And this evening we continue in our study and with an emphasis this evening on verses 11 to 13. Now last week we read through 1 through 13 and we did acknowledge that this is one of the most complicated passages, at least I think it is, for me it is. In the book of Hebrews it's not easy and it's especially as many have noted, even some of you mentioned it to me. The unusual way in which verses 12 through 13 about the Word of God are tied to a passage about rest, the rest that God promises.
So in a moment we're going to pick up the reading at verse 1 though our emphasis will be 11 to 13. What we'll see in 12 to 13 is that God speaks of His Word as being living and active and He speaks of what it's capable of doing. And sometimes we'll hear sermons just along those lines plucking that passage out and this is sort of one of those but not entirely. I want us to see it in context.
In verses 1 to 11 we saw that God provides rest. He provides spiritual eternal everlasting rest in Christ and Scripture offers us that rest and Christians should having received that rest that we haven't experienced the fullness of it yet in glory but having received Christ, we rest in Christ, we should also want others to enjoy that rest. That's the rest is the overarching theme of the verses. And now this evening let's consider a little in greater detail verses 11 to 13.
But first let's hear the whole passage. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 through 13. Therefore while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 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.
For we who have believed enter that rest, as He has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and got rested on the seventh day from all these works. And again in this passage He said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it and thus we formerly receive the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.
Again, He appoints a certain day today saying, through David, so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His. 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 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 a prayer. Amen.
This is the word of God. Let us look to Him. Father, teach us, be gracious to us, help us. We need you.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, if you will allow, let us do a brief review of what we looked at last week and then take a deeper dive into verses 12 through 13 and then think of it thematically. So by way of review, our souls need rest and God provides rest in Christ.
And we said in the passage, though it could be a bit confusing, the author is saying, it's like the rest that God did at creation. Himself, when in six days He labored and on the seventh day He rested, so we too, the author says, may rest from our labors. And what he means is by resting in the finished work of Christ. But it's also a rest that's like the rest of Canaan.
That is, Canaan pictured and promised rest, but it ultimately couldn't fulfill the rest that we need. Joshua, of course, did bring them into the land of promise, but it wasn't the true and final I've never glassing rest promised to them. Joshua couldn't give them that rest. Only Jesus can give it.
Jesus, the author saying, is better than Joshua. But it's also a rest that's like the Sabbath rest that was commanded in the fourth commandment. And the Sabbath rest points us to the eternal Sabbath rest. Our weekly experience of rest is a fortaste of that greater rest, which is to come.
The rest that God provides, the writer of Hebrews says, rest in Christ now, and you will have rest forever. And it's rest because Jesus accomplished the work that is necessary for our salvation and everlasting happiness. It is for ours to receive him and rest on him for our salvation. He is, as the writer has been saying all along, he is everything.
And he is sufficient for all that we need. He is the writer's been saying he's the heir of salvation. He's the heir of everything. In fact, and he shares everything he has with those who are united in him by faith.
We are co-heirs with him of all things. He provides the writer's end in chapter one purification for our sins. He delivers us from the defilement of our sin that we might be cleansed of it. He's destroyed the one who has the power of death, even the devil, chapter two, to deliver us from the fear of death.
And he provides in himself the merciful and faithful high priest we need in order to make propitiation for our sins. Again, that's chapter two. He, as our priest in offering the perfect sacrifice, delivers us from the just wrath of God. We need not fear the grave or judgment or the wrath of God or the devil.
We're safe in the hands of Jesus. And so in chapter three, he says of Jesus, he's the greater Moses and greater than Moses. They were both faithful, but Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant. Jesus is faithful over God's house as a son.
Jesus is the builder of God's house, he says. And the builder has greater glory than the house. And Moses is just a part of the house. And as we're saying in chapter four, the writer is saying, Jesus is not only the new and better Moses, he's the new and better Joshua, better than the Joshua of old.
He truly leads God's people, all who trust in him, into spiritually eternal rest forever. The true promised land. This is all part of the writer's argument in saying to his heroes, his readers, who are tempted to turn away from Christ and to turn back to Judaism in their day. Or any of us who might be tempted to slip away or drift away or walk away, don't go anywhere else.
There's no other place you can get rest for your soul. There's no lasting rest anywhere but in the Messiah in Jesus. And so Jesus, as we noted last week, very famously said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And so would the rest in Christ.
So then let's think about this passage in verses 11 to 13 and how it fits as he turns to the issue of the Word of God. So here's the outline moving forward. We must listen to the Word of God verse 11. We must fear the Word of God verse 12.
And we must see that we can't escape the Word of God verse 13. First of all, we must listen to the Word of God verse 11. As he says, therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Again, we looked at this last week.
They had the good news preached to them. The people of God of old, they had the Messiah held out to them. To be their Savior, just as we have the good news of the Messiah who's come. But they didn't believe.
They rejected. And so they didn't enjoy rest. And the writer here is saying, I don't want you to miss out. I don't want any of you to miss out.
Enter this rest. And we should seek that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. They're unbelief. And so we all need to turn away from our self-righteousness and to depend upon the perfect righteousness of the righteous one Christ.
And so to be reconciled to God. We all need to see that our own efforts, our own works, our own God, our own God, our own good intentions, our own religious practices are not sufficient for the salvation of our soul. They're not ultimately acceptable to God in and of ourselves. But we renounce these things and we flee to Christ to be saved.
We depend upon Him for our acceptability before God. So Christian is one who repents of his own righteousness. We turn from it to the righteousness of Christ. And the author is saying, but there's a real danger here falling short of not believing.
Just as many Israelites died in the wilderness and never reached the promised land because they rejected God's word and didn't trust the promise of the Messiah. So some in the church, in the visible church on earth, some will do likewise. And the writer has been urging us, but we as the people who have entered God's rest and every Christian has, not the fullness of the glory of it in the conservation, but we are in Christ, we are to seek that none others might be lost, but that all will enter it. And so the author then turns to in verse 12 the word of God.
And it seems like such a strange term. But what he's saying here is that we need to fear the word of God. It's the word of God that holds out the promise. It's the word of God that offers us Christ.
And so we need to believe God and we need to believe His word. And so we ought to fear the word of God. Verse 12, notice this language 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. Why these words about scripture?
Because scripture is God's voice. And today if you hear his voice, right, don't harden your hearts. But receive Him, believe Him, trust in Him. Notice the way the writer here puts it.
He says a number of things about this word. First of all, the word of God is living. That is, it is alive. It's not dead and it's not a dead letter.
So though it was written by from our perspective long ago, it still speaks and it still applies. And when we hear it, we hear the voice of the living God. And it accomplishes His purposes. Isaiah chapter 55 verses 10 and 11.
So if you know it very well. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, taking it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. 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 is productive. It bears fruit. It accomplishes God's purpose always. So Martin Luther said, let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scripture.
God speaks. He still speaks. The peer to Thomas Watson adds, by reading other books, the heart may be warmed but by reading this book. It is transformed because the Word of God is living.
This is why we must prioritize the Word of God in the ministry of the gospel of God. This is why the Word plays such an important place in our worship service and in our edification of the saints through Christian education and such. We're called to do God's work, God's way and God's way is to have the Spirit of God take the Word of God and speak to the hearts of people to make people into the people of God and then to conform to the people of God after the image of his own son who is the Word of God made flesh. And so any ministry that is seeking to do ministry the way that God calls us to needs to prioritize the Word of God.
It is living and the writer says it's not only living but it's active. It's at work with great strength. It's powerful and effective. Just as it worked, the Word of God to bring down unbelieving Israel, the writer says, it caused some to fall in the wilderness so it can work to bring down people today, to cut down those who do not believe it.
He doesn't want any of us to fall. But it's living and active and the Word of God is dangerous. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. He says that was the short sharpest sword in any arsenal.
The Apostle Paul calls the Word of God the sword of the Spirit and it's a two-edged sword and it is an enemy, we might say, of unbelief. The Word of God is an enemy of every independent self-righteous person who will not in hard-heartedness listen. And the Word of God is able because it's a two-edged sword, it's able to execute the sentence which it passes upon rebels who resist its testimony. It says to us, rest in Christ and you will be saved.
And if you do not, you'll receive his wrath. Jesus will either be a savior to you or he will be your judge. And so it's a double-edged sword. It cuts, we might say, on both sides, either in a saving or a judging manner.
So on the one hand, Christ said it this way in John 6, 63, Jesus said, 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. They're salvific. They're Spirit and life.
They give life. On the other hand, he says in John 12, 48, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. So this word is a two-edged sword.
It either gives you eternal life or on the last day it takes from you what life you have. More than that, this word of God is penetrating. Notice the language in verse 12 again. It's sharpened on the two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both of joints and of marrow.
Now the writer here, I don't think we should be reading him in a scientific way as if he's trying to help us figure out all the parts and pieces of the human body in some sort of exact fashion. His point is there's nothing that can stop this word from piercing and dividing and doing what only it can do. No human being can do this kind of thing, but God's word can't. It reaches the deepest recesses of the human personality.
There's no place in the mind where the heart cannot speak and cut. And notice that he also says it's able to judge the word of God judges. It's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. How often it is that we read the Bible and we judge it.
But the truth is it's judging us. This is one of the great hazards I've said this time again of being a professional teacher, so to speak. You compensate me to study the Bible and preach the Bible. Part of what I do.
One of the great hazards of course is that I'll sit up in that study and all week long sit over the word, judging the word and not sit under the word and let the word have its way with me. I would urge you to pray for me that it would not be so. But it's a constant temptation for all who handle the word of God and all who teach it. But the word of God it's saying it actually judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
This is why I told you this story before when I was in college as a brand new Christian. I was walking around campus with the Bible in my hands. Not beating people up with it, but I was going from one place to the next and whether to chapel or to a park or whatever or reading. So I had this Bible and it had the little gold on the trim.
So somebody who was familiar with Bibles kind of immediately figured out I was carrying a Bible and he walked up alongside me and he said I ate that book. And I was totally confused. I didn't know why he was sharing that with me. I wasn't really sure what he was getting at.
Why would you hate this book? This book had given me life. This book was extraordinary. I was a new Christian and I finally met the author of the book.
But I think that was the problem. He had read the Bible, but he had not been reconciled to its author. And I think when he read it then it judged the thoughts and intentions of his heart and he didn't like that. And so he hated what he was reading.
But notice then finally, well I shouldn't say quite finally. I really have two more points. I hit the last one from you. Verse 13, we can't escape the word of God.
No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. He's just been speaking about the word of God. Now he speaks about, we might say, the eyes of God, the gaze of God. They're tied together.
God's word is the word of God. It speaks what he speaks. He speaks and it's his word. And nothing he says can escape it.
The writer compares God's word to God's eyes and it uncovers every heart, every act, every intention, every thought and desire and it brings them before the gaze of God. We are, as we said last week, fooling anyone, but ourselves, if we think that we can hide, we may try to run, but we can't hide. And God's word leaves us exposed. Now I had a dream last night and no, it's not an inspired dream and I don't, I'm not, it's not what we're doing here.
It was just a dream. But I think you know how it is sometimes when something is on your mind, then your brain does crazy thoughts with it. And it was the weirdest dream. It's almost Twilight Zone kind of mood setting.
And there I was and I was walking somewhere and there was a person in my path and the closer I got, the more I realized there was a person behind them and they had a rope between them. And the closer I got, the more they spread out this way. And then I realized there was a person to the left and they had a rope and another person with a left and then I felt like behind me, there were others with ropes and it was one of those Twilight Zone things where I'm like, you realize there's no escape. These people are going to tie me up.
They're going to hog tie me. I don't know what they're going to do. I woke up and that was the end of the dream. But I just knew there was no escape.
The writer here says, there is no escape from the gaze of God. All things he says are open before his eyes, naked. We're naked before him. And so when the word of God for instance exposes the filth of our sin, God sees the filth of our sin.
We shouldn't pretend that he doesn't know what the Bible just said about us and that it's true. No, of course he knows. And all things he says are not only laid bare or open before him or we're naked before him, but all things are laid bare before his eyes. And just to expand on something we mentioned last week, the idea there of being laid bare is used in two ways in ancient documents.
One is probably meant here. It's difficult to be sure which. It may be the image of a wrestler seizing an opponent by the throat, holding the head in such a way that he is unable to move. I wrestled a little bit in junior high and early high school.
I quit when I got a little disgusted. He would wrestle and a person wrestling could put on a little bit of oil and I don't know what the amount was, but the rest were supposed to say that's too much. But I wrestled some kid who was just, I mean he was wet with oil and slippery is all good out. So I couldn't get my arms wrapped around and keep it and hold it in grip.
That's not the picture here. The picture is this wrestler has such a grip you are made immovable, which is of course how a match will often end, especially the way we wrestle and high school wrestle. They pin you and you can't get out. You're stuck.
Well that may be the image here, the image of a wrestler. In which case he's saying God's word stops, she holds you, judges you and you can't escape. Or it may be the image and here's the other way it's used of a criminal being led to judgment or execution who has a dagger under the chin forcing up the head so that you can't bow his head and escape the eyes of the judge or the executioner. You will look at us and you will not escape our gaze.
That's the idea. And so the writers again say if we think that God can't see our hearts, we're mistaken. If we think he won't judge an evil and unbelieving heart, we're foolish. And so Calvin says whenever his word is set before us, we must tremble because nothing is hid from him.
Now I didn't tell you about our fourth point. And there's hope. There's hope. And our only hope, well as we've been saying, is a savior.
The word of God made flesh. God's word. So this is our need for salvation and it promises the eternal word who was God and was with God and then dwelt amongst. He was pierced for our transgressions.
And so think of it this way, just thematically for a moment, this is where we'll close. Think about God's rest tied to God's sword. In Genesis 3, 24, we read of Adam being driven out of the Garden of Paradise, the Garden of Luxury, the Garden of God, we might call the Garden of Rest. And a flaming sword was placed at the entrance of that rest to prevent him from returning to the tree of life.
So that Adam the sinner, if he had tried to reenter and he was being warned, don't try, would have been cut down by the flaming sword. Adam, there was no way back into the rest from which he had just been kicked out of. Adam needed a savior, which God promised him in order for him to enter God's rest. And then in another place, we read in Joshua, chapter 5, on the cusp of Israel's first battle in the promised land outside Jericho before the walls fell.
We read in Joshua 1513 that when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, no, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.
Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.
Who is this commander? He's a man standing yet he's worshiped by Joshua. He's the commander of the army of the Lord and his presence makes the place holy. Many have then identified this unusual being, this commander as an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ.
That is the second person of the Trinity in human form long before the incarnation and his birth from the Virgin Mary. And Joshua knows that he can't challenge this commander. This commander has a sword. It's already drawn and in his hand.
And the place where he is standing in the presence of this Lord is holy ground and he knows that he is a sinner who cannot survive if this commander were to turn on him even in righteousness. And so just as Adam needed a Savior, Joshua needed a Savior. In the first land of rest, an angel with a flaming sword locks the entrance, in the second land of rest, a man with a drawn sword blocks the entrance. What about the Sabbath rest that still remains?
What must God's people face before they pass through the entrance into the eternal spiritual rest, Sabbath rest of God? Well, the Word of God is living an act of sharp but then he double its sword. It's dangerous, it's penetrating, it's judging. There's nowhere to hide from it, nowhere to pass through into God's rest.
With this sword in our way, what hope do we have? We have none in ourselves, but there is hope. And the author gives us that hope in the very next verse, which we didn't read, verse 14, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Luther commented on this after terrifying us, verses 12 and 13, the apostle now comforts us.
After pouring wine into our wound, he now pours in oil. Forces, Hebrews, we have a high priest who has passed through the sort of judgment for us and has gone into the land of rest. Jesus has already passed through the sword, we might say, by dying on the cross, by being pierced on our behalf, struck down for what we deserve. And he has then opened the door to paradise.
And Jesus says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
So the author, Hebrews, will go on in verse 16 to say, let us then with confidence, draw near to the front of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. In other words, let's use our access to heaven to the throne of grace. Let us rest our cares and the hands of him who secured for us, our eternal rest. Maybe we'll help us do so.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your son. Thank you that we may come boldly to the throne of grace, to the very throne room of heaven and seek from you help because of your mercy in our hour of need. Grant us the boldness to do so and so to rest the care of our soul in the hands of Jesus in his name I pray.
Amen. Let me invite you to stay.