Grace and peace, beloved. It is a pleasure and a privilege to have this opportunity to deliver the sermon today. Let’s start with a word of prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, it is my prayer that the words of my mouth and the meditations of the hearts of Your people assembled here today will be acceptable to You; and may Your Spirit work within us according to the good pleasure of Your will, to the praise of the glory of Your grace. I ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
Our sermon title this morning is “The Living Word”. “The Living Word”.
The text which sets our thoughts before us is from the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12, and this is what it says:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Now I recited that in the King James Version because it was a favorite memory passage that I embedded in my heart long ago and that was the version which I memorized…
…and so coming to this passage today we have the opportunity to clear up any misunderstanding that may present itself with the old English usage of the word “quick” which is how the King James often renders the Greek word zao (zah-oh) which means living.
When it says “the word of God is quick…”, it is to say that the word of God is living.
The 1 st epistle of Peter chapter 4, verse 5 in the old English is rendered thus: (regarding sinners): …who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
Of course “quick” there means living .
Older versions of the creeds used this wording as well. The Apostle’s creed was worded thusly (referring to Christ of course): “…Who sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead…”
There again quick means living.
The Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 1:
“ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins…”
When it is written to believers in Ephesus and by extension to Christians in general that God has quickened you it means that He has made you spiritually alive; not that He made you go any faster.
A quick anecdote which could be titled the quick and the dead is about two men who were driving across the plains of Africa and they ran out of gas and had to get out and walk. These guys were tourists not hunters; if they were going to shoot anything it would be with a camera. So there they were, walking across the plain in the wild, when they saw a lone lion that had strayed from the pack and it looked fierce and hungry, and was sizing up the two men. One of them quickly took off his hiking boots and pulled a pair of sneakers out of his back pack, put them on and started lacing them up. The other man said to him, “Wha-what are we gonna do?? Wh-Why are you putting on sneakers?? You can’t outrun that lion!” To which he replied, “I don’t have to outrun the lion; I just have to outrun you.”
So of those 2 men, it could be said that 1 of them was quick and 1 of them was dead. J
To be clear then, there is no connotation of speediness in our text today. Whenever “quick” is used in contrast to dead it means living. Let’s look now at our New International Version’s rendering of our text which again is Hebrews 4:12. The book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12.
Once you’ve turned there (p. 1291 in the pew Bibles) you can keep your thumb on it to follow along as we get on with unpacking the text, making some observations and we’ll conclude with the application of it Lord willing.
Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12:
For the word of God is alive 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.
So what does it mean to say that the word of God is alive, or living ? Note that it is alive and active, or actively alive…
In 1st Peter 1:23 it is written: …having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…
In John 6:63 Jesus says “…The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life…”
James 1:18 - Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth…
The NET Bible is helpful here, which renders it: By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth… indeed the process of conversion to Christianity is known as being “born again”; as Jesus said to Nicodemus: “unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [that’s John 3:3 if you’re taking notes]
This new birth is new life given to fallen man. The word of God is replete with examples of and doctrine about life from death, one of the most fundamental and compelling being in the 1 st epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15, where it is written:
For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. [1 Cor. 15:21-22]
All those appointed to eternal life that is.
Powerful testimony to the living power of God’s word is frequently given in the 119th Psalm, which is structured in stanzas according to the Hebrew alphabet.
The psalmist starts off the section under the Hebrew letter ZAYIN by exclaiming:
Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life. (vv 49-50)
The word of God has life force; the power to regenerate, to impart life. It turns dead sinners into living Christians. Souls dead in sins and trespasses are made alive to God.
The word of God is both alive AND active (also translated as powerful). The Greek word there is energes (en-er-gace') from which the English word energy is derived.
That the word of God is defined to be living and active makes a clear contrast with something that may be alive, yet dormant. The word of God is NOT dormant.
The sovereign Spirit Himself bears witness to His living word, bringing its power to bear as recorded in the book of Acts, chapter 10, verse 44, which states:
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church in his 1 st epistle to them, chapter 1, verse 5:
…our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…
This living word is not just word, but the word of God; and remember that as per 2 Tim. 3:16 ALL Scripture is breathed out by God...
Our text goes on to declare that the word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword ; it is indeed “the sword of the Spirit” referred to in Ephesians chapter 6 where the whole armor of God is represented.
Scripture-arguments are the sharpest arguments to repel temptation, as Christ Himself resisted Satan’s direct enticements with 4 “It is written” statements in Matthew chapter 4.
The living word is the same sharp double-edged sword that symbolically comes out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 1. [v. 16]
Continuing with the rich description of the word of God which our text provides, we come to a phrase that requires some scrutiny to sufficiently understand… the word of God is stated to penetrate even tothe dividing of soul and of spirit.
So let’s look at some of what the word of God tells us of soul and of spirit, in order to shed the light of Scripture on itself.
I want to refer back to the creation account in Genesis, but let’s take with us the benediction that the apostle Paul gives to the Thessalonians at the end of his 1 st epistle to them.
Turn with me first to 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (p. 1270 in your pew Bibles). 1 Thessalonians 5:23 which reads:
May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice that Paul refers to spirit, soul and body representing aspects of being; and especially notice the reference to the “whole” spirit, as he was writing to Christians given new spiritual life in Christ Jesus, believers who by grace through faith were made whole in spirit.
Ok now with that in mind let’s go back to the beginning, to the creation account in Genesis 2:7 (this one is on page 2 in your pew Bibles)… (pause) Genesis chapter 2, verse 7 reads:
And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
The Hebrew word used there, nephesh (neh’-fesh) rendered “being” in our New International Version is also the word for “soul”.
Other translations render the passage: and the man became a living soul .
Now over on the next page starting with verse16 in Genesis 2 we read
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
These are familiar passages and of course we know what happened: Adam and Eve violated the only restriction God had placed upon them, and they did eat from that tree…
Yet in Genesis 5:4-5 we read this about Adam:
After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
From all this then, what can we conclude? Knowing God cannot lie, and He declared that Adam would surely die when he ate the forbidden fruit (literally on the dayhe ate it(the Hebrew word there is Yom, meaning day); since the body formed of the dust had the breath of life breathed into the nostrils to become a living being, then it had to be the spirit which died on that day, even as Adam continued living, body and soul, to a ripe old age.
Indeed it was the spirit that became no longer whole, and separated from God. This concurs with the full counsel of Scripture on the status of Adam’s posterity, as Paul wrote in Ephesians:
“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God…” (Eph.4:18)
This part of our text which indicates a distinction between soul and spirit comes more clearly into focus when we see it in terms of redemption as the work of the 2 nd Adam, our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the central focus of this epistle to the Hebrews. (& all…)
In this context then spirit can be seen as the seat of God-consciousness whereas soul is the seat of self-consciousness, the individual himself – encompassing what Freud called the ego.
From this perspective it could be said that man is "a living soul" and has a "spirit," and the "body" is the tabernacle, being the seat of the senses.
In the day that man first sinned, he died spiritually, but this doesn’t mean extinction of being; instead, this death signifies separation, as in the parable of the prodigal son in the gospel of Luke chapter 15:
…when celebrating the return of the son who had gone astray, the father said in verse 24:
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.
Soul then can be seen to focus more on individuality regarding the inner life. A soul not influenced by a quickened spirit is dead in trespasses and sins.
Now the Greek word used in the New Testament for soul is psoo-khay’ (it looks like psyche but it’s pronounced sookhay).
Turn with me quickly (there’s that word again :-) to 1 Corinthians 2:14 (at the bottom right of p. 1223 if you’re using the pew Bible). In 1 st Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14 it is written:
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The phrase for the man “without the Spirit” or the “natural man” is from the Greek word psychikos which is the adjective form of psoo-khay’ for soul.
The unregenerate person is termed “soulical” which is to say that because of the fall, spiritual considerations have no weight with him; he has no communion with God.
It is written by Jude in his single chapter epistle (Jude is the last book before Revelation, and only has 1 chapter – I wouldn’t be surprised if Pastor Jeff has already teased you by asking you to turn to Jude chapter 2 – he got me with that once long ago :-) if you’d like to turn there with me to Jude verse 19, it’s on p. 1322). In verse 19, referring to scoffers following their own ungodly passions, Jude writes: These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
The Greek word there for “natural” is again psychikos, the adjective form of psoo-khay’ or soul.
Those scoffers were “soulish” and devoid of the Spirit who Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God , according to Romans 8:16. The Holy Spirit who regenerates the spirits of children of God through the power of his living word.
Coming back to our text then, which describes the word of God as penetrating to the division of soul and of spirit , we understand its power and sharpness in regeneration. The spirit is made alive and whole again, and reconciled to God, as if being cut from its tomb and set free to serve God,
…enabling the believer to say with the apostle “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son…” (that’s Romans 1:9)
Now a word of caution here: attempts to explain the words soul and spirit in terms of psychology is futile, as the word of man is just not up to it. Throughout Scripture these terms have different meanings in different contexts, which makes it difficult to develop any systematic definition of either word…
… soul and spirit even have some of the same or similar meanings when used independently, often referring generally to the “inner man”, according to the context in which they are used.
In our text today, where the writer to the Hebrews uses both terms together, it is not to set forth a theology of the difference between soul and spirit; rather the form of expression distinguishing between them is setting forth the power of the living word of God to affect our thoughts & actions as, by faith, we lay hold of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (cf Eph 2:8)
The word of God is regenerative, even “to dividing soul and spirit”.
Like the soul and spirit, the joints and marroware also mentioned as subject to the penetrating sharpness of the living word. Joints and marrow are used here as metaphors representative of the deepest, hardest, and most intimate parts of a sinner, the suppressed and hidden places which no natural reason can reach;
yet the word of God penetrates to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart,to convict and convert the proud to be humble, and the rebellious to be obedient.
An excerpt from Matthew Henry’s commentary is well worth quoting here:
“Sinful habits that have become as it were natural to the soul, and rooted deeply in it, and become in a manner one with it, are separated and cut off by this sword. It cuts off ignorance from the understanding, rebellion from the will, and enmity from the mind… this sword can cut off the lusts of the flesh as well as the lusts of the mind, and make men willing to undergo the sharpest operation for the mortifying of sin. It is a discerner of… even the most secret and remote thoughts and designs. It will discover to men the variety of their thoughts…the vileness of them. The word will turn the inside of a sinner out, and let him see all that is in his heart.”
…and I commend the Puritan, Presbyterian pastor Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary to you… his insights are excellent and quite thorough.
So the living word is like a supernatural MRI… to which we must submit ourselves regularly, and the results will surely be forthcoming. The eternal objectives of the Great Physician will be fulfilled… Isaiah chapter 55, verse 11 says:
…so is My word be 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.
-- Surely such a word as this must be a great help to our faith and obedience! --
…which brings us to the application of the text to our lives today.
We derive the context from the beginning of the chapter, where speaking of the promise of rest it is written in verses 1 & 2):
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
Notice the first word of our text, v. 12, is “For”, which has the force of because.
The author of this epistle to the Hebrews warned them (and warns us) since verse 7 of the previous chapter, Hebrews chapter 3, to heed the example of the Israelites in the wilderness who failed to enter God’s rest, condemned to wander for 40 years instead of entering Canaan, because of unbelief.
He directly quotes Psalm 95 in chapter 3, verses 7-11:
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
The verse immediately preceding our text reads: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
The original Hebrew readers, as well as us today, are exhorted to diligently attempt to enter the promised rest. The “rest” promised in verse 1 that remains even now for the people of God.
Our eternal rest was typified by the entering into the promised land of milk & honey.
Israel had failed to trust the LORD and heed His voice and so came short of entering their promised rest of Canaan.
We must beware lest we fail to heed the word of God and fall through the same example of unbelief and disobedience like that of Israel in the wilderness… because the living word actively goes beyond the intellect, to impact upon the God-given faculty of faith;
and when conscience grows dull, the living word makes conscience, like itself, sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating to and revealing the innermost condition of a person’s nature and of their disposition before a thrice-holy God!
So the word of God is the standard. Refusing to hear and obey the word of God is just as serious and dangerous now as it was in the day of that rebellious generation in the wilderness.
Now remember, it’s not by perfect obedience that we enter our rest. The point is do we submit to God’s word or not. We must strive to abide in it, overcoming our sin, repenting of it and turning from it, with progressive sanctification by grace through faith in Him who never sinned.
The word of God itself provides the best summary of this application where the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote:
(2 Peter 1:)3His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
4 by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,
6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,
7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In conclusion then, the more we submit ourselves to the searching and convicting influence of God’s word, the more we shall be blessed.
If we try to rationalize some behavior which God's word defines as sin, and we think it's not out in the open and no harm done, think again. The verse immediately following our text states: Nothing in creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
It has been said that we must forsake the sins which the Bible rebukes, lest interest in the pursuit of the truth decline, and the study of the word become neglected and forsaken…
“Sin soon separates from the Bible those whom the Bible does not separate from sin.”
The living word not only informs, with its pure truth, but it also transforms those who receive it, as it ultimately conforms faithful believers to the image of the Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So to any and every one hearing my voice I say:
if you don’t have the Bible… GET IT.
If you have the Bible… READ IT.
If you read the Bible… BELIEVE IT.
And if you believe the BIBLE………..LIVE IT. After all, it is the living word. Let us pray:
Gracious Father, we thank You that Your word has given us life, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Direct our steps by Your word and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Your word is very pure, therefore Your servants love it. Sanctify us in the truth of Your word.
For Christ’s sake, amen.
[Preached by PCA Ruling Elder Gordon Graham circa the 2nd decade of the 21st century of our Lord]