Hebrews 4:12
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Does everyone have bibles with them?
Tonight we will be taking a break for from the book of Romans as Michael isn’t here and we will be in the book of Hebrews. If you have any of the ESV bibles or church’s bible it should be on page 1002 or 1003
Before we start I’m just going to open us in a word of Prayer
A bit of background of the book of Hebrews
Unlike Romans which was written by Paul to Gentiles, Hebrews was written by unknown Author to a primarily Jewish audience
The audience was most likely a mix of some newer Jewish Christians and some Jews who had yet to place there faith in Jesus
It’s important to note that the fundamentals of the Gospel presented to Jews or Gentiles is the SAME. But this book takes particular interest in some of the questions a Jewish believer might have
Think of some of the questions you might have as a brand new Jewish Christians.
How does Jesus relate to the old testament Law? To Moses? To the temple? To the sacrificial system? To the high priest? To David? To dietary laws? To the Sabbath?
So a large chunk of this book is dedicated to unpacking how Jesus is the fulfillment of all OT promises. Jesus is perfectly obeys and fulfills the OT laws, he is greater than Moses, His body is the temple, His death on the Cross puts and end to the sacrificial system. He is our great high priest.
In chapter 4 of Hebrews, the author of the book explains how Jesus is the fulfillment of the promised land and Sabbath rest. The Sabbath for those of you who might not know, was the 7th day of the week that was supposed to be a day set aside for rest from work and worship of Yahweh in remembrance that when God created the world in 6 days, on the 7th, he rested. That imagery of resting is used throughout the OT even when describing the promised land as a kind of Sabbath rest that the people of Israel might enter.
So as we approach our text tonight, the author is describing how Jesus is our Sabbath Rest. The Old testament ISRAELITES were offered that kind of rest in the promised land but they never fully attained it. Why? Why did the Israelites never fully have complete control over the promised land This is important for us to understand if we want to understand OUR verse tonight. Hebrews 4:2 tells us.
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
They didn’t attain that rest because they lacked faith in God. Entering God’s promised rest is about having faith in the promise. They didn’t rely on God’s promise that he would drive their enemies from the land. In short they relied on their own ability or lack of ability.
In the new covenant, the new testament, that Sabbath rest is all about having peace with God. Not a rest from earthly enemies, not rest from earthly hardship, and for the church, its not about acquiring land, but its a rest from relying on our own works to have peace with God. This shouldn’t be foreign to us right? This is what we’ve been talking about in Romans? How do we have peace with God?
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That is TRUE REST. Not merely resting on a Saturday, but not relying on your own merit or good work to please God and be acceptable to Him. In this way Jesus becomes our Sabbath Rest. So its in this context that we come to our text in Hebrews 4. We will be focusing on verse 12 tonight but I’ll read from verses 11-13 for context.
Hebrews 4:11–13 (ESV)
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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. 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.
Now you might be asking how this verse on God’s word relates to rest, and I promise if you follow along well get there, you’ll be able to understand. The three points of the message tonight are 1. The nature of God’s Word 2. The Power of God’s Word 3. Enter God’s Rest
Point 1: The Nature of God’s Word
Point 1: The Nature of God’s Word
Its not hard to see where point one comes from, its the very first part of our verse tonight. God’s word is Living and active.
What does that even mean for the word to be living and active? How can a word be living and active. This isn’t the normal way we speak of other writings. How bizarre would it be to say that a letter I wrote is living. And thats because the bible is not like other written literature.
The word of God is living and active in this way: it is a inerrant (without error) revelation, display, communication of the living God.
God’s word is not merely dead ink on paper. It isn’t like the Quran, the book of Mormon, its not like your favorite work of fiction, its not like the church newsletter.
The word of God is living
There is so much we can say about how God’s word is living and active but it is probably best to let scripture do the talking when we are talking about God’s word. Concerning how God’s word is active, Isaiah 55:11 says:
Isaiah 55:11 “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.”
God’s word never fails to bring about what it sets out to accomplish. God supernaturally decides that when his word goes out from His mouth, what it says MUST happen. When God speaks, it is never futile.
It is living. Another aspect of it being alive is that it has a real effect on those who hear it.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
The word of God WHEN applied by the Spirit of God is ALIVE as it works in the heart of those who hear it. Remember we heard this in Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
So the word of God is living because it accomplishes whatever its purpose is and it has supernatural power to change hearts. Think about what that means. The book that most of us have in our hands right now is alive. What an incredible gift WE HAVE.
We have words that can bring the spiritually dead to life.
Another implication is that we can trust it. We can stake our entire lives upon it. We will never regret trusting what it has to say. I can’t say that about anything else in this world. All of the promises of God are sure to come to pass. You guys should be such comfort to all of us as we face difficulty in life, we can trust that the promises we find in this book MUST be fulfilled.
Lastly the word of God is living and active in that it is the very power of God.
If we look back to Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
The word of God is powerful. The word of God is the means, the instrument God uses to uphold the universe. The millions of galaxies. All of time and space. That same power is in this written word for us.
Application: Tonight as we meditate on this word, I think its worth pausing for a moment and think about what his means.
Those of you hear who are Christians, do you treat the word of God the way the Bible describes itself.
No like REALLY DO YOU
Do you treat it like the very power of God that upholds the universe. That’s what it is. THATS WHAT IT SAYS How many of you neglect reading altogether? How many of us treat it as less important than mindless scrolling?
Or maybe when you do end up reading it, you treat as just another thing to get done. May God forgive us for treating His word like that. and even now as I preach the Word of God to you, I praythe spirit is working in all of our hearts to convict us of our sin of treating the word of God as if were dead and idle rather than living and active.
Point 2: The Power of God’s Word
Point 2: The Power of God’s Word
God’s word is living and active, but what exactly does it do? What power does it have? What sort of impact does it have in our hearts and how does that at all relate to entering God’s rest.
Remember our verse (Hebrews 4:12) is spoken as a warning against disobedience. In other words, trying to enter God’s rest on own own terms. The Israelites didn’t enter the promised land, why? Because they lacked faith. So what does it mean when our text tonight Hebrews 4:11 says “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” What is that same sort of disobedience thats being talked about?”
Lack of faith. Hebrews 4:2
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
SO why does the author switch to talking about the word of God? Shouldn’t he be talking to just encouraging us to have faith? The next verse you would expect would be something about placing your faith in God Right?
The reason he talks about the word of God is that the power of God’s word exposes our lack of faith. It shows the sin in our hearts. It shows us that the only way to peace with God is to give up on trying to do it ourselves
Read with me again our main verse tonight Hebrews 4:12 “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.”
The verse here says the word is sharper than any two-edged sword
Have any of you guys ever gotten cut by a new knife or a knife that was recently sharpened? It’s really easy to do. It’s actually pretty shocking how easy it is and how deep the cut can be. The book of Hebrews here is wanting us to have this imagery of a sword or a knife cutting through flesh. That is how the word of God is. It cuts through the outer appearance of things and goes deep.
I mean this wording here of soul and spirit, joints and marrow . We could spend a lot of time on what that means but essentially what the text is trying to convey is that at the deepest level that one could possibly examine a human, that is how deep the word of got penetrates. And what does it do when it gets that deep? It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart .
Really think about that, when we are exposed to the word of God it judges our deepest motives and intentions.
In reality, it knows us better than we know ourselves. Even for those of us who are Christians, we sometimes can be blind to the hidden sinfulness of our thoughts and intentions.
Think of the thoughts and intentions of your heart even today.
What did your thought life look like today? Did you watch something you shouldn't have watched. Did you speak in a way dishonoring to God? Were you judgmental of others? Did you do something seemingly kind only to gain self recognition and applause. How about when you woke up this morning. Were you thinking about how you could serve others above yourself? Did you love your enemies?
This is how deep the word of God cuts. It strips us of this pride. It shows us our disbelief. The sinful thoughts we cover up from the outside world, and sometimes even cover up from ourselves, are shown by the word. It is is so good even as Christians to allow God’s word to do that to us.
This is how word of God helps us to enter the sabbath rest. It destroys any idea that we can enter by anything else but FAITH ALONE. How could we even dream about being at peace with God when His word shows us how wicked we are.
Without God’s word it is so easy to think of ourselves as decent or even good. Our lack of trust in God is buried deep and hidden. When the Word of God penetrates our heart, we are laid bare. The next verse after our passage, Hebrews 4:13 says
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.
What powerful imagery. We are all naked before God. Meaning there is nothing that the word of God doesn’t uncover. I dont know about you but for me that’s very humbling thought. Those of us who even have a taste of how sinful we are realize how scary that is. Nothing can be hidden from his sight.
Understanding this, we really come to realize that is is only by faith in what Christ has done that we enter God’s rest.
Point 3: Enter God’s Rest
Point 3: Enter God’s Rest
The entire purpose of the preceding points on the nature and power of God’s word is aimed at showing that we must come to God with empty hands. IMAGINE THINKING OTHERWISE! THAT WE CAN APPROACH A HOLY GOD. NO when the word of God shows us for who we really are we say with PROPHET ISAIAH: Woe to me!”“I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King
Only through faith can we enter into God’s rest.
This brings us back to the good news of Romans 4:4–5 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”
For those of you who are Christians here tonight, I want to assure you that your faith is counted to you as righteousness. When you are laid bare before God as His word searches your heart, you are covered in Christ’s righteousness. What a reason to rejoice!
NOW As you read the word of God, and the spirit works to uncover wicked and sinful temptations and desires, we can say with the Apostle Paul, Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That is rest.
Now as Christians, Word of God searches us and draws us closer to God. It sanctifies us!
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word (God’s WORD) is truth.”
The word now tranforms us into image of Christ and produce thanksgiving for peace with God, We have that amazing, unspeakable rest, was already accomplished by His son.
When we have that promised rest even as we fight against the sin that is revealed by God’s word, we remember we have a God who is sympathetic to our struggle. Let’s read Hebrews 4:14–15 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Ephesians 6 even tells us that the sword of the spirit, the word of God is one of our tools to fight our spiritual enemies.
For those of you hear tonight who do not yet know the Lord. Maybe you have Christian parents but have never repented over your sin trusted in Christ for salvation . I pray that Holy Spirit would use God’s word to reveal your lack of faith and unearth the sinful thoughts and intentions of your heart. tonight, if you do not trust in Christ you do not have peace with him. In fact you are his enemy who as Hebrews 4:13 says will give an account of your life.
Everything laid bare, nothing hidden. The word of God will show that even your seemingly good deeds were corrupted by selfish ungodly intentions and desires. When you die, the word of God in the flesh Jesus Christ will judge you. And the sword spoken of then will not be the sword the scriptures but the sword of God’s judgement against you.
Revelation 19:15 “From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”
I just urge you now, don’t make that mistake. As the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin tonight, I would invite you to place your faith in Jesus Christ , the son of God who came to earth, lived a sinless life, payed for the penalty of sin on the Cross by taking the wrath we deserved, and who was raised on the third day. All of it so that you might find a perfect, complete, everlasting rest in him.
Those of us who have trusted in Christ and are at rest in Him, I pray that the scriptures would continue to shape and fashion us into Christ’s image. That the scriptures would show us areas of our life where we must fight sin. And that they will ultimately cause us to grow in our awe of God and his word.