We turn the page with the Holy Spirit

RECAP OF THE SERIES

Week 1 “Don’t miss the Journey for the Destination.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Week 2 “The Old Testament opens the window for us to understand the New.”

Matthew 5:17

Matthew 5:17 ESV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Week 3 “We turn pages of scripture to now truth from error.” 2 Timothy 3:16

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Remember we identified last week where our ability to correctly Interpret Scripture comes from?

The writer of Hebrews enter’s the idea of “entering God’s rest” in chapter 4. However in chapter 3 we have the picture of the struggles of obedience for the nation of Israel in the wilderness.

vs. 16 “Who were those who heard, and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

The consequences of disobedience is that they would not enter the promised land. (God’s rest)

vs. 11 of chapter 4 not introduces the “so what” of the preceeding section. In light of what has preceded, “let us then make every effort to enter the rest” (emphasis added).

The writer here is giving the emphases that we should strive to enter God’s rest.

This means that we must work against our natural inclination or efforts to prove our own righteousness.

One of our chief responsibilities in the Christian life is to exhort one another to faithfulness. This is one of the things we do every Sunday in corporate worship when we sit under the preaching of the Word of God. This is what we do when we sing the precepts of the word of God. This is what happens when we pray together the words of God. This is what we do when we fellowship together because of the words of God.

Hebrews 4:10–13 ESV

10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:10-13 explains the nature of this kind of faith. The kind of faith that enables us to enter into God’s rest is a faith that first demands that we rest from relying on our own works and abilities. He then tells us to make every effort to enter this kind of rest so that no one will fall by following bad examples of disobedience.

Making every effort to solely depend on God, to trust Him implicitly, to yield totally to His promises. We are either trusting ourselves for our own salvation or we trust God to do for us.

God created rest for our benefit, to restore us. We can experience true rest when we are spending time in God’s presence turning the pages of scripture. We need to take time out of our busy schedule to be still, silent, present, and allow Him to work in us.

Now the writer of Hebrews is going to define the role of the word of God in our lives.

Have you ever heard someone say they don’t need theology of the Bible, I just need Jesus.

This is a misguided statement. Christ cannot be divorced from His word. Our knowledge of Jesus as the divine Son of God and his accomplishments for us only come through Scripture.

Martin Luther Sparked Mass Literacy

Writing systems are thousands of years old and are found in ancient Sumer, China, and Egypt. But even in the most literate ancient societies only a small fraction of people ever learned to read, rarely more than 10 percent. So, when did people decide that everyone should learn to read?

The move toward mass literacy began in the 16th century with the belief that every person should read and interpret the Bible for themselves. This belief began to rapidly diffuse across Europe with the eruption of the Protestant Reformation. It was initiated in 1517 by Martin Luther’s delivery of his famous 95 theses. Protestants came to believe that children had to study the Bible for themselves to better know their God. In the wake of the spread of Protestantism, the literacy rates in Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands rose. Motivated by eternal salvation, parents and leaders made sure the children learned to read.

Religious beliefs also helped spur the beginning of state-funded schooling. As early as 1524, Martin Luther emphasized the need for parents to ensure their children’s literacy and placed the responsibility for creating schools on secular governments. In the 16th century, reformer John Knox pressured the Scottish government to initiate free public education for all children. One of his reasons was that everyone should have the skills to study the Bible.

Big Idea: When we hear it through the spirit we place our life under His knife.

3 IDENTIFYING FACTORS OF THE PART THE SPIRIT PLAYS IN TURNING PAGES OF SCRIPTURE

1. The word of God is Alive and Effective (Active)

“The Word of God”

“Word” - The Logos of God. In the beginning was the “word.” Jesus is the very word of life.

John 1:1 “in the beginning was the word”

The word of God is not a Dead Book it is a living Book

*The Word of God Breaths out New Life

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out”

Remember Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman. He declared that He would give her living water of which she would never be thirsty again.

In contrast to lifeless pagan deities, Yahweh is characterized as “the living God” (e.g., Dt. 5:26; Josh. 3:10; Jer. 10:10; Mt. 16:16; 26:63; Acts 14:15). “Living” is sometimes applied figuratively to inanimate objects: flowing water can be called “living water” because it gives life, and thus it serves also as a figure for the presence and Spirit of the Giver of life

Recall Elijah and his battle with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Elijah’s God is alive, the prophets of Baal serve a dead God who is not alive.

(perhaps your god is taking a nap or relieving himself in the john)

Consider every other world religion whether it is Buddha, or the God’s of the Hindu’s, they are not living and breathing beings. We have a God who is alive, and His word is alive.

The Bible is not merely a history book or collection of good interesting stories. It is a living breathing book with God’s words of instruction to His people.

From the very beginning of scripture god created the heavens and the earth with his word. Therefore, scripture, because it is God’s word, is alive and life giving. The Bible is not a bunch of dead, lifeless words. It is the very living words of God.

So, if it is the living words of God then it will accomplish everything that He has planned or wills for it to accomplish.

*The Word of God never Returns Void

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Void: Something that is not valid, empty, not legally binding.

God uses His words in surprising ways, at surprising times, and in surprising people. We cannot predict exactly how God will use his word but we can be sure that it will not lack its effective intent once it is deployed. God’s word produces the intended results in the hearts and lives of His people.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE WORD OF GOD

The picture of the Effectual effects of God’s word.

We see the living word of God in action throughout the pages of scripture.

1. The effectual words.

On the day of Pentecost Peter preached the effective words of God to the people in Jerusalem.

2. The effectual response.

The people responded by being cut to the heart, and asking the effectual question, what should we do now?

3. The effectual results.

3,000 were saved that day and as the disciples continued to give proclaim the living and active words of God in conjunction with the Holy Spirit as we read about in the effectual armor of God. Ephesians 6:17

Ephesians 6:17 ESV

17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

Note: Jesus spoke of the life giving properties of His words. John 6:63

John 6:63 ESV

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

The effectiveness of the words of God are only effective if the spirit is present in them. Without the spirit the words are lifeless.

Cultural Problem with Effectual words.

Many are listening to words that are not effective for anything? Why? Because the words are not His. The words are from human will and assertion.

Remember what we read last week as we looked at 2 Timothy 2:15-16

2 Timothy 2:15–16 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

The word of God in the hands of someone who is filled and led but the spirit of God is a powerful thing. However the one who is not a worker approved by the spirit of God.

Someone, who is not relying on His spirit to handle the truth He has given.

We see the living word of God in action every time a sinner repents and turns to God.

We see the living word in action every time we see a life transformed by the effectual word of God.

Commentator Matthew Henry wrote of the Bible.

That it “convinces powerfully, converts powerfully, and comforts powerfully. It makes a soul that has long been proud, to be humble; and a perverse spirit, to be meek and obedient.

Sinful habits, that have become as it were natural to the soul, and rooted deeply in it, are separated and cut off by this sword. It will discover to men their thoughts and purposes, the vileness of many, the bad principles they are moved by, the sinful ends they act to” (Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, Hebrews 4:11–16).

2. The word of God is Penetrating and Separating

Like photographs, mirrors have been used to create false realities. We act as though what we see in the mirror is complete — a self fully formed and rendered truly. But the mirror is only capable of showing what others see. Mirrors reinforce the idea that a person’s value lies on the outside of their body, that it’s possible to learn our value by examining (and altering) our appearance.

Mirrors can convey the false idea that our appearance is more important than personality and character. When most people look at themselves in a mirror they do not rally see themselves.

Everything is visible, but nothing really matters. We know the mirror is a trick and a trap. But we also know it’s a tool to succeed in a system that is broken, a world that assigns value arbitrarily and penalizes those who can’t adequately perform or conform. Perhaps that’s the ugliest thing about mirrors. They reveal more about society than they do about individuals, and what they show isn’t always attractive.

Scripture is sharper than a

“Double-edged-sword.”

The Word of God knives through the curtain between heaven and earth penetrating into the depth of the human soul.

Typically if you ask a room full of guys who has a knife you will have to duck for how many guys cannot wait to pull out their knife and throw at you.

It is like a right of passage for a guy to have a knife. Why? I could say that men are destructive by nature and like to cut things up. That sounds a bit psychotic and destructive at best. However, it’s not far from the truth.

The writer took something that everyone traveling in the early Palestine would have understood the use of a double edged sword which was protection at the point of inflicting pain and possibly death on your attacker.

The Word of God is intended to do spiritual surgery on your life.

The scalpel in your hands has not effect at all, however, in the hands of the master surgeon, now that is something worth experiencing.

It takes and ordinary day and makes it “extraordinary”.

It takes an ordinary moment and makes it a moment of “urgent decision.”

It takes an ordinary event and makes it a “theater for the Glory of God.”

It takes an ordinary life and “calls it to Holiness.”

Humanity wants to skip the casting call and leave the theater early or wander into the lobby at intermission and rewrite the ending of the story ourselves.

*The word of God penetrates into the human heart and mind.

DIVISION OF SOUL AND SPIRIT

Where do you find refreshment for your soul.

How do you approach scripture when you open your bible to read the words on the page?

Do you approach it with a skeptical heart and mind, or do you submit with a submissive heart and mind.

DO YOU READ SCRIPTURE OR DOES SCRIPTURE READ YOU?

The skeptical heart and mind

(you reading scripture)

For those who approach the Bible with a suspicious heart and mind are not relying on the effective word of God to read them, they are reading the words on the page with now effectual power to change their hearts and lives.

The bible then merely becomes an academic exercise we go through and we leave the same as we came. We read doubting the words have the power to change our hearts and minds.

The Submissive Heart and Mind

(scripture is reading you)

Scripture begins to untangle the mess of the human heart and mind. It begins to unearth the sinfulness of our human heart unlike any other book can or will do for us.

Have you ever open and read the Bible, or heard a sermon on Sunday morning and thought? How did that pastor know what I am going through? How did this book know the deepest parts of my heart and mind.

Master Surgery

The best surgeons in the world are going to spend countless years of preparation before ever stepping into an operating room to do surgery.

God has been setting up the surgery of a lifetime from the dawn of creation. Once the operating room was ready He came in flesh to begin the surgery of a lifetime.

When a surgeon cuts on the human body it will initially bring pain and suffering. However, the end result of all the pain of the cutting is to promote ultimate healing to your body.

The cost of the surgery that the God brought was through the pain and suffering of the spotless lamb of God on the cross. However, three days later the surgery was complete and Jesus walked out of the tomb.

However, for you and me the surgery is still ongoing in our lives. we all daily, need spiritual surgery in our lives. The Bible in yours and my hands has no effectual ability to heal. However, in the hands of the master surgeon it will bring the only healing that your spirit and soul, joints and marrow, desperately need.

IT SCRUTINIZES THE UNSPOKEN THOUGHTS AND HIDDEN CONCEPTIONS HEART.

There is nothing hidden from view when it comes to God. The Bible continues to unearth the deep dark hidden secrets of our hearts and minds.

We are reminded in Psalm 139 that there is no where we can go to escape the watch of God. Psalm 139:7

Psalm 139:7 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

David goes even further to ask God to search him and know his heart. Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

When is the last time you open your bible and sought the every watching eyes of God to look on the very thoughts and intentions of your heart.

Remember Davids great sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his scheming to cover up sin he had committed against the God of heaven. Remember the moment his sin was lay bare and exposed by God for all the world to see.

Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me! I am lost (undone) I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King of the Lord of Hosts.”

The cry of the prophet expresses the normal result of man’s consciousness of contact with God.

So Moses “hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6).

So Job “abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

So Peter fell down at his Lord’s feet, and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).

Man at such a time feels his nothingness in the presence of the Eternal, his guilt in the presence of the All-holy. No man can see God and live. (Comp. also 1 Samuel 6:20.)

3. The word of God is Revealing and Accounting.

vs. 13 the text now moves from the word of God to God himself. This shows how the two are inseparable from one another. You cannot effectively have one without the other.

Beyond the Darkness

To look up into a dark sky and see it suddenly open as lightning plays across it, to see in one revealing flash deep into the kingdoms of light, is to know what the word of God most truly is. The word reveals all those things that have been hidden and shrouded in darkness, but beyond that darkness is not a deeper darkness, but light--kingdoms of light.

*The Word of God Reveals our Exposed Status before a Holy God.

The Genesis Connection

The immediate reaction for Adam and Eve in the garden to the sin they had not previously known was the revealing of their nakedness. There is something shaming about nakedness.

One of the early things children understand is the need for clothing to cover their nakedness.

God’s first act of grace towards Adam and Eve was to cover their nakedness. Now we read how the word of God exposes our nakedness before God.

Even though God covers our shame and disgrace through the blood of Christ it does not change the reality that we are sinners before a Holy God.

The Bible exposes the reality of our sinfulness and God’s holiness.

2 Concepts He Exposes

THE HOLINESS OF GOD AND THE SINFULNESS OF MANKIND

Look what Habakkuk writes in Habakkuk 1:12-13

Habakkuk 1:12–13 ESV

12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. 13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

This is anything but characteristic of the human condition. We can tolerate what is wrong or else we would not be able to tolerate each other or ourselves for that matter.

Habbakuk asks the question how God who is so Holy can tolerate the evil state of the human condition.

The Bible is a gateway into the image of the perfect Holiness of God. As we look on that image knowing we are made in the image of God, however, our reflection does not look anywhere close to the image we see in the mirror.

The reason we need the Exposing Nature of His Word

If we do not constantly have the exposing nature of His word then when we do sin we would see it in terms of a mistake or a a misstep.

As if it somehow softens the blow of the shame and guilt associated with sin. We see mistakes as being a part of the human condition therefore, we use it to soften the blow of the reality of our sin.

To err is human, we say it’s OK, because we have become accustom to our fallenness and corruption, or perhaps our moral compass will become indignant when we see what we consider a egregious gross sin and fail to see the exposed sin in our own life in the same light.

Everyday disobedience does not seem to bother us anymore.

Similarities in Brain Responses to Religious Icons and Consumer Goods Neurologists [once] scanned the brains of people of faith as they recalled and reexperienced the times they felt close to God, either in prayer, worship, or solitude. Then they exposed the same people to stained glass, the smell of incense, icons, and other religious images that connected people to God. The same specific area of the brain (called the caudate nucleus) lit up in all of these people when they felt connected to God. The caudate nucleus is not a "God spot," just the part of our brain that is activated when we feel connected to the divine.

It gets even more interesting. The neurologists similarly tested another group, but this time exposed them to material possessions. When they showed images of products that were tied to "cool" brands, the exact same area of the brain lit up. The neuroscientists discovered that people who bought certain items experienced the same sensations as those who had deep religious experiences.

The transformation we read about in Romans 12:2 tells us not to conform to the patterns of the word but to be transformed in our minds. This study reminds us that the more we allow the spirit to do spiritual surgery on our minds through the word the more caudate nucleus will be activated. However, the more we expose it to the world and what it has to offer, those things are going to guide our caudate nucleus.

How do we understand Sin?

(R.C. Sproul)

Is it accidental or essential to our Humanity?

The term accidental refers to those property’s that are not essential part of our essence, they may exist or not exist without changing the property of an object.

For example, a mustache is an accidental property, if a man shaves off his mustache, he does not cease to be a man.

Essence, are those things that are necessary to it’s existence, if you remove them then it ceases to be that thing.

Sin is not sinful to humanity unless you assume that God created man sinful in the beginning. If this were the case then it would mean that Jesus was either sinful or not human.

So, sin is neither essential to humanity nor accidentally on the surface of our humanity.

The portrait we get when we read of man being laid naked and exposed status is that in our fallen condition we are utterly infected by sin to our core.

Sin is not an external blemish or flaw in God’s creation, but it goes to the very core of our being.

The word strips us bare before our own eyes as well as God’s eyes.

How does it change the way you see yourself? I am not all that and a biscuit and gravy.

What happens when we start to see ourselves as God see’s us?

you are Valuable

Gen. 2 “I am your creator and I breathed life into your lungs.”

Psalm 139 “He saw our unformed substance, and knit us together in our mothers womb.”

Matthew 10:31 “you are more valuable than the sparrows, yet not one falls to the earth that the Lord does not know about.”

Rom. 1:25 “from the beginning you have exchanged the truth for a lie.”

Rom. 3:23 “You have all sinned and fallen away from a Holy God.”

Eph. 2:3 “You were by nature children of wrath, enemies of the living God.”

Rom. 5:8 “His love for you is unquestionable, and undeniable.”

Rom. 10:13 “Everyone who calls on His name He will save you from yourself, He will save you from sin and death.”

1 Pet. 1:3 “you are now born again”

1 John 3:2 “You are a Child of the King.”

You are new

2 Corinthians 5:17 “You are a new creation.”

Romans 6:11 “You must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ.”

Romans 8:39 “Nothing can separate from the great love we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

You Have His Spirit

1 Peter 2:9 “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”

Col. 3:3-4 “You have now died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

You will be Transformed

1 Corinthians 15:52 ESV

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

You represented me

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

CONCLUSION

God has given you the great gift of His word, so that you will not follow the pattern of the nation of Israel and walk in disobedience.

If we are to walk in a manner worthy of his calling, we must get ready for the master sergeant to do his thing, and perform the surgery our heart desperately needs.

Problem: Here is the problem. Many of us are not willing to place our lives under His knife. Many of us attempt to do the surgery that His word was meant to do for us. Or we decide that any kind of surgery is out of the question.

God is going to hold you accountable for everything that is in this book. The good news is it’s an open book test. You have all the notes in front of you all you have to do is read them for yourself.

The bad news is that tomorrow is never promised. Where is the urgency in your life to undergo His surgery now and not wait for a better time, or better situation. The time is now, the operating room is prepped, the surgeon is scrubbed and ready.