Hebrews 4:11-13
“11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (NKJV).
Over the past two weeks, we have talked about rest. No, not sleeping, but resting in the finished work of Jesus that He did on the cross. The rest that comes with our surrender to the Lord Jesus is not just as Savior but as the complete Lord and Master of our lives. We allow Him to take us into the future as He sees fit, no matter how good, bad or ugly, just so long as He is leading. We often read the book of Job and see the turmoil he went through, but we forget that God allowed Job to go there; God allowed Satan to do these things to Job. True rest comes to the conclusion that God is enough. No matter what else happens, God is enough.
We explored the power and person of Jesus in the previous lessons, and we explored true rest in the last few lessons. Today we will look at the Bible, “the Living Word of God.”
Last week during my personal devotion time, the programs I am reading through had me read Psalm 51. In verse 6 of that Psalm, King David makes an enlightening statement that has stuck with me.
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts” (NKJV).
God desires that we have inner truth – that we be built on truth from the inside out. This is difficult; we often lie to ourselves, and for many of us, we have built a very convincing facade that covers who we truly are inside.
I have been in the ministry for just over 38 years; people see me preach and teach the word of God, and I work hard at being very disciplined in the Bible. But inside, I am truly a shy and often insecure person. Because of this, I tend to over-study and arm myself to be challenged so that I am not caught off-guard. I am detailed, and I have to be reminded not to be too long-winded; it is a fault of mine. God wants us to be true about who and what we are. He wants us to be truthful about whose we are and to live lives of truth. To equip us in this pursuit, God has given us His Holy Word, the Bible.
- Powerful, verse 12
God is All-Powerful, and His Word is as well. It is still transforming lives all over the world to this very day. Millions of other books have been written about the struggles of mankind, but in all of that, the Bible deals with all of the struggles of men and mankind. It does so by looking at the lives of real men and women from eras covering 4,000 years of history, and it allows us into the most intimate aspects of their lives. We get into the heads and into the hearts, and we see the conflicts that lived in their homes. We see love, hate, friendship, betrayal, lies, truths, wars, and on and on.
The Bible covers family, marriage, sexual attraction, how to maintain it in a marriage, how to raise children, run a business, find friends, how to treat money, sadness, and depression, and it is honest about man’s ultimate needs and God’s gracious provision of salvation in Jesus. No one has ever gotten to the end, and no one has ever exhausted its wisdom. And for sure, no one has proven it to be wrong.
- Sharp, verse 12
The Bible gets to the point. It is upfront and blunt with mankind; we are evil to the core. God is perfect to the core, and the gulf between us is unpassable without Jesus. The Bible makes the way and method of salvation clear; Jesus and only Jesus. No one else and nothing else matters. God owns Heaven, and only He has the right to determine how we get there. He has determined that Jesus is the only door into Heaven. No other word matters, no other opinion matters, and there is no room for arguments. You can come Jesus’ way or not at all.
The Bible cuts to the core; it demands that men love their wives, it demands that true leaders first be great servants, and it tells us that the truly rich do not have a lot of money but that they have Jesus and are wholly surrendered to Him. The Bible tells us that it is not what you do that matters but what you think inside (thought and intents of the heart), thus eroding the façade that too many live in. We are called to love God and others more than ourselves, the very opposite of the world’s philosophy. The Word of God forces you to either live in a lie of rebellion or to be humble and ask God to change you; either way, you will never be the same once you hear it.
- Nowhere to Hide, verse 13
Everyone on this planet or who has ever walked on this planet will be judged according to the Bible, the Word of God. No one will escape; even the saved will have their saved lives judged by the concepts and precepts of the Bible. See 2 Corinthians 5:10, NKJV.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Now, if you are saved and have the Holy Spirit living in you, there is no hell in your future. But you will still have to give an account of your life. To those without Jesus, you too will be judged from this book or the books as John describes them in Revelation 20:12, KJV.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
No one gets by without being judged by the Word of God. On that day, all will stand level, kings and beggars, illiterate and educated, free and slaves, all under the Holy Word of God. Go, get your Bible, read it, study it, cherish it and let the Holy Spirit guide you to living for, in, and by the power of Jesus and in His clearly expressed Word. We will be judged by what it says and what it calls us to be and do. No excuses.
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
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