Necessity, Time, Place

The Disruption of Summer and the Need for Structure

0:01 What I want to do this morning, and you will notice that there is some continuity in the exposition as you return to Ephesians in the following hour. The fall is always a regrouping time. The summer months, as all of you are aware, are very disruptive. Many of you go to different places.

0:19 Some of you who are sort of vagabonds as students. You're home, you're at a place of work. Some of you at camp, others of us running hither and yon in vacations, visiting relatives. And most of us, most of us lose ground in what we might call the basic disciplines of godliness when our normal schedule of life is disrupted.

0:39 Now, if there's anyone here who finds that a disrupted schedule contributes to godliness, please see me afterward and give me your secret. And I think if we could embody it in a book, and it could be demonstrated to be valid, we'll make you a millionaire in the midst of a declining economy. Most of us, most of us...

0:58 suffer in the disciplines of practical godliness when there is a disruption of the normal schedule. Now, the first thing I want to do is address myself to the question, why is this so? Why do most of us prosper more spiritually in a normal structured schedule than in a disrupted, topsy-turvy schedule? I want us to establish a principle, and then from there, we're going to move into an area of practical godliness, and seek to derive some principles from the word of God.

Man as an Image-Bearer of an Orderly God

1:32 All right, let me throw the question out. This is a forum, and a forum, I looked it up in the dictionary, is a meeting place for the discussion of specific issues. Generally, you think of it of political issues, if you think of the forums of ancient Greece and of Rome, but we're thinking in terms, of course, of biblical issues. Why is it that the average human being functions more efficiently in a structured schedule than in a disrupted, non-structured schedule of life?

1:59 Is that just an accident? Why is it that that is so? Would you all agree that it's so? Let me, first of all, get a consensus.

2:07 All right, now, why is it so? Ms. Jean, man is a creature of habit. So, this is just something that we accrue to ourselves in the evolutionary process?

2:23 It's just a phenomenon? No, you're not saying that. Oh, all right. Then we want something a little more substantial than the fact that man is a creature of habit.

2:33 Brown? I think maybe a parallel question would be, or maybe we ought to establish the hypothesis that this is thought not to be so, even though it is so. The fact that it is doesn't mean it's a proper norm in Christian life. I think we should be thinking in this sense and in the lives of the Savior himself and Paul, at least, that they maintain their close, personal, devout life even in spite of the disrupted schedule.

3:02 But maybe we ought to be looking in terms of where is the flaw in our nature that's causing us to be alive? That you have assumed, you see, that Paul and our Lord had what we would call a non-structured schedule and I'm not so sure that that can be assumed. They had, they had certainly what we might call a nomadic life. But I think there are clear indications that structured into that nomadic life there was great discipline.

3:28 For instance, a great while before day, Jesus was prayed. We read in Luke, I mean in John chapter 18, that Jesus oft-times thoughteth thither with his disciples. So that I don't know if I buy the premise that lies behind what you've said. Would you agree that maybe you're assuming too much there?

3:46 In other words, the fact that a person is in a different geographical location five times in a month does not mean that he is not living a structured life. Alright, we're coming at the question now. Why is it that most of us operate more efficiently within a structured existence as opposed to a non-structured? Yes, sir. Yes.

4:11 Your first name is? Ken. Alright.

4:32 Alright, so let's at least establish this from your answer that it has something to do with the kind of God who has made us and whom we serve. Alright, what is unique about man as man? What is the thing that makes you totally unique amongst all of God's creation? You're a what?

4:50 Alright, we're image-bearers of God. We reflect the whole likeness of God. Let us create man after our image and after our likeness. In the image of God created he them.

5:02 Him, male and female, created he them. Genesis 1 and verse 27. Now, when we consider God, is God a God of order? And structure?

5:12 As God sets out to do His work, does He do it by plan? Does He do it by structure? Does He do it by prearranged categories? Yes or no?

5:22 Yes. Alright. The whole matter of the biblical teaching concerning God's predestination, His foreordination, the fact that He works according to divine plan, the doctrine of the decrees, and then when we see God at work, particularly in the first couple of chapters of Genesis, we find that He's a God of order. The God of creation is the God of order.

5:44 And I believe, without getting into fine philosophical concepts and all the rest, that we can resolve the issue basically into this fundamental principle. You and I operate best in a structured schedule because we operate most efficiently when we are operating after the pattern of Him in whose image we have been made. We have been recreated in Christ Jesus, according to Ephesians 4, after the pattern of the God who has made us. That image was defaced in the fall, it is being restored in redemption. Now, if this is so, now you have a basis upon which to deal with everything in you that blocks against order and against structure. You see, if you think this is simply a matter of personality, some people operate better with a scheduled structure, some people operate otherwise. You see, you don't have a basis to deal with all those things in you that are the result of the fall that would make you non-structured and non-ordinary. Discord and chaos is the result of the fall.

6:51 God is not a God of confusion but a God of order. The Apostle Paul is able to use that principle when dealing with the necessity of structure in the church of God, even when there was the presence of these unusual temporary gifts of the Spirit. Even when the Spirit of God was working in apostolic times, in strange ways, with gifts of prophecies and tongues and the rest, Paul says, even when God is working in those strange and miraculous ways, he never contradicts himself as the God of what? The God of order.

7:25 Not a God of confusion, but a God of order. Therefore, he says, let all things be done decently and in order. And when someone says, oh, but Paul, the Spirit so comes upon me, I just can't help but break out whenever I feel like it. He says, wait a minute. The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, but God does not contradict his own essential nature. And if you say God is moving you to speak, God will move you to speak according to his own character, which is that of a God of order and not of confusion. Now, until you understand that, you won't have a basis upon which to deal brutally with those tendencies within your flesh that militate against order and against structure. You must recognize where these things come from.

The First Casualties of a Disrupted Schedule: Secret Prayer and Bible Reading

8:09 Alright, with that general background, now let us address ourselves to that which is the first thing to go when we get out of an ordered, structured way of life. What's the first thing to go in your life in terms of the practical disciplines of godliness when you get out of an ordered, structured existence? What's the first thing that suffers in your life? Now, this means confession. Not somebody else, but you. Paul? Prayer. What else? Alright.

8:40 Someone has said prayer, reading the scriptures. John? But when we get out of the structure, whether it's getting to bed too late or not getting up early enough, the first things that suffer are what? Personal assimilation of the word of God, personal seeking of the face of God. Now, how many would agree that that's true of you, as it was true of these two? Alright, now here we are. Total great diversity of backgrounds, personalities, nationalities, races, and all the rest. But isn't it interesting? We're all together.

9:19 Now, that being so, let me ask a question that's going to be very revealing. How many of you have had a relatively disrupted schedule over the past two or three months of the summer? Alright, if that's so, then I'm right in assuming that many of us have suffered in the area of secret prayer and reading of the word of God. Now, I won't ask you to raise your hand at that, so you've already backed yourself in the corner. There's no sense hitting a man when he's down. Like Tozer one time said, he said he doesn't spend his time fighting the modernist on the assumption that it's not fair. He has to shoot a dead horse. Alright?

Is Secret Devotion Necessary? Biblical Warrants

9:54 Now then, this being so, what I want to address ourselves to this morning is, to give a title to our study, it's Practical Matters Relative to Personal Habits of the Devotional Reading of the Word of God in Secret Prayer. In other words, the reestablishment of some structured discipline of the private means of grace. And I hope to gather the material that we'll cover around three questions. Because again, this is a forum. I don't want to lecture. It would be easy to do so. But I don't want to do that. I want it to be a forum.

10:28 I want you to enter in. And the three questions are these. Number one. Is such a disciplined arrangement of one's life so that there is time for secret Bible reading and prayer?

10:42 Is such necessary? Yes or no? And if so, why? And demonstrate your answer from the Word of God.

10:50 You see, we've suffered, many of us, from what we would call the legalistic requirements of a decadent evangelicalism. The list of the do's and the don'ts. A legalism that says if you don't do this, you aren't spiritual. If you do this, you are. Many of us have just thanked God again and again that by degrees he's been liberating us from the bondage of the legalism of fundamentalism. Well then, this matter of private prayer, private studying of the Word of God, is this just another one of those legalistic things that has been laid upon our consciences by the rule of men? Or does God himself lay upon us as a general principle the necessity of every believer who has the capacity to read of having structured into his life time for private prayer and for private meditation upon the Word of God? Is this necessary? Yes or no?

11:51 If so, why? And prove your answer from the Scripture. All right?

12:14 All right, so could you tell us in your own words what those verses teach and to what part of the question are they answering? To me that is a command of God to seek his face. The first one in Psalm 278 the Lord commanded to seek his face. All right, let's look at the passage. Psalm 27 and the verse. All right. When thou saidst, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. All right.

12:50 Has God spoken to you, telling you to seek his face? This is David saying when God said to him, seek my face, David is saying, I said to thee, Lord, by thy face, Lord, will I seek. And has God spoken to you as he did to David telling you to seek him? I'm not just asking the question.

13:18 All right. Second Timothy. All right. Good. There is a correct warrant for applying God's dealings with David here. Are these God's peculiar dealings with David because of his special position as King of Israel or simply his dealings with him as a child of grace? All right. You see, certain things God said to David, you better not take to yourself.

13:40 He tells you to go out and kill the kings of the land that came. You better not go out with a sword saying, well, the Lord's told me because he told David. No. But certain things God directed David to do, he gave to him, not as a peculiarly appointed servant of God with a peculiar function, but simply as a child of God in a state of grace. And this would certainly be one of them. So this would be a passage from which we could see the atrophy of seeking the face of God. All right. And then the other one you mentioned?

14:10 All right. All right. The question is asked, how shall we increase in holiness? And the answer is by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Someone said, well, I do take heed to the word of God. I attend to all the public preaching and teaching of the word, and I find that I progress in holiness. Does this necessarily imply that I must have private times of assimilating the word of God?

14:48 All right. So even if a man is not reading the word of God privately, he must be meditating upon what he hears publicly if he's going to treasure it up in his heart. All right. So these would be two clear passages that demonstrate the necessity of the secret habits of prayer and reading, meditating upon the word of God, and something of the purpose of this.

15:08 Mainly our progress in sanctification. All right. Any other passages? Yes, Jane. And then we'll come to you.

15:14 All right. Acts 17 11 is an example of what we could call true spiritual nobility. These were more noble than they at Thessalonica in that they received the word with readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. So public exposure led to private investigation.

15:44 So again, if we're for no other reason than to study through what is publicly preached, here is indication if not of private, certainly of something more than the public ministry. Maybe they gathered in little groups. Because remember, not every believer had a scroll of the Old Testament. And we just pick up our Bibles and assume anybody who ever wanted to could pick up a Bible. That isn't true. It wasn't true for centuries. It's not true for millions in our own generation. So this was probably a matter of group exercise as they would, after the public meeting was dismissed. The leader of the synagogue would ask if he take the scrolls out and they would gather around and examine and trace things out.

16:24 But certainly the principle is there that where there is true spiritual nobility there will be this inquisitiveness, this desire to investigate further. All right? Grove?

17:34 Excuse me. Go ahead, Grove. I was going to say, if we could then interpret what you've said and put it in this category, is such a time necessary? And if so, why?

17:53 Your answer would be, such a time is necessary to keep our spiritual perspectives right. That we get out of whack and our problems fill the horizon. Can you think of a Psalm that speaks to that issue directly? Somebody looked out this way and everything was all botched up. He says, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Psalm 73. This is precisely the situation. In the same way with many of the Psalms. They begin on the base note.

18:20 The Psalmist is groveling in the dust. And they end up with a hallelujah chorus. And in between it was the vision of God and his covenant faithfulness that made all the difference. Circumstances weren't changed at all.

18:32 A messenger didn't come to the Psalmist, bang on his prayer closet and say, hey listen, those things that got you down are all changed. They were out there. When he came into the prayer closet, they were out there when he came out. But his whole perspective was changed.

18:46 So we could say a second reason is the necessity of keeping accurate spiritual perspectives. The first reason was our advancement in practical godliness. Alright?

Secret Prayer as an Assumption of the Kingdom

19:20 Yes, in the Sermon on the Mount, in which we have a delineation of the character and activities of the sons of the kingdom, that is the children of God, Christians, it's even more profound than a command. It's an assumption. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, the whole assumption being that there is no son or daughter of the kingdom who will not engage in secret prayer. Now if that's so, my friend, if you can go, not just a summer, but a winter and a fall and a spring, no secret prayer, you better seriously question whether or not you're a son or daughter of the kingdom.

19:56 The spirit of regeneration is the spirit of adoption, and the spirit of adoption is the spirit of prayer. We have sent forth the spirit into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. So the assumption that Mr. Brown has made, the passage he's brought before us is a very, very vital one in this whole area. Alright?

20:16 Any other passages that indicate the necessity? Yes. Okay. .

20:28 . . . .

20:38 . . . .

20:46 . . . .

20:54 . . . .

21:02 . . . .

21:10 . . . .

21:18 . . . .

21:26 . . . .

21:34 . . . .

21:48 . . . . .

21:59 . . . .

22:03 . . . .

22:07 . . . .

22:15 . . . .

22:21 . . . .

22:25 . . . .

22:29 . . faithful to God. So I would think that the meditation was made for you to be spiritually attuned to the readings of God, so that you would come to reason with the Lord, rather than, like you said, day and scene, rather than taking it in his own understanding, he sat before the Lord about God.

The Blessed Man and the Centrality of God's Word (Psalm 1 & 119)

22:56 All right, so one of the necessities, then, is for keeping the heart sensitive to the voice of God and to the will of God, and that God has somehow tied together sensitivity of heart and prayer and meditation upon the word of God, all right? And then I think Al, Al Stokes, didn't you have your hand raised? Yes.

23:19 Good, I was hoping somebody was going to bring it up. Thank you, Al. Okay, give it to us.

23:32 Very good. I mean, you can't omit the first psalm in any discussion upon this. The blessed man, the blessed woman is described negatively as the person, the man, the woman, or the miz, the miz, the miz, or the miz, who does not on the one hand allow himself to be molded by God. By this counsel that comes from the world. Now, does the world say, look, you're a no-man's land. Since you're a child of God, we're not going to try to influence you. We're not going to try to shape your thinking. We're not going to try to mold your perspectives. Since you're

24:30 a Christian and you've left our ranks, we're glad to have you gone. We won't exert any influence upon your mind, your spirit, or anything. Is that what the world says? Not at all. Not at all.

24:44 There is a vicious, a constant bombardment of the philosophy of the world upon our mind, upon our affections, our perspectives, everything. Now he says the blessed person is the one who does not succumb to that bombardment of mental, psychological, emotional, intellectual stimuli that comes from the world. No, no. But rather, and this will never be true unless the positive is true, you cannot be delivered from this simply by saying, I'll have none of this.

25:14 But rather, who walks or who meditates in the law of God day and night. In other words, it is only as the negative and the positive are found used in the man. And one will not be present without the other. This is essential if this is going to be true. The mind must be filled with something. It cannot exist in the vacuum. And therefore, the blessed man is that one who meditates in the law of God day and night, and that's impossible to do simply by exposure to the public means. It is the grace, even if a man could not read, it would be his prayerful assimilation of what he heard in public preaching that would be used of God in bringing him into the orbit of this description, meditating in the law of God day and night.

25:59 All right, and then you have this whole 119th psalm. That's the whole message of the 119th psalm. I'm going through it two verses at a time. This started last week, reading the new reprint of the great commentary on that psalm by Charles Bridges, author of the book The Christian Ministry. And what a blessing it has been to see this.

Unanimous Testimony of Church History and the Danger of Spiritual Death

26:15 To see again the centrality of the word of God in the whole process of sanctification. All right, so we have then these passages which one after another teach the necessity of the private disciplines of prayer and meditation. We have the explicit commands such in the one we found in Matthew 6, Ephesians 5, Luke 18, 1. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. 1 Thessalonians 5, pray without ceasing. Thirdly, we have the example of our Lord, and fourthly, and here I'll just lecture for a minute because I do want to cover more material. We have the unanimous testimony of the history of the church. The most useful servants of Christ, whether they were mothers, plowmen, or mighty preachers such as George Whitfield or Charles Spurgeon, were men and women who knew something of the disciplines of consistent, secret prayer and meditation upon the word of God. Now anything that has the unanimous consent and testimony of the history of the church must not be regarded

27:22 lightly. God is saying something. God is telling us something. God is pointing in a given direction.

27:32 And though God has used men whose theology was very defective in terms of our understanding of theology. In other words, God has mightily used some men who were consistent, articulate Arminians, evangelical Arminians such as John Wesley. God has used men who were consistent, articulate Arminians. So we have the first two verses of the book of John, and then we have the first two verses has used some people who were pretty crass, narrow-minded dispensationists. I mean they just felt there was no other approach to the scripture but the dispensation approach but God has wonderfully used them and we could give a string of names of men who have been used in our own generation. God has used some men who held views on the gifts of the spirit that we don't hold but one thing these people will have in common among others is their unusual permanence and their deep love for the word of God primarily as the textbook of their own sanctification not as their official manual for public ministry. So if any one of you sitting here today says well I'm really not convinced that there ought to be structured into my life sometime

28:37 even if it's but five minutes to begin in which I will meditate upon the word of God and seek the face of God privately. I say to you my friend if you'll not be convinced by this block of evidence nothing could convince you and the problem is you're probably dead in your trespasses and sins and that death is witnessed too in the fact that there is no hunger and appetite for the thing we're talking about. Alright? We've established then is such a discipline necessary?

Determining Time and Place for Devotions: Practical Principles

29:08 If so, and we've said yes why? And we've answered the why. Now then the second question how do we determine the place, the time, and what to do? How do we determine for ourselves time, place, and what to do? When to be alone to meditate and pray? Where to be alone to meditate and pray? And how to go about meditating and praying? Those are very elementary questions.

29:39 But do you know as someone who's supposed to be a mature Christian and in grace now for 22 years I still wrestle constantly with those questions. When? How? And what?

29:51 Alright? Let me throw the question out. How do we determine the time both in the cycle of the day, the 24 hours that all of us have, every day split up into 24 units? How to determine the place in the 24 hours morning, noon, night, evening and then how much in the 24 hours?

30:19 That's a pretty practical question, isn't it? And every one of us has to resolve that for ourselves because we're talking now about something that is structured. All the men here, increasingly few, not all, now I used to be able to say, oh I'll have to change the illustrations but a number of us still scrape our whiskers every morning. And most of us, most of us do so at a particular time of the day and we allot so much time for it.

30:44 Right? All you whisker scrapers. Right? It's true.

30:48 Sure it is. Most of us eat three meals a day. Some of us two, some of you put together what you snitch in between times is more like five. But anyway.

30:57 Most of us do that in terms of a specific time during the 24 hour schedule. 8 o'clock for breakfast and 7, 6.30 whatever it is, lunch, supper and we allot so much time for it. We're Europeans, we allot a lot more time for it.

31:12 An hour and a half to two hours for a meal. You have a great time. Some of us 15 minutes for lunch, 7 and a half minutes for breakfast and a half hour. But you see, these matters relative to our physical sustenance are structured into the 24 hour period.

31:26 So don't anybody cop out by saying, I have no time. You have as much time as everyone else does. 24 hours to every day. And if God lays this responsibility upon you, there are no conflicts in the will of God.

31:37 There is time in the schedule, you just haven't discovered it and blocked it out and guarded it according to the will of God. Alright? Let's address ourselves to the question then. How do we go about establishing the time?

31:49 What part of the day and how much?

31:53 It's yours. It's a forum. It's a Christian education forum. Rob?

31:59 Alright, you'd say for the time, one of the primary questions is it should be determined by the availability of quiet. Is that what you're saying, Rob?

32:23 Alright. Availability of quiet. Alright, Keith? The time when just physically you're really alert.

32:30 Alright? The time when you're most alert. Now, this being so, what does that tell us at the outset about setting a time?

32:41 Everybody's different. Now, beware of the person who says if you haven't talked to God before you talk to any man, you're not spiritual. You can't prove that from the Bible. Now, that's where legalism comes in.

32:53 That's where legalism comes in. Some people have rubbed their consciences raw because they couldn't pray at 6 o'clock in the morning. All they can do at 6 o'clock in the morning is look at themselves in the mirror and groan. And that's about all they're fit to do at 6 o'clock in the morning. That's all.

33:11 And then run away in horror.

33:14 Alright? So we must find the time when our minds, our spirits, our bodies. You pray and meditate with your body. You don't just pick your spirit out, push it into the prayer cloth and say, now spirit, meditate and pray.

33:26 We've got this hunk of flesh. We've got this to deal with. The whole person prays. The whole person meditates. Okay?

33:33 What else should determine then the specific time? Availability of a place of quiet? The matter of your own mental and physical alertness? What else?

33:43 Mr. Brown? Well, there are obvious external constraints in all of our lives. I can't pray at 9 o'clock.

33:47 I have to be alert. That's my normal schedule in my situation in life. Alright. Can we say then we'll be legitimate duties of life?

33:58 What about the woman who says to be spiritual and to pray at 7 o'clock every morning? So the baby's crying. He's got his diaper changed. He's hollering his head off at 7.

34:07 And she just says, sorry kid, this isn't my prayer time. Would that be glorifying God? Of course not. Of course not. Now that's a gross illustration of it, but it's amazing how people's consciences can get wrongly conditioned. Alright? The matter of the pressure of other legitimate duties. Notice I put legitimate duties. And here's where we rationalize. Legitimate duties. Okay? What else is going to determine when and how much time? Here?

34:33 I'm a child. You think I'm shopping, but there may be times when you either have to go maybe every other day in order to be mentally alert or you're going to have some days when you're going to struggle and you're not going to be timely dating by being physically alert. Alright. Alright.

34:52 Alright. So maybe we'll establish later on, should I pray only when I'm alert? Or is there some benefit from praying even if in the time that I'm normally alert, I'm not on a given day? You see?

35:06 So what we're not, we're not saying if you've allotted a time, maybe say a housewife finds that the kids are off to school and at nine o'clock in the morning is her best time to grab a half an hour before she enters into many of the other duties of the day. Or a man finds that when he comes home from work at night after he's had his supper and relaxed a bit, he's most alert from 7.30 to 8, whatever it is and he just slips off from family activities or whatever it would be. That does not mean that if that's his normal time and he comes to it on Tuesdays and particularly late or had a particularly difficult day that if he doesn't feel his best, he shouldn't pray. No, no. There can be other factors and we'll come to that. And you'll find generally speaking, most of us have found that if we come to that appointed time and many times feel dull unless there is unusual physical weariness before we're done, we're refreshed because it says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and there is an actual physical invigoration that comes. Alright, what other things then must determine our time? Availability of a quiet place, our mental and physical alertness, the legitimate demands of other duties, anything else?

Determining Duration: Spiritual State and Avoiding Legalism

36:07 No? Possibly. Possibly as far as concerning the duration of the time, is that part of the question? Yeah, the two can flow together.

36:14 Our own state of mind has been broken in our walk of time. There might be some, in fact there are some, myself included, that at this point in my life cannot pray for a protracted period like an hour or so. My mind will be wandering after a shorter period and so my own spiritual state will determine. Yes, one of the most wonderful things that ever happened to me when I was a young Christian, I realized my name was not George Muller.

36:43 My name was not Henry Martin or David Brainerd. Because when I read these men would pray for three or four hours, then I was going to pray for three or four hours. And after an hour I was done out. Now what do I do? I'm not spiritual.

36:55 I've only prayed an hour. Man, that's only one-fourth spiritual. That's not much progress. You laugh, but I took it seriously.

37:03 I read that these men of God got up at four in the mornings. You know what I did when I was a freshman in college? I'd go to sleep at ten or eleven, wake myself up at two o'clock and study and pray for two hours. And then go back to sleep for an hour or two, and then try to go to classes. I almost brought myself into a nervous breakdown, but I thought if I'm going to be spiritual, this is what I've got to do. Failing to realize this principle Mr. Brown has enunciated, our own spiritual state, our own present spiritual appetite, our measure of growth, all of these factors will enter in, as far as the amount of time. All right? Any other factors that should enter in?

37:36 On the other hand, you have to take it. You want to get what you take time to get and say, well, I'm new to Christian, so five minutes a day of reading the Word of the Prophet is not all I can handle. If you can go five minutes a day to that, that's all you get. Whereas if you go a little longer time to the Christ God, those things are why you stop it, particularly from the reading.

38:03 But now suppose a man really gives himself to five minutes out of genuine hunger for God. What's going to happen to him in a very short time? His appetite's going to increase, like a person who's been dieting and the stomach has shrunk, and they need to start stretching the stomach again, you see, and each time you force feed yourself a little bit, then you have that much more capacity normally. And if the person is doing it, again, not as a part of a legalistic do. See, that's the thing we want to avoid.

38:29 If you say, all right, every Christian who's a Christian reads his Bible at least sometimes, so I'll do my five minutes. No, no, that's entirely wrong perspective. I'm coming to meet God. At this juncture, I've never prayed before in my life. I've never framed my thoughts in prayer. And I think it's unrealistic to think that I could do that for more than five minutes. So, Lord, I'm going to start with praying for five minutes every day. And I'm going to start using maybe the Lord's Prayer as a guide. You know, I've advised some people this way, knowing that if there was life there, one long before that five minutes became ten, and the ten, fifteen, and the fifteen, a half an hour, and they took off, you see. Whereas if you said, now, if you're a Christian, you must establish habit. That scared them to death. Scared them to death.

39:12 Because they've never known this. Now, some of us who've come from a Christian background, who've had more influence, you see, these are all the variables. And this is why all the books that say, you must get up at a certain time, you must pray for so long, there's absolutely no biblical grounds for that kind of legalism. Neither is there any ground for someone to say, since there's no specific time, I don't need to have any. My friend, if you take that, that's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. That's resting the Scriptures to your own destruction. So you then, and I, and all of us together, we must ask these questions, and ask the questions with judgment day honesty. Lord, where in the schedule of my legitimate duties as a husband, a wife, a father, mother, teacher, worker, student, secretary, whatever my station in life is, Lord, what block of the 24 hours can I legitimately and realistically mark out where I can be in a place of relative quiet when I am reasonably alert, in order that I might meditate upon your word and seek your face. And then,

Guarding Devotional Time with Sanctified Viciousness

40:21 friend, having established that with judgment day honesty, then you must guard it with a holy and a sanctified viciousness. Now, that's putting words together you usually don't put together. Sanctified viciousness. But that's what you've got to do. You've got to guard that time with sanctified viciousness. Why was that the first thing that went in all of our lives during the disrupted schedule? At the summit. Why?

40:46 Because the devil knows that when we are weakened there, we are weakened everywhere. When we are strengthened there, we are strengthened everywhere. That's why the attack is there. That's the biggest battle that I fight to this day. As one doesn't have to put in his 40 hours a week at the shop like most of you men do. As one who lives of the gospel, the greatest battles I fight to this day are in this area of keeping and jealously guarding that time during the day. Those times during the day when in terms of my legitimate duties as a pastor, as a father, as a husband, as a shepherd of souls, I may give myself to secret prayer and private meditation upon the word of God. Alright?

41:36 We've established then such as necessary. If so, why? How to determine the time, the place? These are the principles that should guide us.

41:46 And let me conclude here before we move on to the third area. What do we actually do now that we've established the time, etc.? Remember this. Self-denial is the continual experience of the true Christian. If any man will come after me, Jesus said he must say no to himself, take up his cross daily. John Owen said something in volume 6 of his writings that I've never forgotten. He said, he who does not daily walk over the belly of his lusts makes no progress in grace.

42:21 If you do not daily walk over the belly of your lusts, you will not make progress in grace. That lust to just read the newspaper is so much easier than reading Paul. Paul is not easy to read. Peter even said so.

42:38 Our beloved brother Paul, in his epistles, has written things hard to be understood.

42:45 You don't read the book of Romans like you read the headlines. There's a chain of argument. You've got to think. You've got to meditate.

42:54 When you pray, you're coming into a peculiarly direct engagement of the devil and the powers of darkness. There's a sense in which we come from the rear lines to the front lines when we pray. We're always in the enemy's territory. Your adversary, the devil, goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

43:15 But we come from rear lines to front lines when we pray. And Paul puts the two things together in Ephesians 6. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. And he ends that whole section praying at all times. That's why he uses the terms of wrestling and persevering. We're in front lines engagement. And our flesh doesn't like that any more than a soldier, unless something is snapped, delights in front line combat in warfare. And so, dear fellow strugglers to Zion, we must, we must recognize the element of the necessity of self-denial.

43:49 This time that we've set apart is to be preserved. If during it, profit is to come to our souls. Mr. Brown, you were going to say something. Amen.

43:56 Sharing a verse that has often helped me in this area and brought me to my own mind, the importance of this very thing you're talking about, the first Corinthians chapter 9, verse 27 where Paul speaks about I buffet my body and make it my slave that it may bring into bondage lest I have to treat the others on my shelf that we come rejected. And that to me, when I was there in the morning, let's say, that's what I'm doing, and my arm goes off, when I reach over and turn it off and go back to sleep, I've not buffeted my body, I've not walked over the lowly in my life, but it's when I have to force myself to get out of that bed and get the water out of my face and get down to my study, that's the buffeting. And so in my mind, it's Paul speaking of you, that to enslave my body, that it will work for me in the progress of sanctification. Yes, that's the text I had listed right along here with Luke 9, 23. Yes, 1 Corinthians 9, 27. Alright, are we all convinced then? Yes, I'm

The Danger of Academic Bible Study and the Preacher's Pitfall

44:52 sorry, I'm sorry. Go ahead. In the Bible, we have a lot of restrictions. Are we supposed to set aside some sentences for our own self and meditate on them?

45:06 Well, does it have to be either or? Couldn't it be both?

45:13 See? For instance,

45:16 as a preacher, I'm involved in preparing sermons to preach to the people of God. Now, should I just make that the basis of my meditation? Or, should I also be reading the scriptures systematically for the feeding of my own soul elsewhere? Or should I simply read the word and pray and hope that when I stand on my feet Sunday morning, the Lord will give me what I should give to His people? Well, it's not either or, it's both, you see? So that when one is in Bible school, and this is one of the great dangers and one of the great evils of Bible school. Now, they're good things, but they're evils, and one of them is this. They're studying the scriptures in a way God never intended they should be studying.

45:52 Mainly, from a purely academic standpoint. God never gave His word simply to give us some facts about the children of Israel wandering around in the desert and being brought over, entertaining. The whole end of scripture is what? Our knowledge of God and our conformity to the image of Christ.

46:09 You see? So the great danger of Bible school is that you're studying the Bible in a detached way. You see? And your only salvation is going to be dealing with that Bible in a very intimate way in personal dealings with God in your own quiet time.

46:26 So that I would say to every Bible school student present, if it means the difference between an A and a B in the course, it need not, but if it does, maintain the secret discipline of meditation upon the word of God at any cost. I speak as one who went through four years of Bible school, who was in an administrative position in a Bible school, and I've seen more spiritual coldness and backsliding of heart in a Bible school than any other place on the face of the earth in a concentrated dose. For that simple reason, you learn to handle, and you'll hear people joking about the scripture, making puns on the Bible and verses, and all of this whiteness comes. Why?

47:05 Because you're not dealing with the word of God in a deeply religious sense. This is the voice of God to my heart. Isaiah 66, where God says in verse 2, To this man will I look, even to him who trembles at my word. Who trembles at my word. Who realizes in dealing with the scriptures, I'm dealing with God, the great God of heaven and earth. You see? Now, one of the things that will help you is maintaining secret, personal, private devotional exercises so that every morning, the word of God has come fresh to your own heart, not as the textbook you're studying to pass an exam, but as the book that shows you the face of your God and the glory of your Savior. You see it?

47:46 Does that answer the question? And the fellows and girls that I knew in my years of experience in Bible school, and the ones that I've observed in the years here, where we've had a number of the students from Northeastern, who've kept a freshness and a sobriety about the things of God, are those who've learned amidst all of the textbook dealings with the scripture, what it was to maintain secret, private devotional exercises with God. So it's absolutely essential, doubly essential, if you're in a Bible school situation. And the Bible school situation is just a little picture of the great danger of preachers. You see, and the reason most preachers have nothing to say is that they've long since given up the very thing we're talking about here. Now this may shock you, but this is just a plain, bald, naked fact. And I say it out of the experience of ministering at pastors' conferences many times every year over the past ten, twelve years. And the confession that comes from preacher after preacher when I ask them is that they've given up reading the scriptures devotional as a textbook for their own walk with God, and they're simply dealing with the Bible as the thing they analyze and exegete and outline to preach to others. You see?

What to Actually Do: Beginning with the Word and Praise

48:58 So as you pray for your elders, as you pray particularly for your teaching elders, you pray that God will help us never to forget these perspectives. I'm sure Pastor Blaise would say an Amen to everything I've said this morning in this regard. This is where the battles won or lost. Okay, we've got time to hurry on. We just have about five to seven minutes, and let's just begin, and then we'll pick it up here next week, God willing. Question number three, now what do you actually do? We've established both the necessity and the function of this discipline of secret prayer and meditation upon the word of God. Secondly, we've tried to give some principles as to when and how much time.

49:42 Notice we've not given rules. We've just given principles. Then you have to thrash the things out with God. Nobody can do it for you. Now the third thing is what do we actually do? Now, some of you go home today, and I hope you do this. This is one of the best things to do on your Sabbath days, is to reevaluate your whole life perspective. The day is coming.

50:02 When what the six days of the week signify are all going to be done. And we're going to enter the eternal Sabbath. That's why we ought to ask ourselves, what am I doing that has no reference to eternity, no reference to revealed duty in the light of the word of God? And for some of you who are sensitive of conscience, remember, every duty performed according to the revealed will of God has eternal significance.

50:24 So some of you men have to put in your forty and fifty hours a week, you say, what in the world does this have to do with eternity? My friend, if it's done in obedience to the word of God and providing for your family, done with all of your mind is unto Christ, that has eternal significance, whether you conceive specifically how. So don't you come under bondage and say, well, I've just got to give all this up and become a twentieth century monk. No, not at all.

50:47 But now you've set that time, what can you do? Here you come tomorrow morning at seven o'clock, and you've got twenty minutes you've worked into your schedule. You're determined, you're going to jealously guard it. Now, what do you do?

51:01 It's yours, what do you do? You have five minutes to begin to answer the question, what do you do? And for the sake of some organization to your answers, let's start first of all with what do you do with reference to the word, because the general principle is, it is best to begin with the word, which will direct your thoughts God-ward, which will direct your thoughts to duty and privilege and promise, and give you fuel for prayer. At this juncture, let me begin by saying, and maybe this will be the best way, and then you can think on the other and come prepared with some other things.

51:38 Your tools, then, ought to be your Bible, of course, but what other thing is a good tool to bring with you to your Bible? Huh? A hymn book. Why a hymn book?

51:49 Well, in regards to beginning with the word, I find it very helpful to begin to sing one of the psalms in the hymn book, or even one of the hymns that are just based on the Scripture, which then warms my voice and warms my heart, because they're written so devotionally. All right. And to give me a...

52:09 All right. So, the matter of the use of a hymn book. A use of a psalter. Now, a psalter is not something you sprinkle on your meat along with a cup.

52:17 That's a p-s-a-l-t-e-n. A psalter is a collection of the Psalms. I said that because some of you might not know and I didn't want you to think you'd come to your devotions with a salt shaker. You'd say, well, the preacher said that's what we're supposed to do.

52:35 All right. All right. So, the use of a hymn book. And here again, you see, is the essential matter of having some place where you can be quiet.

52:45 Now, of course, you shouldn't boom at the top of your lungs if the rest of the house is asleep, because certainly the Lord would have you be considerate of other people's rest, so that they'll be fresh when they come to their time of prayer, that you can sing soft little hymns of devotion, psalms of praise, of confession, that will help, as it were, to put oil upon all the wheels of praise and prayer and devotion. And God's people through the years have found it most helpful to bring as their equipment to their time alone with God a hymn book along with their violence. Now, again, we're not making rules here. You see, these are just general principles.

53:21 Some people, they find that unless they immediately go to prayer, they'll get too distracted. And they must pray for a while before they can turn to the scriptures to get their mind. Other people, I know Pastor Blaise finds it helpful to read a sermon before he does anything else, to get his mind going before he prays. I think you're still in the habit of doing that, aren't you? Reading a sermon.

53:41 Well, is that the right way to have the voice right for him? And that's not right for me. If I read the sermon, I'll end up probably getting so many ideas about the sermon and the rest that I couldn't bring myself to pray it. But occasionally I do.

53:53 I just feel so utterly dull that I just pull out a volume of Spurgeon or a volume of Flavel and read a sermon to get my own spirit engaged in the work of God. So again, there is latitude, there is liberty. These are just the general principles, but to help in the duty of praise, because praise is a part of our Christian duty. It's commanded in Psalm 100 to come before his presence with singing, the psalm that Grove mentioned, to enter into his courts with thanksgiving and into his gates with praise.

54:21 Our Lord said, after this manner pray ye, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We begin with the recognition of the greatness of God and the sanctity of his name, and here's where hymnody and psalmody give us great help in extolling and praising the name of God. In other words, the focus when you come to your devotions must not be yourself, it must be God. When thou saidst, seek ye my face, thy face Lord, my heart said, thy face Lord will I seek.

54:53 Not when thou saidst, come and ask for my gifts, thy gifts Lord I sought. Now there's a place for seeking God's gifts, but you see if you look upon the whole matter of the discipline of secret prayer and Bible reading as a little duty time, you've missed it. You must come with the perspective that God is central. I come to render to him his due, the morning sacrifice of praise. I come to give him the worship of my heart. I come to behold him, because it's only in seeing him that I see who I am. It's only as I behold him that I see my duty in its proper light. You see, the whole perspective must be God and not myself. And one of the curses again of the general perspective is, the quiet time is necessary for you to be a goody-goody Christian. You see, that's a self-centered perspective. The perspective must be God. Alright, our time is gone and I'm determined that we'll quit on time so that we don't have the confusion or people not able to get back up.

55:54 You give some thought now. With this God-centered perspective coming with your hymn book and your Bible, what do we do in the actual use of that time? And that will occupy our study for next week. Alright, let us pray.