Live Or Die By The Sword - [Hebrews 4:12-13]

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Tonight what we're going to do is get back into the book of Hebrews and chapter 4 now two weeks ago
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We looked at Hebrews chapter 4 and verses 1 through 11. We were doing a study on entering into God's rest and So tonight what we're going to do is get back into the book of Hebrews chapter 4
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We're gonna look at verses 12 and 13 tonight on Studying on God's Word and God himself
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Then Sunday morning next week. We're going to get a chance to finish chapter 4 with a study on Christ our great high priest so if you would turn to Hebrews 4 as We approach
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God's Word I just want to stop for a moment as we always should do And just ask for his guidance and his blessings, so if we could do that, please would you bow?
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Father we do bow ourselves in heart and mind before your amazing wisdom
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Before the revelation of your plan and purpose to save men and women
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And we confess our absolute need of the illumination of your Holy Spirit That he may shine upon the written page and into our our understanding that we may grasp your truth and Above all we just pray that you would take your word as the sword of the
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Spirit and That you would make it effective and powerful in our lives
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And it's by your grace and for your glory that we pray
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Amen Well, you know as we live the
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Christian life There are many disciplines that contribute to our spiritual growth
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For instance prayer is certainly a critical responsibility Responsibility as is the
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Lord's Supper Praise service to others, but I would argue that time spent in and around Holy Scripture is paramount if you want to grow in grace then
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Your time is well spent in reading the word in studying the word
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Meditating upon the word and yes memorizing the word You see as we do these things will become
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More like Christ and we'll walk in the spirit, but you know it's interesting to note that as we memorize
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Scripture We encounter a potential for danger Now what do
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I mean it certainly it's critical to hide God's Word in our hearts But when we do so we run the risk of obscuring the true meaning of the verse
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You see if we become overly familiar with a verse and we run the risk of isolating it from its context and Therefore misunderstanding it and when we regularly consider a verse that way isolated from its context
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We could just get the wrong idea of what it's meant to teach us Now a quick example of this can be found in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20.
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I'll read it It says behold I stand at the door and knock If anyone hears my voice and opens the door
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I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me Now this verse has been used in countless tracts and evangelistic messages to depict
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Christ Standing and knocking at the door of a sinner's heart But here in the context
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Christ is not knocking on the door of a sinner's heart not an individual sinner But the door of the Laodicean Church Now this was an apostate church
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It was apparently devoid of even one true believer, and that's why Christ is pictured as standing outside and knocking
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Well, I mean there are many examples of these I'm sure you can think of a few yourself But probably the classic example of this malady is to be found in Matthew 18 and verse 20
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Which says for where two or three have gathered together in my name? I am there in their midst right?
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now I Have seen this verse and blazoned across a banner at the front of the sanctuary of at least one church
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But you know in the original context this verse is focusing on church
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Discipline and on the importance of confronting a sinning brother Now I don't know this church.
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We were visiting all that well But I tend to think that's not the doctrine they were looking to emphasize when they hung the banner
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But I think you can see pretty easily that unless a verse is understood in the way that it was originally intended
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It's pretty easy to get yourself into trouble You know
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I've heard John MacArthur say That Scripture is not the Word of God But that Scripture correctly
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Interpreted is the Word of God, and I think that that's right because unless we understand what a passage
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Is telling us correctly, then we don't know what God is trying to teach us by it and So when it comes to understanding
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God's Word Context is King Now one of our verses today here in Hebrews is a famous memory verse
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Hebrews 4 verse 12 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 of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and attentions of the heart
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What a great verse Now that that's a verse that many of us have memorized right how many anybody right
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I? Know that it can be tremendously encouraging even isolated from the rest of its context in quite frankly
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It's not a verse that gets abused like some of these other memory verses that we've mentioned But I wonder if you've ever considered it in its broader context
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I wonder if you've ever considered it in the context of the rest of chapter 4 well today what
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I want to do is I want to show you the meaning of verses 12 and 13 and how they fit into the discussion of entering
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God's rest that is found earlier in chapter 4 Now as I said we're going to focus tonight on these two verses
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But in order to understand the total context I want to start from the beginning of chapter 4
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So let's look together now at God's Word verse 1 says
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Therefore let us fear If while a promise remains of entering his rest any one of you may seem to have come short of it
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For indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard
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For we who have believed Enter that rest just as he has said as I swore in my wrath.
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They shall not enter my rest Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world
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For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and Again in this passage they shall not enter my rest therefore since it remains for some to enter it and Those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience he again fixes a certain day
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Today Saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts
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For if Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken of another day after that So there remains a
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Sabbath rest for the people of God For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his
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Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience for the
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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 of both joints and Marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart and There is no creature hidden from his sight
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But all things are open and laid bare To the eyes of him with whom we have to do
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Well in the first half of this chapter if you remember from last week the writer Exhorted us to be diligent to enter into that promised rest of God He didn't want anybody who had professed faith in Jesus Christ to come short of the hope of that faith
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The hope of a Sabbath rest for the people of God the Saints everlasting rest
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Free from from sin and free from suffering free from opposition and hostility and enjoying the presence of God forever and so he exhorts us in verse 11
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Let us therefore be diligent. Let us earnestly strive Let us seek to enter in with all possible effort
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And let us hold fast to the confidence in Christ firmly until the end
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So that we can enter into this rest He doesn't want anyone to fail. He doesn't want anyone to follow the example of Israel in the wilderness
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Theirs was a an example of doubting and of disobedience discontentment They heard the word
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They heard the good news, but they did not enter in because they did not trust it They did not rely on it.
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They did not hold fast to the promises of God And he didn't want these
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Jews to whom he was writing to make the same mistake and so he exhorts them to diligence
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And to a life of active faith in Jesus Christ, and then he gives them an inspired
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Inducement to that diligence with verses 12 and 13 Now it's critical for us to see this if we're going to understand the link between verses 11 and 12
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Okay, so let's make sure that we understand verse 11 clearly and then we'll get to verse 12 now now verse 11 urges us to be diligent to enter
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God's rest so that we don't fall through following the example of Israel in the wilderness and He describes their disobedience back in verse 2
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They failed to believe the promises of God, but now let's be very specific
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Verse 2 indicates that what they disbelieved Was the good news preached to them?
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And that the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith
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So notice here that the focus in verse 2 is on the word The word did not profit them because they did not believe it.
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And so when verse 11 says be diligent to enter that rest What it's saying is be diligent to hear the word the good news and Be diligent to believe it and be diligent to trust it
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So that you don't murmur and forsake God and fall away from your commitment to Christ Okay, now we're ready to see the connection between verses 11 and 12
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Okay, be diligent to hear the word of good news and to believe it
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Because as verse 12 says the Word of God is living and active Let's stop right here make that connection really clear verse 12 is giving an inducement or a reason for the call to diligence verse 11 says be sure you know and Trust the
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Word of God and then verse 12 says that one reason to do this is because that word is living and active
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So you see today's text is really kind of a rationale It's an argument for why we must be diligent to enter
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God's rest by hearing and believing his word You see he wants us to enter this rest and he gives a sobering reason to do so and this is so critical
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Because you know the consequences of not abiding in Christ are severe And it's so vital that he just continues here with this extended exhortation
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This is really the pinnacle. This is the culmination of his appeal You must have a heart of faith and it must be a heart that is devoted to Christ And it has to hold fast to Christ firmly until the end he says be diligent in that regard
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And now comes the motivation now comes the incentive to be diligent
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For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword you see he's warning us that the risk of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin is a real danger and The possibility of being so hardened that you fall away from your profession of the
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Living God is a reality And that's why he has invested all his time
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And so now he comes to this very serious exhortation to be diligent and this very sobering reason and his reason is that God and his word are not to be taken lightly
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Now I want to outline this text very simply today very simply We're gonna outline it broadly and then we're gonna drill down in and try to get some of the richness
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Out of these verses, so I want to just divide the text up really cleanly in this way first of all verse 12 the
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Word of God and then verse 13 the
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God of the Word You see it's just as simple as that They're totally connected and intimately related.
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Well, you can never separate the Word of God from the God of the Word God doesn't separate himself from his word.
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God stands behind his word He is like unto his word and you know, they have the same nature
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The word is living because it comes from the Living God And it's
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God breathed God is literally speaking to you and to me and to anyone who will ever read this book and And he's speaking from eternity and across all the vistas of time right into each of our lives
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And when he does he speaks with all knowledge and all wisdom
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Making it absolutely pertinent to each and every one of us, you know
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I once heard Adrian Rodgers say that this book is more up -to -date than tomorrow's newspaper
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And I think he's right because when the word goes out God speaks and he speaks with total knowledge and wisdom and so the writer of Hebrews here is urging you to be diligent because God knows you and His word penetrates you you must be diligent because God knows if your faith is false or true
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You must be diligent for there is a word that is penetrating There is a word that is judging and there is a
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God whose eye sees all It's a sobering thought.
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This is a sobering passage But I want to study this together now and let's just reflect on it
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And understand it Now the writer wants them to understand how crucial it is that they heed this warning and so it's repeated several times in chapter 4
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Today if you hear God's voice do not harden your heart Don't don't refuse to submit to the
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Word of God when it's speaking to you and especially the word of promise in Jesus Christ especially the gospel promise
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Because as we can see in verse 12 the Word of God acts as our judge But he begins to examine it here and what he's saying in verse 12 really can be remarkably summarized
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By the words of Jesus himself In John chapter 12, I'll read it for you verse 47 says
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If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world
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But he who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him the word
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I spoke Is what will judge him at the last day? And so Jesus is saying my words will judge you of the
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Word of God will judge you and In fact, it's already at work in your life even today and So I just going to stop here at this point and ask you.
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How are you responding to it? Are you submitting to the power of his word?
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Are you letting it search you and and judge you and Mold you you see the confidence of a preacher
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Is not just merely in his ability But the confidence of a preacher is in the power of the
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Word of God with the spirit, but working behind it Because this word is a spiritual force and you have to deal with it as it examines your life this this is not just an empty word and so when this word confronts you as it proclaims the gospel and Challenges your faith and exhorts you to diligence you need to heed the word
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Because this word is going to judge and it's an awesome force.
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It can't be ignored. It can't be Detested it can't be doubted or or disobeyed.
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It must be heeded and those who fail to heed it and Those who fail to respond to it in faith
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Will face its righteous judgment Well, let's see how it's described here.
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And what I want to show you are three reasons Why you must submit to the power of God's Word?
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All right, three reasons why you must submit to the power of God's Word Now our first reason you must submit to the power of God's Word because it possesses a dynamic character
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It possesses a dynamic character now, it says it's living and active
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It's not it's not a dead letter. In fact, it's described as having the very attribute and Nature that has marked
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God four times in the book of Hebrews as the living God This is his living word
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It has vitality. It has life in it It endures forever
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It speaks it warns chastens us as The word goes out.
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It seeks to penetrate our hearts and it's something that's always at work. It's living and It goes after us
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It's Active or literally powerful. I Was thinking what examples do we have of the power of the word?
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Well by the Word of God the heavens were made That's a lot of power
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Even more than that, but it was by the Word of God that you were brought forth unto life, right? We were born again of seed with not what not seed which was perishable, but imperishable
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Through the living and abiding Word of God Look, it's a supernatural book and it alone can bring about a supernatural transformation and it does that by rebuking our sin and Chastening us and as we repent and run to it, it comforts us it guides us and gives light to our path
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It restrains our foot from evil It frowns on us when we sin and It warms our hearts with assurance when we obey
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It encourages us with its promises. It stimulates our faith It sanctifies us and ministers to every spiritual need that we have
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Now that's a lot of power It has the power to convict of sin and unrighteousness
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And I just wonder now at this point if you have ever felt the Word of God Convicting you
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I mean have you ever been affected by the Word preached? Have you ever noticed that the power seems to to transcend the words of the preacher himself as It begins to deal with you.
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So that is really not so much the man that brings about conviction But the Word of God that seems to get inside your soul and inside your conscience and starts to work on you
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Well, the Word of God has that power It has the power to assure you of the mercy and grace of God that is found in Jesus Christ It has the power to open blinded eyes to unstop ears and change a heart
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It has the power to transform a man or woman or boy or girl into the image of Jesus Christ It has the power to comfort a weary soul the power to encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble
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But it also has the power to pierce you to the heart because it's effectual
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It restores the soul it enlightens the eyes and makes wise the simple And it's profitable therefore because it's powerful profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness
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Because it's alive and active and it's always working
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It's God's instrument of choice and it accomplishes all his good intentions You know,
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I'm reminded at this point of what the Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 55 and in verse 10
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Listen to this It says for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there
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Without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout and Furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
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So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what
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I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it What a promise
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God says my word does my will Uh, my word expresses my will but my word also performs my will
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You see the Word of God possesses a power It's living and it's active and when it goes out it will do what
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God sent it to do Because it goes with God's power behind it
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And that's always the basis, you know for the confidence that we have as we preach the Word of God or teach the
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Word of God or even speak the Word of God because that is God's instrument of choice and It's living and it's active it possesses the power to affect its own pronouncements
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You know, I like what Paul said to the Thessalonians Regarding this first he thanks
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God for the way that they they received the word and then he says You accepted it not as the word of men
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But for what it really is the Word of God which also performs its work in you who believe so he tells them you took it for what it was what it is an active and powerful word and So we can see that you must submit to the power of God's Word Because it possesses this dynamic power now secondly
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You must submit to the power of God's Word because it possesses a dissecting capacity
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It possesses a dissecting capacity Now the writer is saying here that the
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Word of God is a dissector of souls And he says it's sharper than any two -edged sword
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It doesn't have any dulled edges And when it cuts it
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Slices right through everything and because of its double edge
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It's totally effective at what it was designed to do. I mean wherever and whenever you wield it
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It's going to do its work. And that's the way the
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Word of God is There's not a verse that you can turn to that does not have power There's not a chapter you can go to but that the
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Word of God will do its work and That's the way the Word of God is just cutting cleanly through all of our defenses and all of our excuses and it pierces as Far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and it penetrates into the core of our innermost being
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Now stop here when he says soul and spirit when he says joints and marrow
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He's not giving us a human anatomy lesson here. I mean, this is not meant to Distinguish our parts.
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He's not giving us a lecture in psychology or physiology or what -have -you But rather he speaks in terms of that which man does not do and in a sense man cannot do
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But he says God can do it God's Word can do it
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I see the Word of God goes into the hidden inner recesses of our being and He's using it here to paint a very vivid picture right
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Not dividing man up into two parts or three parts or joints and marrow or any of that at all What he's just saying is that whatever is inside of us the
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Word of God just cuts cleanly right through it and penetrates it And it reaches our innermost part.
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There is no place inside of us where the Word of God does not reach Nothing is impervious to the
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Word of God And it's meticulous as it examines the resources of our souls
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Now there's no part of our humanity that does not affect because it cuts to the core And I just want to ask you have you ever felt the
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Word of God cutting you? Have you ever felt it cut you to the very core?
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I mean to the core of your thoughts to the core of your motives in your conscience and your mind
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Just cutting each and every part of you Just thoroughly dissecting you and examining you well.
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That's what the Word of God does you know one man?
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When defending why he believed in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures gave this explanation, and I love this
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Just a three -word explanation. He said it Finds me the
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Word of God finds me now. Maybe this man's explanation resonates with you
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Have you ever been listening to a sermon when you suddenly realize that the Word is talking directly to you
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Well the Word of God has that power It's able to examine your life and to confront your ways
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It's able to scrutinize all your thoughts and motives It just it probes us it uncovers us and exposes us for what it what we really are
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That's exactly what it does You know
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John Calvin said if anyone thinks that the air is beaten by an empty sound when the
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Word of God is preached He is greatly mistaken For it is a living thing and full of hidden power which leaves nothing in a man untouched
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There's nothing so hard or so strong in a man nothing so hidden that the efficacy of the
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Word does not Penetrate through to it you see you can resist the
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Word of God and men do resist the Word but even as you are resisting the
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Word the Word itself is going to the very heart of that resistance and examining that resistance and attacking that resistance and it could be
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Excruciating when it cuts, but you know why it's so painful It's because when it cuts
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It's cutting the sinful flesh It's cutting the sinful soul and so you must submit to the power of the
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Word of God because it Possesses this dissecting capacity now thirdly you must submit to the power of the
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Word of God because it performs a Discriminating function it performs a discriminating function
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Well, let's ask the question. Why is it living? Why is it active what essentially is its purpose it's intended to examine us to judge us and To instruct us in righteousness, and it's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart
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This is telling you that the Word of God is your critic And not the other way around Because you see you don't sit in judgment on the
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Word of God, but rather the Word of God sits in judgment on you and it scrutinizes your thoughts and your motives and exposes them to the light of God's righteous judgment and As it examines your affections and your mindset and your rationale and it assesses those things and it looks to determine
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What is the heart? Going for what does the heart aspire to?
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What is the heart pursuing? What does it long for and as it examines you it begins to discern the very qualities of your character?
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It goes to the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and you know it's not flattered
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It won't be diluted and it can't be bribed Because it pierces is what it does it just cuts right through all of your defenses and it goes straight to the heart of your affections and into the commitments of your will and right down to your very thoughts and reasonings and Beloved the word judges us
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The word is always judging us, and you know every one of us is going to be a debtor to the
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Word of God Now we're going to either be a debtor to its promise of mercy in Jesus Christ Or we're going to be a debtor to its promise of condemnation for those apart from Christ But the bottom line is that there is no avoiding it, and there's no getting away with it.
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You just cannot Escape the Word of God and so you must submit to the power of the
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Word of God because it performs this Discriminating function well, okay, then he considers the second part here in verse 13 the
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God of the Word And it really flows together naturally
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It goes from the very Word of God the very breath of God the very revelation of God To the
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God who is behind that revelation and the writer doesn't see any kind of a conflict between them
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Because they're indivisible there is no inconsistency here in other words you have to deal with this word
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Because he is behind it you see it's not just simply a word.
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It's his word the Word of God searches us thoroughly and the
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God of the Word Understands us perfectly Then notice how he deals with this in verse 13
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He says 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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So you see nothing is ever concealed from the gaze of God Nothing escapes the scrutiny of what
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Robert Raymond called his lidless eye All of us live our lives as if we were right in front of God and As we live out our lives we have we have no right of privacy at all
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We have no privacy of thoughts no no privacy in our speech no privacy in our motives no privacy in our actions
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Because nothing we do is hidden from him You know
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I can think of at least one verse in the Old Testament that speaks to this also Proverbs 15 3 which says
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The eyes of the Lord are in every place Watching the evil and the good you hear that the eyes of the
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Lord are in every place well, then that would mean that the eyes of the
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Lord are right before your computer screen and that the eyes of the
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Lord are right before your magazine and That the eyes of the
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Lord are right before your TV show and that the eyes of the
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Lord are upon you in that hotel And that the eyes of the
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Lord are before all your thoughts and before all those things you do when nobody ever sees you
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But the eyes of the Lord are there Nothing we do is hidden from his sight nothing at all
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And there's nothing that we do that escapes his notice. You know God maintains an exhaustive surveillance
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Now looking at verse 13 now first. He states it negatively to see that no creature is hidden from his sight
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But then he makes a positive statement all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do
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Now you know the language in the original here is much more graphic than our modern translations render it
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Now that word translated open in our modern versions is is a word that literally means naked or uncovered
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You See we are completely exposed in God's sight because everything is open to him
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But now the word translated laid bare is even more vivid here And in the
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Greek work the word in the Greek here in the original language would literally mean to grab by the neck
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It's where we get our modern word trachea, right So the picture he's painting here is of your neck being bared and it's meant to illustrate the fact that each of us lies defenseless and Vulnerable before the sword of the
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Lord He needs to portray. This is a serious threat
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We're all exposed and helpless before God's judging and all -seeing eye
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And we can't talk our way out of it And we can't escape it because each of us will be forced to face the truth about the life that we've led
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It's just unavoidable and his discerning eye will see if your faith is a sham or if it's genuine saving faith
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It will see if you have a true commitment to his son Jesus Christ as your
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Lord and your Savior Or if it's just some kind of a charade And so the writer here, he's saying you must be diligent because you're exposed
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Listen this matter of a real commitment and a real faith that holds fast to Christ This is something that can't be faked at least not before God You may be able to fool your friends.
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You may be able to fool your family You may even be able to fool yourself but You can't fool
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God. He will not be mocked. You know,
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I'm reminded of the words of Christ here at this point and then the gospel of Luke Who warned us to beware of the leaven of hypocrisy
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Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees So Jesus was talking about hypocrisy.
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He was talking about looking like something you aren't and Acting like something you aren't and this is the guide with whom we have to do
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He takes your commitment to faith in his son seriously And it's to this
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God that we will all one day give an explanation Of the life that we've lived There's going to be an accounting for what you did with his word
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Now, I know that that doesn't sound very encouraging but beloved. It's the truth in that day
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Every mouth will be closed and every one of us will be held accountable to God and there will be no excuses and no extenuating circumstances and no rationalizing embellishing
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No wishful thinking Not even the slightest possibility to deceive and you know
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There's only one way to escape it. There is only one way to escape the justice of God in that day and That is by being found in his son
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Jesus Christ You see to miss Christ is to miss
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God's rest You must be diligent to enter that rest because the
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Word of God knows whether your profession is true or if it's just some kind of pretense and So we cannot play any games with God or with his word.
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All right. Well, so then what do we do? What do we do in light of this difficult text?
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I? Mean this has been a rough message These two verses are really threatening and you know, we're finishing it right here
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We're not even going on to the more encouraging verses that come next At least not today
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But you know, there is some encouragement coming up in chapter 4, isn't there? You know because as verses 12 and 13 focus on God as the judge of all the earth
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We do come next to God who is the merciful one and to the throne of grace
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Where we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need in verse 16 but now notice in your
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Bibles what comes between God the judge in verse 13 and The God who shows all that mercy in verse 16
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Do you see it? Who is it? It's Jesus Christ Our great high priest in other words the only way that we can be spared from God's judgment and brought into God's favor the only way we can avoid his condemnation and Enjoy, the gracious provision of God Is through the mediator?
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through the man Christ Jesus and Our text goes on to say
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Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the
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Son of God let us hold fast our confession For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize
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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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Now maybe you're sitting there wondering. Well, what must I do? Well, this is what you must do
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You must humbly recognize that you're open and exposed and helpless before God And you must accept the judgment of his word against your own heart
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When when the Word of God rebukes you when it critiques you When it condemns you
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You need to humble yourself to its criticisms you ought to receive the word as the infallible discerner of your soul and then bow to its judgment and if you do
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Then as you stand there guilty and in need of pardon You'll find in that same word the promise of a
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Savior Christ the Lord and he's a
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Savior who will grant us pardon as we stand before God's righteous judgment
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You see it's a word that pronounces judgment, but praise
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God It's a word that also pronounces mercy upon those who trust in his
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Son now dear friends. This is the gospel That God has sent his son to save sinners just like you needy judged sinners who cannot stand up to God's holy standard
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You see if God's Word it's perfect but we're not and And it reveals our imperfections it exposes our sin and as we're examined by God's Word and By his searing eye
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Nobody can stand no man can stand against that judgment But you know that same word that pronounces a judgment on those under sin also pronounces mercy in his son to all of those who cease to rely upon themselves and Upon their their own virtues and upon their own merits of the word says here is a
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Savior Trust in his righteousness trust in his
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Sacrifice and you will be pardoned and you will be accepted by God That is the word of hope that is the word of promise
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And that is the word of grace May we all have the grace to submit to the
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Word of God as it examines us. Let's bow in prayer
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Father we thank you for your word Lord we thank you for the whole counsel of God even those uncomfortable parts to hear
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Lord we know that it's the bad news that makes the good news so good and We thank you for the peace that is to be found in your son and in your son alone we pray
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Lord that we would you would grant us soft hearts Lord that are just tender to your word and That are readily changed and molded into the shape of of your son
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And we pray that you would allow your word to do its work to that end we thank you for your precious word and would you help us always to treasure it and Submit to it
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Lord until that day when we see you in glory And we pray it in the precious name of the