The Sword is Meant for Cuttin

L E S S O N F I V E The Sword is Meant for Cuttin Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown. Claude Bernard I. The HOLY Bible - (Psalms 119:9-17 KJV) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. 13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. 16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. 17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. A. The words statues and precepts mean: 1. h2706. ח ק ḥôq; from 2710; an enactment; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage): appointed, bound, commandment, convenient, custom, decree (- d), due, law, measure, x necessary, ordinance (- nary), portion, set time, statute, task. Statute, ordinance, limit, something prescribed, due; prescribed; task prescribed; portion; action prescribed (for oneself), resolve; prescribed due, prescribed limit, boundary, enactment, decree, ordinance specific, 1 of 14

decree law in general enactments, statutes, conditions, enactments, decrees, civil enactments. (STRONG) B. Our life holds an innumerable amount of variables. 1. Situations, jobs, moods, and the weather changes. 2. Everything changes in the world we live in moment by moment. C. It is hard to find something to hold onto, or anchor to, because the world around us is constantly changing. 1. Yet, we have something that has withstood the test of time. a) It has remained constant for the 6000 years. b) It continued unwaveringly through mountains of criticism, millenniums of investigation, and the trends of every age. (1) It is the Word of God. D. How shall a young man cleanse his way? 1. ANSWER: By taking heed to God s Word. a) (Psalms 119:9 KJV) Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. 2. The Word of God provides us with a foundation to anchor our lives. a) 8 times in this passage the writer mentions the Word of God. (1) You can feel his deep desire to hold onto God s statutes. E. We are talking about being transfigured by lawful commandments and expedient principles of holiness. 1. There is not a clearer picture of God s law than His Word. 2. His Word is His Law. 2 of 14

a) (Proverbs 30:2-3, 5-9 KJV) Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. 3 I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. b) 5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (Question: How can we say we put our trust in him if we don t obey His Word?) c) 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. 7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: (NLT - Feed me with my allotted portion of bread. ) d) 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. 3. The writer writes, I don t have wisdom, neither do I have the knowledge of God. a) Then he says, Every word of God is pure. (1) Knowledge and wisdom come from the pure Word of God. (a) The word pure in the Hebrew means to fuse (metal), i.e. refine, cast, goldsmith, melt, purge away, try. (b) These can be summed up in the word holy. II. The Visible God - God is a spirit and therefore He is invisible and undetectable to the naked eye. A. He cannot be visualized with sight but He can be seen. B. When you open up the pages of His book He is right there. 3 of 14

1. His very existence is found in every vowel, consonant, and syllable. 2. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little. 3. His beauty, His power, His greatness, His love, His judgments, His grace, His virtue, His excellence, His omnipotence, His eloquence, His majesty, His mercy, His creativity, His sovereignty, His compassion, His burden, His wrath, His zeal, His passion, and His sacrifice. a) The Word of God is not words printed on a page but it is the description of God. b) It is alive and powerful. C. Bible Statistics: 1. Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the Bible. 2. Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse in the Bible: a) (Psalms 118:8 KJV) It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. 3. The chapter BEFORE 118 is Psalm 117: it s the shortest chapter in the Bible containing 2 verses. 4. The chapter AFTER 118 is Psalm 119 (Our text): it is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses. 5. There are 596 chapters before Psalm 118 and 592 chapters after Psalm 118. 596+592=1188 chapters. a) 1188 total chapters and the perfect middle of the Bible is Psalms 118:8. b) 31,101 verses - 783,137 words - 3,566,480 letters. (1) Yet, the only verses that the vast majority of Christians can quote is John 3:16 while overlooking John 3:5. c) 1260 promises given in the Bible. 4 of 14

d) 6468 commands - 8000 prophecies - 3294 questions. e) The longest verse is Esther 8:9 (90 words). It records the decree from the King of Persia, Esther and Mordecai calling for the Jews to stand up for their life and destroy those who oppose them. f) The shortest verse in the Bible is (John 11:35 KJV) Jesus wept. 6. Do you still think there are parts of His Word that aren t relevant? D. The Word of God is our survival. 1. (Luke 4:4 KJV) And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. E. It is the gateway to eternity. 1. (Luke 8:11-15 KJV) Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. 15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. a) The Word of God is our key to blessings and fruitfulness. b) His Word is sown in our hearts every time we hear it, read it, or speak it. 5 of 14

(1) It germinates and breaks open in our heart and begins to grow into a beautiful, flowering stalk of righteousness. (2) His Word makes us holy by revealing God s nature and transforming us to be like Him. F. His Word is the source of faith. 1. (Romans 10:17 KJV) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 2. Faith demands action. a) (James 1:22-25 KJV) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. b) (James 1:25 AMP) But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience). (1) If you stay close to the Word of God and do what it says it will keep you from falling into deception. (2) It will continually show you what kind of man that you are and reveal to you what needs to change. 6 of 14

G. The Word of God must not be hid. 1. (2 Corinthians 4:1-5 KJV) Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. a) Preaching does not just occur over the pulpit. b) Preaching is not just presented by human lips. (1) True holiness in a person s life will preach the message of Christianity every day of your life. i) It will not preach the message deceitfully but it will manifest the truth! ii) Jesus was the WORD in flesh. The Word of God in flesh exampled what the Word of God in writing said. iii) We can t take the death, burial and resurrection and ignore the LIFE that He lived. (1) (Ephesians 1:4 KJV) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (2) (1 Peter 2:24-25 KJV) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead 7 of 14

to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. (3) (2 Corinthians 5:15 KJV) And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (4) (Titus 2:12 KJV) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. (5) (1 Peter 4:1-2 KJV) Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. (6) (2 Peter 2:4-6 KJV) For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an 8 of 14

ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. (a) (2 Peter 2:9 KJV) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. H. The Word of God is our offense. 1. We see the armor of God and all of its facets; the helmet, the shield, the girdle, etc. a) The Word of God is the sword our offensive weapon. b) (Ephesus 6:17 KJV) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (1) The Word of God will cut through the powers of darkness. III. The Manifested Word - (1 John 1:1-3 KJV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. A. This that John is speaking of is what Adam and Eve had come to know in a very real way. 1. (Genesis 3:8 KJV) And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 9 of 14

B. This was God walking in their midst. 1. When you here His Voice you know you re in His presence. a) (Hebrews 11:3 KJV) Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. b) Don t ever think that the words of His book are just printed text. (1) When you hold His book you are handling God. C. As you read His Word and digest it, pieces of God begin to live and breathe inside of you. 1. The Word of Life empowers you and His words flow from you and bring life to those around you. a) He leaps off of the pages and into your heart and His Word that was in the beginning is manifest in the flesh to make you holy. IV. The Spoken Word - (2 Peter 1:18-21 KJV) And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (Do we think unholy men will inherit Heaven with these holy men?) A. God has always meant for His Word to be heard and spoken. 10 of 14

1. Mighty things happen when His Word is spoken. 2. It was His word that framed the worlds. a) His Holy Word is spoken to and through people. V. (Proverbs 18:21 KJV) Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. A. Words say much about a person. 1. You can tell what a person has in his heart by listening to what he / she says. a) (James 3:10-14 KJV) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. (1) Herein lies the power of the spoken word because it reveals the person and it influences others. (2) (Matthew 12:34 KJV) O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (a) Don t ever forget that holiness is a heart issue. (b) If your heart is holy then your conversation will be holy. 11 of 14

B. There aren t many things on this earth that are more powerful than a holy saint of God speaking blessings, healing, prophecy, salvation, etc. 1. If God can frame the worlds by His Word, then He can just as certainly save the world by His Word. a) He needs somebody holy to speak as they are moved on by the Holy Ghost. C. We have talked about the heart, the mind, the eyes, the ears, and now the tongue. 1. As I have stated, your standards are not the substance of your holiness. a) Long hair on ladies and modest apparel on men and women does not make you holy. b) Standards are the emblem of holiness. They reveal what s in your heart. 2. But arguably the most visible outward sign of holiness is the tongue. a) The heart and mind are internal, unseen organs that insulate your holiness. b) The eyes and ears are receivers of things that must be filtered through prayer and His Word or they will cause you to sin. c) But the tongue is the final test of holiness. 3. (Job 15:5-6 KJV) For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. 6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee. 4. (Proverbs 10:20-21 NLT) The words of the godly are like sterling silver; the heart of a fool is worthless. 21 The words of the godly 12 of 14

encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense. 5. (Proverbs 12:18-19 NLT) Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing. 19 Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed. 6. (Proverbs 15:2 NLT) The tongue of the wise makes knowledge appealing, but the mouth of a fool belches out foolishness. D.(James 3:1-9 KJV) My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 1. Sin produces an untamed tongue. 13 of 14

2. It was not an accident that God chose the evidence of speaking with other tongues as a sign to us that we have received the Holy Ghost. a) God purges our heart, filters our mind, and at last changes our speech to let us know that we have been changed. b) The tongue is the last thing to go. (1) We understand that every time we pray through to the Holy Ghost by speaking in other tongues we are refreshing and edifying our souls. (2) We are renewing our relationship with God. 3. The tongue isn t just a sign of the Holy Ghost but it is also a sign of holiness. 14 of 14