Well let me invite you to take your Bible this morning and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4. Much of what I said last week was an introduction leading us here to Hebrews chapter 4. The gist of what I said last week was that the Bible is authoritative. The Bible is binding on our lives. It's the only thing that really binds our conscience. And so it's very important that we understand what God's word says and how we're to approach it when we come to it. I talked about last week, starting really the second week of October, I like to go through some of the issues with the Protestant Reformation during the month of October. In the previous years, we have looked at different reformers and even pre-reformers like John Wycliffe and John Huss. We've also looked at Martin Luther and we looked at his life. So really, what was at stake in the Protestant Reformation? We've looked at the subject of the five solas that you find over there on the wall. And really what we're talking about today and what we talked about last week really is sola scriptura. Anytime you're talking about scripture alone as the means of salvation or scripture alone as being authoritative over any tradition, over any person, Popes, cardinals, bishops, I mean that's really what was going on at the time because you had the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church controlled everything and it was involved in government, it was involved in the people's lives and so really things that came out of their teaching, they imposed on the people and they imposed so much on the people that they began to even teach that if you don't do some of these things then you can't be saved. And we looked at a number of them last time. And we also looked at the various confessions that are put out by churches and groups. And we saw that in a majority of the confessions that they all affirm that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. Now, why is that important? Well, that's hugely important in every area of our life, because you live your life every day, and you either recognize God or you don't, but I contend that if you really are a true Christian, you will recognize Him, and you will try to seek to live for Him, and you wanna spend time with Him, and you want to read His word or hear His word, and you'll do whatever you can to make all of that possible, given what your schedule is like. I mean, for many of us who had to get up super early in the morning to get ready and drive a distance to get to work, you worked out all of that time. So maybe you got up 30 minutes or an hour earlier so you could have some time in prayer or reading the scripture. I like to pray in my truck when I'm driving. Nobody's with me. I can pray out loud. I don't have anybody interrupting me. I don't have to worry about what I'm praying about in front of anybody. I don't have to guard what I'm praying about. I can just pray freely. I love that time. I've told you at many times, one of the hardest things for me is to pray publicly, because I don't always pray what's on my mind, for one. Because there's some things that, you know, are on your mind, and you know things about people, and you know things about, well, you know a lot of things that are going on in your world, and in a lot of people's world, and so you're a little discerning when you're praying about that. Sometimes I wish I wasn't that discerning, especially when I get called on at holidays to pray with my family. And it turns out I'm the only preacher in the family and I'm the official prayer, so there we go. But as we look at this this morning, my desire, as I said, was to point out what Martin Luther and the others, the pre-reformers and the reformers after Martin Luther and all, what they held to. They saw scripture as being binding in our lives. And that's why I've called it the binding word. Now, as we come to Hebrews chapter four, it's very important to understand what's taking place, because verses 12 and 13 are almost at the end of the chapter, and we really need to understand why these two verses are there. I remember when I was in seminary, and I remember one of the things that the teacher used to always ask, and we had to write this down, that in every chapter that we went through in the Bible, went through every one of them, And we had to write down what it would be like if this chapter wasn't there. Why do we need this particular chapter? Why do we need these particular words? Well, in verses 12 and 13, he's talking about here the power of the scripture. But what does it need to be powerful in? Well, the context is here that helps us. You know, everybody, or mostly everybody, says that they're Christians. Most people I talk to, that's what they say, I'm a Christian, I'm going to heaven. Well listen, the Bible will determine whether that is true or not. Because it's the Bible that gives us the understanding of what salvation is. It's the Bible that gives us the understanding of why we need to be saved. The Bible gives us the understanding of what is sin and why we need to be forgiven of all of our sin. And how is that even possible? The Bible talks about the sacrifice of Christ just by reading through the book One Perfect Life, we're seeing from the Old all the way up to the New Testament how Jesus is in all the Bible, not just the New Testament, but as well as in the Old Testament. So when you come to the book of Hebrews and you come to hear in chapter 3 and chapter 4 he's talking about this rest that Israel was not allowed to enter. And the reason why they were not allowed to enter God's rest is because they failed to believe Him. We have example after example in the Old Testament of them testing the Lord. And even at one point Moses got so upset he was supposed to speak to the rock and water would come out of it. He was so mad at Israel he just smacked the rock and that cost him his opportunity to go in with the children of Israel into the promised land. Now I contend according to I think it's what Matthew 17 the transfiguration And he got to see the promised land, as him and Elijah appear with Jesus. And where are they? They're in the promised land. But it's not the same thing as leading the people in. He led them up to it, but then when he did that act right there, he showed he really wasn't trusting the Lord. And he disobeyed the Lord, and there are consequences in our disobedience, just as there are today. But if you look at chapter three with me, And look at verse 12. He says, Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it's still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin does deceive us, doesn't it? It doesn't help us in any way to see God as he is to be seen, or to see Christ as his work is portrayed here in scripture. But you'll see all through the text, he talks about, don't harden your heart, don't harden your heart, don't harden your heart, don't be unbelieving. And then he, like I said, he gives us this example about Israel. He says in verse 17, and with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned? whose bodies fell in the wilderness, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were what? Disobedient. So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Now you have to ask, what is this rest that he's talking about? Because he picks it up in chapter four. It's mentioned in verse one, verse three, verse four, verse five, verse eight, verse nine, verse 10, verse 11, almost the entire chapter. And what is he talking about here? Well, he uses unbelief and disobedience interchangeably. They seem to be synonyms. He talks about unbelief throughout it, and he basically tells us that, like verse 6, he says, Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news, or the gospel preached to them, failed to enter because of disobedience. So when we're talking about this rest, we're talking about salvation. And you can't enter salvation in unbelief or disobedience. You have to believe. You have to have faith. And you can't harden your hearts. You have to believe. And so when you get down to verses 12 and 13, he's revealing how The Scripture penetrates the heart to reveal whether you have true saving faith or not. The Scripture tests us. And we are to test ourselves by Scripture. Because Scripture is fully authoritative. It's fully binding on our lives. And so for those who say they have believed, they have entered God's rest. but they're subject to its proof by scripture. The scriptures determine whether you truly believe or not. Look at verse 12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Last time as we were looking at this, we got just a little ways into the first point where we said God's word is living and active. You see it right there in the text. And we basically said it's living because God is living. As he lives forever, so does his word. You can't separate his word from his person. And we even looked at several scriptures that talked about it being settled and it being forever or eternal, like Psalm 119, verse 89. Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Or 1 Peter 1.25, the word of the Lord endures forever. And we said the reason why It lives forever because his word is connected to himself. Linsky says the word of God is as living as the living God himself. God and his word cannot be separated which explains in verse 13 the pronouns. that denote God, and we looked at that last time as well. He says, and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Now, what's the text talking about? It's talking about Scripture, right? But yet now we're hearing pronouns used of God along with talking about Scripture. The Scripture is eternal. It's eternal because God is eternal. It can't be any other way. Psalm 90 verse 2 tells us about God being eternal. And this is a Psalm of Moses, one of the few ones. It says, before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And that's talking about the eternality of God. Even Isaiah 57, 15, for thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever. You know, when kids are growing up and you're teaching them about God, and sometimes they ask questions like, where did God come from? It's really a good question. You know what a good answer is? I don't know. But another answer, and I believe would be a more biblical answer, would be this. God has always been. He's always been. There's never been a time when He never existed. You and I are subject to time. He's not. You've been waiting a long time for Jesus to come, right? We've been waiting. All the New Testament anticipating His coming. And it's been a couple thousand years, right? Well, that's nothing to God. One day, like a thousand years. He is the King Eternal. He is, as Revelation 1.8, the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come. He is the Almighty. And when we talk about the idea of God's Word being living, there's a present participle used right there for living, and the present tense, tells us that it's ongoing, it's continuous. So when we talk about God's Word being alive, it's constantly alive, it's constantly living, it's ongoing, it's eternal, it's forever. But notice what else he says there, he says it's also active. It's living and active and you pair both words together and emphasizes that God's Word is not static, it's not dormant, it's rather dynamic and it's energetic and it's effectual. It's constantly at work. It's constantly impacting and transforming those who engage in it. That's why we're told in James 1.22 to be doers of the Word. God's work is always involved in our lives. His word is always at work. It is as the psalmist said in Psalm 119, 105, a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And it transforms and it renews the mind. And that's because it's God's word. Now, we started out last time, let me have you to turn to 2 Timothy 3, just hold your place in Hebrews. But in 2 Timothy 3, in verse 16 and 17, we started right there and we said that God's word is breathed out, is theopneustos in Greek, which means breathe out or expiration. I know we use inspiration like breathing in, but it's really more like breathing out. When you speak, if you put your hand near your mouth, you'll feel air on your hand. You're expirating here. But it's telling us that all scripture is God's. He is the author. All scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable. Profitable there means useful. It's not like one false teacher said, I heard say one time on TBN and he said, see it's profitable, we can make money. He ought to be thanking God for mercy right now because he's still living and he needs to repent. But it doesn't mean that. It means it's useful. What's it useful for? For teaching. You can teach the scripture. You can reprove with the scripture. You can correct with the scripture. You can train in righteousness with the scripture. You do all of this so that the man of God will be thoroughly equipped and adequate for every good work. And the man of God there is speaking of the preacher, but it's true of every person, is it not? I mean, you learn through trials, you learn through tests and through those trials and tests that you and I go through. What do those things do? They force us to look at ourself, to look at our lives, look at our hearts. They force us to evaluate who we are trusting. Are we trusting ourselves? Are we trusting our resources? Are we trusting our circumstances? Or are we trusting God? My wife told me years ago, and I've talked through the book of James about three or four times, and she said, I wish you'd hurry up and finish because every time you jump into that book, things begin to pick up. I think really what it is is we become more aware of it. The trials are going on all the time. For some of us, they're every single day, right? But they're there. God's word is living, is active, Look what else he says. It's also sharper. And the word sharper there, it means it's razor sharp. The word was used of a razor sharp intellect. You met some people that were really sharp with their intellect. And it was also used of razor sharp weapons. That word comes from a root word that means to cut. And it says here it's sharper than any two-edged sword. Most swords only had one edge. And this is not the broad sword. It was about four feet long. And they had to use two hands to wield it. When Jesus was in the garden and they came to arrest him and Peter pulled out his sword, it was not this broad sword. It was the smaller dagger. The dagger was used in hand-to-hand combat. The dagger was somewhere between six inches long, and some of the swords would go to 18 inches, up to four feet. But this dagger was much different than the larger broadsword or the straight sword. It was typically a one-handed weapon, It had a single edge blade that was slightly curved, and it was known for how sharp it was. It was used for cutting and thrusting. Believe me, when they're using this, they're going for the kill. Just like Peter, when he took Malcolm's ear, I think he was going for more than the ear, and Malcolm's just ducked. You know, reflex. And I'm not so sure he could have really succeeded in what maybe he had in mind, because he didn't have that long sword. But nevertheless, Jesus rebuked him for what he did. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. And here it's mentioned as a two-edged sword, and many believe that the author here is emphasizing the extreme sharpness and the effectiveness of God's word. It cuts either way. Charles Spurgeon says the revelation of God given us in Holy Scripture is edge all over. It's alive in every part. and in every part keen to cut the conscience and wound the heart. Depend upon it. There is not a superfluous verse in the Bible, nor a chapter that is useless. The word of God is so sharp a thing, so full of cutting power, that you may be bleeding under its wounds before you have seriously suspected the possibility of such a thing. You cannot come near the gospel without it having a measure of influence over you and God blessing you. It may cut down and kill your sins when you have no idea that such a work is being done. Yes, when Christ comes, he comes not to send peace on the earth, but a sword, and that sword begins at home in our own souls, killing, cutting, hacking, breaking in pieces. Blessed is that man who knows the word of the Lord by its exceeding sharpness, for it kills nothing but that which ought to be killed. It quickens and gives new life to all that is of God, but the old depraved life which ought to die, it hues in pieces as Samuel destroyed Agag before the Lord. God's Word is able to combat spiritual struggles. It cuts through falsehood. It cuts through sin. No matter what struggle that you're dealing with, the Scripture will cut through that. And our weapons are mighty, as 2 Corinthians 10, 3 and following says. We don't have fleshly weapons that we fight this warfare with. We fight with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Paul says, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. See, when we're fighting, we're fighting with all the armor on, according to Ephesians 6. This enables us to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. It's the only way that we can resist in the evil day. So we have to stand firm. We have to have our loins girded with what? With truth. This is the truth. Well, notice the second thing about God's Word. Not only is it living and active, but God's Word is also penetrating. It's also penetrating. Look at that. He says it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow. It pierces. And the word piercing means to penetrate. It means to go through. It's a deep penetration. This word illustrates the depth to which God's word can reach within the human soul, exposing hidden thoughts or hidden intentions. It reaches to the core of the matter. It deeply affects those who encounter it. It has the ability to reach the deepest parts of the heart and the mind. And you know, in our study of the Gospel of Mark, and we saw what Jesus said about the heart, and then we hear what Jeremiah says about the heart being desperately wicked and who can know it. We need God's Word to transform the heart. We can't do it. In fact, every time you have a misplaced thought, an evil thought, an evil deed come to your mind, you need to immediately recognize that that's your wicked heart. That's where that's coming from. I know sometimes you can be praying and all of a sudden a wicked thought comes to you, where in the world did that come from? It came from your wicked heart. Yes. But scripture here, it pierces. It cuts. And it says here it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit. Those are the immaterial parts of man. That is called a dichotomy. And there's also controversy about this. Some people believe you're either a dichotomy or a trichotomy. Trichotomy is spirit, soul, and body. Dichotomy is soul and spirit. In fact, many times it's soul hyphen spirit. But anyway, those two parts are talking about the immaterial part, the part that we can't see. And it pierces into that. And it even goes as deep as the joints and the marrow. These are also illustrations that talk about the depth of penetration. Have you ever had bone marrow extracted from you? I hear it's a pretty painful process, but that's a deep penetration to go into your bones. Then notice what else it does. It says it judges. The word judges there is where we get the word critic. What does it judge? Well, it judges two things. It judges the thoughts and the intentions of the heart or the motives. First, it judges the thoughts. Now, God's Word is absolute truth, and when we encounter it, it naturally causes us to compare our thoughts against it, exposing any discrepancies or misalignments It also activates and informs our conscience. You know, your conscience can be misinformed. You realize that, don't you? A lot of times people are running around saying, you know, the conviction of the spirit or the conscience, sometimes they don't know the difference between the two, and sometimes you can't tell the difference between the two. The conscience initially has the moral law of God written on it. That's how a person knows the difference between right and wrong, not just that they're taught, but their conscience bears witness with the moral law that's been written on their heart. And so it's very important that we train our conscience, that we have the right information in our conscience. And if you're saturating your heart with the word of God, you're putting in the right information. And you're going to find that whenever you are faced with an important decision, that you're going to search the scriptures so that you have the right answer, you have the right response. Or you're going to search your heart. And listen, when you're searching your heart, again, realizing that what is in the heart is evil thoughts and wickedness and evil deeds and so forth. And you're saying that, you know, as I search this, I need to make sure that I'm not searching and giving into that stuff just because I'm feeling it or I'm thinking it. You know, just because you thought a thought doesn't mean that you've acted on it. I mean, we have all kind of thoughts that enter in our minds at different times, and you can dismiss those thoughts as quickly as they come in. And you can even replace those thoughts so that they don't come back. when you're struggling with them right there. And I don't know any other way to do that than with scripture. You know, when I used to hang out when I was much younger with some guys and we would memorize scripture together. We were each other's accountability. So the only thing about what we're doing in our scripture memory here in church is that the only way we're gonna have accountability is if we speak up to each other and we say, have you learned a verse this week? Quote it for me. And check them, see if it's, and we used to do stuff like that. We used to carry little three by five cards in our pocket, and we would have the verses written out of what we were working on, and we were doing chapters of scripture. And I remember so many times with Romans 6 that we had memorized, struggling with a sinful thought and immediately start quoting Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How should we that are dead to sin live any longer there? I'm not going to quote the whole thing. I can't quote the whole thing now. But I know I get down to about verse 5 or 6 and the appeal of a temptation is gone. Those fleeting evil thoughts are also gone. See, we're talking about how Scripture does this. It penetrates, it pierces, it judges. It's a critic. You know, as you read it, it can trigger our inner sense of right and wrong, causing us to evaluate our thoughts. Philippians 4.8 tells us the kind of things we're to think on. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, think on these things. And by the way, these are categories. Think on these things. Think on things that are true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and of good repute, and things that are excellent, things that are worthy of praise. It's hard to do that with much that's coming through the TV, right? Or much that comes through the airwaves. Notice the second thing that it critiques, the intentions of the heart. God's Word is the perfect discerner. It not only analyzes all the facts perfectly, but all motives and intentions and beliefs. Remember, that's the context. The sword of His Word makes no mistakes. in its judgment or in its execution. All disguises are ripped off. The only real person is what's left after all the disguises are gone. So, in the context, this verse means that the readers who were struggling in their trust of Christ, who were considering falling back into Judaism, They needed to be urgent and diligent in seeking to enter God's rest because God's word is alive. It's not static, it's active, constantly active. It pierces right down to the innermost part of the heart to see if belief is real or not. So the word is not only saving and comforting and nourishing and healing, but it's also a tool of judgment and execution. In the day of the great judgment, His Word is going to penetrate and lay bare all hearts who have not trusted in Him. And the sham and hypocrisy will be revealed, and no profession of faith, no matter how orthodox, no list of good works, no matter how sacrificial they may be, will count for anything before Him. Notice the third. God's Word is living, active, penetrating. According to verse 13, God's Word is revealing. It's revealing. Look at what it says. There's no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. There's no creature hidden from His sight. You can't run and hide from God. All disguises, as I said, are ripped off. I mean, listen to what Job said. Job said in Job 31.4, Does he not see my ways and number all my steps? Or Job 34.21, For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all of his steps. Or how about what David said in Psalm 139, When I rise up or I lie down, you're there. And for 11 verses, he sits there in marvel of the knowledge of God and how God knows every single detail about him. He can't hide. Just because you click the light off doesn't mean that God can't see you. You might not be able to see anything in the room, but God sees everything and the light and the darkness are both alike to him. And then he says, all things are open and laid bare before him. And the idea of open, it has two distinct uses. First, it was used of a wrestler taking his opponent by the throat. In this position, the two men were unavoidably face to face. The other use was in regard to a criminal trial. They would take a sharp dagger and bind it to the neck of the accused. And they would take the point and point it up to his chin so that he could not bow his head, but he had to face the court. And both of these uses have to do with a face-to-face situation. When an unbeliever comes under the scrutiny of God's Word, he will be unavoidably face-to-face with the perfect truth about God and about himself. When he stands at the great white throne judgment and the books are open and the book of life is open and he's judged from the things which are written in the books according to his deeds, then it says if his name's not found written in the book of life, he'll be thrown into the lake of fire. Notice verse 13, also the last part of it. It's this phrase, with whom we have to do. Everyone is accountable to God, whether you're a believer or not. Believers will appear before the bema seat. That's a place of judgment, but it's not judgment as you would think judgment, because Romans 8.1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But is a place of receiving or losing rewards. 2 John 8, watch yourself that you do not lose what we've accomplished, but you may receive a full reward. 2 Corinthians 5.10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Again, we're not judged for our sins. Our sins were judged in Christ on the cross. Unbelievers, as I said, will appear before the great white throne. judgment. So either way, whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, you will not escape God. We all will appear before Him. And so in light of the context of Hebrews 4, have you entered God's rest? Have you obeyed the gospel? Have you believed in Christ? Until you do, there's no rest, right? You're still struggling. You're still striving for some kind of salvation, and your salvation is works-based. And you're saying, only if I can be good enough, then God will accept me. Well, God will never accept you on those terms. If He accepted you on those terms, there would be no point for Christ to have come into this world and go to the cross and bear the sins of His people. Listen, the only thing that you can expect and unbelief is a certain judgment that awaits. And how do we know all this? We know it because of the infallible, authoritative Word, God's Word. If you're here today and you've never received Christ, I urge you to come to Christ, who alone can save you. You need to repent. and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confess Him as Lord. If that describes you, come to Him as we pray now. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this opportunity and this time that we've had together today to study the Word and to be reminded of these things. And my prayer, Father, for those that are in here that don't know you, that they would repent. Lord, that you would grant them that repentance and grant them the faith to believe the gospel. That you would do what you did in Lydia's life where you opened up her heart to believe the things that were spoken by Paul. I pray the same thing to you, Lord. Open up hearts. We thank you for this time we've had together, Lord God. And we thank you for your mercy and grace to each one of us. We pray all of this in Jesus name.