One of the questions that I'm often asked By people visiting our church is this Is Christ community church a reformed church? I've noticed people using that language a little bit more frequently around here. Sometimes the question comes out like this Does Christ community church affirm a reformed position? Well over the years I've learned that I need to be very careful in the way that I answer that question Not because I hope to be Deceptive in some way But because different people using the very same language can mean all together different things So in response all often say to someone well, why don't you tell me what you mean by the term reform? And again, it's not that I'm attempting to be impertinent or not attempting to be evasive in any way It's that as much as possible. I want to avoid miscommunication Because you see this the way some people define that term would elicit from me at least a negative response I would have to say no from your perspective We would not consider ourselves a reformed church
Well, then you ask would we ever use that term to speak of ourselves and I would have to say yes For several secondary reasons to be sure but for one overarching and primary reason To identify ourselves beloved with an event in history that has come to be known As the Protestant Reformation It was not just another in many of a long line of many movements that come down the pike seeking to espouse something new or something novel It was a movement generated by God Himself that sought to recover something old That's why that period has not been referred to as the Protestant formation But rather the Protestant reformation You see over time the church had lost sight of the one message for which it exists the simple message of salvation by grace alone Through faith alone in Christ alone or what the scripture simply referred to as the gospel Well, you see it was during those exciting days of reformation that the gospel and all of its original beauty and power and purity was recovered Now to be sure if you've read anything of that period in time You know that many things in God's Providence contributed to that work of reformation from a human perspective But without question the watershed moment came when a lone Augustinian monk stood before a court of civil and religious authorities and uttered these words My conscience is bound to the word of God
Martin Luther believed at the end of the day that ultimate and final authority for the Christian and for the people of God must be the scriptures that phrase right there Sola Scriptura became known as the formal principle of the Protestant reformation And in fact, what's very interesting is that near the end of his life Looking back on a Germany that had undergone incredible reformation Luther said this I simply taught preached Wrote God's word Otherwise, I did nothing and When while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and my Amstorff the word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor inflicted such damage upon it I did nothing the word did it all Whether I slept or whether I drank beer in Wittenberg the word did it all Now beloved you see it is in that sense that we readily embrace embrace the label reform But the grace of God this is who we are and who we must continue to be of people for whom Sola Scriptura is not merely a slogan nailed to the wall But a conviction out of which grows every other thing that we believe to be true So then what's the big deal about this book?
some ink paper And some leather perhaps and some glue Doesn't look that much different than any other book There are no magical qualities to it. You could place it under your pillow and sleep on it every night till the day you die It will not affect you in any way And yet why is it that this book occupies such a place of regard in the lives of so many people? I submit to you that all around the planet this morning there are millions of people who would readily stand up and affirm that the things contained in this book have eternally authored their lives Now admittedly what is also true is that throughout the centuries there have been those people who have made it their life's Ambition to destroy this book, but that raises yet another question Why is it that despite all of their volatile attempts to entomb the Bible in the coffin of irrelevance the corpse still Keeps coming back to life It doesn't read like a textbook that would contain the great deal of factual information It doesn't read like a novel exactly though there is one clear storyline from start to finish It doesn't read like Bennett's book of virtues though it does contain instructions for right-living What is it about this book that makes it unlike any other book? Well, beloved the answer is exceedingly simple
This book is The word of God and this morning what is set forth before us in Hebrews chapter 4 are Three of its most important features however Before we go any further this morning allow me to suggest to you that though these words may be familiar to you Most of us here I would wager have missed a full impact of them because we've stripped them out of their original context Many of you here have undoubtedly memorized Hebrews chapter 4 12 and 13 Many of you who are here as children have undoubtedly memorized these two verses and that in and of itself is a wonderful thing to be sure My guess however is that your understanding of these two verses are not in keeping with their primary intention But only a reflection of their secondary application and so what I would like to do this morning is this I would like to make clear to you three features of the word of God that are set forth in these verses But I would like to do so from the perspective of two vantage points First of all giving attention to their secondary application The way we perhaps understand it most commonly only then is we draw things to a close this morning to look at these words in their original setting And what this will do you see is that it will take us from the very general from the very broad the way most of us have understood these words and narrow it down To the very specific and the very particular so that we might feel the full impact of these words as they were originally given Now here is feature number one Feature number one the word of God Possesses a vitality that reflects God's own nature The word of God possesses a vitality that reflects God's own nature verse 12 for the word of God is Living listen to the way this reads in the original Living For the word of God and effective And that doesn't make any sense to us at all We don't speak this way But in the original the word living appears first in the sentence structure because it is this feature of the word of God that the author wants to stress with the greatest possible emphasis Namely that the word of God possesses a kind of life a kind of resident vitality The words in this book are not like the words in any other book beloved And that is not to say that the Bible contains certain vocabulary that other books don't have no Nor is it to suggest that the Bible is filled with words that possess some kind of hidden or magical meaning no
Nor is this in any way to downplay the value of any other book Be it religious or otherwise it is to say simply that the Bible possesses an animating feature that no other book possesses and Why is this the case because the Bible is an immediate extension of God himself? It possesses a vitality that is reflective of God's own nature Remember back chapter 3 verse 12 Look at the statement that is made about God here Chapter 3 verse 12 see to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God The living God the God who made heaven and earth the God who has made himself most fully known in the person of Jesus Christ is not an idol He is not a static creation that we have formed out of our own imaginations or that we've somehow Manufactured with our own hands. He is alive. He possesses life life. In here's him It's one aspect of his unchangeable essence. It is a part quite simply of That which defines him to be God What's more? He's the source of our life He is the author and the giver of life Your life this very morning my dear friends is nothing but a gracious gift from the living God And so his word which comes from him reflects that life it is living When Stephen is preaching an Acts chapter 7 he mentions Moses on Mount Sinai that he quote Received living words The pass on to us The Apostle Peter tells us that we have been born again not of perishable seed but of the imperishable through the Living and enduring word of God This book is not made up of static religious terminology Like no other book this book contains a vitality and the reason why this is so is because God is its source Or to come at this another way Paul gets at the same idea in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 when he says all scripture is God breathe Now that doesn't mean dear friends that after the biblical writers finished penning the original autographs that God then Breathe the poem them and gave them some kind of religious quality It means that the words of this book are as much a part of God as his own breath. Let me illustrate this to you go back to chapter 1 Chapter 1 Let me see if I can illustrate this to you Chapter 1 verse 5 You remember this glorious passage that speaks of the majesty of Jesus the very son of God in verse 5 Notice for to which of the angels did God ever say You are my son today. I have become your father Who wrote those words? Your Bible should indicate that they're a quotation that the writer of Hebrews is Taking something that he found elsewhere. Well, who wrote these words? David did Way back in the Old Testament a thousand years earlier saw him too And yet what's interesting is in verse 5 the text here says that God spoke these words interesting verse 8 But about the son he says or and this is God speaking but about the son God says your throne. Oh God will last forever and ever Again, that's a quotation Those words were written by David in Psalm 45 and yet here the author says that God spoke them Look at chapter 2 Chapter 2 verse 11 Both the one who makes men holy that's Jesus and those who are made holy are of the same family So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers He says Jesus says I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises now where do those words come from They come from Psalm 22 beloved and yet right here the author puts them into the mouth of Jesus Look at verse 13 and again. I will put my trust in him and again. He Jesus says here I am and the children God gave me Now wait a minute these words come from the prophet Isaiah Isaiah chapter 8 and yet again they're assigned to Jesus Christ Are you starting to see something of a connection here? Look at chapter 3 verse 7 So as the Holy Spirit says Today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart Wait a minute Those words come from Psalm 95 and yet were told they come from the Holy Spirit. Are you getting the idea? My dear friends from the book of Hebrew is a long we could show you this over and over and over again illustrations of the very same thing You see once and for all the writer of this particular letter wants to eliminate any hesitation that his writers might have concerning the scriptures He wants to remove any vestige of doubt that might be lingering in our mind He wants us to know deep down in our bones that when the Bible speaks God speaks This book possesses a vitality as a consequence of its source Because it has come from the living God himself And that is why friends. I've always believed that it is not a primary mission of the church to persuade for example unbelievers of the integrity of the Bible You know occasionally what we do with unbelievers is something like this Let me show you all of the manuscript evidence that supports the inspiration of the Bible And then let me show you all the archaeological evidence and all of the evidence from fulfilled prophecy And all of the evidence of changed lives and all of these kinds of things And then we say to that very same unbeliever now you pass judgment on the integrity of the word of God or one I don't know that that's a prerogative that God ever gives to us To encourage unbelievers to stand in judgment over his own word Secondly, do we ever see the use of such an evangelistic technique anywhere in the New Testament? No Is there value to that kind of study? You bet there is for people who are already believers To reinforce what we have already come to believe as a result of the supernatural work of the spirit of God on our minds and hearts But my dear friends and unbeliever though we marshal 50 arguments to support the inspiration of the Bible They will never believe it to be so He said a lot how men do we get unbelievers to believe the Bible by asking them to do one thing
Read it without any contribution from us beloved the Bible is Living it is animate it is dynamic for the simple reason that it is God's own word And my friends you see if we have more confidence in our own powers of argumentation Then in the scriptures themselves then we give evidence to the fact that we have yet to understand their inherent vitality But love and spurgeon says that the Bible is like a lion Let it out of its cage and it will defend itself very nicely. Thank you very much
Now in very practical terms What does this mean for us? Well, I suppose we could make a list as long as your arm, but let me suggest a couple of things for one it means That we never approach this book in the same way we approach a textbook on American history To gather some facts to fill our heads to pass a test
Nor must we reduce the scriptures to a kind of inspired Cookbook to find recipes for life Rather when we pick up this book we expect to hear God speak we look to find life in its pages And what's more beloved when we gather together on the Lord's Day morning Part of our worship includes bringing to this place an eagerness a hungering a longing to hear the scriptures Because just maybe in the exposition of the God breathed word we who are dead and dying may find life
You know beloved in our own day the most commonly asked question following the worship service is this How did you enjoy the worship today?
300 years ago on the Lord's Day morning when the worship service was finished that our Puritan forebears would say this How did you fare under the preaching of the word of God this morning for the word of God is living It possesses a vitality that reflects God's own nature feature number two The word of God is an instrument That effectively accomplishes God's purpose The word of God is an instrument that effectively accomplishes God's purpose look at it for the word of God is living and Active and their gaze we get our word energy The word can mean to be powerful to be at work Pretending to be effective in accomplishing something to happen another way of saying it I think the way I prefer is simply saying it like this the word of God is Efectual It accomplishes what it's set out to do no friends We're all aware of the phrase Actions speak louder than words Or another like it Talk is cheap We all know what those phrases mean People may say one thing and do another all together Part of the inconsistency of being a fallen human is that we often separate our actions from our words But what you must understand beloved is that when you read the Bible the very opposite is seen in the character of God That there is no such dichotomy that exists within him his speaking is his doing More over his words that we read about in the Bible do not merely describe his actions at the very moment they are heard his actions are accomplishing his purpose That is his words are deeds in the sense that they perfectly accomplish his purpose Example you think about creation By the word of the Lord Where the heavens made Their story hosts by the breath of his mouth for he spoke and it came to be Psalm 33 Genesis chapter one we see it. Don't we let there be light and the next line is very telling and there was light The word uttered Was the deed done No gap no hesitation That word carried with it all the vitality necessary to accomplish its intention and beloved not only is that true of creation You realize of course it's true for providence or what we talk about as the ongoing Working out of the created order. I mean we were told this thing in Hebrews chapter one, weren't we? The Jesus Christ sustains all things how By his powerful word God creates by his word he sustains by his word Do you realize beloved that God's word is the instrument that he uses to affect the new birth? You realize that we don't affect the new birth We don't pull the trigger as it were by asking God to come into our lives the new birth is a monogistic work a work that God does all by himself according to his own timing and purpose But what's very interesting to discover is that when we read about this regenerating work of God We discovered that the instrument that God always uses is his word He chose to give us birth through the word of truth James 118 For you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God It's the instrument by which he creates the instrument by which he sustains the instrument by which he brings a dead person to life Do you understand beloved that the word of God is the instrument that God uses to sanctify Christians? What did Jesus ask his father to do on the night before his death? sanctify them by the truth Now beloved dole me lose you here. This is very important in all of these cases You see and I've mentioned for and I can mention others the description is exactly the same God is the one who accomplishes his purpose that is God is the agent of creation the agent of providence the agent of regeneration The agent of sanctification we must not be confused at this point the word of God is not God
This is why two people can hear the same presentation of the gospel and only one of them for example He brought the faith in Jesus Christ The difference is not in the inherent efficacy of the instrument only in the sovereign employment of it by the divine agent The word Is the sword of the spirit He is the agent his word is the instrument But make no mistake about it Whatever the response is on the part of people That word is always accomplishing its purpose either for life Or for condemnation To some we are an aroma unto life To others God has given us a ministry of condemnation An aroma unto death Isaiah 55 seals this down As the rain and the snow come down from heaven And do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and forest show that it yield seed for the sower and bread for the eater So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty But will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it As one commentator has said the word of God is performative I like that word Another says it vibrates with active effectual power as it rushes to fulfill the purpose for which it was spoken My friend's God's word is his own servant invested with his own holy power
Now believe it again if we turn our attention to the more practical what we have to say is that our confidence for spiritual work then Must be placed in this book Whether we're talking about sharing the gospel or how to conduct a worship service or what we teach our children Or how we do the work of counseling or what the substance of preaching ministry ought to be The word is the effectual instrument. It is performative Gotta be sure in any of those situations. We have no guarantee of what the results will be We do not possess knowledge of God's foreordained purpose However beloved with the word of God on our tongues We go into each one of those situations filled with incredible confidence Because we know that God's purpose is always accomplished perfectly through the instrumentality of his word Beloved, I submit to you this morning that never on one occasion in all of human history Has the intended purpose of the word of God ever once been frustrated
It accomplishes its purpose The save or the condemn The sanctifier to make more guilty
On one occasion a young minister Was very very much discouraged with the lack of results in his ministry approached Charles Spurgeon With this concern And Spurgeon said to him, well young man You don't expect people to be converted every time you preach To which the young man replied, of course not Spurgeon then said that is precisely why no one has ever saved under your ministry
In another place Spurgeon said he succeeds best who expects conversion every time he preaches why because of his own abilities Because of his own gifts Because of our slick planning and our slick program and because we prayed for four hours that particular week No because the word of God is an instrument that effectively and always accomplishes God's purpose Always And Beloved because of that when we gathered together at this place to hear the word of God There must be a sense of expectation and hopefulness and confidence that God's work will be done in his way And then when it's all said and done we can't walk out of here saying I wish it was different We have to say praise be to God that he accomplished his purpose
A couple of weeks ago I said to Laurie as I was leaving for church on the Lord's Day morning I pray for me this morning because the sermon I prepared is really a mess And she said to me you know if I had five dollars for every time I heard you say that I would be a rich woman
May I tell you something this morning beloved by way of self-confession I I tell you this not out of any sense of false piety
Just to bear my heart the longer I continue to do this the less confident I've become
It seems that every single Lord's Day morning I'm finding myself more and more fearful I've worked harder and I'm more afraid
And again, that's not pseudo piety the fact is I probably always should have been as fearful as I am But I think the fact is I've been ignorant of my own evident weakness But beloved what is also true in the midst of that fear Is that I've come to a place by the grace of God where every time I preach I fully expect God to accomplish his purpose I have never been more confident in God's ability to use his word to accomplish his purpose than I am at this very moment in my life The word of God possesses a vitality that reflects God's own nature It is an instrument that effectively accomplishes God's purposes feature three The word of God is comprehensively and irresistibly penetrating The word of God is comprehensively and irresistibly penetrating Then any double edged sword It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart In the ancient world most swords had only one sharp side and the other was blunt The double edged sword was not nearly as common But regarded as the sharpest weapon available in any arsenal Notice here however beloved if we're going to be careful that the word of God is not merely likened to a double edged sword It is said to be even sharper and more penetrating Moreover, I would submit to you that the statements that he uses here are not to be taken as precise statements of human physiology joints and marrow Nor precise statements of human psychology, soul and spirit He's simply trying to tell us beloved that there is no aspect of the human constitution that escapes the penetrating power of the word of God In fact, he tells us that this word gets right to the radical center of human selfhood the heart He's not talking about that organ that pumps blood through our bodies He's talking about the very core of our being That the word of God cuts through even to our thoughts and attitudes with unhearing discrimination Now beloved this is amazing if you think about this Our thoughts, our attitudes, our motivations, our feelings are the most inaccessible part of who we are
They're in the deepest part of our being No scalpel can dissect them No ultrasound can detect them And yet God's word serves as their inherent critic passing judgment on all of them And to show you how comprehensive this is The author now leaves his metaphor and speaks in very simple terms verse 13 Nothing in all creation notice the absolute language Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything Is uncovered and laid bare Before the eyes of him to whom we must give account What does this mean? It means that every single detail of who you are What you do How you think and how you feel Is all together naked before the gaze of the living God Every thought Every whim Every motivation Every attitude Every lust, every selfishness, every hatred, every arrogance Every feeling of revenge, every sense of superiority That you're more attractive than someone else Or more intelligent, or more talented Or more successful, or more affluent A better teacher, a better parent, a better athlete A better singer, a better preacher Every nuance of every feeling and every look and cranny of your heart beloved Is all together exposed to the all-seeing eye of the God to whom You will one day have to give an account for all of it There is no hidden cavity, no dark corner, no unseen recess God sees everything there is to see an unshielded nudity
Now how does that make you feel?
If there is any sense about you this morning It ought to make you shudder down to your toes
Psalm 44 says that God knows the secrets of the heart Is that a frightening statement? I, the Lord, searched the heart and examined the mind Jeremiah 17
Sometimes this happens when you open up your Bible to read it at home Doesn't it? It says though God himself is common sat down next to you and begin to whisper into your ear Now this is for you child
And then there are those occasions beloved When we gather together on the Lord's day to hear the word of God preach And we have that very distinct sensation that everyone else and everything else has faded into oblivion And now it's a one-on-one between me and that creature And you wonder In everybody else around me tell that God is speaking straight to me
No preachers that good
That's the effectual word of God The irresistibly penetrating voice of God
But do you realize the great and final expression of that experience will take place on the great and final day The day of judgment Have you ever considered what the Bible says about how comprehensive God's judgment will be when we stand before him? Paul says that God will judge men's secrets he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts Ecclesiastes 12 for God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing
My secrets My motivations Everything hidden But no one else on this planet knows but me
And what is the instrument by which we will be judged?
Jesus says there is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words That very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day
Sharper than any double-edged sword it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart the word which brings light Will prove to be the very instrument of condemnation If rejected now beloved Hang on here as we as we press to the finish line It is this theme of judgment that captures the emphasis of these words in this original context I would remind you that verse 12 begins with the word for A word that tells us that what is about to follow is an explanation of what is preceded Oh, yes, generally speaking the word of God is alive and generally speaking Yes, the word of God is effectual and yes Generally speaking the word of God is irresistibly penetrating But the for that stands the beginning of this sentence tells us that the author isn't concerned about anything Generally speaking, but something very specific and particular My friends he has told us all these things about the word of God to frighten us to show us what we can expect if we refuse to believe it
He speaks of the word of God here as a double-edged sword of metaphor for a weapon that is lethal
And he has just drawn upon a powerful illustration to make this clear the wilderness wonders They heard the word of God as clearly as it could be heard they refuse to believe it. They were debarred from the land of rest 500 years later David takes up this very same concern with the people of Israel saying don't harden your heart if you hear God's voice Don't harden your heart remember what happened And then right here a thousand years after that the writer of Hebrews picks up that timeless and living word And he says to his readers don't turn away from Jesus Christ If you've heard the gospel don't fail to respond don't get as close as you can but come up short The failure they experienced the kept them out of the land is nothing compared to what I'm talking about here The fail to enter into that rest was merely a symbol of our failing to enter into the heaven itself And so he says in verse 11 you remember Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest So that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience You can sense his passion and why is it so essential that you be judgment day sure about this for the word of God Is living an active sharper than any double edged sword it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account it is living Which means that it will rise up on the last day to judge us It is effectual You can't play with it in a haphazard fashion and not expect to get hurt It is comprehensively and irresistibly penetrating It is a double edged sword that never fails to cut
Now that's what those words mean in their context
And when you teach your children to memorize them Make sure they memorize the full impact of them as they appear Beloved we have one hope this morning That we will not face that day in dread because we have come to believe That the sword of God's judgment has been plunged into the heart of Jesus Christ in our stand Have you heard God's word Have you heard the gospel The death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has that word been made clear to you That he died in the place of sinners that he was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven to take his place of ultimate authority At the Father's right hand and that he will one day return to judge the living and the dead by his own word Have you heard that Jesus Christ alone gives the gift of eternal life to those who believe in him if you have heard that word I plead with you this morning do not persist in refusing any longer whether you'll be a child or an adult Whether you be someone who is here for the first time or you've been here 50 times Well, it is still today Embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in faith if you have heard God's voice do not harden your heart Lest the instrument of life Become the weapon of death This book contains The mind of God the state of man the way of salvation the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers It's doctrine is holy its precepts are binding its histories are true and its decisions are immutable Read it to be wise believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy It contains light to direct you food to support you and comfort to cheer you It is the traveler's map the pilgrim staff the pilots compass the soldier sword and the Christians Charter Here heaven is opened in the gates of held disclose Christ is its grand subject are good its design and the glory of God its end It should fill the memory rule the heart and guide the feet Read it slowly frequently and prayerfully It is a mind of wealth health to the soul and a river of pleasure It is given to you here in this life will be opened at the judgment and is established forever It involves the highest responsibility will reward the greatest labor And condemn all who trifle with its content would you bow your heads with me please
Our father you are so so often Merciful and so often gracious But at times we're clipped at the knees
When we are reminded that you are a god who judges
But we are not ashamed of that this morning
We must not represent ourselves as people who somehow have more compassion than you have We must love what you love and we must believe
What you believe to be right our father you hold out hope For every sinner the gospel is made clear The boys and to girls and to adults
Over and over and over you have been exceedingly generous to us to make sure that the That the facts of the gospel at the very least are made clear and understood
But father if Refused The very message that could have been our hope for life will become the weapon of death and judgment That life giving word will become a lethal word
I pray O Lord and God for each man and woman here for every child I pray O Lord and God and I ask you with everything that is in me Please do not allow one person to sit here this morning having heard all that has been heard Father I ask you in your grace. Don't allow one person to leave this place With any hesitation about their own present condition
Our father I would pray that people could understand even this very morning the danger of being close but coming up short
Our father we understand that for anybody to believe it requires a work of grace But as we look at the Lord Jesus and we look at the apostles never once Were they afraid with every ounce of integrity to call sinners to yourself We to know that you would receive them Our father I pray that there would be those amongst us today who would come to you Who would not give you rest until they know that they have you
But if they have heard your word They would respond in faith our father. We love you this morning
We are thankful for this word living effective kind of trading Help us to be faithful with it We place all of our confidence in you and your word today honor it we pray By saving some In Jesus name