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

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the
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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
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Well, yesterday I went out to get the mail and brought the mail in and was just opening up some of the letters and I opened up one of the letters, our bills, and I put my finger in to try to pull it out and my finger, underneath the fingernail, got cut by one of the pieces of paper inside the bill.
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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.
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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
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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?
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And I, like you, also thought, I knew it wasn�t true, but I also thought of Ginsu knives.
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Some of you said that. Ginsu knives were sold directly, a direct marketing program, back in the late 70s and early 80s.
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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.
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The leader said to Palm Beach Post in 2011, we were mindful that the last thing anyone wanted was another set of knives.
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The challenge was to position the product so that it made every other knife you owned obsolete.
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And they would have these TV commercials selling Ginsu knives. How much would you pay?
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Don�t answer. Call now. Operators are standing by. But wait, there�s more.
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That�s where that came from, Ginsu knives. One man called it the greatest pitch of all pitches, to sell knives to people.
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The inventor was asked years later, what does Ginsu actually mean? How do you translate it?
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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.
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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.
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Actually they�re 500 times sharper than a surgeon�s scalpel and they actually divide on a molecular level.
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It�s a good thing to have because it heals faster. But there�s something even more sharp than an obsidian knife.
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It�s a different kind of surgeon�s scalpel and it�s called as we know from last time the
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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
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Word of God can judge thoughts and intentions and motivations.
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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
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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.
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He wants them to be believers and that is my desire for you. There are some young people here and old people here.
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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
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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.
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How about turning to Hebrews 13 for a moment. Trust in Christ Jesus so that he pays the penalty that we deserve.
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If our lives were examined certainly we�ve fallen short of the glory of God. I met somebody this week and I was talking to them and they�re doing some great humanitarian things but they�re still sinful.
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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.
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When God, the Holy God looks at you and has that day of accounting for you, you�re going to need to answer for every one of your sins and you can�t hide from this
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God because he can look down into your soul and your spirit and your thoughts and your intentions. So what do you do?
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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.
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To believe on him, that�s the only hope. And so 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.
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Do you see his pastoral thinking? If you take a look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 22, this whole book is really a sermon.
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I thought one Sunday I would just read all of Hebrews for the sermon. It would take me about 40 minutes to read and it reads like a sermon.
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You listen to it like a sermon and you can see his pastoral advice. Hebrews 13, 22, �I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation or encouragement, for I have written to you briefly.�
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By the way, there�s lots that I could say about that. Isn�t that wonderful? 13 chapters, just a small little note.
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This is just a post -it on the greatness of Jesus. Much more could be said. But the word there in English in your
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ESV is �exhortation.� It really is an encouragement. He wants to encourage them.
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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,
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I trust in Jesus.� I would say, �What? Don�t bother me.
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I�m watching SportsCenter.� No, we didn�t have cable TV. What would we do? We would want to encourage that.
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And your face could almost get bigger. �Good job. That�s right. Way to go. Keep trusting in Jesus.�
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There were some Hebrews who were trusting in Jesus and now trouble comes and he�s trying to open his face as it were.
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Keep trusting in Jesus no matter what comes. It�s very applicable for us in 2018 as well.
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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.�
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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.
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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,
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Judgment Day, it will be much harder. So this whole letter, I don�t want you to think it�s a theological treatise.
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It is a theological treatise. Theology is 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.
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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?
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We�re in chapter 4. So let�s go back to Hebrews chapter 4. Since Jesus is going to return,
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Revelation 22 says He is coming soon and He�s bringing His recompense with Him to repay each one for what
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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 would be undone.
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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 8th grader works, that your baptism works, that your walking the aisle works.
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No, trusting in Jesus right now, a preserving, a persevering faith in Jesus Christ, who this book says is greater than any angel.
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And if you saw an angel, you would fall on your face. Greater than Moses. If you saw Moses with a little glory on his face coming down from Sinai, you would probably fall on your face.
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Greater than Aaron and everyone else, He is the object of our faith. There are two ways to get to heaven.
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Way number one, perfectly obey the law. Obey and live. If you don�t perfectly obey and live, you disobey, you�ll die.
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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.
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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
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Lord Jesus Christ, of course, the resurrected King. Our contribution is nothing.
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We�re just needing to trust in Him, and that�s what this chapter is about, Hebrews chapter 4.
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Here�s what I�m going to do today. I will give you a little review, and then I�m going to give you seven reasons you should trust in Christ so that the
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Word of God and God Himself will not examine you on Judgment Day. It�s a long proposition, but I�ll repeat it again.
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Seven reasons you should trust in Christ so that the Word of God, God Himself, will not examine you on Judgment Day.
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It�s simply, either rest in Christ or get judged on Judgment Day. Now before we get into those seven, by the way, some of you
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I know want to have these outlines, very particular outlines, and so today I�m granting you what you�d like.
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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 8 before we get to the seven reasons to see where we left off two weeks ago.
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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.
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Very, very encouraging. For if Joshua, verse 8 of Hebrews 4, if Joshua had given them rest,
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God would have not spoken of another day later on. It�s super simple.
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Joshua brings the young people into the land of promise. Those who didn�t believe
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God, they got killed along with Moses because of Moses� disobedience. And finally,
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Joshua brings the young people into the promised land. Well, David, hundreds of years later, talked about another future rest.
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How can Joshua�s rest, resting physically in the land, be the ultimate rest when later on in history,
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David talked about another rest? The land of Israel can�t be the ultimate rest.
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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
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Joshua, because that�s the word for Jesus. And you�re starting to think already, this kind of language that the
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Hebrews would understand. And here�s this type, and Joshua, as he got his people into the promised physical land, the later
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Joshua, Jesus will deliver his people into a spiritual rest. Come unto me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you, what?
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Rest for your souls. Jesus gives spiritual rest, whereas Joshua could only give physical rest.
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You could answer the question this way, wait a second, what about this rest? What was written first, Joshua, the book, or Psalm 95?
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And of course, Psalm 95 is second, and that�s talking about another rest. Verse 9, so then there remains a
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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 getting into the promised land of Cana, there�s rest for the people of God, even
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Gentiles. What kind of rest? It�s a spiritual rest. What does verse 10 say, for whoever has entered
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God�s rest? Spiritually trusting in Jesus� works, so you don�t have to work, has also rested from His works, as God did from His.
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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.
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I�ve told you maybe on my ornerier days, when people come to my door, and they knock on my door, and when they sell me solar panels,
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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 nice Mike, 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.
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I said I can�t do it, I�ve already tried, and plus I�m sinful, 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,
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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, do you know that�s a present tense,
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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
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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�s work, rested from his works, that�s a great definition of a
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Christian, 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 going to get kicked out of my family, strive,
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I�m going to get kicked out of synagogue, strive, yes my Muslim parents might try to kill me, it�s an honor shame killing, strive, it�s worth it, make every effort, the
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Greek word is spoudazo, 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, four, this is not a word about the
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Bible, although that�s true, this is primarily a word about judgment, what�s the context, four, 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 12 without reading 11, never read 12 without reading 13, the word of God, the written word of course in the hands of the surgeon
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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 conditional mortality, it�s trust in Jesus and 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
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Greek position, the first word in Greek isn�t for, F -O -R, it�s living, it�s front loaded, living, look back at chapter 3 verse 12, do you see it, the living
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God has a living word, take care brothers, Hebrews 3 .12, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living
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God, this is not a dead God, this is not a dead idol, remember those idols that you could see in the
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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
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God is a living word, 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
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T -shirt, God is dead, Nietzsche, and on the back of the shirt that you can get at the
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Christian bookstore, this is better than bench press this kind of thing by the way, with the cross of Jesus, on the back,
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Nietzsche is dead, God, if God is dead, his word is dead but since God is living, 3 .12,
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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 is going to examine me,
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I just had an MRI, I wouldn�t be afraid to know what the MRI�s results were if the
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MRI was broken but since it�s working, that�s the idea, there�s a power even in Acts 7 .38,
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Stephen talked about the Bible as living oracles, not kind of like the old school, not you know
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King James English, we can�t understand what it says, not this language that no one ever knows, it�s a dead language, no, it�s living, 1
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Peter 1, through the living and abiding word of God, Jesus said in John 6, the words
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I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and life, the pastor says to these dear persecuted people,
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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
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English word energetic, it has energy, it�s powerful, it can accomplish what
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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,
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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 and you could see like, you know, my iPhone, what were the first iPhones, were they iPhone ones?
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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 going to do that day?
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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.
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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
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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
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Proverbs 3 and I think, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him, he�ll make your path straight, it for the
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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.
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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 text say than any two -edged sword and what does it do?
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What does this sword do? I mean if the text went on to say, lopping off head and limb,
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I think sword, if the text went on to say dividing shoulder from arm,
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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 got to hold with a big kind of with two hands and you kind of swing 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 surgeon�s scalpel, why?
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Because this God who is going to do judgment surgery on people looking for things can really get down not just to the course aspects but fine -tuning aspects, the details, the minutia, the particles, the thoughts like no
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Ginsu knife could ever do. It says sword but it�s used in the context and some have translated this rightly, surgeon�s scalpel.
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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.
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They had surgeon�s knives back then and this particular surgeon�s scalpel is what?
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Two -edged, double -mouthed as it were. Why? Because it emphasizes how well it can penetrate, you got two sharp sides on the front and at the bottom, this is a short little surgeon�s scalpel and of course it�s figurative language just so we can understand it that does its work.
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Then David said to 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
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Philistine whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold it is wrapped here in a cloth behind the ephod.
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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.
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I need a sword, I don�t have a weapon, I�ll take Goliath�s sword and then
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Spurgeon said the word of God is like the sword of Goliath which has been laid up in the sanctuary of which
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David said there is none like it, give it to me. Why did he like it so well and now
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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.
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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
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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.
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But here we are not talking about salvation, we are talking about judgment surgery. There is everything in the world different from when
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I used to go to the operating room and see patients and they would be cut open with a surgeon scalpel, that is the first thing that happens after they put the patient out is they get everything put properly,
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I shouldn�t say the first thing but everything is ready and then the first instrument that they ask for, every time that I was in surgery that I can remember, scalpel and then they would cut that patient open.
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And there is everything in me that says you know what, that was kind of hard to take but at the end they sewed him back up.
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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, 99 times out of 100 they wake up and then off to recovery.
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But the one day when I went to the autopsy at LA County Medical Center and saw the autopsy
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I realized that after they cut the brain open and after they cut the sternum open and after they cut the heart out they didn�t put it back in.
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The surgeon scalpel isn�t to cut open and then excise the cancer, this is to cut open your soul and it will find sin.
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So flee to the cross. What�s worse than an autopsy? Being examined by the word of God.
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Well you know what, I�ll believe later and you know this is for adults and I�ve got my own life to live and I�ve got this girl
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I want to meet and I�ve got this guy and all these other kind of things. Friends, there�s an urgency here. When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly and they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of a hill country saying, �Here we are.
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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
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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.
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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
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Lord, the Lord will not be with you.� But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country although neither the
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Ark of the Covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. Then the
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Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them even to Hormah.
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Numbers 14. Some scholars think that as these Israelites didn�t think
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God was, you know, going to protect them from all the, they realized they went up by themselves without the
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Lord�s help, they were slaughtered by the sword. Don�t be slaughtered by the sword of judgment.
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Number four, piercing. Piercing. The fourth reason you should trust in Christ and rest in Him so you don�t get examined by this word that�s living, active, sharp and piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
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Here�s the Greek word for piercing, quite a neat word. It comes from two separate words.
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One means through and the other means to come. And so you come through something, it pierces.
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You go through the pulpit, it pierces. Calvin said there is nothing so hard or firm in a man, nothing so deeply hidden that the efficacy of the word does not penetrate through to it.
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And then the words of Jesus come to my mind and I think to myself, if you even look at a woman with adultery, with lusts, with desires, you�ve committed adultery and we�re going to be examined by this
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God and His word. 1 Corinthians 4, 5, �The Lord comes who will bring both to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men�s hearts.�
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God knows everything and He doesn�t have to learn it. He just knows perfectly, instantaneously.
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My first computer was an IBM 386, I�m sorry to admit it, SX. I plug that thing in and like click on something and it would grind.
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It was like I was trying to shift gears in my bicycle and just never shift, the derailleur�s broken. It would grind and grind and grind and grind.
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I don�t think it had any random access memory to be quite honest. When we think, we think, you know what,
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I learned this, then this happened, then a flow chart, if then A, then B and follow and how much information can
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I process and what will my memory be and random access memory and to God, it�s just known. It�s just known.
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Whatever you do here on earth or whatever you thought, it�s like you just shot up to the thrice holy God and just did it in His presence.
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Anger and sin and envy and pride and unrighteousness and self -righteousness, it�s like in your face
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God. He knows everything, He doesn�t have to learn. I mean, it�s built into us where we want to hide.
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In Adam and Eve, everything was fine. They were naked and not ashamed when there was no sin but the second the sin happens, it�s hide and cover with the fig leaves and run into the dark.
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He said there�s no darkness with God. He doesn�t recall information, it�s instantaneous and He never forgets.
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Hannah said that God is a God of knowledges for Samuel 2, not even singular, knowledges. He just knows everything.
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What does it do? Number five, it discerns. It�s living, active, sharper than any two -edged surgeon�s scalpel, piercing and discerning.
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Now we move from slaughter language, from sacrificial language to the judge language, to legal terminology, to a courtroom.
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It says to discern. This is when the judge has the evidence and he finds you guilty.
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Friends, if you�re a Christian here, I know many of you are, maybe most of you are, this should help you evangelize.
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When I study the doctrine of hell, two things happen. I become joyful that I don�t have to go.
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I shouldn�t go but I don�t have to go and I think to myself, I have to evangelize more. Every single person
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I meet will die and go to heaven or hell. I need to evangelize more, not because God will save more people if I�m zealous, but with this zealousness that Paul knew to evangelize.
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This verse should help you evangelize. You get examined by God.
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Here�s what I think, it�s going to sound really stupid. You go to the carnival and you stand in front of one of those mirrors and it just makes you look better, you know, it makes you look thinner and makes you look more shapely or whatever.
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Or we get the apps and you can kind of just hit that little thing on your iPhone and it�s got like a wand and you hit the wand and it makes your picture look better.
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This is what we think all of our own little works, righteous things do before God yet he sees us. It should help us to evangelize.
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Our friends will never withstand judgment day. And additionally,
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Christian, can you imagine? When I first got saved I thought this, I thought, wait a second, God not only knew everything
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I�ve done, he knows everything I sinfully will do in the future and he still says,
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I love you. I�ll send my son to die for you. You�re the object of my affection. I�ve given you to my son in eternity past to go rescue and to die for.
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It�s like the x -ray vision was already there because his knowledge is instantaneous. That God would know you so well and still love you.
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That�s a praise. From all eternity God knows everything you do and he loves you.
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Some writers say he loves you better than you know you. And it unveils or reveals number six found in verse 13.
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And now we�re moving from the word of God to God himself. There�s no real difference but that�s the movement of the passage.
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And no creature is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
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Sixthly, it unveils. Trust in Jesus because there will be an unveiling.
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Job said, Sheol is naked before God. Job 28 it says, for he who looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
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Psalm 33, the Lord looks down from heaven. He observes everyone.
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So therefore what�s the text say? No creature is hidden from his sight. God declares the end from the beginning.
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He knows everything. We used to say things like, you know, I�m going to slip something by someone.
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Nothing gets slipped by God. Does anything escape God�s notice? There are things that are going on in the world now, principalities and powers of darkness and invisible spirits that are zooming hither and thither.
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We see nothing. They�re invisible to us. God sees those. Was anybody there observing
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Cain when he murdered his brother? God saw. David did everything he could to try to cover his tracks with Bathsheba and Uriah and the army.
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God saw. And on judgment day, if you will not trust in Christ, if you will be so stubborn not to trust in Christ, it�s like the word of God held by God himself will say like Nathan did to David, you are the man.
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Depart from me you who practice lawlessness. Proverbs 15, the eyes of the
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Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. No wonder liberals want to do this.
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We will take God as loving. We will take God as forgiving. We will take God even as righteous. But please don�t let us have a
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God who�s omniscient because then he sees us and we�re undone.
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I mean, before we even talk, God knows it. There is not a word in my tongue but lo, O Lord, you know it all together.
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Since God is so infinite in his knowledge, then hypocritical unbelief must be repented of.
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No creature is hidden from his sight. Nothing in all creation. No created being.
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If you�re a created being, he sees you. His eyes don�t miss anything. Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 10, there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.
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We have people in the sex scandal in the media now and they are some, especially some lawmakers, have killed themselves because they did not want to have their lives exposed in front of everyone.
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Let alone it�s going to be exposed before God. The only hope is trusting in this great high priest.
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That�s the only hope. Akin thought he got away with it. He didn�t. The word uncovered there means, or open or naked, we get the word gym,
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J -Y -M, gymna. Instead of meaning gymnasium, it just means without clothes.
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In the old days of the gymnasium, you wore no clothes. It could be used of a body without clothing, a kernel of grain without the shell or the husk.
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The imagery here is simple. God just sees you for what you are, naked before the eyes of God, nothing covered, no armor, no
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Teflon, no Kevlar, naked.
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Just as God could see Adam after he sinned, he can see us. Even the unbeliever
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Seneca said, �We ought always to so conduct ourselves as if we lived in public. We ought to think as if someone could see what is passing in our inmost breast, and there is one who does thus behold us.
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Of what avail is it then that any deed is concealed from man? Nothing can be hidden from God.�
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I don�t recommend these, but remember the old Chick tracts, Jack Chick, C -H -I -C -K.
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He wrote these tracts and they were like comic books with a religious Christian exhortation.
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Most of them were easy believism or decision or regeneration, very, very anti -inflammatory, kind of an anti -Catholic take.
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I�m not for Catholic doctrine, but we just went too far the way he went about it. But there was one I loved. I think
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I still have a copy to this day. It�s the best one out of all of them. It�s called, �This is Your Life.�
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And a guy was partying, he was having a great time, and he was exhorted to believe in Jesus and he wouldn�t.
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And I think the comic goes, he got in the car and he got in an accident and he stood before God and then his life is played before him.
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And it had little dates there of sins and sexual sins and desires and unrighteousness and different dates,
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January 3rd, he just knew it all. I thought, that�s right, we�re laid bare.
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Take a look at that, exposed to the eyes of him, to be laid bare. That�s where we get the word trachea, trachea.
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Trachea just in Greek means, it�s a rough artery. And so it�s that cartilage here. And it�s like our trachea is exposed before God.
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If you ever want to kill an animal for sacrifice, I suggest you hold the animal somehow or you�re just going to be running around the pen with a knife, stabbing and poking.
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So what do you do? You take the animal and you put your hand down on its head and your other hand down on its shoulder blade to expose the neck so you can cut it.
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That�s the picture. It�s like our neck is exposed before God, there�s nothing we can do and we�re just waiting for the slaughter.
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Doesn�t that beckon you then? Trust in Christ? Because he�s the one, as it were, who held his neck open and said, �Father,
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I commit to you my spirit. I know you�ve forsaken me, but so you don�t forsake other people.�
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Bending the head back to cut the person open. That�s the picture.
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He sees all of us as naked before him and we�re facing judgment day.
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So the implications are obvious, but we finish with number seven. Trust in Christ so that you�re not judged by the living, active, sharp, piercing, discerning, unveiling word that also number seven will demand an accounting.
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Accountability. April 15th is IRS Accountability Day.
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There�ll be an accounting. How much more here? When I was a kid, some man told me, he said, �All these unbelievers run around and they sit and they seem to have fun.�
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And he said, �There�s a divine layaway program.� Remember what layaway was? Kids don�t know layaway now because they have ten credit cards.
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My kids don�t know that every time a credit card comes into the house,
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I just throw it away. They don�t know. They could have had ten credit cards by now. Back in the old days, you needed money to buy something.
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Or if you didn�t have money, Target or Kmart or one of these stores, you just put a little down and you could put.
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It�s a layaway program. Buy now, kind of pay later and stuff. That�s the way it is with sin. You sin now, but you pay later.
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You�re going to stand before God one day? Don�t. It�s unthinkable.
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It�s unnerving. It�s nightmarish. Explain your motives.
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Explain what you did. It won�t be any of that. It�ll just be known to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
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So trust in Christ. Have him be the sacrificial lamb in your place.
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Now, all of this was leading up to something. It is leading up to this Christian and we close here.
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Verse 14, 15, and 16, which we�ll look at next week. What if you did have to stand before God on your own?
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But Christian, you don�t. Verse 14, since we have a great high priest who�s passed through the heavens,
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Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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You have two options. Get examined by the word or trust in that great high priest.
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Let�s pray. I thank you, Father, for this word. Difficult, hard. We don�t want to think about some of these things, but they are true.
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I pray that you would increase our joy as Christians, knowing that we don�t have to do any of this for Judgment Day.
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When Jesus said it is finished, it was actually finished. And we have a high priest who didn�t just pass into the
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Holy of Holies once a year. He�s passed into heaven. He�s going to take us with him. And I pray,
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Father, that you would help us to be better evangelists. Would you help us not to have fear of man, fear of women, fear of losing jobs and standing and prestige?
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We�re not like these people who received this letter. We have it much better. So would you give us courage? And, Father, for those that are here today, trusting in any other way to get to heaven except belief alone in Jesus alone,
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I pray that your word will not judge them on Judgment Day, but it will judge them today and convict them of their sins, and that you might grant them repentance and faith in Jesus, in whose name we pray.