Hebrews 4:12-13 (Our Essential Weapon- Jeff Kliewer)

Will you sing with me this morning? Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King. You are the God who saves and raises. The gift that you give us to sing praises to your name.

The way that allows us to remember your word and the truth in it. The redemption, mercy, and grace that you provide. Before you in this time, singing praises to your name. The wonderful joy that you give us.

And what we remember during Christmas of your birth. That led to the cross. That you've given us the sun.

Thank you how the sun runs its course day after day testifying that you are God. Declaring your glory. We thank you this morning especially for your word. That special revelation that you have given us.

That we could know you. To know what you're like. To know what you would have us to do. Lord God you have revealed yourself through your word. And we pray that this morning as we open the scriptures. That you would accomplish a deep work in our hearts.

We pray that your word would cut like a sword to the deepest place in our lives. That you would even show us our motivations and the depths of our hearts. And more importantly than that Lord we pray that you would then turn us to Christ.

That our eyes would be set on Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith. Lord we pray that you would speak through your word because your servants are listening. In Jesus name we pray, amen. In 1348 to 1350 a flag rushed through the continent of Europe.

Killing one third of the people who lived in Europe. John Wycliffe was alive at that time and lived through it. And in 1382 he began a project of translating the Bible into English. Now you need to understand something about England in the 1300s.

It was a heavily Catholic area. In fact almost everybody identified as a Catholic. Yet almost nobody understood what the priest was saying. The entire mass was done in Latin. It was a thousand year old Latin Vulgate being read.

And so the people came to receive the quote unquote sacrament. And they didn't understand much of what was being said at all. Well Wycliffe understood that this was a problem. Because see Wycliffe was a scholar.

He had learned Hebrew. He had learned Greek. And he was a professor. So he undertook to translate the Bible into English. And he accomplished that work in 1384. Now at that time there were no printing presses.

So people had to make hand copies of the Wycliffe Bible. And they began to do that. And passing around from house to house the Bible began to be read in English for the first time in history. Those who read the Bible in English and distributed them were called Lowlards.

You guys heard of the Lowlards before?

No?

They were called Lowlards because that word meant mutterers. And it's probably the case that they would say quick prayers under their breath very often throughout the course of the day. And other people who were observing the Lowlards thought they were just muttering to themselves.

But they were probably praying. In any case they got this nickname. It was probably a pejorative. They were called the Lowlards. Well their movement began to grow for a period of time. Until the Catholic Church took notice of it.

And 43 years after Wycliffe died. So this is around the early 1500s, I mean 1400s. They exhumed his body. They took John Wycliffe's body and burned it for the whole country to see. These are some pretty macabre, dark people to even think to do that.

But in any case, they did that. And they tried to burn every Wycliffe Bible they could find. Destroy the English Bible. That was their mission. Couldn't work. No, the Bible can never be extinguished. But they lit the fires and they were able to suppress the English Bible for about 100 years.

But they could not stop it. William Tyndale comes on the scene during the time of the Reformation. Now understand, the turning point for the Reformation actually happened a couple years before Luther nailed the 95 Theses.

Because in 1515, a guy named Desiderius Erasmus produced the first version of the Greek New Testament available. Before that there were only different manuscripts throughout the world. He collated what evidence they had and he produced a Greek New Testament.

Now, the Bible was written, the New Testament was written in Greek. But this now went into the hands of scholars. Martin Luther got his copy in Germany. So two years later, 1517, the Reformation begins.

The Reformation is built on the Word of God. The Scripture, 1522. Luther translates the Bible into German. And this is not a hostile territory. In fact, the rulers were behind Luther. So he was free to make a printing.

And they printed thousands of copies of the German Bible. It sold out in a week. People were hungry to hear the Word of God in their own language. Well, here's William Tyndale back in England. In heavily Catholic England.

And he begins to rumble about producing an English Bible. So he got called into the principal's office. The bishop calls him in. And there's an entire council that surrounds him, threatening him. You must not do this work.

And he answers to them, If God spares me years, I will cause that the boy who drives the plow to know more Scripture than you do. To which they thought, well, that went well. As he left. So evidently, he's not listening to them.

Well, he did have to flee England. So William Tyndale, a brilliant scholar. In fact, we've learned that he spoke English, his native tongue. French, Dutch, Italian, German. The Greek and the Hebrew, Latin.

At least eight languages that Tyndale spoke. This guy was brilliant. Anybody here speak eight languages? I think the first lady speaks something like that. But in any case, this guy spoke eight languages.

Brilliant linguist, young man. He's chased out of England because his desire is to translate the Bible into English. So people who speak English can read God's Word. It's the desire of his life, the passion of his soul.

He accomplishes that somewhere on the European continent. We don't know where. However, recently scholars have unearthed a clue. In Wittenberg, where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. They kept a register of the names of students.

Martin Luther's name had been in there back in like 1507 or something like that. But in the very year that Tyndale, remember this name, William Tyndale. The very year that he left England to find a place to translate the Bible.

There is an entry in the register. William Dalton, 1524. William Dalton, kind of like Jeff Workley or Michael Linstock. Switching the syllables of the last name. Many people think that William Dalton is William Tyndale from England.

In any case, scholars today think he probably translated the Bible right there with Luther in Wittenberg. Point being, in 1524, he translated the Bible into English. And then he showed up in a place called Antwerp where they were set to print for the first time the English Bible.

And sure enough, the Roman Catholic authorities found him out. They raided the place. So he grabbed all of the papers that he had, tucked them under his arm and jumped through a window. And escaped with his life, leaving some of the papers strewn on the floor.

So for another year, he had to finish the work that he had once completed. And in 1525, the print presses began to run. Thousands of copies of the Bible in English, the Tyndale Bible. Now, how did they get him to England?

Well, they would take an acceptable book, like something from Desidet Erasmus. He was the most prolific author. Also the guy who translated the New Testament in Greek. And not translated, but produced a Greek testament.

This same guy was a very prolific author. So you might get a writing by Erasmus, and they would take leafs from Tyndale's Bible and tuck them between certain pages. And make a shipment to England. And when it got to the house of the person who ordered it, just like on Amazon back then, they were just ordering books.

Probably showed up same day, right? Now this would take a little bit longer. They would open up the book, pull the leafs out, reassemble a Greek New Testament. They were only about the size of your hand.

This was like contraband in England. But thousands of them distributed. And for ten years, from 1525, or 26, till 1535, Tyndale was in Antwerp, printing New Testaments. Sending them, smuggling Bibles.

Which to this day, there's Bible smugglers to take the Gospel to places where it's outlawed. 1535, a scoundrel named Henry Phillips shows up in Antwerp. He meets Tyndale, he befriends him. He's so interested in the work.

Tell me about how you're making these Bibles. And they become friends. He invites Tyndale over to his house. Only to discover that it was a trap. He was sold out. This man was a Judas Iscariot. The Catholic authorities take him into custody and put him in a dungeon for 500 days.

No light, no Bibles. But he had hidden God's Word in his heart. And for 500 days, his faith did not waver. He knew his fate. He knew what would come of it. In 1536, he was brought back to England, sentenced to die.

They took him to the stake. They tied him to the stake and they mercifully strangled him before setting him ablaze. However, when they lit the fire, he did revive consciousness. And he cried out one thing.

Lord, open the eyes of the King of England. Within two months after his death, after his martyrdom, England was allowed the English Bible. King Henry, he had his own deal. He was wanting to divorce his wife.

In any case, what he ended up doing is he left the Catholic Church and made himself the head of the church in England. But he had commissioned an English Bible under Cranmer. And people began to read the Bible in English.

Guys, do you realize what a treasure we hold? To read the Bible in our language. The value of this, more precious than gold. A guy like Tyndale was willing to give his life. And he knew it for a decade before he died.

He knew his eventual end was the stake. You could see it in some of the writing correspondences he had with his friends. He was willing to die. He never married. Died at 42 years old. His entire life was devoted to turning the Latin text into something that people could understand.

And believe and be changed. He believed in the power of the word. So that's where we are today. Guys, you know I like long introductions, right? Is anybody here already ready for a nap? All right, that's good.

Okay, that's a lot to digest. You know, after the service last week, I had made a comment about trying to keep my sermon shorter. And a few people came up to me and said, Don't do that. We want more of the word.

And I said, Amen, that's a good word. Thank you for rebuking me like that. Because that's a good wound. I will take that, by the way. You don't have to tell me twice. So we're going to go. Let's do it.

The Word of God as the Church's Weapon

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 and 13. Now, fortunately, we only have two verses to work through so we can really dive in. It's a simple sermon today. A lot of the sermons we've been having in Hebrews have been very complex.

Probably the most complex book. Today you're going to say, Pastor Jeff didn't say anything profound. I don't know that I ever do. But I'm not going to today. It's going to be very simple. Because this verse is simple.

But it's so powerful. I think we miss what a weapon we have in the word of God. The idea this morning is that in the word of God, we have a weapon that actually changes things. Let's see how it fits in the text.

Let's read it first. Hebrews 4, 12 and 13. We're going to see the value of this book that we hold. For the 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. And no creature is hidden from his sight. But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

So today, the point of the passage is to see the value and the livingness, the activity of the word of God. That's here in the text. Every word of God's revealed scripture matters. Look at the first one in this verse.

Four. How many times do we skip words that have deep meaning? What's so deep about the word four? Does four mean that the author is about to give an application or a reason?

A reason.

Whoever said that, good job. He's going to give a reason. And this is important because when you're reading the scriptures, you need to understand the flow of thought. John Piper tells the story of a professor he had at seminary whose name was Dan Fuller.

And Dan Fuller said a simple thing that completely blew his mind and changed the way he thought about the Bible. Prior to Dan Fuller, John Piper always thought that the Bible was a bunch of verses. A bunch of verses.

That each one is important, but there's just verses for everything. Verses, verses, verses. But after Dan Fuller's quote, he began to read the Bible differently.

Here's the quote.

Dan Fuller said, Bible verses are not strings of pearls, but links in a chain. Bible verses are not strings of pearls, but links in a chain. In other words, when you come to a verse like Hebrews 4 .12. Haven't we all quoted that verse a lot?

The scripture is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. We love that verse. But have you ever, in the history of your life, stopped to think about how that fits into the argument of Hebrews 4?

I bet you haven't.

How does that fit?

How is that the reason for what we've been talking about? That requires us to follow the train of thought. Like links in a chain, the scripture has a context. And one verse leads to another. And they hold each other.

So that a thought is formed that's bigger than the verse itself. Not individual pearls strung together, but links in a chain. A couple key points from last week. Look back at chapter 4, verse 1. It says,.

It says,. Last week we talked about entering God's rest. And the exhortation is that we should be worried lest anybody should miss what God is saying. Here in a gathering of this many people. We should not assume that all of us will be singing praises to God for all eternity.

It's possible that someone here has not yet been born again. It's possible that someone here, some of you, may miss this offer of eternal life. So now look at verse 11 of chapter 4. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.

So that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. The thought is, we need to be very vigilant to make sure that everybody makes it home. We need to be striving not to earn salvation. The whole point of the context here is that to be saved is to rest in Christ.

You've stopped your work. You're not trying to earn anything from God. You've come to believe that Christ paid the price in full to tell us that it's finished. There's nothing left for me to do. I'm going to rest in Christ.

He can hold me up. I'm at peace with God. I'm at rest. Therefore, I strive that no one else will miss it. It sets me to work. That's the concept here. Lest anybody would fall short by the same sort of disobedience.

Like the Israelites that fell in the desert. Dead because they missed the rest that was offered to them. The promised land. We're to strive that others would enter into that rest. So then when this word for comes about in verse 12, it's the reason for that.

There's a reason why we can strive. The reason is God has given us his word. Unless he had given us this, there would be no way to strive. How can I, a preacher, give to you rest? Impossible. Especially when the kind of rest that the Bible talks about is supernatural.

It's God's rest because he rested from his work on the seventh day. He created the world and then he rested. And now he grants that kind of rest. Rest with him to those to whom he gives it. So how can I strive with you in order for you to rest in him?

That's my job as a preacher. That's your job as a Christian. Because all of us are to exhort one another daily as long as it's called today. How can you do that? What good can you be to your friend? To your child?

To your wife?

What good can you be to your fellow churchmen? How can you give them something supernatural?

Answer.

There's a reason why he says this. The reason is the word of God. This is the one thing that we have. God has given us his spirit and his spirit goes as he sends the wind. No one knows where it's coming from or where it's going.

But the word has been given to us as our one offensive weapon. The one thing that we're able to wield to change things. Ultimately it's God who does that because the sword is not the sword of Jeff. This is not Jeff's sword.

What is it? The sword of the spirit. I can strive with you and make a cut. Not by my own strength but by the power of the word and the spirit wielding that. But yet I'm called to speak it. So this is the reason for the word for.

It ties back to the striving. There's something that you have that gives you a reason to do this. It makes it possible. I want you to notice something about what the author is doing here. He himself has been...

You better be careful to pay more close attention to what you've heard lest you drift away.

Right?

He said that in chapter 2. And then in chapter 3. Be careful lest you fall away. He's striving that they would hold on. They would keep coming to church. They would keep believing.

Reading the Bible.

Praying. He's striving with them. So how does he do it? If you have some time later today. Go back and make note of the author of Hebrews use of the Bible. You see he's the model for us. He begins in the first chapter.

He quotes Psalm 2. And then we could actually go verse by verse here real quick. Turn back with me to Hebrews 1. I'm just going to point out where the quote comes from. Because here's what I want you to see.

Even the author of Hebrews inspired by the Holy Spirit uses the Scripture as his sword. And in the end the application today. Here's a little spoiler alert. My application to you is going to be to use the Word of God.

Don't use gimmicks to lead people to Christ. Don't get into fads. You let the Word of God do the work. You wield it like a sword. I want you to see how the author of Hebrews does this. Chapter 1 verse 5.

He quotes Psalm 2. Chapter 1 verse 5 part B. He quotes 2 Samuel 7 14. Chapter 1 verse 6. He quotes Deuteronomy 32. Chapter 1 verse 7. He quotes Psalm 104 verse 4. Chapter 8 and following he quotes Psalm 45.

You guys see this? Chapter 1 verse 10. He quotes Psalm 102 at length. Chapter 1 verse 13 part B. He quotes Psalm 110. Look at chapter 2 verses 6 to 8. He quotes Psalm 8. Chapter 2 verse 12. He quotes Psalm 22.

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible by the way. About the physical suffering of Christ prophesied a thousand years before it happens. But now he's saying because of that he can rejoice and call his brothers.

He's doing this from Psalm 22. Look at verse 13. He quotes Isaiah 8. Isaiah chapter 8. Into chapter 3 and 4. The entire section that we've been studying. Is an exposition of Psalm 95. See this is why he says 4.

Because he's been applying Psalm 95 to our lives striving with us. And that's why he says 4. He's saying I'm not just making up things here. It's the word of God that I'm applying to you. So when he says today he communicates that urgency.

You need to pay attention now. And he quotes different parts of Psalm 95. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So all through chapter 3 and into chapter 4 again and again. He quotes Psalm 95.

This isn't deep stuff is it? But it's important. I need you to see. How does the author use the Bible? He's vigilant with the scripture. He uses it like a soldier would use his sword in battle. If you were running into a battle.

Would you drop your sword so you can run a little faster? How many churches? How many Christians drop their sword so they can run faster? Let's make our techniques more and more like the world. More sound.

More fog machines.

More lights. What about the sword?

Don't leave the sword for the battle. Just so you think you can run faster. This is the concept here. Look how the author of Hebrews does it. It's the word. He clings to it. That's why he says for the word.

He recognizes he's using the word to strive with men. That's the connection to what's being said. The whole book of Hebrews is an exposition of the Old Testament scriptures.

That's what he's doing.

The power is in the word. Every person I've ever led to Christ has come through the word.

How do I know that?

Well, because I remember quoting scripture to people. Whether it's John 3 .16 or the Romans wrote. It was the scripture. But I know that because Peter says that we are born again through the imperishable seed of the word.

That's the thing that does it. We strive with people using the word. So important. This is really the DNA of our church, by the way. For those of you who are kind of newer and those who have been here for many years, you know this.

We are a people of the book. That's our DNA. We preach Christ crucified and we do that from the scripture. It's always according to the scripture. If I say anything that just seems made up and it's not coming out of the text, you have every right and indeed my permission, and I would encourage you to just ignore what I'm saying.

But if I'm teaching you what the scripture says, woe to you if you ignore what I'm saying. It's not my word. This is the word of God. I love it. So let's look at the next word. We're just going to take a few words out of this verse and talk about them for a minute.

We've already talked about the word for. That's the link in the chain. It connects us to this idea that went before of why we should be striving. The reason for that is because we have something that can actually do something.

Next word is the word of God. Do you realize what a treasure we have in the word of God? How valuable this is. Tyndale gave his lifeblood.

Wycliffe gave his.

Well, they didn't kill him. They caught up with him after he was in the grave. The Bibles that were burned, the Christians that were killed, that we could read these words. What a treasure. And you know what?

Tyndale would not say, look what I gave you. Tyndale would say, look what the Bible gave you. Tyndale would see himself as a product of the word. It was the word that got in him and inspired him to do that work.

That's where that passion came from. That's why he would lay down his life because he read in Philippians 1, 21, for to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. That's what made a Tyndale. The word is a treasure.

Jesus says the scripture cannot be broken. He says not one jot or tittle will disappear from the law, not an iota or a dot, not the smallest stroke of the pen will disappear from the law until its purpose is accomplished.

That means every little comma, every little word, every little thing that you see matters.

It comes from God.

David in Psalm 19 says it's like more valuable to him than gold. He said sweeter also is it than honey, than drippings from the honeycomb. In Psalm 119, the psalmist writes 176 verses to tell about his love of the word of God.

22 sections, eight verses each from Aleph to Tav. Each one showing how I love your word. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Great peace have those who love your law.

Nothing can make them stumble.

All that is Psalm 119, 176 verses, adoring the value of the word of God. So the word of God is valuable. Next, look what else it is. It is living. Not in a magical sense. The word of God is living in the sense that the God who once inspired prophets, every prophet did not write of his own ability, but as the Holy Spirit carried that prophet along, Peter tells us.

But see, when those words were put on a page, they weren't just stale and finished. They're still what he says. What he caused them to write is what he says to us now. God still speaks. That's why they're alive.

He says I hold my word and my name above all things. His name and his word, his identity as God is tied with his word. What he says is always what he says. I like to think back on my past and realize how the word of God has changed me.

Some things that I held when I was young. I thought Pearl Jam was the best band in the world in the 90s. Then came Nirvana. I was from Seattle, by the way. My first five years I was born, raised in Seattle, then moved to Florida.

I was into the grunge thing in the 90s. Some of you don't know who those groups are, and that's good. But I thought they were great. But now these couple of decades later, I think probably Chris Tomlin, Mercy Me.

There's a new guy named Brandon Lake. He has a song called Gratitude that I really like. But I don't even want to listen to that other stuff, right? Because my mind has been changed. The words matter when you're listening to music, by the way, guys.

Not just listening to the beat. That's an aside. The point is God's words are living and active. What God said 20 years ago and 2 ,000 years ago and 4 ,000 years ago is what he says right now. That's what it means that it's living.

The same God who is alive is still saying these words. He doesn't change his mind the way I do. Hopefully in the better direction, but probably sometimes in the worse. We're fickle. We say something, and we might forget it a week later.

Some of you a minute later. We forget what we say. God's word is eternal and alive. In Psalm 138, 2, I already said he holds his word and his name above all things. All scripture is breathed out by God.

A .W. Pink tells a story about how alive the word is. True story. There was a missionary who went to Tibet and was passing out Bibles, and somehow one of those Bibles ended up in a Buddhist monastery amongst the many books that they had in that place.

One day, a Buddhist monk came across this portion of scripture. I think it was just the Sermon on the Mount. And he began to read, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. He read those words, and it stopped him dead in his tracks. He read them again. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. He read it again.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And then his world collapsed. Because in reading those words, he knew, I am not pure in heart. And if blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.

I won't see God.

And for years, that thought was alive in his mind, daily. Could not get the thought out of his mind.

Plagued him everywhere he went.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. My heart is not pure. He became aware of every wicked thought, every lustful thought, every angry thought.

His heart was tormented.

That blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Until one day, he came across a missionary in town. And he said, oh, I found a writing from your religion. Can you help me with this verse? It says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

And the missionary said, oh, that's a beautiful verse. Because our hearts are not pure. And the Buddhist monk said, you're right. I've been troubled with that thought for years now. And he said, but there's one who makes hearts pure.

There's one who bled as a sacrifice on a cross. His blood was spilled on the cross to pay for the sins of the impure, the unrighteous. And this one rose from the dead. And anyone who looks to him in faith is granted purity of heart, is made pure by faith.

And this missionary quoted John 3 .16 and Romans 3 .23. The Romans wrote, giving him scripture. And this Buddhist monk was born again. You know why A .W. Pink tells the story? He said, the part of the story that stood out to him, this theologian, great theologian, by the way.

Pink said, the part of the story that stood out to him was the fact that no missionary had given him information about that book. One little fragment of scripture did the work all by itself. That's the power that's in the word.

It is alive. Last big point, it is active. So it says here in verse 12, the word of God is living and active. The word is energes, from which we get energy. The word of God has energy. It's not boring, it's not dead.

It's energetic, meaning it's active. It actually accomplishes something. What does it accomplish? Paul told Timothy how from a young age you have known the sacred scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation.

The scripture can make you wise unto salvation. That's what Peter was referring to when he said that you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable seed. The word of God accomplishes a work.

Later this week it's going to snow. You guys excited? Yes, we're going to see the snow falling. When you see that, maybe Wednesday, remember Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, you have it in your notes. So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I propose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. I didn't read the first part of the verse. As the rain falls and the snow falls, so it is with my word.

Listen, the rain and the snow, they don't return to the sky by evaporation until they've done what God sent them to do, to water the earth, to bring forth fruit, to bring forth trees, to make things alive.

That's how God's word is. When it comes on us, it accomplishes something. Someday we have somebody getting baptized in the spring. Maybe there'll be others. When you give your testimony,.

How did you come to believe? How did you know that it's true?

There's so many religions in the world.

How do you know that Christianity, how did you give your life? How were you born again?

Answer, the imperishable seed of the word gave me life. When it was preached, I believed. Because Romans 10 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. There's power in the word to make you alive.

That's why when I tell you that Christ was crucified and he rose, I do it on the authority of God's word. And when the spirit confirms that to your heart, you believe the power is from the word. It's a sort of the spirit.

Revelation 19 15, it will also accomplish judgment one day. When Christ comes back, it says there's a sword coming from his mouth, which is the word of God. It can accomplish judgment and he will slay the wicked by the breath of his mouth.

Isaiah 11, it accomplishes thing. His word is not impotent, it's powerful. It accomplishes all of these things. Keep reading. It pierces, well, it's 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.

I said this wouldn't be really complicated today, so I'll spare you the dichotomous and trichotomous view. Is the human being made up of body, soul and spirit or just material and immaterial? The trichotomous says there's three parts, body, soul and spirit.