He Meditates in His Law

The point: Try praying audibly under your breath this week — let your lips move and your tongue verbalize Scripture and prayer to anchor the wandering mind.

Isaiah 8:19 uses the same Hebrew word for 'meditate' to describe spirit mediums muttering — God uses a witchcraft term to describe the believer's verbal pondering of His law.

Well, there's the picture you see of that person who's supposed to be a spirit medium mumbling out his or her little string of phrases that are supposed to bring the evil spirits to do their bidding. It's the same word used in Isaiah chapter 59 and verse 3. Isaiah 59 and verse 3.

11:20 - 11:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Try praying audibly under your breath this week — let your lips move and your tongue verbalize Scripture and prayer to anchor the wandering mind.

Martin counsels people who can't keep their mind on prayer to begin praying audibly under their breath — they nearly always come back saying it has cleared up the wandering thoughts.

They say, no, I haven't done that. I say, now you try that for a week and then you come back and see me. And time after time, that's cleared up their whole problem with wandering thoughts in prayer. There's something about verbalizing the thoughts that fixes them and keeps them from wandering off in a thousand directions.

13:42 - 13:56 Read in full sermon

Meditation marinates the soul in Scripture — the Word permeates the inner man until its flavor breaks through into every part of life.

Well, when that piece of food is being marinated, it is being permeated by that element in which it's marinated. Until that element of foodstuff bursts through and permeates and flavors that entire food stuff. So the word of God is to be the source, the object of our meditation. The word of God in general, Joshua 1a, this book of the law in its entirety shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt mumble therein day and night.

21:29 - 22:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Meditation is the stomach of the process of spiritual digestion.

Reading and hearing are like the mouth and esophagus, but meditation is the stomach where the food is broken down and assimilated. Skip meditation and you starve.

Meditation is the stomach of the process of spiritual digestion. it. Now think for a moment, what function does your stomach have? Well, whatever function it has, it follows the function of the mouth and the teeth and the esophagus. It's into the mouth that the food is received. It's by the teeth that it's too masticated. Then by the action of the muscles in the esophagus it is swallowed. Then the stomach goes to work on it. Goes to work on it with a view to breaking down that food in order that the body might assimilate it and therefore experience the strengthening, invigorating,

29:44 - 30:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Take fifteen to thirty minutes Sunday afternoon to ask: 'What is my hope or crown of rejoicing? In what have I placed my expectation?' — and search your life by Scripture.

Martin recounts a pastor in Sunday school posing the question 'what is your hope or crown of rejoicing?' — and the answer cannot come without meditation on 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20.

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy. And the pastor made several applications of that principle.

39:16 - 39:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Make residency of God's Word in your heart by meditation the means by which God shapes your reflexes — don't expect the obedience of the will without it.

Truth in the heart is like sediment at the bottom of a bottle — meditation pours and shakes it until the sediment swirls into the main current of thought and shapes reflex action.

So what you do is pour that out and then shake the thing up a little bit. You get that sediment stirred up from the bottom until it's floating in the mainstream of things at the top. And then you've got good iron juice. Well, you see, the truth of Scripture has a tendency, because of the remains of corruption within, to continually settle to the bottom of the heart and the mind.

44:33 - 44:54 Read in full sermon

Hearing a sermon is like exposing film to light, but if you don't fix it through meditation the impression fades. Many photographs (sermons) are taken and lost.

to change the figure we might take the illustration of a fellow who's taking some pictures and develops his own pictures and he goes out here and sees a beautiful scene and he takes his camera and he clicks it and that little lens that's there the shutter behind it opens for a little bit and passes, clicks over light has gone onto the film well does he have that beautiful sunset or doesn't he? well he really doesn't have it he does but he doesn't because if you open this camera and let some light in, it's gone just like that. But if he takes that film and goes into the darkroom and immerses it...

45:34 - 46:22 Read in full sermon

Spurgeon's image (which Martin reads): visitors galloping past hundreds of paintings remember nothing but the walls; the true student selects one picture, sits, studies, and is transformed.

Convictions scarce. Then he uses this beautiful analogy. Go to the academy in any of the summer months and see how the crowds gallop around the galleries. That is, an art academy.

48:19 - 48:28 Read in full sermon

The point: If you find no inclination to meditate, examine whether you are truly born of the Spirit — spiritual things are foolishness to the natural man.

Martin confesses he used to read just two verses (Psalm 117) so he could say he had read 'his chapter' — reading without delight, reading without meditation.

For about ten years, this was my big problem. I read and knew enough of the Bible and heard enough sermons preached to know that Christians read the Bible. And so I tried my best to read it. And I think I've mentioned this on one or two other occasions.

53:32 - 53:45 Read in full sermon