The Word is Mightier than the Sword

Introduction

Identifying God’s Word

God’s Word refers to the various ways God makes himself known to people, especially regarding salvation and reconciliation to God.

In our text, the Word of God corresponds to the voice of God mentioned in Psalm 95 and quoted throughout chapter 3 and chapter 4: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Also, the good news from 4:2: for good news came to us just as to them. This shows a continuation of the theme of warning in the rest of this chapter. Our response to the Word of God has been the foundation of this warning, since many in the past who recieved God’s Word did not benefit from it because of their unbelief, leading to disobedience.

Throughout the history of humanity, God has revealed himself to us in various ways. Nature itself is a limited, though very real, revelation of God Psalm 19:1

Psalm 19:1 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

General revelation does give us enough to know that God exists and many of his attributes (his power, wisdom, goodness, and justice can all be deduced from the created world and through human reason). God’s law is also written on the hearts of all people by our conscience, so that we know ourselves to be sinners against an eternal law. Paul, when talking about Gentiles who do not have God’s written word, do have a knowledge in their conscience of wrong and right...

Romans 2:15 ESV

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

So, all people have some experience with God’s Word, his revelation of himself, and the fact that we are all held accountable to an eternal law that we all fall short of. However, general revelation alone does not lead to saving faith. That comes through special revelation.

Special revelation is when God speaks more directly to human subjects as a part of leading humanity to reconciliation with him. In the past, this came through prophetic communication.

Prophets were men and women who recieved divine messages through various means, whether through dreams, angels, or a voice from heaven. Some of these communications were written down for the benefit of future saints and these make up the part of the Scriptures that we call the Old Testament.

When Christ came he came as the fullness of God’s special creation. In him, all that was spoken through the prophets beforehand came to fruition and from him the good news was preached. That good news was passed on to his Apostles, who delivered that message to both Jews and Gentiles and finally either they or their close followers wrote down that message in what we now call the NT.

Together, the Old and New Testaments constitute the Holy Scriptures, and the only infallible source of God’s special revelation that we have. Although Jesus Christ himself is the true Word of the living God, the Word become flesh, we refer to that infallible and God-breathed

In our text here, the Word of God refers to special revelation given in both the Old and New Testaments. This good news, when responded to by faith, leads to salvation and participation in God’s eternal Sabbath Rest.

The Power of God’s Word

Now, the text describes the power of God’s Word and what that power does. Connecting again to the good news which we have heard, just as the Israelites in the wilderness did.

The Word of God is described with vital and lively language: it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. The power of the Word is described as active, not merely passive. God’s communication with human beings is a catelyst that triggers a reponse of some kind.

What makes God’s Word living and active as opposed to the word or self-disclosure of anyone else?

God is the great speaker and revealer. While all words are a form of communication and self-disclosure, a way to reveal our thoughts, feelings, and memouries to others. When we speak truth, we reveal what is and therefore we reveal to others a bit of God’s sovereign will and truth. However, our communications are only small shadows and sparks compared with the glory of God’s speech. When he speaks, he shows himself and when he shows himself the foundations of the universe quiver and shake. By virture of who it is that is speaking, God’s Word is more powerful than any force in existence.

Truth is powerful because it is a reflection of God’s work and person. However, even when our words are true, they are not infallible. The difference between being without error versus being true by nature is the difference between us speaking truth and God speaking truth. When God speaks, it is true by nature. God cannot lie. I would even propose that if God tried to lie like we lie, the universe would simply correct itself to conform to his Word. God is not just one who speaks truth, his word is true by its very nature.

On top of this, the truth of God’s Word accomplishes what God means it to accomplish. Many of our words are wasted either because those whom we talk to don’t listen, or perhaps because what we are saying is not worth paying attention to. But in Isa 55:11 God says through the prophet:

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

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.

Because God’s Word has the power to give life to those who hear it and believe it with true, heart-felt faith. I may speak something true to you but whether you accept it or not will not change your status before God or give you eternal life unless it is that truth which God reveals in his own Word. His Word is fertile and is not only living, but gives life to those who hear with ears of faith.

The power of this Word is described in our text as being sharper than a double-edged sword.

This begins to unpack for us the specific kind of power that the author is talking about: the power to cut, divide, pierce, and discern. This isn’t the only place that the Bible talks about speech or words with this kind of violent, blade-related language.

Examples:

The idea of God’s Words being like a sharp, dividing blade also relates to the ancient covenant rituals like what we see in Genesis 15:10. The cutting of animals placed a serious curse on the one making the covenant if they should fail to carry it out. This is a tribute to God’s faithfulness and truthfulness and the fact that God speaks in the context of a commited, loving relationship with his people, not in a distanced and un-concerned way.

The language of cutting between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, speaks to the way that the Word of God exposes what we truly are and brings hidden motives and desires to light. The Word of God shows the person as they really are in how they respond to it.

God’s Word separates and divides. This is exactly what Christ taught his disciples when he sent them out to preach in Matthew 10:34-36

Matthew 10:34–36 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

God’s Word, the Word made flesh, did not unite humanity initially as we would hope, but rather made a crucial divide between those who will listen to and follow that Word and those who will reject it and live in rebellion. While the Gospel does bring peace and unity in the long run, it at first brings division between those “united by faith with those who listen” and those who fall away in unbelief. The unbelievers than persecute those who do believe, who patiently and peacefully wait until God brings his judgement on them. God’s Word divides the Isrealite of the flesh from the Israelite in heart. Even at creation, God’s Word divided light from darkness, waters from waters, and dry land from seas. In the end, God’s Word will pronounce final judgement on all human beings. Christ will divide the sheep from the goats, the holy from the profane, the faithful from the condemned.

None of this is because God’s Word is inherently harmful or bad, but because it is pure and true. Truth divides itself from lies, it exposes hypocrasy, and it reveals true intentions of the heart. We cannot fool God’s truth, we cannot find a way around the schismatic nature of the Word to divide truth from error, light from dark, and intergrity from hypocrisy.

And so, this makes the Word of God the ultimate test of a person. You cannot truly know someone’s character apart from their response to God’s revelation. On the lowest level, this might mean how people respond to their God-given conscience, but it is much more clearly revealed when Christ crucified is preached. Indeed, it is the cross that is both the centre of God’s special revelation to humanity and the the most divisive point of it. How people respond to the cross is the ultimate proof of whether or not they see with the eyes of faith.

To the world, the cross is foolishness. It is an expression of wisdom from God that counters all human wisdom. To men, victory comes through strength, not weakness. The idea of dying to live, that loss is gain, and that the death of our God is our greatest boast is insane from the human perspective. Only those with the eyes of faith, those who believe in the resurrection and coming Kingdom in Christ, can see the wisdom of God in the cross.

This also separates good teaching from false doctrine. Every false teaching and heresy tries to undermine the work of the cross, either by changing the person of Jesus Christ to be less than God, not fully man, or to lessen the reality of the sufferings of Christ and the victory of his resurrection.

Notice, for example, how the so-called prosperity gospel try to lessen the reality of taking up our cross and following Christ into poverty, suffering, and death in hopes of a future resurrection and reeplace it with wealth and prosperity in this life. It is not just false, it is a replacement of the doctrine of the cross. Or how the acceptance of homosexual relationships completely disfigure the entire point of marriage, which is meant to point to Christ, the groom, giving his life lovingly to his bride, the church, who trusts him enough to follow him. When the reality of the cross is applied, the difference between someone who sees things from a worldly perspective and someone who sees things through the eyes of faith becomes clear.

So, God’s Word is powerful to distinquish between faith and unbelief and to expose a person down to their very core. It is no wonder that Christ, when he is described in Revelation 19, is called the “Word of God” and comes to earth and “from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.” What else can this sword be but his own Words which bring judgement on earth, and give way for a new heavens and new earth to come.

What God’s Word Does to Us

Our text this morning tells us that “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” This is the end of the Author’s grave warning before he finally begins to comfort his readers with the reality of Christ as our great high priest. It leaves us without excuse, without ignorance, and without any way to hide our true intentions before God.

God’s revelation, specifically in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is like a great x-ray into your heart and soul. It shows who you truly are, whether you truly seek God, and whether you are willing to trust him enough to walk out a Gospel-centred life.

God has revealed himself to us in the most accute and clear way he is ever going to until the day of judgement. He did so, not with the thunder and fire of Sinai, not with the waters of a flood, and not through the dreams of prophets, and he did in former times. He did so by sending the Son, the second person of the Trinity, to become a human fetus in the womb of virgin Jewish girl in Nazereth. He lived as a travelling Rabbi, teaching the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven. He endured suffering, hardship, and temptation yet without sin. He gave himself, in perfect obedience to the Father, over to suffering and a humiliating death on a cross. In this way, he bought redemption from his people from every tribe, tongue, and nation; for all who believe upon him with true and living faith. He rose on the third day and afterwards ascended to rule from a heavenly throne which no human eye has yet seen but which every human eye will one day see and before it each human tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That is the Word of God, or a very compressed summary of it, that will show who you really are. Its not simply whether you confess this gospel or not, but whether you are united in faith to it. Have you heard God’s Word and devoted yourself to live your life and see the world through it in every way, regardless the consequences? Have you become united by faith with those who listened to this good news? The true people of God? Or is the Gospel something you feel ashamed of, or something you are willing to confess in words only, but are unwilling to put its implications into practice?

Conclusion

The Gospel cuts a divide between those who believe and those who do not. It has the power to bring eternal life to those with true faith, and condemn those who do not. God has revealed himself through his Word. His Scriptures are the inspired speech of the Holy Spirit, through human authors, who makes us aware of the Gospel through the story of Redemption culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This good news comes with a call: come and follow the crucified messiah. You cannot say you didn’t know. You cannot plead ignorance before Christ on the day of his appearing. And you cannot escape the power of the Word of God to cut into you and expose who you truly are, sooner or later. So how have you responded to God’s Word?