HEBREWS 4<\/b><\/p>\n
For the Word of God is living and 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<\/i><\/p>\n
(Hebrews 4:12).<\/i><\/p>\n
On Tuesday we saw that if it was dangerous to despise God\u2019s revelation through angels in the old covenant, it is more dangerous to despise God\u2019s revelation through His Son in the new covenant. Yesterday we saw that if rebellion against Moses\u2019 house brought the wrath of God upon the people, how much more will rebellion against the Messiah\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
The author of Hebrews continues this theme in Hebrews 4. Because of their rebellion, none of the men who left Egypt under Moses entered into the Sabbath-rest of the promised land except Joshua and Caleb. The next generation under Joshua did enter that promised rest\u2014several generations later. David in Psalm 95:7\u20138 prophesied a greater Sabbath-rest for which the godly still looked (Hebrews 4:6\u20138). Thus, the rest Joshua gave the people was only a foretaste of the greater Sabbath rest to come.<\/p>\n
God Himself had worked six days and rested on the seventh. God invites men to enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:4\u20135). There is an initial entrance into rest by faith (4:3), but the fullness of that rest comes after perseverance in faith (4:11). The danger is that having begun in the kingdom and having received the initial rest, we fail to persevere and come to the final rest.<\/p>\n
It is in this context that the author tells us that God\u2019s Word is alive and powerful. The Scriptures not only must be heard and obeyed but also forcefully affect the minds of those who read and hear them. The Scriptures bring judgment and death, \u201cdividing soul and spirit.\u201d Like the sacrificial knife, they divide \u201cjoints and marrow.\u201d The Scriptures expose the thoughts of the heart, and bring everything under the eye of the God who judges all things (4:12\u201313).<\/p>\n
Thus, the primary thrust of these verses is that God\u2019s Word will judge those who apostatize from the faith. This great threat of judgment hangs over everyone, and the only salvation from it is in Christ, our great High Priest. Only by holding firmly to the faith will we move from rest to rest; only in the sacrificial substitutionary death of Jesus will we be spared from the sacrificial knife of the judging Word (4:14).<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Isaiah 39\u201340<\/p>\n
Philippians 4<\/p>\n
\u201cProne to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love,\u201d wrote the hymnist. The warnings in Hebrews are designed to shake us up. We can be assured of salvation, and we should have assurance, but such is only for those who hold fast to the Bible and faith in Jesus. If you\u2019ve been wandering, flee back to Him today.<\/p>\n
For further study: 2 Kings 22\u201323<\/i> \u2022 John 14:21; 17:17<\/i> \u2022 Acts 3:17\u201323<\/i><\/p>\n
friday<\/p>\n
october<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HEBREWS 4 For the Word of God is living and 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 (Hebrews 4:12). On Tuesday we saw that if it was dangerous to despise God\u2019s revelation through angels in the … Continue reading “THE POWER OF THE WORD”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}