Hebrews the fourth chapter and
listen for just a moment as I read to you from Ecclesiastes chapter
5. Keep thy foot, and thou goest
to the house of God. be careful, be careful. This is the most important business
of life, the worship of God, the hearing of the gospel. If I could somehow make men and
women understand nothing, nothing, nothing, compared to I would not willingly, I would
not, if I could avoid it, allow anything to keep me from giving
the Word of God, worshiping it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't
do it. I realize there are things that
come up where we are needed, but things, matters of convenience,
choice, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. Man, I had
to go to bed on Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock to get enough sleep.
I'd go to bed at 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. I wouldn't
allow anything to hinder me from worshiping God. Be more ready
to hear and listen. When you come to God's house,
be prepared to hear. Hear. I hear folks often when
I'm traveling. Thankfully, you know better. When I'm traveling, I came here to give you a word
from God. I came here to give you a message
from God Almighty. It's not something that I've
thrown out for your consideration. This is the word of God. Be ready
to hear. Then to give the sacrifice, the
food. Now here's what that's all about. You hear the gospel
preachers unleashing. This is what I think about. You study and prepare and seek
a message from God and they thought about it for all of five minutes
and they want to tear it apart and say this is what I think
about it. Sacrifice of food. Be ready to hear God. Be ready
to hear God. But you don't. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth. Let
not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. How come God is in heaven and
you're upon earth? Therefore let thy words be few. All right, now look at our text
this evening, Hebrews chapter 4. For the Word of God, the Word
of God, behold it in your hands, the Word of God. The Word of God is quick, powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword. Pierce it. Pierce it. Oh God, make your Word today
to pierce. Oh, pierce it. piercing even
to the dividing of thunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and endings of
the heart. Now, the word of God is a name
for Christ as well as for the scriptures, and it's difficult
to say whether this text here of the written word, the Bible
you hold in your hand, or of Christ Jesus, the incarnate word
of whom all the scriptures speak. The fact is, we can't really
sever the two. Christ is the word of whom the
written word speaks. This is stated so plainly, so
emphatically throughout the scriptures, that it's impossible to miss
it, except you willfully miss it. The subject of the book is
Jesus Christ and being crucified. The Word of God is what it is,
because Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of all that it
is. Jesus Christ is embodied in the Word. Now, when we talk
about this, understand the Scriptures. are not just a book about history. They're not just a book about
morality. They're not just a book about
scientific historic facts. The scriptures form a book which
is all together about Jesus Christ the Lord. You take Christ out
of the book and all you have is processed wood with fancy
covers. That's all you got. Christ is
the message of this book. When a man stands before a congregation
to preach the word, he ought to be like that woman who brought
the alabaster box of ointment in and anointed the Savior's
feet. She broke that alabaster box and poured out the precious
spice, and the bell filled the room where they all sat. I've
been praying, Lord God, as I open your word tonight, cause the
precious this passage of scripture, we
are told seven things distinctly about the Word of God. Let me
give them to you. I won't be long in doing so,
but I want you to see them. First, this is God's Word. That's
the first thing to understand. This is God's Word. Yes, it is
written by the pen of men. It is written by men from all
kinds of different walks in life, by men with varied But those men wrote as they were
carried along by God the Holy Spirit. Now listen carefully
as we read 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy 3. I want us to
look at these two texts. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse
16. This book, this book is God's
final full revelation of himself. It is God's final full revelation
of his person and his will. God's final full revelation to
men everywhere. Now this is the reason I'm stressing
this. In our day of charismatic tomfoolery, folks stand up and
say, I got a letter last week from
a fellow. He said, I've had a revelation
from God. And he was as serious as a heart attack. Just as serious
as he could be. And I let him back. Just as serious as I could
be. And I tried to be nice. But I said, my friend, you didn't
get a revelation from God. If you got a revelation, it came
from hell. This is God's revelation. This is God's revelation. God
the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds and illuminates our minds
to the scriptures. us from the scriptures things
concerning Jesus Christ, and thereby reveals Christ to us. But anytime somebody comes and
says, I've got a word from God, I've got a revelation from God,
I've had a message from God sent down special to me, that man's
lying to you. He's deceived, and he's deceiving
you. This is God's revelation. Now having said that, let's see
what God says about his revelation. Verse 16, 2 Timothy 3. All Scripture. Old Testament
to New. All Scripture. In fact, as Paul
wrote this by inspiration, the New Testament wasn't even near
complete. The Scriptures had not yet been compiled in this
volume as we now have it. But Paul says all Scripture is
given by inspiration. Now we use the word inspiration
to mean, you know, I've had an urge to do something. I kind
of got inspired to mow the grass today. Where he is, all scripture is
given by the breath of God. God breathed. And is profitable. Profitable. Nothing else is. In this regard, nothing else
is. Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. If you want to know what to believe,
what not to believe or not to do. You want to know what not
to believe or not to do, not to go to or where to go. You
want to understand what righteousness is and how men get it, find it
in this book alone. That the man of God shall be
perfect, complete, mature, full. Barely furnished, throughly furnished. I like the translation here,
it's accurate. It doesn't mean thoroughly, it
means throughly. From the inside out. Throughly
furnished unto all good works. That's where good works begin.
From the inside out. When grace comes in, Rex, good
works work out. But good works will never accomplish
grace within. All right, now look at 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. Lindsay made
a brief reference to this Sunday morning in his Bible study. Verse 19. Now, get the context. Peter, James, and John were with
the Lord Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw what
only three men on earth have ever seen. Just three men. like the psalms. They have heard
God speak from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased." Now, find me somebody that would match
that. Talk about a word from God. Now
Peter says concerning this, he's referring now to what transpired
on the Mount of Transfiguration. And then he says in verse 19,
we have also a more sure word You're holding it in your hand.
More sure than hearing a voice from heaven? Yes, sir. More sure
than seeing Christ transfigured with your eyes? Yes, sir. A more
sure word of prophecy. Well until you do well to take
heed, pay attention to it, heed it, hear it, and obey it, as
unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn and
the day star arise in your hearts. Pay attention to this word, and
God may just be gracious to you. Pay attention to this word, God
may just speak to you. Pay attention to this word, God
may just call the might of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ to shine in your heart. Knowing this first, no prophecy
of scripture is of any private interpretation. You hear myself
and these other men preach the gospel of God's grace, and they
expound the scriptures. They open it up and deal with
the scriptures in the context in which it's found and deal
with it honestly. And deal with it line by line, word by word,
precept upon precept. How come? Because we're not dishonest. We're not handling the word of
God deceitfully. I want you to see, Bob, that
what I'm saying is right here in the book. It's right here.
Folks come at you and they want to talk to you and defend something,
approve something. Can you give me a verse for this? I'm so sick
of versitis religion. Give me a verse for this. Let
me have a verse to refute that, a verse to prove that. Find the
book. Find the book and understand
what God says in his book. And interpret the scriptures
in the context of the book. Not just spitting verses out
like a machine gun. We deal with the scriptures this
way because no scripture is any private interpretation. That
means two pages. interpret any word, sentence,
verse, or text of scripture by itself. It can't be done. You interpret the scriptures
in the context of the whole revelation of God. Number two, it means
that your opinion of mine doesn't matter. That's what I think that
means. Who gives a who what you think?
Who gives a who what I think? That's irrelevant. What does
the book mean? That's the only thing important.
All right, now, not only is this the word of God, but secondly,
the word of God is quick. Quick. I'll be honest with you, I don't
yet grasp all that's contained in that word. But this is what
it says. The word of God is alive. It's a lie. It's a lie. Folks speak of this word and
talk about it as being just words written on a page. Oh no. This book's a lie. And it's not
a lie to you and me, man, it's because we're dead, not because
the book's dead. It's a lie. That's what the word means. The
word of God is a lie. God's word has life in itself. It is described in the scriptures,
as we'll see in a little bit, as the incorruptible seed. The word of God is that word
which has life and creates life wherever it comes. The scriptures
tell us that we are born again by the word of God, the incorruptible
seed. All right, number three. The
word of God is effectual. It is this Word which gives the
job to us. It's the preaching of this Word
that builds God's kingdom. It's the preaching of this Word
that invades Satan's territories. It's the preaching of this Word
that causes sinners to bow to Christ. It's powerful. It's powerful. A lot of times you hear me and
others use the word effectual or efficacious with regard to
God's grace and God's operation. That just means it does the job.
It's not an effort, it's powerful, powerful. It's powerful bringing
conviction to sinners, converting the wayward. It gives comfort
to believing hearts and confirms our faith. The word of God has
power to elevate our hearts, our minds to Christ and to things
above. Christ and his word are always
active, always affectionate. The Lord Jesus spoke as wisdom
for us in our surety in the council chambers in the covenant of grace
from eternity. The Lord Jesus spoke and by the
word of God the heavens were rained, all things into existence
out of non-existence. He spoke and revealed the father
to his people and he speaks now in the day of purity. hear his
voice. When the Lord Jesus by his word
speaks to dead sinners as he spoke at Lazarus tomb, dead sinners
are raised to life. And the word of God, look at
it now, here's the cool thing, is sharper, not as sharp as,
sharper than any two-edged sword. It's all there. All there. Now there's a lot implied in
that. It's alive all over. It wounds
one way or another everybody it touches. One way or another. You can't come near the Word
of God without it having an effect on you. Can't do that. Turn to 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the
savor, the sweet aroma of his knowledge by us in every place. Oh my. Whatever. We go preach the gospel. And
as the word of God goes out, Jesus Christ is made known, and
God makes known the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ. My God. By such things of speech as we
are, He makes known the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ. And them
that are saying, well look at it now. and in them that perish. See, when the gospel is preached
to the power of God, when God the Holy Spirit speaks by his
word as the gospel is preached, he speaks both to those who are
saved and to those who are not. What does the word of God do
then? It'll either save you or it'll get more hard on you than
it'll deliver you. Doctor, what happens? The same
sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay, and the same gospel
that melts the hearts of God's elect, hardens the reprobated
impenitence. Verse 16, to the one we are a
saver of death unto death, and to the other, the saver of life
unto life. I promise you, I promise you. If folks ever learned what an
awesome thing it is to stand before me understanding this,
they would cry, who is the bishop of this land? How dare I stand here and preach
to you, eternity down says, knowing full well that if God speaks
by me, the word that I preach to you that's either going to
save you or damage you. That's what he's saying. Well, in the next chapter, Paul
says, our sufficiency is in God. That's on the way. This word
is a sword. It's not to be handled by novices.
It's not to be handled by folks who don't know what they're doing.
It's not to be handled by kids. I have a little granddaughter
that's over there, her birthday the other day. She wanted my
knife. Well, I couldn't about give her
that knife. It would be an idiot to give her that knife. I just
took it. I had to go to the practice school,
told her to put it back in my pocket. Well, she wants to handle
it, let her handle it. Only fools do that. And yet,
folks, take the word of God. You go free. Everyone go free. You better not run until you've
been sentenced. You better not run until you've been sentenced.
And if God doesn't send, and you run, you're running for cover
for you and all who hear you. Our Lord takes his word and divides
with a sword. He said he came not to send peace,
but a sword. And that sword begins in our
souls, wounding and killing. And yet it kills only that which
needs to be killed. Pride, envy, jealousy, sin, self-righteousness,
and it's pure sin. even to the dividing of sundown. The Word of God forces its way
into hearts of steel. The Word of God will find its
way anywhere as God has ordained. He said, My Word will accomplish
that which I please. It will prosper in that virtue
I send it. It penetrates the smallest opening like the arrow
which was drawn with a bow drawn at a venture. It entered in between
the joints and harness. Although the soul and spirit
are invisible, and the joints and marrow are covered and hid
under the flesh, so penetrating is the word of God that it reaches
the most hidden, secret things of a man. It's a discerner of
the false and the intents of the heart. Christ knows the heart,
and he will make manifest all that's in it. Come to the house of God seeking
the word from God. Ask God to show you what's in
you. Ask God to show you what's in
you. The word of God is discriminating to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit. This book, the printing of this
book, does the separating. Does the separating. Asked a question the other day,
wanted to know, what do you do with all these Sunday school
teachers I have in the church who are minions, don't believe
the gospel? What do you do with them? Preach
them out, all in one. But you're not going to get by
doing anything compromising. What do you do? You preach the
word, and it'll separate you half in a week. You don't have
to worry about it. The reason folks have to have
their discipline committees and discipline programs is because
the preacher doesn't take care of that. Preach the word. It'll separate
shacking away. It'll separate the sheep from
the goats. It'll separate the precious from the vile. I wouldn't
say it would. He said, you leave the tares
and the wheat alone. You let them both go together.
He said, I'll send my angel in the end of the age, the preacher
of the gospel, and by the word preached, he'll gather the wheat
into my garner and bind up the tares for the burial. Exactly
what the word of God does. The word of God is revealed. this discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. The word here used has this implication. Some of you have done some slaughtering
of cattle or other animals, and what you do when you butcher
the animal, once you have killed the animal, you'll hang it up
somewhere or another, and you'll take a knife or a cleaver and
you'll just split it right down the middle. And that exposes
everything inside. Now, God's word does that. Exposes everything inside. Not
to me, I can't see, but it'll expose everything inside you
to you. We're done. All of this we have
seen, we've observed in the preaching of the gospel here and around
the world. Had you not felt it to be so?
Does the word of God pierce your heart? Does it reach your soul? If it does, thank God for it. Oh God, don't ever quit speaking
to me by your word. Does this sword of the spirit
prick your heart? Does this edge draw out the blood
of your heart's lust? If so, don't get upset with it.
Bless God for it. Bless God for it. I, uh, you know, years ago, had
cancer inside me. Doctor killed me. Spent 11 hours under surgeon's
knife. And I spent a long time getting over it. He hurt me.
He hurt me as bad as I've ever been hurt in my life. And you
know what I did when I got able to do it? I sent down a little
bit of a letter saying, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for
cutting the debt. out of my body. Thank you. Thank
you. And paid in dear. I've been paid
in dear. How much more ought we to give
thanks to God as he speaks by his word to our hearts and pricks
and pierces and cuts so that we might have life everlasting.
The Puritan William Gurnall wrote this. He said, there's not another
sword like this in all the world that can cure with cutting. But that's exactly what he does.
All right, now listen to this. It is by this book, this word
of God, specifically by the preaching of this book, the preaching of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, that God saves his elect and instructs
his saints. which we are born again. I know
folks get upset. One time years ago, we stood
here in one of our conferences and said, I believe God's sovereign,
he can save sinners with the use of means, without the use
of means, or in spite of the means use. Now that's good theology,
but it's poor interpretation of scripture. Terrible interpretation
of scripture. Because God said, of his own
will, begat he us with the word of truth. Folks say, well that's
a limitation of God's sovereignty. Do with that what you want to.
The book says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. You read it back in the office,
Bob. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It doesn't come any other way. Faith comes by the hearing of
the gospel. You are saved, the apostle said
in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3. What does that mean? That means
that God has not only ordained the salvation of chosen sinners,
he has ordained all the means necessary to accomplish the salvation
of those sinners. And at the appointed time of
his love, he'll send a messenger with the word of his grace to
preach the message of deliverance. And the sinner will hear it and
he'll say, oh, how beautiful does it feel for them to preach
the gospel. Oh, thank God he sent somebody to tell me truth
about myself, about himself, about his salvation in Christ
Jesus the Lord. Now, this word we're told in
verse 13 is designed to strip us naked before God. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest, manifest. small closet room with a 500
watt spotlight shining on it. It manifests. Everything in it's
open. Right? Like a particle of water under a powerful, powerful
microscope. It manifests. It manifests. Everything! It manifests! And over here,
with whom we have to do, as we speak through this word, with all beings are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And that's
the way we want it. I come to the house of God,
I, when I have the privilege of sitting and listening to someone
teach or preach, I try my best to get in here every time, uh,
when he's teaching so I can sit and listen And I pray as you
speak to me, God, speak to my heart and make it manifest to
me, it is to you. Let me deal with God on his name,
and God deal with me on his name. Amen. And I pray as we endeavor
to preach the gospel, God will make his word manifest. I sent
Lindsay a brief note last night. expressed some concern he might
not be able to make it tonight. And I concluded the note with
this text description. Turn with me, if you will, to
2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I ask this of you, my brethren, as we labor together in the cause
of Christ. Sometimes folks talk about my
ministry. I don't have one without every
man and woman in this congregation. I don't have one. This is our
ministry, our labor, our endeavor. Someone, Rex, a few weeks ago,
I've gone somewhere to preach. It's been a few months, I guess.
He said, boy, I'd like to do it with you, but I've got to
work tomorrow. I said, man, don't apologize for me for working.
If you didn't work and pay the bills, I couldn't go. Apologize
for moving, not for working. We labor together. me only, but for our brethren
who labor in other places, faithful churches, pastors, missionaries,
every endeavor God puts at our hands, at our disposal. Brethren,
pray for us. And I ask you to ask just one
thing, just one thing, just one thing. Pray for this once, just
this once. that the word of the Lord may
have recourse and be glorified even as it is. Amen.