The Scalpel and the Surgeon
Hebrews 4:1-16

Cosmetic surgery has become very popular in our present day society. One can come across some unique surgeries that people actually pay money to have done to their bodies:
• Back in 2010 more than a million American women underwent lip augmentation surgery. They paid between $l,500 - $3,000 to have their lips plumped up. And to do that they surgeons used silicone, paraffin wax, and cow-collagen injections... and some women have opted to enhance their lips with purified tissue from their own skin taken or even from research cadavers. Just makes you want to pucker up, doesn’t it?
• Then there are Ocular surgeons in the Netherlands (it’s not legal anyplace else) that have developed a technique for implanting tiny bits of jewelry into a patient’s eyeballs. For a mere $860 they’ll implant a miniature platinum heart, star, or half-moon.
• Some surgeons in Los Angeles and New York are reportedly offering “pinky toe tucks,” where they surgically shave the bones of a woman's pinky toes to make their toes straighter... and make their feet narrower so women can wear narrower shoes. Cost: $1,000 per toe.
• And you men can get into the act by getting an instant six-pack. For a mere $5,000 to $10,000 a plastic surgeon will suck out only the fat between your stomach muscles.
Now correct me if I’m wrong... but these folks are crazy.
They have to be dazed and confused to allow a supposedly reputable surgeon to perform these kinds of operations.
Surgery is not something that should be taken lightly.
ILLUS: I heard of a person who relates a story about a time when their oldest sister was about 12, she went to the doctor for stomach pains and the doctor said she needed emergency surgery. Now her dad had heard a rumor that this doctor had a reputation of scheduling unnecessary procedures. And so dad took the doctor aside and quietly told him:
“You’re the doctor and I’m not smart enough to know if this surgery is absolutely necessary or not. But understand something: if I find out that this surgery is NOT necessary, or you hurt my little girl - you had better pray I don’t find you. Because I’ll be coming after you.”
After serious reconsideration, the doctor decided the surgery wasn’t necessary after all.
If I’m going to have a surgery - if someone is going to go cutting on my body - I want to make sure it’s absolutely necessary.
In Hebrews 3 and 4 God is makes something very clear:
You need surgery and it IS absolutely necessary.
God says you and I have a heart condition. And that heart condition will kill us.
Hebrews 3:12 declares: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”
God explained that, years before, people had died of heart disease because they refused His diagnosis.
“As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” Hebrews 3:15-19
These folks had a heart condition.
They had hardening of their attitudes.
And they died because they refused to listen to God’s diagnosis of their problem.
So God says to us: Don’t be like them.
LISTEN TO ME!!!
Listen to me (says God)!!! YOU have a heart problem, and you don’t need cosmetic surgery. You need corrective surgery. You need to have Me (God) reach into your heart and fix what’s broken.
Well, how do you do that?
How do you go about letting God perform surgery on our heart?
Hebrews 4:12 says “... THE WORD OF GOD is living 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.”
The Word is God’s scalpel that He uses to get inside us.
And He uses that scalpel to cut right into our hearts.
He uses it to penetrate into our very Soul and Spirit.
He uses it to judge our thoughts and attitudes – and reveal to us what’s right and wrong.
Now, there are people who don’t like letting the Bible do that in their lives.
ILLUS: There’s a true story (at least as far as I know) about a man who went to the dentist to have some cavities filled. He was brought into the examining room and made comfortable in the reclining dental chair. The dentist then injected a numbing agent around the patient's tooth and left the room for a few minutes while the medication took hold.
When the dentist returned, the patient was standing next to a tray of dental equipment.
"What are you doing by the surgical instruments?"
Without even looking up the patient replied, "I'm taking out the ones I don't like."
Now, that’s absurd.
You don’t go to a dentist (or a surgeon) and then tell them how to do surgery.
They’ve trained for years to do what they do and they know exactly WHAT tools to use and when to use them.
You and I don’t.
When God does surgery, there’s only one tool that will do the job – the Scriptures. And God’s intention is to reach into our hearts and cut away the dead skin.
ILLUS: A preacher once told me about a young couple was talking with him, and the wife shared the bitterness she felt toward a family member. But then she explained that she’d been reading Scripture about the fact that she needed to forgive her enemies and she was troubled about that. Her husband shared how he was having the same problems with some of the people he knew at work that he had trouble forgiving.
But they knew that the Bible said they had to forgive those people and they weren’t comfortable with that. Why weren’t they comfortable? Because the scalpel of God’s Word was cutting into the sin of an unforgiving heart.
The Bible reveals to us WHAT SIN IS.
Now, most people know what sin is but they tend to cover those sins up.
They’ll make excuses for why they’re bitter, lustful, greedy (etc. etc.)
ILLUS: It’s as old as Adam and Eve. God confronted Adam after he ate of the tree, and what did Adam do? He blamed Eve – “The woman you gave me, it’s her fault.”
Then God confronts Eve about her sin... and she blames the serpent.
People do that. They find excuses.
But once they come face to face with God’s Word they have decisions to make.
The Bible confronts us with our sinfulness.
The Bible exposes our selfishness
The Bible shines a light on the dark and shame filled corners of our souls.
The Bible tells us what sin is.
Someone was quoted as saying that:
"We wouldn't even know what sin was if it wasn't for the bible."
This individual actually implied that Bible’s definition of sin is all a bunch of made up rules. He views God’s Word as a manmade document designed to dominate and control the lives of people who would be just fine without those rules and regulations.
This person went on to say: “I think religion is a neurological disorder.”
But, of course, this individual is wrong. Christianity is NOT a neurological disorder.
Christianity is a powerful force that replaces the “neurological” with the “spiritual.”
And it has the power to bring “order” to “disorder.”
Christianity has the power transform broken lives and rebuild shattered minds
But where does Christianity get the power?
Does it get its power from powerful preachers?
Does it get its power from nice folks from you who gather every Sunday?
No. It gets it from the Bible and the Jesus the Bible tells us about. And the Bible works because it tells us what our real problems are. And then it tells us what we need to do to fix those problems.
ILLUS: The individual I quoted is a lot like the renowned atheist in England named Charles Bradlaugh. Back in the mid-1800’s Bradlaugh thought it would be clever to challenge an old minister to a debate on the validity of the claims of Christianity. The minister was well known for his work in the slums of London and he for his faith that Jesus and the Scriptures had the power lift broken souls out of the gutter.
Bradlaugh’s challenge perked up the ears of all in London. Bradlaugh was a skilled debater and had successfully embarrassed other preacher and defenders of the faith.
How was this minister going to deal with him? How could this minister possibly win such a contest?
What The minister accepted the debate... and then he offered a challenge of his own:
The minister said to Bradlaugh: "I propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame by the influence of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and women and I challenge you to do the same.
"If you cannot bring 100, Mr. Bradlaugh, to match my 100, I will be satisfied if you will bring 50 such men and women who will stand and testify that they have been lifted up from lives of shame by the influence of your teachings. If you can't bring 50, then bring 20 people who will say, as my 100 will, that they have a great joy in a life of self-respect as a result of your atheistic teachings. If you cannot bring 20, I will be satisfied if you bring 10.
"Nay, Mr. Bradlaugh, I challenge you to bring one, just one man or woman who will make such a testimony regarding the uplifting of your atheistic teachings."
Bradlaugh withdrew his challenge.
The minister understood the power of God’s word. He knew the Bible was living and active force - a force capable of exposing the sins and iniquities of men.
Hebrews 4:12 says “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword...”
But the next verse says:
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12
So The minister understood the power of Scripture...
• to expose our sins
• to uncover our iniquities
• to lay bare our excuses
• and force us to realize we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The Bible is the scalpel of God.
It is the only surgical tool that will do what God wants done.
But it’s just a scalpel.
Have you ever had surgery? (Everybody raised their hands).
When you were being scheduled for surgery, have you ever asked who made the surgical instruments? Did you ask how sharp the scalpel was? Did you ask how often the surgical instruments have been used in a successful surgery?
Me neither.
The only thing I’ve ever been concerned about is – who is the surgeon?
How many surgeries has he performed?
How good is he?
And does he think he can fix what’s wrong with me?
ILLUS: A few years ago my mom went in for major heart surgery. While she was at the hospital some of the staff told her that her doctor was considered one of the best in the US. Then her doctor told us that he had never lost a patient.
Now how confident do think that made us feel?
REAL confident!!!
And our confidence was not in the surgical tools... but in the surgeon.
The Bible is the scalpel, but Jesus is our surgeon.
That’s why Hebrews describes the Bible as a cutting tool for God.
In verses 12 we’re told that “the word of God is living and active.
But then we’re told: “THEREFORE...”
Whenever you see a “therefore” in Scripture you have to ask yourself: what’s the “therefore” there for?
So, what was the therefore there for?
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet was without sin.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16
The therefore was there to tell us that we have a surgeon who can give us confidence.
A surgeon who is really GOOD at what He does.
A surgeon who knows He can fix what’s wrong in me.
But even more than that - our surgeon understands us.
Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses.
He knows what it is to be tempted - in every way - just like you and I’ve been tempted.
He knows what we struggle with.
He knows what it is to be made fun of. And He knows what it is to be rejected... even by those who were close to Him. He knows what it is to be wrongfully accused/ hurt/ insulted.
Isaiah 53 prophesied that “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.... (He) carried our sorrows.... He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities... the LORD... laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
So when Jesus cuts away the dead skin from our hearts He doesn’t want to hurt us. He doesn’t want to make us suffer. He hasn’t gone inside of us and just so He can cut and slash.
And that’s what it says in John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (NKJV)
Jesus wasn’t sent to hurt us and destroy us.
He was sent to heal us and change our lives so that we’d have a whole NEW heart and mind.
CLOSE: Jesus came to fix our bodies and minds. He came to give us...
• a new face that would reflect the joy we now have.
• new lips that would give thanks and praise God
• new feet that would walk with God
• new hands that would serve others
• a new mind that would be cleared off all the guilt and shame of the past.
• And a new heart that would beat with God’s love for others.
ILLUS: In the 5th century there was a man named Augustine. He was a sinner. He was a really good sinner. If there was sin to be committed, he found a way to do it. His mother had earnestly prayed for him his entire life that he would give his life to the service of Christ, but Augustine persisted in his sins until one day he sat with a friend on a bench weeping over the state of his life. It was at this moment that he heard a boy or girl--he says he does not know which it was--singing a song. The sound was coming from a neighboring house. The child was chanting over and over: "Pick it up, read it; pick it up; read it."
Augustine wrote: “Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon.
So I quickly opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof."
I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away."
You hold in your hands one of the most powerful books known to man. It has the power to convict men of their sins. The power to change men’s hearts and reshape them in the image of God.
Too often Christians just “go to church” and put in their time. They waste the power of this book by not taking advantage of Sunday school time and in home Bible studies and personal Bible reading. And when their friends have problems and need advice those Christians give “their” advice rather than God’s.
We need to know the Bible so well, we can give God’s healing words to those in need. We need to memorize verses that enable us to share the power of God through His word.
INVITATION

Based on a sermon
By Jeff Strite