INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• 1. Where is the first tennis match mentioned in the Bible? When Joseph served in Pharaoh’s court.
• 2. Which Bible character had no parents? Joshua, son of Nun.
• 3. What kind of man was Boaz before he got married? Ruth-less
• 4. What is one of the first things that Adam and Eve did after getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden? They raised Cain.
• 5. What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why they no longer lived in Eden? Your mother ate us out of house and home. (Tim Rolen New Hope Community Church, Clovis, California)
• Did anyone get all 5 of these right? I didn’t think so.
• Ok, time to get serious.
• We are in the middle of out series, WHY DO WE DO THAT? In this series we are examining why as Christians, we do some of the things we do as well as why we do what we do in church.
• Our modern world is so full of entertainment opportunities to consume our time. WE have sporting events, shopping, computers, cell phones, exercise, outdoor activities. Pokémon Go.
• For those with Netflix, or Amazon Prime, you can binge watch your favorite programs for days at a time! We have tons of reading material at our disposal, yet, as Christians, why do we take the time to study the Bible.
• Why is it important for people, particularly Christians to take time out of our schedules to study the Bible?
• Why can’t we just study books about the Bible, why the Bible? Today I will offer three reasons one ought to invest time in reading and studying the Bible.
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• Let’s go to our passage this morning in Hebrews 4:12
• SLIDE #2
• Hebrews 4:12 (HCSB) For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The Bible is alive and effective!
• The HCSB says in the beginning of verse 12, For the word of God is living and effective…
• One of the reasons to study the Bible is because it is both alive and effective, many versions use the word ACTIVE.
• I want to share the context of Hebrews 4. The reason for this is that verse 4 begins with the word FOR, which means this verse connects with the words previously written in Hebrews.
• The chapter speaks of entering into God’s rest, and we are taught the many did not enter into the Promised Land because of disobedience to God’s Word.
• The rest of the chapter lays out the case that the Christian has future rest instore for them that they do not want to miss because of disobedience to God’s Word.
• Since chapter 3 of Hebrews, the Hebrew writer has been alluding to Psalm 95:7-11, where the Psalmist speaks of God’s rest.
• The text of Psalm 95 is a valid today as the day it was written!
• Why do I study the Bible? I study the Bible to know God and His truth and to find direction from my daily life. I study the Bible for many of the same reasons I pray.
• In Hebrews 4, verse 12 gives a reason for being diligent so that no unbelief is allowed to take root in the heart.
• We can learn from the Bible what constituted obedience and disobedience, so that we do not fall short of God’s rest, eternal life that He wants us to have.
• The threats and promises one reads in the Bible still come true because the Bible is ALIVE AND EFFECTIVE! (Gareth L. Reese, Hebrews Commentary).
• The Bible not full of empty promises and empty threats as some would assume, it is ALIVE and EFFECTIVE!
• The Bible does not only speak of the past, it speaks also in the present and it will speak in the future also!
• In the original Greek, the participle living stands first in the sentence and therefore receives all the emphasis.
• This participle describes the first characteristic of God’s spoken and written Word: that Word is alive!
• For example, Stephen, reciting Israel’s history in the desert, says that Moses at Mount Sinai “received living words” (Acts 7:38), and Peter tells the recipients of his first epistle that they “have been born again … through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
• The Word of God is effective or active. That is, it is effective and powerful.
• The original Greek uses a word from which we have derived the term energy. God’s Word, then, is energizing in its effect.
• No one can escape that living and active Word.
• Just as God’s spoken Word brought forth his beautiful creation, so his Word recreates man dead in transgressions and sins (Eph. 2:1–5).
• As in the wilderness some Israelites refused to listen to God’s Word while others showed obedience, so today we see that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”
• When the Bible is studied, it can produce faith if the message is listened to.
• SLIDE #4
• Romans 10:17 (ESV) So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
• I read books about the faith, and about history. I love biographies of baseball and football players, I love biographies of the Founding Fathers, I also enjoy biographies of former Presidents.
• I told you last week I am reading a book about Ben Franklin.
• All of the books I have read are good books, but none of them except the Bible has changed my life, none of them are alive or effective as the Bible is.
• God works in the Christian, God works through the Holy Spirit.
• The message of this book is living and active. This is no dead, dry, dusty antique. It is living (Deut 32:47; Ps 19:7ff.; Isa 55:11) like the living God, like the living Son who intercedes for us.
• SLIDE #5
• The Bible is not a collection of religious writings from the ancient past, but a book that speaks to all people everywhere in nearly all the languages of the world. The Bible demands a response, because God does not tolerate indifference and disobedience. (Baker NTC)
• SLIDE #6
• Philippians 2:12–13 (HCSB) So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.
• God works though the Word!
• Let’s look at verse 12 again
• SLIDE #7
• Hebrews 4:12 (HCSB) For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
• SLIDE #8
II. The Bible penetrates the depths of the soul and spirit.
• The sword was the most widely used weapon in the ancient world. The double-edged sword was especially sharp.
• This section of the verse explains the operation of the Word of God, or the Bible.
• With its convincing insights, the Bible can distinguish between a person who lives in the realm of the spiritual (soul and spirit), and the person who lives in the realm of the physical (joints and marrow). (Reese Hebrews Commentary).
• The emphasis is not on the destructive work of the sword but upon its dividing, and discriminating function.
• The word translated SWORD sometimes has the technical meaning of a surgeon’s knife of a knife used by the priests to slaughter and carve sacrificial animals (Hebrews- New American Commentary).
• This would though would fit in better with the thought of the double-edged sword as one surgeon’s knife that was used with precision versus in a destructive manner.
• The Bible can penetrate the depths of our souls.
• We can be convicted that we need a new way of life, or that we need to rid ourselves of the sin that entangles us.
• Before I became a Christian, I struggled grasping what I was reading.
• When I became a Christian, what I read started to click, it started to change my life. I am not even close to perfection, but God has helped me grow through the Word.
• SLIDE #9
• 1 Corinthians 2:12–14 (HCSB) Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
• When I started to pay attention, the Word changed me. I was becoming more Christ-like so I was able to better understand God’s Word.
• That may be why we fear spending time in the Bible, it will take you to a place of contemplation, a place where one will have to evaluate themselves and decide if they are going to live in the flesh, or live in the spirit.
• That place can either be something uncomfortable, or exciting. Kind of like jumping out of an airplane. To me that is dangerous and scary and thus far in life I have avoided it; however, for those whom I have spoken to that have done it, it is exciting and most would do it again.
• Next let us re-examine the last part of verse 12.
• SLIDE #10
• It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
• SLIDE #11
III. The Bible exposes the heart.
• When we spend time in the Bible, the ideas of the heart come to the surface.
• This is another way in which the Bible is alive and active.
• The Word of God, speaking through the written word passes judgment on one’s thoughts and motives.
• In its irresistible penetration the word judges as well. It lays bare the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
• When we read other literature, we are in control. When we read the Bible, it is in control.
• It lets us see things in ourselves that are otherwise hidden from our own eyes. The Bible pronounces sentence on secret thoughts. We know it knows, and we know it is right in what it discloses. This is exactly what we would expect from literature which God generated. “God knows the thoughts of man” (Ps 94:11). (College Press Commentary Series- Hebrews)
• When Jesus was on earth, He knew the thoughts of those around Him. Matthew 9:4, Matthew 12:25, Luke 9:46-48, John 2:23-25 just to name a few examples.
• There are no private feelings or thoughts, God knows all we think and all we feel.
• The heart represents the center of one’s life. The Bible speaks a lot concerning our need to guard the heart.
• SLIDE #12
• Proverbs 4:23 (HCSB) Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
CONCLUSION
• We all need to spend time in the Bible, it will help us to know God in a deeper way, and it will help us to know ourselves in ways we never thought possible!
• I hope that you will spend time in the Bible each day, that you read it with an eye toward knowing yourself as well as God in ways you never thought possible.
• You are standing at the door of the airplane, it is scary, but do not be afraid to take the leap, you have a parachute.
