The Wounding Word

In 2023 God is calling us to be “All In” for Him.

Actually, He has been calling us to be “All In” from the moment we repented of our sins and called Him, Lord.

But what does it mean to be “All in?”

To be 100% sold out to Jesus?

It will start, as I preached the first Sunday of this new year, with total consecration.

Being willing to be set apart for the purposes of God.

As Mark Batterson says:

The word consecrate means to set yourself apart. By definition, consecration demands full devotion. It’s dethroning yourself and enthroning Jesus Christ. It’s the complete divestiture of all self-interest. It’s giving God veto power. It’s surrendering all of you to all of Him. It’s a simple recognition that every second of time, every ounce of energy, and every penny of money is a gift from God and for God. Consecration is an ever-deepening love for Jesus, a childlike trust in the heavenly Father, and a blind obedience to the Holy Spirit. Consecration is all that and a thousand things more.

If we are consecrated to Christ we will be surrendered to what He wants to do IN us.

Even to the point of surrendering to the Wounding Word.

Listen to our text this morning:

Hebrews 4:12–13 LSB

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 intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.

May we come to see the Word as our closest and dearest friend, because:

Proverbs 27:6 (LSB) Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

The things that are birthed of this world, of the flesh — the media, the music, the influencers, the people —

They will kiss us,

They will coddle us, defend us, approve us.

But they are our enemies.

They only want us to stay enslaved to them.

Enslaved to the flesh.

Even though it pierces us, wounds us and lays us open like a surgeon’s scapel.

Even so, it is our Friend!

The Word of God is an enemy of the flesh, but a friend of the Holy Spirit operating inside us.

That’s why our flesh doesn’t want to read and study the Word.

Why it resists daily Bible-reading plans

Instead of kissing us, The Holy Spirit inside us will say:

Look to the Word.

Let it pierce down deep.

Let it lay bare our thoughts and intentions.

The Holy Spirit tells us to submit to the Word of God, to surrender to the ministrations of the Bible so that it can:

Enable us Ephesians 4:22–24 (LSB) to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

So that will we be as says: Romans 12:2 (LSB) … Not … conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So, we surrender to the wounding of a TRUE friend.

As Batterson says: Instead of dissecting Scripture, we need to let Scripture dissect us — our thoughts and attitudes, our dreams and desires, our fears and hopes.

Why?

Philippians 3:20–21 (LSB) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself.

So that we can be conformed to the glorious image of Jesus.

How does the Word do that?

How does it make us more like Jesus?

The Word Reflects

First of all, the Word makes us more like Jesus is by reflecting the reality of our present state.

The Word of God reflects what is.

Not what we “think it might be.”

But what it is.

It reflects the reality of our lives.

The Word is the reflecting mirror of life (James 1:22–25).

James 1:22–25 (LSB) But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

It reflects and exposes the kind of person one is (Ro. 3:9–27).

It reflects the truth when sin is present. It reminds us:

Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

That Romans 6:23 (LSB) [That] the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What do we do with that information — that reality?

The Word Wounds

We must embrace the Word and what it wants to do in our lives.

We let it wound us

As our text says:

It will pierce.

It will mortally wound the flesh

IF we will submit to what God send it to do in our lives.

Ephesians 6:17 tells us that the Word of God is more than a mere book…

It is the piercing Sword of the Spirit

It strikes and arouses an awareness of one’s immortal spirit and discerns one’s thoughts and motives.

The Word Burns

We not only let the Word pierce us, but we also let it burn the sin away.

We let it burn up that which is impure, unholy, defiled by the flesh.

Jer 23:29a “Is not My word like fire?” declares Yahweh,

The Word of God is the burning fire of conviction.

NOT condemnation — conviction.

Condemnation is what the devil does.

He entraps us with sin and then laughs at us — tormenting us.

Accusing us because as Rev 12 tells us he is the “accuser of the brethren”

Telling us there is no way out.

It is like we see in Zechariah 3:1 (LSB) Then he [an angel of God] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

See, that’s the devil.

He accuses and condemns.

Ah, but God convicts us of our sin and when we repent and turn to God we see an illustration of what He does in …

Zechariah 3:3–5 (LSB) Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments [of the flesh] and standing before the angel. 4 And he answered and spoke to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have made your iniquity pass away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” 5 Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of Yahweh was standing by.

The devil condemns, he tells us our situation is hopeless, but then the fire of God falls and convicts us of sin.

God, through His Word, calls us to repentance — a turning from our sin.

When we allow the fire of God’s Word into our lives it will burn away the dross of our sin.

The fire of God falls and consumes all of us like the sweet-smelling sacrifices of the old testament covenant.

It burns and consumes the heart, the conscience of men.

Hebrews 12:29 (LSB) for OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.

May we surrender to the Fire of God’s Word, that convicts (tells us to repent), that consumes and purifies our lives.

The Word Crushes

Not only does the Word of God wound and burn,

But the Word of God is also the pounding hammer which crushes the hardness of man’s heart.

Jeremiah 23:29 (LSB) “Is not My word … like a hammer which shatters a rock? declares Yahweh?

The Word of God can break and crush when nothing else can…

Not rhetorical excellence.

Not argument or debate.

Only the Word

Oh, God I surrender to your Word that breaks the hardness of my heart.

That leads me to repent and turn from my sins instead of setting my face against God like flint.

The Word Cleanses

The Word, wounds by piercing, it burns, it hammers and crushes my will to sin.

And then the Word of God is the cleansing water of sanctification:

John 15:3 (LSB) “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Jesus prayed a High Priestly prayer to the Father in John 17:17 (LSB) “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

Titus 3:5–6 (LSB) [Jesus] saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Not are we washed and cleansed individually, but as we read in Ephesians 5:25 God washes and cleanses His own, the church, through the use of the Word.

Ephesians 5:26–27 (LSB) so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

That God for the cleansing power of the Word of God.

The Word Births

After revelation that leads to piercing, burning, breaking and then washing — the Word births, or produces new life within.

The Word of God is the reproducing seed of the new birth .

1 Peter 1:23 (LSB) for you have been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

People are spiritually born again by hearing and believing the Word:

Romans 10:17 (LSB) So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

The Word Nourishes

After new birth, that God-life that is within us must be nourished.

And it IS!

Through the same Word of God.

That Word that reveals, pierces, burns, breaks and washes produces a new life — AND it nourishes that new life.

The Word nourishes NOT THE FLESH, but THE SPIRIT.

The Word of God is the nourishing food of the believer.

1 Peter 2:2–3 (LSB) like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have TASTED THE KINDNESS OF THE LORD.

The believer grows and lives and is built up through the study of the Word

As Jesus told the devil in Matthew 4:4 (LSB) … “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

As the Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:32 (LSB) “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who have been sanctified.

The Word Guides

Finally, the Word of God is the guiding light of the believer (Ps. 119:105).

Psalm 119:105 (LSB) Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Last night I had an interaction with a Gloo Explorer from Cherokee County, NC.

Yet another person looking for guidance.

Do you need guidance this morning?

Are their critical decisions ahead of you in 2023 — look to the Word of God.

Let the Holy Spirit make it come alive to you and IN you.

Let the Lord, take you by the hand and lead you all the way home.

Will You Embrace the Word?

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