Means of Our Spiritual Health: The Scriptures

Introduction: Back to the Basics and the Source of Spiritual Strength

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, January 12th, 1997, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 Now will you turn with me, please, to Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, the book of Ephesians, and follow as I read a very brief portion from the fifth chapter to turn the eyes of our minds in the direction of our meditation in the scriptures this morning. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15.

0:46 Ephesians 5 and verse 15. Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because...

1:06 Because the days are evil. Wherefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And now let us pray for God's grace to buy up this time, to seize the time allotted for preaching by the forelock, to gird up the loins of our minds, to put aside the folly that would cause our minds, to be impervious and indifferent to the truth, but that we may have the wisdom of this text that is committed to knowing what the will of the Lord is. Let us pray that God will help us to that end. Our Father, we thank you for this another Lord's Day and for the blessing of your gracious presence already with us, for many of us in the earlier hours, as we rose to seek your face and to look up into the face of our Savior, as you met with us in the previous hour and with the various children in their Sunday school classes, as our hearts have been drawn out in praise and worship, in intercession and supplication and thanksgiving.

2:31 And now, O Lord, as we turn to your word, we do indeed plead that we may redeem, this opportunity, that we may buy up this time and that all of our faculties will be fully engaged in the study of your word and that we may not be unwise, but those who are wise with that heavenly wisdom derived from the scriptures to know what your will is and having known it, give us grace to run in the way of your commandments. Bind the powers of darkness that would seek to distract and dull our minds and may your word run and have free course in this place this morning. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In our consideration of the scriptures last Lord's Day morning, the first Lord's Day of the new year, I asserted that the coming of a new year affords a most natural season to engage in the work of the Lord.

3:43 to engage in the work of the Lord. to engage in the work of the Lord. to engage in the work of the Lord. to engage in the work of the Lord.

3:43 to engage in the work of the Lord. to engage in the sanctifying discipline of serious reflection on such issues as the brevity of life, the patterns and priorities which have regulated and marked our life in the past, and the biblical principles which ought to shape and mold our lives as we anticipate the future. And therefore we began to consider a series of messages which I have entitled Back to the Future. Back to the Basics at the beginning of 1997.

4:19 And in developing this theme, my method will be to set before you several specific exhortations. Last Lord's Day, we took up the first of these, which was this. Consider afresh the exclusive source of your spiritual strength for the coming year. Consider afresh the exclusive source of your spiritual strength for the coming year.

4:52 And we opened up that exhortation under the headings of the necessity for this strength, the identity of this strength, and the methodology of this strength. And the bottom line of that entire exhortation can be summarized in two very simple well-known texts of Scripture. On the one hand, John 15, 5, in which our Lord says, Without me, apart from me, severed from me, you can do nothing. And that's not spiritual hyperbole.

5:31 That's reality. Severed from Him. Detached from Him. Apart from the life and grace and spiritual power that has its source, in Jesus Christ Himself, we can do nothing of any spiritual value.

5:53 And that text, coupled with Philippians 4, 13, I say, constitutes the heart of last week's meditation. There the Apostle says, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Or in Him, who is continually, inwardly, strengthening me. Would be a more literal, semi-paraphrastic exposition or translation of the original.

6:27 And so we consider together this very foundational and fundamental issue as we anticipate all of the responsibilities that we know will be our portion in the coming year. The many that we do not know, as we face those realities, consider afresh on the threshold of this new year, the exclusive source of your spiritual strength. It is Christ Himself. It is Christ alone.

7:00 It is the virtue of Christ communicated to us out of the reality of our union with Him and in the context of our communion with Him. By faith. Now today, we take up the second exhortation or encouragement as we go back to the basics at the beginning of 1997. And the second exhortation is this, following on very naturally from the first.

The Necessity for Appointed Means of Spiritual Health

7:33 Consider afresh the appointed means for your spiritual health in the coming year. We must pray. We must pray. not only consider afresh the exclusive source of our spiritual strength for the coming year but we must consider afresh the appointed means for our spiritual health for the coming year now in opening up this exhortation we will examine first of all the necessity for the use of these means the necessity for the use of these means if christ himself and christ alone is the ultimate and exclusive source of our spiritual strength and if union and communion with christ constitutes the method by which that strength is conveyed to us why even talk about the means of attaining and and and spiritual health should we not simply take up all of our minds with the exhortation

8:50 abide in me and i in you should we not simply and exclusively feed upon christ abide in christ trust in christ and let that be the beginning middle and end of our christian perspective and trust in christ and let that be the beginning middle and end of our christian perspective and our christian duty well the answer to the question why must we be concerned with such issues as the use of means for spiritual strength and health the answer to that question is simply this god in his sovereignty and wisdom has appointed means to function in this way the same god who has made of his son the sole repository of all spiritual strength is the god who has appointed means by which our spiritual health is to be maintained and just as we do not honor god if we look for ultimate spiritual strength in a source other than christ

Analogy: Physical Health and the Neglect of Means

10:08 we do not honor god if we neglect to understand and identify and employ the means which he has appointed for our spiritual health and it's so crucial that we grasp this that i'm going to take the time to try to establish it by means of an analogy and illustration that i think the youngest child among us should be able to grasp now my question as i see you to do that is this what is the ultimate source of good physical health for any one of us if you sit here this morning with soundness of mind and sufficient soundness of body as to make your way here to have mommy or daddy take you by the hand and lead you in from the parking lot or carry you in on their arm what is the ultimate source of your physical health and physical strength well if you know your bible at all you'll say that my good health in the present era is the manifestation office sovereign good pleasure of god you will gladly acknowledge that the all committee and also have your measure of good health is

11:30 well-uéself it was this recognition that cause john to expressing selfishly did indicate shHOA word he kinha soul When writing to a man named Gaius, he says in 3 John verse 2, Beloved, I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health as you prosper. You see the parallel between spiritual prosperity and physical prosperity. And John recognizes God is the author of both. That's why he prays.

12:13 He says, I pray that you will prosper and be in health. Why? Because God is the ultimate source and cause of good health. And if he does not will it, if he does not impart it by a combination of any number of factors, we will not have it.

12:35 It is for this reason that we can place under the broad rubric of James 1.17, of every good. And every perfect gift that comes down from above, from the Father of light, even the gift of good.

12:52 Back in Exodus chapter 4 and verse 11, God very clearly declares in that setting of his dealings with Moses that he is the one who causes blindness or deafness or any other physical impediment. My question, what's the ultimate source of good health? The answer is, if you know your Bible, is God himself in his sovereign good pleasure. However, while God is the ultimate source and cause of good health, what would you think of the person who said to you, well, since God is the ultimate source and cause of good health, and I want to honor God in that unique and exclusive prerogative that is his, I'm simply going to trust God to keep me healthy, just as healthy as his sovereignty and wisdom determine is best for me. Then, this person goes on to live in such a way as to demonstrate total indifference to these three couplets of realities. Total indifference to nutrition and diet. No consideration of what God has embedded in certain things, fruits and vegetables and meats and other foodstuffs.

14:20 What nutrients are there? What nutrients are needed for good health? Total indifference to caloric intake. Total indifference to fat grams, to fiber.

14:32 Total indifference to all the principles of nutrition and diet. Yet this person says, God's the ultimate source of good health. I'm trusting God. I'm going to honor God's sovereignty and wisdom.

14:46 Totally indifferent to nutrition and diet. Secondly, totally indifferent to reasonable patterns of rest and exercise.

14:55 I'll sleep whenever I get the urge. I won't have any patterns of sleep. I won't have any fixed principles of seeking to ascertain how much sleep I need to function. God's the ultimate author of strength.

15:11 And therefore, I'm just trusting God. Indifference to both rest and exercise. In spite of all that is known about the beneficial effect, of reasonable cardiovascular exercise, the effects of it upon the strength of our bones, and upon the suspension, at least, of the process of osteoporosis and a host of other things that burden our physical health. Therefore, indifferent to nutrition and diet.

15:45 Indifferent to rest and exercise. And thirdly, utterly indifferent to the avoidance of unnecessary, debilitating, and degenerating, influences. Indifference to avoid unnecessary, debilitating, and degenerating, influences. This person goes to the bathroom and in personal hygiene never washes his hands from the bathroom to the table.

16:13 I pick up undesirable bacteria in matters of personal hygiene. God will take care of me. He goes out and buys his camels, unfiltered, and smokes two packs a day, in spite of all that's been said about this. But the direct link between tobacco and a host of physical maladies.

16:35 On Saturday, he's replacing some sheetrock and some insulation in his attic. He doesn't wear a mask when he's messing around with fiberglass. Ingesting small particles of this by the lungful. He doesn't protect himself with protective glasses when he's out with a chainsaw and chips are filing.

17:00 Why? He knows God is the ultimate source of good health. He's trusted. And he wants to honor the sovereignty and the wisdom of God.

17:13 Now, I want to ask you. You say, Pastor, you've made your point. Get off it. Well, don't be impatient with me.

17:19 I hope I've earned a little credibility that I'm not a fool. And if I sit to park on something long enough to embed it so deeply that you've got to be perverse to dig it out, I've got a reason. Okay? And I'm a steward of every moment.

17:34 Of my time and yours. And I rarely take this much time to do something that is an illustration to establish it. I've got good and wise reasons for doing what I'm doing. Now, listen to me.

17:46 Listen to me. What would you kids say if you met this character? You asked him. Who is the source of good health?

17:55 Well, God is. You're trusting God. Trusting God. Yeah, but look.

17:59 Such erratic patterns. You have no concern for a balanced diet. You have no concern for caloric. You have no concern for caloric intake.

18:07 You have no concern for vitamins, minerals. How in the world can you do that? And it's evident you have no concern about established patterns of rest and exercise and avoiding debilitating and degenerating influences that are not necessary to your life. What would you say about this person?

18:26 Well, if you're old enough to think through the issue, you'd say he's guilty of at least one of three things. He's either, number one, inexcusably ignorant of the fact that the God who has appointed certain ends has also appointed means to that end. This person at best is inexcusably ignorant of that fundamental principle that if a sovereign wise God has appointed that he should have reasonably good health, that God has appointed the means for the attainment and the maintenance of that health and that includes, at a minimum, a reasonable knowledge and concern for nutrition and diet, for rest and exercise, and the avoidance of all unnecessary debilitating and degenerating influences. At best, he is manifesting inexcusable ignorance. And may I say, by way of an aside, some of you are doing that in that very area of your physical well-being and therefore you are not eating and drinking to the glory of God. Because with all the stuff available in our day of responsible literature and instruction in this area,

19:55 it's inexcusable ignorance and you are not glorifying God in your body, which is His, 1 Corinthians 6.20. So it would be inexcusable ignorance in the physical realm. Second thing it might be that's not quite so nice, it would be gross, shameless presumption.

20:16 The man to say, God's the author of good health, I'm trusting God, and is indifferent to the means, though he knows the God who ordains certain ends ordains the means, in his case, it would be gross, shameless presumption. And you see, presumption, presuming that God will secure a certain end, while being indifferent to those means, that's a shameful sin. David prayed, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. The sin of presumption is a form of breaking the commandment, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. But then thirdly, and this would be the worst thing it could be, it could be a wicked shifting of the blame for his ill health on God Himself. He's setting himself up in an equation that if his health, it leaves, he can say, oh well, I was trusting in a sovereign wise God who's the ultimate source of good health, and though I was indifferent to these means, God's the ultimate source,

21:36 and just as I would not in any way cast any shadows upon that reality, now I will cast no shadows upon myself. For my folly, I'll give God all the credit for this. In other words, he shifts to God the blame for reaping the fruit of his own folly and stupidity. You say, now Pastor, you've taken a full ten minutes to make your point.

Applying the Analogy to Spiritual Health and God's Appointed Means

21:59 Why? In precisely the same way, while Christ is the ultimate and true source of our spiritual strength, that is not a pious notion, that is not a devotion, that is not a devotional overstatement in some kind of sanctified ruse. That is reality. Without Him, we are nothing.

22:29 We are complete. And do all things through Him who strengthens us. But side by side with that reality is the truth that God has sovereignly, wisely appointed specific means by which the fullness of grace and power that reside in Christ shall be conveyed to us. And therefore, any call to go back to the basics that is biblical and that is balanced must not only call us back to the recognition that in Christ and in Christ alone is to be found the source of our spiritual strength, but it must be a call that brings us back to consider afresh the appointed means for our spiritual health. As surely as there will be dire consequences for the person who says, yes, physical health is ultimately found in the sovereign will and good pleasure of God, but is indifferent to nutrition, diet, rest and exercise, the avoidance of these negative influences,

23:55 he will suffer for it, so will the child of God, so will the child of God who is indifferent to God's appointed means. To state it rather ridiculously, if God had appointed moonbeams and chirping crickets and crystals and chanting of mantras for physical health, then I would be the first to get out a chart, the farmer's almanac, find out when the full moons come up in the coming year, and seek to persuade my fellow elders to have all of Trinity Church engaged in a corporate exercise of moon watching down by a lake somewhere where we could really get the moonbeams directly on our eyeballs and reflecting off the shimmering lake while we listen to crickets in the background. Now, I don't mean to be a referent. If God had appointed moonbeams and chirping crickets to make you a healthy person, they would work. But why would...

24:54 ...whose absorbed religion...

25:03 ...moon chirping of crickets is the secret to health.

25:17 You can go out and watch the moonbeams till your eyeballs drop into the water and listen to crickets till your eardrums drop into... who knows where eardrums drop into.

25:33 Moonbeams and cricket chirpings are never going to make you strong and healthy. Why? Because you're never appointed by God to that end. ...and hoping...

25:46 ...and getting a thousand people around convinced of your silly nonsense will not change reality.

25:54 Similarly... ...and sitting in the lowest position and chanting mantras... ...will not...

26:05 ...essential vitamins and minerals essential to good health...

26:12 ...and sitting in the lowest position will not work your ticker and expand...

26:17 ...and give you the benefit of some vigorous cardiovascular...

26:21 ...exercise.

26:23 Why won't the crystals and the mantras in the lowest position do it? All the claims notwithstanding because God never appointed crystals and mantras and I'm not going to get in the lowest position but you know what it is? He's never appointed it to accomplish that and if He's not appointed it it can accomplish it. Had God appointed it again be the biggest depository of crystals I'd be a crystal pusher and I'd be a mantra pusher and I'd be a yoga pusher but you see God has not appointed these things to that end.

27:07 So... ...having established what we did last week that Christ Christ Himself Christ alone is the ultimate the exclusive source of our spiritual strength Am I taking away with my left hand today what I gave with my right hand last week? God have mercy on me if I ever would attempt to do that but what I gave with the right hand rooted in my Bible I must now give the balancing truth with the left hand rooted in the same Bible or I dishonor both the God of the Bible and the Christ whom I sought to preach to you last week. Now at this point

Addressing Objections and the Balance of Christ-Centeredness and Means

27:56 I would not be surprised if there's some of you already beginning to build up a wall of defense because there is emerging in our day within some of our circles a preaching of Christ. We don't want so much preaching of duty we don't want so much preaching of detailed practical biblical casuistry telling us how to be good husbands good wives good children good workmen we want preaching of Christ. God help me I want to blast that thing with the Bible into a thousand pieces because as we shall see failure to preach the word of God is a failure to preach Christ who is the very essence and substance of the word written. So if somebody asks you when you leave this morning what did you learn in your study of the word of God I hope you could say I learned if nothing else that I must be concerned about the God appointed means for my spiritual health and if they said why you'd be able to answer because God

29:23 in his sovereignty and wisdom has appointed certain means to attain the end of spiritual health and it would be gross ignorance it would be wicked presumption it would be a wretched transferal of my own sin and failure to God unless I sought to understand those means to implement them in dependence upon the God who gave them that by means of them I might personally experience ever increasing measures of the grace and the power of Christ in my life. And at this stage in my Christian experience in preparation for this it struck me afresh how grievous it is to see on the one hand those who make a God of the means and are constantly taken up with the means appointed by God for our spiritual health but never seem to grow in heart devotion to the person of Christ in a sensitive evident use in communion and communion with Christ and in growing likeness to Christ and when you get around them there is something very wooden very plastic

30:50 very nerveless in their Christian experience and on the other hand those that cry up and speak up of their love to Christ and their devotion to Christ and their desire to sit under Christ filled Christ centered preaching but the strange thing is there is very little of the fragrance of Christ when you are around them. They are the ones that are always crying out I want more preaching of Christ but the very way they say it exudes a spirit contrary to the meekness and the gentleness of Christ and healthy piety and true spirit wrought godliness with its tap roots in the Bible is found where there is this visceral this deep this limited conviction Christ is my life Colossians 3 and verse 4 without him I can do nothing and the eyes of my soul in the language of Hebrews 12.2 are constantly looking off unto Jesus author and finisher or perfecter of faith while at the same time diligently prayerfully using every means appointed by God

32:17 for my spiritual health and any measure of that health that is known or recognized I instinctively and joyfully say I am what I am solely by the grace of God now I hope I have established that principle of the necessity for the use of these means now then we begin this morning and that's all we can do this morning heading number two having considered the necessity for the use of these means and that necessity resting upon the appointment of God to that end the identity of these means the identity of these means we ask the question what precisely are the major means appointed by God to promote our spiritual health as those three couplets are the major means to pursue responsibly physical health nutrition and diet rest and exercise the avoidance of unnecessary contact with and exposure to debilitating and degenerating things and I could have made a big long list well when we turn to the word of God we find God setting before us these means and the easiest thing for me as a preacher

Identifying the Categories of Spiritual Means

33:45 would be simply to line them up and go down through in the course of a couple of weeks and say one two three four and we'd end up with about ten of them and that would not be inaccurate but I don't believe it would be most helpful and what I want to do is to set before you the identity of these means in three broad categories now the Bible doesn't put them before us and say now here are the categories and put an asterisk by one and a double cross by others and a circle by the other like the footnotes in old books but I'm doing that as a teaching device granted some of them overlap some of them interpenetrate but the categories are very obvious ones I believe the distinctions are real they are not artificial and I hope this will be helpful and the three categories as we seek to identify those means appointed by God for our spiritual health are private means those that we engage in primarily as individuals those that we engage in personally I'm going to call those the private means of spiritual growth I'm not using the term means of grace if you write means of grace in your notes I didn't say it I haven't said it once God helping me I'm not going to say it through the whole series that's not easy but I've determined not to use that term because it has a much more limited narrow scope

35:12 in the history of theology and of confessions and of books on the Christian life we're talking about the means of our spiritual health we're going to consider category one the private means then we're going to consider the public means those that are primarily corporate or social those means we engage in not primarily alone but in concert with and in the company of others and then there are those that I'm calling the familial or the domestic means those that are not primarily individual or nor are they corporate in terms of the life of the church but those that are not but they cluster around the family even as our minds were directed to the family this morning in our opening song now in addressing these things I cannot be exhaustive and for some of you that will be frustrating why didn't he mention this one why didn't he mention that one I said this is going to be a brief series not a series taking us through all of 1997 alright and so I'm deliberately being selective and in that selectivity I'm very conscious and here I'm bearing my heart I want to take you inside what goes on in the heart of a pastor preacher when he sits at his desk and he prays and he thinks we have new believers here who've never heard a series of messages on the most elementary disciplines by which spiritual health is attained and maintained

36:41 they need to be instructed because the Lord Jesus says to Peter not only are you to shepherd and to feed my sheep but he said you're to feed my lambs we've got some lambs and if I'm to be like the Lord Jesus who deals gently with those that are with young and carries the lambs in his bosom I have got to go back to some of these elementary things and if you sit there saying oh you mean we're going to sit here Sunday morning hear about Bible reading and prayer one of two or two things are rankling around in your soul that you better deal with number one you either are so totally self-centered that you don't give a hoot about the ones that are very precious to Christ his little lambs you've got your nose stuck in your own navel and say oh that's just not so relevant to me that's old stuff what about those for whom it's all new can't you rejoice with them that they are getting stuff that will help them on the threshold of their Christian life but secondly and this to me is far more likely your problem you're pathetically ignorant of your true spiritual self than your state because if you really knew your state you know that your spiritual life is won or lost in the trenches of the basics and I have never heard the most elementary sermon on reading my Bible and praying at my most so-called mature period

38:11 of Christian life but what I have rejoiced and thank God for a man who loved me enough to do me good where I needed it so get off your high horse of thinking you're a fool or above the mundane God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble and acknowledge that you need to hear again these very elementary issues to the end that you might be more established in them that you might be a living monument of one who is in a healthy state because the means appointed by God are not only clearly understood by you but are being consistently and by the power of the Spirit efficaciously operative in your life all right what are those private means appointed by God for the maintenance of spiritual health time permitting I'm going to give you a flyover of the most fundamental four of them not giving you a list of ten, twelve here they are first the disciplined assimilation of the Bible secondly the habitual engagement in secret prayer thirdly the careful maintenance of a good conscience and fourth the submissive enlightened embrace

Private Means: The Disciplined Assimilation of the Bible (Psalm 1)

39:35 of God's loving chastisement and if by God's grace those four means are understood and brought into place with reasonable consistency in your life by the blessing of God you will know and evident measures of the very strength and virtue of Christ in your life in the coming year such as you've never known before first the disciplined assimilation of the Bible now note I did not say occasional assimilation of the Bible I said disciplined assimilation of the Bible that is an assimilation of the Bible that comes in the framework where there is discipline in the aloe to be exposed just as there has to be a disciplined interaction with nutrition and diet rest and exercise and some of you are living proofs of what happens when you deal with those things with no discipline

40:56 your red bear Bible there is a spiritual there is the I didn't say disciplined reading of the Bible you can read your Bible and back and end up looking like a Samson a Solomon or worse yet even a Judas

42:09 it must be disciplined assimilation of the Bible I'm going to demonstrate all this from the scriptures but I want you to know why these words were chosen words are fascinating things they are to convey realities assimilation when you assimilate something what happens you absorb it it incorporates your food when you eat it and it is assimilated it becomes a part of you assimilation of the Bible not mere reading not mere exposure but assimilation of the Bible that is within the lids of this book that begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation a disciplined assimilation of the Bible now why do I say that that is a private means appointed by God for the maintenance of spiritual health now I want you to open your Bible and look with me at just three witnesses here again you see any one of these things we could open up and literally not hyperbole now literally bring dozens of texts to bear but I bring just the two or three witnesses that should be sufficient according to the biblical rule Psalm 1 familiar to most all of you we heard of the man who hears always the blessing of God upon him in Psalm 128

43:38 here the blessed man the happy man the one who is living under the shalom the blessing the covenant blessing of God how is he described the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked he doesn't frame his life by the advice of wicked people nor does he stand in the way of sinners he has detached from the course that is manifested in those who do not acknowledge God as their God their Christ the ways and word and will and law of God is the law of life nor does he sit in the seat of scoffers he's been crucified in the place of a skull he realizes his brain was never given to be the originator and determiner of truth but to be the receptability of the truth which God has revealed he doesn't profess himself to be wise and thereby make himself a fool as we heard in the previous hour he doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers that's what he doesn't do but what does he do but his is in the law and that term law of Jehovah sometimes means one thing sometimes another and one of its meanings throughout the scripture particularly in the Psalms in a very heightened sense in Psalm 119

45:07 it speaks of the moral not just the mosaic revelation of statutes and judgments but the entire constant companion he is geography it's warning Jehovah whatever in the corpus is biblical he'll that's why David could say over by them is thy sent war and in the keeping of them there is great reward he wasn't intimidated by the threatenings he loves the promises he loves the threatenings he loves its history the works of the Lord are sought out of all those that have pleasure therein he is never bored when he reads

46:36 the history of God's in the science of time his mighty works in the scope history he loves the Bible all of the time that's the picture the light is in the law of the Lord and on his law does he meditate day and then the fruit of that is described in the following passages he shall be like a tree whatsoever he does shall prosper do you see why I've said that the disciplined assimilation of the Bible is a private means appointed by maintenance of spiritual health would you be like a tree planted by streams of water that even though the rains may not come its root system is continually receiving nourishment our health and even when the season for fruit is not there you know it's alive and flourished because it's leaf when you see a tree with lush green leaves in a dry season you say either it's a fake tree or its roots are getting moisture from a source it's a

Private Means: The Disciplined Assimilation of the Bible (Christ's Example)

48:06 dead tree it's a weak tree it's a thin tree it's not it's a weak tree at all it's not it's not a tree that will sustain you in your sensation which is like God but in reality it's not a tree but a plant that is of the fowl arch fiend of hell himself who can imagine the agony this must have been to the pure holy soul of the Son of God to even have suggested to him that he would follow the steps of the first Adam who succumbed to the tempter he the second Adam who came to crush the serpent's head is now face to face with him forty days tempted of the devil Matthew 4 and verse 1 and toward the end of that time as you know there are these three concentrated assaults upon our Lord and whatever we may say about them it is clear that in his response to each one our Lord takes his stand not upon anything in himself but upon the

49:32 objective revelation of the will of God in the Old Testament scriptures and with reference to that first temptation since you are the Son of God since you are God's beloved one and in the light of the fact that you know and I Jesus you are your stomach is playing a tune on your backbone you're burping and all of your gastric juices are flowing and not your feeling since you are God's son surely since he spoke out of heaven just a short time before when you were baptized and said this is my son my beloved in whom my soul delights you surely surely a little barley loaf would not be outside the will of your loving father since you are his son since you are the darling of his heart and since you are God's son not only in the sense of this relationship of filial love and paternal delight but God's Son in that you share the very essence of the divine nature you are God's son and you are God's son and since you spoke worlds into being you are the one who spoke me into being surely you can take one of those little round stones that looks like a barley loaf and

50:57 speak it into a little loaf that will at least be an appetizer till you can get back to some home of someone that loves you and worships you and believes that you are what you claim to be and gives you a sumptuous meal begins by degrees to break your fast. The end. Fast and bring you back to strength. Surely, if you are the Son of God, command that one of these stones be made bread.

51:23 Notice, command that these stones become bread. It all seems so reasonable. He could attest before the devil. He was exactly who the devil says, since you are Son of God.

51:37 Demonstrate it. Demonstrate the relationship between you and your father to be what he said it was. Surely, if you have a father who wouldn't let you do such an innocent thing as turn a stone into bread when you're hungry, then maybe he doesn't love you and delight in you the way he said. And surely, if you are God the Son, this is no big deal for you to turn a stone into bread.

51:59 Do you see what's all packed into this? How does Jesus, how does Jesus quench this fiery dart from the wicked one? Look at it. He didn't have to go scurrying about.

52:10 He wasn't thrown into any confusion. But he asked for written. It's my father's spoken.

52:31 Man will not live by bread. Man's life does not consist in the mere sustenance of physical strength and nourishment by food. But proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now see the connection.

52:56 It stands written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What word is proceeding out of the mouth of God to Jesus in that setting? It was the word that stood written, had stood for hundreds of years.

53:15 And there he takes his stand. And how could he do this? Because in his human mind, the process of many years had undergone a discipline of assimilating his Bible.

53:33 That's right. He did not as an internal mental and psychological mouse and point the finger to the. He was able to draw up mental faculties, his Bible that had been assimilated by the very same means with which you must assimilate it.

54:25 And in that setting, he was ready at his Bible to foil the tempter because he had used the means appointed by God for his spiritual strength. I say it reverently. Christ, who is the. Source of all of our strength, couldn't stand in his own strength apart from this means of the word of God.

54:53 Do you see it?

54:55 I can't read you till you see it.

55:00 You see the wonder of his really taking our place. He's no phantom human being. He didn't get a given point. Just some internal psychological mouse and say, all right, I'll reach in by my omniscient divine mind.

55:16 He had to learn by reading it, memorize, meditating. Oh, and I wonder how many times Mary was his listener. Mommy, I think I've got all ten commandments. Now, will you listen to me?

55:51 And the delight of her heart is Jesus sat upon her knee and looked up into her face and maybe Mary had to say, well, Jesus, no, no, no, you left out a word. You see, for him to have left out a word the first time he tried, that wouldn't have been sin. That would have been one of the elements of his real development into it, misquoted it or misused it as an. Adult male and a recognized, divinely anointed teacher would have been utterly irresponsible.

56:24 And how do you get it?

56:26 This disciplined assimilation of his Bible is that, Pastor, you've argued from reason all the rest. But can you prove it? Chapter and verse? I think I can.

Private Means: The Disciplined Assimilation of the Bible (Isaiah 50 & Colossians 3)

56:40 You'll turn with me to one of the servant passages in the book of the prophecy of Isaiah, the book of the prophecy of Isaiah.

56:53 And here. The. Servant of Jehovah, which is none other than the Lord Jesus in Isaiah 50 and verse for the Lord. Jehovah has given me the tongue of them.

57:11 See what he say? Jehovah has given me the tongue taught to speak not off off the of my nose. That is one who has been the tongue of them that are taught that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary and how the. Lord.

57:36 Will forgive it to the servant of Jehovah that he dump it down into him in one big bundle of infinite knowledge of his own word. Next part of the text, he wakeneth morning by.

58:22 And that's why I have sympathy for the wretched piety that says I can feed upon the son of God. I do not take kindly to your blasphemous claims. I find them revolting.

58:48 I find them disgusting to see the one. Who is the author of sitting at the feet of scripture morning by morning, how to speak as one who has been a third tech, and it's obvious I'm not going to get beyond this first means and brethren, frankly, I don't care if I seem a little pugnacious, forgive me. If you understood what's going on in my soul at a pastoral level, I don't want to be carnally pugnacious. God, forgive me if there's any of that in my spirit, I don't believe there is, but there are things that pastor goes through. You know nothing about, but if he's earned any credibility as a safe guy, trust him. Even when you can't understand what he's going through, we get no further than this principle.

59:49 And some of you go home today saying, God, I see it and I'm determined to 16 amazing texts.

60:30 Colossians chapter three and verse 16. Here's an imperative. Let the word of Christ, not occasionally filter. Through your eyes or obliquely bounce off your mind day by day.

60:53 No, let the word of Christ. It's a beautiful compound word in the original dwell that not own rich responsibility. How can the word of Christ dwell in me at all? If there's no disciplined exposure to it, how can it dwell in?

61:33 There is no discipline assimilation. And the word of Christ is none other than the whole. Of scripture for Peter says it was the spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets speaking of his coming sufferings and the glory that would follow. It was the spirit of Christ in them.

61:53 The word of Christ is all of inscripturated data. And in the parallel passage in Ephesians five, it's very interesting. Paul says, they're not let the word of Christ dwell in you. Richard, maybe he says, but be ye being filled with the spirit speaking.

62:10 One. Two. One other in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Bring the two together.

62:13 And what do you have? There is no valid biblical being being filled apart from the word of Christ dwelling in us, because as we saw last week, it is the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit who takes of the fullness of grace in Christ and conveys it in the divine enablement, which we so desperately need. And what is the connection? The connection between the Holy Spirit who conveys the virtue and power of Christ and the word of Ephesians five, 18 and Colossians three, 16 gives us the pointer to the answer that the word of Christ dwell in you richly be ye being filled with the spirit. I am as full of the spirit as I am of the word of Christ.

63:12 And if I need to be filled with the spirit in order to have the strength of the spirit being in the power of his might, strengthened with all might. By spirit must be fed of Christ must dwell.

Application: Disciplined Assimilation and Implementation

63:35 And there is no way apart from a disciplined assimilation of our Bibles. A final application, and that's as far as we'll get this morning without discarding the particulars of Bible reading plans, devotional help, such as Spurgeon's morning and evenings excerpts from Ryle and from Gurnall. I'm not here to pronounce any kind of rules. And regulations on the use and the abuse of all of these helps the bottom line is this, whatever your particular pattern may be, whether you have a Bible reading plan that takes you to the Bible once a year, once every two years, once every three years, whether you read from your Bible and Spurgeon's morning and evening excerpts from Ryle and Gurnall friends in those areas, I would never presume to make rules. I could give a few guidelines. I've done that in the past. But the bottom line is this.

64:35 Whatever you're doing, whatever tools you're using, is it resulting in this, a disciplined assimilation of your Bible?

64:45 If so, blessing.

64:50 If you're assimilating. I don't care if you're getting through your Bible every year. You got the Bible through a year and this is the third year you're going through it and you read religiously Spurgeon morning and evening and you read and you listen to tapes and all the rest. Are you assimilating it?

65:11 By meditation, by implementation.

65:17 I urge you to read through as I did in preparation. For this sermon, I did a speed reading through Psalm 119 and I was amazed again how many verses deal with implementation as a vital part of getting a handle upon the word where the psalmist prayed that God would impart that he might run commandments of God. He says, I made haste and delayed not to observe the statutes. You see, you will never assimilate the word unless having read it, meditated upon it.

65:50 You implement it because once there is illumination and there. Is no implementation. You've got a controversy with God and then is DL Moody said in that cryptic statement, this book will either keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book and if God gives you any impressed from his word that you don't implement, now you've got a controversy with God and what happens, you begin to have a distaste for your Bible. It's inevitable.

66:14 That's why some of you have no hunger for your Bible. You've got such a sink full of unresolved sin in your heart. You know, you get close to your Bible. You're going to have to start taking the shovel.

66:26 And get that garbage out. You know, the smoke not more. I'm so busy. I'm so was the son of God busy.

66:36 Did you have people coming to your door till late at night to be healed and instructed?

66:44 If the Bible says a great while before day, he went out in a desert place and there prayed.

66:51 No, you're not too busy. That's why I say I'm not making rules, telling a mother of three little kids with all different kinds of schedules. You better have your hour of your quiet time from seven to eight a year. You'll never find.

Consequences of Neglect and Exhortation to Believers

67:03 That kind of legalistic bondage around here. But the bottom line is you better make time to assimilate your Bible. If you don't come to a specific message after we have demonstrated the necessity of these means considered the identity of those means we're going to look at the tragic consequences of the neglect of those means. But just to give a little idea of where we're going with that.

67:35 The neglect will result in no real communion with Christ. No ongoing conformity to Christ, little heart love for Christ, little reflection of likeness to Jesus. Little passion to speak of Jesus. My friend, we can't afford those tragic results.

67:57 And if Christ is to be magnified in this place and in this congregation by a people who say that they are United to him as branches to the vine who without him can do nothing but through him. Nothing but through him. him can do all then we must be committed with renewed determination on the threshold of this new year to embrace the book that god has appointed certain means for us those means is to be guilty either of gross ignorance of wicked presumption or of a tragic transferal of our own sin and guilt and failure to god himself may the lord help us to determine on this lord's day starting this second lord's day of this new year to have dealings with god this afternoon in repenting of the sloppy undisciplined dealings with our bibles and say here is a reasonable framework and if it literally mean with a growling will get me back on track with getting on on out of bed when i need to get out of bed and doing what i must do that i by the grace of god

Call to Unbelievers: Take the Bible Seriously

69:22 am not going to presume that i have some strength my savior did not have he had his ear awakened every morning and by his grace mine too will be awakened and what about those of you who sit here this morning saying man oh man another hour of all that hollering and thumping and red in the neck my friend i pity you in your pathetically spiritual dead state if you felt no stirrings within saying oh god make me like jesus give me a passion to have my and until you begin to have a passion for god's truth in scripture you fit the description in psalm 119 and verse 155 and it's not at all a flattering description salvation is far from the wicked for they do not seek your status in the name of the holy spirit my friend as long as you're indifferent to this bible you're on your way to hell at a breakneck speed beginning to take the bible seriously won't put you in the kingdom but it certainly put you in

70:38 in the way to the kingdom the text says that salvation is not only something the wicked don't possess it's far they are not seeking thy statutes go home and humble yourself today and get your bible down and begin i say dare to begin to read it why don't you read it read it because you know it's going to point out your sin it's going to remind you of hell and judgment it's going to show you that your only hope is in christ and it's going to humble you it's going to tell you that your friends and the approval of men is nothing the smile of god in christ is all that matters oh my unconverted friend don't don't don't treat your never dying soul so lightly let's search the scriptures and cry to god to show you your state and show you the savior and don't keep crying and searching until you can say we have found him of whom moses and the prophets did speak what precious words we have found him of whom moses and the prophets did speak we thank you for your holy word we thank you for the presence and grace of your spirit

72:05 as we have sought to meditate upon and preach and apply that word and oh god we earnestly earnestly plead that you will enfold that word in every heart and that by your grace we may have a heightened conviction that there are appointed means divinely appointed means for our spiritual health and that we must engage in those means not as our saviors but as the conduits through which you will convey the very life and the very life of your life and your life and the power and grace of your beloved son oh lord seal this word to our hearts and help us to walk in its light we plead through christ our lord