Hebrews chapter 4. Again, we will read the whole of the chapter, but this morning's text is found in verses 12 and 13. Hear the word of the Lord through the pen of the author to the Hebrews. Let us therefore fear Last, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying to David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not have afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. And he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 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 the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed in the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the letter to the Hebrews, the brief word of exhortation, as the author describes it himself, So we pray that You would help us by Your Holy Spirit to understand its meaning and significance, what it meant when originally written, and what You want us to take from it today. We pray that You would be glorified, and that Your Son Jesus Christ would be placarded, billboarded before a watching world, and that Your Holy Spirit would take this Word and drive it deeply into our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray this. Amen. Beloved, we come to what is perhaps a very well-known few verses in chapter 4 of Hebrews. We are reminded of the nature of the Word of God. Now, this is in the context of of a warning, of an exhortation. And so we don't want to forget the immediate context of these words. We often will abstract them, take them out, and treat them as if they were dropped from heaven by themselves. And we need to be careful not to do that. We're going to focus on them, yes. We're going to look at them in the immediate context and then in the larger context of the whole of Scripture. And you do see here, in these two verses, an absolute affirmation of the power of the Word of God. Now that Word could not have the mentioned power if it were not God's Word, if it were not a Word that comes to us without error or mistake. In other words, it comes to us reflecting the character of the God who has given it. So the Word of God that we have in the Scriptures reflects the character of the God who gives it. And in fact, you'll see toward the end of the 12th verse, going into the 13th verse, there is a slide from considering the Word in itself to considering the God who is behind the Word of God. Now, we esteem God's Word Highly do we not. There is nothing in creation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ which is of more importance than the scripture. That is how we know how it is that we can be saved. It is how we know that we are sinners, that we are in a bad situation with regard to God. And it is through the scriptures that we learn the gospel. That is, we learn about Jesus Christ. The scriptures reveal the character of who God is. Now, those of us who do this are often accused of worshiping a paper pope. Perhaps you've heard that before. Maybe you haven't heard that before. If you haven't, that's wonderful, because it's a useless criticism. As if we bowed down to the Bible, we do not. We worship the God of the Bible. We worship the God who has revealed himself in the pages of scripture. Scripture was given in the unfolding of God's redemption of a sinful people for Himself. And the Word of God is tied to His saving activity in history. The Word of God is not merely a witness to revelation, it is in fact revelation itself. That's a distinction that we need to be very clear to make. that I did not say to you, listen to hear the word of God in the scriptures. And that's what is called the orthodoxy. That is a view that is not sound. It is that parts of the Bible are inspired and parts aren't. That is not the teaching of God's word. Now we would go elsewhere to deal with that particular issue. This morning we're looking at what we would call the effectiveness, the power of the Word of God. It is not a dead letter. So I want to unpack this morning these three points. The Word of God is living and active. The Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Then finally, no creature is hidden from His sight. No creature is hid from God's sight. Now that's a comforting thought for those of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suspect a less than comforting thought for those who are trying to hide from God's all-seeing eye. Let's go back to that first verse, verse 12. For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. So the Word of God is living and active. It is what I have said already, it is no dead letter. The scriptures considered in and of themselves reflect the living and active nature of the God who has given them. And you understand that. Very often when we talk about God's Word, if we slander God's Word, we have but, therefore, to be slandering God Himself. You cannot slander God's Word. You cannot belittle God's Word. You cannot besmirch God's Word. You cannot criticize God's Word. You cannot stand above God's Word without standing or attempting to stand above God Himself. But you see, that attempt by many people to stand above God's Word is a futile attempt because of what the author here says, that the Word of God is a living and active thing, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Think about this, that the Word of God, which is described here as living and active, is at least three things. We can say it is a creating Word. It is a sustaining Word. And this is the really good thing for those of us who are sinners. It is a regenerating Word. For yes, it's a wonderful thing that we see that the Word of God is creative and that it sustains all that it brings into existence. But those of us who are sinners outside of God's grace That's a bad word. Just as if when it is sometimes said that the gospel is essentially the declaration that Jesus is Lord. Well, the fact that Jesus is Lord is true. Absolutely. And we could spend hours considering the nature of that lordship. But for the sinner, the fact that Jesus is Lord is not good news. The fact that Jesus is Lord for the sinner outside of God's grace, that is bad news. Because how will the Lord execute His rule? It says in the Shorter Catechism that the enemies are subdued that the Lord as King subdues all His and our enemies. Now, if we are an entity with God, we too will be subdued. So it's important that we recognize that the living and active Word of God is not only a creative Word, a sustaining Word, but also a regenerating Word. But think about the fact that it is a creative Word. You go back to Genesis 1. In verse 3, let's do that. Let's do a little... Bible study here. Go back to Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light And there was light. And as we know, the creation account, that continues and goes forward in various acts of God's creation. What in the Latin is called fiat. You may have heard that expression. I believe there was a car given that name. But fiat is the Latin for let there be. That's God's act of creation. Remember, the Word of God And that's what we're talking about here when we seek God's said. That's the agency of the Son of God creating the universe. And we can go to, remember, Hebrews chapter 1 where we're told that the Son of God, and in Colossians, and in the Gospel of John, we are told that Jesus is involved in the creation of the universe. in the sense that we're not. Now, we as human beings are creative in a logical way. God made us to reflect His creativity. But He can create out of nothing. We can only create with pre-existing matter. So that shows God's power. He can create out of nothing. And of course, we're told later in Hebrews in chapter 11, if you look there briefly with me, chapter 11, verse 3, that the worlds were framed, that is made or created or formed by the Word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. There's the biblical foundation for what we call creation out of nothing. God brought into existence the worlds that we know out of nothing, absolutely. And of course we know Not only is this living and active Word a creating Word, it is also a sustaining Word. You've heard me say on countless occasions that if God withdrew His power, His sustaining power, we would go out of existence like that. We would no longer exist. But look back at chapter 1, verse 3. Again, this is describing the Son of God. Remember that God has revealed Himself to the fathers through the prophets, and now in these last days, He has revealed Himself in the Son, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and this is the important part for this morning, and upholding all things by the word of His power when He has by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." So you see, the word of God is living and active both as a creative word and as a sustaining word. All those things that he has brought into existence, he upholds in existence. Remember that when you ponder the notion of freedom of the will. If you're even tempted a little bit by the libertarian notion of free will. Remember that it is God who created you and who upholds you in every detail of your life. That's a fact. But the glorious truth of the Gospel is also revealed in the living and active Word of God. Now admittedly, the immediate context of these comments about the Word of God is in the context of an exhortation. But it's a gospel exhortation because the author is saying, there remains a Sabbath rest. Enter into it with me. That's a paraphrase. It's the Waddington paraphrase. There remains a Sabbath rest. Enter into it with me. Don't be like the children of Israel in the wilderness, the first generation. earlier in the chapter, the good news, the gospel came to them as well as to us. But it was not met with faith. It was not met with the hearing of faith. And therefore, the first adult generation of the children of Israel that came out of the wilderness walked on dry ground through the Red Sea, got to the other side, and failed to enter into the Promised Land. So there is that exhortation that sets the context for these statements about the Word of God. But we ought not to forget that the Word of God, being living and active, is the means that God uses by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, you would never know about Jesus were it not for the fact that we have the New Testament. Well, we have the Old Testament as well, pointing forward. If you didn't have the Bible, there would be no knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is not to say He wouldn't have come and lived and died and been raised, but there'd be no word of it. It might have been useful to the initial generation that was there and saw it happen, but us, this generation, and all those generations in between, have been reliant upon the living and active Word of God, which is the regenerating Word. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4. Let's see if I can find the passage I'm looking for. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Let's see. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You see, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. So, the Apostle Paul here is tying in re-creation with the creation. Just as God commanded light to shine out of darkness, remember that's back in Genesis 1-3, so he caused the light, the spiritual light to shine in our hearts. And what is that light? Give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Beloved, there is no better light. We have all sorts of lights, don't we, in this world? We have lights hanging from the ceiling that provide illumination for us to see. But there is no light like the light of the Word of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts, giving us the knowledge the light of the knowledge in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Paul, remember, in that portion of 2 Corinthians is tying together both creation, the light that there be light, but also the light that glowed from the face of Moses when he came down from the mountain after having spent time with the Lord. Remember that glowing face he put on a veil? And He didn't put on the veil because the light would scare people. He put on the veil because the light was fading away. In Jesus Christ, we do not have a fading light. We do not have a failing knowledge. Because that knowledge that is given to us is given to us by a living and active Word of God. It is a powerful Word. So it's a creating Word. It's a sustaining Word. And gloriously, beloved, it's a regenerating Word. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God. And you've heard people say, but aren't you boxing God in by limiting Him to His Word? And the answer is no. People talk as if God didn't plan these things out. He's an all-knowing God. He knows His plans. The Holy Spirit who inspired the human writers to write the Scriptures He knows how to use them to bring us to faith in Jesus Christ who is our only Savior from sin. And He knows how to use those Scriptures to grow us, to cause us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, if you are trying to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord without reading the Bible, you are on a fool's errand. Do you hear that? If you're trying to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord without reading God's Word on a regular basis, both being under the Word in public worship, but also studying God's Word during the week, both individually and if you have a family and your family devotions, if you're not doing that, you cannot grow in grace. And so the Word of God is living and active and has those three aspects. But there's more that's said here. Notice it says that it's a two-edged sword. It's a two-edged sword. Now what does that mean? Well, it's interesting if you study the history of commentaries, which is something that I tend to do, there are some interesting guesses, dare I say stabs, at what the two-edged sword means. St. Augustine, the Church Father Tertullian in North Africa both thought that the two-edged sword was referring to the Old and New Testament. I don't think that's actually what the writer had in mind. I think that the best understanding of the two-edged sword is to talk about the fact that God's Word, when it comes, comes in both judgment and salvation. It comes in judgment and salvation. Now let's think about one historical example that will help us to understand this. The children of Israel cross through the Red Sea. They're saved. Pharaoh's army attempts to cross the Red Sea and they're drowned. So the same thing, the crossing of the Red Sea in one instance, is salvation for the Israelites and judgment for Pharaoh's army. That's an illustration of how something can be both a means of judgment and a means of salvation. And what we're saying about the Word of God is that it's a two-edged sword. That means it can bring both redemption and salvation. If you turn with me to Isaiah 55, we'll see what the Word says there. And I will call an illustration from my experience at Westminster seminary to perhaps add a little illumination to what we read here. And you'll see in chapter 55 of Isaiah, beginning at verse Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, ye that have no money. Come ye, buy, eat, ye come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. There's your gospel invitation from the prophet Isaiah. Then we go down at verse 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Here's the grounding for what we call the creator-creature distinction. And that God's thoughts and our thoughts about God aren't necessarily in sync. They are only brought in sync by the Word of God. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. And it shall prosper in the thing wherefore I sent it. So God's Word in every instance, hear this, in every instance God's Word achieves the purpose for which He sent it. Now, several years ago at Westminster Seminary, I was not actually in this lecture, but a guest lecture was given by a renowned, well-known scholar, Karl Barth. If you know anything about Karl Barth, you know that he taught that this is not This isn't the Word of God as such. It's a witness to the Word of God, and it becomes the Word of God when you have an encounter with God. Well, of course it's true that the Word of God gains, you know, there's some existential importance to having an encounter with the Lord. But the truth is, the Word of God is the Word of God at all times, at all places, whether it leads to your salvation or not. But here's the thing. I had the lecture on tape. That's how I knew what was said. And it's always an interesting thing when a student gets one up on the professor or the person giving the lecture. And the student said, a professor so-and-so, and I'll refrain from giving his name to protect the guilty, isn't the word of God the word of God even when it condemns, even when it brings judgment? In other words, we sometimes We often think of the word being effective when it brings about salvation, which is a great and glorious thing. And the student raised the right question, because Barth had so stressed the saving effect of having an encounter with the Lord through this. Although with Barth, as it's often said, he could save with a phone book. The professor had no answer. He actually said, that's a good point. Well, it's such a good point that, in my opinion, it destroys, it obliterates the theology of Karl Barth. You see, the Word of God is effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, even when it condemns. Now, none of us particularly enjoys the condemnation of the Word of God. We much prefer to see the Word of God bring about redemption. But the truth of the matter is, God's Word is God's Word. It is living and active, even when it condemns. And we ought not to try to water down the effect of God's Word. And so we can see that the Word of God is a two-edged sword in terms of bringing judgment as well as salvation. And both of those are God's intent. And that's why it can be said by God Himself, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, that whenever His Word goes out, it always achieves its purpose. We may not see that. We may wonder, well, what's going on? Is anything happening? The answer to that question is yes. God is achieving His purposes. And that brings us to the next point, that the Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The scriptures have a penetrating power, an extreme penetrating power, that enables them to get to the very core of our being. You've often heard me say, in relationship to the limitations of a minister and elder's knowledge that we don't have an inside track into your heart. And even our own inside track to our own hearts can be deceptive, as Jeremiah tells us. The heart is desperately wicked. And who can know it? Jeremiah 17, right? However, that is not a limitation on the Word of God. That's a limitation on me. But the Word of God is able to discern. Now, we need to be careful here because in various circles, in churches that love the Word of God, in churches that highly esteem the Word of God, sometimes they look at this and say, oh, here's a description of the human soul. And so they talk about humans having a soul and a spirit. And I have to say, brothers and sisters, the soul and the spirit are the same thing. The point isn't that the writer here is describing human nature. He's saying that the Bible is able to cut to the quick and to divide things that aren't normally divisible. OK, if you want to use an old word, these things are normally indiscernible. OK, indiscernible. That means like Jonathan Edwards described the atom, not the atom in the garden, although there were atoms in the garden. But the atom, the smallest thing, well, that was before quarks and all that, but when he was alive, he said the atom was the smallest element of creation and that it was indecircable. What would he say about the atom bomb? Well, that's another question. But he said the atom was indivisible. Well, what the writers of the Hebrews are saying is that the scriptures can divide the things that are indecircable, that are undividable. we can get to the very core of our being. Over the years, I've often had the experience of preaching, and people coming up to me afterward and saying, you know, Pastor, that what you said really spoke to me in this way. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm pretty sure I never said that. But of course, it's not something I disagree with. And it fits perfectly with what the Scripture says at this point. And so I'm reminded in those instances, I'm humbled, that in the preaching, the Word of God goes forward. And the Holy Spirit uses it as He sees fit. By the way, I don't have a meeting every morning where the Holy Spirit says, Jeff, can I do this with your sermon? He does what He wants. with the sermon. He does what he wants with the Word of God. And what he wants is either condemnation or regeneration. One of those two. But you see, the Holy Spirit and using the Word of God, which he has inspired himself so he knows how to use it, this is not limited to my inability to get inside your heart and mind. So that when you hear me preach, and if on some occasion it hits you to the quick, you need to be pretty sure that I didn't necessarily intend it that way. If that happens, that is the ministry of the Word of God, that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now I will tell you, that on occasion, as I'm preaching, in the middle of the sermon, it'll dawn on me how this might affect or be heard by some of you. And it's very hard to be preaching one thing and thinking another at the same time, but that often happens in the pulpit. I'm thinking to myself, oh Lord, I just said that, and that's going to hit a certain way. well, that may or may not happen, but know that the Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. There's nowhere where you can hide from the searching eye of the Word of God. And that's primarily because it's not a dead letter. It's a living and active thing that comes from a living and active God. Now, the wonderful thing is that it leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, it does condemn unbelief. Remember what Jesus said in John, that He didn't come to judge or to condemn, but the Word would. That's what He said. Elsewhere He said, remember, He said that you have Moses and it will judge you. His Word, Moses' Word will judge you. And so we see that God's Word, when we say that it is living and active, or that it is quick and powerful and sharp, sharper than a two-edged sword, and that it can pierce, that it can get under your skin, that it can niggle its way into your mind and bring about, I pray, redemption, bring about repentance, bring about conformity and obedience to the word. And that brings us to the final point, verse 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. That's a double negative, which means every creature is manifest in his sight. Every creature is made manifest to the sight of God. All things are naked and opened into the eyes of him with whom we have to do. This is the God who said, there yet remains a Sabbath rest. Enter into it. Don't be like the children of Israel who refused to enter into it. This is the God whose Word has been given to us. The Word of God and the God of the Word is all-seeing. He's all-knowing. And as I said earlier, two-edged sword in this sense. For the saved, this ought to bring comfort, that we're not alone, that we're not left to ourselves, that every aspect of our lives is under the watchful care of God. But for the unbeliever, of course, this is a threatening, scary reality. Because as unbelievers, we want to hide. We want to get out of the vision of God. Those of you who have read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and have seen the movie, you know about the red eye, the all-seeing red eye, especially in the third book, the third movie, as Frodo and Sam are getting close to doom. The eye, the all-seeing eye of Sauron in the story is constantly, the spotlight is coming out of the tower of doom. It's looking for the ring, you know the story. That's a pale comparison, a pale comparison to the real God who is all-knowing, who doesn't depend on being in a tower. but who is everywhere and sees everything. And again, for those of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, this ought to be a source of comfort, not a source of fear, not the cause of trembling, except in a godly sense of trembling, but should be for us a cause of delight that no creature is hid from his sight. And isn't it interesting that we we phase from the Word of God to the God of the Word in these two verses. They are tied together intimately. God didn't leave this Bible and then go off on a vacation. We need to be very careful that we don't treat the Bible, we don't become biblical deities, if I can use that expression. In other words, God inspired the Word and he's gone off and left us to ourselves. He has not. God has inspired the Word, and He's with us to help us to understand it. But we're told here, we're told here that we are naked before Him. We can't hide anything from Him. And beloved, if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought not to want to hide anything from Him. It is better to confess. That's why we say with the Apostle John, when we confess our sins, we claim the promise that he will and forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that really is an echoing of the psalmist. We talked about his bones aching within him when he kept his sin to himself. Now understand that God isn't surprised. It's not like when we confess our sins, He's going, I was wondering what the problem was. That's not how God is. He already knows. He already knows our sin. And when we come to Him and confess it, and He forgives us. He's not being given new information that He didn't already have. So we close with a reminder that God's Word is the living and active Word because it comes from a living and active God. We can put it this way, that God's Word searches us more than we search God's Word. Even if we are devoting ourselves to regular daily reading of God's Word, The truth of the matter is that God's Word searches us more than we search Him. It's powerful. It's living and active. And remember, it does bring judgment, but it also brings redemption. And I pray that for you this morning, beloved, that it brings redemption, that you have experienced salvation Christ who is revealed in that Word. Let us pray.