The Flaming Sword - April 4, 2009 - Sermon

Aug 29, 2026

“The Flaming Sword” recounts a violent assault that leads to life-saving surgery, then frames it as a spiritual lesson about the meaning of being cut and burned. Using Genesis and Paul’s letters, it argues that sin manifests a deeper “heart of stone” and that humanity is “delivered up” to the destruction of the flesh. It contrasts Palm Sunday’s praise with Friday’s crucifixion and calls for a deeper heart surgery beyond external acts, pointing to salvation on the Day of the Lord.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Opening testimony

Assault, knives, and emergency surgery

Spiritual framework

Who holds the knife and why

Biblical foundations

Genesis: shame, exile, and the flaming sword

Paul: deliverance, judgment, and salvation

Practical spiritual application

Diseased hearts and revealed sin

Palm Sunday vs. crucifixion

The need for heart-level cutting

The Flaming Sword Genesis 3:24 April 4, 2009 Peter Hiett Many of you knew my father. Apart from Susan, he was my best friend, and I loved him more than I can say. It was about 25 years ago that my father had come downtown to take care of some business, and something went terribly wrong. It was then that a group of men assaulted him with knives. They stabbed him in the chest, broke his sternum and several ribs. They knocked him unconscious and took a huge sum of money. I was in California at the time. As my dad lay unconscious at Swedish Medical Center, my sister Lydia and I hopped on a plan and flew back to Colorado. Dad had lost a lot of blood, and he was on life support. For a time, we didn’t know whether he’d live or die. But now I can tell you this: As my father opened his eyes and came back to life, I have never been so grateful for those violent men and their knives. You see, my dad had gone downtown to see the doctor. Something did go wrong: He had a heart attack in the doctor’s office. They did knock him unconscious. They did break his sternum and several ribs. They did assault him violently with knives called scalpels. They did take a huge sum of his money and he gladly gave it… for they saved his life. They had performed emergency open heart surgery, removing four clogged vessels (a heart of stone), and replacing it with a heart of flesh. Well, my point is: When you get burned and when you get cut, it makes a huge difference: 1. Who it is that is holding the knife, and 2. Why it is that they are cutting you. In Genesis, Adam and Eve steal from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Eve takes it for the serpent tempted her to create herself in God’s image, with her own judgments… tempted her to create herself and save herself, with law in the power of the flesh, to be her own creator rather than God’s creation. When Adam and Eve take the fruit, they hide in shame, for suddenly they know good and evil, and they realize something is evil in them. God curses the earth, and then in verse 22, we read: Genesis 3:22 “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever” therefore the Lord God sent Adam out from the garden of Eden to work the ground (the Adamah)from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword (fiery knife) that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” In verse 23, God sends Adam to work the Adamah until he returns to it until he realizes that he is made of it: “dust to dust and ashes to ashes.” It reminds me of what Paul says in Romans 1, where he writes that the wrath of God is revealed in this: that God gave men up, “delivered them up”(paradidomi) to the epithumia, the dreams and desires of their hearts. That is: He gave them up to their own flesh… their dust. It also reminds me of what Paul writes in I Corinthians about the guy in the church who was having sex with his mother-in-law and boasting about it. Paul instructs the church to gather and literally “deliver this man up”(paradidomi). It’s a technical term related to judgment: “Deliver this man up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” Let him sin and see his sin. Let him rub his face in it – his dust. I Corinthians 5:5 “Deliver him up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that (so that, so that) his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” Do it precisely so he can be saved. “Deliver him up to Satan.” Scripture tells us that the “whole world” lies in the power of Satan. It makes you wonder if all of Adam (all of humanity) has been “delivered up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” So that humanity“might be saved in the day of the Lord.” Which should make us stop and ask: “What is the Day of the Lord?” Well, you know my Dad was sick with a diseased heart long b

FAQs

What story does the speaker use to introduce the message?

The speaker describes a father assaulted by men with knives, suffering serious chest injuries, and later recovering after emergency open-heart surgery.

How does the sermon interpret the “flaming sword” in Genesis?

It explains that God sends Adam out from Eden and places a cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life, linking the symbol to judgment and separation.

According to the sermon, what is the real issue behind human sin?

Sin is presented as evidence of a deeper problem: a “heart of stone” and a disease of the flesh that requires a transformation beyond merely cutting off external parts.

Aug 29, 2026

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