The Scrutinizing Word Of God - [Hebrew 4:12-13]

well yesterday i went out to get the mail and uh... brought the mail in and was just opening up some of the letters and i opened up one of the letters or bills and i put my finger in to try to pull it out and my finger uh...

underneath the fingernail got cut by one of the pieces of paper inside the bill i thought what's worse than getting a bill it's the paper cut underneath your finger something so sharp like a piece of paper i thought to myself thinking of sharp things i wonder what the sharpest knife in the world is as a kid we loved to have knives and put them on our belt and kind of play tarzan and other things what's the sharpest if you had to guess you can answer out loud what's the sharpest knife in the world and i like you also thought i knew it wasn't true but i also thought of ginsu knives some of you said that ginsu knives were sold directly a direct marketing program back in the late seventies and early eighties they were called quick cut but they realized that nobody really wanted more knives and so they thought let's have a different advertising campaign uh...

the leader said to palm beach post in two thousand eleven we were mindful that the last thing anyone wanted was another set of knives the challenge was to position the product so that it made every other knife you owned obsolete and they would have these tv commercials selling ginsu knives how much would you pay don't answer call now operators are standing by but wait there's more that's where that came from ginsu knives one man called it the greatest pitch of all pitches to sell knives to people the inventor was asked years later what does ginsu actually mean how do you translate it he said here's how i translate the word ginsu i never have to work again but they're not technically the sharpest knife in the world volcanic glass is the sharpest knife in the world and it's called obsidian obsidian knives don't just tear things like a surgeon's scalpel actually they're five hundred times sharper than a surgeon's scalpel and actually divide on a molecular level it's a good thing to have because it heals faster but there's something even more sharp than an obsidian knife it's a different kind of surgeon's scalpel and it's called as we know from last time the word of god instead of cutting just at the micro level at the nano level at the molecular level at the cell level at the atom level the word of god can judge thoughts and intentions motivations and the writer of hebrews wants this for his congregation he knows they're all sinful like he is and he wants them to believe on the lord jesus christ so that when they die they'll stand before god and not get examined by the sharpest soul surgical scalpel that's ever existed he wants them to be believers and that is my desire for you there are some young people here and old people here some are believers some are not the pastoral exhortation if you get your bibles and turn to hebrews is simply trust in jesus christ or this word of god will perform surgery on you one day and it will be bad for you there's only one hope for you is to rest completely in christ jesus how about turning to hebrews 13 for a moment trust in christ jesus so that he pays the penalty that we deserve if our lives were examined certainly we've fallen short of the glory of god i met somebody this week and uh...

i was talking to them and they're doing some great humanitarian things but they're still sinful and i said even though you do this wonderful humanitarian thing doing more good than you've done evil in your life if that's possible still doesn't make you perfect when god the holy god looks at you and has that day of accounting for you you're gonna need to answer for every one of your sins and you can't hide from this god because he can look down into your soul and your spirit and your thoughts and your intentions so what do you do the only hope the writer of hebrews says is this not just try to do good works not just try to be circumcised not try to offer a lamb or a goat or a different sacrifice but trust in christ jesus to believe on him that's the only hope today's a good reminder that the object of our faith he's worthy of our faith and that he's also able to protect us when we're in christ because that x -ray that mri that cat scan is going to examine you and then what will be the response you see his pastoral thinking if you take a look at hebrews chapter thirteen verse twenty two this whole book is really a sermon i thought one sunday i would just read all of hebrews for the sermon it would take me about forty minutes to read and it reads like a sermon you listen to it like a sermon and you can see his pastoral advice hebrews thirteen twenty two i appeal to you brothers bear with my word of exhortation or encouragement for i have written to you briefly by the way there's lots of that i could say about that isn't that wonderful thirteen chapters just a small little note this is just a post -it on the greatness of jesus much more could be said but the word there in english in your esv is exhortation it really is an encouragement he wants to encourage them it's like when a little child one of my children would waddle up to me when they were little and they would say daddy i trust in jesus i would say what don't bother me i'm watching sports center no we didn't have cable tv what would we do we would want to encourage that and your face could almost get bigger good job that's right way to go keep trusting in jesus there were some hebrews who were trusting in jesus and now trouble comes and he's trying to open his face as it were keep trusting in jesus no matter what comes it's very applicable for us in two thousand eighteen as well but for others who aren't trusting in jesus it's like the people that come in for pastoral counsel and they say we will not trust in jesus it's the j adams principle and he would say before you go my friend i just want to put a little burr under your saddle the way of the transgressor is hard it will be not only a hard life here but when you stand before god on that day judgment day it'll be much harder so this whole letter i don't want you to think it's some only it's a theological treatise it is a theological treatise theology just talking about who god is but it's designed it's almost like a grandpa who comes along to a grandson and he puts his arm around him and says grandson this is how we do things in life let me encourage you let me show you i've learned the hard way it's a book of encouragement so where are we in this book we're in chapter four so let's go back to hebrews chapter four since jesus is going to return revelation twenty two says he is coming soon and he's bringing his recompense with him to repay each one for what he has done then we need to be trusting in christ because if you have to pay for the sins that you have done you'd be undone so we need to trust in christ jesus and the whole book is about that trusting in christ jesus i did not say hoping that your decision you made when you were in eighth grader works that your baptism works that your walking the aisle works no trusting in jesus right now a preserving a persevering faith in jesus christ who this book says is greater than any angel if you saw an angel you'd fall in your face greater than moses if you saw moses with a little glory on his face coming down from sinai you would probably fall in your face greater than erin and everyone else he is the object of our faith there are two ways to get to heaven way number one perfectly obey the law obey and live if you don't perfectly obey and live you disobey you'll die and because of adam's fall we're unable to do that and because we have sin in our past it's proven that we can't so now we need someone who can perfectly obey the law to the letter of the law and then die for all our law breaking and that is the lord jesus christ of course the resurrected our contribution is nothing we're just needing to trust in him and that's what this chapter is about Hebrews chapter four here's what

I'm going to do today I'll give you a little review and then I'm going to give you seven reasons you should trust in christ so that the word of god and god himself will not examine you on judgment day it's a long proposition but i'll repeat it again seven reasons you should trust in christ so that the word of god god himself will not examine you on judgment day it's simply the rest in christ or get judged on judgment day now before we get into those seven by the way some of you

I know want to have these these outlines very particular outlines and so today I'm granting you what you'd like sometimes

I don't want to do outlines but today I'm going to do an outline seven reasons you should trust in christ let's just go back to verse eight before we get to the seven reasons to see where we left off two weeks ago and by the way wasn't it wonderful to have evan here last week i was so encouraged to think about gospel ministry through frail people around the world very very encouraging for if joshua verse eight of hebrews four if joshua had given them rest god would have not spoken of another day later on it's super simple joshua brings the young people into the land of promise those who didn't believe god they got killed along with moses because of moses disobedient and finally joshua brings the young people into the promised land well david hundreds of years later talked about another future rest how can joshua's rest resting physically in the land be the ultimate rest when later on in history david talked about another rest the land of israel can't be the ultimate rest there's got to be another kind of rest what kind of rest would that be and isn't it i think very neat that he uses the word joshua because that's the word for jesus and you're starting to think already this kind of language that the hebrews would understand and here's this type and joshua as he got his people into the promised physical land the later joshua jesus will deliver his people into a spiritual rest come unto me all who are heavy laden and i will give you what?

rest for your souls jesus gives spiritual rest where joshua could only give physical rest you could answer the question this way wait a second what about this rest what was written first joshua the book or psalm ninety five and of course psalm ninety five is second and that's talking about another rest verse nine so then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of god not just the jews but gentiles too thinking about the people of god there's more rest than just israel's getting into the promised land of cana there's rest for the people of god even gentiles what kind of rest it's a spiritual rest what does verse ten say for whoever has entered god's rest spiritually trusting in jesus's work so you don't have to work has also rested from his works as god did from his see they're bringing three things together now and we're talking about god on the seventh day he rested and now we're talking about believers they also can rest because they don't have to work anymore i've told you maybe on my my honrier days when people come to my door and they knock on my door and when they sell me solar panels i say no thank you when they sell me a jesus who isn't god i tell them how do you get to heaven you know this is this is my nice this is nice mike i i i too am interested in spiritual things could you please tell me how to get to heaven do this do that do this do that i said i can't do it i've already tried and plus i'm sinful i'm i can't do it even though i want to do you have any hope for me well no then you have to do this and then you have to do that and then you have to do this i i cannot physically do it i want to say you know what i've fallen and i can't get up for i've sinned and fallen short of the glory of god you know that's a present tense i continually fall short i continually fall short please do you have some good news for me here's good news you rest from your works work implies work work implies energy and now how do i get to heaven i can't get to heaven but god loves sinners and so how do i get to heaven he gets us there by christ work rested from his works that's a great definition of a christian we we we rest from our work because we're resting in the one who perfectly worked and it's amazing and it's just amazing to me let us therefore strive to enter very pastoral here let us he includes himself to strive to enter that rest do whatever it takes to be a believer so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience yes but i'm gonna get kicked out of my family strive i'm gonna get kicked out of synagogue strive yes my muslim parents might try to kill me it's honor shame killing strive it's worth it make every effort the greek word is spudadzo i like that to be striving and to be diligent and to sweat nothing could be more important than you trusting in christ jesus and now we come to the examination seven reasons to trust in christ so this word won't examine you and you notice the very first word as we looked at two weeks ago for this is not a word about the bible although that's true this is primarily a word about judgment what's the context for the word of god is living and active sharper than any two -edged surgeon scalpel really piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart never read twelve without reading eleven never read twelve without reading thirteen the word of god the written word of course in the hands of the the surgeon jesus the incarnate word is going to judge there are two options and the options aren't go to heaven or be annihilated go to heaven and have you know conditional mortality trust in jesus go to heaven or be judged we saw last time the first reason you should trust in christ so you're not judged it's because the word of god is living number one the word is living this is emphatic in the greek position the first word in greek isn't for f -o -r it's living it's front loaded, living look back in chapter three verse twelve do you see it the living god has a living word take care brothers hebrews three twelve lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living god this is not a dead god this is not a dead idol remember those idols that you could see in the old testament in isaiah they have mouths but they don't what they have eyes but they don't they have ears but they don't this god is a living word it's a it's a it's an energetic word it does its work because it comes from god if god is dead his word is dead what's that old t -shirt god is dead nietzsche on the back of the shirt that you can get at the christian bookstore this is better than bench press this kind of thing by the way with the cross of jesus on the back nietzsche is dead god if god is dead his word is dead but since god is living three twelve then his word is living and so on judgment day

I either trust in christ and tuck myself underneath the righteous robes of christ so that I'm in christ by faith alone or this living thing's gonna examine me

I just had an MRI I wouldn't be afraid to know what the MRI's results were if the

MRI was broken but since it's working that's the idea there's a power even in act seven thirty eight stephen talked about the bible as living oracles not kind of like the old school not you know king james english we can understand what it says not this language that no one ever knows it's a dead language no it's living first peter chapter one through the living and abiding word of god jesus said in john six the words i have spoken to you they're full of the spirit and life the pastor says to these dear persecuted people

I know you're tempted to go back and run from jesus but this word will judge you it's living don't secondly it's active the second reason you should trust in christ so that the word won't judge you on judgment day is it's active and tied here together if it's living it must be active living and active it's where we get our english word energetic it has energy it's powerful it can accomplish what god wants to accomplish and here's what he wants to accomplish judgment examine the person see what's inside of them and it's not one of these fake things i had for a long time on my iphone app that x -ray app and i could put it on my hand and if i tilt it a little bit it seemed like i moved my hand you could see like my iphone what were the first iphones?

were they iphone ones? okay an early iphone it looked like i had an x -ray app but it was all fake because if you put it on your face it would also show a hand it was just a gimmick this is the x -ray of your soul how are you gonna do that day i know i would be undone this is not some kind of dead app this is the living word of god it's energetic because it's alive alive things are active your character will be judged on judgment day examined if you will not trust in christ on a side note for christians i love it that the word of god is living and active why because it helps me and when i think about the lord is my shepherd i lack nothing i think you know what if it was a dead word it might have been good for david but it's alive and it's energetic and it even encourages me and i read the word and i read proverbs three and i think trust in the lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him he'll make your path straight it for the christian the word of god is alive and it's active to encourage and to direct and to guide but here the context is it will examine you on that day thirdly it's sharp the third reason you should trust christ is because the word of god is sharp it's living it's active it's sharp sharper than what your texts say than any two edged sword what does it do what does this sword do i mean if the text went on to say lopping off head and limb i think sword if the text went on to say dividing shoulder from arm i think a sword but what does the text say piercing the division of soul and spirit joints and marrow he's not talking about some huge sword that you've got a hold with a big uh...

kind of with two hands and you're kind of swinging it like you would a big huge club this is talking about precision that's why many will translate it sharper than any two edged surgeons scalpel why because this god who is going to do judgment surgery on people looking for things can really get down not just to the coarse aspects but fine tuning aspects the details the minutia the particles the thoughts like no jinsu knife could ever do it says sword but it's used in the context and some have translated this rightly surgeons scalpel now we don't really know how it was used in the old testament per se exactly some will say it's like the knife that was used to perform circumcision others will say it's like the knife that the butcher used excuse me the priest used to slaughter the animals they had surgeons knives back then and this particular surgeons scalpel is what two edged double mouthed as it were why because it emphasizes how well it can penetrate you've got two sharp sides on the front and at the bottom this is a short little surgeons scalpel and of course it's figurative language just so we can understand it that does its work then david said to him ahimelech then you have not here a spear or a sword at hand for i have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste and the priest said the sword of goliath the philistine whom you struck down in the valley of elah behold it is wrapped here in a cloth behind the ephod if you take that take it for there is none but that here and david said there is none like that give it to me i need a sword i don't have a weapon i'll take goliath's sword and then spurgeon said the word of god is like the sword of goliath which has been laid up in the sanctuary of which david said there's none like it give it to me why did he like it so well and now spurgeon makes a conjecture i think he liked it all the better because it had been laid up in the holy place by the priest but i think he liked it best of all because it had the stains of blood on it the blood of goliath i like my own sword spurgeon said because it is covered with blood right up to the hilt the blood of slaughtered sins and errors and prejudices the dark and purple tint the slain of the lord have been many by the old gospel and spurgeon was saying the word of god is so powerful because it convicts every person of their sin and god uses that to save them but here we're not talking about salvation we're talking about judgment surgery there's everything in the world different from when i used to go to the operating room and see patients and they would be cut open with a surgeon's scalpel that's the first thing that happens after they put the patient out is they get everything put properly, i shouldn't say the first thing but everything's ready and then the first instrument that they asked for every time that i was in surgery that i can remember scalpel and then they would cut that patient open and there's everything in me that says you know what that was kind of hard to take but at the end they sewed him back up they put stitches on there they woke the patient up i didn't see very many patients die in the operating room table a few but not many ninety nine times out of a hundred they wake up and then off to recovery but the one day when i went to the autopsy at LA County Medical Center and saw the autopsy i realized that after they cut the brain open and after they cut the sternum open after they cut the heart out they didn't put it back in the surgeon's scalpel isn't to cut open and then excise the cancer this is to cut open your soul and it will find sin so flee to the cross what's worse than an autopsy being examined by the word of god well you know what i'll believe later and you know this is for for adults and i've got my own life to live and i've got this girl i want to meet i got this guy and all these other kind of thing friends there's an urgency here when moses told these words to all the people of israel the people mourn greatly and they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country saying here we are we will go up to the place that the lord has promised for we have sinned but moses said why are you now transgressing the command of the lord when that will not succeed do not go up for the lord is not among you lest you be struck down before your enemies for there the amalekites and the canaanites are facing you and you shall fall by the sword because you have turned your back from following the lord the lord will not be with you but they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country although neither the ark of the covenant of the lord nor moses departed out of the camp then the amalekites and the canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them even to horma numbers fourteen some scholars think that as these israelites didn't think god is going to protect them from all the uh...