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They call it "splitting the atom" and I confess that I don't really understand how they do it. Apparently these things that you and I have never seen called "atoms" are actually made up of even smaller particles named electrons, protons, and neutrons. Like many universes, these particles rotate around each other within each individual atom and God has caused them to attract each other and bond with each other with such a force that if you force them to separate, it releases the most powerful force known to physics today and atomic explosion. In high school one year, I did my term paper on the battle of Okinawa which turned out to be the last battle of World War II. It was important because it showed America just how hard and what high casualty rates it would mean to invade Japan proper and so influenced our government to use the most powerful weapon that the world has ever seen: the atomic bomb. The devastation and sheer destruction of the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused a public outcry of horror which led to the Cold War and eventually "nuclear arms" treaties.

I've often wondered how Joshua or David would react to witnessing a nuclear explosion. They lived in a simpler time where the primary weapon of warfare and the most powerful in capable hands was the simple "sword." But today the "sword" of warfare is no longer a piece of iron, but a bomb of plutonium and uranium. Simply having this sword in your hand in our world today brings respect and fear. If you and I had a nuclear bomb in our hands we could dictate to the world what we wanted it to do for us!

Despite it's destructive qualities, man has learned that if the power of the splitting of the atom is controlled and harnessed within a reactor, that the power produced far surpassed the usefulness and power of anything else on earth. What is so destructive when "loosed" is one of the most useful when it is put within it's proper place. The same is true in many things in the Spirit, and we go many directions from here, but I want to use atomic power to focus you on powers that we have that are much greater. There are three powers that you and I both have that are far greater than the atomic bomb.

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The first is one of the most powerful forces in the universe: the Word of God.

"The Word of God, preacher?" Yes, in particular the spoken Word of God. Because it was the spoken Word of God that created this world. It was the spoken Word of God that framed the heavens into existence. It was the spoken Word of God that created the atom with it's locked-up energy in the first place. If the Word of God then created everything in the atomic bomb, then it follows that the creator is always more powerful than the creation! Before you call me crazy, let me show you the power of the Word of God in judgment.

In Revelation 19 we find a portrait of Jesus Christ's Second Coming with the Raptured Church as His army. He is coming to fight for Israel at the close of what is known as the "Battle of Armageddon." The Gentile nations of this world have gathered together to use nuclear warfare to strike Israel, but their savior is coming to fight for them. This is a literal battle and not an allegory. In verses 11 through 16 we get an image of Jesus Christ prepared for war. He is as this world has never seen Him. He sits upon a white horse, His eyes "flame with fire," and on His head are "many crowns." But His main weapon we find in verse 15:

"Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword!" His spoken Word is His primary weapon and it has such power that it is able to "smite nations!" The battle is such that God first calls all the birds of the air to feast upon the bodies of the enemy! In fact the chapter concludes with:

The power of the spoken Word of God goes far beyond the physical weapons that the armies of this time have! It is able to destroy the enemy and to wreak destruction upon the earth that has never been seen before nor will be seen since! What a horrible day that will be when the Wrath of God is poured out and His Word will shoot forth in judgment upon the generation of warriors that have rejected His love and assaulted His people!

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With all of this in mind, I want you to take you back to our text in Isaiah and show you what I feel is the revelation of God that He would have learn tonight. The prophet Isaiah was prophesying about the "Day of the Lord" that we just talked about in Revelation 19. He was prophesying of a time in the future when God would strike the "Idumeans" or "Gentiles" that come against Israel. It is talking about the wrath of God upon the earth during the battle of Armageddon. With this in mind, let's read it again:

God is speaking directly through the mouthpiece of Isaiah and He describes the details of the Wrath of God that perfectly matches all other references to this horrible day of judgment in scripture, and then He makes an interesting statement. In fact, it's so well hidden that if you were just casually reading it, you might miss it. As God is describing how the sword of His spoken Word will be brought down in judgment upon the Gentiles, He says "for my sword shall be bathed in heaven." The word "bathed" here means "completely drenched or saturated." It means to completely permeate into such as water might do through a sponge. The word "heaven" can refer to the atmosphere above and it can also refer to the place of God's dwelling where His throne sits.

I want you to understand the principle that God is teaching us here. God has every right to slaughter these people because they have universally rejected Him and fought against Him despite the prophets and the love that He has shown them. It's not a popular message, but it was our own decisions that got us into our messes. The question is not "why would a good God send people to hell?" but rather "why would a sinful man choose to go to hell by rejecting the love of a good God!?" That first question is the faulty logic of hell, we've got ourselves into this mess with our sin, and so let's blame God and in so doing reject His power to make things right. I've known people to say "why did God allow this to happen or allow this not to happen in my life?" when really the question is "why are they blaming God for things that sin brought into their life and rejecting His delivering and healing power in their situation?" When you study the events in Isaiah and Revelation, God is fighting against people that have thoroughly rejected Him and as Ezekiel put it in chapter 15:2-4, are fit only "to be cast into the fire for fuel." Not only that but they are seeking and sacrificing to destroy the work of God upon the earth. I'm not trying to depress you or scare you but merely want to impress upon you that these people who will be destroyed by God fully and completely have chosen and deserve their fate.

And despite all of this, God takes care to mention "for my sword is bathed in heaven." In other words, even in judgment and even when He is completely justified in destruction, God respects the power of His Word so much that He takes care to make sure that the Sword of His Word, is bathed; is saturated; is permeated with what is good and what is right and what is only Godly motives and what is only heavenly. He will not even execute judgment upon this world, until His "sword is bathed in heaven!"

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Like the atomic reaction that it created, the Word of the Lord can be the most destructive force in the world if not controlled and bathed in heaven! As a preacher I hold and study and wield the most powerful force upon earth. The scriptures say that it is:

The image in the mind of the writer of Hebrews is the sharp sacrificial sword used by the priests to prepare the animal sacrifices for God. Before being laid upon the altar, the sacrifice was "divided asunder" that is split perfectly down the middle so that all of the innards were perfectly displayed. Through doing this, the priest was able to check to make sure that the sacrifice really was spotless and blemishless, and by dividing asunder the sacrifice, the priest could spot disease and faults that were not discernable on the outside! Only if it passed the test of being pure on the outside and the inside would the sacrifice be worthy to offer unto God and to be consumed on the altar!

Let me preach to you: Under grace, we no longer offer up sacrifices of animals but we are to be a "living sacrifice." Paul wrote to the church in Rome:

And so to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, we must be holy and acceptable unto God. And it is so easy to spot the deficiencies on the outside. When someone is an adulterer, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a robber, a drunk, or a blasphemer we can quickly identify the problem and the blemish that needs to be removed through the power of the blood of Jesus.

But before your sacrifice is accepted, God also looks on the inside! And He usually lays you innards open through His Word spoken through a man of God! When a preacher steps to the pulpit, it is not the time to take a nap. It is not the time to visit or go hang out outside. It's not the time to let your mind wander. Because it is surgery. The most powerful force of the Spirit is about to be unleashed and God wants it to lay you open before Him. He wants to identify the things on the inside that need to change. He wants to divide the things that are needed from the surplus in your life and to cut out the cancer of sin and strife and deceitfulness that is destroying you from within. When the Word of God is opened and whoever the man of God for the moment is begins to preach or teach, understand that the sword of God is reaching into your soul!

Therefore as a preacher, I must take this thing seriously. Most of you know that I spend the vast majority of my time preparing to preach and teach or studying the scripture. That's because I realize the importance of having a sharp sword. Just as no surgeon would dare go into a surgery with a dull knife, I must make sure that the Word of God is crisp and fresh. I must not come with the Word of God with sin in my life because if I wield the sword with diseases upon it, then it is very likely that someone else will be infected. I must carefully cut and slice with this sword so that I only take out the things needed and do not add to or take away from God's sacrifice. It's a tremendous responsibility, one that I fear that too many men and women take too lightly, but I pray that when I pick up this powerful sword of the Word of God that is bathed, saturated, and permeated with heaven! I pray that I do it with pure motives and right thoughts and that heaven shines through it! I need my sword to be bathed in heaven!

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I'm here to preach to you tonight that the rules that apply to the preacher presenting the Word of God also applies to the saints presenting the Word of God. The sword is still the same! You must understand that the only difference between the sharp scalpel being an instrument of destruction or an instrument of salvation is the skill and the intentions of the one who holds it! If the surgeon goes into the surgery with the motives of causing as much pain and hurt as possible, then what should have been a tool for good becomes a horrible tool of death!

I believe in the power of the Word of God to change people. I have been forever changed and hopefully will continue to be so by the preached and the taught Word of God. I've seen it cut homosexuality out of people's lives. I've seen it cut deceitfulness and lustfulness and bitterness and unforgiveness and take it out of people's lives never more to remove. There is no greater method for the removal of the cancer of sin than the timely, anointed, Word of God that is bathed, saturated with the power of heaven.

But that same force can destroy people. I've seen just as many people destroyed and killed spiritually by the sword of the Word of God being wielded by someone with jealously and bitterness and unforgiveness! Understand a principle in God's Word: we can have the truth, we can be scripturally right, and yet if our sword is not bathed in heaven, if it is not controlled from a heart that has had all guile and deceitfulness removed. If our spirit is wrong and our attitude is wrong, then despite being "right in principle" and despite holding something that has the ability to bring life, we can cause destruction and devastation. There's a reason that God's Word comes down so hard on unforgivness. Even to the point of saying that you are not saved as long as you hold unforgivness in your heart because God holds you accountable for all of your past sins until you forgive. The reason is that the Word of God in the hands of someone who is eaten up with unforgiveness becomes a horrible instrument of destruction, slicing and injuring those around you!

Perhaps you remember the story of Jesus traveling with His disciples through the towns of Israel preaching deliverance and truth. They came to a town that completely rejected Jesus and His message of deliverance and healing. To make matters worse, it was town in the hated Samaria. And the scriptures say:

Now understand that this town had completely rejected Jesus. And realize that Jesus could have given James and John the power to call down fire from heaven if He had wanted. And after all, these Samaritans had had their one chance, right? And God has done it before right? But understand even though their theology was right, the motives and spirits of James and John were wrong. And Jesus rebuked them! He said "the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

Hear me now. It is easy to feel righteous and "saved" and reach a place where you feel "better" and "more holy" than the unbelievers. And the more scripture that you know, the easier it is to condemn them and to point out their faults and to call for judgment. And we must stand against sin and live holy and all of that, but HOW we stand against sin and HOW we present the Word of God and HOW we do what's right is very important! James and John didn't have this attitude at the other towns that rejected Jesus, but their desire for judgment was based upon their Jewish prejudice towards the Samaritans. They didn't like the Samaritans because they were different and they worshipped differently. They had different issues than James and John did. And so they picked up the sword of the Word of God and offered to wield it saturated with prejudice, saturated with hatred, permeated with self-righteousness, and bathed in revenge for all of the bad experiences that they had had with Samaritans in the past. And Jesus rebuked them! Not for what they wanted to do, but because of the spirit that they were in! Their sword wasn't bathed in heaven! It wasn't saturated with His motives and His purity! It was instead permeated by fleshly desires and self, and God said "even if you're right, I don't want you representing me." Because you are not of the Spirit of God! Because your sword is not bathed in heaven!

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Let me show you how to tell if you are using a "sword bathed in heaven." In our other text, we read about the arrest of Jesus Christ. You can't help but notice the differences between the actions of Jesus and Peter in this situation. Judas Iscariot, the traitor, comes and betrays Jesus with a kiss and Jesus calls him "friend." Meanwhile, Peter pulls his sword and swings at the nearest person cutting off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest. Notice it's Jesus' life on the line and it's Peter who is acting foolishly!

This brings us to the second power that you and I have that is much greater than the splitting of the atomic atom: our own tongue! Now we no longer carry physical swords upon our persons in our day to day lives, but we do carry a spiritual sword in our mouth! And it's much sharper and more deadly than the physical instrument. Solomon said:

"Okay preacher, the tongue is powerful but more powerful than the atomic bombs?" Yes, because James taught us in chapter 3 of his book that "no man can tame the tongue." Man can tame the atom and even use it for usefulness, but if you are going to get victory over your tongue, you are going to have to have God's help! If you are going to control it, it must be "bathed in heaven."

I remember once being where I was reminded of the story of Jesus' arrest and Peter filleting off Malchus' ear. A few years ago, I was in a ministerial meeting where a minister stood up and very rudely and loudly began to complain and attack elder Bro. Kilgore for something that he had done wrong. And the man's complaint was correct and the meanings of his words were correct in that Bro. Kilgore had not done something that he was supposed to have done, but the man's spirits and motives were completely wrong. As he stood up in the meeting and belligerently yielded the "sword of his mouth," it was very clear to everyone in the room that his sword was bathed in anger, pride, self-worth, and personal motives. At one point the man practically yelling said "do you see what I'm saying?" to which Bro. Kilgore softly said in the mike, "I see a man who I call my friend and whom I deeply love." "Yes, I see your point and I've already apologized for that, but most of all I see a friend and I want to remain so after this meeting is over." As I looked at that situation that day, I was reminded of Jesus and Peter in our text. Both were correct in what they were doing and saying but only one was "bathed in heaven." Only one of them truly showed Jesus to us that day. And as a result only one walked away with the respect of the witnesses.

Let me ask you a question. Forget about whether you are right or wrong in your situation. Stop trying to justify whether or not you are correct. Because the answer to the question that I'm about to ask you takes precedent over who's right and wrong scripturally. When you speak, is your sword bathed in heaven? Do people walk away from where you have been addressing a situation and say "we just saw Jesus in what they said and how they responded" or do they walk away and say "what their deal?" "What's their agenda?" Do they walk away from a situation desiring to know about this God that you talk about, or did your sword "cut off their ear" and thus make it extremely difficult for them to hear the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ!?

When you teach Bible Studies, when you present Jesus at work, when you talk to your family, when you answer questions, when you take a stand for what is right, is your sword bathed in heaven? Or is it bathed in anger? Is it bathed in revenge and unforgivness? Is it bathed in righteousness and pure motives, or is it bathed in a "I'm better than you" self-righteous spirit!? The Word of God is powerful, but only when it is properly put in it's place. Peter, put away your sword back into "it's place." The Word of God will only bring healing if it is guided and hemmed in by love, grace, and righteousness. If it not "bathed in heaven" then it will cause even worse pain and suffering.

I told you that I was going to tell you how you can tell if your sword is "bathed in heaven" or not. You can tell by the response of the people upon whom you unleash it. If it makes it harder for them to receive truth, then something's not right. If it pushes people away from an opportunity to receive God's love and deliverance then something else is permeating your sword! If it causes hurt and pain and is done so to make someone else suffer, then even if you are right, you are wrong because your sword is not bathed in heaven.

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The scripture teaches that it is not the will of God that "ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to everlasting life." God said in another place that He gets no satisfaction from judgment. Hell was not created at first for human beings but was created for the devil and his angels. Scriptures says that because of man's sin "hell hath enlarged herself." Man's sin caused a building project in hell that was never meant to be.

And God is longsuffering toward men. It's been two thousand and eight years since He came to earth as man the first time. Grace has now lasted far longer than any other period of time in history. God has been patient with us. He has been kind. He has given the people here chance after chance after chance. It will be with great reluctance that He pulls the pages of time shut. It will be a tough thing for God to come like Isaiah prophesied and destroy the lost. Oh, He will do it, but He will get no pleasure from it. In fact, He has put it off for over two thousand years now, hoping that just a few more would come to repentance!

And so even though our situations and worries are quite different from God's, we will too find ourselves in tough circumstances. We will find ourselves in a situation where we must take action and discipline and that we must do something that is right but in which we will find no satisfaction. Life is full of crisis and tough decisions, and we must do the Godly thing and do the hard thing. And sometimes this two-edged sword of the Word of God must be applied in surgery to remove something from our lives that to let go of is painful. In the darkest days and toughest days of our lives, where we must make the most painful decisions, let us be like God and let our sword -- both the Word of God and the words that we speak -- be bathed in heaven!

And in heaven is no guile. There is no bitterness. There is no pain and no weeping. There is no self-promotion or pride allowed in heaven. There, no flesh shall glory in His presence. There is no criticism and gossip allowed. Liars will not make their home there. The sinful past will not enter there. Those who purposefully hurt others will not walk into that place! But in heaven, we decrease and Jesus increases! In heaven self-importance is replaced with exaltation of the King of Kings! The 24 elders cannot even wear their crowns in the presence of the Lord, but they cast them down before His feet. In heaven Jesus is in control and is exalted and is lifted up in every situation! God let our swords be bathed in heaven!

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I close with this:

The spoken Word of God is one of the most powerful forces on earth right now but not the strongest. The tongue is likewise powerful but not the strongest. There is one thing that is stronger than these things at this time. What is it? The human will. It is stronger because others can't change it, and God chooses not to right now. Because He wants a "living sacrifice" God allows you to choose whether or not to respond to His Word, and if you want to reject it, then you can. If you want to remove yourself from the altar of God and the will of God, then you can. If you want to pick up the sword of the Lord and wield it in destruction and hurt you can. If you don't want to change your mouth or your bitterness or your pride or your relationship with God then that's your choice. God has allowed you to have your own will for a time in this life.

Oh, one day God will take that will away and one day EVERY knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord, but right now you have the ability to use your tongue and your body for anything that you so choose. This is not a church of robots, but a church full of people that possess the three most powerful things on earth: your will, your tongue, and the spoken Word of God.

Realize that the choice is yours. If you want to have revival, you can choose to have revival. If you want to be more like Jesus, then you can be. If you want to praise Him, or pray, or fast or submit or obey, then you have the ability! But remember when you pick up the weapons of the Word of God and your speech, that it is your choice whether to submit to God or not. It is your choice whether or not to allow your sword to be bathed in heaven!

When Isaiah saw a vision of God standing in His temple in all of His glory, the first thing that he thought of was how unclean his mouth was. He wrote:

He was cleansed by an angel touching his lips with a coal off of the altar of heaven! The scripture says that "he laid it upon my mouth." If you have really been to an altar of God, if you have really been in His presence, if you have really got a revelation of who He is, then your mouth will prove it! All of us have failed Him in this area and we live in a world of unclean lips, but let our swords: let every Word of God and every other statement that comes from our lips, be bathed in heaven! To be like Jesus, my sword must be bathed in heaven!