We will be contemplating a fundamental
truth relevant to all the people of God at all times extracted
from the 12th verse of Hebrews chapter 4 as we contemplate the
overall exhortation. We have not left our series in
the book of Luke. I have wanted for a long time
to simply call our attention to a word that we have heard
for years out of Hebrews chapter 4 that's worth our thought, particularly
because it has everything to do with the daily life of the
believer. And that is the Word of God. The Word of God. Hebrews chapter
4 verse 12, you have heard it quoted perhaps all your life
a thousand times over. I want you to hear it one more
time personally for yourself. It is a statement that God makes
that is critical for every human being to regard and more particularly
those His covenant people. They should really take heed
to what is stated in verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews
chapter 4 verse 12 says, 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 intent of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight But all things are naked and
opened unto him, unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Thus is the reading of God's
word, the title of our message today, full exposure. The word of God. I want you to
know that the word of God fully exposes you. It fully exposes
you. If you read your Bible carefully
with respect to it being the word of God, what you will quickly
learn is that as you are reading your Bible, the Bible is reading
you. The one unique book in all the
universe that has the capacity to talk back to you personally
when you read it is the word of God. I wanna talk to you about
why people don't read their Bibles And I want to talk to you about
why people are on this ostensive journey in the same manner in
which the children of Israel were on their journey from Egypt
to Canaan, and many of them failed to arrive into the land of rest. Obviously, the writer to the
Hebrews knows the history of the people to whom he's writing.
They are the covenant people of God in the Old Testament.
They're called the Hebrews. They're the Jews. They are Abraham's
physical seed of whom God had prophesied after 400 years, 430
years precisely, God would call his son out of Egypt and lead
him into the promised land. Hebrews chapter 1 through 4,
with regards to many issues it is aiming at, discloses to the
Hebrew people to whom the book of Hebrews is written that their
forefathers journeyed through the wilderness. and through the
wilderness sojourn, which was a 40-year period, the children
of God experienced failure after failure after failure under the
guidance of God, ultimately never entering into the rest to which
they were called. The writer to the Hebrews warns
in chapters three, And four, that the reason that they did
not enter into the rest that God had called them to was because
of unbelief. The reason they sustained unbelief
in their life throughout their whole sojourn is precisely because
they did not listen to God's word. You and I are living in
that same era. Today, the New Testament church
is very much like the Old Testament church. In fact, Stephen called
the Old Testament church, the church in the wilderness. You
and I are on a wilderness sojourn as well. You and I are part of
a covenant program as well. We are not part of the old covenant.
We are part of the new covenant. And as there are superior blessings
and principles promises in the new covenant so there are parallels
between the new and the old which makes your Bible from Genesis
to Revelation relevant to us today some people would love
to argue and say well the Old Testament is not for us that
would be to argue something on the grounds of a flawed understanding
of the scriptures the Old Testament is for us and in the same way
the New Testament is for us, it is the very Word of God. And
as the Word of God, we can learn from it. You know what the Bible
says, the Word of God is inspired by God and it is profitable for
doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
Every scripture has relevance to the people of God. Now, the
reason why a large portion of the people of God did not enter
into Canaan is because of unbelief. Now the reason they sustained
unbelief from Egypt to Canaan is because when God's word was
preached, as it was preached by Moses and preached by Joshua
and preached by Aaron and preached by the prophets throughout their
wilderness sojourn, they did not listen to God's word. I want to call your attention
to a great problem in the church today. And that is men and women
who are ostensibly on the journey, but do not listen to God's word. If you are part of that experience,
here is what I would have you to know early on in your ostensive
journey. While you are avoiding listening
to scripture, your faith, if you have any at all, cannot grow. There is a connection between
hearing the Word of God, continually hearing the Word of God, and
faith, which is essential to rest. I want to talk to you then
about the Word of God. Why the writer in the middle
of his exhortation and warning That that the children of israel
when they were pleaded upon by david in verse 7 today After
so long a time as it is said today if you will hear his voice
Do not harden your hearts I want to plead with the church today
on that same level listen the word of god has a purpose when
it comes into our hearing So the people of God that didn't
make it into the promised land now watch this now because you'll
hear this They didn't enter in not because the Word of God doesn't
have the capacity to bring a sinner in to rest But because they did
not hear that word when it was preached See believing and hearing
are two sides of the same coin When you understand that Greek
word to hear, it means to obey the gospel. Faith comes by what? And hearing by what? And so here
we are in our contemplation of the most fundamental essence
of our calling as the people of God. What's laid out before
you on your laps, on the screen, in my mouth as I'm about to communicate
to you is the very word of God. And I want to talk to you about
the broad efficacious scope of God's Word designed to bring
God's people to the place where they find rest in their mediate
toward Jesus Christ, but you've got to let the process work. A man or woman will not be brought
into the rest of Christ picking and choosing what they will hear
concerning God's Word. The word of God has a design.
It has a scope. It has a purpose. It has a methodology. It has an approach. And that
approach and method is designed to bring you to the place, not
only where you enter into that rest, but where, you know, you
need to enter into that rest. So here we go in our outline,
the first point in your outline as well, the word of God. the Word of God. What are we
dealing with when the writer says, for the Word of God is
quick? Well, if you were to look at
the original construction, the way it starts off is quick is
the Word of God. Literally, the Word is living. Alive is the word of God and
the emphasis the emphatic emphasis is on the character and nature
of God's word I want you to mark this now the Bible the Word of
God God's Word is alive It's alive. And what we mean by alive
is that it is not a dead document merely written on white paper
in black ink or red ink. It is not a document like men's
documents are documents. It is therefore not to be viewed
as at any time being irrelevant, mundane, antiquated, outdated,
benign, insignificant or irrelevant. The Word of God is alive and
vital. It is the Greek word zoon from
which we get the term life. Zoology is one of the disciplines
by which all life matter is examined. When you go to the zoo, you see
all the animals and the trees and stuff. The root word is zoe. From which we get life in the
new testament greek. It is the highest form of life
We have bios life physical life suke life and that is the mental
or psychological life Then we have zoe life, which is constituted
spiritual life. Here's what the writer to the
hebrews is saying the word of god is spiritual It's alive It's
alive It's spiritual and it's alive because the Word of God
is itself God. I want you to mark this now.
When the writer uses the phrase quick or living or vital, it's
a term that always describes the nature of God. God is the
living God. God is the living God. And when we use that nomination
for God, what we are saying is God is the source of all life. He is the essence of living.
Nothing has life apart from God. God is the beginning of all things. He is the end of all things.
He is the cause of all things. And life, all life has its derivative
from God. And the word of God is just like
God, it's a lot. Some of our theologians would
argue that what the writer here is really talking about is merely
the Old Testament scriptures. But I would beg to differ with
them. I don't differ with conservative scholars a lot because they're
bright men But I would suggest to you that when you read this
first line of Hebrews 4 12 Here's what you are to understand that
the Bible that you have in your hands I'm talking about legitimate
translations that reflect the original language in all of his
faithfulness in terms of intent and design scope as genre the
way the Word of God is expressed your legitimate Bible is and
the Spirit of God that wrote your Bible, and the Christ, who
is the Word of God by which the Spirit of God wrote your Bible,
is God. It is the Word of God, it is
the living Word, it is the spoken Word, it is the written Word,
it is the person and Word of Christ. Your scriptures are tied
to Christ, just like your soul is tied to your body. There's
no way to separate the two without killing it. And the word of God
is alive. It is living. And in fact, the
way that the writer is putting it, it's this way, that it is
intelligent. It is reasonable. It is rational. It is relevant. It is purposeful. It is dynamic. God's word is
watch this. When a thing is living, all you
can do with a living thing is reckon with it. when a thing
is alive. You don't give it life. You don't
sustain its life. You don't govern its life. It
is alive. And here's one of the problems
with people in religion or in life in general. When you read
your Bible, if you pay a few minutes of serious attention
to the scriptures, you will find out that it's alive. The Word
of God will speak to you in such a penetrating way, in such a
real way, in such a disturbing way, that you will come to understand
that you are dealing with more than the words of men. Might
I say, therefore, by this, this is the reason why most church
folk don't read their Bible. This is the reason why people
don't read their Bible. But you are in danger when you
don't read your Bible, because while you don't read your Bible,
you're saying to God, listen to me now, God, I don't want
to hear from you. The way that the writer is laying
out this description of the word of God for us today, and I want
us to hear it clearly, he's laying it out in such a way as to call
the sinner to rest in Christ, by understanding that rest in
Christ requires the necessary revelation of the sinner. Rest
is predicated upon revelation. And revelation is designed to
drive you to the reality of who you are and what you need. My
argument then is preliminary to and antecedent to obtaining
the promises of God is a sufficient knowledge of your spiritual state
and need. No one will enter into the rest
of God until they come to realize they are in a bad way. And the Word of God has the capacity
to bring about that kind of awareness, that kind of agitation, that
kind of thirst, and that kind of hunger. That's what the Word
of God is designed to do. It's designed to bring you to
the place where you now begin to know you need to enter into
that rest that the Word of God promises. That's what the Word
of God will do. The Word of God will unrest you. Unrest you and it's designed
to do that because while as yet we are avoiding reading scripture
Avoiding listening to the voice of God. We are seeking to find
our rest somewhere else other than Christ Now there's a problem
in our 21st century microwave oven generation to you know,
there was a day we didn't have microwave ovens and Everybody
had to learn how to be patient until the food was cooked Am
I making some sense? where we carry that same sort
of problematic element over into spiritual things. And you think
you can actually be sufficiently fed in your soul by God on two
minutes of a soundbite hither and thither. When in fact a matter,
God designed his word to be slow cooked and thoroughly worked
seasoned appropriately, and then engaged in divulgingly on your
part until it actually nourishes your body. There are a lot of
implications in that too. But when you don't have a healthy
diet, a healthy hunger for the truth of God's word, you will
settle for puff food, cotton candy, Twinkies and things of
that nature. which will stimulate you because
of the fats and the sugars in it, but it will not strengthen
you. And a lot of religion is like
that. It used to be long ago that men and women understood
when they came to church, they were going to be under the word
of God, however long it took. Just as if a man or a woman back
in the old days was saying, honey, it's time to eat. You knew she
was going to be in the kitchen for 45 minutes to an hour. And
you simply waited if you didn't participate in the preparation
of the meal. Today, we think we can really
sort of shortcut and curtail the necessary process of the
invasive work of the living word of God in our life and still
grow in our faith. It won't happen. You will lose
the rest to which scripture is calling you to, and you will
find your rest elsewhere. And should you do that for the
entirety of your Christian sojourn, you will fail to enter into the
promised land in glory on the last day, having lived totally
by unbelief. So mark what the Hebrew writer
is saying as he's unfolding this proposition. Alive, living, vital
is the word of God. It is quick. You see your word
quick? That doesn't mean fast. I remember a false prophetess
one time as she was teaching, she was waxing eloquent about
the word of God. And she drew a sword out and
said, the word of God is quick, like a sword. I said, no. You've got to study your Bibles.
The idea of quick is the idea of vital and living. We're getting
ready to develop that as we make a distinction between soul and
spirit. The first man was a living soul. The last Adam was a quickening
spirit. Quickening means has the capacity
to actually give life to a thing that doesn't have life. And the
word of God has the capacity to give life to dead things.
It has the capacity to give life to your mind, to give life to
your understanding, to give life to your passions, to give life
to your volition. It's able to quicken you. That's
what the Word of God is able to do. It's able to give life.
And as I said, encompassed in the term life means intelligence,
it means understanding, animation, reasoning, and purpose. Nothing
living is aimless. Everything that's alive has within
it a coded DNA for a purpose and design. Am I making some
sense? Watch this, therefore. The living word of God is the
mind of the spirit. The living word of God is Christ
himself. And Christ is that life of the
word of God that speaks to and gives meaning to everything.
the living word of God in the beginning was the word and the
word was with God and the word was God equal to God the same
with God there was nothing that was made that the word did not
make it gave life to everything and Christ which is the word
of God watch this is the life that lighteth every man that
comes into the world every human being has their life through
the life-giving word which is Jesus Christ saved and unsaved
we all have our life him all derive our life from him it is
therefore important and imperative for you to grasp that your Bible
that's written on paper with ink is a reflection of the eternal
Word of God the living Word of God which is Jesus Christ himself
so through the scriptures Christ is able to do a work of grace
and sovereignty in the life of those that listen to it through
the scriptures Christ is able to quicken you Quicken you this
is what David loved about the scriptures. He says I love thy
word Oh Lord watch this. This is Psalm 119 because by
it you have quickened me. I Delight in your commandments
because through your word you have given me life You have quickened
me from the dead. You remember what Jesus said
in John chapter 6 verse 63. He said my word is spirit and
and they are life. It is the spirit that quickeneth. And my word is spirit and they
are life. Do you see how Christ is tying
himself, the spirit of God, to his word? You can't separate
the three. You see the spirit of God or
the spirit of Christ, which is Christ himself, works through
his word to affect the lives of men and women who hear it.
Why on earth would you not want to be impacted by the living
word of God? Why on earth would you not want
to be brought to your conscious need of God through the living
Word of God? The objective of the Word of
God was to take the children of Israel out of Egypt into the
wilderness and to show them their need of Christ as the source
and the grounds of their rest. And that's what the word of God
is designed to do for you today. Let me make this caveat before
I go to the next adjective describing the nature of the word of God.
You need to read the word of God so that you can be reminded
that you need God. You need to read the word of
God every day so that you can be reminded by God that you need
him. You need to read the Word of God daily and read the Word
of God on a consistent basis so that you can be reminded accurately
of how bad you are. You need to read the Word of
God daily so that you can be reminded of how quickly you can
lose sight of the nature and character and promises of God,
because that's what happens with our feeble minds. We lose sight
of God, don't we? We can start thinking some crazy
stuff, now watch this, and then think that somehow God endorses
it so long as we're not reading scripture. Isn't it amazing how
quickly we can depart from God's thoughts when we leave God's
word to our own thoughts and then somehow think that our thoughts
are God's thoughts? But you see, God in His mercy
has called us to Bible study and fellowship around the Word
and particularly worship by which we can be reminded again that
in the course of seven days you have gone so far off the course
you need to be reminded once again of the immutable, unchangeable
counsel of God's Word. God's Word is designed to quicken
you, invigorate you, Bring you to a knowledge of yourself. Bring
you to a knowledge of God. It's purposed that way. It's
purposed that way. Now notice what he goes on to
say. For the Word of God is alive and it's what? Powerful. Now
those two terms are not synonymous. They're not synonymous. The word
powerful there is a very common term Paul used all through the
New Testament. We don't necessarily dogmatically
assert that Paul is the one writing Hebrews, but this word he uses
often. And it's the word from which
we get the term energy. The word of God is alive and
watch this, it's energetic. In our common vernacular, it's
the word for which we commonly use for working. You know what
that means? The Word of God is alive and
working. It has a job to do and it is
doing that job. Whenever you open the Bible,
you will see, if you are honest with scripture, that the Word
of God is working and doing the job that it's called to do. Whatever
God has purpose to do, the Word of God is doing. Here's one of
the things that the Word of God does in its lively and vital
Oracle as it works it has the ability to work in the life and
the mind of many women to convince you of sin That's one of the
things that it does the Word of God has the energy to break
through all of the barriers all of the ignorance all of the lies
all of the refuges that men have against God it's able to convince
you that God is right and you're wrong and The other thing that
the Word of God has the ability to do when you are a true believer
and you are struggling through issues of unbelief. Don't we
struggle sometimes with unbelief? Watch this now. The Word of God
is able to overcome your unbelief and settle you down once again
confirming you in Christ Jesus. It's able to confirm our status
as true believers in Christ of which, watch this now, only the
word of God can do. You can't find yourself out of
sorts with God and then get yourself back in. It requires the power
and energy and working of God's word to do that. Often when we
talk about God's word, this is the Greek term logos. We talk
about it in such a general sense that it doesn't have the kind
of effective application it should. But when you talk about God's
Word, here's what you may call God's Word. His statutes, His
precepts, His decrees, His ordinances, His judgments. His promises,
His threatenings, His warnings, His blessings, His purpose, His
will, His goal, His schemes, His plans, His counsel, His might. That's a large plate, isn't it? And what that encompasses is
the mind of God expressed in all of the various ways necessary
to help a man or woman understand, watch this now, God has been
thinking a long time about this. he has something to say. God
doesn't just run up on the scene in a problem that you and I are
having and then try to work with you sweating to figure out how
can we solve this. Do you know what the Word of
God says? Before of all, God had already finished his scheme
of redemption. The works of the Lord were done
from the foundation. From the foundation of the earth,
all of God's works were done. Do you know what that means?
That means the unfolding of God's work in time, as you and I are
experiencing it, is the afterthought of God. God is never interjecting
into human experience as if he doesn't know what to do. I think
you heard some of that this morning as our elder was teaching the
adoption of foreknowledge versus the concept of prescience or
pre-science. God is not learning anything.
He knows everything. And what unfolds in our experience
is based upon our own limitations. Known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world. That knowledge then should penetrate
your mind to help you understand this. Are you ready, ladies and
gentlemen? God knows everything about you. God knows everything
about you. And when you open the Word of
God, the goal of Scripture is to work effectually to bring
you to that same resolution. When you read Scripture and you
let Scripture read you, And the Spirit of God is working through
scripture to open your understanding. What you come to learn is that
God knows it all. God sees it all. And God is seeking
to convince you by the revelation of His Word that God sees it
all. He knows it all. He understands
it all. This is part of the effectual
working. Listen to me. You won't bow to a God that you
think for one moment you have the ability to do. You will not
bow to a God that you think for one moment you can pull the wool
over his eyes. You will not, I'm talking bow,
I'm not talking about play games, but I'm talking bow. You will
not bow to a God that you think you can out-rationalize. Talking
with my elder earlier this morning, how unbelievers will carp and
rage against God with questions they think somehow will tie God
into a knot. Well, why does God do this? Why
did God do that? Why does God do this? Read your
Bible long enough and God will give you the answer. God will
give you the answer. And I really do believe that
one of the reasons why we are falling into the hands of psychologists
and psychiatrists and a lot of the pop stuff that goes on in
our culture is because we have failed to submit to the Word
of God and let the Word of God work energetically to bring us
to a place where we submit to the omniscient nature of scripture. The Word of God knows everything
and it has the power Not only to convince you of sin But to
convince you of the perfections of christ by which you might
be brought to a place of submitting to christ as your savior Not
only in conversion But in the daily process of your life, let
me make what we call around. Here's a basic axiom of the faith
of the believer The struggle of the believer is many What
the believer has to learn if he's truly a believer is what
it means to rejoice his position in Christ see you can't rejoice
in your predicament and you can't rejoice in your person and you
can't rejoice in your circumstances unless you're deluded but you
can't rejoice in your position because the position of the believer
in Christ is just as secure as the immutability of God himself
my joy therefore resides in where I am not who I am And then we
are to appreciate, that is value, highly esteem, regard, assess,
analyze, critique, determine the importance of the process. That's the second P. There's
a process that God works in the life of the believer that I think
is the real problem for many professing believers. This is
what makes the decision for Jesus group such an attractive thing.
It is both Catholic and evangelical. The idea that you can somehow
in a moment make a decision for Jesus. Now you got your card
to go to heaven and you're good to go. That's something that
appeals to the flesh because it does not regard or take into
account. Watch this ladies and gentlemen,
a process. It'd be great to just say, you
know, I got the, I got my card. I got the date. I did it. I'm
good to go. For those of us who have actually
been born of God, we're going through a process. That process
is called sanctification. Sanctification is inherent in
God's purpose to conform us to Christ. That's called predestination.
And the conformity to Christ to which God has called us in
predestination is a struggle that we have to come to grips
with. How do I deal with my journey from Egypt to Canaan? How do
I deal with that? How do I negotiate the different
turns and the different challenges and the different trials? How
do I negotiate waking up today and Jesus hasn't come yet? How
do I negotiate a very bad day today? Am I making some sense? I can tell you how you negotiate
it. Are you ready? Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy words.
With my whole heart am I seeking you. Oh, let me not wonder from
your commandments. Don't let me wonder from your
commandments because I'm seeking you. I'm a stranger in the earth.
You called me out. This world is not my home. This
world is not my friend. I'm a stranger in the earth.
Oh, hide not your commandments from me. Did you hear what he
said? I'm a stranger and I need God's
commandments to negotiate my way through this world. That's
foreign territory till I get to glory. But now if I say I'm
a stranger and I need the map of God's word to get me there,
but I don't use it I'm more than a stranger. I'm a fool Because
I'm negotiating my walk my journey my excursion through darkness
The other thing I am is I am some sort of an idolater I don't
I may not be able to identify the idolatry, but I have shifted
my confidence from the light of God's Word which can lead
me to safety to some other source it's a form of idolatry it's
a form of idolatry and it's rooted in unbelief rooted in unbelief
the Word of God is alive living is the word and it is powerful
and It's powerful enough to pursue the sinner. It's powerful enough
to apprehend the sinner. It's powerful enough to quicken
the sinner. It's powerful enough to advance
according to the mind of God, the will of God, the purpose
of God, and the objective of God. God's word is going to do
what it's going to do. You know that, right? It's gonna
do what it's gonna do. I love the way paul said it in
first thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 You don't have to go there.
He was rejoicing in the power of god's word and he said to
the thessalonians He says when the when the word of god came
to you You received it Not as it was the word of men, but as
it is in truth hear this now the word of god Because the Thessalonians
actually believed the Bible was the Word of God Watch this now
it was able to work Effectually in them that believe you want
to see a man or a woman or a youngster come into a maturity in Christ
Meet the man or the woman who actually takes the Word of God
seriously They will grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.
They will be strengthened in their faith. They will be led
by the Spirit. They will be strengthened by
Christ Jesus. This is what the Word of God promises. It promises
that if you abide in His Word, He will abide in you and you
will bear much fruit and you will glorify God. Do you believe
that? this is why john said to the young man he says i write
unto you young men because the word of god has a place in your
heart and it has made you strong and you have overcome the wicked
one why aren't you overcoming the deceit and the deception
and the darkness and the manipulation of this dark world system is
because we're not taking heed to god's word so the writer to
the Hebrews is saying to the Hebrew brothers, listen, not
only is the word of God alive, vitally alive, equal to God,
God is the living God, the living God, he lives forever. That means
that the word of God is never not going to be alive. You know,
when you read, when you hear the phrase, God is the living
God, and you read in the book of Hebrews, I live forever. You also read in the scriptures
that the word of God abided, and live it forever too. See,
this is what Jesus says, heaven and earth will pass away, but
my word will not pass away. There is an eternality to God's
word. God's word is eternal. It's just
as eternal as God is. God's word is evasive. It is
energetic. It is powerful. It does what
it purposes to do. This is the reason why we don't
like reading the word too, because we don't like to be told the
truth. It really is so. We don't like
to, so we pick and choose what we read, what we want to hear,
who we like, who we don't like. But the word of God is still
powerful enough to overcome that too. Watch this. Watch what the
Hebrew writer says. For the word of God is alive,
it's powerful, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. Do you see that? Literally in
the Greek, it says it is sharper than any and every and all two-edged
swords. You know what a two-edged sword
is? It's one of those swords that goes all the way back to
the Oriental culture, hundreds and hundreds of years before
Christ, where they had swords as a main form of weaponry and
defense. The sword is the word that is
primarily used in the scriptures for judgment. Now, when two-edged
swords were made, they were made out of sheets of metal, thin
metal, sometimes 200 to 300 sheets of thin metal pressed together,
heated together, tempered together, and sharpened on both sides to
the sharpness of a razor. That means that the sword was
reinforced, it was forged, it was allied through the heat and
the compression of the several thin sheets, but it was also
sharp enough. Now watch this now, sharp enough
that when it cut through wood and cut through brass and cut
through flesh, I want you to hear me as we go to the next
part of this. Resistance was futile. That when it cuts through wood
and it cuts through metal and it cuts through flesh, resistance
is futile. So now if the word of God is
like a sharp two-edged sword and sharper, here is what it's
saying to us. Be warned. You cannot fight Against
the precepts of God It is impossible for you to wage war stand over
against and resist the sword of God It will cut through you
and it will cut through me and it will pierce and it will destroy
us without any effort That's how powerful the Word of God
is. Do you guys hear what I'm saying? now the way the reason
for which that language is being used is It is sharper than any
two-edged sword. If I were to develop contextually
what the intern of the writer is doing, he's calling us back
to the Old Testament warning of the children of Israel that
if they disobeyed God as they made their journey to the promised
land, if they committed idolatry when they came into the promised
land, that they would be met by the sword and by famine and
by pestilence and death. The sword then would meet them
because they rejected God's sword. And often that's what happened
to Israel. They met the sword of men because
they rejected the sword of God. Here then is what's taking place.
In your outline, you have this statement. There are four characteristics
underscored in verse 12 with four effective applications. The characteristics are the living,
energetic, powerful nature of God's word, which is sharp and
piercing. It's alive, if energetic, It's
sharp and it's piercing. And then the writer deals with
the dichotomy between the soul and spirit, marrow and bone,
and then tells us it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Most theologians are suggesting that what you take
from the whole of this statement is that God's word has the capacity
to so penetrate into the heart of man that it separates areas
that are not normally separated. That's how sharp God's word is.
That's cool. That's okay. But I want you to
understand the graphic nature and delineating nature of the
division that he's making here. When he says it's sharp, it has
the ability to distinguish and to defend its claims. When he
says the word of God is sharp, this is what it means. It has
the ability to distinguish and defend its claims against all
rebels. The word of God can cut through
resistance, antagonism, arguments, and allegations. It does so with
no effective or productive resistance on the part of men. Opposition
to biblical truth at the end of the day is futile. This is
why I said the word of God is the person of Christ. And we
are told that Christ in Revelation chapter one, verse 16, has protruding
out of his mouth sharp two-edged sword. In the close of the book
of Revelation chapter 19, as it depicts the consummation of
all things, Christ comes again on a white horse and out of his
mouth proceeds a two-edged sword. It's the Macari sword that is
designed to destroy and demolish its foes. In the context in which
we are reading it now, The writer to the Hebrews is saying, if
you allow the Word of God to be quick and effectual in your
life, it'll bring you to the rest that you need in Christ.
But if you fail to submit to the invasive, revelatory, illuminating
manifestation of God's word to open you up and show you your
sinfulness and bring you to an absolute surrender to the crown
rights of Christ, you become God's enemy. And the only thing
you are exposed to now is the sword. You're exposed to the sword.
This is why when you when you start walking in your carnal
mind, you stop reading your Bible. Because the carnal mind is enmity
to God. While you are walking in your
carnality, you cannot enjoy the Scriptures. Because the Scriptures
expose you for walking contrary to the Gospel. It exposes you
for not trusting Christ. It exposes you for not looking
to Christ, not resting in Christ, not waiting on Christ. Am I making
some sense? You ostensibly become an enemy
to God, and God becomes an enemy to you. As James says it, you
adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship
with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore is a
friend of the world is an enemy of God. He's simply setting down
that God does not tolerate the carnal mind. The carnal mind,
yours, mine, and everybody's is always averse to God's will. Do you think, ladies and gentlemen,
that you wake up every day in your right mind? Do you think you wake up every
day right with God? I'm talking about on a personal
level where God doesn't have to admonish you and correct you
and chastise you and straighten you out. Do you really think
that you are so right with God the only thing you can expect
from God is approval and endorsement and commitment to your plan,
schemes and agenda? Contrary to the point reproof
of instructions are the way of life God's correcting his people
all the time all whom the Lord loves he what and that's what
takes place in Hebrews chapter 12 therefore endure chastening
as a son in order that you might enter into rest and So the concept
of the Word of God is that it's alive. It's equal to God. God
is the living God. It is powerful. It works. It's
energetic. Paul uses that term all the time.
The effectual working of God's power, which raised Christ from
the dead, works in the members of Christ's body, the church.
It works in you. It works in me. If we believe
the Word of God is effectual enough to subdue our iniquities
and bring us into a state of submission to Christ and rest
in Christ and hope in Christ. Do you know for you to hope?
Rest and trust Christ God has to subdue your iniquities. Do
you know that you don't naturally rest hope and trust in Christ?
God has to slay that enmity bring you low and convince you you're
safe right here at the feet of Christ That happens through the
preaching and teaching of God's Word This is why some of us can
rejoice in the gospel and others cannot We must submit to the
revelatory nature of God's Word Here's how it goes on to develop.
I want you to mark this now. This is very important where
we are going. In your outline, not only is it powerful, that
is living, it's not dormant, it's not passive. The Word of
God actually acts. It's energetic. It works. It
advances according to the mind and will of God to pursue its
objective. It is sharp and piercing. And the word piercing is to be
defined as penetrating. You know what that means, ladies
and gentlemen? The Word of God does not stop at flesh wounds. It doesn't stop at blood. It
does not yield to your carnal minds antics and pleas and confessions
and compromises. The Word of God doesn't feel
sorry for you when it's chastising you. Its aim is to fully expose
you. And it will and does fillet the
whole corrupt anatomy of man in order to show you how deceitful
you are and to shut you up to mercy at a throne of grace, having
produced in you a need for a high priest. When the Word of God addresses
this concept of dividing asunder, listen to it. For the Word of
God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing, penetrating, Now it's going to go into what we call
extent and categories. How deep does God's Word go when
the soul is exposed to the Word of God? It's able to divide asunder
soul and spirit. As I said, some theologians,
which I consider consider mental fatigue, would so combine soul
and spirit as to make them absolute synonyms But I would argue that
across the scriptures, you won't be able to justify that claim.
There are times when soul and spirit are certainly synonyms,
but there are times when the spirit is distinctly categorized
different than the soul. There are times when the soul
encompasses the whole man, his whole anatomy in a unitarian
sense. Every living soul died outside
of the art. Eight souls went into the art.
Mind, body, spirit, and soul went into the art. But there
are times when The concept of the Spirit is speaking distinctly
to the ethereal, non-corporeal being. When we go to glory, our
bodies drop and stay here, waiting the resurrection, but our spirits
go to be into the presence of God. We are just spirits made
perfect in the sight of God. So our spirit goes back to God
made it. The body goes to the ground from
which it came, waiting the resurrection. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And then I do very much believe in how important it is
to make a distinction between the trichotomous nature of the
true believer versus the dichotomous nature of the unbeliever. When
mankind was created initially in the image of God, he breathed
into him the breath of life, man became a living soul. When
man became a living soul, man had fellowship and union and
communion with the true and the living God, the spirit of God
was in him. He could talk to God, God could talk to him without
any kind of mediatorial process or mediatorial component. But
when man failed, having eaten up the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, God separated from man. He took his spirit
from man and left man in a spiritually, what kind of state? Dead. He's
dead spiritually. You know what he's called? A
soul man. I want you to meditate on that
for a minute. And what that means is he lives
totally for his ego. Romans 7. The ego is the center
of his being. It is the ground of his affection.
It is the object of his purposes and goals. He is his own God,
since God separated from him. He is left to himself. This is
why humanism is such a pervasive presupposition in the culture
of the world today. You are your own God. This is
why folks don't have no problem believing in themselves. Haven't
you heard it? I believe in me. The last thing that Whitney Houston
sung was, I believe in you and I believe in me. Whoop-de-doo. What good is believing in you
going to do? Why should you believe in you? Listen, can you tell
me what good about yourself should you believe in or me? I would
suggest that the Word of God would tell you stop yesterday
believing in you. That all your problems have been
because you believed in you. And somebody else lied to you
telling you they believed in you too. When you are a dichotomous
person, you are driven by the passions of your own lust, your
own psyche, your own emotions, your own ego. When you become
born again, another entity enters into you. It's the Spirit of
God. It quickens your spirit so that you have a vertical communion
with the true and the living God. You operate on the horizontal,
but it is based upon the vertical. That is, I talk with God, God
talks with me, I commune with God, God communes with me, His
spirit is in me, my spirit is alive, we have fellowship with
one another, the spirit bears record with my spirit that I
am a child of God. Now the Word of God makes sense
to me. Not only does it make sense, I love it. in all of its
correctives and admonishments. The word of the Lord is right.
All of his works are done and true. His commandments are exceeding
broad. They are, they are, they are
food to my soul. They are like honey on the honeycomb.
The word of God is glorious because it reflects a glorious God who
has invaded in my life and given me life, quickened me and brought
me into communion with him. There's a distinction between
the soul man and the spiritual man. There's a distinction between
the first Adam and the last Adam. Do you believe that? There's
a distinction between Cain and Abel. There's a distinction between
Esau and Jacob. There's a distinction between
Esau and Isaac. There's a distinction between
Jacob and Esau, David and Saul. There's a distinction between
Peter and Paul. I'm sorry, Peter and Judas. A
distinction. Do you know what that distinction
is? It's the distinction of one having Christ in them, the hope
of glory, and the other not. Please hear me. Without understanding
that distinction, you might think all of those other fellas are
just the same as the counterpart. What did Cain do that was so
egregiously more sinful than Abel? What did Cain have that
Abel didn't? What did Abel have that Cain
didn't? What did Jacob have that Esau didn't? What did Peter have
that Judas didn't? Do you want to know the answer?
Christ. Christ. A love for Christ, a knowledge
of Christ, a hope for Christ, the spirit of Christ. That was
the distinguishing difference between the soul man and the
spiritual man. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
It's the distinguishing difference. And so what the Word of God does
is it distinguishes between those two categories. I just did that
with you. The Word of God shows us why
we don't want to go in the way of Cain. The Word of God shows
us that why we don't want to go in the way of Ishmael. It
shows us why we don't want to go in the way of Esau. Why we
don't want to go in the way of Judas. Why we want to follow
the same way of Abel. The same way of Isaac. The same
way of Jacob. The same way of David. The same
way of Peter. Christ! Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? The word of God is able to divide
asunder soul and spirit. Also, the word of God is able
to divide it asunder when you allow it to work to show you
your carnal thoughts versus your spiritual thoughts. The word
of God is able to show you how when you are bit by your selfish
motives versus being led by the spirit. based upon the Word of
God. Am I telling the truth? You didn't
used to have that before the Spirit of God opened your understanding
of biblical truth. You were led about by dumb idols. You were deceived constantly
by your own dark, depraved heart. But when you read the Scriptures,
the Word of God shows you your motives and your thoughts are
not right. Penetrating is the Word of God. Do you notice it
says it penetrates to the dividing of soul and spirit? And then
it goes on to talk about it is able to divide between marrow
and bone. Is that what it says? Look at
that for a moment. It is able to divide asunder
the soul and the spirit and of the joints that is the bone and
the marrow. I argue with you, if soul and
spirit are across the board synonyms, is bone and marrow synonyms?
Are they not distinct categories even though they are fused together?
Can a man look at and examine the mere structure of the bone
and miss the whole marrow on the inside? Can a doctor operate
and draw and extract from the marrow without touching the bone
for the purposes of producing life? Isn't it clear in the Word
of God that the Word of God is health to your navel? It's marrow
to your bone. Isn't that what Proverbs 3 H
is? What is it talking about then? It's talking about the
difference between the structure. That's what bones are. Structures
for the body. I can move because of my bones.
Take my bones away and I'm just a blob of flesh. Am I telling
the truth? I have structure. I have purpose
and design on the level of structure. But the structure is not the
starting point. The starting point is the marrow inside the
structure, and it's called the life. The marrow inside the bone
is what produces the white and red blood cells that go into
the body, that gives nourishment to the whole of the body, the
muscles and the sinews and the skin. You know, the health of
the body has a lot to do with the health of the marrow and
the bone. Do you guys know that? The life is in the blood. The life is in the blood. It's
not in the bone. It's in the blood. And the blood
is in the marrow. And the marrow is inside of the
bone. Am I making some sense? And so what the Word of God is
able to do is distinguish between carnal, secular, temporal, physical
life and spiritual life. It's able to take you to the
place where real health can be obtained. You are sick with a
disease. The first thing the doctor does
is draw blood. Am I making some sense? Because
the life is in the blood. The life is in the blood. And
the blood is produced within the bone, in the marrow of the
bone. And the doctor will go down into
the marrow to find out those minute cancer cells that are
developing, that come out into the body politic. Ruin the body
and so the Word of God is so capable of piercing through not
just the way we act But the way we think and the motives of our
heart Look at it Look at it It divides us under it penetrates
soul and spirit and the joints and marrow and is a discerner.
Do you see that phrase discern? It's a discerner Now we move
more into what is in our outline, a comprehensive diagnostician. The doctor uses a scalpel when
he's cutting through the flesh. The surgeon today uses a laser
when he wants to penetrate the small areas. The word of God
is able to do more than that. It's able to penetrate and cut
through and see down to the smallest detail. It says that it is a
discerner of the thoughts and motives. You guys see that? The
literal Greek word there for discerner, we've talked about
it for years ago, is the Greek word kritikos, from which we
get the term to critique. Ah, here's the problem. When
you open a book, the Word of God is your critic. I told you
when you read the Bible, it reads you. You go to read and then
all of a sudden, the Lord gets in your business. And then you
have to flip the page. But when you go to flip the page,
you find out that he even got further into your business. And
then you flip the page somewhere else and then you realize he
got even further into your business until you got to shut the book
because it's a critic. It's a critic. It critiques. And here's how how acutely it
critiques. The text says it is a discerner
of the thoughts. The thoughts. the way you are
thinking, the way you are reasoning, the way you are rationalizing,
the way you are deliberating, the way you are assessing, the
way you are marshaling together ideas and notions in your mind.
The cognitive process of your thinking, the word of God is
able to show you you're thinking wrong, you're thinking right.
Is that right? And then it's also able to discern not only
your thinking, but your feeling. You don't know, especially those
of you who are more cerebral, who think you really are sharp
up here. You don't know how much your
emotions play a role in what you think and how you act. Can
I get an honest person in the house? See, you get hot, happy,
cold, mad, excited, anxious in nanoseconds. They're firing off
so quick. The passions, the feelings, the
emotions, they're rooted in the volition. You're insecure, you're
secure, you're anxious. And the collaboration between
your feelings and your thoughts produces deliberations and ideas
and notions. And if you're a soul man, they're
going to all be brought together to serve the purpose of securing
you. But God sees the feelings that
you don't discern. that play a role in the thought
processes that you use to draw the kinds of conclusions and
deliberations that you want to do the thing that you want to
do. Now, you are really in trouble when a God can see your feelings
before you do. I have to share with you some
examples. Am I boring you? Because this will be the last
time in a while that you'll hear me talk about the Word of God.
I want to show you. In Genesis chapter 4, you don't
have to go there. God and His mercy. He came to
Cain, Genesis chapter four verses one through four. Cain hadn't
done anything yet, but he was thinking about it. He was mad because Abel was preaching
free sovereign grace to him. Abel told him, Cain, you know,
this, I'm the youngest, but I just want you to know some, just cause
you've been around a few years more than me. Listen, you're a sinner
just like I am. And the only way we can come
to God is through the blood. And without a substitute, God won't
hear us. We need a substitute that's innocent so that God can
lay his hands metaphorically on that innocent substitute and
slay him as a propitiation for my sin. The only way we can come
to God is by the grace of a substitute. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. That lamb points to Christ, King.
King says, I'm not buying it. I'm going to bring my garlic
and my onions and my vegetables to God because I believe my good
works somehow merit my salvation. And the carnal man hates the
gospel because the gospel destroys, demolishes any human integrity,
any human ground, any human basis that come to God. See, it takes
faith to believe the gospel because it takes faith to be destroyed
by God, knowing God can raise you from the dead. Am I making
some sense? This is why folks love doing
religion. They love doing religion because religion doesn't penetrate
their corrupt heart to slay them. Promising if you stay there and
admit you're a sinner, God will raise you from the dead. Do you
believe he's able to raise you from the dead? See what I'm getting
at? Cain was told by God, sin is
lying at the door and it's ready to take you into its captivity.
God mercifully warned Cain before he did it. And he did it anyway. It is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents. Remember Genesis chapter 20,
Elimelech? Abraham had one of those meltdowns.
Unbelief set in because the famine was in town This is the danger
in being in a church age where the gospel is not taught and
preached you will compromise Abraham did he told his sister
his half-sister Sarah? Listen sis, we got to go down
to Egypt. We need to eat You know, I got
to feed all these cattle and you know, the Lord told us don't
go but I'm just gonna hang out on the outskirts of Egypt in
a little little Philistine town called garage and and they went
there right and the king saw Sarah Now Sarah was hot And he had been hearing the buzz
that Sarah and Abraham were sisters and brothers. And in the integrity
of his heart, he said, man, go get that woman. She gonna be
my wife. They grabbed her, brought her
into the palace, started preparing her for the marriage. Sarah was
living large while Abraham was down there sweating. She was
eating grapes and getting manicures and having herself fed. She was
living large. just about to get married, happiest
to be. She reached over at the bannister and said, hey brother
Abraham, thanks for what you did. That was a good plan. You should taste the caviar. Abimelech goes to sleep that
night because he can't wait to consummate the marriage. God
comes to him and says, Abimelech, yes God, you're dead. How come? You're taking another man's wife.
I didn't know. You see what God did? Stopped
him before the act. He arrested him in the thought.
Elimelech said to God, I didn't know. God says, I already know
you didn't know. I kept you back. The only reason
you don't sin is because God keeps you back. God kept him
back. And as soon as he woke up, he
said, man, get that woman out of here. Give Abraham, Sarah
whatever they need and ship them out of town. I just met God.
He invaded my thoughts. 2nd Kings chapter 8. You don't
have to go there. This is the days of Elisha. Elisha is about
to die. Haziel is the subordinate servant
ambassador for the king of Israel, Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad was a wicked
king. He's about to, he's the king
of Syria. They ruled over Israel. He's about to die and Haziel
comes to the prophet because Ben-Hadad has now come to respect
the word of the Lord in the mouth of the prophet. 2nd Kings 8.
And Hazel comes to the prophet and says, Father, Father, what
should I tell my king, my master, Ben-Hadad, since he's about to
die? And Elisha says, go back and tell him everything's going
to be all right. But the reality is he's going to die. Now, we
won't work through the ethics. I'm going to show you something.
Hazel says, I don't understand. And Elisha tried to hold his
countenance, but he started crying. See, this is called being sympathetic
even for your enemies. Elisha is a great type of Christ.
He started crying and he said to Hesiod, he says, Hesiod, the
Lord has already showed me that you are going to kill your master,
take the kingdom, and you're going to destroy my people, Israel.
God revealed motives before they became clear cognitive thoughts. on the part of a pagan man who
didn't know as of yet he was going to kill his master by putting
a hot towel over his face and smothering him to death. Watch
this. Are you ready? Watch this. Hazel
said to Elijah, Father, what? Am I a dog that I would do such
a thing? And Elijah said, yeah. Yes, you are. See what I'm getting
at? You think you're all that. You're
not. The heart is deceitful above
everything and desperately wicked. The person that trusts it is
a fool. That's why you need God's word.
It warns you before you do it. It warns you before you do it.
You know what Hazel did? Exactly what the word of the
Lord said to. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? He warned him. The Lord warned Peter. Peter
running around boasting out of the pride of his carnal flesh.
I'll never forsake you. Jesus said, yeah, you will. In
fact, you'll do it tonight. Cock gun a crow three times.
You go deny me. You're going to cuss me out. Peter. Oh no. Isn't that how people act with
the word? Oh no. Now watch this. Now watch this.
Are you ready? Watch this. This is how people go with you. You
judging me. Isn't that right? You judge it.
You judge it. And the Christian is knocked
back on his heel. No! The book is judging you. The
book has judged you. The book has judged me. Christ
said it in John chapter 12. He says, I do not judge you.
The words that I speak judge you. They will condemn you on
the last day. That book will. It will either
justify you or condemn you. Can I keep talking for a few
moments? It's very important for you to understand there's
no place where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
Now watch this. I got two more points I want to make before
we close. If you are saved, it may be a little uncomfortable
for you of what I'm saying, but because God has placed the love
of God in your heart, you love what God loves. If you're saved
and here's what you love, please hear me. You love the fact that
God knows everything. See, this thing of salvation
is not about how much you know God, but rather how much God
knows you. It is true that this is eternal life, that they might
know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. But it's even more true that God knows. my uprising and
my down sitting. God is acquainted with all my
ways, even my thoughts. He knows afar off. When I think
about this, it is too much for me, said King David. He says,
I delight in the fact that God is so omniscient. He knows everything
about me. Then do you know what he says?
Because you know everything about me, it must mean I'm all right
with you. Don't get to that. Therefore,
search me and try me and see if there be any wicked way in
me. Do you know what David just did?
He stood over against himself with God to condemn his own motives,
his own sinful behavior, because he has learned that he is a sinful
man, even though he's righteous in Christ. He needs God to stop
him in his tracks before he does some heinous crime. Do you see
it? See the Word of God is able to
shine the light on that motive and on that intent. This is why
preaching the Word of God and teaching the Word of God is so
critical. The exposition of the Word is essential for the Spirit
of God to break through all of the resistance. Listen to me,
resistance is futile. Let me take you to my last point
as we close this out. Notice what it says in our text.
Not only is the Word of God powerful, not only is it alive, not only
is it sharp, not only is it a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, the soul and spirit, marrow and bone, verse 12, verse
13. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in its sight. Do you see that? There is no
creature that God made, watch this, that has the ability to
put fig leaves on. The Greek term there is the Greek
term aphaneo. from which we get our term generally,
epiphany. Epiphany is the term we use for
revelation or manifestation. The prefix A means to be hid,
that a thing that should be revealed is hid. This is how we know immediately
when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, they lost their minds because they thought they could
hide from God by sowing fig leaves. And that's what the whole human
race does, sows fig leaves and hide behind trees. And the Word
of God says there's nothing that God created that has any effective
covering for which God can't see. In fact, David said it in
Psalm 139. Now watch this. The night and the day are just
a light to God. God sees you. God sees everything
about you. The writer is concluding about
the efficacious nature and pervasive nature, invasive nature of God's
Word by saying, not only is every creature made manifest in God's
sight, watch this, but they are open and naked. Do you see that? Open and naked. Interesting.
I want you to follow this now. Interesting. Open and naked. Open and naked are all of us
before God. You are open. I am open. God
sees us. It's interesting the way the
writer is using this phraseology in turn. There are two practical
applications to this in that culture that applies us today.
In the cultic sense, in the covenant people sense, What the writer
is saying ties to the high priest principle we're about to close
with. And that is the job of the high priest to go through
the nation of Israel as they were journeying through the wilderness
to determine diseased animals, diseased people, diseased homes. The job of the priest was to
discern the spiritual and practical health of the people. The job
of the high priest was to look out among the people and see
if there were any issues Running sores diseases and they were
to pronounce it Unclean if it was so go through the necessary
Levitical procedure by which a thing is ceremonially washed
Agitated as it were and then possibly clean after a seven-day
process of examination they would determine whether it was healed
or unclean that's the job of the priest he was to discern
through and see do you know we have a high priest whose eyes
are like a flame of fire he can pierce through everything and
he determines whether or not we are whole whether or not we
are sick whether or not we are afflicted that's the whole of
chapter 1 2 & 3 of the book of Revelation I know your words
the one with the sword the post-resurrected Glorified Christ who is the high
priest of the church walking through the seven candlesticks.
He sees our works He has eyes of a flame of fire. He can see
through it all The language is designed to depict what happens
when they took a sacrifice Bound it to the altar and split the
sacrifice open after shaving off all of his skin The high
priest could look into the sacrifice and determine the health of that
sacrifice We are like that sacrifice We are bound and filleted. And God sees everything about
you and me. The word literally there, opened,
is also another word that is used in that culture, and Paul
used it a lot, is the Greek term gymnasia, from which we get the
term gymnasium. In the gymnasium, people were
commonly known to be exercising or playing athletic sports in
little or nothing, and so they were called naked. Are you guys
hearing me? Naked. Swimmers are virtually
naked. Runners are virtually naked. There is a very skimpy dress
to the athlete. There's a very skimpy dress to
those who are in the gym because they are looking at their bodies
and they're trying to build their bodies and they are preoccupied
with their bodies naked. Are you guys hearing me? When
they ran track, they ran virtually naked. And that's the item gymnasia. The other Greek term there for
open, trachea, is the Greek word, this is the short version of
the long form of the Greek word trachea, and it means to incapacitate. Incapacitate. It was a term that
was used for wrestlers. When a man wrestled with another
man, today women do it, but then when a man wrestled with another
man, the objective of the man was to get the neck. of the opponent
because when you get the neck you govern the body you put a
person in a half nelson a full nelson and the job was to incapacitate
him to lay him out to spread him down to break him down, to
stop him, to lay him bare. That was the goal. My children
wrestled. And one of the things I share with my littlest one,
Trinity, as she was starting to wrestle this year, I said,
Trinity, if you want to wrestle, I want you to understand that
wrestling is nothing but a struggle from beginning to end. It's an
art form, but it's a struggle. And the metaphor in our text
is very insightful. Are you ready? Men and women
struggle with God. They wrestle with God. They toil
with God. God says my spirit will not always
strive with flesh God will put you in a half Nelson He'll put you in a full Nelson
He'll put you in a full Nelson and when God is done watch this
now he will so lay you out on the mat That you are incapacitated
the Word of God will nail you it will pin you shut you up to
the omnipotent power of God. Are you hearing me? Say uncle. Say uncle to God. Say I quit. I give. I yield. The arm of the Lord is too powerful
for me. It's exposed me. I'm pinned.
It didn't happen. It happened in a half a second.
God laid me low. He incapacitated me. I'm nailed. That's the point here. Are you
hearing me, ladies and gentlemen? The Word of God will nail every
human being, both in time and in eternity. It will prostrate
you. It will lay you bare. It will
nail you. It will incapacitate you and shut you up to the judgment. Listen to it. Neither is any
creature that is not manifested in sight, but all are naked and
open to him with whom we have to do. Right? What do you mean?
Literally, it should be translated. All of us have been apprehended,
exposed. We have been nailed, pinned,
incapacitated with him to whom we must answer. It's literally
the Greek term word Logos. Logion is a term for giving account
or answer. God's going to nail you and you've
got to give an answer to your life. Resistance is futile. Submit to God's word. Let God's
word nail you. Why? Let him nail you now. Why? Why should I let God pin me now
so that I can come to the place of Knowing that the rest that
God is calling me to is only found in my high priest Listen to it 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 must give
an answer seeing then See, seeing then, since these are three verbs
in these two verses with two forms, three verbs. The first
verb is the word of God is alive. The second verb is the word of
God cuts asunder. The third verb is God has incapacitated
us all. Did you get that? Three verbs,
the living word. It cuts us under and it has a
capacitated us off. And the last one is what we call
the perfect test. You are completely incapacitated
by God's word. You can't do a thing. You and
I are shut up to God. We are shut up to God. Since
you are paying, don't you want to be set free? Listen to it. 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. You know what that last phrase
is saying continue believing the gospel Continue believing
the gospel because believing the gospel is where we find our
rest Rest comes in believing Christ rest comes in confessing
Christ rest comes in trusting Christ and you've got to allow
the process to continue to lay you low so you can find your
rest in Christ since We have in high priest who's already
passed into the heavens. Since he's in the heavens as
a forerunner for sinners who believe him. Don't you need a
forerunner? You're not getting into heaven without one. Since
the high priest that's in heaven wants this now, he is able to
sympathize. with our infirmities. Since we
have an high priest who is able to make intercession for all
those that come to him by faith. Since we have an high priest
who in all points was tempted just like we are, but without
sin. since we have a high priest who
is not only the high priest of God's people, but God's advocate
with sinners. Don't you need an advocate? You're
guilty. You need an advocate. You need
an advocate with God the Father. His name is Jesus Christ the
righteous. What a high priest. Not only is he able to mediate
and sympathize with our infirmities, but he's able to stand over against
your sin and advocate to the Father on your behalf as your
substitute. And he always wins his case.
Because when he brings your case to him, he also brings the blood
and says, Father, the blood has put away their sin. The blood
has washed their sin. The blood has atoned for their
sin. And you know what the Father says? Case closed. Case closed
For the high priest of god's people the writer to the hebrews
is saying you you fools you fools You fools you would stop hearing
the word of god That's designed to lead you into the rest That's
found in christ you fools They didn't enter in through unbelief
Don't you enter in through unbelief let the word of god work in you
to the point that it produces faith and the only mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Amen.