Tonight is Joints and Marrow
Severed. The text is Hebrews chapter 4
and verse 12. Thursday morning I got up early
and had this text on my mind, particularly this statement in
the text where the Lord God declares that the joints and marrow are
divided. And I mulled it over. driving
down the road until about 12, 1230, and I got hold of Joe. Sometimes you need medical advice
to understand medical phraseology and scriptures. And the old writers,
I never depend on them because medicine wasn't really up to
date when they were still bleeding, folks thinking it was good practice
in medicine. And I ran something by him, I
thought maybe I'd gotten something to it, because the marrow in
the hip joint, right where they take the marrow out for a bone
marrow test, and I said, has that got anything to do with
that? And he said, I don't think so. So that didn't help much. That didn't help much. And he
said, I've had trouble with that too. He said, sometimes the old
Elizabethan English uses terms that are not exactly accurate
in our thinking medically, like bowels and mercies and so on.
And he said, I think the marrow refers to the strong bone and
the joint to the joint. And I thought, well, that doesn't
help much. And we hung up. And immediately, I think the
Lord gave me something. and I've been working on it since.
So I called you a couple of times and we got some things worked
out. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart." Now this fourth chapter of Hebrews
tells us about the blessed sweet rest that we have by faith in
the Lord Jesus, assuring us of that sweet Sabbath rest that
is ours in Him. It is a rest that we have in
Him because we are made partakers of the divine nature, partakers
of Christ, one with Him in the new birth. The Spirit of God
tells us here about those Jews that Moses led out of Egypt in
the third chapter. As you get to the last part of
the third chapter, he tells us that The gospel was preached
to them just as it is to us. But those men and women who came
out and followed Moses for 40 years through the wilderness,
that whole generation, not one of them except Joshua and Caleb,
not one of them that was above 20 years old who came out with
Moses entered into the land of Canaan. They all perished in
the wilderness in unbelief, and God was grieved with that nation
for 40 years. They heard the gospel preached
by Moses. They heard the gospel preached
by the ceremonies given in their worship of God in the tabernacle,
in all the sacrifices as the priest declared what they were
doing in their day-by-day sacrifices, in their annual sacrifices, in
their monthly sacrifices. They heard the gospel preached.
It was preached to them as it is preached to us. And yet they
perished because they did not believe the word preached to
them. They perished in their unbelief. They were religious. They followed
the ordinances. They had the doctrine right,
but they didn't believe God, and they perished in the wilderness.
And then we are told about a rest that is ours. because of faith
in Christ Jesus. In the first part of chapter
four, we're told that those who believe do enter into rest. Not a carnal rest, not a carnal
Canaan rest, not a carnal Sabbath rest, resting one day in seven,
but a rest that's compared to God's rest. The Lord God, when
he had finished his works of creation, rested on the seventh
day. He rested. He wasn't tired. He
rested. He wasn't weary. He rested. What
does that mean? He rested. He quit working. He quit working. Now that's what
the Sabbath is all about. When God later gave the law of
the Sabbath, he required that the children of Israel not work. If a man or a woman or a child
was found even picking up sticks on the Sabbath day, God said
they must be stoned to death. Wow, what a word. Would God kill people for picking
up sticks on Saturday or on Sunday? No, no, no, never, never. But for defying his son, for
defying him and defying his salvation, yes, and kill him forever. He still kills folks for violating
Sabbath. for working their way to glory. He still kills people who put
their hand to the finished work of his son, put their hand to
his sacrifice and thus defy his son and trample his blood under
their feet. No, no, God ceased from his works
and we who believe do enter into his rest. And that word rest
is the word Sabbath. If you were to transliterate
the word, just write it out in English letters just as it is
in Greek, it's the word Sabbath. The rest spoken of here, the
rest that God kept was a Sabbath. He ceased from works. And the
rest that we have when we come to faith in Christ, when God
the Holy Spirit gives us life and faith in Christ, this is
what happens. The sinner who has been struggling
all his days Trying to do something to give him acceptance with God.
Trying to do something to purge his conscience. Trying to do
something to find peace with God. When God gives you faith
in Christ, Bill, you quit trying to do something. You quit working. That's what
it is to rest in Christ. It's to quit working. To cease
trying to make up to God, to cease trying to mend fences with
God. It is to rest entirely upon the
doing and dying of the Son of God. Then we read about Joshua. We're told that Joshua, this
man who was such a great, eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan by which
this rest is symbolized. But that rest that Joshua gave,
like all the types and shadows of the law, was just a picture
of rest. Joshua could no more give the
children of Israel rest than Moses could. That rest that they
had in Canaan was just a picture of the rest that is ours by faith
in Christ. That's what we read in verses
8 through 11. Look at it. For if Jesus, that is Joshua,
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest,
a Sabbath, to the people of God. For he that has entered into
his Sabbath, his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works. Have you ceased from your works? Some of you haven't, I'm sure.
I hope you have, but some of you, I'm certain, are still trying
somehow or another to do something to give yourself acceptance with
God. Those who've entered into God's rest have ceased from their
own works as God did from His. What did God do on the Sabbath
day? What did he do on the Sabbath
day? Read the book. Tell me what God did on the Sabbath
day. Nothing. Nothing. What do you do to give yourself
acceptance with God? Well, preacher, I know I can't
be saved by my works, but when I want assurance, I've got to
find it somewhere in something I do. That's what I thought.
When my conscience gets to bothering me, I've got to do something.
I know, I know. Until you rest in Christ. Cease from your works and trust
Him. In the teeth of all you know,
you are in your utter unworthiness. Rest my soul in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Read on. Let us labor, therefore. Let
us strive. The gates narrow, straight, and
the ways narrow. Therefore strive to enter into
that rest. It's so contrary to the flesh.
So contrary to everything you're taught by every principle of
the flesh, so contrary to everything you learn from mom and dad and
school and philosophy and everybody around you, strive therefore
to enter into this cessation of works, lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief. Now that's the background. Here's
the text. Four. Four. The word of God is quick, powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing not just poking
and prodding, but piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This opening word
in verse 12 refers us back to what we've just read. We who
believe have entered into rest, rest with Christ. rest in Christ,
because the Lord God has performed a mighty operation of grace upon
us, and in us, and for us, with Christ Jesus. And he's done it
by his word. So that just as our Lord Jesus,
our Savior, our mighty God, and our mighty Joshua, entered into
his rest. He said it's finished and he
bowed his head and he breathed out his spirit and he entered
into his rest. He stopped working. He finished
everything and he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high because his work was done just as he entered into
his rest. So we enter into rest. with him and by him because the
word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword. Now, let's look at this verse line by line, and I pray
that God the Spirit will cause his word to be quick and powerful
to you. First, this phrase, the word
of God. The best of commentators, and
I only read the best ones. I don't read the garbage. are
about equally divided. John Calvin and John Owen both
said this word, the word of God here, this phrase refers to the
written word. John Gill and Robert Hawker both
said it refers to Christ, the eternal word. And I read what
they had to say. I thought, why do we have to
make a choice? You can't separate the written
word from the eternal word. Understand that, children of
God. This book is all about Christ. Christ is the word, John tells
us that, the word that was with God and the word that was God
from the beginning, the word by which God made all things
that were made, the word by which God makes himself known to men. And this book is the Word by
which the Word makes Himself known. This book is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ without question. Christ is the Word
of God. It is equally obvious that the
Word of God which He declares, this Word you have in your hands,
this Word you hold on your laps is the Word by which He makes
Himself known to men. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Let men say what they will, argue
against it as they may, denounce us for insisting on it, or insisting
on the importance and the necessity of the preaching of the gospel.
The Lord God saves sinners by gospel preaching. The Lord God
saves sinners by gospel preaching. He doesn't have to, no. You might
say, well, you limit God's sovereignty. No, no, not at all. God could
save sinners without any means at all, were that his pleasure.
God could save sinners by speaking to them through heaven audibly,
were that his pleasure. God could save sinners by men
coming around and touching them with their hands, were that his
pleasure. He could communicate the knowledge of redemption in
such a way. But it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And this is the word
we preach in preaching the gospel. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 verse
17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
Paul says. He's not diminishing the importance
or significance of baptism. He's just saying baptism is not
the primary thing. But to preach the gospel, that's
what God sends his service to do. Not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Not by
putting the gospel in phrases and terms that prove how learned
and how brilliant and what a great academic and how well educated
I am. No, no, no. No, no. Paul said,
I deliberately preach this message with simplicity. Read this. Not
with the words of man's wisdom. lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect, for the preaching of the cross, the declaration
of the cross. Now, when Paul uses this term
cross, talking about preaching the cross and glorying in the
cross, he's not talking about that wooden cross on which Christ
died. Standing under the shadow of that cross, if you could find
it, would do no good at all. If you should ever find it, you
ought to burn it up and scatter the ashes. You didn't, folks. Well, folks worship it now. That's
the reason folks talk about standing under the shadow of the cross.
And they talk about wearing the cross and feel so good when they
see a crucifix or they carry their cross around their neck,
all the idolatrous nonsense of the world. No, no. It's not talking
about the physical wooden cross. It's not even talking about the
historic event of the cross. It's talking about the doctrine
of the cross, the gospel of God's free grace. He says, Christ sent
me to preach the gospel for the preaching of the cross. Do you
see that? The preaching of the cross, that's
the preaching of the gospel, is to them that perish foolishness. It's foolishness. Folks laugh
at you for spending your Tuesday evenings listening to a man preach
the gospel. Folks laugh at you because you
adjust your lives around the preaching of the gospel. The
preaching of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness,
and you're never going to make it otherwise. I don't care what
you do, you're not going to make gospel preaching palatable to
lost, unregenerate men and women. You can get them to act religious,
and you can entertain them, and you can do all the things churches
do to get a crowd, pack the building, build more buildings, to get
a bigger crowd, and pack the building and build more buildings.
But you can't make the gospel sensible to them. It can't be
done. It's foolishness to them that
perish. But it's not foolishness to everybody. But unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God. It's the power of God. For it
is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Just in case I don't get to it,
jot down Isaiah 29 somewhere in the margin of your Bible.
This is what Paul is quoting here. God made them foolish. He's out to send blindness to
you. I'll stop the years, I'll seal the book so that you who
are well educated can't understand it and you who are uneducated
can't understand it. You're equally ignorant of the
things of God. Read on. For after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. how
we ought to cherish this book, how we ought to cherish the privilege
of reading it, of hearing it, and of declaring it. Thy word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Without this glorious
revelation, I must have remained forever as I was born. Poor, helpless, hopeless, doomed,
damned, lost, without God, without Christ, incapable of knowing
God, incapable of knowing Christ. But in this book, I found out why I am what I am. I was born that way because my
father, Adam, plunged his sons and daughters into sin and death.
And we all have inherited our father's nature. We're just like
him. By natural generation, the one
thing every father gives his son is corruption and sin and
death. You like it or not, You are your
daddy's boy. You are your daddy's girl. And
you've inherited his nature. It's corruption. It's sin. It's death. And in this book,
we are told about God's remedy for man's sin. Before ever Adam
sinned in the garden, there was another Adam set up from everlasting
as a representative man. Covenant surety and in the fullness
of time he came into this world and brought in everlasting righteousness
and accomplished eternal redemption by the sacrifice of himself and
this book declares that the only way any sinner can ever possess
faith in his Sacrifice faith in his obedience faith in him
who lived and died for us is if God the Holy Spirit Invades
your heart and gives you new life in his son The only way
you can ever believe on the Son of God you who are dead in trespasses
and sins is for God to give Life to you for Christ to be formed
in you the Word of God is that by which We hear the message
of the gospel by which we are born of God and now resting in
Christ and hoping to enter into that perfect rest which is laid
up for us in heaven, making our pilgrimage through this world.
This book is that which gives us direction. It's a light to
our feet and lamp to our path. It is our only rule of faith
and practice. It is this book alone that's
inspired of God and this book alone that's able to make one
wise unto salvation. All right, look back at Hebrews
4.12 again. Here's the next thing. The word of God is quick and
powerful. That word that's translated quick
It might be translated one of two ways. It might be translated
living or life-giving, or it might be translated speedy. Paul
said the Word of God is not bound. We pray that the Lord will cause
His Word to run swiftly, and it certainly may be translated
speedy or swiftly. But in the context, it appears
to me that the translators have done exactly what they should,
and they translated it quick, living, a life-giving word. Not that this book is itself living. I cherish the book. I cherish
it. But apart from God the Spirit,
speaking to you by the book. Apart from God the Spirit giving
you life so that this book is planted in you as a seed of life.
It's just words on paper. You know that's so. How often
you read the book and it's just words on paper. And then you
read the book. How often you hear the Word,
and it's just an echo of words, and then you hear the Word. Let us pray for grace, not only
to live in the Spirit, but to pray in the Spirit, and to read
in the Spirit, and to hear in the Spirit, and grace that I
might preach in the Spirit. Otherwise, it's all just words. But the Word of God is life-giving. It's the instrument of life that
God uses to quicken sinners. It's powerful. The word powerful
in this place is not the word power that you find in Romans
chapter one, which speaks of the word being the dynamite,
the explosive power of God. This word powerful is the word
energetic, effectual. It's quick and it's full of energy. It's quick. And it's irresistible. It's quick and powerful. Powerful. All right, read on
what it says. The psalmist said, thy word hath
quickened me. Our Lord Jesus said, it is the
spirit that quickeneth. That is the word of God written
by the spirit. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. The word of God is preached to
men by the gospel. I can't stress this sufficiently.
The word of God is not preached to men. It doesn't matter if
the person just gets up and reads the book and declares to you
the letter of the book. The word of God is not preached.
The Word of God is not preached to men. When a man stands up
and gives you the accurate history of the Old Testament, the Word
of God is not preached. The Word of God is not preached
when a man takes the book and just establishes certain creedal
points, certain doctrinal points. The Word of God is not preached.
Man preaches the resurrection. The Sadducees believed in the
resurrection, didn't they? I'm sorry, the Pharisees believed
in the resurrection. The Sadducees denied it. And
there was a division among them because the one believed and
the other didn't. Neither of them believed the
word of God. Neither of them trusted Christ who is the resurrection. Do you understand the difference?
The Word of God is not preached just because someone stands up
and recites the Ten Commandments. The Word of God is not preached
when a person stands up and gives you the historic order of events
in the Old Testament and the New. The Word of God is not preached
except as the Gospel is preached. No other time. No other time. I recall some years ago, Brother
Lynch is standing right here, and his children were young, family
was here, preaching the gospel, and preaching the gospel with
broken heart, concern, folks sitting there listening to you
that you dearly love. And I said to him then, he may
or may not remember it, And I prayed before that and since then, God
let me always preach just like that or let me not preach. It is a mockery of men's souls
to stand here and claim to speak for God and not preach the gospel. Now let's see if I can make good
on that. First Peter chapter one. Verse 23, being born again, we are born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Watch this. You got it in your head in there,
don't you? By the word of God. By the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers,
and the flower there falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So you haven't preached Bible
history until you preach the gospel from Bible history. You
haven't preached the law until you preach the gospel from the
law. You haven't preached prophecy until you preach the gospel from
the prophecy. You haven't preached divine predestination
until you preach the gospel from divine predestination. You haven't
preached the resurrection until you preach the gospel in the
resurrection. Now, this word This gospel of
God's free grace is the only thing, the only thing we use
in the work of the ministry. That's all. What do y'all have to appeal
to folks down there at Grace Baptist Church? The gospel. Well,
it doesn't appeal to me, I know. I know, but maybe one day it
will. But we've got this, I know. We
won't have that. But we're doing, I know, but
we're not going to do that. We're not going to do that. But
we have, I know, but we're not going to have that. We're not
going to have it. No, no. This word of the gospel is mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds and brings into
captivity the very thoughts of man. You think I'm going to give it
up for something else? Oh, no. Not law, not legislation, not
the ballot box, nothing. And certainly not entertainment
and gimmicks and religious tricks. No, no. This is our only weapon
by which we do warfare. Now watch it. Our text says it's
sharper, this word of God quick and powerful is sharper than
any two-edged sword. It's a sword, not a scalpel. A scalpel is a very sharp instrument
used by a surgeon to make very precise cuts. That's the reason
it's so small and so sharp. Is that correct, doctor? That's
the reason it's so small and so sharp, so you can use it carefully. to make precise cuts. That's
not how you use a sword, especially a two-edged sword. A two-edged
sword, if it's got two equally sharp edges, is a very pointed
sword. What would a man use that for?
To hack things to pieces and poke them to death. That's what
you use a sword for. It's used carelessly. It's used carelessly. I don't
mean carelessly in the sense of without care. I don't mean
carelessly in the sense of without skill. I mean carelessly in the
sense of your purpose is to hack and to cut and to divide and
to slay. That's the purpose of the sword.
That's the purpose of it. And this book is a sword. You
don't give it to a boy to play with. If you're smart, you don't
play with the sword. You handle it as a deadly weapon. A deadly weapon. But Brother
Don, isn't the word of God a word of comfort? Yes, it becomes that. But it's going to cut you to
pieces before it does any healing. It's going to slay you before
it makes you whole. It's called a fire to devour. A hammer to break in pieces. a sword to cut us under. It cuts swiftly, it cuts severely,
and it cuts both ways, no matter how it's swung. The word of God
is a sharp two-edged sword going forth out of the mouth of him
who is called the mighty conqueror, riding on his white horse as
the captain of our salvation. Christ is the word of God. And
therefore Christ is the sum and substance of the scriptures.
Of him testified Moses and all the prophets. The spirit of Christ
given in the scriptures signified the suffering of Christ and the
glory that would follow. The scriptures, the written word
of God. And by the written word of God
is the Lord Jesus revealed, heard and received in the heart. It
is this word. by which God accomplishes all
his mighty works of grace in you. By this word. If he speaks to
you, it's by this word. If he comforts you, it's by this
word. If he reproves you, it's by this
word. If he exposes your sin, it's
not by something men invent, it's by this word. If He calls
you to a work, it's not by some imaginary thing that men have
invented and called a work. It's by this Word. God speaks
by this Word. And His Word is compared to seed. Seed that's sown in a heart that's
compared to ground made good. Now if you go sowing seed, I don't know much about farming,
but I've been planting the garden a little while. And even I, a
boy raised on the streets in the south side of North Carolina,
even I know you're not likely to get much produce sowing your
seed on a rocky gravel road. You're not likely to get much
produce going out here and you're scatting your seed out here in
the field. The ground has got to be broken up and prepared. And the ground broken up and
prepared by God the Spirit. He sows the word in good ground. The good ground of the heart
made new by his grace. And it springs up with life.
Little shows at first, but the life comes. And that seed that's
in us is sown there by the word of God. So that now, When the
word is sown and brings forth life, we experience what we read
in the book. We experience it. I heard about
the resurrection all my life as a boy growing up. And you
know what? I believed it. I believed it. If I'd been stoned, cold, sober,
or fallen down drunk, I'd have fussed with you about the resurrection.
I believed it. Didn't know a thing about it,
but I believed it. It was a fact revealed. Right there it is. But now I've experienced it.
And I'm a resurrected man. Raised from the dead by Christ.
I knew there was something called eternal life written in this
book. I'd heard about it. And now I
live. I knew about salvation. I even
came to learn about salvation in a proper doctrinal context. And then I came to know God's
salvation. I had heard about immortality,
heard folks talk about immortality, immortality. Boy, that's a deep
word. Not the one who'd been born again
is not. It's life, everlasting, immortality, immortality. But the word is described here
as a sword, not just seed, a dividing sword. The word of God is quick
and powerful. two-edged sword piercing even
to the dividing asunder, the separating with piercing and
painful sharpness, that which could never be otherwise distinguished,
that which in the state of nature men always confuse. When the
world was in chaos without form and void and darkness was upon
the face of the deep, by the word of God, The Spirit moved
upon the face of the waters, and the Word of God divided the
light from the darkness. The Word of God is that by which
all things were called forth, divided and separated. It separated
darkness from light and light from darkness, the waters above
from the waters beneath, the dry land from the sea. And the
Word of God is that which came to the fathers and proved them.
The heart searching Word. He called for things that men
would never dream God in his word called for. He called for
warfare and conflict. He called for men to separate
themselves from those things they cherished and those people
who were dearest to them and to slay them. The word of God incarnate. The Lord Jesus, we are told,
was all his days from his infancy sent for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel that the thoughts of many hearts might
be revealed. Before the triune God gives life
to the sinner, before he comes and grants faith to the chosen
redeemed soul, He causes that one who's dead in trespasses
and in sins to experience something violent and painful. It's called death and separation,
soul and spirit. When Adam was driven from the
garden, He was a man dead in sins, but a man with a living
soul. And you and I were born dead in sins, but men and women
with physical bodies and a living soul. But when God comes in His
grace, He puts something in us called spirit and life. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
made partakers of the divine nature, a new man created in
righteousness and in true holiness. And the two are always separated
and always in conflict, always at war, always opposing one another. He divides joints and marrow.
Turn back to Genesis chapter 32. Just as soon as I hung up last
Thursday after talking to Brother Joe, he talked about the bone
referring to the long bone or the marrow referring to the long
bone in the joints to the joints. This passage here in Genesis
32 came to me. What's this talking about when
you divide joint and marrow? Well, the marrow is the strength
of life in this long bone right here. I asked George, when you
do a bone marrow test, why don't you take it out of your hip?
Out of the hip joint. He said, he'd take it out of
there because it's easiest to get to. That's spoken like a true doctor
who's never had a bone marrow test. But he tells me it's more
painful elsewhere. But here in Genesis 32, I know
what he's talking about. You take that sword and hack
the joint. Divide this joint right here
and watch a man stand up. Just a joint. My friend, Brother
Tommy Parker, and formerly in their raids now on SWAT team
he's head of, said they're trading them, said there's so many dope
heads and dope dealers are so well-armed and so well-protected
they used to shoot for the chest, shoot for the heart. They were
trained not to even try anymore. You shoot for the pelvis. And
when you separate the pelvis, when that's crushed, they can't
stand. They can't stand. When a man's
hip joint is severed from his thigh, he can't stand. Genesis 32 verse 24, Jacob was left alone and there
wrestled a man with him, a man whose name is Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. the Son of God until the breaking
of the day. It doesn't say Jacob wrestled
with the Lord. The Lord wrestled with Jacob. And when you wrestle
with somebody, the object is to whip him. The object is to
pin him. And when he saw that he prevailed
not against him, he touched the hollow of his
thigh. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint. Look down at verse 31. And as
it passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted
on his thigh. That man, that woman who halts
on his thigh has got to have something to hold on to, something
or someone to lean on. And the reason the Lord Jesus,
in his marvelous grace, by the sword of the Spirit, severs the
joint from the marrow is to fix it. So we have to lean on him. So we have to hold on him so
that we have no hope but him. And now that one who's had this
wonderful work of grace performed in him by the word that discerns
all things, he discerns all things. He has the mind of Christ. He's
understood of no one, but he understands everything. Nobody,
nobody understands him. He understands everything. He
knows the things revealed in the book. He knows flesh from
spirit. And he knows he must live in
this body of flesh, carrying around this carcass of corruption
until at last we drop this flesh in the grave. But this flesh,
in which we live and move, this flesh in which we function on
this earth, is not us. Paul said, the carnal mind is
enmity against God. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. What's that? But you're not in the flesh.
You're not in the flesh. You're in the Spirit. And if
the Spirit of Christ dwells in you, He who raised up Christ
from the dead will raise up you also and quicken these mortal
bodies by His mighty grace. Oh, may God daily make His Word
to me and to you to be sharper than a two-edged
sword, quick and powerful, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, giving us discernment
to know the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Songs of Grace book number 77.