The Living Word

Text: Hebrews 4:12-13

Focus: The importance of Bible Study

Function: To help people embrace the Bible.

Form: Word Study.

Intro:

These verses are a warning about trusting God to do what He said He would do.

They conclude a section where God is pointing out the sin of not living by faith and trusting God. God exposes the lack of faith the people had during the exodus.

· They didn’t claim God’s promises

· They weren’t careful to obey Him.

· They didn’t follow through with their covenant.

And all of that comes in a section where the author is explaining the work that Jesus accomplished on our behalf as a great high priest.

He explains how the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua entered into the Promised Land, the place of God’s blessing, but didn’t enjoy the privileges of God’s peace.

(SHOW) They became the Children of God, but didn’t have faith enough to enjoy that privilege.

Most of the reason for it was because they didn’t trust God.

· They didn’t trust Him enough to live by faith

· They didn’t trust Him enough to be afraid that if they went back to their sinful ways, He would be angry and do something about it.

· They didn’t trust God enough to take Him at His word.

So the author is explaining how God made it easier for us to see His true intention and His will for humanity.

He did that by coming to earth personally as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the man from Nazareth who was both God and man.

And, the author explains, just as Jesus said, “I have come to fulfill the law.”

I mention that He made it easier for us to both believe and to obey.

(SHOW) We see God’s nature in human form in Jesus.

And Jesus gave us a two phrase command that will ensure that we will be holy –separated unto God- and just –loving others as He did.

That command is simply this, “If you are a believer, then you will Love me first and love others as much as you love yourself.”

Now notice, this command is for believers. The first step in all of this is to trust Him. Everyone who confesses that they trust Jesus to save them from their sins will be made righteous by His grace. That is the beginning point of the Christian journey.

So, in this passage, the author is explaining the importance of God’s word, both as it was displayed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the miracle of God giving us the scripture.

It is the scriptures that point us to Christ.

And the author is just repeating something that Jesus Himself said in John.

(SHOW) John 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

The author of Hebrews is making it clear that rejecting Jesus is disobeying Him by not taking His word seriously.

So, let us look at the importance of God’s word through the descriptions that the author of Hebrews gives it in this passage:

(SHOW) God’s Word is: Alive

· Living

· Not in the sense that the Constitution is a living document, meaning that it is always growing and expanding and changing in its original meaning.

· But that isn’t what he means about the Bible. It doesn’t change.

· But in the sense that when we read it, it becomes alive.

· 2 Timothy teaches us that God’s word is inspired. Literally it says “God breathed.”

· It means that God had a direct hand in the writing of the Word so that what was written was exactly what God wanted to be said.

· Some NT authors, when explaining OT passages go into the difference of whether or not a word is plural or singular because they understood the miracle of divine inspiration behind the Word.

· It is a living Word. When it was written, God breathed life into it.

· But where the word living really blesses me is in the way we understand it.

· (SHOW) When we read God’s word, it becomes alive to us.

· Have you ever had a time when the words just jump out of the page at you and speak directly to the trial, problem or joy you are currently facing?

· That is what it means when he says it is alive.

· When God makes those words come alive, we know it is real.

(SHOW) God’s Word is: Powerful

· This goes right along with the theme of alive.

· The miraculous power behind its liveliness can transform situations.

· I never was much for preaching at my kids when I wanted to share God’s wisdom for the problems they were facing.

· So, I would often say, “you know, I read somewhere…” and then I would quote or explain a scripture.

· And they would answer with: “you’re quoting the bible, aren’t you?”

· Without preaching or showing off what I knew, I would share God’s perspective on a situation and it always seemed to transform the problem and set it to the right.

· Sometimes when we hear God’s Word, it speaks peace to us, it clears up the fuzziness and things make more sense.

· It has power to transform.

(SHOW) God’s Word “Cuts both ways”

· It is like a two-edged sword.

· Many people relate this passage to the skill of a surgeon’s scalpel.

· When it cuts, its’ intention is to cut out the bad so that the good can heal and thrive again.

· And it is true, when God wields it on behalf of a believer, it is intended to heal and to set people free.

· God’s discipline for believers is always intended for their welfare, not for their punishment.

· But, the passage uses the sword image. It uses the image of wrath.

· The Word of God illuminates sin in everyone.

· It lays us bare.

· And that leads to the next point:

(SHOW) God’s Word reveals God

· Over the past couple of hundred years, there has been a lot of debate about how reliable, authentic and trustworthy the scriptures are.

· They played this game where people sat in a line and whispered a story from person to person and by the time the circle was complete, people laughed at how much the story changed because people heard, or exaggerated the different points that struck them.

· And then they said, “Maybe that happened with the Bible.”

· But we thousands of copies, from scraps of parchment to almost complete volumes depict how important it was to people who were making copies to make sure it was done accurately.

· Some people have concluded that it is just a collection of faith stories and others believe that it is divinely inspired.

· Perhaps you heard about a project several years ago called “the Jesus Seminar.”

· A group of educators got together and went through the gospels and threw out or included the passages that they thought accurately described the real Jesus.

· But the irony of that is the image we get from Jesus, we get from Scripture.

· The entire Bible reveals to us who Jesus is.

· The entire Bible reveals to us what God wants us to know and understand about Himself.

· The person who embraces the Bible as God’s self-revelation, which is proven by Jesus coming to earth gets to enjoy the privilege of knowing the living God.

· So, God’s word reveals God.

(SHOW) God’s Word reveals us

· The thoughts and intentions of the heart.

· It distinguishes motivations, sins, successes and positive things.

· It is important that we are honest about what we are reading.

· A friend of mine was doing a funeral once, and a lady’s cell phone went off at a dramatic moment.

· After the service, she came up to my pastor and said, “Aren’t you glad my cell phone went off, it reminded everyone else to put theirs on vibrate.”

· She never let anything sink in about her own sin.

· (SHOW) God’s word speaks to us if we listen and are open to being taught.

· 1 Corinthians 14 speaks of the miracle of prophecy and how unbelievers begin to see the holiness of God and their own sinfulness and repent when their own need for a Savior is exposed.

· God’s Word exposes the sinfulness of humanity that places personal prosperity and selfish ambition above our love for God and self-sacrificing love for our neighbors.

o A fellow pastor was telling me about re-reading the story of Corrie Ten-Boom and how God helped her through her ordeal in the Nazi death camp.

o Corrie was in there because her family risked their lives in order to protect innocent victims of fascism.

o She said she was tempted to question why God would let her suffer so terribly when she was doing His will.

o But then, she said, God’s Word showed her that it isn’t about her and that She was in God’s will and He can make for her no matter where she was.

· And that exposes in me my own lack of self-sacrifice.

· The Word of God exposes our self-centeredness and lack of love.

· It exposes when we do right, and when we do wrong.

· It also shows us when we are doing right, it exposes both the good and bad intentions of our heart.

(SHOW) And God sees the revelation that we get.

· God knows that we know to do the right thing.

· (SHOW) Proverbs 16: 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.

· God knows if we are deceiving ourselves and trying to convince ourselves that what we are doing is right when we know it is wrong.

· I told you about my pastor friend who had his head deacon come forward on a Sunday and confessed to committing adultery the Friday night before.

· When asked why, the deacon excused himself because the pastor did mention that one specifically the week before.

· This is truly walking by faith, because we must walk knowing that God sees every motive and desire.

CONCL:

So, He ends this passage with this warning that Jesus is watching all that we do.

I don’t know how that makes you feel, because if you are like me, you know you aren’t perfect.

But the beauty of it is, that is why Jesus came. The rest that He has for us is salvation by faith alone.

If you are not saved, I beg you to come.