Opening Video: Written On Your Heart (2:48 video ilustration available at Sermon Central)
Psalm 119:11 (NKJV) Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
What have we done with the word of God. Have we really read the Word so that it is in our hearts?
Illust: The man who smoked the Word. The preacher stood on the street corner preaching to anyone who would listen. A man approached him who looked like he had lived on the street forever. "Can I help you" asked the preacher. "I think you can" said the bum. "Would you like me to tell you about Jesus?" "No." "Would you like me to pray for you?" "No." "If you don’t want me to tell you about Jesus, and you don’t want me to pray with you, how can I help you?" "You can give me your Bible." "Why would you want my NT Bible if you have no interest in knowing more about Jesus?" "I noticed that the pages of your Bible are very thin; I can use the pages to wrap a cigarette (or a joint)."
Wisdom came suddenly to the preacher, who said, "I’ll give you this NT Bible, if you will agree to read each page (of the NT) before you smoke it." The bum agreed, took his NT, and left. The preacher thought he had seen the last of the bum, but he could get another Bible.
Several months passed, and the preacher was on the street corner once again. A man came up to him dressed in a three piece suit. "You don’t know me, do you?" said the man. "No. I’ve never seen you in my life." "Yes you have. I’m the man you gave a Bible to (about four months ago)." The preacher couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. "What happened? Tell me what happened." "Well, I smoked Matthew, and then I smoked Mark, and then I smoked Luke--and then John smoked me."[1]
Today we will read that the very Word of God is alive and powerful. The word touches lives. When I was a Gideon (before I was ordained) and spoke in churches, I had many testimonies from many different people from many different walks of life, tell how the mere reading of God’s word changed them. You see the Bible does not merely contain the Words of God, it is the Word of God.
Why should we trust the Word. Why should we have any faith in the Bible? We can trust the Word because The Word is Alive and Powerful.
Hebrews 4:11–13 (NKJV) Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
When we read the words of scripture, it not only brings to light the promises of salvation, but it also brings warnings of judgement. In context, our passage today comes at the end of a discussion of how the children of Israel, as Moses led them out of Egypt during the exodus, how God did not allow them, including Moses, into the promise land. The promise of rest of denied, why? For disobedience. The children of Israel willfully disobeyed the Word of God and the word from God.
Hebrews 4:11 (NKJV) Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
The writer of Hebrews is sounding the warning. Do not be like the Children of Israel who died in the desert. “be diligent to enter that rest” the HCSB and the NIV says to "make every effort to enter that rest.” What is that “rest” for us today? Being in the will of God. Being a true follower of Jesus.
Matthew 11:29–30 (NKJV) Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Being in Jesus, following His will in our lives, may not be easy at times, but we are to live in His power, and His Grace, not our own, and our souls will find rest by being at peace with God.
Romans 5:1 (NKJV) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
But to not be there in Jesus, and even for those are in Christ, but are not in His will (we would say, have backslidden) is to be subjected to judgment: “lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” You see, God is not to be mocked:
Galatians 6:7–8 (NKJV) Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
So the writer of Hebrews is sounding the warning. The Word of God is clear in these matters:
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
There is so much backed into this one verse, and we will try to walk through each part.
The English word “Word” is the Greek “logos” and it plainly means a word or message. It can also mean an account or story. This is important because we will come back to this in verse 13. In John 1:1 we will read the “Word” or “Logos” is Jesus. We will cover that in a sermon 3 weeks from now. But here in context, what is being indicated clearly is the written or spoken Word of God.
The Word of God is “living and powerful” The Greek is very emphatic here. In fact in the Greek, the word “Living” or “zon” is the first word in the verse. Translated literally the verse would read “Living is the Word of God and powerful”. The Word of God is quite alive. It is not out of date nor is it old fashion. Throughout the Scriptures, the word of God is referred to as living. Stephen, before he was stoned, in his discourse to those who will stone him said regarding the word received by Moses:
Acts 7:38 (NKJV) “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
We read a few weeks ago from Peter:
1 Peter 1:23 (NKJV) having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
Not only is the word of God alive, the word is “powerful.” Other translations will have “effective” or “active.” The Greek word is “energes” where we get our word energy or energize (like the bunny). God’s word does what He sends it out to do.
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV) So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
God’s Word is very much alive and relevant today. And it is powerful. We do not understand the potential of the word that we hold in our hands. “sharper than any two-edged sword” The word here is not a big sword that is used in battle to chop one’s head off. The word indicates a small sword or even a dagger with a sharp edge on both sides of the blade. And the word is sharper that the sharpest sword. And it is use to cut into and expose the insides, slicing through and dividing the closest fitting objects. Piercing or slicing through “the division of soul and spirit” The Bible often uses these two words interchangeably. Soul is in Greek is “phyche” meaning the heart, mind, and conscience, the physical mind of a man, whereas “spirit” in the Greek is “pneuma” meaning breath, our very life or inner most being. God’s word is clear about the human heart, our inner most being. God Himself says:
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
God’s word reveals to us the wickedness inside of us. Those things that we keep hidden from everyone else, the word of God exposes. “joints and marrow” talks of the connection between bones and the very inside of the bone, often regarded as the inside thoughts of man. “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” We’re considering the emotions and intellect here. How we feel and what we know. Our motives and what drives us. The word “discerner” in Greek is “kritos” from which we get our word critic. It means to judge. The Word of God judges our inner most thought, our motives, and those things about which we really think.
I hope you catch what is being said here. We do not judge the Word, the Word judges us. It is better to have the Word judge us now, because God will judge us later.
James 1:23–24 (NKJV) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
This describes so many of us, including me. We read the word, we hear the Word. We forget the word and do what we we had set our heart on to start with. For the person who excuses themselves by saying “well God knows my heart” they are fooling themselves if they think God will excuse them. That fact is, God does know our very thoughts, our inner-most thoughts, and that is scary. And He will judge.
But the word will lay all this open to us now. So we can turn fully to Him, so we can allow God to work the change that needs to happen in us. And we all lack being as Christlike as we should and we all need change.
Yes, God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you way too much to leave you that way. As we move to verse 13, the writer of Hebrews shifts from the word of God exposing us, to how God see us. One day we must answer for what God sees in us.
Hebrews 4:13 (NKJV) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
We cannot hide anything from God. God sees and knows all.
Psalm 139:7 (NKJV) Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
We cannot escape the judgment of God. Even believers will be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ where they may be a loss of rewards.
2 Corinthians 5:10 (NKJV) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Even for the believer, all we have done and how we lived will be exposed, and yes, God will judge our very thoughts. For the unbeliever, read Revelation 21:11-15. All will be judged “but all things are naked and open” Naked – everything will be uncovered and exposed. All that covers what is hidden will be stripped away. “Open” or some translations have “laid bare.” The word in the Greek is not a common word. It is a word used for wrestlers with one giving the other a choke hold. It is also used when an animal is stretched out and held down just before its neck is chopped. The feeling here is one of utter defenselessness. That day in the future when we appear before the Almighty, everything that covers will be stripped away and we will be utterly defenseless. All our actions and our true motives will be exposed, laid bare and we will be powerless to cover them, and we will be judged.
“to whom we must give account.” The word “account” in the Greek is “logos” again! We will give our “word” our “message,” our account. You see our account, the story of our lives will be laid out with nothing left out. We will have no excuses.
Before that day comes, we have the Word of God now. It is living and powerful. But there are two ways we can respond to it. The book of Acts has recorded those that have responded or rejected the Word. When Stephen was giving his defense from the Word of God, they rejected the Word:
Acts 7:54 (NKJV) When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
Notice they were cut to heart and they did not like what they saw, so they put to death the messenger of the Word. But a few chapter before that, when Peter was preaching the Word of God, on the Day of Pentecost, the people’s response was different:
Acts 2:37 (NKJV) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
They too were cut to the heart. They too did not like what they saw. Out of conviction they asked what must they do to be saved, and the Word that convicted also spoke of Salvation through Jesus. The Word pointed them to Jesus. And look at the results:
Acts 2:41 (NKJV) Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
The question this morning is how will you receive the word. Will you read the word. Will you allow the power of the God’s living word touch you, convict you, and point you to Jesus? Or will you ignore the word. Will you not even bother to open the pages of the Bible and read God’s message to us?
The writer of Hebrews is sounding the warning. God word will expose to you things you never wanted brought to the surface. But the word also tells us that God can take what it is hidden and turn it into something wonderful for him. We can trust the Word, because The word is alive and powerful.
[1] https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/20922/bible-influence-by-sermoncentral?ref=TextIllustrationSerps
