The Judging Word (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Kootenai Church

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And now please turn to Hebrews chapter 4 and read together verse 11 through the end of the chapter,

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Hebrews chapter 4. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience.

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For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

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For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

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Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Let's bow before we begin. Our Father, it is our earnest desire that we may know you in your word, and that you would open our eyes and our hearts to understand your word, that we may not just understand it in the sense of knowing what you say, but that we may understand it in the sense that we may know how to live in light of all of your truth.

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We pray that today you would use your word in the way that it's described in this passage to cut us to the heart, and that you may cause us to feel the sting of reproof where that is necessary, as well as the comfort of encouragement where that is necessary as well.

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Encourage us and equip us and edify us and sanctify us by your truth, we pray in Christ's name.

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Amen. Well, today we are finishing up two things really. First, this section on the Word of God that we've been looking at in verses 12 and 13.

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We're also, therefore, finishing up this warning passage that started back in chapter 3, verse 7, and that we've been working our way through that ends here in chapter 4, verse 13, the longest of the five warning passages in the book of Hebrews.

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And these warning passages are intended to warn us of the danger of unbelief and some of the causes of unbelief.

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And so, it's quite appropriate for the warning passage to end with this very solemn note of God's judgment and what that means and how the

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Word of God is to judge us on the last day. And that is what we see in verses 12 and 13.

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The Word of God is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and He, this one with whom we have to do, everything is naked and laid bare before His eyes, and He sees and knows everything.

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So, this warning passage ends with this solemn and sobering note of the judgment that is to come, and who or what is the instrument of that judgment?

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It is the Word of God, in verse 12. It is the Word of God that does this work of judging. And we've seen as we've worked through the passage that we're taking the

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Word of God in two senses, one of speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate, and also of the

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Scripture, which consequently, because it is His Word, also has these same characteristics. And so, today, we're just finishing up with verse 13.

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Now, looking at the end of verse 12 and verse 13, looking at this fifth quality that the

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Word of God has, that it is a judging word. We've seen that the Word of God, both Christ, this applies to the

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Lord Jesus Christ as well as to written Scripture, that it is living, it is alive, there's a dynamic and vital character to it, it is active, it has power in order that it is doing a work, and it has the power to do the work and to accomplish what it is that the

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Word of God is doing. It is piercing, and it is sharp, and the fifth, it is judging.

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It's active or living, active, piercing, sharp, and judging. Those five things describe both the

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Lord Jesus Christ and His written Word. And so, today, we're looking at this judging quality, and we're going to be moving back and forth between how this describes the

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Lord and how this describes His Word as we kind of work through the passage. And this fits in the context, obviously, with the warning passage since He ends with this sober reminder of the judgment that is to come and how the

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Word of God, the Lord Jesus, and the written Word both accomplish this discerning and judging activity.

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So, the word is a judging word, and this is the fifth description of the Word of God. You'll notice that verse 12 at the end of it says that it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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That word that is translated able to judge there is kritikos, and it is a word that describes having an ability to discern or to judge or to critique something.

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You probably heard in that Greek word something similar to some of our English words, kritikos, critical, criticism, critic.

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And though there is some overlap in meaning between that idea of that Greek word and our English word, they're not exactly synonymous because our

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English words for criticism and critic are mostly negative, right? You say somebody has a critical spirit.

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It's not a compliment. It's not something you write down in somebody's Christmas card. One thing I appreciate about you is your critical spirit, right?

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You're always there with the appropriate criticism at the appropriate time. When we use the term criticism or critic or critical or critiquing, mostly it is in a negative sense.

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And when we call somebody a critic or say somebody is critical, really in our English word and how we use that, we're almost suggesting like they have no right, no responsibility, no ability, and no ground for the criticism that they offer.

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When you say to somebody, oh, he's just a critic, you can dismiss him. He's just a critic. He just gives criticism. That's all he does.

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We know what he knows how to do best? Criticize. What you're when we use that word is that he really has no right, role, or responsibility to do this and no ability to do this, but he does it anyway.

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So it makes him a critic, right? If he had the right, the role, the responsibility, and he did it well, you wouldn't call him a critic.

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You wouldn't disparage him for being critical. Well, the Greek word for critic is not like our English word for critic.

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It actually has the idea of having the capacity and the ability to discern and to judge, and it is used both in a positive and in a negative sense, positively and negatively.

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There is a good criticism, a good judgment. You recognize what that good criticism and good judgment is?

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You exercise good criticism and good judgment when you leave the house and you try to choose who it is that's going to babysit your kids.

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You don't go to the sex offender registry online and find a babysitter. You exercise proper, good, critical judgment in trying to discern who should babysit your children and who should not babysit your children, right?

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There are people, and none of them are sitting here, that my wife and I would never ask to babysit our kids, mostly people related to us.

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We would never give our kids over to them for extended periods of time or send them off to go visit so -and -so for the weekend.

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We would never think of doing that. Why? Because we try and exercise good, critical judgment and discernment. This word, kritikas, has the idea of having the ability to discern between what is good and what is evil, what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong.

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It deals with the issue of judgment and examining something and being critical in both a good and it can be also in a bad sense.

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That word actually is part of a family of words, a big group of words. And though this form of the word is only used here in the

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New Testament, it is part of a group of words like the word kritis, which means judgment, akrima, which means condemnation, anakrino, which means to examine something, to question it and to assess it, has the idea of discerning something.

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So, the Word of God has the ability, the responsibility, the authority, and the power to give a criticism and to discern the difference between what is right and wrong, good and bad.

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That's what the Word of God does. And so, this group of words was used of an investigation or a hearing or a trial or an examination or a questioning or the ability to discern something.

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The Word of God does this work. It is able to discern what? The thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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Here we go back to what we talked about last week. We talked about the inner or the quiet, the reserved part of man that nobody knows except us.

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The Word of God, both the Lord Jesus Christ and Scripture have the power, the responsibility, and the ability to judge or criticize and to examine the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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That is the unseen part of us. I cannot tell what any of you are thinking right now, and you cannot tell necessarily what

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I am thinking right now, unless you are thinking that Jim is thinking that he cannot tell what

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I'm thinking, in which case, you're right. The secret and hidden part of us, nobody can know and nobody does know unless we reveal it to them.

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The thoughts and intentions of your heart is that which belongs to you and to you alone, and nobody else can know it and nobody else can be aware of it unless you choose to reveal it.

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Man, how many times you've had this conversation with your wife and you're talking about something and she says, I know what you're thinking. And you say, no, you do not know what

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I'm thinking because I'm thinking it and not saying it. Now, if I was saying it, you would know what I'm thinking, but I'm thinking what

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I'm saying and I'm not thinking something that I'm not saying. And then she tells you what she thinks you're thinking, and you say, it's not exactly what

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I was thinking. So, see, you don't know exactly what

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I'm thinking. It's the hidden part of us. It's the thoughts, the intentions, and the recesses of our heart that nobody knows, but Scripture knows it, and Scripture can discern it, and Scripture can cut us to the quick, and Scripture can get right down to the thoughts and the intentions of our heart.

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And it is the heart, the place of reasoning or thinking that is being described here, not the emotions. In the ancient world, the heart was the way you describe the place of the thinking or the rationality and the reasoning of man.

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The thoughts of a man's being were said to be in his heart. It wasn't the emotions that are being described. In our

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Western modern culture, we use the heart as the seed or the place of the emotions, everything we're feeling. And in Scripture, the heart is used of that place, that center of our thinking, our reasoning, and our rationalizing.

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But what it is that goes on in the mind is a better way of saying it, though that's how they would use the term heart.

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And so it is the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, not the feelings and emotions that's being described here, but the thoughts and intentions, the motives of the heart that the

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Word of God examines and knows so well. And that is in keeping with this word picture that we looked at last week about the

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Word of God being sharp and piercing. It has this edge, like a double -edged sword. It has the ability to cut right to the innermost part of us, that part that nobody else can see, is exposed, laid bare, open and naked to the eyes of the

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Savior and to the Word of God. And the Word of God has a way of cutting right to the heart of it, the heart of the matter.

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In Jeremiah 17 verses 9 and 10, there's a familiar verse. Verse 9 is really familiar to us. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and who can know it?

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Verse 10 gives the answer. I, the Lord, search the heart. I know the mind. In order to give to every man according to his ways.

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Right? Who can know it? Jeremiah says, who knows the heart? There's only one person in the world that knows the heart. And see, you don't even know your heart like the

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Lord knows your heart. Because we can have a thought or an intention or a motive that we pull out of our heart and we examine it, and we think that it is pure, or we think that it is right, or we think that we are assessing correctly what it is that we are thinking and our motives and our intentions, and yet the

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Word of God pierces through and divides and cuts and gets right to the heart of the issue. Scripture and the

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Lord Jesus Christ know better than you and I even what we are thinking. That's the thought of this verse. Just exposes us for who we are and for what we are.

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And this judgment goes right to the heart and it is Christ who does the judging. I'm going to show you how Christ does this judging work and how

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Scripture does this judging work. The Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture is affirmed to be the judge of all mankind.

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So, let's begin there. In John chapter 5, Jesus said that all judgment has been given to the

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Son, that whoever will honor the Son will honor also the Father, and he who does not honor the Son does not honor the

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Father. And Jesus said that this day is coming when He will say the words and all men will stand, will be raised and stand before Him, some to a resurrection of righteousness and some to a resurrection of judgment.

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And then Jesus said in John chapter 5, I can do nothing on my own initiative as I hear,

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I judge, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of Him who sent me. And He said in John 5 that all judgment has been given to the

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Son, all judgment. That is, the Father has committed the judgment of all mankind into the hands of the

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Son whose role and responsibility it is to exercise that judgment at the end of time.

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Peter said in Acts chapter 10 that Jesus Christ has been the one appointed as judge of the living and the dead. Paul said in Acts chapter 17 when he was on the hill at the

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Areopagus, that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed and He has furnished proof to all men by raising that judge, that man, the

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Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we are to preach the word in season and out of season.

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Why? Because he said, I charge you in the presence of God who is the judge and of Christ Jesus who is the judge of the living and the dead.

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It is Christ who does this judging work. So He is the Word of God who has the ability and the power and the responsibility to judge all mankind.

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He is the judge. So all men will stand before Christ. He is both Savior and judge. He is the one in whom we find our rest and He is the one who will make us restless for all of eternity if we do not find our rest in Him.

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He is Savior and He is judge. And all men will stand before Him on the basis of one of those two relationships.

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Everybody has some relationship to Jesus Christ, either as Savior who delivers them from their sin or as a judge who will judge them for their sin.

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He is the two -edged sword who cuts both ways, both to save and to judge. He does both of those functions.

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And all men will be cut down by Him, by that two -edged sword. Now, how is it that Scripture does this work or activity of judging us and discerning the thoughts and intentions of our heart?

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Scripture is the standard of righteousness that reveals to us just how sinful we are. Scripture is the standard of righteousness that when we hear it preached and we hear it explained, it just strips us of our pretensions and lays us bare before God and His sight and His justice and we see what we are and what we do in the light of truth.

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And so we understand it as God has revealed it in Scripture. And Scripture is the one that does that.

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It's the standard by which we are judged and it has this cutting ability to just reveal our hearts for really what it is.

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Have you ever sat under the preaching of the Word, and I hope you have if you've been here a long time, and thought to yourself, how is it that the preacher seems to know what

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I'm thinking? How is it that he seems to know what it is that I am wondering about, the questions

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I am asking, the things that I am struggling with, the difficulties that I am having, the sins that I am battling?

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How is it that he seems to know the thoughts and intentions of my heart and the conversation that I had with my spouse this last week?

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You ever wondered that? I have. I've listened to the Word preached and been cut to the heart and thought, how does he know that?

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And of course, he doesn't know that. I'm listening to a recording somewhere. I've never met this person personally in my life, but I hear the

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Word of God preached and the Word of God does that work. It just cuts us. And it's not the preacher that does this.

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It's not that he has some prognosticating gift or some ability to read our hearts and minds.

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It's just that when the Word of God is explained, the Spirit of God goes to work and he starts cutting away sin from people and encouraging where necessary and equipping where necessary and rebuking where necessary and chastising us, the

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Word of God does that work. That is the power of the Word of God preached. We think that we know that we are sinful and then we read

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Scripture and we realize just how profoundly sinful we really are. We think we know ourselves and then we read the

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Word of God and we say, no, nobody knows me like the Word of God knows me because the Word of God tells me exactly what

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I'm thinking and why I'm thinking it and why I rebel and why I reject this and why

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I hate this truth. The Word of God reveals the thoughts and intentions of my heart and everything I desire and everything is laid bare in Scripture.

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And even the very outcome of all of my thinking and intentions is predicted in Scripture. The way of a man seems right to himself, but the end of it is death.

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And so you can look at the way somebody is walking and the way they are going and you can say, I can tell you exactly where this is going to end up, exactly what the end result of your conduct is going to be.

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And it's not because you as a reader of Scripture have some, like I say, good prognosticating ability to tell the future.

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It is that Scripture reveals exactly the end result of this conduct. It knows us. We think that we examine this book and this book examines us.

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We think that we read this and it reads us. We think we know this and it knows us. And we go to the

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Word of God in order that we may know and understand things and pretty soon we realize, man, this book knows me better than I know myself.

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This is divine truth that cuts right to the heart of my soul and being and lays bare the thoughts and intentions of my heart. And it explains even the very reactions that we have toward the truth of God.

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And then when you have a sharp two -edged sword like the Word of God and you put that in the hand of the one who is the

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Word of God incarnate, who knows his people and he knows unbelievers and knows exactly how to handle it, he just cuts us and pierces us and does that surgery in a right way, removing what is unnecessary, removing what is wrong, and bringing healing to us.

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And as God's people, we should and ought to look forward to that and welcome it. Though it is difficult and painful, we ought to welcome that action of the

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Spirit of God. All men are going to be cut by the Word of God, all men. You will either submit to the convicting, cutting action of the

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Word of God that you may be saved, or you will suffer the condemning, cutting action of the

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Word of God when you are judged. But everybody is cut by Scripture. Everybody is cut by that one who is the living

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Word. Now, let's look at verse 13. Verse 13 is just an examination or a development of this thought of judgment.

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And when you read verse 13, do not miss the personal pronouns there. And there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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His, him, and whom. I think that that observation that there are personal pronouns in verse 13 is the most powerful argument that verse 12, when it mentions the

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Word of God, is speaking of not just a book and not just ancient writings, but it is speaking of somebody who is a person.

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It is in verse 12 that the Word of God has this judging and discerning capacity. In verse 13, this one who is him and he and with whom we have to do has a judging and discerning capacity.

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And you ask yourself, who is the he and the him and the whom referring to in verse 13? The nearest antecedent to that, the nearest thing it can refer to is the

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Word of God mentioned in verse 12, which has all of these qualities. And so I suggested weeks ago that I think

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John Owen was right when he said that verse 12 refers to the one who is the living Word of God. And because it refers to Christ, it refers also to his

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Word. Notice that verse 13 describes the totality and the searching nature of this judgment that the

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Word of God does. There is no creature hidden from his sight, no creature. Now, in view here is obviously men, and I'm not just speaking of men in terms of gender, but men in terms of mankind, the mass of humanity.

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It is obviously mankind or men that are in view in verse 13. But notice that it doesn't say, and there is no man or no woman or none of humanity that is hidden from his sight.

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What does he say? There's no creature hidden from his sight. I think that that is intentional, and I think it is intentional to do two things.

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To number one, remind us that we are yet creatures. Though we are the highest of God's creation, and though we have the ability to commune with God, and we are the pinnacle of the creative week, we are still yet creatures.

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We have capacities that no other animal has, but we're still creatures, meaning that we are transitory, and we are temporary, and we must stand before the one who is not a creature, namely the

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Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no creature hidden from his sight. Whether it is the worms beneath our feet or the president over our nation, there is no creature that is hidden from his sight.

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He knows and searches all of it, not a creature. That type of incomprehensible knowledge and sovereign ability to see everything and to know everything is everywhere affirmed in Scripture.

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This one who is the creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the Word. He's the one through whom all of the worlds were made.

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He is the one who upholds all things by the Word of his power, and he knows every last creature that he has created.

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As I said, from the worms beneath our feet to the president over our country, he knows every last one of them.

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And look at the totality, every single one of them. There's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things, all things.

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Now we've gone from just creatures to everything. So we put it in the category of creatures, which mankind is.

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He knows all of that, and then he knows all things. Everything that comes to pass, he knows. Everything that is done, he knows.

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Every thought, every motive, every deed, all of it is known. It is all naked and laid bare before the eyes of the one with whom we have to do.

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He knows all of that, every creature and every activity and everything that exists. He knows, this is incomprehensible to me, and I don't say this lightly, the

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Lord knows at every moment, every molecule that is bouncing into every other molecule in the known universe.

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There is no random particle. There is no electron. There is no atom in all of creation.

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There is no corner of the universe that he does not know perfectly, completely, and without error at every single moment since eternity past and all the way into eternity future.

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That type of knowledge? Let me ask you, unbeliever, how will you escape so great a salvation?

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Where are you going to hide from that? There's no creature hidden from his sight. Everything is naked and laid bare, open before him.

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Job 28 verse 24 says, he looks to the ends of the earth and he sees everything under the heavens.

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That should terrorize the wicked. Psalm 33 verses 13 and 15 says, the

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Lord looks from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

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He who fashions the hearts of them all, he who understands all their works. That's a terror to the unbeliever, and rightly so.

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But toward the righteous, it's of great comfort. Psalm 33 verses 18 and 19, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in the famine.

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Psalm 119, 168, I keep your precepts and your testimonies for all my ways are before you.

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Psalm 139, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thoughts from afar.

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You scrutinize my path and my lying down. You're intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there was a word on my tongue, you knew it full well.

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Such knowledge, such omniscience is incomprehensible. It's a comfort to a believer.

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It's a terror to the unbeliever. Do you ever think, I'm speaking to unbelievers now, if you happen to be one, do you ever think that on the day of judgment that you're going to somehow get lost among the seven billion people on that day?

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You get kind of lost in the shuffle. You just be able to sort of hide behind a guy that's just slightly bigger than you and hope that he can shield you from the wrath of God.

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You will not avoid his searching eyes on the day of judgment. Believer, Christian, do you ever wonder if maybe you'll be forgotten on the day of judgment amongst seven billion people?

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I'm just talking about the seven billion who are alive right now. You will not be forgotten. He knows the righteous and he knows the wicked and the

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Lord knows those who are his and he knows everything perfectly. He knows what we're going through. He knows what we're going to go through.

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He knows what we're having to endure. He knows what we're thinking. He knows what we're wrestling with. He knows our emotions, our thoughts, our intentions, our motives, all of it.

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Naked and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Our pride, our self -centeredness, our arrogance, our desires, our emotions, affections, the things we love, the things we hate, all of it.

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And for the unbeliever, that is the basis of our judgment. That's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, right? You hate somebody, you're guilty of murder.

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It's not just the deed that you do. You can't just say, I haven't killed anybody. If you have hated your brother in your heart, you're guilty of violating that commandment.

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You can't say, I've been perfectly faithful to my wife. I've never committed adultery. Because if you have lusted after somebody who was not your spouse, you have broken that commandment in your heart.

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And so it is with all of the commandments. We have broken them all in spirit, if not in the letter of the law, and we are guilty and judged guilty, not just because of the deeds that we do, that would be bad enough.

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But our guilt is heaped up upon us because of the thoughts that we have and the motives that we have and the intentions that we have.

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And that ought to drive us to one who is the remedy for all of that sin. That's the point of it.

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It ought to drive us to the one who can forgive us and give us the righteousness that we need. Because on the day of judgment, it will not just be the deeds that we do that are judged.

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It will be the thoughts and intentions of the heart because they are all naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

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See, our sin is not just a matter of what we do, it's a matter of what we think. It's a matter actually of what we are. Right?

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It's not just what we think, it's what we are. In our society, our culture, we like to think that sin is something outside of us, that I'm only a sinner because of what other people do.

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If other people didn't make me mad, I would never get mad. If other people didn't make me lust, I would never lust.

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If other people didn't, if the IRS didn't exist, I wouldn't have to lie once a year. These people that exist outside of me, they all make me do these things.

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And I'm mad and angry because of what is outside. No, what is outside only reveals what is inside.

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It is only the foil upon which our sinful condition is made manifest outwardly. And He sees all the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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He knows that you're planning to lie on April 15th. He knows that. It's a thought and intention of the heart that He sees, and He searches, and He examines.

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And it's all laid bare before Him. God's judgment is not superficial. There are people in our culture, in our country, that I wish would be brought and put on trial.

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There are people who have gone to trial, and they walk free today. On judgment day, there will be nothing that will not be punished.

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I won't name their names, but in my hypothetical scenario, like somebody who ran for president but didn't win, for instance, if I had my way, there would be a thorough examination of that individual, and they would get what should be justice.

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If I had my way, if I had my druthers, that's what I would want. On judgment day, it is not just the crimes that I know about that will be examined before the bar of God's almighty

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Word and the Lord Jesus Christ. Every thought, motive, deed, and intention, and every crime that these people wanted to commit but did not have opportunity to commit, they will be judged for that as well.

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Thorough judgment before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Everything is naked.

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That means fully exposed. It's without covering. It's without any kind of clothing. Before Christ, all of our pretensions, all of our facades, all of our distortions, all of our cover -ups, everything will be exposed.

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It'll all be cut away. It'll all be laid bare. He will see the wicked intentions of our hearts. He will see the good intentions of our hearts.

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He will see the horrible motives that we have. He will see the good motives that we have. The Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ have the ability to discern between that good motive and that wicked and corrupt motive.

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And He has the ability to cut away and to consider as paid for on the cross all of our wicked motives and to reward us for the good motives that appear in His sight.

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He and He alone have the ability to do that. And laid bare, that's the other word. It is naked and laid bare.

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That word is an interesting word. And again, like some other words in this passage, it is only used here in all of the New Testament.

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It is the word trachelizo, trachelizo. Can you hear the English word trachea in there, trachelizo?

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It is because the word refers to being grabbed or seized by the throat. It literally means to take somebody by the throat or by the neck.

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And we get our word trachea from this Greek word. It was a figure of speech and probably a common one used in ancient times, especially in New Testament times.

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Though the figure of speech in this reference is only used here, it's used without any explanation.

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So it would be as if I were to use the phrase, the early bird gets the worm. Other cultures and other periods of time might not understand that analogy.

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But because it's so common in our culture, in our understanding, I really don't have to explain what I mean by that. And it's the same thing here.

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There's a reference here to the Word of God seizing us or grabbing one by the throat. In other ancient literature, the

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Greek term or phrase was used in a number of different ways. It was used of a medical procedure where the head was pulled back and a knife or scalpel was taken to the throat in order to perform a medical procedure.

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It was also used of a sacrificial victim where you would pull back the head of an animal before cutting its throat.

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It was used of a wrestler, one wrestler grabbing another wrestler by the face. And that imagery is quite vivid because in order to grab or by the throat, in order to grab another wrestler by the throat, you have to be close to them and you have to be face to face with them in order to seize them by the throat and incapacitate them in that way.

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And the fourth way that it was used was in a courtroom scenario. It was used of putting a dagger to the chest or to the throat of an individual with the point right below their chin so that when standing before a judge, they were not able to bow their heads or to hang their heads in shame.

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They had to look up and face the justice of the judge and the charges that were before them. I noticed something in all of those scenarios, the medical procedure, the sacrificial victim, the wrestling analogy, and the courtroom scenario.

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There's something that all of those analogies have in common, that all of those situations have in common. Vulnerability, three of those four are speaking of a knife being taken to something that is vulnerable.

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It's a beautiful analogy. Love it. On judgment day, the word of God is going to seize you by the throat.

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You can escape from that. How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? Find your rest in Jesus Christ or be seized by the throat because that word is going to cut.

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It is going to cut in judgment or it's going to cut in salvation. Submit to the cutting of the word of God and be saved or submit to the cutting of the word of God and be judged, but you'll be cut and seized by the throat.

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Everything is naked and laid bare like somebody being executed, the throat is exposed.

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It's a term that describes the vividness, the thoroughness, and the certainty of the judgment that is to come.

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God grabs us by the throat and all that we do is naked and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

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The ESV translates it, I think better than the NASB, the ESV translates this way, the one to whom we must give an account.

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And that is certainly the idea here. There's a wordplay involved. The very last word of verse 13 is the

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Greek word logos. It's the word for word. Verse 12 begins, the word of God, the logos of God is all of these characters and characteristics and qualities, living and active, sharp, piercing, and judging.

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Now before that one who is the word of God incarnate and before the word of God which is written, you are going to stand naked and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom you must give a word.

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There is a wordplay in play with the word word in the passage. The word of God is this and when you stand before him who is the word, what word will you say?

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Naked and laid bare. What excuse can we possibly render to him on that day?

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What are you going to say to the searching, judging, active, and living word of God?

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What word will you say to the one who is the word? That's the idea. He is the one with whom to whom we must give an account.

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He is the one to whom we must say a word. All men are going to stand before the word.

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And the sinner, the rebel, the unbeliever who refuses to embrace the rest that is offered to them in Jesus Christ will stand before the word who is incarnate and before the written word and that word will judge them and they must give a word to him.

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What will they say? I'll tell you right now there's nothing that you can say and that is the point of this judgment passage.

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There is no word you can give. What excuse are you going to give when this one knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart?

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He knows the excuses that you would offer and he knows the excuses for giving your excuses and he knows the rationalizations and the justifications and all of that because before his eyes, this word, this eyes of him with whom we have to give a word, this word knows and sees it all.

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That is the searching and total nature of that judgment that he is going to render by the power of his own word.

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And don't forget the context of this. This isn't the context of the warning to not repeat the mistake of the wilderness generation.

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When you who have heard the word and you who have listened to the word and you have been exposed to that word, what word will you give on judgment day?

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When that word has been preached to us and that word has been given to us and then we respond to it with rebellion and disobedience and neglect, the accountability will be immeasurable.

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Now believer, Christian, you're not judged by that standard. Romans 8 says there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

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No, none. All of my sins, every corrupt motive, every corrupt thought, every corrupt intention

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I have ever had in my whole life and from the time that I was born until this time today and from this moment right now until the day that I die and go to glory, every last one of those sins has been laid on Jesus Christ and he has paid the complete price for them all.

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All of them. It is all laid on him. There is no sin for which I must give an account before him.

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There is no sin for which I will be judged. There is no sin, thought, motive, or intention for which

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I will receive a frown of the Lord Jesus Christ on judgment day. None. Because not only have all of my sins been taken out of the way, but this is the glorious beauty of it,

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I have been given the righteousness of the one who never sinned at all. This is the great exchange.

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My sin has been is taken away and it is gone and I get all of that righteousness which that I do not deserve.

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Now that's not an excuse for me to go out into sin and to say therefore I'm going to sin and I'm going to dive into iniquity.

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I'm going to indulge all of my lusts and my fantasies and my evil thoughts, motives, and intentions because I can get away with it.

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Believers don't think that way. A believer recognizes that everything that I have done that deserves judgment,

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I will not receive judgment for that. And everything that I have never done that which might deserve commendation,

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Christ has done that in my stead. So I get all of his righteousness and he takes away all of my sin. For the believer in Jesus Christ, that is the rest that you receive when you trust him.

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For the unbeliever, you are judged on a different standard. The believer is viewed as if we are in Jesus Christ and even right now if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are completely righteous in the sight of God.

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And we ought to and should rest in that knowledge. That is why we are safe. That is why we are secure.

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That is why we trust him. And that knowledge and that reality ought to inform how it is that we even approach the

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Lord Jesus Christ and seek to live holy and God -honoring lives. The accountability of the judgment that is to come for the unbeliever ought to terrify them to seek a remedy in the person of Jesus Christ.

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The reality of that judgment and what we would have if we were not believers for the believer should make us to appreciate what we have in verses 14 through 16.

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See, that's the very next thing that the author turns to. Look at verse 14. Therefore, this is the argument of it.

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You avoid this judgment. The judgment is severe. You will stand before the word.

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You will give a word to the one who is the word. With the reality of that judgment in mind and in view, verse 14, therefore, since we, that is believers, have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

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Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. At this reality of the judgment that we are to face, if you are not a believer should make you pursue the one who is the great high priest mentioned in Hebrews.

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And as a Christian, the understanding of what judgment I would face if I were not in Jesus Christ makes me to appreciate and hold fast my confession.

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Because I do not have to face that judgment, I hold fast my confession. Because I know that I'm never going to stand before Him and see

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Him frown at me or judge me for my unbelief or judge me for my thoughts or intentions, that makes me pursue

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Christ. I want to have Him. I want to have that great high priest, that one who died in my stead. Verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, the one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

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That's the remedy we need, the high priest who is without sin. Because every motive and thought and intention of our hearts is going to be judged, we ought to pursue the one who is our great high priest, who is tempted as we are and yet he never sinned.

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Because his righteousness is sufficient and his forgiveness is total and complete. If you're not a believer, be diligent to enter that rest.

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If you do not, there will be no remedy for you when you stand before this one who is the Lord with whom you have to do.

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You have to give Him a word. You're going to have to give something, some sort of defense, and you will have nothing to say.

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I'm warning you now, you'll have nothing to say. If you are a believer, rejoice in the fact that your

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Savior suffered and died. He is the one who was tempted in all points as you are, yet He was without sin. You have His righteousness.

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You'll never face that judgment. It ought to make you to rejoice in the one who is our great high priest. Let's pray.

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Father, we love you and we thank you for so great a salvation. We thank you for the warnings in Scripture and the reminder that we have here before us of the judgment that we have escaped because we are in Jesus Christ.

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And for any and all who have never trusted in Him, Lord, I pray that you would do a work in their hearts to draw them near to the

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Savior, make them to see Christ for what He is, that they may find in Him a repose for their souls and a redeemer from their sins and the righteousness and justification that they need to stand before you on that day.

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Be honored through your word, through the preaching of it, and our application of it, and our reflection upon it.

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We pray that you would drive these things deep into our hearts, that we may trust them and love them and respond appropriately to them.

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We thank you in the name of Christ our Lord, that great high priest that we have, who is perfect and without sin.