Fill(et) Me With The Word of God

There’s a Stirring # 5                                                                                           3/12/12

Hebrews 4:12-13

            Have you ever gone to a scary movie at night, returned home, and not slept well? Did scenes of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy, or vampires, keep playing your mind over and over again?

            For me, the scariest movies were always the ones that seemed to be real-life possibilities. When I was about ten or eleven, I went to see a movie called “What's the matter with Helen.” It was a murder movie. It starred Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters. It was the type of movie that seemed like it was ripped straight out of the day's newspaper headlines. I had trouble sleeping for days after that.

            We are all afraid of something. We may not even realize it. Even in everyday life a lot of what we do is based upon fear.

            That's the way it was for these Christians in the book of Hebrews. This preacher from Hebrews is attempting to preach a sermon to them. He knows that, at one time, they were walking according to the values of the Lord. They were allowing the church to affirm them in their faith. Somewhere along the way, their friends who were not Christians, or their coworkers, or their bosses, or their civic clubs, or somebody they respected so much they feared going against them, started saying, “What is the matter with you? Why are you doing this?”

            Some began threatening these Christians; some of these Christians even lost their jobs. Some had their property taken away from them. But these Christians began living out of fear. And they quit doing what God had told them to do, such as ceasing to meet with the church.

            Incidentally, today, we see it illustrated much more in the fear of our friend’s having a negative opinion of us than of someone taking away our property. I remember we had a young convert in Argentina, who brought a friend to a college Bible study and fellowship night that Judy and I offered in our home.

            The friend, who was a partier, left saying, “What do you see in those people?” Afraid of losing her friend’s respect, our young convert began a slow fade to spiritual oblivion.

            Last week, we saw where God rescued the ancient Hebrews, who were down and out in Egypt. God came along and rescued them.

            As you listen to the story being retold in Hebrews, what you naturally think is that the people respond in loving kindness and seek to offer God great pleasure. But that is not the case.

            They get to the Jordan River they send spies out, the spies come back, and God's people become very afraid. People begin crying out, “Hey! There are giants out there.” They become upset with God. Then they complain to him, asking why in the world he is taking them out somewhere to get them killed. So instead of honoring the person who rescued them, they dishonor him. They complain, and, because of their fear, they refuse to follow his leadership.

            They distrust God, and they disobey. Have you ever heard the song “Trust and Obey?” They sing a new song, “Distrust and Disobey.”

            Last week, we saw this preacher tell the church, “Guys, learn from their mistakes. Some of you are headed in this very direction. Some of your fellow Christians have already abandoned God. You can still cross over the Jordan. It is not too late.”

            There was a generation that crossed to the other side of Jordan. They were the children of those Israelites. They made it, and the Preacher describes how they found rest. He then says, “You can find the rest too.” Furthermore, he says to them, “Make every effort to find that rest.” (Hebrews chapter 4:11)

            Years later, after the children of Israel had failed, Jesus spoke to their descendents, who were afraid of the religious leaders and said, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. (Luke 24:4-5.) NIV 1984

       In essence Jesus says, “If you want to fear somebody, fear God.”

            That is a good synopsis for what God is saying in Hebrews. Respect God; respect what He says.

            That is his sermon, but he has an application, which leads us to Hebrews 4:12–13, 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. 13 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.

            So in Hebrews 4:12–13, the Preacher tells them, “Let your reverence and awe of God determine how you live.” Have you ever heard somebody say, “I'm going to put the fear of God into you?” Well, this guy is going to try to do that. And he sees the word of God is the answer.

            Remember, this is a tired church in Hebrews. This guy is not looking to reinforce their lifestyles. He gets really tough with them. And he does so with the Word of God.

            One aside: he is not addressing broken people. Instead, these guys have not been humbled to the point they are ready to hear a Word from God--and act upon it. These are complacent Christians—people who were perhaps broken long ago but had since become self-satisfied.

            People can be like that today. One time a guy was preaching out of some of the books of the Old Testament, and a sister came up to him and said, “I don't think you should preach these.”

            The guy asked her, “Why?”

            She replied, “Because we already know all the stories.”

            The irony of this was that that lady was considered a major complainer in that church. Here she was hearing stories about the children of Israel complaining and failing-stories she needed to hear-yet, in her complacency, she had closed her heart to the word of God. Her attitude was the opposite of the one the Preacher is calling for in Hebrews 4.

            A practice I maintained in high school was to read different verses to prove things that I wanted to prove to my friends. Whenever I did read the Bible, my readings were exclusively focused on those points. The only time I read my Bible was to find out where my friends were wrong, or my friends’ churches were wrong. Basically, I was using the Bible as a club to hit other people. That's not what this preacher is talking about in Hebrews 4.

            The world says that the Bible is a dead letter. Notice this preacher says that the Bible is living, For the word of God is alive and active. The word is active–literally, it is energy. It is energetic.

            It is also a warning. He's sounding the alarm. He said to these Christians, “Listen, you have heard; now, obey.”

            The sword cuts both ways, Sharper than any double-edged sword. To Christians who are broken, who truly buy into Christ, it is a word of promise. To Christians who are slipping away, this message is a word of judgment—that's the other side of the sword.

            Now, keep in mind, when he speaks of the word of God, he is talking about the word of God that had been spoken. He is talking primarily about the Old Testament. This can apply to the New Testament, obviously, but, here, it is the Old Testament that he proclaims powerful.

            He said that before the word of God—Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. The word we translate “uncovered” can be transliterated to the word “gym.”

            Back in this time, these people had inherited a culture from the Greeks. The Greeks were into athletics. The Greeks would practice their athletics naked (only the men participated.) The arena for athletics was the place where these men would go, strip off their clothes, and practice.

             So the readers understood the Preacher saying was this—we go before the word of God… naked. We are totally vulnerable. Everything is uncovered--laid bare. He's talking about the Day of Judgment, and he's talking about today.

            The words “laid bare” are where we get the word “trachea.” This word is used to describe an animal that was laid upon an altar with his neck exposed. Then the throat was slit.

            That is the idea he has for us when we approach the word of God. We don't come to this book primarily to show where someone else is wrong. It is not my job to study the word of God everyday to discover where you have messed up. No, you and I are called to go before the word of God, expose our necks, understand we are disrobed before Him, and let the scriptures work on us.

            Is this Word-from this God-worthy of our respect?

            We are deluded, one commentator said, if we believe these Christians in Hebrews sat in their worship assembly, listening to this letter read, with great joy and pleasure. For many who received this message, it was very painful. It hurt.            

            What is the basic story of the Bible? We've got a problem. We have a sinful nature, and we cannot take care of ourselves. We have fallen, and we cannot get up. So God, over and over again, is portrayed as rescuing his people. Hence, there is a call to humility before God. Nothing to the cross I bring, simply to the cross I cling. The Bible is not a telegram from God saying, “Congratulations, you're doing great!”

            One time I went to my allergist for a checkup. My appointment did not last long, maybe five minutes. She asked how I was doing. I told her I was doing great. She checked me. She said I looked good. She concurred that everything was going well. Her admonition to me was to keep it up.

            Sometimes, I think I do the same when I set up an appointment with God’s word. I expect to open up the Bible and hear the scriptures say, “You’re doing good; keep it up”—sort of a spiritual version of a smiley face.

            The Preacher of Hebrews says, “No, God is going to be completely honest with you.” Isn't that what we need?

            Granted, this process can be painful; consequently, we too often avoid it. You know what often gets our nation’s presidents in trouble? They surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear. They isolate themselves from those who tell them things they do not want to hear.

            It is easy to do. I certainly do not want to hear the negative about me. Sometimes, it makes me feel bad, but I need it.

            Over 30 years ago, I had an uncle named Wally, (everybody needs an uncle Wally!), and he had to have open-heart surgery. Now that was in the day when it was a much more primitive operation--much more dangerous. It was an extremely painful process. Surgeons took a small saw and sawed right through the breastbone, went to work on his heart, and performed a number of dangerous maneuvers.

            They had to do this to my uncle Wally because his life was in danger; if they had done nothing, he would have died. But they did operate—they opened him up. Afterwards, he was weak and sore. However, that operation saved his life. He is still alive today.

            In a sense, that's what the preacher is telling us the Bible does with us. God comes to us and says, “You're going to die. I’m going to have to do some major surgery.” God gets a double-edged sword, he cuts, and he goes right for our hearts. We are exposed. We hurt. But if we are willing to submit ourselves to this operation, it will save our lives.

            You may been thinking, “Mark, what does this have to do with respecting God and holding him in awe?” Look again at the last part of v. 13: 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.

            There's something else in this passage that stands out to me. It is the phrase “the eyes of God.”

            When I was in college, we would make fun of a song (which I had actually never heard, but of which I was aware) called, “There’s an all Seeing Eye Watching You.”

            We would deride the culture of fear that we imagined it must have created. We smugly thought ourselves enlightened, and we figured that, in our own superiority, we had no one to fear. Before long, God took on the persona, to many of us, of “Big King Buddy.”

            I now wonder if the song came from this passage. I must confess to you, as I have been reading about the word of God, this book of Hebrews has been cutting on me. Hebrews has made me repent of some of the things I have preached. It has made me ashamed for some of the things I have said. I gather from this a sense of respect for the God who sees all that I do.

            Now, we can come into the Father’s presence with confidence, but it is because of the work of the Son—Jesus. (We will get to that in future weeks.) That only enhances our respect of the Father—and the Son.

            Some do not like this. It is not fun to preach about. It is not popular to talk about. It is, nevertheless, an element of our Christian faith.

            Fear was driving these Christians in the book of Hebrews. They were afraid of what their friends would think. Some were afraid of their bosses, “If I give my life completely to Jesus, my boss is going to fire me.” Some were thinking, “If I really serve Jesus with everything I have, I will not get a promotion.”

            Some guy in their youth group was thinking, “God sounds really good. But if I totally sell out to Jesus, that girl down the street that I like is going to think I'm weird.” So out of fear, he abandoned Jesus.

            There was somebody thinking, “If I do this, they are going to kick me out of the Shriners club.” Out of fear, he obeyed the Shriners.

            Someone else was thinking, “If we attend worship services every Sunday without fail, our neighbors, with whom we play bridge on Friday nights, will freeze us out and not let us play with them anymore.” So they did not go as much, to preserve that relationship. They did this out of fear.

            This preacher was saying to them, “Listen, if your collective fear drives you, here is who you need to fear, the living God.”

            So how do we apply this? We apply it by asking, “Who’s approval am I seeking? Whose words determine how I live?”

            Second, we eliminate all rivals to God.

            Third, we risk by exposing ourselves to the only words that matter—God’s.

            Don't worry about the word of the Rotary club, the boss’s word, the boyfriend’s word. Let’s concern ourselves with God’s Word.

            The Christians in Hebrews were not doing that, they were too busy listening to the word of somebody they respected, feared, or revered more than God.

            Several years ago, I made a decision to leave the valley of Texas and move to West Texas to preach and to go back to graduate school and Abilene Christian University. I told a meeting of a group of preachers my decision. I told them that I especially wanted to study under the feet of a specific professor, and named his name. When I did, one of the preachers there immediately began to laugh. He laughed hard.

            I asked him “Why are you laughing?”

            He told me that when he'd gone to ACU to study for his Master of Divinity, the only two C’s he received in the entire program were under this professor. He said, “There was a guy in my class who got an engineering degree at one of finest schools in our country. And then he decided, ‘I want to be a foreign missionary.’ He decided to go to ACU. He took this professor. At the midterm, with the 500-question test before him, he broke down weeping. He could not handle it. His dreams had gone down the tubes. That's who you're going to study under.”

            I must admit—my friend scared me. I immediately purchased the textbook for the first course I was to take and worked through it—four months before class started. I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

            We moved to West Texas and I began taking this professor’s classes with fear and trembling. By the grace of God, everything worked out well.

            I found the professor to be very gracious and helpful. It was a joy to study under him. I appreciated the relationship that developed between us. He would occasionally take me to lunch. I could talk and ask questions. I hold an enormous respect for him to this day.

            If he were to e-mail me this afternoon, I would possibly feel a little nervous in my stomach. Part of me would probably be thinking, “I hope he doesn't ask me to do something that I cannot deliver on. I would not want to let him down.” Such is the respect and appreciation I hold for him.

            This professor and I will never be big buddies; I think this is the way it is with our Heavenly Father, according to Hebrews. God and I will never have an adult-to-adult relationship. God and I will never be buddies. There will always be the thought in the back of my mind, “He is God. I am not. He is dangerous. I am not. He controls my destiny; I do not. I must always respect him.” However, also ever present will be this thought, “I love my Heavenly Father. Where would I be without him? My, how he has blessed me.”

            I will always hold a genuine love and appreciation for him. I want you to as well.

           

Thanks Dr. James Thompson for the insights from your class.