean, it just, it exposes
us and lets us know that God knows where we are and what we're
doing all the time. It's penetration, it's earning
qualities. Look what else it said here. Not only is it dividing
a summoner's soul and spirit, but it's It's a revealer. It's what it says. And it's a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That word
discerner means also a judge. It's revealing. It's a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What in the world? Do you mean
God knows what I think? He knows what you think before
you think it. You know, man's confined to observe
things as they appear to us. But God sees the motive. God sees the attitudes. He sees the thoughts as they
are. And I mean, that's what the Scriptures
does. It exposes our motives. You know, somebody told me here
the other day, She's talking to somebody. You know, when you
start seeing the grace of God and learning the gospel, and
God calls us to grow in the grace of God just a little bit, you'll
get out and you'll run around, meet people that you knew from
years and years ago, and they're still in religion, still going
to church somewhere or something. And then you'll come and you'll
say, I never dreamed that people were so self-righteous and trusting
in themselves so more. And what that is, be like. is that you have been brought
to a different place, and that's a discernment of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. And somebody can just start talking,
and you find out real quickly what's in their heart. But God
knows what's in our heart, but will you ever open your mouth
or not? You know, that's one thing about
Mary. What's in her brain comes out
of her mouth. And she don't even think about
it. Now that's the truth. You all know I'm not that. As
Mary says, you know the truth's bad enough without lying on it.
But that's, you know, if you know her, that's whatever she's
coming in her brain, that's coming out of her mouth. And that's
what we love about it. There's no doubt. There's no
put on that. What you see is what you get.
And that's the way it is with the Scriptures. It exposes us
as the way we really are, so we ought to be the way we really
are. There should never be any put on. It should never be any
hypocrisy. God's helping us because God
knows who we are, just where we are, and what we think all
the time. So we just as well be who we are. Not meddle on
any foot or not, you know, somebody comes around, I better hide that,
I don't want to see that. I better stick that, I don't
want to be pushing, I don't want to know I got that. So we got to be just who we are.
Not just the way we are now, because God knows us. And what
the Scriptures does, it cuts a man open just like a butcher
cutting up a carcass. It opens up the secret and tendencies
of the soul, the mind, the heart. It lays bare the thoughts. It
lays bare the intents. It lays bare the inner workings
of the mind and the heart. Oh my, Steve Jones was, I think
I've told this before, putting up from up in In Vienna, they
got him to go to a service one time, and I believe Scott Richardson
was the one preaching, and he got at the service, so he went
up to that fellow that had brought him to the service and said,
Why in the world did you get with that preacher to talk to
him about me? He said, You told him everything
about me, didn't you? He didn't know him from that.
He had never said a word to Scott, but that fellow got mad. Because
he said, you ain't talking to a preacher about me. You know,
that's what I'm talking about. It lays bare our thoughts and
our tears. It criticizes us and judges us. It puts the right
estimate on the way we really are and the way things are. It
shows what people are really like. It shows the evil and sinfulness
of man. And it also takes and reveals
to man the righteousness, that only hope he has is in Christ,
and he finds great comfort in that righteousness. It approves
what's right and condemns what's wrong. And we've all seen this
in the preaching of the Word of God. Haven't we felt it? Haven't
we experienced it? Oh my, it's quick and powerful. It lays us open. Ladies, it's
open. There's been a time or two that
it has such effect, it has such living power, that sometimes
you think you're going to get up and expose yourself because
you said the Scripture knows. And other times, in affections,
you feel like you want to jump up and holler. And other times,
in affection, it breaks tears through your eyes. Other times,
in affection, it makes you go home and say, Lord, I'm so sorry
that I said that and done that. Because the Scriptures made you
understand where you was wrong, and only God knew it. That's
how powerful the Word of God is, and how quick it is. Well,
let me give you some things we ought to learn from this. First
one is this. We ought to greatly, greatly
reverence the Word of God. Never make jokes about it. Don't
never make jokes about the Scriptures. Reverence the Word of God. You
know, this, you know, speak highly of God's Word. Read God's Word. Ask Him to teach it to you, to
show reverence to you. You heard so many people make
jokes about this, that, and the other, you know. They say, boy,
you sure stepped on my toes. If that's all in the world the
Word does for you, it ain't done you a bit of good. No, I'm telling
you, that's what I mean. That shows a lack of reverence
for the Word of God, to make a statement like that. Would
you all agree with that? To show an irreverence for the
Word of God is to say, well, preacher, you, you, you, The
Lord didn't preach to them today. That means everybody in the world,
everybody in the place got preached to, but the person, you know,
the only one who said, you're preaching, you're preaching to
them today. That means you're preaching to everybody but me.
You see, that's an irreverence. And we come to, we come to it
for quickening. We come to the Scriptures. Lord,
use this Bible. Use your Word to quicken our
souls, quicken our hearts, give life to us. And you know the
only weapon you've got to fight within this world as a believer
is the scriptures. Paul says, taking the sword of
the Spirit and the helmet of salvation, you see, the only
thing we've got for fighting for the truth in this world is
this word right here. If we don't have this, we don't
know what we cannot fight for the truth of. And I tell you
what, the Scriptures will kill our sins, help us in combatting
the sins of our day. You know, I heard this, and I'll
hurry. I heard this the other day. I
was listening to a preacher preaching on the cry coming from Sodom,
looking towards Sodom. Well, the Lord Jesus had took
those two angels with Him at Abraham, and they went down and
looked over Sodom. They were looking down towards Sodom. And
the Scripture said there was a great cry coming. A great cry
coming. And that great cry was not a
cry for mercy. It wasn't a cry for grace. It
wasn't a cry out for salvation. It wasn't a cry out for forgiveness. It wasn't a cry out for justification. It wasn't a cry out for salvation. It was the cry of sodom and all
of its sins. All that abominable things, all
that sin that was going on there, all that homosexuality, all that
perversion was down there. That was the crime that was coming
up. And in our day, who would have ever thought that the crime
of our day is gay rights and gay marriage? Now how are we
going to fight that? We've got the Bible on our side.
We've got the Word of God on our side. We've got the Spirit
of God on our side. And what's the other sin of our
age? Women murdering their own babies. Killing their own babies. And
everybody's crying out, they ain't got the right to kill their
babies. They got the right to their own
bodies. They got the right to do what
they want to do. So what's Scripture? So how are we going to fight
the sins of our days? That's what I'm talking about.
How are we going to fight the sin of fornication? Our children
are living in sin. There's only one way to do it. Use the Scriptures. Don't go
up to them and stick your fingers in their nose and say, I don't
believe that. If you're going to say anything to them, say,
God said. God said. God said. And if they don't like what God
says, they're the ones in trouble. But you told them the truth.
And you know what they have to say? I don't care what God said.
I know what I feel, I know what I believe. And I tell you, we
come to it discerned between truth and error. The only way
we can tell truth and error is through the Scriptures, through
the Holy Ghost, through the blessed Word of God. And we use the Scriptures
to talk to men about their souls, because it's the only thing God
has promised to use, and it can pierce the hard heart, and God
help us to speak the truth in love. And I'll tell you something
else, and then I'll close with this. The scriptures, when they criticize us in our
opinions and our plans and our acts, say, it's right, and we're
the ones wrong. Huh? You know, it'll criticize
our opinions. It'll put our opinions in the
right place. Our plans, we got all these plans. They'll say,
no, that's not what you're going to do. You ask the things you
need to do, Lord, you criticize. You let the Scriptures criticize
us when we're wrong. You know, and let me show you
this, and it shows us, the Word of God desperately shows us here
in Hebrews 4, how we need a high priest for us to come into the
presence of God. Because there's not any creature
that's not manifest in whose sight? God's sight. Everything's
open and vacant in the eye of Him with whom we answer to. God
sees us and knows us. So seeing then, since this is
the way the Word of God is, this is the way it lays us bare and
exposes us, so what are we going to do? Seeing that we have a
great high priest passed into the heavens, let's hold fast,
the Son of God, let's hold fast to our The Scriptures gives us
our, you know, tallest heart and we're to believe. So we don't
have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Our infirmities is exposed by the Scripture.
And we have not a high priest which cannot be filled with the
feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points, and this
is such a blessing to me, was tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin. The other day I just overwhelmed
with this thought. and he just slayed me, just brought
me down, that he was tempted in all points, that Lord Jesus,
wherever we go, He's been. Whatever we suffer, He suffered. Whatever trial we go through,
He's been through it. He is tempted in all points like
as we are. He was tempted. He had the affliction. He had the burdens. And yet He
didn't have any sin, so He can bear with us. And that's why
He says, let us come boldly, freely, confidently. And I love it right here. Listen
to it. A throne of grace. A throne of grace. Oh, a throne
of grace, where grace reigns. Where grace is full, grace is
free, grace is amazing. And we go there that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. When the
Scriptures lays us bare, when the Scriptures open us up, we
ain't got but no where to turn to our Lord Jesus Christ, our
great High Prince. Amen? Our Father, who art gracious,
gracious God in heaven, How wondrously blessed is Your name. Thank You
for Your abundant mercy and grace given us in Christ. Thank You
for Your Word. Your Word so meets our needs. And I pray as these saints go
to their jobs, their homes, back to their jobs and the things that they
must deal with in this life, with their families, their children,
God, give an abundance of grace, give an abundance of mercy. Father,
we especially pray for Peggy. Oh, Lord, strengthen Peggy. Oh,
God, comfort her, strengthen her, encourage her. Lord, continue
to bless Joyce. She gets stronger and stronger.
We're so thankful. And Lord, continue to bless Mary. Keep us strong. Keep us strong. Keep us looking to You, Lord
Jesus. You are our great high priest,
and we come. Come to a throne of grace. And so, Lord, we come,
and we've obtained mercy again. And we'll come again tomorrow,
and we'll obtain mercy again tomorrow. And we'll come lots
of times. Tomorrow, the next day, sometime
through the night, we'll come to the throne of grace. And every
time we come, we'll obtain mercy. We thank you, in our Lord Jesus'
name. Amen.