What does the Word of God do in our lives (Part 2)

Introduction

Last week, we began to take a look at the grace that God works in our lives through His word. We covered 9 things the word of God does for us. Today we are going to cover the remaining 5 things that God’s word does for us. The list probably could be longer, but this is the list I compiled. The main thrust of these two messages is that if God’s word is instrumental in providing for us these graces of God in our lives, we should desire and seek to habitually be exposed to it. The next few messages will focus on how we expose ourself to God’s word in a meaningful way and I hope to make them practical for us.

But most Christians do not struggle with knowing they should or even having some kind of a plan for how to spend time with God in His word and yet they still fail to consistently spend time in the word. The failure is one of the heart. So I pray that these messages will help to provide some motivation to seek God in His word consistently. Last week we saw that God uses his word to:

produce faith in our hearts

give us new life

give us assurance of our salvation

transform us

keep us from error

grow us spiritually

give us victory

bring joy

comfort us

The Word of God can diagnose our hearts

Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

This well-known passage is often understood to speak about the bible and I don’t want to get into a debate about whether this is Jesus or the bible; but keeping in mind that we are talking about God’s grace, we can understand this as God working through his word.

But notice what this passage says about the word of God:

1. quick- The word quick here means alive. Clearly we do not mean the book is a living breathing organism; but it is active. God works through his words. God words are not merely a historical document. As we have seen in all the points last week and this week, God works a work of grace through his word. It actually accomplishes something in our lives as the Spirit works through them. This is what Jesus meant when he said, John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

2. powerful- This is not the typical word for power in the bible. Its root word is the word for work. But it could be translated as effective. The words can accomplish something. On Wednesday, I just finished teaching on the sufficiency of scripture. Often times people do not think scripture is sufficient for the problems they face because they doubt it is effective or powerful. This is the result of wrong thinking because they don’t see how words on a page can help them, but they have forgotten it is God working through the scriptures. Humanly speaking If you think words on a page can’t really change things, think about Mein Kompf. Did the words on those pages change things? If even a human book can be so effective, how much more would scripture be effective.

3. sharper- The word of God is called all manner things in the bible: a hammer (breaks hard hearts), a fire (Jeremiah), a rock (foundation on which we can depend), a seed (that grows up in us until new life); but here it is the scalpel. It cuts to the heart. Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” This is why the word is often likened to a sword. Rev 19:15 “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Eph 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” Christianity is not about merely changing behavior.

A man can stop steeling but still be consumed with greed. Locking a murderer up in prison does not cause him to stop being a murderer. Changing behavior does not change a man. The heart of man must be pierced by the word. In my counseling, I can tell people how to see change in their lives, but unless it gets down into their heart, they will never change.

4. discerner- As the word penetrates the heart, it discerns right from wrong. We struggle to know our own thoughts and desires. Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Mankind invariably seeks to justify its own actions. I have found that the more intelligent the person is the deeper their delusion often is. They have come up with all kinds of reasons to justify their behavior. They even come up with religious reasons to justify what they are doing, but what it comes down to is they just want to do what they want to do. We so easily deceive ourselves, but the word of God can bring clarity in all the self-deception. It convicts and reveals two things:

Thoughts- wrong thinking, leads to wrong feeling and wrong action. As we have mentioned, part of the process for seeing true change in your life is renewing the mind. That means the word of God has to do the work of correcting our wrong thinking and replacing it with right thinking.

Intents- The word not only reveals our wrong thoughts, but it shines a light on our wrong desires and the plans that we have laid in our hearts. Men do what they do because they want what they want. Our desires hatch plans to fulfill those desires. Not all desires are godly desires and the word must do the work of discerning when my desires and plans are good. I think of the person who plans to skip church and often they rationalize it by saying “I am going to have an opportunity to be a witness at said event.” but really their motive is they just want to go to this event more than they want to spend time with God’s people. The word can search our hearts and point out where we are self-deceived in our motives.

The Word of God can give guidance

Psalm 119:105 “NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.”

Life is made up of a lot of little decisions.

What am I going to eat?

What should I do today?

What should I watch on TV?

But it is also made up of some big decisions.

Where should I work?

Who should I marry?

Where should I go to college?

Should I buy this house?

Because of this we often need guidance to help make those decisions. According to Psalm 119:105, God’s word is a lamp to help guide our decisions. I know you probably are thinking, but Pastor Jason, the bible doesn’t tell me whether I should go to Maranatha Baptist University or Florida State University. You are correct. You will not find a bible verse that says go to this school or that school. And if you try to flip open your bible and find a verse that seems to indicate your should go to Florida State University just because the verse says Abraham went down, then you are twisting scripture, misusing scripture.

But that doesn’t mean the bible does not have anything to say about this issue. Pastor Karsies has compiled a list of questions to ask yourself when making a decision about the will of God for your life. Every single one of these questions is based on a bible principle. (Hand these out and go over some of the principles)

The Word of God leads us to victory in spiritual warfare

Eph 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

Related to the word of God being a sword, is the idea that it is a weapon to use in spiritual warfare. The word of God is one of the most versatile of the armor of God. It is both defensive and offensive.

It is a defensive weapon

In the same way that a skilled fencer uses a sword to parry and block incoming attacks, we can use the word of God as our defensive weapon. Our knowledge of Scripture allows us to deflect the lies and deceptions of the enemy, safeguarding our hearts and minds from harm.

We have already seen how it can help us deal with temptation to sin from the temptations of Christ. Consider also Psalm 119:92 “Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” When life won’t let up, sometimes it is Satan’s onslaught to get us to despair and quite. The psalmist claims that delighting in God’s word kept him from perishing in his affliction. God’s word is a refuge, a strong tower for those who are grieving or in pain. We can run to it and find the comfort and strength we need to not fall prey to the attacks lodged against us.

It is an offensive weapon

The word of God does not just protect us from the attacks of the enemy. It allows us to get sweet revenge on the enemy. As a believer, we wage spiritual warfare against three enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil.

the world- the word of God reproves the world of sin. This is one of the roles of preaching. It brings conviction to the heart of society who has turned their back on God and it shines a light on the unfruitful works of darkness.

the flesh- As the word pierces to our hearts, it is able to kill the lusts of our hearts. By renewing our minds, the wrong thoughts and desires of our hearts are slain. 2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” When wrong thoughts pop up in your mind and wrong desires pulse in your heart, your response must be to submit them to the word of God. Preach the word to yourself, Meditate on its truth and let it cast down those sinful imaginations.

The Word of God prepares us to glorify God in our lives.

2 Tim 3:16-17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

This passage is probably one of the most significant verses for understanding the word of God. God gave it by inspiration but the verse also says it is profitable, or sufficient or useful for four things:

doctrine- it instructs us on right behavior and right belief. It tells us what we should be doing.

reproof- it corrects us when we are doing wrong. Jay Adams said it knocks us down when we have done wrong, but it doesn’t leave us there; it picks us back up again.

correction- The word of God helps us correct our mistakes and our sins. It shows us how to get right again.

instruction in righteousness- It also trains us to live in a way that glorifies God. Doing right isn’t always easy. Sometimes we have to be trained in how to live that way. As we saw in another message it takes discipline or the development of a habit of grace to see change in our lives. A drug addict doesn’t normally go down an altar one day and decide he is going to quite and see instant victory. He must go through a process of change to see that victory. In our lives, most sin works the same way. This is why sanctification or the process of change is often called progressive sanctification.

The Word of God warns us of a dangerous path.

1 Cor 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Finally, we come to the end of my 14 points on what grace God uses His word to accomplish in our lives. The word of God warns us of danger. Paul points to the examples of the OT. They were written down for a reason: our admonition. Admonition is the word Nouthesia from which we get Nouthetic from. This is the formal name for biblical counseling: Nouthetic counseling. But God’s word is giving to admonish us. Admonish means to give cautionary advice about something. See why it is used for counseling.

Proverbs 22:3 “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: But the simple pass on, and are punished.”

Application of the word of God is so necessary. Even in the nice little stories of the bible, we should be looking for lessons, warnings to apply to our lives.

When Saul goes to the witch of Endor, we should read that story and look for the warning embedded in the text. Here was a man who was so desperate for advice. Samuel has been dead for some time and he can’t go to him for good advice; so he goes to a witch and tries to call up the spirit of Samuel. Now I’m not going to weigh in on whether this was Samuel or not tonight, but I just want to point out that Saul when he needed advice went to the wrong place. He went to a witch.

We can be like Saul when we need advice. We can go to the wrong sources. Counselors, friends are necessary in our lives to give us advice, but it is so important that that advice drive us to the word of God.

Conclusion

Next week we will begin taking a deeper look at how we engage with God in his word, how we place ourselves in a position to receive his grace through his word. But tonight, I want to reiterate what I said last week. Where is your heart? Have you drifted off from spending time in the word? I bring up all 14 of these points because they are motivation to seek God in his word.

I am going to ask everyone who is serious about seeing God work in their lives to come down tonight and commit to seeking God in his word every day. Will you come?