In this sermon, Scott Brown speaks of the importance of recovering the voice of God in the Church and returning to the true exposition of the Scripture.

Well, welcome to the National Center for Family Integrated Churches Workshop and Expository Preaching. This is a joy to engage because we get to speak for two days about the beauty and the perfection of the Word of God, we get to celebrate together this amazing gift that He's given to us. And I trust that we will soar. I trust that we will exalt Almighty God. All that is within us would praise and bless His holy name.

We desire that there would be a mighty army of men raised up to do exposition of holy scripture. We think that there are two really key aspects of this that need to be recovered in the church. First of all, it must be recovered in the preaching of the church. There's a famine in the land and it's a famine of the Word of God. And it's, we believe, time that men would carefully, passionately, and mightily engage in the exposition of Scripture and deliver the whole counsel of God to the church and quit messing around with popular messages that make people feel good but bring the voice of God into the church.

Secondly, its companion is that we also believe Scripture teaches that fathers should be expository fathers, that they should teach the whole counsel of God when they sit in their house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up. These two companion roles, the role of the preacher in the church and the role of the preacher in the home, the prophet and the priest and the king in the household, declaring the glory of God, preaching the gospel every day, making sure that his children understand the mind of God as best they can from Genesis to Revelation, that we would help fathers not be what we have mostly been, just dancing from one text to another, not giving our children the whole view of what Holy Scripture contains, but to deliver to God for His glory a generation that have had the Scriptures exposited in their households. So we want to challenge fathers to be expositors. We want to challenge church leaders to be expositors. And every man in the church to be an expositor so that he can stand up in the meeting of the church and give glory to God and to allow the Spirit of God to work in his heart to help his brothers to be more faithful to it.

So that all these elements would be rolling, that every man in the church, that every leader in the church, that every father would be an expositor. That's really our great prayer for all of this. Now this morning as we begin, I'm going to bring you two things. I'm going to bring you a seafaring story and a text. And the text is Hebrews 4, 12 through 13.

Please turn there because we're going to be walking through these two verses slowly and carefully. You have an outline, it's called Thunder, Water, Light and Sword, the voice of God in the church. That'll help you see where we are in the discussion. First, a seafaring story. George Whitefield is a young man.

He is on his way to Georgia to be a missionary. He is along with a ship called the Whitaker. Soldiers are being transferred to the colonies to protect the colonies from the Spaniards. Whitfield is on board as a young man. He's there as the chaplain on the ship.

And there are also two other ships in this voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. And so there are three ships. There's the Whitaker, the Amy, and the Lightfoot. And first off, in the first morning of the voyage, Whitfield gave public prayers, and he declared His intention to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This statement was met by scorn by the captain and the other officers there on the ship.

On the first Lord's Day, it was cards, it was swearing, it was drunkenness. Whitefield writes in his journal, oh, oh, that I may catch them with a holy guile. He continued with his morning and evening prayers on the deck with minimum attendance. He began to visit the sick. Imagine the wretched conditions on these 18th century sailing ships.

He would give them sage tea and sugar and broth to minister to them in their time of suffering. He began a catechism class for the soldiers. Six showed up at first. It was a paltry, but there was a steady increase as the days would pass. He started a catechism class for the women that were on board.

He began having breakfast with the captain and began to teach him privately. And then the captain suggested that he not only just have prayers, but he would also give a sermon on the deck. Scorn shifted to freedom, and the Whitaker became a floating chapel. The captain ordered chairs set on deck so that Whitfield could preach to those who would be sitting there. At one point a great storm broke out and they thought that they would lose everything.

Whitfield writes, the ship was rocking, People were falling down, unable to stand. And they were sick about me. I never was more cheerful in all my life. What started as a cursing, scornful company became a company of children saying their catechisms. Seamen, sailors reading their Bibles.

Whitefield would exchange books. He would exchange their bad books for good books and throw them overboard. In time, the captain made it his practice to stand on the side of Whitfield, and then he asked another officer to join him. Whitfield was preaching, captain on one side and another officer on the other. With the deck full of these seamen, Whitfield became very sick himself, and he thought he would die.

But what happened on this ship in this multiple week voyage across the Atlantic the swearing and the drinking among the men stopped the gossip among the women stopped And it was stopped by the preaching of the Word of God. In this seafaring story, we find a microcosm of life in the church, in the community, that it is God's Word alone that is able to transform. And it doesn't transform overnight, but it transforms over time with faithful, continuous ministry under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, loving kindness, mercy, real life care for people, and delivery of prayers and the preaching of the Word of God. This, this brothers, is our only hope in this world that the Word of God would spread as it did on that ship. This seafaring story is, I believe, a good introduction to the text.

This text is Hebrews 4, 12 through 13. For the Word of God is living and powerful, 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. 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." This text would help us to think clearly about this treasure that we have in the Word of God, that it is thunder, it's water, it's light, it's sword. It is the voice of God in the church. And what I desire to speak of today is just how critical and how important it is that the voice of God is recovered in the church.

How would we do that? Well, because we are weak, because we are foolish, we need constant care. And God has deposited the treasure of the gospel into the church, and He's appointed pastors and teachers, and He's outfitted them with the ability and the authority of an infallible book. And He has given them all they need so that they do not need to invent anything for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has brought us into his body so that we would inherit the benefits of his life working through this Word.

And he has given the Word of truth so that we as spiritual infants would be nourished and cherished and washed at the feeding of the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word as long as we are on this earth. God causes us to be born in the world. He places us in His church, and it is here where he desires to care for us all our life long until he takes us to heaven. He has established this marvelous institution that is guided by one book, by one spirit and one God. And so the Word of God is the voice of God in the church.

The Word of God, the Bible says, is a hammer, it's a fire, it's water, it's light, it's a sword. It comforts, it confronts, It unifies, it scatters, it exposes, it edifies, it burns and it soothes. The Word of God is amazing in its ability. The church, though, the church wants Prozac, the church wants entertainment, The church wants to be left alone. The church wants success.

The church wants acceptance. The church wants self-esteem. The church wants painlessness. What the church wants is a drug. But what the church needs is the water from heaven, the Word of God.

The church needs the voice of God above all else. We have issues in the church today. Many of them come from a problem. It's this problem. We love inerrancy, but we know nothing of sufficiency.

I heard one man say, it's the idol of inerrancy. It's the idol of inerrancy that makes us think that Scripture is not enough. Yes, we do believe it's all true, but is it only true for life and godliness? Is it all we need for life and godliness? And so we engage in many inventions of our own and the voice of God is not heard in the church because of our inventions.

We need to understand that it is not only inerrancy that we must have, but we must have sufficiency in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding Scripture. The church seems to want everything else about the Word of God. Instead of the voice of God, what do we do? We introduce new programs. We purchase a new sound system.

We jazz up the worship and make it more emotionally appealing. We shorten the sermon and have more entertainment. We rely on media. But what does the church need? Not that.

And of course, there are programs. There is sound. There are sermons that need to be preached. But it is the voice of God that the church needs more desperately than anything else. John Calvin believed that when the Word of God was preached, God was actually there in the congregation.

He believed that when you opened this book and you read it, It was the direct voice of God to a man, and I believe that too. I'm sure all of us believe that. This is why we must understand how critical it is to recover the voice of God in the church. And this is how Christ works out the spots and the wrinkles all of our life long in this place called the church. He does it through the washing of the water of the word of God.

God could have perfected us with a wave of his hand, but he chose not to do that. Now, if you and I were running the world, we wouldn't have done that. We would have just fixed it all with one wave of the hand. This is not what Almighty God has done. He has given these imperfect men, and he has given all imperfect people together to come under its great authority so that day by day, year by year, we would be sanctified in this vessel called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that is sailing to its destination on the way one day at a time one moment of sanctification repentance here obedience there love increased here mercy growing over there That is this ship that we are on called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so when we preach from the Bible, we're bringing something so wonderful and so needed. And perhaps that's why God has collected so many powerful words, heartwarming statements about Scripture using amazing analogies like thunder, like a hammer, like water, like fire. It's so diverse. It isn't just one thing. It doesn't just comfort.

It also smashes. It doesn't just warm. It also burns. It's an absolutely amazing force that God has cut loose in the church. Here is a question that has come out of an ordination examination that I think helps us to understand how critical this is.

Question, are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ are you determined out of the same holy scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge and to teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which you shall be persuaded and proved by the Word of God? Answer, I am so persuaded and have so determined by God's grace. May that be the answer that we'll always have to the propositions here in this book. And so how important it is to be so persuaded to embrace the Word of God as the voice of God in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to urging the Hebrews to enter into the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ by completely embracing him.

And not only is their eternal state at risk, but it is his rest that the human soul so desperately needs that is at stake. And so in the book of Hebrews the author is arguing for the supremacy of Christ in everything. And as we come to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 through 13 we have to make sure that we understand what the subject matter is, lest we just take these verses and rip them bleeding and screaming out of their context. So let's make a connection between verse 11. Verse 11 tells us what this is all about.

So verse 12 starts with 4. Do you see that? Four. What does that mean? Well, now go back.

So you have to go back because he's building an argument upon what has come before. So to understand verse 12 and 13, you have to make the connection between verse 11 and 12 and how they fit into the overall message of chapters 3 and 4. So he is speaking of the rest of Christ in verse 11. This is the subject on the table. Oh, that we would not be robbed of the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so what looks like a subject change from the rest to the Word, There's no subject change at all. This call to the sufficiency of the Word is nothing more than a continuation of the discussion of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the Word of God? So the subject is not changed at all. It's an inflection point, but it's not a change.

He is speaking of the word of the Lord Jesus Christ and how we must receive it in order to be introduced into his rest. So that's why he says in verse 11, Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. So there's this continuation. In chapter 3 verse 7, We read, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. So there's this temptation to harden our hearts against the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that would eclipse the rest that we so desperately need.

So the Word of God, the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So do you see the context? This is all about the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ. And inserted here is this brilliant diamond of insight about how we enter that rest. And it's through embracing the Word of God and seeing it as it really is as it is spoken of here.

And so he's saying, rest in it and you will find rest in him." And that is the hope of the church, that they would rest in it, in the Word of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, you will have rest for your souls. So this is enormously important. This is just a verse about Bible study. This isn't just a verse about preaching necessarily, exclusively.

It is a section about this huge category of rest that can only be obtained in the church through the loving of the word of God. So let's dive into this text. Now, There are many ways that we could deal with this text, and I would like to deal with it by having the points answer this question. When we preach from the Bible, what are we bringing? When we preach from the Bible, What are we bringing?

The authority, the adoration of the Word of God has been diminished. We, in our sinful nature, diminish it. And so how would we recalibrate? How would we think more rightly about it? This text helps us to answer the question, what are we bringing?

When we open up this book, what are we doing? That's the question that I would like to answer. And the first thing that we are doing is that we bring the Word of God for it is the Word of God for the Word of God is we bring the voice of God into the church Tomorrow morning we're going to gather in our church and many of you will be gathering in your churches. When you bring this book into the assembly and open it up, you are bringing the word of Almighty God. That should cause us to tremble and be amazed that he would actually come and speak directly into the hearts of his people's lives through this book.

There should be a sense of awestruckness in all of our hearts as we open it up. God claims to speak directly through this Word. You know, Paul, when writing or praying regarding the Thessalonian Church, understood the awesome power of the Word of God and he says we thank God continually because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but of God and the the Thessalonians understood that oh what would it be like to be in Thessalonica and to see what it was like of the men and the women and the children, the boys and the girls. As they understood, it wasn't a word of man. It was opened.

The Old Testament scriptures were opened and they said, this is the voice of Almighty God for us today. Of course, Jesus said in Matthew 4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This, brothers, is the mouthpiece of God, and his very holy words proceed from it. Let it be so among us that when we open this up that we tremble at it. We know what it is.

If you don't know what this is, then you don't know What can be done or what you should do in this life? I was amazed as a college student When I would sit by a Muslim student The Christian students would put their Bibles under their seats But a Muslim student would never do that with his Quran he would never put anything any other book above his Quran and especially he would not sit on it. He would not put his book underneath the rack of the chair. Why? He revered it.

Why is it that we don't revere as much as that? Now, this is the Word of God, and because he has spoken, we know what to do. It's like Francis Schaeffer said, God is there, and he is not silent. He speaks through this word. If he has not spoken, we have nothing to say except, I think, or in my opinion, we have nothing to say in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ unless we have this to say.

And this just draws us into really the root issue of our day. The crisis of our day is an epistemological crisis. What is truth? What is your theory of knowledge? What is your theory of truth and how do you arrive at it?

That is the epistemological challenge that we have today and that our sources of truth are so varied, they're as varied as the six billion people on this earth, except for one thing. God has spoken, and thy word is truth. And so the Bible is the Word of God, but unfortunately in the church today we have sort of a food court methodology in approaching it. If the Bible is the Word of God, then why do we handle it like we handle ourselves in a food court or flipping through a magazine? In the modern church we do not normally treat this as if it was the Word of God.

We treat it as a bunch of disconnected beautiful verses that we go to, our favorite passages of Scripture. The church of the favorite verse rules and reigns in our hearts and we exalt that but what about the whole of it do we treat it like we do a food court I like this I don't like that this is my favorite book I really am going to stay away from that don't read me those genealogies those were totally irrelevant Stay away from this book or that book. It's too hard to understand. No. We have treated the Bible as a food court.

We bounce all over Scripture. And when we do that, we're not honoring its message. It's like reading snippets of books and thinking that we know them. How can you know the mind of God if you just glance here and there, if you're just bouncing off of one text to another? I was very interested in a quote that I read by Al Mohler.

He said, We lack attentiveness when we glance off of texts and do not handle the Bible in a systematic way. He says we're living in a time where we find attention a very rare stewardship. Now this is a stewardship. We have been given this. How will we be stewards of it?

Will we just glance off of one text to another? Or will there be attentiveness to the whole and to seek it all out instead of just trying to find our next favorite verse that we might be looking for. The church is weakened, it's compromised because of this inattention. And so we don't treat great doctrines because we don't know them. We don't even know where they are, but they're all scattered through here, and the only way to get them and connect them is to read it continuously and to seek it out as you would any other book.

Why do we treat this book so badly? Someone will buy a romance novel and read it from cover to cover. But whoever does that with this, why do we so dishonor the Word of God? By reading this book like we would never read any other book. It would be madness.

There's neglect of the Bible in the church today. We trust these hours we would spend would increase our desire to eliminate that neglect. A poet has captured the problem quite well. I supposed I knew my Bible, reading piecemeal hit or miss. Now a bit of John or Matthew.

Next, a snatch of Genesis. Certain chapters of Isaiah. Certain Psalms, the 23rd. 12th of Romans, 1st of Proverbs. Yes, I thought I knew the word, but I found a thorough reading was a different thing to do.

And the way was unfamiliar when I read my Bible through. Ye who treat the crown of writings as you treat no other book." Just a paragraph disjointed, just a crude, impatient look. Try a worthier procedure, Try a broad and steady view. You will kneel in very rapid when you read the Bible through. Oh Lord, help us.

Help us to be faithful to the whole counsel of God in all of our dealings as fathers, as men in the church, as leaders in the church, that we would preach it carefully, systematically, faithfully, powerfully. The Spirit of God is in this word. God moves in it. He speaks by it. He breathes.

He actually breathes it. The Bible says that this is God breathed. He is breathing out in, into it, through it, and out into the congregation. This is his desire as we're on this sailing ship on the way to heaven, one league at a time, moving forward. We so need it.

If it were not divine, then we couldn't speak with authority about anything. Here is to me one of the great practical issues on the table here. Why would I be able to speak about anything if I did not have this book? How can you preach on the tongue when you have misused it so much yourself all your life long? How can you preach on marriage if you've never been married?

How can you preach on child raising when you have problems raising your own children? How can you preach on money if you have no money? How can you do that? You can do that because you have this. We are not enough.

Our experience is not enough. It doesn't get it. This gets it. This is the voice of God in the church. Oh brothers, we shouldn't feel like hypocrites if we stand up and preach on something that we haven't gotten whooped because God has spoken.

It's not our authority. It's not our life that's on the table here. It's God Almighty and His Word. You can preach on any subject because God has spoken about it. For some reason God has chosen to use vile and imperfect and inconsistent and hypocritical people to deliver his word.

Isn't that amazing? You know that as a father. How many times have you spoken the Word of God to your children and you're a hypocrite? You've got three fingers pointing right back at you because you're the same sin that you're confronting is your own. How many times you who have preached the Word of God understand how short you fall?

How many times have you studied to preach on a text and you've thrown yourself on the ground and you said, oh God, help me? And He will drag you right through the mud of your sin as you preach on that text. Well, we have no authority. We can't preach unless God has spoken of it. And God could have perfected us the moment of our salvation and made us gifted enough to preach.

But no, He has not done that. He has given us this so that we would trust it and not ourselves. And so God appoints teachers and fathers for this. He puts His Spirit in them. Isaiah 59, 21 makes this so clear that God has made a covenant with men to speak through them.

Do you understand that? God has made a covenant with man to speak to him and through him. He's done that with every man here. As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with him. My Spirit who is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants says the Lord from this time forevermore.

God has made a covenant with man to speak through him these words from one generation to the next. And he has meant this testimony to be delivered from one generation to the next. And what qualifies you for that? Nothing qualifies you for this except God has made a covenant with you and He has determined to give you the source of truth and life. It is truly divine.

The word of God is like thunder. It should be treated as such. It's often treated as a counseling session or a conversation. Job understood this. Hear attentively the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

The church father Jerome once said that whenever he read the letters of Paul, he could hear the sound of thunder. Just think of it in terms of Galatians. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by his grace and that you're returning to another gospel. Strange and a false gospel. He said, if anyone preaches you any other gospel than the one I preached, let him be eternally condemned.

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Mark my words. The whole testament is full of thunderclaps just like this. God speaks in the imperative as we heard the other day. And we should too.

Not because of any authority that we have to speak in the imperative. It's not ours at all, it's his. It is like thunder. Job understood this when he was speaking to Bildad. He said, indeed these are the mere edges of his ways.

And how small a whisper we hear of him, but the thunder of his power. Who can understand? Job wore himself out with his own words, and finally at the end of the book in chapter 40 verse 9 God takes up his own voice toward Job and he says, have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like his? Not with your own words you can't, but with his words you can. David spoke of the way that God spoke to Israel in the wilderness in Psalm 81 verse 7.

You called in trouble and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. God speaks his word as thunder. You know some of my favorite characters in the New Testament are James and John.

Jesus gave them a nickname, Boanerges, the sons of thunder. Ah, what a day it will be to meet the sons of thunder and to see what they are like in this thunderous personality that God Almighty had given them. When we preach the Bible, what are we bringing? We bring the Word of God, nothing less. We bring a hammer, we bring thunder, we bring a sword, we bring fire, we bring water, we bring light, We bring the voice of Almighty God.

That's the first point. What else do we bring? We bring life. We bring life. Verse 12, for the word of God is living.

The Greek word zoe, the word from which we get our word zoology, life. The Word of God is alive. And it is alive whether we are asleep or whether we are awake. It will continue to be alive. When thou go it will lead you, when you sleep it shall keep you, and when you awake it shall talk to you.

The Word of God is alive whether you're sleeping or awake it is alive. It is zoe, it is life itself. W.A. Criswell, that colorful personality said, The Word of God has life in it, it has God in it. If it were cut into a thousand pieces, each shred, each part would live and grow in itself if it were buried beneath a thousand avalanches of error.

It would arise, shake off the infamous, and grow and thrive and live if it were cast into the fiery furnace. It would walk through the flames without even the smell of smoke on its garments. The living word, the quickened word of Almighty God, it is alive. That's what he's saying. When you open up this book, you need to understand, it's more alive than you are or your words.

It has life in it. And when it's heard, it brings life. And so we can have such confidence. Not only is it divine, it's alive. And Psalm 119 speaks so powerfully of this living word.

Nothing can kill it because it's everlasting. Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You establish the earth. It abides.

They continue this day according to Your ordinances. For all are Your servants. He goes on in verse 92. It keeps a man alive in afflictions. Unless your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

He says in Verse 93, it gives life to the soul of man. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. Life, everlasting life, is from this word of truth. This is the confidence that we have in opening it. This is why it would be appropriate for us to say focus the ministry of the church on this alone.

Forget all the inventions. This is the tool of Almighty God in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Timothy is told that scripture is given by inspiration, that great word, theo-nuptas, God-breathed and it's profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction and instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is alive. That's why Isaiah in chapter 55 speaks so wondrously about it.

He says, ho, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters. What waters are those? The waters of the word of God, that's what. Yes, come by, eat. It's not just to have water.

It's also food. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money on that which is not bread and for wages that do not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, again it's the Word, listen to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

The sure mercies of David. What are the sure mercies of David? They are the outpourings of the Word of God. This good food, this true water, true bread, true wine, true whatever is nourishing. That's what the Word of God is.

Isaiah says that we must seek it and call for it and get our thoughts from it, for they are higher and better than our own thoughts. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Forsake your thoughts, forget your thoughts.

That's what he's saying. They're tainted. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways says the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there but water the earth and make it bring forth bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater and then he says this so my word that goes forth from my mouth it shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing that I sent it." And then he says that the Word of God will fill you with refreshment. He says, and if you do forsake your own thoughts, If you do go to the water, the true water, he says, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

And instead of a briar shall come a myrtle. And it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." The Word of God is alive and it cannot be killed. It is alive. So when we preach from the Bible, what are we bringing? We're bringing life.

We're bringing literal, physical, indestructible life into the church. We can always have confidence when we open up this book and read it and speak of it. It has life. What else do we bring? We bring power.

Scripture is powerful, verse 12. Energies, power, some Bibles it's translated active or quick or powerful, but it is energetic, it's effective, it's dynamic, it's moving, it carries power in it. Why would we ever neglect it? It has its own power source and it's self-generating, it's powerful. When we speak of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we carry a force that is the same word that said, let there be light.

That's why Jeremiah could say in Jeremiah 23, 29, is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. It's powerful. It is a mighty force. And it's like water in its power. The kind of water power that cut the Grand Canyon, or smooth, gigantic stones, or move large objects for hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Its force is great. So when we preach the Word of God, we have power with us. It's not a power of our own. This is why John says in Revelation 14, 2, when he heard the voice from heaven, It was the voice of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. And he heard the sound of harpists playing their harps.

Well, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ is a powerful, powerful voice. It's water for washing. We are washed by the power of the Word. The voice of the Lord Jesus Christ is like the sound of many waters. It's so powerful, it converts the soul.

And it's The only thing that can convert us, if we are trapped in sin, we are in prison and we can't break it out. What is powerful enough to break the bars? Only the word of God. That's it. What can get us through the guards and defeat the ghouls that are holding onto our necks because of our own sinfulness and our own mistakes.

What can break us free? What is powerful enough? Only the Word of God is powerful. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts. And that Spirit is the Spirit of the Word of God.

That's why Jesus said, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Cleanness is entirely dependent upon the Word of God. It's the only power that can make us clean.

And so when we preach the Word, we bring power because Scripture is powerful. It's like a power wash. It's the right flow. It's the right volume. It's the right kind.

It's not so much that we drowned and not so little that we stayed dirty. It's like fire, but it's the right temperature. It's like light, but the right intensity. It's like thunder, but the right volume. It's like a hammer, but the right force, an angle to break down what has been built up.

It is powerful and it breaks up sin and it takes down things that are raised up against the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthians of things that needed to be broken down. Powerful strongholds raised up against Christ in 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. This is the weapon of our warfare.

It's the word of the Spirit. For pulling down strongholds. Are there any strongholds here in this room? Absolutely there are. And every man sitting here, there are strongholds that need to be pulled down, that the hammer of the word needs to come and break up so that life can enter.

Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. These are the citadels, these are the idols of our wrong thinking. The world has programmed us and the Word would come and break it up with its mighty power, its hammer-like work. Paul uses an image here for the Corinthians that they would understand. Because the Roman armies would attack these rock city walls.

The Roman army actually came against Corinth, and they built these three-story high citadels. And they were shooting their arrows from the top over the city walls. And then they took their battering rams and were breaking up the rock of the thick walls around the city of Corinth. The Romans did that when Paul is speaking of this, of bringing of warfare and casting down arguments. He's using the language of these citadels that were raised up high and these battering rams that were breaking up the rock.

When we preach the Word of God, what are we bringing? We're bringing power. We're bringing the hammer. We're bringing the thunder. We're bringing the water.

We're bringing the light. And it is powerful and it is perfectly regulated by Almighty God in this book. When we preach the Word of God, what are we bringing? Fourthly, we bring a sword. For Scripture is sharper than any two-edged sword.

What kind of sword is it? It's a cutting and piercing and a discerning sword. It is sharp. The term that's used here is toma teros. It's translated here sharper.

And it means sharper cutting. The Greeks thought of the smallest, indivisible, uncut thing in the world as an atom, atomos. He's using this word. He places the ah in front of it. And the idea is a sharp sword that could cut into the irreducible particle of nature.

Something you can't even see. Something that is so precise that it cuts to the atom. That's the idea that he's giving. And not only that, what kind of a sword is it? It's a makarios.

It's a dagger. It's the kind that you can put in your cloak and pull it out and stab someone in a moment, as the Greek assassins did. This is what the 40 assassins had who wanted to kill the apostle Paul. Fortunately, their dagger was not as sharp and not as brilliant as the dagger of Almighty God. But This is a dagger.

This is the sword of the spirit that's spoken of in Ephesians 6. It is the word of God. This sword of the spirit is a makarius. It's quick. It's lightning fast.

And it's sharp. And it pierces right down to the atomic particle of nature. I've always marveled at this language. Let's just talk about the universal language of a boy for a minute. Are you familiar with the universal language of a boy?

Here's the universal language of a boy. Swords, hammers, fire, flashlights. Boys love everything that the Word of God is stated to be. Isn't that amazing? Have you ever met a boy that didn't love fire?

Have you ever met a boy that didn't love a hammer? Well, you might have met some, but not very many, okay? They love fire, they love hammers, they love swords. Why would God give this imagery? I think God gave this imagery because he knows that every little boy loves these things and he has given them a tool all their life long to use in their own life.

So what do we bring? We bring a sword, for scripture is sharper than any two-edged sword. What do we bring? We bring breakthrough, verse 12. The word of God is piercing.

We bring breakthroughs because the word of God pierces through the hard shell that needs to be pierced. And it pierces to the division of soul and spirit. Now, some use this to argue about a trichotomous or dichotomous view of man in this whole debate, perhaps you can work very hard to figure all that out to make it all fit. But here's what's really clear here. It's a poetic phrase that explains the kind of work that the Word of God performs.

That's the intent of the author. He's telling us what the Word of God is and does. That's the primary force of the language here. And it pierces. And it pierces with precision.

And it goes exactly where it needs to go. Preaching that just exegetes is not biblical preaching at all. God's intention is for piercing, for transformation. God would have us preach for repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is sharp and it goes through the hard layers.

It pierces what's been hardened. A conscience can be hard. A conscience can be seared. And it's the Word of God only that can pierce the tough skin of the conscience. It exposes our deception.

It exposes the half-truths that we hang on. It exposes our trusting and expediency. It exposes our blindness. It tears off the mask. It shows us the deceitfulness of our sin.

That's what the Word of God does. It pierces into the conscience. It makes us bleed. Yes, it does make us bleed. It isn't always comfortable.

But it always heals. It's a blade like no other that carries its own healing on the blade. It's not like a filthy Civil War blade that you would die from the wound itself. And the disease that would be transmitted, not this blade. This blade is so pure that there is healing on each side of its blade.

The Lord Jesus Christ has healing in his wings and in his sword. And he pierces at the same time the medicine, the soothing medicine is there that God would have it have. And it goes to the joints and marrow. It just doesn't deal with outward appearances. And it blows away our phoniness.

That's why David could say, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me no wisdom." So it pierces and it heals. It never causes infection. Never. It always heals and soothes. It's the fastest healing wound you can ever receive.

Isn't that amazing that the Lord Jesus would wound us, but then He would turn right around with His other hand and heal us. Like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the one hand, the ear comes off. On the other hand, the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ comes and makes it well. This is the kind of piercing that we have.

We can have confidence in it, that God would do this work. So when we preach, we bring a breakthrough. We bring a piercing of the heart. Sixthly, we bring reality, for it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Verse 12, It exposes the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

Spurgeon said in his sermon on this text, read Spurgeon's sermon on this text, why the book has wrestled with me, the book has smitten me, the book has comforted me, the book has smiled on me, the book has frowned on me, the book has clasped my hand, the book has warmed my heart, the book weeps with me and sings with me, It whispers to me and preaches to me. It maps my way and holds up my goings. It is to me the young man's best companion, and it is still my morning and evening chaplain. It goes to the heart of what really is happening and handles all of the problems of the heart. You can't understand yourself until you understand the Word of God.

What does this have to do with anything? What does this have to do with my marriage or my relationship with my children? It means that you have something to help you in every relationship, in every business transaction, in every responsibility, with every single child as individual as they are with every friend as individual as they are it gives what you need and it helps you discern the thoughts and the intents of your heart which are most of the time not right. So when we preach from the Bible, what are we bringing? We are bringing reality, for it is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

We are also bringing something else. We are bringing exposure, for no creature is hidden from His sight. We are bringing exposure. The Word of God would expose us. The Word of God would make sinners out of all of us.

There's not one person in this room who doesn't have tremendous struggle with sin. And the Word of God helps us because there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Moses prayed, you have set our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your countenance So teach us to number our days that we may present a heart of wisdom. And he says in that Psalm 90 verse 13, no creature is hidden from his sight. Moses knew it.

David knew it. And the writer of Hebrews knew it. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch over the evil and the good. There is no creature hidden from his sight. So he wields the sword, he cuts us on the one side so that we would die and confess and humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and then he brings it the other way to heal us, he exposes us, and then he hides us in the cleft of the rock in the shadow of his wings under the covering of his blood.

This is how a Savior would wound you. He would tell you who you are but then he would cover you up. When the voyage ended, the Whitfield was on, finally reached its destination. There were tears, there was weeping. And he stands up before the people who were on the ship and he turns to the women and he says to them, the words that were spoken at the beginning of this voyage in the forms of gossip, we will cover up like as with a cloak and we will move on.

That is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood covers us, we are hidden with Christ in God. He swings the blade and He cuts us and He brings us back and He heals us again. And so here we learn that the Word of God is designed to help us to enter His rest. It is divine.

It does bring life. It is powerful. It is a sword. It's piercing. And it discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

And it makes us naked before him. So here we are on this ship called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How would we make our way one league after another? We would make it only by this divine word, this word which we will be speaking of for the duration of this weekend. We hope to praise.

We hope that we would handle it more carefully in our houses, as men in the church, and as leaders in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. 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." And this, brothers, is the foundation of everything that we'll say from here on out until we conclude tomorrow. Would you pray with me? You have given us a divine presence in this room.

We are so grateful for that, for We are stupid men and sinful and blind and poor and naked. And how would we know anything if you had not come and given us a divine testimony. Integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.