Turn back to Hebrews chapter
4. We will finish this chapter. We started it about three weeks
ago. And hopefully, the Lord willing,
we'll finish it up tonight. We'll start with verse 11. We'll
go through the remainder of these verses. Now, this epistle was written and is written to those who have
professed to believe the gospel. There is no more serious matter
that a person will ever do than confessing Christ. That's why the apostle says,
labor to enter into that rest. You see in verse 11, let us labor
therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
the same example as the children of Israel did when they were
in the wilderness. When God brought them out of
Egypt, they came right up to the border of Canaan, and they
could not enter in because they did not believe God. They did
not believe. He says there, of unbelief. Give yourselves to it. He says
labor here. He's saying give yourselves to
it 100 percent. Don't come up short. Our Lord gave such warnings in
the parable of the sower and the unforgiving servant. And
the five foolish virgins, there was five wise and there were
five foolish. The sheep and the goats, the
wheat and the tares. Our Lord gave these warnings.
He gave them. There's no more serious matter in the salvation of my soul of
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. No more serious matter in this
life than this. That's why he says, labor to
rest. Now in verse 12 it starts out and he says, for, and this
word connects it to the verses preceding it, what was just said. Now he says, for the word of
God is. First of all, it is the word
of God. What we have here is not the
word of men. This is truly the word of God. This is God's word. Most everyone I read said it's
hard to determine whether he's speaking of the written word
or the living word. But to tell the truth, it doesn't
matter. They cannot be separated. The
living word and the written word cannot be separated. It cannot
be separated. You cannot separate Christ from
this book. You can't do it. It's all of
him. The prophets, he said, spoke
of me. The Psalms speak of Christ. This whole book is about him.
This whole written book, written word of God is about the living
word of God. So they can't be separated. So
it doesn't matter. It's either one. And then for
the word of God, he says here is quick. That word means now,
listen, that word means that this word right here, the written
word, the living word, It's living. It's living. You can go to the
library, and you can just pick any book off the shelf, and that
book is as dead as dead can be. This book is living. There is
life in the words of this book. Turn over to 1 Peter. Let me
show you this. Over here in 1 Peter chapter
1. is the living Word of God. In 1 Peter 1, verse 23, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, because it liveth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. It is the living, incorruptible
seed that the Holy Spirit uses when He gives A new birth. This
is it. Right here. This is it. It's
the living Word of God. It's quick. Now listen. And it's
powerful. Powerful. That means this. Effectual. I don't need to aid
it. I don't need to help it. We don't
need to come up with some kind of method to help it along. It
is powerful. Just give it. And if the Holy
Spirit is pleased to take the word and penetrate the heart
of any sinner, that sinner will live. He'll
have life. He'll have life. It's effectual. It always accomplishes that which
God sent it to do. He said, My word shall not return
unto me void. Never, never. The Holy Spirit
uses the word of God to convict of sin, of righteousness and
of judgment. God does not use man's word of threatening or
anything else he may do to convince people of what they are. I mean,
I can stand up here and describe what you are by nature, what
I am by nature, but it's the word of God. It's the Holy Spirit
taking the Word of God, the bare Word of God, and that's what
He uses to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
Just give the Word. Just give God's Word. And listen,
God has never saved anyone ever apart from His Word, apart from
this seed right here. He's never saved anyone, ever. And then listen, and the Word
of God is sharper, sharper than any two-edged sword. There's
no blunt side to it. There's no blunt side to it.
It cuts. I have felt it. Have you felt
it? Have you felt the power of His Word? Have you felt the felt
the convicting power of God's Word. It cuts. It wounds. It lays bare. It slays. It lays in the dust. It's a two-edged sword. It cuts
going and coming. There's no dull side to it. Nothing
can penetrate the soul but the Word of God. I can't penetrate
it. I can't penetrate your heart. But the Word of God can. The
Holy Spirit can take the Word of God, which is called the sword
of the Spirit, and slay it. Slay the heart. He can pierce
your heart. Pierce your soul. He can do that. And He does it when He saves. He does it when He saves. And
then it, listen, it piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. It separates. It separates. It divides. You know, the Lord
said, I did not come to send peace on earth but a sword. It sets families at variance
with each other. Our Lord said it sets the father
against the son, the son against the father, and the mother and
the daughter, and the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law, and brothers
and sisters. It separates. It divides. It
divides the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tarry. It
divides. Nothing, nothing reveals things
as they really are like the Word of God. Nothing. It exposes inward corruption. It exposes, it reveals true faith
or hypocrisy. The Word of God does this. And
then he says there in verse 13, there is no creature, there is
no creature that is not exposed or made manifest in his sight. No one, he says, can hide. No
one. God, through his word, exposes
men and women for who and what they really are. That's what
he's saying. He said, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do. Everyone, as I said this morning,
everyone has to deal with this man. Pilate said, what do you
want me to do with Jesus? What will you do with this man?
And here it says, all things are naked and open. That means exposed. Exposed. You know, I think probably one
of the most horrifying things that would happen to any of us
is to be stripped naked here in front of everyone and exposed. That's what happens when the
Word of God comes. In the power of the Spirit, in
the saving of a sinner, he pierces that heart. He strips that sinner
and he exposes him for what he is. for the first time you see
something of what God sees. If He does not do it here, it
will be done in judgment. It will be done at the great
white throne of judgment. They will be stripped down. No covering. Naked. Naked. And I really believe Christ felt
that when he was made to be sin for us. He felt that nakedness. He felt that exposure. The apostle
has been talking about beware of unbelief. He's saying in this
chapter, beware of it. And he uses the children of Israel
as the example, how they could not enter into the promised land
because of unbelief. And he warns, he warns of presumption. He warns of it. And here he's selling us. Here
he's telling us. God sees us as we are. He sees us as we are. If we truly
believe the gospel, God sees it. He sees it. If we really don't believe it,
he sees that also. He sees that also. Nothing is
hid from God. That's what the apostles tell
the Hebrews here. He's telling nothing's hid from
him. All things are open to him. We
can hide from each other. We cannot hide from him. He sees
us. Scripture says, He knoweth them
that trust in Him. He knows them. He knows who is
worshipping Him right now, not just here, but in other places.
He knows who's worshipping Him, and He knows who's not. He sees
it. All things, all persons are naked
and open before Him with whom we have to do. Everyone's exposed. And he wants them to know this.
He wants them to understand this. But after giving this, he returns
to Christ. He returns to our high priest. He returns to our hope. He returns
to our Redeemer. He returns to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says in verse 14, seeing
then that we have a great high priest, What makes him so much
greater than the other high priests that preceded him? Well, none of them could claim
to be God. This one is God. He is God, Jesus,
the Son of God. The God-man, this is who He is. This is what makes Him so great. It's who He is. Jesus, the Savior,
the Messiah, who is the Son of God. Then He's great because
of His work of atonement and redemption. It's effectual. He
got the job done. He redeemed and His blood atoned. And then he's great because he was provided for us by the
Heavenly Father. He provided this one. He provided
this one. And then, listen, he's great.
He's the great high priest because he's passed into the heavens,
which means this. His person and his work is accepted. God has accepted him. His priesthood is not an earthly
priesthood. It's not on this earth. There is a real man, a real high
priest, right now in the Holy of Holies. He makes intercessions for transgressors. They're representing us. There's a real high priest. Not
in Rome, in heaven. Aaron could not claim that. None
of those high priests could claim that. But this one, we are told
in the Word of God that this one is in heaven. He is in heaven
in the presence of God for us. And then he's great. Look in
verse 15. Here's another reason he's great. For we have not an 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." We have a high priest who can
really, really be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. One who knows exactly what we're
going through. You know, I will not experience
everything you will. And you will not experience everything
I will. There are some things you'll go through in life that
I probably won't go through. And the same, I'll go through
some things that you won't go through. And we can sympathize
with each other. You know, we can do that. But
to really, really, I mean really be touched. To the point where I can absolutely
identify with you 100%. I can't do that in all points.
Even in the points I can do it, I can only do it to a point. But Christ can do it completely.
Completely. I cannot explain this. If I could, it wouldn't be such
a mystery. If you can explain it, it's not a mystery. I cannot
explain this, but Christ was tempted. And it says in all. Now, the
word of God never makes a play on words. It means all. Whatever, whatever I'm tempted
with in this life, whatever it is, He was tempted with it. That's what it says in all points. He knows the force. He knows the force of temptation. You know, you see, you and I,
either God removes it or we give in to it. But Christ resisted
it. He completely resisted it and
never, never gave in to it. He felt the full force of it. And I think, and I believe, that
in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was made sin, he felt
the full force of everything I'm tempted of. I believe he did. He was tempted,
tried, tested in all points. The first Adam was tried in one. Don't eat of the tree. He was
tried in one point. Just one. Just don't eat of that
tree. And he did. The Lord Jesus Christ
was tried in every point of temptation. And now listen, listen. Yet without
sin, yet he never gave in. He never sinned, but he can sure identify with
me when I'm tempted, when I'm tried. He knows. He knows. We have a high priest, unlike any other priest that
ever lived. You know, Aaron was separated
to the priesthood. And that's kind of, I don't know
if I can make this example right, but I'm over here every day in
the study. I come over here in the study,
it's quiet here and nobody bothers me. I don't, there's a lot of
things I don't put up with that you do out there in the world. I mean, it's quiet over here. Aaron was separated to the priesthood. He was completely engulfed in
the service of God. He didn't have to go out and
deal out there in the world like a lot of the people did. He didn't
have to do that. And when they would come in and they would send and they
would do the offerings and give the offerings and Aaron really,
there was a lot of things Aaron could not enter into. That's
what I'm trying to say. There was a lot of things Aaron
could not enter into because he was so protected. He was just isolated, basically. But our Lord, not like that. Not like that. Remember when
he was in the wilderness, Satan took him up on that pinnacle
and said, if you fall down and worship me, I'll give you the
kingdoms of the world. That didn't happen to Aaron.
That never happened to Aaron. He said, if you're hungry, turn
these rocks into bread. Relieve your hunger. That didn't
happen to Aaron. Aaron never missed a meal. He never missed a meal. Our Lord
was there 40 days and 40 nights and didn't eat a thing. And afterwards,
he was hungry. He hungered. And that's when
Satan was turned loose on him. when he was at his weakest point,
humanly speaking. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin. Now, he can be touched with the
feelings of my infirmities, my weaknesses, my temptations. That's why we can go to the throne
of grace and be heard by one who knows exactly what we are
talking about. That's why he says in verse 16,
let us therefore come, listen boldly, boldly. We have a high priest. We have
a high priest who has experienced what we've experienced. We have
a high priest who can be touched. Oh, he says, Come boldly unto
the throne, listen, of grace. Now, this come boldly has to
do with confidence. Come with confidence. Oh, what
I have done you wouldn't believe. The Lord would not forgive me.
Surely, you know, here's David. Look what he did. He committed
adultery. He had a man murdered premeditatedly.
Surely, surely, I can't go before God with that. Oh, he says, come boldly. That
means come with confidence, come with confidence. It has to do
with believing that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. that He will do just as He said He would, come in any
other way, show doubt in His mercy and His ability to save. He is able to save unto the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercessions for them. Do you believe that? Come boldly. Come boldly. Come with confidence,
taking God at His Word. His living Word. Coming any other
way is to doubt God's mercy. It is to doubt. It is to doubt
to come any other way than boldly is to doubt the sufficiency of
Christ's atonement. You really don't believe it's
enough to put away your sins. You really don't believe it's
enough to put away your wretchedness. Coming boldly gives glory to
God. It's just saying, Lord, I know,
like that leper said, you are able to make me whole. If you
will, you're able to make me whole. That's coming boldly. That leper came to Christ boldly,
confidently, not cocky, but confidently. He believed the Lord could save
him, make him whole if he will. And he did. You know what that
leopard did? He came to the throne of grace. Christ is that throne. Christ is the throne of grace.
He used to be called the mercy seat in the Old Testament. That's what it was. It was the
mercy seat. Here now in the New Testament, it's called what it
is. Forever. The throne of grace. The throne of grace. Not to come boldly is to doubt
the character of God in being merciful. He says in the Scriptures,
He delights to show mercy. And to come any other way than
boldly is to doubt, is to question His mercy. That's what it is. And listen. He says, Come boldly
to the throne of grace. Come boldly to the throne of
unmerited favor. That means you don't have to
bring anything. That doesn't mean bring a dish with you. That
just means come. Anyone. Boy, this is whosoever
will, let him come. Whosoever will. If it's unmerited
favor, then I can come. Because I don't have to bring
anything. I'm not told to bring anything. Better not bring anything.
Just my need of Him. My need of mercy. My need of
grace. My need of cleansing. Does anybody need that? He has promised in His Word those
who come boldly to the throne of grace will get what they need. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace, not obtain it or not merit it, but find grace
to help in time of need. Well, it's a throne of grace,
which means it's a throne for the needy. Come to it. To hesitate is unbelief. It's unbelief. Now, here's the
message in chapter 4. Look back in 14. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is pastor to the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, here it is, let us hold fast our profession. Continue to the end. The Word
of God holds out no hope to anyone who quits. He said, let us hold
fast our profession. Let us not waver. Let us not
quit. But let us believe to the end. To the end. I thank God for His Word, don't
you? I'm telling you, this Word, make much of it. I thank God
that we grew up under a ministry, pretty much everyone here, we
grew up under a ministry that made much of the Word of God.
This Word is the living Word. It's a living Word. This is not
a dead book. This is living. There's life
in this. Okay, Mike.