In science.
Are you sure? All right, okay. I just wanted to be sure.
Oh, you know, one great thing about having a dog is that you have to get up early in the morning. He was diligent to make sure I woke up on time this morning and, of course, to take him out.
But it is so glorious in the morning when the birds are just singing and there is freshness in the air. It was a glorious morning. And you know what? The Lord made it.
I am always amazed that people say, “I do not believe in God.”
The Lord even in His Word says that the heavens declare His handiwork, and His glories are revealed in His creation. It is amazing that man can look at God’s creation and make the creation itself a god, rather than looking to the Creator Himself.
But that is, unfortunately, the flaw that is in man, as he always desires to exalt himself above God. But praise the Lord, He has made provision to give us light and understanding and to bring us back to Himself.
So this morning, let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You this morning as we come to Thee that it is Christ alone. Lord, this song does say a whole lot, and it just boils down to its title: Christ alone.
We just worship Thee. We pray that it will be Christ alone that is lifted up this morning. Lord, it is just on our hearts that, as we look into Your Word, we would hear what You are saying, because, Lord, we hear many things, but we really do not hear.
We see many things, just as Your creation, but we really do not see. Lord, open our hearts to hear and to see, and then we will be satisfied when we gaze upon Thee.
Lord, bless this Word this morning. Use it, Lord, to enlighten us; use it to strengthen us; use it to encourage us, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Well, let us turn to Hebrews 4. And do not close it up right after I read, so please.
All right, Hebrews 4. Today, the key verse is Hebrews 4:11:
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
Be diligent to enter the rest, or we will fall through the same example of disobedience. He was speaking of the nation of Israel when they were in the wilderness. You remember, when they got to the Jordan River, they refused to go into the promised land because of unbelief.
Their disobedience was unbelief. That was their disobedience: it was unbelief.
And, you know, later in Hebrews, we are encouraged to lay aside the sin that so easily besets us. At least I would have to say, considering my own life and my history with the Lord, that that sin which so easily besets us seems to be unbelief. It seems to catch us time and time again.
So may the Lord encourage us this morning as we share in His Word. Now we need to go back and read a few verses to help bring us back to where we can continue to share on this matter of entering God’s rest.
Hebrews 2:1:
For this reason, we must pay close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Hebrews 2:3:
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Hebrews 3:7-11:
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
Today, if ye hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways;
And I swore in My wrath,
They shall not enter into My rest.
Hebrews 3:19:
And so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1:
Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
And Hebrews 4:11-16:
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The writer of Hebrews is concerned because he sees the Christians in that day, particularly the Hebrews—most of whom were Hebrew Christians in those days—drifting away from the foundation which they had been given in Jesus Christ.
In his concern, the way he countered this was to lift up Christ. He began by saying, “Listen, you have heard the prophets. You have the history of the prophets with you.” In other words, you have had the Word of God given to you in the past.
But in these last days, God has spoken to you in His Son. He is the final Word.
You greatly honor the angels, but this One is higher than the angels. He is better than the angels.
You honor Moses. He is the great leader. But here is One who is greater than Moses, higher than Moses. Listen to Him.
You have been brought up in the old covenant that God gave on Mount Sinai, and it is a precious Word of God to you. But you have been given a new covenant, a better covenant in Jesus Christ. Now you must let go of the old and cling to the new.
What else do you need, Christians, than Jesus Christ and Him crucified? What more do you need for your heart than that it might meditate upon the person of Jesus Christ?
What is the object of your heart? It needs to be Jesus Christ, the precious object of your heart.
God has given you all that you need in Christ and in what He has done on Calvary’s cross. What more do you need? Let us not drift away from what He has given.
And then he goes on to say, “Be careful lest you fail to enter His rest.” Now, how does this warning have anything to do with his concern that they were drifting away from the fundamentals of the faith and from Christ Himself?
Well, the last two times that I have shared, I have shared on God’s Sabbath rest. For those who were here, you realize that God’s Sabbath rest is Christ. It is Christ.
These Scriptures, if you read them all, refer back to the fact that God created the earth in six days, but on the seventh day He rested. We know how God hallowed the seventh day. It was the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments.
Later on, the Lord from Mount Sinai said, “Look, anybody who disregards the Sabbath day is to be put to death.” The Sabbath day was very important to God.
Why? Because, brothers and sisters, on the seventh day after creation, after He had created everything, including man, it says He rested. It was a rest of satisfaction, not exhaustion. He rested because He was fully satisfied with what He had created.
Adam’s first day was the Sabbath day. Adam was encouraged to simply rest in what God had done.
But we know man failed, man sinned, and God’s rest was interrupted.
But thank God, Jesus Christ came. We know He went to Calvary’s cross, and on Calvary’s cross, we know that the old man was crucified. It says so in His Word.
He says that the first Adam—Christ was the last Adam and God’s second Man. All of the Adamic race, as far as God is concerned, came under judgment and is no more.
In other words, in Christ a new creation began out of Calvary’s cross. That is why the Lord said, “You must be born again.” To be a part of the new creation, you need a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. You need a spiritual birth.
So it is this new creation in Christ. Once again, out of Calvary’s work that Christ did, God is at rest. The completed work of Calvary brings God to satisfaction.
His satisfaction has finally been achieved once again, and His satisfaction is with His Son and His work at Calvary. That is your first day. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He simply wants you to rest in the fact of all that Christ has done for you.
That is our beginning: to rest in what He has done.
Our sins have been dealt with, brothers and sisters. Even the guilt has been taken. You are no longer guilty.
We find, as we read the Scriptures, that we are dead. But hallelujah, we find out that we are alive—but it is in Christ. It has been something done in Jesus Christ.
You say, “Well, hallelujah, I want to get into Christ.” When you accept Him, you do come into Christ, because it says, “Of God are you in Christ.” God puts you there.
Now, you may not be able to understand it. We can mentally perhaps apprehend what He is saying, but you know what? God’s ways are higher than ours. It is not that He wants us to be able to technically understand this thing. He wants us simply to believe it and rest in it: what He has done on Calvary’s cross.
New creation: He says you are in Christ. In fact, He makes a marvelous statement in Scripture: you are complete in Christ.
Now, that is hard for me to believe, knowing my flaws and weaknesses. It is hard to believe that I am complete in Christ, but that is His Word. That is God’s work. That is the work Christ has done on your behalf.
In this new creation, He has set aside the old at Calvary, but He has brought in the new. He says, “You are a new creation in Christ, and you are complete in Christ.”
Now, brothers and sisters, God lives in the eternal; we live in time. Therefore, we are limited in our ability to understand. But God sees us complete in Christ. He sees the completed product of what Christ began at Calvary.
I think that is a marvelous thing. It is because He lives in eternity. The past, the present, and the future are all one with Him. But we live in time.
Let me say it this way, brothers and sisters: God wants us to believe in what He has done in His Son and what His Son has done on Calvary’s cross. That is the foundation of the Christian faith.
If we do not have that foundation, how can we really build our Christian life? Our Christian life is based on entering into what Christ has already done. That is entering into God’s rest. That is God’s Sabbath rest.
He says in His Word that we need to be diligent to enter the rest. Now, that is kind of an odd statement, that we would have to be diligent to enter His rest. But how do we enter His rest?
Well, it becomes very obvious as we read: it is through faith, through simply believing the Lord, believing what He has done on Calvary.
If there is anyone here who has never known Jesus Christ as your Savior, the simple way to enter into the rest is to simply take Him as your Savior and say, “Lord, I believe You. I really do. You have died for my sins. I am a sinner, and I want to be a new creation in Christ.”
It is a marvelous, amazing way, this way of faith. Yet it is a way on which we stumble so much. This is why the Hebrew writer is encouraging the Christians in his day.
This is our position. Let me put it this way: our position in Christ is that, on the one hand, all the old—the old man—has been crucified, and yet you are a new man in Christ. It is all in Christ.
If you look inside yourself, you will not find it; you have to look to Christ. That is one of our great failures. We keep looking in and say, “All I see is filth and problems and issues and trouble and who I am.” What you are looking at is who you are outside of Christ.
May God give you eyes to see what you are in Christ: a crucified being, yet one who has been raised from the dead in newness of life through the new birth that is available to you—a spiritual birth available to all who believe in Christ.
Amazing thing that God has done. This is your position. This is your rest. Rest in it. Can you just rest in the things that Christ has done?
Well, the analogy that the Hebrew writer uses is the children in the wilderness and entering into the promised land, and how they failed to do that.
In the beginning, what was their position? To help us understand, what was the position of the nation of Israel in the wilderness?
The Lord said, “Look, I have given you the land. It is yours. Everywhere you go and put your foot down, you have it.”
So there were two things involved. First, God had to give it to them. That is what God has done. He says, “It is yours.”
Now, the problem with them was that they really did not believe it was theirs. They saw the giants in the land and they said, “Well, we have got to take them.” The Lord said, “No, it is yours. All you have to do is go in and put your foot down, and you will see that it is yours.”
But first, you have to have faith that I have given it to you. You have to see; you have to enter into the Sabbath rest, into what Christ has done. You have to believe Me and what I have done. What I have done is to give the land to you.
That was their position, but they failed to enter in because they did not believe.
Well, the second time they came up to the River Jordan, after they had wandered around for thirty-eight more years in the desert, all of that generation died off because they would not believe. They were not allowed to enter in.
There were two that believed. Moses believed, but that is a different story as to why he did not enter in.
Joshua and Caleb. Out of that whole generation that had left Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered in. And you know why?
If you read their story, you see there was no doubt in their hearts that the land was there, that what God had done and what God had given them was theirs. There was no doubt in their hearts.
They said, “We are able to go in. We are able to take the land because God has given it to us.”
Now, we could not take the land if God had not given it to us, but He said He has given it to us. God has given us His Word. That is our position.
But what was their actual condition? They had not yet entered the land. So at that point in time, what they had was their position: the land was theirs.
But for their condition, or their state, to become their position, they had to actually go in, walk through the land, and put their foot down on it.
In other words, in God’s heart, He has done a marvelous work in Jesus Christ, but He wants that work worked out in you and me. Our condition, or the state we are actually in, has to come to the place where it matches our position in Christ.
In other words, our condition needs to become what our position is in Christ. I hope you got that, because that is the message. I might say a little more, but that is the message.
Our condition needs to become what our position is in Christ. And what is our position in Christ? We are complete in Him.
Hallelujah, brothers and sisters. There is no doubt about it. Just as there was no doubt that the land was there, there is no doubt about your completion in Christ. It is going to happen.
You are going to be completed in Christ. Now, those who cooperate with the Lord, those who are willing to take up the cross and follow the Lord today, that completion will occur much earlier.
In fact, it might even qualify you to enter the kingdom age for one thousand years, to reign and rule with Christ. For those who are unable to come to that place in the Lord, there will be what I call remedial school for that one thousand years.
There is not much in the Word said about it, because that is not God’s heart—that we go to remedial class. But understand from the Word, it is going to be a very difficult time for one thousand years.
Because all that we did not allow the Lord to do in our lifetime now, He will see to it that it is done then. But praise the Lord, that is God’s love. He will not eventually let us fail.
We can fail Him in being able to reign and rule with Him for one thousand years, but ultimately we will all be in the city that we see in Revelation. That should be an encouragement to us.
But, brothers and sisters, my heart is that our condition match our position now, that we come into that. That is God’s heart.
In Hebrews 4:11, we are told to be diligent to enter into this rest, or enter into that position that we have in Christ. There is provision for that.
God makes provision that our condition might become what our position is in Christ. In other words, God makes it possible that we might enter His Sabbath rest. And it is grace.
You say, “Well, I am going to have to get to work now. I have got to be diligent.” Well, our diligence, as we find out, is really continuing to believe and allowing God to work in our life. That is our diligence.
So what is this provision that God has made? Well, let us look at Hebrews 4:12.
After he encourages us to diligently enter into His rest, he begins to show us His provision for us to be able to enter into that rest:
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Word of God is living.
The first provision, or a provision, that God wants us to see for entering His Sabbath rest is the Word of God. The Word of God—the logos—has been given to us, brothers and sisters.
I want us to see how important this provision is. First of all, it is given by God.
Now, I shared this on a Wednesday night, and I hope Kenny does not mind, but it has always stuck with me. When I first met Kenny, he was an unbeliever down at the City of Richmond—1972, I believe.
When I first met Kenny, he was not a Christian. I had a little talk with Kenny. I did not really consider it witnessing to him; he obviously did not remember it anyway. It did not make an impact on him.
But during that discussion, I asked Kenny, “Do you believe in the Bible?” I wanted to be able to share some Bible verses with him. Most people do kind of believe in the Bible, and that gives you an opening.
Kenny said, “No. Men wrote that. Who could ever believe anything that is written there? It is just men’s words.”
Well, that kind of threw me, so I backed off. But the Lord did not back off, Kenny. Praise the Lord.
Kenny was on a summer program. The next summer, when he came to the city to work, I was in his section one day and I heard him witnessing the Lord Jesus to another fellow worker. He was just going on about the Lord.
Finally, when I got an opportunity, I went over to Kenny and said, “Kenny, do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God?”
And he said, “Every word is God-breathed. Every word.”
That always stuck with me. Because of what had happened in this man who was very young at that time, the phrase “God-breathed” stuck with me.
He went from believing it was just the works of man to believing that it was God-breathed. Obviously, a transition had taken place. I immediately recognized that, and Kenny and I were able to share in the Lord together after that. It was a marvelous time during those early days, and still is.
But the point is that it is such an accurate description of this Word. It is God-breathed.
Yes, it came through man, by man in a sense, but it is of God. In other words, the Lord spoke to these men, and they recorded what the Lord had to say.
The Holy Spirit moved upon them in the old days. He was not in them, but He did move upon them. This is God-breathed Word. God has breathed this Word. It is from Him. It is not just man’s word.
Even the epistles, after the Lord Jesus came, teach Jesus Christ. God-breathed: it is what God wanted us to retain about His Son, Jesus Christ.
Let me say it another way. I have a letter here from Ed Miller. It took me three or four times to figure out how to read it, but I did.
I can read this letter, and as you read it, it reveals his heart. He just loves the Lord, and it comes out in every little note that he sends us.
Brothers and sisters, this is God’s letter to you. I want you to take that thought with you today. This is God’s letter to you.
Yes, in a sense it is His letter written to mankind, but it is personal. It is personally written to you.
As I was at the service for Rachel Hill last week, the thing that touched me so much was the letters that Rachel had written. A couple of the students actually read from some of her letters, and Tammy, her mother, read a letter from Rachel.
When you read her letter, you could see this young girl’s heart. It really did reveal her heart. It revealed her heart for the Lord.
It was just a simple life that she led before the Lord, but it was obvious she had such a heart for the Lord. You could read that in her letters.
You could really touch this young girl’s heart by reading her letter. That is what this is.
You want to touch God’s heart. You really want to see what God is like. Read His letter to you.
And one other thought: those two or three students who had her letters—and I am sure for Tammy—those letters are some of the most precious possessions they have. They can go back and read that letter and touch their daughter’s heart once again.
That is what this is. It is God’s letter to you. It reveals His heart.
It is not just a book to be studied like a textbook. It reveals God’s heart, and it is precious.
Brothers and sisters, if I said, “I want all of you to turn in your Bibles to me today,” and took all your Bibles away from you, would you object? I do not know. How much does the Word mean? How precious is it?
This is a precious letter. It reveals Christ.
Not only is it His letter to us, to show us His heart—and His heart is Christ; it is all about Christ—but if you are studying and reading your Bible to find out other things, that is okay. A lot of people hold doctorates doing that.
But that is not what the Lord is after. He is not interested in your certificate on the wall. He wants you to get heart to heart with Him, and that is why He shared His heart with you. That is what this Word is all about.
Christ said He was the way, the truth, and the life. Christ is the Word of God. He is the living Word of God. That is what His Book is about.
This is logos, a written word, but He is the living Word. It is what this Book is all about.
He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”—not only truth, but the way. This Word also shows us the way, brothers and sisters. That way is connected to Christ because He is the way.
I want you to realize that. It is very fundamental. As I thought about this being the way for the path of your life: do you want to know how to live your life? Do you want to know the pathway for your life? You will find it in this Book.
It is marvelous today that you can go on the internet and pull up Yahoo Maps. You can put in the beginning point, where you live, and the destination where you want to go. The computer takes about thirty seconds, if you are on high-speed internet, and it shows you a map of how to get where you are going.
It not only shows you a general map, but it shows you all the details. When you get to Route 60, you make a left turn, you keep going, and so forth. It gives you all the turns you need to take.
Today, Kenny has a GPS in his truck. I was with him a few weeks ago. They have the same thing, except it is a little electronic module you can put in your vehicle. Some of you have it; I know Jack has it.
You just punch in your endpoint, and you really do not have to read anything. You can go along, and all of a sudden this nice, sweet voice comes up and says, “You are three miles from your turn. In three miles, you will be turning onto Route so-and-so. Make a right turn.”
Well, these things are wonderful, but you still have to listen to them.
I had one in a rental car up in Baltimore, I think. I was trying to get to the Baltimore airport and had never been there. So I put that into the little device, and it started telling me how to go. I was doing great.
I got on this interstate. It was about five lanes wide, and I was in the left lane. It said, “You need to make a right turn in three-tenths of a mile.”
Well, the problem was, I could not get over in three-tenths of a mile. So I went right past my turning point. I said, “Oh no, what am I going to do now?”
This little voice came over the speaker and said, “You have missed your turn.”
Well, what is new, sister? But anyway, it said, “We will recalculate how to get you back to your point.” It would not let me get lost. That is the point.
Now, we have the Word of God. We have the Word of God as our map, brothers and sisters.
What is our beginning? Our beginning point is so critical. Psalm 139:14 says:
I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
And all the days ordained for me
Were written in Your book.
Even when you were in your mother’s womb—actually before—the Lord knew you. That is your beginning. The Lord has it right there in His GPS.
Then in 1 John 3:2, it says:
Beloved, now are we children of God,
And it is not yet made manifest what we shall be.
We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him.
That is our ending point. This is the way between the two: the Word of God.
Brothers and sisters, Psalm 119 says—you have heard this very familiar word:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
And light unto my path.
A lamp unto your feet is what keeps you from stumbling, because you can see what is immediately ahead. But it is also a light for the way, a light for the path ahead.
It is everything, brothers and sisters. It is your road signs. You get on the highway, and the highway says that when you are going to Mount Olive, twenty miles ahead, turn left—whatever, Route 60.
There are all kinds of signs in the Bible of how to get where you are going. There are warning signs. Hebrews is a book of warnings and exhortations. There are warnings there; they are warning signs.
Brothers and sisters, when you get in dangerous places, it is your guardrails to keep you from going over the edge. Now, how many of us, if you have lived as long as I have, have gotten to the edge a few times?
Let me say that there is a guardrail in your life. There is a guardrail in your life.
Oh, how precious is the Word.
It is the perfect standard for your life. You will find the doctrine; you will find the morals that are needed for your life. Everything you need to know, God has given right here for your spiritual life. You really do not need anything else.
The Word of God says that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man. Brothers and sisters, He has given us His Word that we might have His wisdom.
In 2 Timothy 3:15-17, I think Jim may have shared this verse:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped unto every good work.
Brothers and sisters, this is not just a book of teaching. This is a book that gives us reproof, that corrects us, because we do not always go the right path. Sometimes we get off, and we do not know how to find our way back. Well, the way back is in here too.
It is for training you up in righteousness before God.
Paul exhorts Timothy quite a bit about the Word. Let me read some of them.
2 Timothy 1:13-14:
Retain the standard of sound words.
Guard through the Spirit the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
He is speaking of His Word. Then 2 Timothy 2:15:
Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.
And 2 Timothy 4:2:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
The Word of God is precious to Paul, and he is trying to encourage Timothy as to how precious it is.
Paul also speaks of warnings to us. He says, “Be careful with the Word.” In 1 Timothy 1:3, he instructed Timothy to remain at Ephesus in order that he might instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine there.
That was Timothy’s charge that he left with him. It was because of Paul’s concern for the Word and for the saints.
The Bereans—are any of you familiar with the Bereans? Oh, great men of faith, great Christians, great Christian heritage. They loved the Lord and loved His Word.
What was their secret? If you read Acts 17:11, it says that Paul had come to Berea to preach to them, and they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether what Paul and Silas said was so.
Brothers and sisters, I do not expect you to believe what I say. Search the Scriptures diligently as the Bereans did. That was the secret of their closeness and their walk with the Lord.
Even Paul, as great a preacher as Paul was, they did not simply accept what Paul said. They were excited about what he said, and they searched the Scriptures to see if it was true.
There are many warnings in Scripture, particularly in the epistles of John and Paul, that in the last days there are going to be false teachings and false doctrines. He says we have to be careful.
In Revelation, it speaks of the last days, brothers and sisters. It says that even the very elect would be deceived, if He did not cut those days short.
So what am I trying to say? This is the precious Word of God, a letter to you. It is your way, your pathway for life. It shows you the way.
We live in an age, in the last of the last days. What is going to keep us on the path? What is going to keep us from taking a different path?
A casual knowledge of the Word will not do in these days. Even a good knowledge of the Word is not adequate, brothers and sisters.
What is adequate for the hour in which we live? We need to be like the Bereans, diligently, daily searching the Word of God. That is what is adequate.
We really need to look for ourselves in the Word of God, not just be fed the Word, not just be satisfied with that. We need to really diligently search. From whomever you hear the Word, we need to diligently search His Word. It is God’s letter to us.
Secondly, there is a further provision that God makes. He says not only is it the Word of God, but it is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder soul and spirit, even down to the joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
Jesus Christ said, “Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Know the truth, and the truth—that is what sets us free, brothers and sisters.
But it is more than just the written word. It is the living Word that sets us free.
In Scripture, there are two fundamental words for “word.” One is logos, which is the written word, which we appreciate so much. But rhema is when the written Word is made alive to you, when it speaks to you personally.
Brothers and sisters, we need rhema. Who is the One whom the Lord Jesus has given to us to turn this from logos into rhema? It is the Holy Spirit.
That is why it is a living Word. It is a living Book. It is not a textbook; it is a living Book. It is because the Holy Spirit has breathed these words and made them available to us.
It is His responsibility to make these words living to us. That is His responsibility, because His fundamental responsibility is to reveal Christ to you and me—not only to reveal Christ to you and me, but to make Christ real in you and me.
It is the living Word. As you read the Scriptures, Brother Ed, whom I talked about earlier, says before he gives any message that there is a principle of Bible study.
What is the other word he uses? There you go: indispensable. He says it is indispensable to have full reliance on the Holy Spirit when you study the Word.
He is so accurate, so right. Praise the Lord for Brother Ed.
If our condition is going to become our position, brothers and sisters, not only do we need to read the Word, but we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, to really make it alive to us. That is His responsibility.
The way the Spirit works is that the Holy Spirit begins to commune with your spirit as you are reading this Word. Then He makes it understandable to your mind, but it comes through the spirit.
If you just touch this Word with your mind alone, all you are going to get is mental knowledge. You can go to many, many Bible schools and get that mental knowledge.
But that is not what is going to change your life, and that is not what is going to make your pathway straight and narrow. It is when you go to the Word of God under the power of the Holy Spirit and ask Him to reveal Christ to you in these Scriptures.
1 John 2:27 says:
But the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.
The anointing which you have received from Christ—the Holy Spirit—abides in you, and He is the One responsible to teach you.
I want everybody here to know today that you have a personal tutor. When you pick up this Book, you have a tutor, and He says, “Let us read this letter that God has sent you.”
“This precious letter that God has sent. Let Me help you read this letter and understand it.”
He is your personal tutor, the Holy Spirit. He abides in you.
John 14:26: the Lord said the Father will send you the Holy Spirit, and He will teach you all things.
So I am not asking you to learn from me, brothers and sisters. But if the Holy Spirit is touching your heart, learn from the Holy Spirit. He is your teacher.
John, in his later epistles, and Paul speak of walking in the truth and walking in the Spirit. This is being diligent to enter in.
By doing this, brothers and sisters, we will learn how to apply all that God says to our daily life.
It says here that it is living and active, and will discern soul from spirit and actually be able to tell the motives of your heart.
Now, brothers and sisters, sometimes we try to figure out other people’s motives. Let me say, that is probably pretty dangerous, because you do not even know your own heart.
But the Holy Spirit—that is His job. He can discern the motives of your heart.
If you will honestly give yourself before the Lord, He will tell you what is of spirit and what is of yourself, what is of flesh, what is of your soul.
Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference, particularly for Christians who love the Lord. It is hard, but He can divide the difference. He says, “No, no, this is really you. This is your desire. It is not Mine.”
He knows, brothers and sisters.
When the Holy Spirit speaks to you in this way and says, “All right, Jerry, this is not Me. This is what you need to do,” then I have a decision to make.
Is it my will or His will? “Not my will, but Thine be done,” was the Lord’s response.
This whole passage about the two-edged sword dividing soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, is a picture of the priest taking the lamb and cutting open the lamb for sacrifice. They cut up every part, even to the bones and marrow, and exposed it before God.
It speaks today of us being willing to take up the cross and follow the Lord, letting the Lord examine your heart—not you, not your brothers and sisters, but the Lord Himself. Examine your heart.
Brothers and sisters, that is putting yourself on the altar. It speaks of that sacrifice. That is what this Scripture speaks of.
But, you know, when the Lord in Matthew, Mark, and Luke repeats that statement:
You cannot be My disciple unless you take up the cross and follow Me.
That is the only way. If you are going to be on the pathway with the Lord, you are going to have to take up your cross and follow Him.
Basically, you say, “What does that mean?” Basically, it means, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” That is really what the cross means.
“Not my will, but Thine be done.” It is an attitude of your heart as much as an action.
Brothers and sisters, we find taking up the cross, when it is really the cross, quite difficult. At least I do.
But praise the Lord, He has made an even further provision for you. Not only do you have the logos, not only do you have the Holy Spirit to make it living and real, to convict you and bring you to the place where you can see what is of soul and what is of spirit, but He also makes provision that you can take up the cross.
Hebrews 4:14-16:
Since then we have a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need.
Not only do you have this resident tutor, but you have the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven before the Father, praying for you. He is now your Advocate as the High Priest. He is your Advocate before the Father.
Not only has He taken the blood—His own blood—before the Father for your sins, but He prays for you as your Advocate daily.
He is trying to get you from the beginning of that pathway, from your beginning point, to His desired end in your life: that you might be complete in Him. He is your Advocate.
I went down to see my mother yesterday, and I thought a lot about this. The more I thought about it, the more overwhelmed I became. I said, “Lord, it is one thing for You to pray for me. I probably keep You occupied ninety percent of Your time.”
But, brothers and sisters, I do not know how the Lord is able to do it, but every one of us is on His heart. Every one of us, without exception. Even unbelievers are on His heart, and He is going before the Father praying unceasingly.
He is unceasingly praying. He loves you so much. What provision we have.
But what if you fail? What if you do get off the path? Listen to this. 1 John 2:1 says:
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Now think about this. I want you to really think about this. He does not say, “If any man repents, we have an Advocate with the Father.” He does not say that.
He does not say, “If any man repents, we have an Advocate with the Father.” He says, “If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father.”
You know, we would think that the Lord would wait for us to repent before He went to the Father and prayed for us.
Often, that is the way we treat brothers and sisters, is it not? We say, “Well, if they would repent, then I could really pray for them. If they could really see what they had done wrong.”
But the Lord says, as an Advocate for you and me, “If any man sins,” not, “If any man repents.”
In other words, brothers and sisters, you cannot repent on your own. You cannot repent.
Now, if you have repented without the Lord, it is not repentance. All you have really done is felt sorry for what you did.
There is a big difference between feeling sorry about what we have done and true repentance.
I want you to know today that when any one of us repents, it is a gift and grace of God. You cannot repent apart from the grace of God coming to you.
You cannot repent unless the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is praying for you. He has gone to the Father and says, “Father, I know they have sinned, and I want to provide for them the grace of repentance, to be able to restore fellowship with Us.”
It is His prevailing intercession, brothers and sisters, that brings us to the place where we are willing to take up the cross.
It is His prevailing intercession that even allows us to repent when we sin—not what we have done.
Do you see what God has provided, that we might enter His rest—His Sabbath rest?
The Sabbath rest is a completed, finished work. It is your position in Christ: that you are complete in Him. The end is already there.
Right now, for most of us, we had our beginning, and we are somewhere on that pathway.
But, brothers and sisters, we will never move forward ahead at all until our position is clear, until we have entered God’s rest. That is what this epistle is about.
You have to believe what God has done in Christ, or you cannot move ahead. That is your position. You have to move toward your position, or you are moving in the wrong direction.
We have to know what our position is in Christ and believe it, just like Joshua and Caleb, and be willing to go in. Yes, we will have to take up the cross and follow the Lord.
But He has made provision. Christ is our Advocate to pray for us.
The Holy Spirit is the One who has been given to us to make His Word alive to us, that we can not only see Christ, but that we can follow the pathway the Lord has designed for each one of us, that we might follow Him.
He has given us Christ. God has given us His Word. He has given us the Holy Spirit. And now He has His Son as your Advocate.
I do not know what else we could possibly want or ask for. May the Lord just impress us with the preciousness of the great gift that has been given to us.
Lord, we come before Thee today. Lord, how we thank You for this work of Calvary. How we thank You for this precious letter, this personal letter to each one of us.
Lord, how we thank You that You have given the Holy Spirit as our personal tutor and teacher—not just One who gives us something to learn, but One who is right there with us through every experience.
And we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You are not sitting idly on the throne, but that even this very hour, You are praying for every one of us.
Lord, You have made all the provision. We just want to rest in what You have done. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.