Well, please take your copy of God's word and turn with me to the book that we are Continuing to study our verse-by-verse exposition through the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 4 today. We come to verses 12 and 13 Hebrews 4 verse 12 and 13 and when you look at the bulletin there that you have you see the title of the sermon Your Bible is the living Word God. The Bible is the living Word of God. Follow with me as I read it, and then I'll pray, and then we'll study it together. Hebrews 4, beginning in verse 12. For the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." That's right. Great God, thank you for your word and thank you for the power of your word. We thank you that your word does teach and it does instruct and it does convict. It does comfort us. It is able to convert the unbeliever and your word sanctifies the believer. Teach us wonderful things from your word, about the word, that we would love it and love you. For the glory of your great name, we pray. Amen. There is no book in all the world like this book. Boys and girls, you're here this afternoon. Do you have a Bible there with you? If you do, hold it up. Boys and girls, let me see your Bible, if you have the Bible there with you. Good. I love seeing that Bible. There is no book like this book. Did you know that the Bible was written over a period of 1600 years, probably more, but at least 1600 years, by about 40 different authors, The time of writing was 15 to 1600 BC, all the way to 180. And while the Bible is in fact one book, the Bible contains 66 smaller books, and we call them the books of the Old Testament, or we might call it the Old Covenant. And they were written before the birth of Christ. And then there are 27 books in the New Testament, or perhaps more appropriately, the New Covenant, that talks about the life of Christ and the doctrine of Christ and how Christians are to live. There are many books written all about different religions and many books that religions have, holy books written by different religious leaders. But church family, let us hear it very clearly that there is only one which is the very word of God and that is the Bible. Therefore, all other holy books, all other religious books are false and lies because the Bible alone is the only authoritative and true standard of truth. Historically, it has been said that the Bible is the most sold book of all time. And out of all of the books, and out of all of the verses of the Bible, by the way, there are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, and there are 31,102 verses in the Bible. Get this, there are no contradictions. No contradictions anywhere in all of the Bible. The Bible fits together perfectly out of all of the authors writing over such a huge span of time, writing over three continents, and yet they're coming together in one unified book with no contradictions. It took over a thousand years to complete the Old Testament and about 60 years to complete the New Testament, and all of it is a unity from Genesis to Galatians, from Chronicles to Corinthians, from Amos to Acts, and from Ruth to Revelation. Every part of it has an important role to play in the unfolding of God's perfect plan. How can we say that the Bible has no contradiction? How can we say that the Bible has no errors? How can we say that the Bible is, in fact, the only standard of truth? Well, it's because God the Spirit is the ultimate, capital A, author of the Scripture. He used and he guided human instruments as the Spirit of God guided and carried along the hands of the authors so that these human instruments wrote exactly what God intended. The Word of God, when it was written, was written in three languages. The first is Hebrew and a little bit in Aramaic on the Old Testament. But then in the New Testament, it was written in Greek. But we must remember that when it was written, there were no chapter divisions. There were no verse divisions. That's why, even in Hebrews chapters three and four, the author might say, somewhere it's said, somewhere it's written. Because you unroll the Hebrew scroll, and somewhere in those lines is where that verse is found. William Tyndale is the one who translated the Bible into our English language, although he was standing on the shoulders of the earlier work done by John Wycliffe. He gave us our first English Bible in the 1500s. Much of our English Bible today that you have on your lap, you can give thanks to and praise to God for the work of William Tyndale. In over 500 times in our Bible, we read the phrase, thus says the Lord. In more than 1,900 places, the authors say that their message is from God. That's why we call it God's word. That's why we call it the word of God. Why? Because it is the final, it is the ultimate, it is the sole standard of truth. And even Jesus believed this when he prayed in John 17, verse 17, your word is truth. When we open up our Bibles, whether it's in Genesis or in Galatians or anywhere else in God's Word, it is active. It is a sure word, an unfailing word. It is a powerful word. Listen, it always works. It is never dormant. The Word of God is cleansing. The Word of God is living. The Word of God is nourishing. The Word of God is sanctifying. The Word of God is essential. How will they hear without the Word of Christ? Romans 10. The Bible is described in its own pages by its own testimony as being more valuable than gold or silver. Psalm 19. The Word of God is described as being a seed which gives life in 1 Peter 1. The Word of God is described as being water that cleanses, Ephesians 5. The Bible is described as being a mirror that exposes who we really are in James 1. The Bible is seen as being food that strengthens us like our daily bread, Matthew 4. The Bible is a lamp to direct us, a sword to fight our spiritual enemies. It is a hammer that can shatter and crush the proud heart. It is a blazing fire that exposes and brings judgment on the wicked. And it is a balm that gives comfort to the hurting. This is the Bible. This is the book that you have. It's not some book. It is the word of God. Martin Luther said on one occasion, he said, the Bible is alive. It speaks to me. He said, it's like the Bible has feet and it runs after me. Luther said, the Bible has hands and it lays hold of me and it will not let me go. We come to a wonderful portion in God's Word, Hebrews 4, verses 12 and 13, which teaches us great truth about our understanding of and the doctrine of the Bible. Now, we all know Hebrews 4.12, and we all love Hebrews 4.12, rightly so. We understand this verse. We could probably quote this verse by memory, but we have to understand Hebrews 4.12 is not like a standalone verse that says, here, you just sort of throw this into your theological tool belt on bibliology. Although it does give a lot of understanding and truth and clarity to our understanding of the doctrine of the Bible, this verse and these verses occur in a context. They occur in an argument. They occur in a chapter. We call it discourse analysis. You understand the verse in light of the discourse around it. What is the author saying, and why does he convey this at this time in the flow of Hebrews chapters 3 and 4? Look carefully at Hebrews 4 verse 12, and I want you to see in our English Bible the very first word there. It's the word for. And when you see the word for in Hebrews 4 verse 12, that word for is the author's way of saying, let me give you further clarification on what I've just said. This is a wonderful verse, but it's not a standalone verse. It's connected to the context. Well, what's the context? What is he clarifying? Well, he just quoted it in verse seven. Today, if you hear God's voice, don't harden your heart. What is that scripture? I want you to turn back with me to Psalm 95. I want to read the whole thing. Because technically, and if we're gonna be really specific, what is the scripture of the word of God that the author is dealing with in Hebrews 4.12, it's Psalm 95. Psalm 95, follow with me. I just wanna read Psalm 95, and I wanna show you the glory of this wonderful psalm. It is true, it is living, it is right, it is active. But if you don't take heed and listen to God's word, you're gonna perish. And that's what the psalm says. So look at the opening seven verses. It's all about coming and worshiping God. Verse one, come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. That's the call to worship. Come, come, let us come. Why? Verse three, four, because the Lord is a great God, and he's a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the peaks of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for it was he who made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Do we need more reasons to worship God than this? Here's how great our God is. Verse six, come. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Why? Verse seven, because we are the people of his pasture and we are the sheep of his hand. What is the psalmist doing? Come, come, let's worship this God. Come, let's bring our praises to this God because of how great he is. But in the middle of verse 7, there's a second way in which the psalmist is going to teach us, and that's a caution. Caution. You need to be warned by the Lord. Look at the middle of verse 7. Today, if you would hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. That's the argument of Hebrews 3 and 4. As in the wilderness, verse nine, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, they saw my work. For 40 years, I loathed that generation. And I said, they are a people who err in their heart and they do not know my ways. Therefore, I swore in my anger, truly they shall not enter my rest. When you go back to Hebrews chapter four, go back there, and you read in verse 12, for the word of God is living and active, in context, what's the word of God? Psalm 95. That warning today, if you don't hear and respond to God's voice, you're not gonna enter His rest. But, The psalm, as glorious as it is, pointing us to the greatness of God, it is sharp, it is cutting, it divides, it summons, it grabs us, it compels us to worship the great king, and it warns those who will not. That word, that word is living and active. Now, there's something far more going on here. We're gonna enter a lecture for about 30 seconds, and then I'm gonna come back to preaching. I wanna give you something a little technical, okay? Because here's what Okdor, the author, is doing. When you look at Hebrews 4, verse 14, that's the section that we will get to next. Therefore, since we have a great high priest, that's the whole rest of the theme of Hebrews after that. What is the author doing? All of Hebrews chapter four, verse 14, all the way to chapter 10 is all about the theme that Jesus is the high priest. And here's what the author's gonna do. Listen carefully. He's gonna make his case from Genesis 14 on Melchizedek. And then he's gonna take us to Leviticus and talk about blood atonement and sacrifices and the day of atonement and the lamb imagery. And then he's gonna go to Jeremiah 31 and talk about the new covenant. And then he's gonna go to Psalm 110 and say, the Lord has said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. The Hebrew Bible has three divisions, the Torah, the prophets, and the writers. You know what the author is doing right here? He's pulling sections from each of the three divisions, from Genesis, from the law, and from Jeremiah, from the prophets, and from Psalms, from the writings, and for the whole rest of the book, he's gonna make the argument that builds on this. The word of God is living and active. This word from Psalm 95 and everything I'm about to tell you is living. It's active. It's sharp. And you have to give your full attention to what the author is saying. All of it is inspired. All of it is profitable. All of it is beneficial. All of it is needed. Men and women, boys and girls, no time is ever wasted reading your Bible. You can do a million other things. And you can do a lot of really good things, but studying the Word of God is always the best thing. When we read in 2 Timothy 3.16 that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable. for teaching and reproof and correction and training and righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. We're reading and studying about the Bible as God's very spoken word. There was a man who lived in the 1800s, a couple hundred years ago, by the name of James Montgomery. James Montgomery was a poet. He loved to write poetry and he wrote a number of hymns, 400 hymns to be exact. He had a very thorough, extensive knowledge and working knowledge of Scripture. It was said of him by those who knew him that he had the faith of a strong man, but the simplicity of a little child. He had the faith of a mighty man of God, but he was simple, simple childlike faith of a little child. He wrote in these wonderful poetic words in one of his hymns, Thy word, almighty Lord, wherever it enters in is sharper than a two-edged sword to convict the man of sin. Thy word is power in life. It bids all confusion cease, and it changes my envy, my hatred, my strife, so that I will have love and joy and peace. Then let our hearts obey the gospel's glorious sound, and may we obey all its fruits from day to day, and may they be in us and abound." He loved the Word. And may that be a great example for all of us, that we would have a thorough, working knowledge of Scripture. Faith of a mighty man, but yet with the simplicity of a child. Trusting and leaning on our great God. What I want to do as we study these wonderful verses is I wanna give you four unrivaled glories about the Word of God. If you are taking notes, you can jot this down. That's my thesis probably for the next four weeks. We're gonna talk about the four unrivaled glories of the Word of God. And you can jot down the four points. They're very simple. They're single words. We're only gonna get through the first today, but here's the four. The Word of God, number one, is living. Number two, the Word of God is piercing. Number three, the Word of God is judging. And then number four, the Word of God is exposing. It is living, it is piercing, it is judging, and it is exposing. And as we walk through these four unrivaled glories of the Word of God, as we see it in Hebrews 4, 12, and 13, this impacts my life and yours. I mean, just church family, ponder with me for a moment. Think of how the word of God should impact a minister's preaching. It has to impact a minister's preaching. Think of how the word of God must impact the Christian's attendance and involvement and love for the local church. Think of how the Word of God must impact our preparation for worship, our attention in worship, and then our application after the worship service is complete. Think of how the Word of God ought to impact our marriages and our parenting, and if you're single, how you live with undistracted devotion to the Lord. Think of how the Word of God impacts our evangelism and how we share the gospel with others. The Word of God impacts your personal devotions and your meditation and your thinking about the Word of God all throughout the day. Think about how we rightly understand the Word. It will impact our time management, our priorities, our conversations, and on and on we could go. When we understand the word of God, it will give us comfort and hope and joy in the pressing trials and difficulties of life. When we know and understand the word of God, it will certainly give us assurance and security and hope about our own eternal salvation when the doubts come into our lives. What I want to show you this afternoon is the first of the unrivaled glories of the Word, the unrivaled glories of the Word. Peter, after all, in 2 Peter chapter one says, we must pay much closer attention to the things of the Word, 2 Peter 1.19. So first, you're taking notes. The first unrivaled glory, the Word is living. The word is living. Boys and girls, you can remember that. You can quiz your mom and dad when you're driving home from church this evening. What is the first unrivaled glory, boys and girls? You can ask your mom and dad. It is living. The word of God is living. You see it in verse 12? Look at it in your Bible. For the word of God is living and active. Dr. John Frey, who's a seminary professor and has a very large book on the doctrine of the Bible, he says this, quote, when we encounter the Bible, the word of God, we encounter God. His word, the Bible, is the very presence of God. Whenever the word of God is spoken or read or heard, listen, God is there. God is there. I love that. That is so helpful. That is such a fitting way to begin this. In fact, maybe I could even show even more emphasis with a brief illustration. Imagine that you go to your local library You go to your local library and you check out a book on Abraham Lincoln. You check out a book on Abraham Lincoln and you read that book in full from beginning to end and you read about Abraham Lincoln's family and his upbringing and you read about his political career and his presidency and his role in the Civil War and his death and all that happened in his life. But there's one thing that you'll never get from a book about Abraham Lincoln. You'll never meet him. Because he's dead. He's dead. But not so with the Bible. When you read the Bible, when you open the Bible and you read it and you hear the Bible read, you meet God. Why? He's alive. He's alive. The Bible is alive because God is alive. That's why in Jeremiah 23 verse 26, Jeremiah called it, these are the words of the living God. When you read the Bible, you are meeting with God. It's a living book. It's alive. The Bible breathes, as it were. It speaks, it pleads, it conquers, it grabs, it pursues, it chases, it exposes, it comforts, and it soothes. The Bible tells us, even by its own testimony, in Isaiah chapter 55, In Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 11, God says, so will my word which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sentence. The Bible is alive. The Bible is active. The Bible is speaking. Some people think, oh, you're a cessationist. You don't believe that God speaks anymore. Far from it. We, by the mercy and grace of God, have come to recognize that God does speak with all authority in the written word, but not apart from the written word. In Hebrews 4.12, if you look in your Bible, it says the word of God is living, and that makes sense in English, but the Greek word order is actually very different. If you were to open up a Greek Bible and you would read what Octor wrote, He actually takes a word and he sort of moves the whole thing to the very front for emphasis. We can't do that in English because of grammar and syntax and understanding, but in the language of Greek, they do. And they put the word living first. Everything is built upon this reality that the Word of God is living. And not only is it fronted, for emphasis, it's an ongoing verbal action of emphasis. It's alive. This book is alive. I mean, boys and girls, you need to hear that today. The book of God's Word is alive. The Bible is not dead, it's not old, it's not outdated, it's not archaic, it's not irrelevant. It's not just for the old people. The Word of God is alive. And not only is it alive and living, verse 12, the Word of God is living, it's also active. It is an effectually working book. Now this is a neat word, in verse 12, the Word of God is living and active. The word active signifies powerful, meaning it's always successful. You could translate it literally from the Greek, the word of God is living and successful. It will never fail. It's the doctrine of the infallibility of the scripture. It cannot fail. The Bible is alive, it's working, it's powerful, it's effectual, it's successful. So when we read in Genesis one, when God speaks creation, and then we read in Ephesians chapter two, that we are dead in sin and God speaks life into our dead hearts, that's proof that the word of God is successful, it's powerful, it's active. The Bible is so powerful and it is so effectual, it's like a fire. The Bible is like a fire. You think about fire. Fire can soften wax, but it can also harden the clay. That's what the Bible does. It can soften, but it can also harden. And even when you cannot see the effect of the Bible with your own visible eye, when you read it, when you study it, when you evangelize, when you speak it, when you proclaim it, even though you may not see the effect with your physical eye, Christian, we believe by faith that God promises that His Word will accomplish His good pleasure, always. When I preach, I may not know how the Word is going to do its work in all of your lives, but I believe it will. When I lead my family in family worship, and I'm evangelizing, and we're disciplining, and we're training, and we're nurturing, and we're caring for our children, we might not see large, visible growth every day, but we believe that the Word will do its work. When you give someone a gospel tract, and you speak truth to them, or you write a neighbor a letter to a loved one, or you give somebody a Bible, you might not see how the Bible does its work, but you believe that it will accomplish exactly what God wants it to accomplish. The word works. The word works. You're in Hebrews. Just turn over a few pages to the right. Let me show you just how living and active the Word is. Go to James 1. James chapter 1. We studied this a number of months ago through the whole book of James. And what a wonderful account here in James 1 verse 18. Listen, the Word works. Husbands, wives, parents, children, the Word works. Pastor, elder, deacon, evangelist, Christian, church member, the Word works. Listen to James 1 verse 18. In the exercise of God's will, meaning in the outworking of His decree, He brought us forth, it's language in the Greek for birth. He birthed us by the word of truth. How does God bring people to new life? How does he regenerate people, James 1.18? Through the word of truth. He saves people by the word of God. so that we would be a kind of first fruits among us creatures. In fact, let me show you one more section on this. Keep your finger in Hebrews, but go back to Acts, Acts chapter 16. Now, as you're turning back to Acts, we're sort of parachuting into the middle of Paul's second missionary journey. And he's arrived at the city of Philippi. And when he comes to the city of Philippi, which, by the way, was a huge city, it was a leading city. It was called a Roman colony at that day. The citizens of Philippi enjoyed Roman citizenship. It was a very pagan city, a very wealthy city. They didn't even have a synagogue. So Paul just goes to a river. In Acts chapter 16, verse 14, we read that there's a woman there. Her name is Lydia from the city of Thyatira. She's a seller of purple fabrics. She's a worshiper of God, probably outwardly. She was not a true believer yet, but she worshiped this God. And she's listening to what Paul is saying. And look at verse 14, and the Lord opened her heart. So when she arrived at the river, she was an unbeliever, maybe outwardly worshiping God, but she was an unbeliever, but she heard the word and the Lord opened her heart and allowed her to respond to the things that were spoken by Paul. Look, the word works. It can regenerate. The word of God can save. the lost soul. In Jeremiah chapter 23, we read from the prophet's own words, in Jeremiah 23, 29, is not my word like fire, declares the Lord? And is not my word like a hammer that shatters a rock? Why is that so powerful? Listen to the next verse. Jeremiah 23 verse 30, therefore, behold, I am against the false prophets. Why? They are speaking vain things from their own imagination. What's God saying? My word is so powerful, it can shatter the false words of the false prophets. And we have a lot of false prophets around. We have a lot of false teachers around. They're everywhere, aren't they? I mean, they're everywhere. And what is it that is more powerful? It is the word of God that is fire and a hammer, and it shatters a rock. Earlier in Jeremiah's prophecy, in Jeremiah chapter 5, In verse 14, Jeremiah himself says that God is making his words in Jeremiah's mouth fire and the people will become like wood and my words will consume them. What does that mean? That God's word even has the power to bring judgment on the wicked. Well, there's all kinds of ideologies, all kinds of worldviews. People have all kinds of opinions. There's all kinds of ologies out there, psychology, sociology, and all that. Well, what do we do with all of that? Well, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us in verse four that the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh, but they are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying The NASB has speculations. The idea in the Greek is we are destroying worldviews. Do you hear that? Our job as Christians is to destroy worldviews. Verse five, and every lofty thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God. How do we do that? not with physical weapons, not with clever arguments, not with savvy apologetics. We do it with the Word of God. That's why the Apostle Paul concludes the book of 2 Corinthians when he says that we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. Why do I give you all those scriptures? Because I want you to hear, church family, the Word of God works. It works, it is able to save, it is able to shatter, it is able to bring judgment. The Word of God works. John Frame, again, in his book on the Word of God, he says there is a kind of dynamic, there's a kind of power, there's a kind of action about Scripture that often surprises us, doesn't it? It speaks to our needs when you least expect it to. The word of God, that is to say, behaves like God himself in the mysteriousness of God, in the sovereign power of God, in the unmeasurable love of God, in the right timing of God, in the power of God, right? You've opened the Bible and you're like, I needed that verse today. Well, that's the power of God. Or you read a verse and you're thinking, man, it's like I never read that before. We've all been there, we've all had that, that's the power of God, that's the working of God, that's the mysterious nature of the sovereign love and immeasurable power of God. Well, you're in Hebrews, this is where we are, but go back with me to 1 Thessalonians 2. Often even before my sermons, I'll pray even this very verse, 1 Thessalonians 2, because I want you to see another proof why the Word of God works and how the Word of God works. If you're turning to 1 Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul is sort of relaying his personal ministry with the Thessalonians when he was with them. Remember when I was with you, remember how I was teaching you the word and how I worked night and day and I didn't want to be a burden to you and we were like a nursing mother caring for you like children. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. Paul says, for this reason, we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. Do you see that there? That's why we love the preaching. That's why we love the teaching. That's why we love the ministry of the word. Why? This isn't just a word of man, it's the word of God. But look at the last phrase, what does the word do? End of verse 13, which performs its work in you who believe. Do you see that? What's one of the greatest ways that I can lead and love my wife? Put her under the word. What's one of the greatest ways that I can lead and love my children? Put them under the word. More and more and more. Why? Because it is the Word of God that works. It is the Word of God that has such a powerful effect in our lives. Church family, why are we so committed to preaching? Because it is the Word of God which works in you. Culture doesn't do it. My ideas don't do it. My clever thoughts, I don't have many, won't do it. What is it that's going to produce change in you? It's the word of God. It's why we read and study and preach the word. And there's so many applications to this, aren't there? I mean, we could go on and on with implications even. I mean, as a pastor, as a minister of the word of God, As elders, what must we do? We must be diligent and faithful in the preaching of this word. Let all of us as Christians, as children of God, as men and women of faith, we must give our full attention to the ministry of the word. We ought to bring others to the word of God. We ought to give thanks to Christ for the word of God. We ought to worship in response to what we've heard from the word of God. Okay, go back to Hebrews chapter four. All that to say the word works. The Word of God is living and active. It is alive and effectual. It's successful. The Word of God never fails. The only time a preacher fails is when he fails to preach the Word. The only time an evangelist fails is when he fails to give the gospel. Right, we have to give the word. It is the word that works. I don't make it effectual. Husbands and fathers and mothers and family members don't make it effectual. The word is alive without us. It works. And not only is it alive, and not only is it active, but look at Hebrews 4, verse 12. Look at the next phrase. And it is sharper than any two-edged sword. Handle this thing with care, right? Handle this thing with care. It's sharp. It may cut you. It may cut you. Now, this is fascinating. Verse 12 tells us that the Bible, the word of God, is sharper than a sword. Now, when you and I read this, when the original church would have heard this, everybody, 100% of the audience, would have had one thought. A Roman soldier. Let me tell you about it. The picture here of a two-edged sword is of a gladius. A gladius is the Latin word that refers to a short, sharp sword that Roman foot soldiers would use when they would go to battle. The gladius was a two-edged sword, and it would be used for cutting, and it had a really sharp, tapered point for stabbing, not by swinging the sword, but by thrusting the sword. It was most effective for thrusting and stabbing, especially in close quarters. There's a Greek word for a longer sword, but this isn't that. This is a shorter, double-edged sword. The Roman soldiers were taught, and they were very skilled, to thrust with their sword. Again, they didn't just swing it in a general way, they thrust it in a very particular way. ponder that image of a powerful, sharp word where the word here is like a sword that cuts, it cuts personally, it exposes, it exposes personally, it goes into the inside, almost like a surgeon, and he finds the bad that's in there. That's what the Word does. The Word is what protects you, it exposes the sin, it guards you from the devil, it guards you from his temptations, and it protects you from all of the enemies. No Roman foot soldier went without his gladius. No Christian should go without his sword. The sword pierces, the sword protects, the sword preserves, the sword promises, and the sword gives peace. Christian, you and I, by God's grace, we have the sword. We have it. And if you're like me, you probably have it on your phone in more translations than you even read. We have so many opportunities because we have the Word. Christian, let us know the Word. Let us utilize the Word. Let us, with the Word of God, thrust with the Word into the temptation and the enemies that attack us spiritually from the evil one. Let us trust in the power of the word and believe in this word that will, in fact, do its work, even when you and I don't feel like reading the word. Read it anyway. That's not hypocritical. Isn't it hypocritical for me to read my Bible when I don't feel like it? No, it's obedience. Why? Because you believe, even when you don't feel like it, that the Word of God is living and God will use it for good. Well, I don't feel like going to church, but I need to hear the Word. I need to be under the Word. I believe that the Word of God will change me and grow me. Speaking of the sharp and penetrating nature of the Word, let me tell you one of my favorite stories of all time. And I've probably said it before, and forgive me, but hear it one more time. It's of a guy named Luke Short. Luke Short was a 15-year-old young man living in England when he came under the preaching of the Word of God. The preacher of that sermon was John Flavel. He was a Puritan. So this 15-year-old young man goes to hear the word of God, not because he wanted to, but because some friends compelled him, and he went with them. And he was a little bit arrogant and a little bit prideful, and he left completely unchanged. A year later, he's 16 years old, and he gets on a boat, and he sails all the way to Massachusetts. He becomes a farmer. He becomes a farmer. One day, when he was farming, 85 years later, after hearing that sermon, he's 100 years old, working in the fields. Even that's pretty amazing, first of all. But 100 years old, working in the fields, he recalls the sermon that he heard from John Flavel. He recalled the text that was preached, 1 Corinthians 16, 22. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Luke Short is in the field. He's reflecting on that. God even brings to his memory the full outline of the sermon, 85 years later. And God saves him. God saves him. I mean, never, ever, ever let a preacher think, or a Bible study leader think, or a care group leader, or an evangelist, or an elder, or a father, or a mother, or a husband, or a wife think that your work or your labor is lost when you don't see the immediate result. Luke's short is just one example of many. of how the Word of God really is living and active, and how it really does cut. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. What is it that can pierce through and penetrate the hardest of hearts? from an athlete to a Hollywood star to someone at the highest levels of politics in our country or anyone around the world. What is it that can pierce and shatter such a hard heart? One thing, the power and living nature of the word of God. the stroke that is given in the hearing of the word of God, though there may not be physical and visible results right then and there, God will always use his word at the right time. Take your Bible, you're in Hebrews. Let's draw this to a close here in just a moment. Go to Hebrews chapter one, not Hebrews. Go to 1 Peter chapter one, 1 Peter. Peter is writing to persecuted Christians, and he tells them at the beginning of 1 Peter 1 about the great God who saved them. And then he tells them, after God saved them, how they ought to live with diligent love and with diligent holiness in their Christian lives. He reminds them in 1 Peter 1, verse 19, that they have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Do you see that there? You are redeemed with the blood, as if a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. And he talks about how Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but he appeared in the last times for the sake of you, verse 21. who through him you are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God. To which we all say, Amen. Verse 22. Since You have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren. Fervently love one another from the heart, because, verse 23, you've been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and word of God. Remember how you were saved? Through the powerful working of the word? Verse 24, for all flesh is like grass and all the glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And then this little phrase at the end of the chapter, and this word is the word that was preached to you. You come hungry and you say, God, you saved me by the working of the word in my life. You showed me Christ by the powerful working. Now, week by week by week, I wanna see more of Christ. I wanna understand him more through the preaching of this word. Look at chapter two, verse one. Therefore, Christian, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babies. And we have some of those around here. long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you grow in respect to salvation. Do you see that, 1 Peter 2.2? As a Christian, you grow as you are in step with the word of God. Christians never grow apart from the word of God, but we grow with the word of God as the spirit of God uses the word in our lives. And how many implications are there? What's this unrivaled glorious truth of the word? It's living, this book is living. So what should we do? I think there's a lot of implications. I think number one, we ought to bless and thank the Lord that there are churches that uphold the authority of Scripture. We are one of them, but there are others as well. We have some in our city, Chinese Church, New Community Church, Forest Park Bible Church, and there are others. Bless God. Thank the Lord. for an assembly where the word of God is read and loved and upheld. Number two, what should we do because the word of God is alive? We ought to highly revere the word of God read and the word of God preached. You go to a sporting event and they say, let's stand for the singing of the national anthem. So you stand. How much more should we stand and give our full honor and respect to the King of Kings? Number three, we ought to read God's word daily and humbly, personally, prayerfully, and on and on with all these adjectives. Read the word, read the word. Read the word. Fourth, because the word is alive, we ought to minister this word to our children regularly. You know, as a dad, I believe my kids, however old they are and whatever attitudes they may have, they don't need less of the word. They need more of the word. What if all the children rebel? What if they all turn away? That's never a reason to give up on the word. All the more reason to put them under the word all the more. So we minister the word of God to the children regularly. Because the Word of God is alive, next, we talk. We talk of God's Word with one another. We can do that over dinner here in a little bit. When we go downstairs and we have our fellowship meal, we can ask each other, how did the Word of God teach you this week? Or in the sermon that we just heard. 2 John, verse 6, tells us that we love God as we obey Him and obey His Word. One of the greatest ways, church family, that we can express our love to God is by loving His Word and by obeying His Word. So what's the first unrivaled truth? What's the first glorious, unrivaled reality of the Word of God? It is living. The word of God is living. And if you're a Christian here today, you are testimony of that because God's living word has given life to your soul in showing you the reality of your sin and pointing you to the hope that is found in Christ. in His person, and His work, and His death, and His atonement, and all that He has accomplished on the cross in a full, final sacrifice. And the Word has shown you the empty tomb, and you have come under that Word, and you've come to believe this Word. You were dead, but now you're alive because the living Word did its work in you. Praise the Lord for that. If you're here today and the living word has not made you alive, come to him. Come to this powerful God. He can take the hardest of hearts and melt that heart just like wax. Come to Christ today. Charles Spurgeon was preaching on the power of the word of God. Spurgeon said, the word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let that lion loose, and the lion will defend itself. He preached on January 1888. He said, the word of God can take care of itself, Christian, and it will do so if we preach it. Stop defending it with your own arguments. Spurgeon said, picture a lion. You go to a zoo and they cage the lion for his own protection and his own preservation. And they've shut the lion up behind iron bars to secure him from enemies. See how a band of secured and armed men have gathered to try to protect a lion, Spurgeon says. And then Spurgeon says, these mighty weak men are intent upon defending a lion. And then Spurgeon says, ha, what fools! How slow of heart, Spurgeon said. Open the door, and let the king of the jungle come forth free. Who will dare encounter a lion? What does he want to do with your guardian care? So, Christian, like the lion, that's the word of God. Let it go forth in all of its lion-like majesty, and it will clear its own way, and it will destroy all of its adversaries. Christian, your word is like a lion. Let the lion loose. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Hebrews 4.12. Thank you that it is the power, the penetrating, the perfect, the clear, the understandable revelation and communication from you to us. Show us more of who you are. Give us a hunger to read and study your Word. Give us greater faith and confidence in your Word. What a great and firm foundation we have in the Word of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.