Active Inquisitive Mind

Review: Systematic Reading and Dependence on the Spirit

0:02 Just briefly to review, we have established from the scriptures the necessity of the disciplines or the necessity for the disciplines of secret prayer and the reading of the word. From the scriptures we have sought to glean the principles that give us direction as to when and how much time should be given to these disciplines. And then we have concluded that the essential ingredients of this time that we meet with God alone are preparation of the whole person, the reading of the word of God, and the engagement of God in prayer. And then we've tried to glean from you some practical suggestions as to the elements involved in preparation, and we've had a number of suggestions, and I hope they are proving fruitful in your own devotion. And now we are presently focusing our attention upon the question, how should we read the word of God to our spiritual prophet? And in answer to that question, you have given as the first answer, the word of God must be read systematically. We must not come to the scriptures and treat it like some kind of a magical collection of little spiritual snippets, and just hope that by random selection something once in a while will pop up.

1:23 We must not come out and zap us, as we said last week, and give us direction or bless us. There must be some systematic exposure to the word of God, because Jesus said, Man shall live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. The psalmist could say, I esteem all of thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and therefore I hate every false way. And then we've concluded from our study of the scripture, we must not only read systematically, but we must read in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

2:00 We must learn what it is instinctively, as it were, with the cultivation of this spiritual instinct, to pray with the psalmist, open thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. And then I have tried to establish with you last week the very fundamental principle that follows at every point in the Christian life. The sun in your eyes, and that's distracting. That there is no contradiction between the most implicit dependence upon the Holy Spirit and the vigorous activity of our own minds.

2:41 We must constantly avoid the two great dangers that beset the Christian life. On the one hand, the danger of a cold rationalism, in which there is no dependence upon the Spirit. And on the other hand, a form of mysticism. That thinks dependence upon the Spirit means the neutralizing of our mental faculties and of our intellectual capacities.

3:04 So that we came to the conclusion, and this is where we left off last week, that coupled with reading of the Word of God in a spirit of dependence upon the Holy Spirit, there must be reading with an active, inquisitive mind. That there must be the full employment of our mental faculties. And this is the key. This is why in the preparation that precedes coming to our time with God, or stands at the threshold of it, we must seek to bring ourselves to a place of mental alertness, as well as that of conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Reading with an Active, Inquisitive Mind: Grasping the Flow of Thought

3:44 Now can you remember the first sub-point we had? And that's all we got last week. And that ends our review. A reading with an active, inquiring mind means what?

3:54 What is one of the first things we must seek to do? When we're reading the passage that is before us. All right. Seek to grasp the flow of thought.

4:06 With but few exceptions, the Word of God comes to us, not as isolated, pithy little statements, though you do have this occasionally, of course, in the Book of Proverbs, and in some of the miscellaneous commandments and directives at the end of some of the epistles, but for the most part, God's thoughts come to us out of the Scriptures in units. Units that are called paragraphs, which often are bound together with connecting whereases and wherefore, or inasmuch as, or in the light of, so that not only is each paragraph a unit of thought, but together they form a larger unit of thought. And no amount of dependence upon the Holy Spirit, will substitute for the active inquiry of our minds as to the flow of thought. May I say it reverently, we must ask the question, what is God driving at in this passage? What is God conveying in this portion of His Holy Word?

5:20 And the suggestion was made last week, and I want to amplify on that suggestion, that many times, a little background reading, before you read a specific book of Scripture, a specific chapter, will be of great help. And if you don't have Haley's Pocket Bible Handbook, let me urge upon you the purchase of this little volume, because it can be of great assistance. For instance, if you were starting a reading in the New Testament, and your system of reading through the Scriptures brought you to the book of Romans, you would find here an excellent little section on the fundamental nature of Christ's work, the basis of man standing before his Creator. Now, just a little paragraph on the importance of the book of Romans, hard to understand, the background, the main insistence, the date and the occasion, the purpose of the letter, the church at Rome. There you are, on a page and a half, something that will take you just a few minutes to read, you get, as it were, a broad overview of what the book is all about, why the Apostle wrote it, the general direction that he's moving, and then you have, every major section, briefly summarized. And you will find it helpful, perhaps, to read that summary and then go into the passage, and the flow of thought, as it were, basically laid out before you, you can catch it and move through. A book like this will be of great value to you.

6:47 Now, it's a human book, with a human author, with human frailties, and with some of the deflections that come with human understanding. So this is not a blanket endorsement of all of the interpretations given, because some of it is interpretive, but by and large, you will find this little handbook an excellent aid in helping you to catch the flow of thought in the given portion of the word of God that you are reading. Another thing that you may find helpful is a book on what's called Biblical Introduction. This one that I find helpful, by E.J. Young, An Introduction to the Old Testament. In my Old Testament devotional reading, before I read the book, and start into it, I read his section, I skip over the thing dealing with the literary criticism, the liberals who say this is not inspired, I skip over all of that, and I go to the section which deals with the purpose of the book, the general outline of the book, what the thrust of the message of the book is. G. Campbell Morgan has an excellent two-volume set called Living Messages of the Bible, in which, in a few pages, he gives the heart of the message of the various books of the Scripture, Old and New Testament as well.

8:01 Well, let me suggest that here, human authors can be of great help to us, since many of us do not have the time to read a book through 10, 15, 20 times until we feel we've mastered, as it were, the essential contents of it and caught the flow of it, and this is where God-equipped teachers, who've left a record of their insights, can be of great help to us. So if we read with an active, inquiring mind, the first thing we must seek to do is to ascertain the flow of thought in the portion that is before us. Any question on this, or any further suggestions you want to make with reference to things that you have found helpful in this first principle of reading with an active, inquiring mind, catching the flow of thought? Other things that you have found helpful? Yes, Jim? You know, the captivity dialogue that I find, I take a piece of paper and just write my book.

9:01 The general spirit and viewer of the chapter comes to water in that book rather than just to look at it in the Bible. Yes, at the top of the 1901 edition you have these little summary statements. Hezekiah receives messengers from Babylon, the Babylonish captivity predicted, and then you'll have, well, the message of judgment to the nations, etc. These things will be helpful.

9:25 The same way the titles to many of the Psalms will be of great help in catching the flow of thought. All right, any other suggestions? Things that you have found helpful under this particular discipline? Now, yes?

9:39 If I read a shorter book, you know, I could read it three or four times a day, then that would be like catching the flow. Yes, if we can. If it's a shorter book, if we can read the whole thing over several times, but many times this is not practical, is it? Suppose we're reading the book of Matthew.

9:56 It's doubtful that any of us have the kind of time that we could read through the entire book of Matthew or even half of it. So if we can get the clue from somewhere else, but if it's a smaller book, Second Thessalonians, the book of Philemon, the book of Jude, this is a good suggestion to catch the flow of thought by repetition in our reading. All right, any other suggestions that you have found helpful? All right, let's move on then.

Opening the Passage with Questions: General Principles

10:24 Under this general heading that we are to read the Scriptures with an active inquiring mind, he must not only seek to capture the flow of thought, but and I will make a statement here and then we can, by discussion, enlarge upon it. We should, to use two different analogies, we should seek to break open the passage by using questions as a crowbar or rake through the passage using certain questions as the rake to catch the thoughts of God that are in that passage for us. Combing through the passage, raking through the passage, seeking to pry open the passage with specific questions. Now, again, the questions you ask as you go through a given passage will be conditioned by the nature of that passage. For instance, if you're reading a section in a historical portion of the Word of God, suppose you're reading from the Book of Exodus, which obviously deals with the exodus of the nation of Israel out of Egypt. The questions you will ask when reading a historical narrative are somewhat different from the questions you'd ask, say, when you're reading the Psalms or you're reading one of the epistles because the nature of what is there is different.

11:48 So what we want to do is to take some general questions, some of which may apply more in historical sections, some more in what we would call heavily doctrinal sections, but by getting a good list of these questions, you will then be able to discipline yourself until these things become almost second nature to you. And you won't even have to consciously ask yourself these things, but you may have to do it in the beginning, and you will find if we have a large enough list, well, questions 1, 4, 7, and 6 apply more to certain portions of the Word of God. Other questions apply to other sections. So if we're reading with an active inquiry mind, we must not only seek to catch the flow of thought, but we must seek to glean and you can put it anywhere you want, glean from the passage its message to us in terms of the use of questions. All right, what are some of the questions then we should ask when going through the various portions of the Word of God? All right, Steve? All right, how does it apply to my life?

Specific Questions for Active Reading: Application and Revelation of God

12:56 What does this passage say to me? All right, let's take a for instance. Suppose you're reading the account of the Exodus of the children of Israel, and you read how that the Lord brought them out in that miraculous way and drowned the host of the Egyptian army. Isn't it rather remote to say how does this apply?

13:19 How in the world can what happened to a bunch of Israelites back there thousands of years ago have anything to say to me? All right, anyone want to answer that question? Suppose that was your reading for the morning. Yes, Paul?

13:34 I think David is frequently moved back to God to have deliverance as the assurance that God will deliver him out of his present trouble. All right, so we can reason then if this is the way God dealt with His people then, a people into whom He had entered in a bond of covenant commitment, then I can trust Him to be that kind of God to me. But even more than the individual application, I can trust Him to be that kind of God to His people and His present spirit. The present spiritual nation is the Church, and we can believe Him to grant His blessing and His help.

14:11 We can reason in terms of our understanding and our knowledge of the Old and New Testament. We can then see, if we've advanced somewhat in our knowledge, the tremendous parallels between the deliverance of Egypt by the might and power of God, and Moses, the appointed deliverer, and the deliverance of the Church out of the clutch of the world and the power of Satan by King Jesus, who is the greater prophet than Moses, who is the deliverer of His people. All right, some other questions we can ask as we go through. Let's just have a bunch of them.

14:43 Yes, Paul? All right, a very vital question. What does this passage tell me about God? Who is the great central figure of Holy Scripture?

14:57 Hmm? Yeah. God is, as it were, to use the words of Dr. Packer in his excellent little book, The Plan of God, God is the great actor that is before us, front and center in the stage that is set by Holy Scripture.

15:13 And when we say God, as intelligent Christians, we mean God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are Trinitarians. And so we ask the question, what does this passage reveal to me about God? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

15:32 What does it reveal about God in Himself? What does it reveal about God in relationship to His people? What does it reveal about God in relationship to me? And here, of course, we could digress and show the fundamental place of the knowledge of God in the life of a Christian.

15:49 This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true and living God. They that know their God shall be strong and do exploits, grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, other questions now. We don't want to digress in any one of these.

Specific Questions: Precepts and Commands

16:06 We're not being exhausted. We're just trying to touch the high peaks. All right? Another question we should ask.

16:11 All right? Is there some precept directed to my will as a Christian? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. Jesus said in John 14, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

16:24 He that loveth me shall have me. He that loveth me shall have me. He that loveth me shall have me. He that loveth me shall have me.

16:32 He that loveth me shall have me. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. But we've got to know what the commandments are before we can hold them in loving obedience, in the embrace of faith and submission. Now, how do those commandments come to us?

16:51 Do they all come as imperative verbs? Pray without ceasing? Love one another? All right.

16:57 Sometimes by example. Here's where in the historical narratives, according to 1 Corinthians 10, these things happened unto them by way of an example. And then Paul says, and the example is in terms of a negative command that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. When we read the life of a saint who falls, there is implicit in that account a commandment.

17:29 Don't do as this man did to his own spiritual shame and to his own crippling. So the commands, you see, not only come in terms of what we would call imperative verbs, love one another, forgive one another, pray without ceasing, make disciples of all the nations. Those are obvious. But many times the directives of God come to us in what we would call this indirect way, the examples that are set forth in Scripture.

Specific Questions: Hermeneutical Discernment and Personal Conviction

17:55 All right. Some other questions. All right. Now we're getting, of course, into some of the more fine-tuning in the area of hermeneutical principles before we take, say, render explicit obedience to a given command.

18:26 We want to ask, is this something that is binding upon me today? For instance, I've had people come up to me, and you can almost tell them from about 20 yards away, they get a certain look in their eye, and they say, What do you think about women wearing pants? All right.

18:49 And then, of course, they're going to quote from Deuteronomy chapter, what is it, 24? Doesn't the Bible say, The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to the man? That's what the Bible says. That's the command.

19:01 We're the people of God. Well, you know, I'm just naughty enough. You know what I do? And I think I may have done it on one occasion, and I've fought a lot of doing it on many, is if it happens to be a man, I ask him to bend over and looking at the back of his collar, not to see if he's got a ring around the collar, but to see if it says 35% cotton, 65% polyester.

19:26 Because in that same chapter, God condemns the Israelite from wearing the garment that is made of mixed cloth. Yes, he does. So, you see, if you're going to apply the one, Okay. Now, that's a, that's a gross example.

19:47 But the question, the question that Gordon has raised is a valid one. In some of those sections of the Old Testament, there is a message for us, granted, but the message is not to be found in some of the detailed instructions given, because they were part of the whole mosaic system that is done away in Jesus Christ. But the overall message is this, that when God enters into covenant relationship, covenant relationship with his people, he has the right to direct any facet of their lives that he chooses. When you read through that and say, Lord, if I were an Israelite in that day, would I have rendered to you loving obedience to every directive that touched me wherever I turned, the clothes I wore, where I went, when I went? Well, Lord, the full revelation of your mercy in Jesus Christ, should it draw forth a lesser degree of obedience? A less careful walk before you? Of course not.

20:48 Greater privileges lay upon us greater demands. But to take them literally and say, this applies in mathematical equation, what God said there, he says to us now, no, we need to ask, and this again is where the task of the official teachers and preachers of the church is so serious a task in trying to furnish the people of God with those tools that will help them to discriminate between that which is spoken explicitly and directly to them or that which was spoken in a very exclusive sense directly to the nation of Israel, but only indirectly in terms of principle, is there that which binds our conscience as believers. Now again, you see, that could open up another whole thing, but we're not going into it. We're deliberately backing off from examining any of these things in the minute. We're staying with the general principles. So we've asked some questions now.

21:45 What does the passage say to me in my situation? What does it reveal about God? Is there some commandment that God is addressing to me as his child? All right.

21:56 How do you know, maybe you don't want to do it, but how do you know what is, or in that time, in this time, in the 11th chapter of Corinthians where it speaks about the woman not having her head covered and in that same chapter it's talking about her mission to her husband? How do you get a look? Yes, I think here again, we're in the area where there is, or let's state it this way, where there has been controversy and where there is not what we would call a general consensus of Christian conviction on the thing, then we must be careful about absolutizing and dogmatizing. But of course, the safe rule of thumb is you interpret the old in its present application in the light of the new. So when I turn to the book of Galatians and I hear the apostles saying in the book of Colossians, don't let anyone bind you to the regulations of the ceremonial law with reference to days and meats and all the rest, I need no other clearer passage than to tell my dear Adventist friends who tell me I ought to eat nothing but pork and say, you're all wet, brother, if I have reason even to call him brother. I say, you're all wet, brother, because Paul in the spirit of God commands me not to be subject to these ordinances, so that the safe rule of thumb, without going into any greater detail, is that we interpret the old in the light of the new

23:24 and never reverse that, because there is progressive revelation and the clearest light has come at the end of these days. God, who in time past spoke unto the fathers by diverse means, Hebrews 1, hath in these last days spoken unto us in his Son, and the final full revelation is come in Jesus Christ. And then he promised that there would be the full unfolding in the apostolic witness. He shall lead you into all the truth, bringing to remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

23:55 All right, yes, Mr. Clark. I think a very important principle right along here is that we read the Scripture to see what it says to me, not what it says to Mrs. Smith on it.

24:08 Yes. I think that will eliminate probably 95% of the questions of that type. All right? Good thing to always remember what is it saying to me?

24:17 I am reading not to find something to justify my uneasiness that Mrs. Smith comes to church in a pantsuit, because if that's why I'm reading, then surely when I come to Deuteronomy, I think it's 24, I'll say, man, here's my fuel, I'm going to go get it. But reading with that awareness, I have come to meet my God, to receive fresh revelations of his will to me, that I might walk well pleasing to him. However, sometimes the sensitive conscience then will begin to apply things to itself that it ought not.

24:51 And this is where again some knowledge of the general principles of hermeneutics is so helpful and where a balanced ministry, public ministry is so essential for the private disciplines of the Word of God. Almost every heretic is a man who wrenched himself loose from the safeguards of the historic witness of the church and from the contemporary influence of godly discerning teachers. Almost every heretic was a loner who assumed the sun of truth has been setting in the West until it has arisen upon my fair head. And so whenever you begin to draw away, and that's why it's so good, even in your devotional life, especially as a younger Christian, to have some of these guides at your side, not as final authorities, but as helping you to be sensitive to that framework that is what we could call the framework of the thought, the consensus of the church universal, of the church historical, because the Spirit has been in the church throughout the centuries giving light to the people of God as they've read the Word of God. Now that can be abused where we get everything secondhand. I'm very much aware of that. So here we are on that razor's edge again, where some people abuse the principle and say, well, since we need the safe guides,

26:19 they never get anything fresh in their own dealings with God. You have, on the other hand, the heretic who says, I have God, the Bible, and the Holy Ghost, and I don't need man. And you've got that character. So there's the razor's edge again.

Specific Questions: Fuel for Prayer and Promises of God

26:34 And only living, communing with God can keep us from errors on the one hand and on the other. All right? Some other questions we need to ask after? All right, Jim?

27:01 All right. Then the very things we read, if we have discovered some new facet of God, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, what He is in Himself, what He is to His people, this should then become the fuel for the praise elements of our time of prayer. If we found a commandment, that should become fuel for prayer that God would help us, in the words of the psalmist, to run in the way of His commandments when He shall enlarge our hearts. Rarely have I found a commandment that I've looked at and said, well, that's wonderfully simple.

27:37 No, God's commandments drive us to Him for grace. In the acknowledgement, we are not sufficient of ourselves. I mean, the simplest little things. There are times when you get a whole string just shot off one after another.

27:49 Pray without ceasing. Have you tried to maintain the spirit of prayer for simply one day? The God who's laid upon you duties at work, at home, at shop, at school, is not indifferent to those duties. He doesn't want you to be praying in the sense that you are consciously lifting up petitions when you're working at that piece of machinery and you could lose your finger.

28:13 Or you're working out a calculus problem or you're figuring out how in the world to make ends meet on the budget for the week with mayonnaise going up to the price of gold dust and all the rest. No, the Lord wants your mind to be wholly engaged in those things. However, in the midst of that, to know what it is at any moment, to have the heart lifted up to God, instinctively to say, Lord, give me wisdom, to know how to stretch the pennies and the dollars to put enough on the table to fill the tummies and meet the physical needs of the family. Simple little commandment.

28:47 Pray without ceasing. But if you take that seriously, that'll drive you to prayer. Lord, bring in all the loose ends of my fickle heart. Bring in all the loose ends of my wandering mind.

28:58 Lord, give me this day for one day until I get to heaven to know what it is to have the spirit of prayer from sunup till sundown. You see, simple little commands. Be kind one to another. That's a simple little commandment.

29:13 But what about that person that's just everything about them? Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Now, some people, it's easy to forgive.

29:24 Forgiving them is just like having them to sneeze. I mean, it's just natural. You know, it itches and that's the way it is to forgive some people. Some people, I almost wish they'd harm me once in a while.

29:36 It's just so lovely to be able to forgive them. They're just the kind of people you love to forgive them. There's just something about them so forgivable. You know people like that, don't you?

29:44 But then there are other people. Oh, it's so hard to forgive. God just doesn't make any distinction. He just says be kind one to another.

29:55 The forgivable ones and the not so forgivable ones. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. All kinds.

30:00 Well, if you take that seriously that's going to drive you to prayer. You see? So that the commandment as we see it then becomes fuel for prayer. The example that we see becomes fuel for prayer.

30:12 Lord, if a man of Peter's stature and David's stature could fall so far from such heights Lord, who am I? And it will drive you to pray. There's a hand here. Yes, Bob?

30:26 The Word of God is full of promise. All right. So we need to go through saying is there any promise that God has given to us? One of the most wonderful verses in the Scripture is in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

30:39 How many soever be the promises of God in Christ is the Amen. In Christ is I always get it mixed up. Let me read it. 2 Corinthians 1.20 For how many soever be the promises of God in Him is the Yea wherefore also through Him is the Amen unto the glory of God through us. That's a great text. That in Christ we can sing as some of us sang in Sunday school. Every promise in the book is mine.

31:18 Remember that? Every chapter, every verse, every line. How many of you sang that in Sunday school? All right.

31:24 I'm really dating myself. All right. You remember that. Well, taken in the sense that we've already qualified, God has not promised me that if I will obey Him, my crops will never be blasted with hail.

31:34 My wife's womb will never miscarry. Some of those promises given to national Israel in the land of Palestine. Granted, anyone with half a head on his shoulders knows that. But with the due qualification of the promise of God in the land of Palestine, God has not promised me that if I will obey Him, my crops will never be blasted with hail.

31:47 My wife's womb will never miscarry. Some of those promises given to national Israel in the land of Palestine, God has not promised me that if I will obey Him, my crops will never miscarry. But with the due qualification of the different administrations of the covenant of grace, that's a good term to use. You say dispensation, people immediately want to label you as a dispensationalist holding to a system you don't.

32:04 But I like the words of the Westminster Confession. There are the different administrations of the one covenant of grace. And recognizing those distinctions, those promises, how many soever be the promises of God, since they are redemptive promises that find their fulfillment in the promise of the covenant of grace. And recognizing those distinctions, those promises, how many soever be the promises of fulfillment in Christ and I am in Christ.

32:24 They are mine in Him. See? But they need to be mixed with faith. God's promise is, to use the concept of Spurgeon, who wrote a book many people don't know about, called Faith's Checkbook.

32:36 Not only has his morning and evening, but Faith's Checkbook. And he likened the promises of God to a blank check that we must bring to the bank of heaven and sign with our own faith and prayer and present before God in the name of faith. That's the promise of Jesus, that He would fulfill it in us. And you have that wonderful directive there in the book of Ezekiel where God says, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and just about the point when you figure, man, let's just lean back and watch God do it.

33:09 He says, moreover, for these things will I be required of by the house of Israel to do it for them. God says, I'm going to do all of this but my promise to do it is not to encourage indolence but it's to stir you up to pray in the light of His promises. And so we need to ask that question as we go through a passage. Is there some pledge that God has given to me in Jesus Christ?

33:31 Some promise that He wants me to plead before Him. And then that promise will become fuel for prayer. That promise will become a stimulus to faith. All right?

33:42 Any other questions we need to ask as we go through? Yes, please. All right. All right.

Integrating Reading and Prayer: Immediate Application

34:06 Here's the suggestion then that as we go through the word with the confidence and the comb of these questions with the crowbar of these questions that when a fresh directive is pried loose when a fresh promise is gathered when a new sight of God is given that we don't wait and say well I'll pray about that when I come to my prayer time but immediately turn it into fuel for prayer. Now I'm glad you made the suggestion. I've deliberately withheld from it because this is so much a part of my own devotional reading of the word and some of it may be peculiar to me and I don't want to impose it on others but I find this a great profit and just let that then be the catalyst to turn me to prayer so that I can't separate my reading of the word of God from my praying that the two are constantly interacting and the praise goes up for the new sight of God and then the petition goes up as the duty is laid upon the conscience and all of these various things you'd like to pass on that you have found helpful in this second area of reading with I'm sorry in the third area of reading with an active inquiring mind but specifically not only capturing the flow of thought but opening the passage with these questions. Well?

Specific Questions: Challenging Preconceived Notions

35:31 Yes, that's a good question. Is God trying to reconstruct my thinking here? Is God trying to straighten out my thinking? Yes, very good, very good question to ask.

35:43 Can I with delight embrace what God is saying here or is it jarring with a preconceived notion? Of course, for preachers this is particularly essential. I have adopted as a lifetime ambition and I'm sure I'll never attain to it but it's a goal that I have consciously before me to hold no tenet of belief either doctrinal or practical that would make me embarrassed to turn up to Scripture at random and to expound it in a solid framework or in a framework of solid principles of biblical exposition. To hold no position that will make me embarrassed at any page of Holy Scripture.

36:23 Well, we ought to come to read the Word of God that way. Am I holding anything that makes me embarrassed at this portion of the Word? And I think I've shared with some of you when people ask, well, how is it coming from a Salvation Army background to a Salvation Army background? Well, I think I've shared with you that the things you now hold dear were not even mentioned let alone held up and attacked.

36:54 I mean, they were just completely ignored. They didn't even consider them worthwhile attacking. And here I was in my late twenties before I ever became aware of some of the things that are now the tap roots of my life and ministry. And I've often said it was the systematic reading of the New Testament that forced me to say, Lord, I don't understand what that means.

37:15 It seems like you're saying that the whole thing is up to you. And then I'd come to John 17 and how that used to baffle me. Jesus is not frustrated. He's about to die and he says, I have given eternal life to as many as thou has given me.

37:31 I said, Lord, that sounds like there's a certain people you gave to your son and some you didn't give. And those whom you gave, he's saving infallibly, certainly, without any equivocation. And I said, that just doesn't fit with what I've been told. And there it is.

37:46 And then I'd put it on the shelf. Well, it wasn't long before from John in the book of Acts. And I'd come to some of those passages. Whose heart the Lord opened.

37:56 I'd been thought all my life, open your heart to the Lord. Here Luke says, whose heart the Lord opened. Well, who opens it? The Lord or the sinner.

38:07 And then I'd come to chapter 13. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. I said, that doesn't fit with what I've been told. Then I'd shelve it.

38:17 Well, you know, Acts is pretty close to Romans. No, I'm being honest with you now. This is how. And year after year, reading through the New Testament, sometimes twice in the year, lo and behold, Romans 9 would come up.

38:34 And I'd say, that says some things that don't fit with what I've held. So what do I do with it? Well, I'd wrestle. Once in a while be brave enough to break my mind to someone that I thought I could trust.

38:49 But good men have differed through the years. Just it's there but bury it. Don't tear it out. Just bury it.

38:56 Don't deny it. Just bury it. So I wouldn't bury it but I'd put it on the shelf. I've never tried to bury a passage but I did have a pretty big shelf that said, don't touch.

39:07 Just leave it alone. Well, if you know your New Testament, you know it isn't long before you're in Ephesians chapter 1. And it was the constant recurrence of these themes in the devotional reading of the Word of God that kept them alive as sheep until finally God was pleased and I can only say how it didn't come as a great burst of light. I found my heart delighting in those passages instead of inwardly questioning them or at times even resenting what they seemed to say.

39:39 And the real crunch came when I finally was honest enough to say if the traditional orthodox view of what Romans 9 teaches is right, then I ask the same questions and make the same objections that the apparent objector in that chapter makes. If Paul is saying what I think he's saying, then the very questions that are being asked, is there unrighteousness with God? Why does he yet find fault? That's the question, those are the questions I ask.

40:07 So, the understanding of the passage must be the right one which leads you to ask those questions. So these people that say, well, he's just saying that God is dealing in some abstract way doesn't raise any objections. It's when you understand Paul to be teaching, there is a personal election of sinners unto grace and salvation and a bypassing of others to lead them to the just desert of their sin, that everything in you rises up and says, it's not fair. And that's exactly what Paul anticipates.

40:39 You see? I just put in that little bit of biography to enforce what Grove has shared with us. We must ask that question, is there anything in the passage with present conviction? Good question to ask.

40:52 And if so, then I can't, I can't force my heart to loving me and loving me to embrace a truth that's distasteful to me, but I can pray, Lord, give me the grace to embrace that. I don't think God ever wants us to say, well, I'll believe you in these seven. I wouldn't where otherwise. No, no.

41:12 The word of God is to be sweet to our taste. So we can pray, Lord, that tastes are sweet to me. Now, Lord, the problems with my spiritual taste buds, you change it. Lord, perform a miracle on my taste buds until that truth turned over in my mouth becomes sweet to me.

41:32 Lord, that tooth gets stuck right here. Stretch my gullet. Give me a bigger spiritual esophagus. Lord, that tooth on my tummy just gives me indigestion.

41:43 Lord, the problems with my spiritual gastric juices, you go to work on them. That's what we need to pray. Lord, that now comes true. All right?

Specific Questions: Cross-Referencing and Personal Agitation

41:52 Further questions. Yes, Bob. Among many things it's a lot of I discovered relationships between two passages, one I'm reading and another one. And I can answer the question is it something this tradition would explain to another .

42:10 All right, good question to ask and what we're doing there is just expressing our conviction, again the words of the Westminster Confession, that the message of Scripture is one and that if you And this is another reason why I'm so married to the 1901 edition. Its center column reference is a masterful assistance in opening up the scriptures. Whoever compiled that center column reference understood the message of scripture. Unlike so many center column references where they just match words that have no synchronous meaning at all, here there is the sharing of thoughts.

42:45 And many times the passage I'm reading has been opened up by checking out the center column reference in the 1901 edition. And I think it has remained essentially the same in the New American Standard, though they've changed the form of it. I have checked the references at three or four points and found them to be the same as the old edition. You'll find this very helpful.

43:03 Is there another portion that will help unlock this? All right, any other questions that you use? We don't want to drag it on too long. Yes, Groh?

43:11 If you have the question, then you'll feel honest. I'm trying to find out who I love. Yes.

43:25 Yes. I'm trying to find out. Is that really? You know, I make that question in that scripture that day.

43:31 Yes. Maybe you have to give a whole answer. Maybe a little insight. Yes, it's part of the cumulative effect in scripture.

43:37 That's a good point. If we are presently agitated with a given question, it may not be doctrinal, Groh, but it may be a very practical question, an area of duty. And we say, Lord, you know that this thing is heavy upon my mind. If it pleases you, give me some light to this problem as I read today.

43:53 And it could be that God will give us light many times from a very surprising,

43:59 section of his word. Very good. All right. Then I think we have enough of the general idea of how we are to read the word of God with an active, inquiring mind, and how the judicious use of questions can be helpful in this discipline.

Cultivating Mental Disciplines and Community Support

44:17 Now, if you're not accustomed to doing this, you're going to have to train yourself to do this. And may I suggest, and this is only a suggestion, I can't give you a chapter and verse that says you must do this. This is just a pastoral suggestion. This is just a question that perhaps you write down some of these questions, get a spiral notebook, and just write down at the top of it, Ephesians chapter 1, and maybe just the first paragraph, whatever, as we block out the passage there.

44:46 What does it tell me about God? Leave a little space. What does it tell me about myself? What does it tell me about the Lord's provisions for his people?

44:56 Is there a promise? Is there a directive? Is there a promise? Is there a directive?

44:58 And just jot down these. To begin with, in order to get your mind working in this direction until it begins to be a second nature mental reflex, and you can train yourself, there are mental disciplines that can be learned by habit the same way physical disciplines can be learned by habit. And so let me encourage you to do this if you're not accustomed to doing it. This is why certain of the Bible study methods of groups like the Navigators and some of the other Christian organizations.

45:29 Have a look. They have been such a help, especially to young Christians, because it has helped them to cultivate these disciplines. Now, without binding your conscience to one system, and that's why we don't, as it were, try to have a uniform method of personal Bible study in the church, because I believe it's a denial of the biblical principle that there is great diversity of the way the mind works, great diversity of personal inclinations, etc. And so I would never countenance.

45:59 The forcing upon a congregation of one method, because some people would find it a straitjacket. Yes, Mr. Dixon.

46:13 Very good. All right. If several of you found you could be at home with a given approach, and then maybe you'd agree that you'd sneak off for half an hour after a Sunday service together, find an empty space. It wouldn't be too quiet.

46:31 Our building is too small, but at least maybe you could perch up in the back of the balcony. And you'd compare notes as to what the Lord was pleased to minister to your heart from the Word of God. And certainly that's a biblical discipline, to admonish one another, to exhort one another. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, that wonderful passage in the book of Malachi.

46:51 Yes. All right. A. W. Pink's book, Profiting from the Word.

47:03 How many of you at least have read part of that book? Very good. If others of you haven't, may we encourage you in terms of trying to find a way to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to read a few of them.

Introduction to Meditation as a Biblical Duty

47:09 In terms of trying to furnish your mind with the biblical principles as to how to approach the Word of God to your own profit. Now, let me look back to my notes and see if you've given what I hope you gave in this class and covered the things that I hope we've covered. Yes, I think we have now. What we do, what I hope we can do is introduce what will be the next thing that we'll deal with and probably will be the one concerning which you'll have the most questions.

47:42 A. What's the next thing that we're going to do? B. Catch the flow of thought.

47:47 C. Discover the, whatever you want to call it, the facets of the passage that are relevant to me in my present situation. What about God, etc. The third is, what?

47:59 What comes after catching the flow of thought, seeing some new dimension of God, His promises, His provisions for His people, His duties, the precepts that He lays upon us. Now what discipline follows, right? Adultery. Adultery is the application, alright., and that is the subheading under a larger discipline.

48:27 Anyone think they have it? Bob? Meditation, how many were thinking meditation? There weren't.

48:34 Well, I hoped you would because though certain things that have been said imply meditation, I think it is essential for us to bring out this Biblical duty very clearly. Now, is meditation a duty under the general heading? general heading of the reading of the Word of God. Is meditation a duty?

48:58 Yes or no? Alright. Let me state the question this way. Should your conscience be bound to meditate? Yes.

49:08 Alright. What should bind it then? What explicit statements of God's Word?

49:17 I hear a lot of... Alright. Psalm 1, Sam.

49:21 That's what you're going to say. Alright. Psalm 1. Here we have a description of the blessed man. And of course the only one who fulfills this description perfectly is who? Christ himself. But may I suggest that we do not understand the passage aright if we only see our Lord as the perfect fulfillment of the blessed man who because he was completely blessed has secured blessing for his people. But this is also a description of how we in Christ and in the power of the Spirit are to be blessed men and women. For he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked. And so the blessed man is described first of all negatively. He walks not in the counsel or the advice of the wicked. He does not stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

50:23 But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law doth he meditate day and night. So we have what we would call here indirect command. If we would be the blessed man the blessed woman the path before us is the path negatively rejecting this counsel but meditating upon the counsel of God. Alright any other precepts that should bind the conscience of a Christian to meditation?

50:55 Yes. Alright would you read it for us? Alright now to whom was that spoken? Joshua and your name is Priscilla. Alright now why should your conscience be bound to a word that came directly to Joshua? Psalm 1 is general. Speaks of the blessed man. But now this is very very specific.

51:31 Now since I didn't hear that you changed your name to Joshua, why should your conscience be bound to this?

The Binding Nature of Meditation and Homework

51:40 Anyone want to help Priscilla? I hope her conscience is bound to it but now we want to deal with why. Yes. Alright.

51:50 Alright. We have a directive in the New Testament. Alright. And what is that directive?

52:09 Alright so there's not only be that glancing at the law but that gazing into it which implies the discipline of meditation. But even going back to Joshua. I think we are warranted to see a command to us.

52:24 And the principle is yes. Jim?

52:33 Alright the meditation was laid as a duty upon Joshua to do it. In the end that he might what? That he might perform what God had revealed. In other words there is just a specific application of the general principle to Joshua. Joshua had a set of regulations peculiar to him in his office and station. Then he had a general set of regulations that were true of every Israelite. And God says if you are to perform what I have laid upon you meditation is an integral part in that whole complex of your response of obedience. So likewise with the believer. God has not given us the same task as he gave to Joshua in terms of its details but as a child of God in the bonds of covenant love and submission to our God meditation is an essential discipline to the performance of the words and will of God. Alright any other passage? Sam?

53:36 Yes. Good. Five or six references. Just give us one or two.

53:39 Do you have this?

53:44 Alright. The psalmist says I will meditate upon thy precepts and I will regard thy ways. We have the example of the psalmist recognizing the integral place of meditation. Again in what we would call the whole complex of obedient response to the revealed will of God. Now your homework is somewhere along the line find a minute or two during the week to meditate on what is meditation. Alright? And come prepared next week to discuss how do we meditate upon the word of God. What is involved in meditation? And if I may put in a little plug for the family conference next year we're going to have a sermon on the art of meditation. I've got a little preview of the subject matter for next year's family conference and one of the messages is going to be given to the subject of meditation. So will you do a little meditating on meditation and come prepared next week to share your thoughts with us. Alright? Our time

54:49 is gone. Let's commit our thoughts to the Lord.