The Word Of God And Judgement - [Hebrews 4:3-ff]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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January 14, 2018

00:00: How do you see inside a person's body? How would you go about doing that?
00:05: Well, I've seen autopsies before in Los Angeles, that would be one way. Or, if the person is still alive, you could do it surgically, cut them open to take a look.
00:15: But what if you wanted to see inside of someone, but you didn't want to cut them open? Well, it was in 1895, and a
00:22: German physicist was playing around with electronic beams and electron beams, and he had a fluorescent screen, and he noticed that the fluorescent material would go on occasionally, when he was playing around with his electromagnetic radiation.
00:38: The thing about this tube, though, this fluorescent tube, it was covered in very heavy cardboard, and so he wondered why it would still light up.
00:48: At one point, Wilhelm placed his hand in front of the tube, and he saw a silhouette of his bones projected onto the screen.
00:56: And I quote a particular article, not only had Wilhelm discovered x -rays, he saw firsthand how they would become extremely beneficial to medicine.
01:12: Almost like a camera inside a body, what does it look like? Well, if you put x -rays on steroids and combine them with computers, you get
01:20: CAT scans. And you can see three -dimensional computer models of people on the inside of them, 360 degrees cross -sectional slices of images.
01:35: But if you want to take it to the maximum, how do you see inside of a person? The best, it's through the
01:41: MRI, magnetic field, radio waves. Basically, with an
01:50: MRI, you've got two magnets. I did not know this, but your body is mainly made of human molecules, which have...
01:58: Human molecules. I've discovered the human molecule.
02:05: I know what you're saying. Mike, get to the Bible. You're better at that than you are at introductions. I know. Good for you.
02:13: Okay, let's start again. The human body is largely made of water molecules, and of course, that's hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.
02:22: And at the center of those atoms, you've got a proton. Well, typically, the water in our bodies is randomly arranged.
02:30: But when you go into an MRI scanner, the first magnet causes the body's water molecules to align in one direction, either north or south.
02:39: The second magnetic field is turned on and off very quickly with pulses, causing the hydrogen atoms to alter their alignment and then switch back to their original relaxed state.
02:50: And through this, you can figure out what people look like on the inside, and that's pretty amazing. PET scans show what's on the inside of people.
03:01: Ultrasounds show what's on the inside of people. But here's my question. As good as technology will ever get, including the latest, can technology ever look at your thoughts, intentions?
03:16: Can technology figure out who you are at not the molecular level, but what you're thinking in your soul and in your spirit?
03:27: Very fascinatingly, on Judgment Day, God will examine every thought that you've ever had and every intention at this kind of level.
03:38: And the message today is simple in the book of Hebrews. You will either be examined on Judgment Day by the
03:45: Word, or you rest in Christ Jesus and trust in Him now. That's the message of Hebrews chapter 4.
03:52: Please turn your Bibles there. God knows you. And on Judgment Day, He's not going to have to use contrast dye.
03:59: He's not going to have to use magnets and CAT scans and everything else to see into your soul. And He will judge your soul.
04:05: And here will be the judgment. Have you perfectly loved my son and me with all your thoughts and with your soul and with your heart?
04:12: And have you loved other people perfectly? That will be the test. And if the test shows any anomalies, if the test shows any, as it were, spiritual cancer, you will be undone.
04:24: There's only one hope for people, and that is trust in Christ. Because if the X -ray, the CAT scan, the
04:30: PET scan, the ultrasound, the MRI examined Jesus' heart and His soul and His intentions, you would see nothing but righteousness.
04:39: You would see nothing but obedience. And so you either get scrutinized on Judgment Day at the soul level, or you trust in Christ.
04:48: Those are your two options. You want to avoid
04:55: Judgment Day scrutiny, examination, and judgment. Solomon said, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
05:12: Do you have any secrets? Do you have any skeletons in the closet that you wish people would not ever know about?
05:19: God knows them. And you will either be judged on Christ's righteousness or your own.
05:26: Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my
05:32: Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
05:43: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus said of Judgment Day, when the
05:52: Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
06:08: And He will place the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. The King will say to those on the right,
06:16: Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
06:26: There will be a Judgment Day one day. John the Apostle said, I saw the great white throne and Him who seated on it.
06:33: From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.
06:44: Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead who were judged by was written in the books according to what
06:52: He had done. And even in our book, the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 9 says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes what?
07:03: The judgment. Hebrews chapter 4, is rest in Christ, or face scrutiny on Judgment Day?
07:13: The writer is essentially preaching. He's preaching a sermon. Chapter 13, he calls it an exhortation.
07:19: He's coming alongside of these men and women saying, I'm begging you, I'm appealing to you, to make sure you realize that Jesus is the
07:26: Christ, and He is the superior one. He's greater than prophets, trust in Him.
07:32: He's greater than angels, believe in Him. He's greater than Aaron, don't go back to Aaron.
07:38: Don't go back to your good works. He's better than Moses, He's better than everyone. And that should change the way you live your life.
07:47: Every priest stands daily at a service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
07:53: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemy should be made a footstool for His feet.
08:07: If you don't take refuge in Christ, you'll be judged by Christ. Let's go to chapter 4, verse 1.
08:13: I'm going to read the first five verses for review. And believe it or not, we're going to get through verse 12 today.
08:20: I'm going to pick up verse 12 next time, but we're going to get through. And this is one of those passages where I can't wait to preach it.
08:29: Pastor Ed and Deb were over last night. And during the game, I was preaching the sermon to them because I was so excited.
08:35: I just have to get this off my chest to see the flow and to see what's happening and to see the gravity of it all and to see not just the poetic brilliance and the masterpiece
08:47: Hebrews 4 is in terms of authorship and prose and style, but just the truth.
08:57: Therefore, Hebrews 4, 1 in review, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
09:06: We're talking about trust in Christ, resting from your work's righteousness, trusting in what
09:11: Jesus has done. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
09:22: For we who have believed enter that rest. As He has said, as I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
09:29: Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all
09:36: His works. And again in this passage He said, they shall not enter my rest.
09:43: Remember what was going on last week? God rests in creation, but He doesn't start work up again after the seventh day.
09:50: If He did, there would be no God's rest to enter because He's already working. But instead God created for six days and rested, and He continues to rest.
10:00: And that rest is now available to all those who will trust in Christ. If after the seventh day
10:05: God started working again, well there would be a time of work and no time of rest. But since that's not the case, rest is available for all those who trust in Christ Jesus.
10:16: The Sabbath rest has nothing to do with you can't watch games on Sunday and you can't play
10:22: Pinochle on Sunday or you can't take a bike ride on Sunday. I've done the first and the third, not the second.
10:29: What is Pinochle? Some card game, devil's deck. This isn't what we do on the
10:37: Sabbath day. This is a Sabbath rest. Remember, you've got this idea where you just rest from your toil.
10:44: Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. This is spiritual rest.
10:50: This is the rest that you receive from God as you trust in Him. There's still a rest.
10:56: And He summarizes verses 1 through 5 in verses 6 and following and draws out some of the application.
11:05: Verse 6, Since therefore, it's connected it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.
11:19: Again, He appoints a certain day today, saying, Through David, as so long afterward in the words already quoted
11:27: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. There still remains a rest time for you today,
11:37: Hebrews who are listening, and of course for you as well. The Israelites didn't get into the promised land because they weren't trusting in God.
11:46: Is there still rest for us? Well, when David wrote Psalm 95 he was talking about a rest.
11:52: He's quoting Psalm 95 here. There was a rest that God promised Israel. They didn't make it.
11:59: David's now centuries later talking about a rest. There still must be a rest available.
12:05: It wasn't stopped completely when Israel disobeyed. There's a rest for God's people. David talked about it.
12:10: Now there's a rest for God's people here in Hebrews. It's being talked about and there's a rest for all those who would believe.
12:20: Israel's unbelief, Israel's failure to enter didn't make God say no more rest for anyone else.
12:25: He's offering rest. And he's offering rest, you see, today, verse 7.
12:31: That refrain of today, today, today. Israel's rest was forfeited but yours isn't.
12:39: These people were getting persecuted. The author of Hebrews is writing to them and they were wanting to run back to Judaism and he's saying don't do it.
12:47: There's going to be no rest there. We come to verse 8. I'm going to read verses 8 through 13 which is our passage essentially for today.
12:58: And this has one of the most famous verses in all the Bible in it. And I would say without hyperbole most people don't even know what the verse means in context.
13:10: In other words, we have a very famous verse in here. Uber famous. You've memorized it. Your kids have memorized it in Awana.
13:17: But if you don't know the context of something you can miss the meaning. For instance, for God so loved the world
13:27: He gave His only begotten Son. What's the first word in that verse? For.
13:32: It goes back to something. It's a description. There's a verse tucked in these verses from 8 through 13 that everyone knows, everyone loves, everyone quotes.
13:41: But I don't think we really know the meaning of it. But when you see it in context, that's why it's so important.
13:47: And what we'll do here every week, verse by verse, verse upon verse, line upon line so you see the context.
13:54: This is how you should teach your kids very often if you're at the dinner table. This is the model. So let me read these verses.
14:01: You see if you can figure out what that verse is that's very popular, and then do you know what that verse means? Because the meaning of the text is the text.
14:09: The wrong meaning of the text isn't the text. And since this is God's word, we want to be very careful with the meaning.
14:18: For if Joshua, Hebrews 4, 8, had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.
14:25: So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His.
14:35: Notice the repetition. Very Jewish way of speaking. Verse 11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two -edged sword or surgeon's scalpel piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
15:04: No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give.
15:13: What's the famous verse? 4 .12, right? The word of God is living and active.
15:20: But what is the context? The context is, and I'll just tell you now and then we'll work through it, it's not the
15:28: Bible's a living book. That's true and it is, but why would He say that?
15:34: It's not true to just say the Bible's energetic. It performs its work in those who believe.
15:40: His word does not come back void. That's true, but what's the context? This isn't a verse that says, by the way, you know, you ever read the
15:50: Bible and your conscience gets really just affected and you're like, you know oh, the word is just convicting me.
15:57: That's true, but that's not the context. Ever heard a sermon and you think, you know, some sermons you think, you know, my wife needs that sermon.
16:04: Are you listening? And other sermons you think I'm the only one in this room, it seems like, and that sermon is for me through that fallible sinful preacher
16:14: God's word goes out and it seems like it's just for me, and I'm undone. I need to be reminded again about my
16:21: Savior who bore those sins that are getting exposed in my heart. That's true, and the word of God does that, but what is the context?
16:31: The context is simply, and then we'll look at it in detail the context is, if you will not trust in Christ and enter his rest today by faith, the word of God will judge you and scrutinize you like no
16:44: MRI will. And how will you fare on that judgment day? It's not just a man's word judging you.
16:52: It's not a jury judging you. It's not some kind of courtroom situation judging you.
16:58: It's not the IRS looking at your numbers. God is judging you. Rest in Christ or be judged by him.
17:06: That's the context of this verse. You won't make it out of judgment day unscathed unless you're trusting in Christ the risen
17:16: Savior. Resting in Christ. On that day of intense scrutiny on that day, a counting day where the books are balanced there's rest for some because of Christ's life and death, and there's scrutiny for the others.
17:38: So let's go back to verse 8 and work our way through this. But that's where we're going because verse 12 has the word for it.
17:45: It's connected to all this. It's not just isolated. As much as I love random memory verses, why would
17:51: I not like a memory verse? Somebody memorizing a verse of the Bible. There's a context for things.
17:58: So let's go back to verse 8 and lead ourselves up to verse 12 for the rest of the time that we have today.
18:05: Hebrews 4 .8 He's been talking about Psalm 95 in verse 7 and now he talks about another person not just David's account, but verse 8 for if Joshua had given them rest
18:17: God would have not spoken of another day later on. In some way, shape, or form
18:25: Joshua bringing those young people into the promised land can't be the final final rest. There has to be other rest.
18:31: Or else this verse wouldn't be true. Now here's the wild thing.
18:39: As you know, the New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek word for Joshua and the
18:47: Greek word for Jesus is what? The same. So you can see what he's doing here.
18:54: For the first time ever in my life, my shoe has become untied when I preached. I cannot stand it. I'm going to tie my shoe right now.
19:01: I'm going to fall on my... Like that one time I was preaching
19:06: I had notes, pieces of paper. Remember those things? Before I had the iPad. One of the deacons had put a fan here because it was summertime, we had no air conditioning and they were trying to help me because it was so hot.
19:19: I was burning up, but my notes were just everything was going to chapter 4 verse 12 and I wasn't there yet.
19:27: So I didn't want to break eye contact so I reached down like this to turn it off.
19:34: And it was one of those non -safety fans. One of those non -OSHA approved fans.
19:39: One of those fans that don't have UL on it. It's one of those fans you give to the church when you don't need it anymore.
19:46: Maybe the missionaries could use it. And my finger went through and cut it.
19:54: My finger was cut by the fan and I go, now what do I do? It would be embarrassing to tie your shoe in the pulpit but even embarrassing more than that to suck your fingers to get the blood out.
20:07: Laugh now while you can. The Greek text talks about Jesus and Jesus.
20:16: Of course trying to get these readers these listeners to this sermon letter who are
20:22: Jewish to kind of get the connection. There was a Jesus who was just a man.
20:28: Joshua we call him. And there's the ultimate Jesus. You can see the type. You can see where he's trying to point.
20:34: You can try to see here's the land rest but there's some other greater rest coming. Here's Joshua.
20:40: Here's Jesus. But when you first read the passage you might be confused until you see the context.
20:45: Actually the King James version of Hebrews 4 .8 says for if Jesus had given them rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
20:56: There was a Jesus who brought his people into the promised land but it wasn't the ultimate rest.
21:03: And we call him Joshua. But there's a Jesus who this book talks about who's better than Aaron, who's better than Moses who has a better sanctuary, a better covenant, a better promise, a better mediator, the better sacrifice, the better priest.
21:17: What Joshua couldn't do, give them physical rest and spiritual rest, this Jesus can.
21:23: So that's why we've got this link here with the two Joshuas. The two Jesuses as it were. Yes, the land was rest back in the day of Joshua.
21:34: Deuteronomy 3 and the Lord gives rest to your brothers as you know and they also occupy the land that the
21:41: Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. It's true that Joshua brought them into the land of rest but that was never the end point for God's people just resting in the land.
21:54: No, the end point of God's people were resting in the land which leads them to think about resting in Yahweh the triune
22:01: God. Joshua led his people into Israel but there was something more.
22:09: God would have not, what does the text say, have spoken of another day later on. There's got to be more and you see this prefiguring this type, this typological language.
22:21: There's a Jesus and there's another Jesus. You could see the Jewish people would be identifying with this very well.
22:30: Verse 9, since we need a greater Joshua than the one back in Deuteronomy and Joshua that took the mantle from Moses.
22:40: It then says in verse 9 with a conclusion a Sabbath rest for God's people so then there remains a
22:48: Sabbath rest for the people of God. Not just land, not just Sundays or Saturday back in those days but resting and trusting.
23:01: I don't have to work to get to heaven anymore. I remember a story of someone who said, you know,
23:07: I'm Church of Christ and I was Church of Christ and I was taught that you have to be baptized to be born again.
23:14: I believed in Jesus but I had to be baptized. The church that I was at had a call to salvation and I believed but that particular church did not have a baptismal and so I was quickly taken by car across town on a
23:27: Sunday to be baptized at another church so I could be saved and everybody at the church
23:32: I just got saved at stayed there and prayed for me that I wouldn't get in a car wreck on the way to this church and then not go to heaven.
23:41: Friends, that's works. That's anything but rest. Jesus says you believe on me, you will not be disappointed.
23:49: That's the Sabbath idea. The Sabbath idea contains a festival idea, a celebration idea.
23:56: Let's think about it for a second. You're in the wilderness wandering around for 40 years and you finally go into the promised land and there's grapes and nuts and figs and dates and milk and what?
24:10: Honey. Would you be happy? You'd be thinking we made it.
24:16: We've been going in circles forever. I've been stuck in GPS loops in certain towns.
24:21: Didn't I just do this? And finally you make it in and it is a festival. It is a party.
24:27: It is God you brought us here. It's wonderful. And now the writer Hebrews uses a word that he makes up.
24:33: It's not found in any other Greek source prior to this about when Christians trust in Christ there's this
24:39: Sabbath rest and festival that goes along with it and joy. I don't have to work to get to heaven.
24:45: I don't have to try to be good to get to heaven. I don't have to try to earn heaven. It's been done for me. I'm just trusting in the work of another.
24:56: I want to make up something funny. She was singing in tongues earlier today and you'd be proud of me.
25:01: I didn't correct her. Listen to what Deuteronomy says about this rejoicing.
25:08: How happy you would be to be in the land of rest. How much greater for us than to the place that the
25:15: Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. There you shall bring all that I command you.
25:21: Your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the
25:29: Lord and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. You, your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants and the
25:38: Levite that is within your town since he has no portion of the inheritance with you. You get into the promised land and it is a party.
25:45: It is a festival. There is rejoicing. Well, how much greater than you're right in God's eyes.
25:54: I wish I knew the exact quote. Kim knows it. But you know the Mel's from our church,
25:59: Ezra and Lauren Mel. I don't know if Ezra was with Lauren or not but she was walking on the beach of Waikiki yesterday with the children.
26:10: The little children and all of a sudden the iPhone says goodbye. Bombs coming.
26:15: This is not a joke. And I think Lauren said to Kim, well if this is all there is to life, it's been a good life and my standing is right before God.
26:30: So come on me. To have right standing with God. To not kind of, you know, you ever walk into a room and somebody's got something against you and you kind of want to avoid them a little bit or kind of don't want to look or, you know, you see these criminals and they hide their faces.
26:44: They put their coats up over their heads. I don't know how they do that with their handcuffs on. And now you get to stand in God's presence.
26:52: What does Jude say? To stand in His presence with great what? Joy. You're blameless with great joy.
27:00: It could be his joy. It could be your joy. It could be both. I can stand in the presence of God and face
27:06: Him. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face what?
27:12: Shine upon you. Welcome. I mean, it would be good to have a festival in the promised land, but it's better to think
27:19: I know what that MRI would show if it examined my soul.
27:29: It might have been a long time ago and I've tried to put those memories out of my mind, but God knows about every one of those.
27:39: And then to face God. How embarrassing. How shameful. But God sees not one of those because Christ has already paid for those.
27:49: There's no double jeopardy with the Father. What father's going to make his son or daughter rub their noses in the sin that's already been paid for and forgiven?
28:01: I've done a lot of really dumb things as a dad, but one of the things I tried not to do is to have double jeopardy with the kids.
28:08: You broke dad and mom's law. Here's the punishment. And therefore, you get what's just.
28:16: But what's not part of the deal is this, and I'm also mad at you. That's double.
28:22: Here, you said you were going to do something and you didn't. I have very particular illustrations in mind, but I'm trying to not talk about them to prevent the discussion of the guilty.
28:33: And I forgive you. I love you. Here's the penalty that you have to pay.
28:40: And I love you. You're my daughter. You're my son. And we're not going to do double. The penalty for all those skeleton sins have been paid for by Jesus.
28:49: The Father opens his arms. There's a celebration. Sabbath rest for your soul.
29:02: There's an idea of the festival gathering in Hebrews 12, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living
29:08: God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering party attire, festival attire, celebration attire.
29:21: Will you enter? Verse 10, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his own works as God did from his.
29:30: Why do we call salvation rest? I mean, we've got a lot of different descriptions of salvation.
29:36: There's justification and propitiation and reconciliation and redemption. There's all kinds of things and more.
29:43: Why do we call it rest? God stops working. There's a rest. And now we stop working for our salvation.
29:50: There's rest. And he ties the two together. No wonder Revelation 14 says, blessed are the dead who die in the
29:58: Lord. They will rest from their labor. So there's a rest on earth.
30:04: We don't have to work our way to heaven. And then when we finally get to heaven, guess what's there ultimately?
30:10: Rest and the festive festal gathering. So what is the response?
30:19: 11 tells us, let us therefore including himself, does not the author do that?
30:25: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
30:33: He's talked a lot about Israel's unbelief and anybody's unbelief and it eventually spirals into disobedience.
30:40: He could have said by the same sort of unbelief here, it would have been the same thing, but one leads to the other. Make every effort.
30:48: There should be zeal and a focus and perseverance to get in. And if you are believing, keep believing.
30:55: If you're not believing, believe. The disaster is coming.
31:05: He as a pastor wants his congregation to believe. Let you make every effort and I will do the same as what the writer is saying.
31:17: Now when I was a kid, we used to play the game called hide and go seek. Do you remember that? There's one person who's it.
31:25: At least that's the way we played it. And there was a home base and ready or not, here I come.
31:31: You try to have to get back to the home base and maybe you'd yell free if you touch the base. Hide and go seek.
31:38: The earliest description of hide and go seek goes back to 2nd century Greek. Hide and seek.
31:46: Some people call it sardines. Some people call it 44 homes depending on where you are in the world.
31:53: But if the person can't find the other people, the person who's it can't find the hiders or the person who makes it back to base finally gives up, it's dark and you've got to go home.
32:04: What do they yell? There's kind of a pre -arranged phrase that they yell.
32:11: And according to Wikipedia, olly olly oxen free. What does that mean?
32:22: And it's just a contraction. It's just a way of saying something like we would do in New England, right? I almost said you
32:28: New Englers, but I said we. All ye, all ye come in for free.
32:34: Everybody come in for free. All in, everybody's free. Olly olly oxen free. Everybody come in free.
32:41: Can't find you. Matter of fact, there's a hide and seek world championship started in 2010 in Italy.
32:51: 70 teams from 11 countries. Olly olly oxen free. Can't find you.
32:59: Well, the tie -in from verse 11 to verse 12 is this. You want to hide from God and His scrutiny?
33:06: He's going to find you. The only olly olly oxen free is found in Christ Jesus.
33:17: He's going to judge you. That's why the pastor is saying strive to enter.
33:24: You have to believe the Word of God is going to examine you. You want motivation to rest?
33:31: Consider the Word of God. Rest or be examined. And now we come to the verse.
33:38: Verse 12. Great verse to memorize, but what's the context? For the
33:45: Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
33:58: No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
34:13: You either rest in Christ and trust in Him by faith or the
34:19: Word will cut through all your phoniness and hypocrisy and find sin.
34:29: Philo said the word word could also sometimes be used as cutter.
34:36: It's a cutter. It'll cut right through all the disguises, all the masks. You might try to hide from your neighbor or your friend or your spouse or from your worker.
34:50: You might even think I can be bolder in life because I have a mask on and no one will catch me, but that sham will be revealed one day.
35:04: Commentator Barnes said, The design of this in the following verse is obvious.
35:12: It is to show that we cannot escape the notice of God. That all insincerity, unbelief, hypocrisy will be detected by Him.
35:23: And that since our hearts are perfectly open before Him, we should be sincere and not attempt to deceive
35:29: Him. The sense is, Barnes goes on to say, that the truth of God is all penetrating and searching.
35:35: And that the real thoughts and intents of the heart will be brought to light. And then
35:40: Barnes says something that's not quite right. I'll make an amendment, but I'll read his thing first. And if there is insincerity and self -deception, there can be no hope of escape.
35:50: He should have said this. And since there will be insincerity, self - deception, self -righteousness, sins of omission, sins of commission, there's no hope of escape unless you trust in Christ.
36:08: No wonder Paul said in Philippians 3, and to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
36:21: The righteousness from God that depends on faith. Now theologians have said this word of God in verse 12, is this
36:33: Jesus? Right? Think John 1 in the beginning was the Word.
36:39: Or is this the Word? And since the Reformation, it's pretty much thought of as the written
36:45: Word of God. And the writer then goes on to explain this
36:51: MRI for your soul. And how does he describe it?
36:57: What does he say first? For the Word of God is what? Living. In the
37:03: Greek, if you want to make something emphatic, you can change word order. This is the first word of the sentence.
37:10: Alive for the Word of God is. You're like, that sounds weird. It's intended to sound weird, so you go emphatic.
37:18: This word is alive. It's present tense. It's describing the
37:23: Word how it is. It's alive. It's not dead. It's not some dead old musty document.
37:32: And when that dead old musty document tries to examine you, it just will fall apart. The King James translates it this way.
37:42: For the Word of God is, who has King James here? Quick. It's quick.
37:50: It's living. We sometimes even use that idiom.
37:57: The quickening. The moment the pregnant mom feels the first foot move.
38:05: That first quickening. The baby's alive and moving. Sometimes we use that word quick with the word quick silver, that liquid metal mercury that just runs along like it's alive.
38:21: That word is also used in a judgment context in 1 Peter. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the
38:33: Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
38:56: The living and the dead. This word is living and it judges people. No wonder
39:02: Stephen said of the living oracles that Moses received at Sinai, Acts chapter 7.
39:08: No wonder in some old, old systematic theologies under the section of bibliology there's a section called animation.
39:15: The section is not anime, it's animation. Alive. The word of God is life -giving.
39:21: It's animated. It does something through the living and abiding word of God.
39:30: 1 Peter chapter 1. Voltaire was a
39:36: French philosopher as you know and he died in 1778 and he said on his deathbed or near to it 100 years from now
39:43: Christianity will be swept away and it will be obscure and no one will know about it.
39:51: Well Voltaire is dead and the word of God is alive and living and active. Just a side note,
39:57: I have pet peeves in life. One of my pet peeves is when people say man that DVD, that CD, that pastor, that narrator really made the
40:09: Bible come alive. I can't stand that. What do you mean? It already is alive.
40:15: What do you mean make it come alive? There's a CD for sale called Bible Alive.
40:22: The New Testament comes alive in this superb production with all the passion and profound insight that our mighty creator intended.
40:30: Bible Alive is a groundbreaking, dramatized recording of the clear, easy to understand, new living translation.
40:37: The Bible Alive lets you experience the New Testament in all its magnificence and power inspiration and intrigue.
40:43: A cast of Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actors, dramatic sound effects and a compelling musical score are combined to create this unforgettable listening experience.
40:59: Is that how you make the Bible alive? Far from it.
41:07: Isaiah said, my word that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which
41:13: I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. By the way, that's a good word for us as Christians who might not know how to do drama and make the
41:23: Bible alive. Here's your job this week when you go evangelize your friends and neighbors. Make the Bible alive.
41:34: And you would say to me, no wonder there are so few converts. But we simply just proclaim the truth.
41:41: Faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. The Bible is alive. Now that's a little help for Christians, but for the unbelievers, here's the point and we close with this.
41:50: The Bible is alive and it will judge you. Trust in Christ.
41:57: You have no other hope. The Bible's relevance is not extinct.
42:09: For Christians, keep believing. For unbelievers, I end with F .B. Meyer. Unconverted reader, remember there is no screen from the eye of God.
42:17: His eyes are as a flame of fire and our strongest screens crackle up as the thinnest gauze before the touch of that holy flame.
42:24: Even rocks and hills are inadequate to hide from the face of him that sits on the throne.
42:30: Where shall I go from thy presence? That question is unanswered and unanswerable.
42:36: It has stood upon the page of Scripture for 3 ,000 years and no one yet of all the myriads that have read it have been able to devise a reply.
42:47: Heaven says, not here. Hell says, not here. It is not among angels or the lost or in the vast silent spaces of eternity.
42:54: There is no creature anywhere not manifest to his sight. He who made the vultures able to immense heights to discern the least morsel on the desert waste has eyes as good as they.
43:06: And think how terrible are the eyes of God. When Egypt's chivalry had pursued, cavalry rather, had pursued
43:14: Israel into the depths of the sea, they suddenly turned to flee. Why? Not because of the thunder or lightning or voice, but because of a look.
43:23: The Lord looked out of the cloud and troubled the Egyptians. O sinner, how terrible will it be for thee to abide under the frown of God.
43:36: You must rest in Christ. Father in heaven,
43:42: I thank you for your word that is certainly living and active. And as Christians, we're very, very thankful that you knew everything about us.
43:52: It is a marvel that even though you knew everything that we had done and would do, you still love us.
44:00: You still loved us and sent Jesus to die for us. From all eternity you knew that.
44:07: You know us better than anyone. And you still love us. Thank you for that.
44:13: What a God you are. What a merciful Savior and friend. And Father, for those that are here today that want to stand on their own righteousness and not believe the word of God, I just pray that they might experience so much trouble and hardship or whatever it takes, the way of the transgressor is hard, that you would give them hard roads so that they might turn to you for not just rest in their life but rest for their soul.