We launched from Hebrews 4:12-13

12For 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. 13Nothing 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.

What is our obligation to God’s word?

What should our attitude be, what should our actions be, what should our choices be, what should our commitment be to His word? 

We are to receive it .

James 1:21 “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

This is talking about accepting it, not just hearing it, but embracing it as truth, for your own life choices. And how must you do it, in meekness.  In humility, so that your pride won’™t block it, impede it, distort it, diminish it, filter it, reject it.

We are to love it .

Psalm 119:47-49  I shall delight in Your commandments, which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love; and I will meditate on Your statutes for I find my delight in Your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.

If you don’t love the word, you won’t seek it. You won’t listen to it. You won’t really even know it. Loving leads to delighting, reaching, meditating, to have and understand and be filled with His word.

We are to want it .

1 Peter 2:1-3  Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

You have to want it, if you want to grow, because you can’t grow in Christ without it.  

We are to obey it.

1 John 2:5  “but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him”

You need the word, because it’s the path to truly perfecting the love of God, because it’s how you know you are His.  

 James 1:22-25  But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

We need a way to be blessed, and the only way that can happen is if it is according to His will, and the only way that can happen is if we know it, and the only way that can happen is if we live in the way revealed in His word.

We are to speak it boldly.

Philippians 1:14  And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Ephesians 6:18-20  With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

We should proclaim the word of God boldly, not with a spirit of timidity, so a lost world will hear the message of salvation, so that His church will.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

When you treasure and store it within, it should come out for the good of others and the praise and glory of God.  

We are to hold fast to it.

Philippians 2:16  “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain

 Titus 1:9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

The path to a good ending is holding fast the word of life so that we can know that how we lived life wasn’t in vain, wasn’™t empty because it was according to the word.

We are to read it.

Deut. 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them.

Paul Marvin told me last week on his way out that he has read the entire Bible over 30 times, including one year when he read it three times.  How’s that for a testimony about the word?  I told him that blessed my heart, and that I’ve done the same, read it a few dozen times, and multiple times a year. God has used that familiarity with His word for good throughout my Christian life, and Paul’s.  But listen, you don’t have to read it 30 times, just keep reading it, whatever you can do.

We are to study it.

Acts 17:10-11 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 

2 Timothy 2:15  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

2 Timothy 3:14-17  You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

We are to memorize it.

Psalm 1:1-2  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the lawof the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Deut. 11:18 You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

We are to meditate on it.

Psalm 119:15-16 I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. 16I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.

We are to never replace it.

Remember Colossians?

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 

Remember John 1?

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said,He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'” 16For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Jesus is the Word incarnate, full of grace and truth. His word is the only source of truth because Jesus is truth itself. His word is light to a dark world because Jesus is light itself. The true light.

Jesus, the Word, the Light, has explained the Father.

The Word of God is the only source of true light, and the only way to understand God, because Jesus is the Word, and Jesus is God.

We are to believe it!

John 5:39-47 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41I do not receive glory from men; 42but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? 45Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.47But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

2 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

You must believe the message of His word, they testify about Jesus, but if you search them and are unwilling to come to Jesus, you will end up lost forever, and judged, and sentenced to eternal suffering, away from the presence of God. 

You must believe the word of God for what it really is, the word of God, and know this, it performs its work in you who believe.  

You must believe if for it to perform its work in you.