The Power of God's Word Heb.4:12-13
2. The author of the book of Hebrews is defining somewhat the character of the utterances of God. He has been speaking about the promises of God, how God has promised his people a rest. They must trust in his promise and receive it. He is defining the utterance or word of God has been always valid and true and ready. 3. Let us look at the character of God‘s word. We are
told here that God‘s word is full of power and action.
It is alive and active. 2) God's word meets the needs of I. God's utterances are alive and active. 12 1. God deals with men not by mere influences, nor thru human thinking, but thru His word, whether written or preached. Heb 4:2 tells that the gospel was preach unto us as well as unto the ancient Hebrews but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. It is "living” It may be beyond our grasp to know just in what manner the Word of God is living, except to remind ourselves: That it is a word of God, not of a creature. Therefore it can never pass away. Ps ll9.89 "forever O Jehovah, thy word is settled in Heaven." Isa 40:8 “ The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Jesus said that Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away. Being the word of God, it is the utterance of infinite wisdom. Here is no chaff, no possible element of decay. It will be fresh a billion ages from this moment as now. Spurgeon said, "If, when I go to Heaven, God shall say to me, Spurgeon, I want you to preach for all eternity, I would simply say, Give me a Bible, Lord; this is all I shall need." Let everyone who has a Bible in his house remember that he has a living book there. 2. It is active. There are things that are alive that are not active. I saw a large tortoise sitting on a rock in the Aquarium in Chicago with another under the water. They were giant creatures huddled in their shell. They had life but hardly activity. Out in the Lincoln Park Zoo of Chicago there are great birds like the golden eagles whose existence was activity. The word of God is not only alive but active. The word that God speaks is always doing something to those who hear it or read it! When Jonah cried out to the great wicked city of Nineveh, the people responded by repentance. When Moses walked thru the stone walks of Pharaoh’s palace and uttered the word of the Lord to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” Again, the word of God was active and Pharaoh hardened his heart. 3. In the Sept 12,1956 issue of Alliance Weekly, a missionary in (Mrs. G.E. Irwin, Tribes of Viet Nam) Viet Nam tells of a young tribesman in that backward country. K'Bri was a short brown skinned tribesman, who liked nothing better than to sit before a big rice-alcohol jar and sip endlessly thru the long bamboo pipe. Like the rest of the village clan, he was in a state of constant drunkenness and stupor. He would forget that it was time to plant the rice crop. Consequently he and all the villagers of Datrode suffered frequently from hunger, sickness and extreme poverty. One day when K‘Bri had no more rice to eat he went into the town of Djiring to try to find work. There he met Ha Wol, a student-preacher, who had come down from Dalat. Ha Wol eagerly talked to K'Bri of his soul‘s need and advised him to go up to Delat to find work at the Bible School and to attend the classes being held there. This K'Bri was only too glad to do for he and his wife were slowly starving. The first term K'Bri spent in Bible school he understood nothing and just could not make any sense out of all the letters and figures he was being taught. When K‘Bri returned to his village he went back to his former habits of drinking and heathen worship. However, when Bible school reopened he decided to go back to attend a second term in order to get the needed employment. This time he did no better than the first and upon returning to his village still continued with his evil practices. Something happened to K'Bri the third time he attended a Bible School session. Suddenly, as he was taking a course in Bible doctrine, the light penetrated far into the depths of his dark mind. At last he understood it. Then and there he was born again and became an entirely new creature in Christ. Upon returning to his village he would not touch the old rice alcohol even when the people pressed it upon him. But now K'Bri was a new creature because the Word of God was alive and active. The Spirit of God had done His work. II. God's word meets the needs of the depths of the soul 12 l. The Scripture says that the utterances of God are like a sharp two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow; The soul is that part of the being of man which is the seat (so to speak) of his sensations, and of his natural affections and desires. The spirit is the more Divine part of his nature. Here is involved the conscience, the aspiration after holiness, the apprehension of spiritual mysteries, the holding of communion with God, and that which is influenced by the Holy Spirit. 2. The word of God goes to the depth of the consciousness of man. Jesus said that out of the heart proceed evils thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc., the word of God can go to the depth of the heart and change it. No matter what the need of the heart is, the word of God has a remedy for it. Fear can ruin a life. As an example in his childhood Benito Mussolini idolized Napoleon and Julius Caesar. Like Caesar Mussolini was very superstitious. He spent many hours learning from an old woman in his neighborhood how to use good-luck charms and how to foretell the future with a pack of cards. Thru out his life, Mussolini was secretive and made no close friends. He distrusted everyone. He always kept a dagger and two loaded pistols on his desk. Behind him a bookrack held hand grenades. When he finally attained the dictatorship of Italy, he insisted upon having 300 body guards. Their daily duties included searching his home and office for bombs. Mussolini once said, "If my own father were to come back to this world, I wouldn‘t place my trust in him. " The people were oppressed and dominated but it meant nothing to him. He died the way he had always feared most...murdered by an angry mob. The word of God is able to cut out the fear of the heart of the person who submits to the operation. The Surgeon’s knife is ready and willing but the patients must submit to the operation. The word of God is able to remove hate. Hate that is deep seated. In the place of all the evils of the heart, God is able to put his word and give it love and peace and joy. III. God's word passes judgement on the thoughts and purposes of the heart 1. God's word passes judgement on the thoughts and purposes of the heart. Is it not true that men are made to see their
real character under the exhibition of the truth of God. It
is as they see the law of God that they see their past lives as being sinful. Who has not perched himself on a pew with
a contented feeling in a morning services... and had the
preacher tromp all over his toes about sin from the word of 2. v. 13 tells us that neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. God knows
the secrets and thoughts of the heart and by his word he judges 3. This active word brings about convictions of the thoughts
and purposes of the heart. Years ago the Spirit of God sweep
the land of Korea. There was a great revival. Some of the
examples of the Word of God judging people have been recorded
A doctor had boasted that he had one of the most honest cooks Concl.: 2. There are many things that people can do without. Television set, freezers, radio, and many other modern conveniences can be dispensed with. But the word of God is indispensable. If you do not treasure it in your heart, you will suffer. If you do not abide by it, you will suffer. If you do not proclaimed it you will suffer. Such is the indispensable character of the word of God. 3. Do you omit reading it daily? Do you forget because
you might have to confess a few sins and change your way of living?
If so, you need to seek God's forgiveness.
One night a bullet got me too. An American field ambulance crew saved my life and later the use of a badly shattered arm was restored. After a nine-month stay at the hospital, I was discharged and resumed my graduate work. During my stay at the American Hospital, I had married a Scotch-Irish girl whom I had met in Germany on Christmas Eve the year before the war had broken out. She was and has always remained, a deeply evangelical person. I am ashamed to confess that he must have been hurt to the core of her being as I made it clear to her that religion would be taboo in our home. Little did I realize that a militant attitude often betrays an inner turmoil. I had returned to my books, but they were no longer the same books. Neither was my motivation the same motivation. Reading in literature and philosophy, I found myself probing in depth for meaning. During long night watches in the foxholes, I had in a strange way been longing--I must say it, however queer it may sound--for a book that would understand me. But I knew of no such book. Now I would in secret prepare one for my own private use. And so, as I went on reading for my courses I would file passages that would speak to my condition, then carefully copy them in a leather bound pocket book I would always carry with me. The quotations, which I numbered in red ink for easier reference, would lead me as it were from fear and anguish through a variety of intervening stages, to supreme utterances of release and jubilation. The day came when I put the finishing touch to "the book that would understand me," speak to my condition, and help me thru life’s happenings. A beautiful, sunny day it was. I went out, sat under a tree, and opened my precious anthology. As I went on reading, however, a growing disappointment came over me. Instead of speaking to my condition, the various passages reminded me of their context, of the circumstances of my labor over their selection. Then I knew that the whole undertaking would not work, simply because it was of my own making. It carried no strength of persuasion. In a dejected mood, I put the little book back in my pocket. At that moment, my wife, who incidently, knew nothing of the project--appeared at the gate of the garden pushing the baby carriage. It had been a hot afternoon. She had followed the main boulevard only to find it too crowded. So she had turned to a side street which she could not name because we had only recently arrived in town. The cobblestone had shakened the carriage so badly that she wondered what to do. Whereupon, having spotted a patch of grass beyond a small archway, she had gone in with the baby for a period of rest. It turn out that the patch of grass led to an outside stone staircase which she had climbed without realizing what she was doing. At the top, she had seen a long room door wide open. So she entered. At the further end, a white-haired gentlemen worked at a desk. He had not become aware of her presence. Looking around, she noticed the carving of a cross. Thus she suddenly realized that this office was part of a church building--of a Huguenot church edifice hidden away as they all are, even long after the danger of persecution had passed. The venerable-looking gentlemen was the pastor. She walked to his desk and heard herself say, "Have you a Bible in French?" He smiled and handed over to her a copy, which she eagerly took from his hand; then she walked out with a mixed feeling of both joy and guilt. As she now stood in front of me, she meant to apologize...But I was no longer listening to her: "A Bible, you say, Where is it? Show me, I have never seen one before!" She complied. I literally grabbed the book and rushed to my study with it. I opened and "chanced“ upon the Beatitudes! I read and read, and read--now aloud with an indescribable warmth within...I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me; this was the Book that would understand me." I continued to read deeply into the night, mostly from the Gospels. And lo, and behold, as I looked through them the One of whom they spoke, the One who spoke and acted in them became alive to me. The providential circumstances amid which the Book had found me now made it clear that while it seemed absurd to speak of a book understanding a man, this could be said of the Bible because its pages were animated by the Presence of the Living God and the Power of his Mighty acts. To this God I prayed that night, and the God who answers was the same God of whom it was spoken in the Bible.
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