Let's pray, please. Father in heaven, thank you for giving us the words of eternal life in your word, the Bible. May we receive its truths with faith and love, lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Jesus' name I ask, amen. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 4, verses 11 through 13. Hebrews 4, 11 through 13. is our scripture reading and our sermon text for this morning. Hebrews 4, verse 11 through 13. Hebrews 4, 11 through 13. This is the word of God. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. 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 is 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. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. One of the greatest kings that Israel ever had was Hezekiah. And he was a rather unlikely candidate for greatness as his father was Ahaz. Ahaz who promoted idolatry and actively opposed the worship of the true God in Israel. You may recall Hezekiah was the king who prayed when the huge Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem. Went into the temple and prayed and the angel of the Lord went out and slaughtered 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Hezekiah was remarkable man of God. Hezekiah's son was Manasseh, King Manasseh, one of the evilest kings, not only in Israel's history, but in the history of the world. King Manasseh's son, King Ammon, was yet one more bad guy who did evil in God's sight. But then we come to King Josiah. The second Kings 22 simply tells us, Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. What a great way to describe somebody's life. Wouldn't you love to hear that at your funeral? Well, I guess you wouldn't hear it, would you? If someone said that about you, this person, they never turned to the right or to the left. But the dark reign of King Manasseh, Josiah's grandfather, was 55 years. Manasseh reigned for 55 years and did so much wickedness, so much evil, that even when Josiah does his reforms, God even tells Josiah, Josiah, you did well, appreciate it. I'm still gonna destroy you, because Manasseh was that evil. Manasseh's son, Ammon, he reigns for two more years before Josiah. But Josiah becomes king when he's eight years old. But when he turned 18, he suddenly decided, you know what we need to do? We need to repair the damages of the house of the Lord. After 57 years of idolatry, the place was falling apart. The temple was a mess. And so money was paid to the carpenters and the builders and the masons. And they went into the temple of the Lord and they started working. And while they were in there working, one of the priests found something. Something that had been lost for 57 years. It's hard to believe, isn't it? These are the descendants, these Israelites, they're descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their fathers saw the plagues. They walked on dry ground through the Red Sea. God fed their fathers with manna in the wilderness. By the supernatural hand of God, their fathers had conquered the very land that they then lived in at that very moment. And they forgot, they lost the Bible. And one of the priests, when they started repairing the temple, they found a copy of the Bible, of the Old Testament. They found Genesis through Deuteronomy. Listen to the scene. It's very marvelous. 2 Kings 22, 8. Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it. Shaphan the scribe came to the king, this is King Josiah, and brought back word to the king and said, your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hands of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord. Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. And when Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. And then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, Achbor, the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Esaiah, the king's servant, saying, go inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us. What happened there? We just read it in Hebrews 4.12. The word of the Lord is what? What does verse 12 say? You see it? It's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow. King Josiah, for 57 years, his grandfather and his father had served and worshiped Baal and the Asherahs and the pagan deities. And then he hears the book of the law and he stands up and he grabs his clothes and tears them. And the commentators agree, probably what made him do that was reading Deuteronomy 28, where the covenant curses are spelled out. You guys do this stuff, you guys disobey me, here's what's gonna happen. And it had been happening to them. And Josiah's wondering, Is there any way we can get out of this? What do we need to do now? We've got to change everything. This rediscovery of the Bible has happened many times in church history. I had a professor in seminary who said this once in a private conversation. He said to me, some of the early church writers are decent, but a lot of them are very weird. But then you suddenly come to Augustine. Augustine, a guy who really just wanted to know, can I be saved and can I be right with God? And he's the most biblical in his understanding of anyone up to that point. That was the mid fourth and fifth centuries. And then later on, you have others that discovered the Bible in the middle ages. You have Anselm of Canterbury and others. Martin Luther gets ahold of the Bible. John Haas in the 1400s, late 1300s, he gets ahold of the Bible. John Calvin, John Wycliffe, Ulrich Zwingli gets the Bible in Greek, teaches himself Greek and makes handwritten Greek copies of all of Paul's letters and carries them with him wherever he goes and memorizes them. And many others throughout church history. People started reading the Bible again. The Bible has been lost. The people of Israel lost it. I mean, think about that. They send carpenters and masons, let's go fix the temple. Hey, what's that over there? Oh yeah, the Bible. Maybe we should read it. And they read it to the king and he tears his clothes. People have done that again and again in church history. They go back to the text of scripture, back to the words of God, and they see the superstition, the idolatry, the errors, the falsehood that bury the simple gospel. There really is a sense, dear congregation, hear me please, in which every generation of humanity has to do this. Every generation of the church has to rediscover the Bible and be pierced by it in the very same way that Josiah was, in the very same way that Augustine was, the way that Luther was, Calvin, the Puritans, American churchgoers during the first great awakening. And then there's us today. And so far as the Bible collects dust in our homes and is not read with passion, not studied with abandon, not wrestled with like Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night and said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. We too will linger in darkness. We will linger in error and confusion. Remember from Psalm 1, the blessed and happy person does not walk in the council of the ungodly. We don't walk in the council of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. But our delight is in the law of the Lord. Our delight is in the Bible. And in that law, we meditate, we speak, we recite, we mutter its words to ourselves all day and all night. We have its words in our mouths, in our minds, in our hearts, day and night. And what we've learned in the book of Hebrews so far up to this point in Hebrews 4, 11 through 13 that we're looking at here, that this divine son through whom God has spoken to us in these last days, this divine son took on flesh and blood and was made just like his brothers and sisters in every way except sin. He is the propitiation for our sins. He satisfied divine wrath against us once and for all. to all that come to him by faith. When God speaks to his people, there's always the greatest of all dangers. Y'all listening? What's the greatest danger that anyone can be in? When you hear the word of God, refusing to believe it. Refusing to believe it. That's why Israel would not take the promised land. They wouldn't obey because they did not believe. Israel of old did this many times. And that's what the writer's reminding them. Remember Israel? God swore to them, you will not enter my rest because you would not believe my word. They provoked God by their unbelief. They refused to believe. And that's why they wouldn't obey. Always remember that faith precedes obedience. If someone doesn't believe God, they will begin to disobey him. God sent this divine son. He proclaims God's name to his brethren and to his father's adopted children because he is God. He is able to save us from God's judgment because he's a true man. He's able to be my substitute, your substitute as a human being. But he's also able to sympathize with us when we're tempted because he was tempted at all points just as we are yet without sin. Chapter three, remember, emphasizes that Jesus is superior to Moses. Yes, Moses was a great man of God, but he was just a servant in the house of God. Jesus is the builder of the building. And God made us his dwelling place. He dwells within us. We are the temple of God. There's no temple in Jerusalem now. The people of God are God's temple. And Jesus is the builder of that temple in the Old and in the New Testament. And remember that great Psalm, Psalm 95, seven through 11, that's quoted or alluded to five times, five times in chapter three and four. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as when they provoked me. You hear what he's saying? You've heard the message of the gospel, please believe it. Don't harden your hearts like Israel did and be barred from entering rest. God has spoken in Christ, hear and believe it. God spoke through Moses and the people of Israel refused to believe. And that's why they wouldn't obey. So God said, I'll swear another oath. You're never going to enter my rest. Never forget that glorious truth awaiting all who know Christ as their Savior and Lord. It's a promise of rest. That promise is laid before us. It's held forth freely in Christ. The promise of rest. And when it comes to salvation, the true believer rests forever from working in any sense to gain God's favor. We rest upon Christ's works, not ours. Never ours again. So I say to you, enter that rest. Don't harden your hearts against the truth. Don't think, no, no, no, God doesn't understand how evil I really am. that justification by faith alone, that adoption into God's family, that resting upon the finished work of Christ. That rest comes only when we cease working to gain God's favor and recognize and rest upon the historical fact that Jesus entered into that broken covenant of works. Jesus achieved his righteousness. Jesus satisfied his penalty. All I have with my faith is a beggar's empty hand. That's all I bring to salvation. People have asked me before, what did you contribute to your salvation? Here's my answer. Sin. Really? That's all you get. That's right. What did you contribute to your salvation? The sin that made it necessary. That's all. So you don't think faith comes from us? It does not come from us. Repentance doesn't come from us? It does not come from us. It comes from God. God is the one who breaks the human spirit. God is the one who terrorizes the soul. And then God's the one who gives us hope in Christ. and says, you'll never perish if you trust in me. So let's look at verse 11 there. Verse 11 of Hebrews 4. Therefore, kind of summarizing everything here, let us be diligent to enter that rest. Okay, stop there. The author of Hebrews was a pastor. We don't know who it was, but it was definitely a pastor. Most think this whole book was one big sermon. His primary point of application again and again is the same. Be diligent to believe what God has spoken in these last days through His Son. That eternal life is by faith in Him. That's the basic message that's being proclaimed. Christ is the High Priest. He's done it all. By one offering at the cross, He has perfected forever those that come to God by Him. So, enter into that rest by faith. Believe God's promise. What does it mean to be diligent to enter that rest? It means believe what God has spoken in his son, the gospel. Really? So it's not a call for me to do something. Nope, not to do something. Remember in John chapter six, when the people that crossed over the Sea of Galilee, that Jesus had just fed the 5,000, they said, what must we do that we may work the works that God requires? Remember Jesus' answer? Here's what he requires. Believe in his son. Believe in the one whom he sent. That's all. Really? We don't have to do anything? No, you don't have to do anything. Oh, you must be an antinomian. You must think that we can just live like the devil and still go to heaven. Not at all. God changes us, but that's not how we're saved. That's not how we're saved. Believe the gospel. We're saved by faith alone, not working, but believing. Remember that final verse of chapter 3? Look at Hebrews 3.19. 3.19. Hebrews 3.19. So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Okay? Enter what? Enter the promised land. They didn't believe. They did not believe what God said. They didn't believe that He could do it. And so they did not enter into the promised land, which is the ultimate type and foreshadowing of heaven itself. Always remember, what kind of a sin is unbelief? It's one of the most serious sins that anyone can commit. 1 John 5.10 says that he who does not believe God has made him a liar. because he's not believed the testimony that God has given of his son. If the gospel comes to us, as it had to these Hebrew Christians, and we reject it in unbelief, we're saying, God, you are lying. God, what you say is not true. Unbelief is the root of all other sin in our lives. When we start to disbelieve God, we will start to disobey him. Refusing to believe the gospel. That's what keeps people alienated from God. That's what keeps people in their sins. That's what keeps them out of the true promised land. When verse 11 says, see it there, verse 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest. That is a call to believe the gospel. Believe Jesus is your savior, that he was nailed to the cross to pay for your sins. Do that and you have entered into God's true rest. And look at the rest of verse 11. So that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. Now whose example is that? Israel's. Israel disobeyed because they didn't believe. They didn't have faith in God. They didn't have faith in his promise. They didn't believe the gospel. Think about how simple this is. God, by miracles, the likes of which were never seen in this world until the time of Elijah and then Jesus and the apostles during Israel's captivity in Egypt. He, by miracles that had never been seen in the world history, he liberated them from Egyptian slavery. After 400 years of it, God destroyed all of Egypt's gods by mighty, miraculous plagues, while Israel was shielded and protected from all those plagues. Until the final one, the Passover, where God preached the gospel to the people of Israel. Take a blemish-free lamb, sacrifice it, kill it, and put its blood on the doorpost. And when the angel of the Lord comes to your house, when I see the blood, I will pass over that house. That is God preaching the gospel to them. It's not you, it's not your blood, it's not your works. It's what I provide, this sacrificial lamb. And that's why when John the Baptist sees Jesus for the very first time, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Israel had the gospel preached to them, but they didn't want to believe it. After seeing all of those miracles, all those things, walking through the Red Sea on dry ground, being fed with manna in the wilderness, Israel still refused to believe that God was gonna give them that promised land of Canaan. After making good on so many promises, showing them so many miracles, unparalleled strength and undying love for them, they still did not believe God could or would do it. And so they refused to go into the promised land after they came out of Egypt. Remember that scene, those 12 spies, the 12 spies that went in to the promised land, numbers 13, just listen to this passage. Numbers 13, 31 through 14, one. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we. The spies came back to the Israelites and said, we can't do it. The people there, they're too strong. "'And they gave the children of Israel a bad report "'of the land which they had spied out, saying, "'The land through which we have gone as spies "'is a land that devours its inhabitants, "'and all the people whom we saw in it "'are men of great stature.'" I mean, the spies come back and say, they're bigger than we are. Their dudes are bigger than our dudes. We saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. They came from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight. So we were in their sight. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. That's unbelief. They would not go into the promised land. God can't do this. He can't give it to us. Except Joshua and Caleb. Remember Joshua and Caleb? They came back and said, yes, we can, because God will give it to us. We believe him. God had shown them who He is. He showed them His power. He showed them His intentions by parting the Red Sea, by destroying Egypt. But they just wouldn't believe it. He gave them every reason to believe, but they wouldn't believe. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. By the way, that's the greatest attested event in the history of the world. And men still won't believe it. I was reading this past week a treatise by Robert Raymond, a really great Reformed theologian, defending the historical resurrection. And he was going through the alternative theories of that, that are proposed by liberals and atheists and unbelievers, that the disciples went to the wrong tomb. Or that Jesus passed out on the cross and then revived on his own in the tomb. After all those wounds and injuries, he moves a four-ton rock out of the way and overpowers a Roman guard. I know, it's enough to make you cry, isn't it? And now that God had fulfilled everything that the law of Moses prophesied and everything typified in the sacrificial system, the preaching of the gospel of Christ and of a free salvation by faith alone and Him alone, the Hebrews come to the edge of the promised land and they don't believe it. They don't believe God can do this. So they, just like us here, 2,000 years later, were like Israel, long before them, standing before God. the edge of the promised land, on the edge of heavenly glory. And all God says is, you gotta believe me, believe me, believe in my son, believe the gospel, that he's your high priest, he's your sacrifice, he's your righteousness. By him, you can have eternal life. You know, to profess to believe, and then to turn away from him, that's exactly like ancient Israel. Ancient Israel was brought out of Egypt, they're in the wilderness, they saw all the miracles, and then suddenly they decide, well, God can't give us the land. The people there are too big, they're too mighty, They're too strong, God can't do it. And so God said, okay, then you're not gonna enter in. And only Joshua and Caleb out of that first generation ever made it into the promised land. The rest of them died in the wilderness. And you know what? Are we really all that different? Even true believers struggle with thinking, not that people in the land are too big or anything like that, but maybe my sins are too big. Maybe I failed too badly, one too many times. Look at verse 11 there again. You see verse 11? Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest. That means believe the gospel for yourself and never look back. You see the rest of verse 11? So that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. Israel would not obey and take the promised land because they didn't believe the gospel. This word from God, the gospel, is all important. this preached and delivered divinely breathed forth message about Jesus and salvation from sin. And the next two verses tell us exactly why. Look at just verse 12 now, 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. What a verse, what a verse of scripture, vital for us to lay hold of in our minds and hearts. This verse is particularly speaking of the effect that the Bible has upon the hearts of God's regenerated people. The Bible doesn't do this to everybody. A lot of people can read the Bible and, eh, who cares? But this is speaking of the effect it has on those within whom the Spirit of God is at work. The Word of God is the means by which God's people come to faith. Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. That's why going to church is so important. That's why the most effective method of evangelism is still inviting people to church. Did you know that? That is still the most effective way that evangelism is done. I just wrote a book about that. Invite friends to church so they can hear the word read and preached and taught. Look at the first part of verse 12 again. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Okay, stop there. When God created, He spoke. And that phrase, and God said, and God said, the Word of God creates, the Word of God makes alive, the Word of God can kill and destroy. God's speaking is living and active. And what is a sword? It's an interesting metaphor to describe scripture. A sword is a weapon that kills people, isn't it? A sharp two-edged sword in the hands of an expert warrior, it was an instrument of death and destruction. The Bible, the words of God are sharper than any two-edged sword you've ever seen. Even a samurai sword that you can drop a handkerchief on it and it'll split right in two. The word of God is sharper than that. The Holy Spirit working through this two-edged spiritual sword, the word of God has the power to kill and make alive. Remember the imagery that the Bible itself uses to describe our conversion, the death of someone. You realize that every single time a person becomes a Christian, a death has taken place. Romans 6, 6, knowing this, our old self was crucified with him, slain by the sword of God. Colossians 2.3, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. God kills us before he makes us alive. 1 Peter 2.24, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we would die. The word of God, the sword of God slays the sinner and then makes him alive in Christ. That's the distinction between the law and the gospel. That's an essential distinction. The law has no enabling power, no saving power whatsoever. Paul said in Romans 4.15, the law brings about wrath. And that's why justification is by faith alone, in Christ alone. If I look to the law, it's going to kill me. It's going to send me to hell. The law shows us our need for Christ. There's the law, it slays, it kills, it leaves us in powder on the floor. And then the gospel makes us alive in Christ. Ephesians 2.4, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love of which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. The word of God slays us and makes us alive in Christ, the law and the gospel. You see, our wills can never truly be renewed and brought to obey God unless they've first been slain. Ephesians chapter six, remember that great passage, the armor of God, you have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, The other things, the belt of truth and everything else. We have one weapon of offense. And what is that weapon of offense? That sharp two-edged sword God gives to us to do battle with. The Word of God. The sword is the Word of God. Like an extremely sharp sword or knife has to be handled and understood very carefully. You don't give a samurai sword to a three-year-old, right? because they'll hurt themselves with it. We are all soldiers in God's army if we're Christians. And soldiers who don't know how to wield their weapon are useless in combat and they're dangerous to their fellow soldiers, aren't they? That's why the scripture says that the minister can't be ignorant and unstable and untaught. He's got to know the text of scripture. He's got to know about church history. He's got to know about the great victories of the past in the church. Bible study, Bible knowledge, and the godly character that the Holy Spirit develops in us, those are essential to waging spiritual warfare, and we've got to know how to handle our sword. I recently watched a lengthy documentary about the Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who planned and executed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto. Yamamoto was a brilliant man, and he'd actually lived in the United States. He attended Harvard University from 1919 to 1921 to learn English, but also to scout out our country. to observe the United States industrial power, particularly its oil and aviation capabilities, its armaments capabilities. And this man wrote extensively about the cold hard fact that a Japanese war with the United States could not possibly succeed because American industrial capacity was exponentially greater in every category to Japan's, especially in the area of training. And Yamamoto, the guy that planned the attack, the December 7th, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto tried his best to convince the high command in Japan not to do this. We can't beat them. But he was not only overruled, he was forced to plan that fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, which, as the quote is famously attributed to him, did nothing but awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve. He knew this was gonna end their country. And toward the end of the Pacific War theater in World War II between us and the Japanese, we outproduced Japan in every way possible, just like he said we would. But one of the most important ways we beat them was this. Our pilots were way better trained than theirs toward the end. You know why? Because we had way more oil. They didn't have enough gasoline to train pilots. They were sending guys up in the air that took off once and landed once. And our guys are going up into the air with 600 hours of training. We could use our weapons better. And that's why we destroyed them. That's why the Pacific Japanese fleet is at the bottom of the ocean to this day. The difference near the end was training. Our pilots were better trained than theirs. And we need to be better trained than our secular counterparts in the world. We need to be better trained than the liberals inside the church. Our soldiers were better trained than the Japanese ones, dramatically better. Fuel shortages, crippled Japanese flight training. They didn't know what they were doing. And here's my application to us. God has given us a sharp two-edged sword. It's sharper than any weapon that you've ever owned. I know there's a lot of guys here that collect knives and blades and everything else. The Bible is far more dangerous than any of those things. Far more dangerous than a tank or a gun or a nuclear bomb. Failure to know the text of the Bible, to know the history of the church, to know the history of Christian thought, failure to understand those things, how to handle and wield the sword of the spirit, this sharp and deadly weapon that we call the Bible. It is a major source of the church's weaknesses in our nation today. The most obvious charlatans, false teachers, foolish ideas, heretics, liberals, progressives, compromisers, they just run wild today, even in whatever's left of conservative Christianity. Why? Because the good guys don't know their Bibles. If soldiers must know how to use their equipment, their gear, their weapons through training in order to do well in combat, how much more do believers in Christ need to know and understand how to handle the sword of God? This living, active and infinitely sharp weapon that God has given to us. This is why we need pastors and teachers, elders who love the word to teach us and equip us to understand and use that great weapon. That's why we get the great books of the great Christian people of the past who wrote and studied. Think of how the word was once used as a weapon on you. If you're a Christian, that word, before it made us alive in Christ, it killed us. God's word is able to strike to the very heart and soul of a person, to divide soul and spirit. Now, this is not to say that man is three parts. I thought about doing a little excursus on this, but I'm not gonna talk about trichotomy very long. Man is not body, soul, and spirit. Soul and spirit are just two ways of referring to the immaterial aspect of who we are. And the point is the word of God is so sharp that it could divide soul and spirit if it could be done. The image being used here is that the word is so much sharper than any sword, any blade, any weapon that you can imagine. that it can actually divide soul from spirit, even though their synonym is for the same thing. Great Charles Hodge said, quote, men must be slain by the law before they can be made alive by the gospel, end quote. That great division, that great distinction between the law and the gospel, it's essential to being saved. You have to know this distinction. The law cannot save you. Obedience to it only kills us. It's the gospel that saves, Christ's righteousness that saves, Christ's cross that saves. The Word of God has those two parts, the law and the gospel. The law shows us our sin, the law works wrath, the law slays us in our sin, shows us our sin so that we see that we need Christ in the gospel. And that gospel comes to us, it makes the dead center alive in Christ, because Jesus does it all. Jesus does all the dying, provides all the righteousness, and gives it all freely by faith alone, completely and entirely apart from our works. Our good works and our repentance, listen please, our good works and our repentance are merely the fruit and evidence that justification has taken place and that salvation has taken place. Good works and repentance are the fruit, not the cause, in any way, shape, or form of our salvation. Look at the second part of verse 12. 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. So there he uses two metaphors, the soul spirit metaphor, but also joints and marrow, like your elbows and knees and your shoulder joints. The word of God can pierce even those metaphorically speaking. God speaking in Scripture is able to do what no human being can do, see to the thoughts and the intentions. I want to ask you, does that frighten you a little bit? That what we succeed in hiding from every person around us is wide open to the face of God. He sees everything that passes through our minds, every motive behind every action. Very often in church history, people remember a specific text of Scripture that the Lord used to cut them to the heart, Just like Josiah was cut to the heart. Peter's sermon in Acts chapter two. Remember when he stands up there 40 days after the resurrection of Christ and they're speaking in tongues, they're speaking to the people, the very people that cried out, crucify him, crucify him, give us Barabbas. And Peter preaches to them in Acts 2.23, him, Jesus being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands of crucified and put to death whom God raised up. I mean, he tells his audience, you guys killed the Messiah. You guys killed the Prince of Life by your lawless hands. And Acts 2.37 says, the crowd listening to this, it says, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter, what shall we do? They saw it, the Word of God did its work. It hit them right in the heart. We're guilty of this. What should we do? Repent and be baptized, he tells them. What does it mean to be cut to the heart? What does it mean to be cut to the heart? That's what verse 12b, see it there? Piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And here's the key part, see the last part of 12b? Enable to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The people in Acts 2 were cut to the heart, to their inner man. Why? Because the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces. It kills. But then in Christ, that gospel promise of free grace, it comes and it makes the dead sinner alive and full of hope and joy. God is gracious. He's loving, merciful, and kind. God does not speak through his word merely to kill and convict the guilty sinner, but to give them hope in Christ, to make them alive, to give them joy and knowing, yes, no matter what you've done, I can forgive it all. Many people in church history have specific Bible verses. I'm sure you could tell stories yourself. Arthur W. Pink, one Bible verse, reading his Bible, Isaiah 45, 22, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. And they said that was the verse that God used to strike him in the heart. And Augustine of Hippo in the fourth century said of all places, it was Romans 13, 13. walking in a garden, struggling, wrestling with his own sin. He sees a little pamphlet laying on a park bench, and it's a copy of the letter to the Romans. And he picks it up and his eyes fall down right on this passage. Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. And right there in that garden, he fell to the ground and sobbed in a heap of tears. Came to Christ at the age of 32. He went on to become the greatest theologian in the first thousand years of church history. Martin Luther said it was Romans 117, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Not by what he does for himself, not by his works, but by faith. The righteousness of God is given as a gift to the account of the believing sinner. And then he read Romans 5.1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And Luther recognized this God that I hated because of his righteous judgment upon me. Now at last, through faith in Christ, I have peace with him. The law has been satisfied. The penalty is fully paid and I'm clothed in his righteousness. That righteousness of God that's given as a gift by faith, not by what we do for ourselves, not by penance, not by indulgences, not by good works, but by faith in Christ, I have peace with the God I was once at war with. Because all that guilt, all that wrath, all that punishment fell on Christ. Those verses were the ones God used to pierce Luther in the heart. R.C. Sproul. Relating his own conversion, Ecclesiastes 11, verse 3. Listen to this verse, quote, this is the word of God. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. And Sproul said he read that verse and saw himself as the dead tree. I'm a dead tree rotting in the forest. And then everything else he'd heard about Christ, the gospel, it all came together. It all made sense. And he believed and was saved. Ecclesiastes 11.3, Charles Spurgeon. Listen to his recounting of his conversion. Quote, this is from his autobiography. I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further because of the snow, I turned down a side street and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel, there may have been a dozen or 15 people. The minister did not come that morning, snowed in, I suppose. At last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker, a tailor, something of that sort, went up to the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had nothing else to say. The text was, Isaiah 45, 22 again, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. He did not even pronounce the words correctly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look, now looking don't take a great deal of pains. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger, it's just look. This version says, he went on in this way, repeating the same thing over and over again. And then he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. And fixing his eyes on me as if he knew all my heart, he said, young man, you look very miserable. Well, I did. But I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. Then he said, young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look. You have nothing to do but look and live. I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought. I had been waiting to do 50 things, but when I heard that word, look, what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked no more. Looked my own eyes away. There in them was the cloud gone, the darkness had rolled away. In that moment I saw the sun, and I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, oh, the precious blood of Christ." End quote. The living word of God is active, sharper than any two-edged sword. You know, Ken Ham shares a story in the video series that we watched with the 7th and 12th graders up at the Mance. that we watched together, and I thought it was an amazing story. Ken Ham was talking to a pastor, and the pastor shared this story with him. He said, a congregant member of his church said, pastor, I'm bringing a non-Christian friend to church this Sunday, so your sermon needs to be really good. It needs to be really great and really good on the gospel, because I really wanted to hear the gospel. Well, the pastor was preaching through Genesis, and he was on chapter five that morning. Eight times in one chapter, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kian, Mahalal, Jared, et cetera. And he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And the congregation is sitting there going, I can't believe he's preaching on this passage. Needless to say the phrase, and he died, and he died, and he died, brought home to this man's unbelieving heart, the fact that you too are going to die. And what's gonna happen when you die? And the gospel was woven into that sermon, and the guy became a Christian that Sunday. The Word of God is living and active and more powerful than any two-edged sword. So I say to you all, please, be Bible readers, dear congregation. In preparation for this sermon, I heard a very interesting story about a very interesting method of doing evangelism. Let the word of God do your work for you. This guy would walk up to strangers and hand them his Bible. Have the Bible open and have a passage highlighted and say, would you read that for me? And some stranger, some non-Christian would look down, okay? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then the guy would ask him, so who has sinned? All. So does that include you and me? Yeah. And then you take it back to another passage, turn to another passage, it's highlighted. Would you read that for me? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Hand the Bible to someone and let God do all the work for you. Let the sword do the work for you. There's something supernatural that happens when people hear the word of God. You see verse 13, here it is. And there is no creature hidden from his sight. Okay, stop there just for a second. Arthur, Pink, Augustine, you, me, Luther, Sproul, Spurgeon, whoever, you can't hide from this God. Look at the rest of verse 13. But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. There's an echo of the Garden of Eden. And the fact that all of us were created to find ourselves and our purpose and our creator. I don't care how hardened someone is or how hard they've been running away from God. There's something in us that can faintly hear him speaking. Sin, you know, changed all that. It made it so that we try to stuff our ears and close our eyes. So many people talk about, well, maybe there are people that seek God. We need to have a seeker service. There's nobody seeking God. No one in their sins and their rebellion seeks God. Romans 3.11 says that. There is none who seeks God. One author said this, quote, very nice agnostics will talk cheerfully about man's search for God. For me, they might as well talk about a mouse's search for a cat. God closed in on me, end quote. In the depths of every human heart, we all know, believer and unbeliever alike, you can't hide anything from God. We all know everything, everything we think, all the motives and all the twisted stuff, it's open and it's laid bare in front of His sovereign, all-knowing eyes. My inner man is exposed at all times to Him. to give a summary of chapter four up to this point. Look back at verse two again. You see verse two of chapter four, Hebrews 4.2. For indeed we, meaning us Christians today, have had good news preached to us, just as they Israel also. But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. Now look at Hebrews 4.11 again. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. There are many people who, at least at the moment, seem to be immune to the sword of God in the scriptures. The word of God is sown upon many a stony ground where it cannot grow. So I wanna say to you all, please hear this with every bit of sincerity and passion I can muster to you. If you are unconverted or you suspect you're unconverted, read your Bible every single day. Ecclesiastes 11.3 might convert you. and never, never miss church. Israel's history is the history of a people who were so privileged. But for the most part, they refuse to believe. God spoke and they plug their ears and they shut their eyes. So I say to you, stay under the preaching of the Bible. Read the Bible every day. If you discard preaching and you discard reading the word, you will almost certainly be lost if you're unconverted. Your only hope is to come within earshot of the preached law and gospel. Do not follow Israel's example of disobedience. Don't have so much privilege given to you and then fail to believe. Put your personal faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, as your righteousness and salvation before the judgment of God. Take your eyes off of your miserable self for long enough to fix them on someone else, on Christ. Believe on Jesus. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Believe on him. Believe the gospel. receive and rest upon Christ alone for your salvation so you go to heaven. And you will come to see what the great hymn writer Josiah Condor in 1836 wrote, quote, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse thee, hast thou not chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained me hast cleansed and set me free. "'Of old thou hast ordained me that I should live to thee. "'To a sovereign mercy called me and taught my opening mind. "'The world had else enthralled me "'to heavenly glories blind. "'Listen, my heart owns none before thee, "'for thy rich grace I thirst. "'This knowing, if I love thee, "'thou must have loved me first.'" It's the word of God. that saves. Make sure that you read it and that you're here for it. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you. Faith in Jesus Christ comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. May our hearts believe that gospel. Let us not be like unbelieving and disobedient Israel, but be diligent to enter that rest and simply rest on Christ alone for our salvation. In his name we pray. Amen.