Central Place of Personal Bible Reading (2)

Introduction: The Indispensable Place of Personal Bible Reading

0:04 In the hand of God, in our hands, in our possession, in verse 9, the psalmist asks the question,

0:16 Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? The answer, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee. O let me not wander from thy commandments.

0:38 Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Let us again seek the face of God for his blessing, that through the preaching of the word this morning, that word may go beyond the outer boundaries. The vestibule of the ear, beyond the categories of thought in the mind, and may fasten itself permanently upon our hearts. Let us pray.

1:15 Our Father, we confess with shame that while your word abides, and while it is that word which though heaven and earth pass away, shall never pass away, that word intrinsically true, and pure, and full of light, we confess with shame that so often we have heard it, we have read it, we have been exposed to it, and have profited little, if anything, because of our dullness, our unbelief, the distractedness of our minds, allowing the enemy of our souls as birds of the air that follow the sower of seed, to pluck, to pluck up that word so that it might not take root and bear fruit. O Lord, look upon us in our pathetic weakness, and in our moral perversity, and for the sake of your beloved Son, so bless the preaching of the word today, that it may pass into the deepest recesses of our hearts, and there live until we breathe, our last in this life. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Ryle's Admonition on Bible Neglect and Abuse

2:39 Two Lord's Day mornings ago, I began our study in the word of God by reading the words of an Anglican bishop written more than a hundred years ago, and I am deliberately beginning our study this morning by reading a part of that same section of Ryle's excellent essay on Bible reading, found in the collection of his essays entitled Practical Religion. Ryle writes, Next to praying, there is nothing so important in practical religion as Bible reading. God has mercifully given us a book which is able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. By reading that book, we may learn, we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do, how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace. Happy is that man who possesses a Bible.

3:57 Happier still is he who reads his Bible. Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it, and makes it the rule, the rule of his faith and of his practice. Nevertheless, it is a sorrowful fact that man has an unhappy skill in abusing God's gifts. His privileges and power and faculties are all ingeniously perverted to other ends than those for which they were bestowed upon him by his God.

4:36 His speech, his imagination, his intellect, his strength, his time, his influence, his money, instead of being used as instruments for glorifying his Maker, are generally wasted or employed for his own selfish ends. And just as man naturally makes a bad use of his other mercies, so he does of the written word of God. One sweeping charge may be brought against the whole of Christendom, and the whole of the world, and the whole of the world, and the whole of the world, and the whole of the world, and the whole of the world, and the whole of the world. And that charge is the neglect and abuse of the Bible.

The Centrality of Scripture Assimilation as a Means of Grace

5:17 These words of Bishop Ryle are a most fitting introduction to our ongoing consideration of the fact that there are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. This assertion regarding the place of the divine grace, this assertion regarding the place of the divine grace, this assertion regarding the place of the divine grace, this assertion regarding the place of the divine grace, is the present focus of our ongoing declaration of a balanced New Testament doctrine of the Christian life. And it is just such a balanced doctrine of the Christian life which we have affirmed that we are determined to maintain at the center and out to the largest or the farthest part of the circumference of the life and ministry here in Trinity Church. The divine and divinely appointed means of grace are those activities, disciplines, and relationships ordained by God to strengthen and increase the spiritual life imparted by God in our conversion to God. In consideration of the private or personal means of grace,

6:40 we saw from the scriptures over a number of weeks that at the head of the list of those means is the habit and the disposition of personal or secret prayer. Next in order is that which we began to take up two Lord's Days ago, namely, the practice of personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible. And I've chosen those words purposely to underscore that which is indeed a means of grace. God never appointed the mere threading of the words of the Bible through our eyes as a means to strengthen spiritual life. God never intended or ordained that the mere...

7:35 mental acquaintance with the content of the Bible would profit us spiritually. Rather, it is the practice of personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation, the taking in to the very substance of the soul of the contents of this book, which God has ordained as a means of grace. And there is no effective substance for that divinely appointed means. Now, in our initial message two Lord's Days ago, I stated that this issue is of such crucial importance that I was determined to begin by addressing only one fundamental concern, that I would put one issue in the crosshairs of my spiritual aim, and that was to demonstrate, or demonstrate the central and indispensable place of the personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the Scriptures as a divinely appointed means of grace. We then proceeded to look at five lines of the biblical evidence of that fact. We saw the central place of the assimilation of the Scriptures

Review of Previous Proofs and Introduction of New Arguments

9:01 in the spiritually blessed man, Psalm 1, central place of the assimilation of scripture in the spiritually successful man. Joshua 1 and verse 8. The central place of the assimilation of scripture in the spiritually blameless man. Job 23 verses 10 through 12. The central place of the assimilation of scripture in the spiritually wise man. Psalm 119 verses 97 through 100. Now this morning I purpose to fulfill the promise made two weeks ago, namely to set before you five more proofs of the central and indispensable place of the personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible as a divinely appointed means of grace. And I acknowledge at the outset that when we've done this and we have

10:12 ten prominent arguments or demonstrations of the central place of scripture as a means of grace, I have not begun to exhaust the witness of scripture. Consider then with me the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritual man. Job 23 verses 10 through 12. The central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually successful man. Job 23 verses 10 through 12. The central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritual spiritually pure or godly man. We have seen the central place of scripture in the blessed man, the stable man. I omitted that in my review. Psalm 37, 21. The successful man, the blameless man, and the wise man. Now consider with me the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually pure or godly man. Job 23 verses 10 through 12. The central place of the All who are called by the grace of God into the blessings of the gospel are called unto a life of holiness and, hear me carefully, are given a fundamental yearning and longing to be holy men and women. This is taught in many passages, perhaps taught more clearly in no other passage,

The Central Place of Scripture in the Spiritually Pure Man

11:35 found in Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. When we think of the grace of God of which we sang this morning, the grace that brings salvation in Jesus Christ, the grace that calls us to repentance and faith and that enables us to repent and believe, what is the end to which that grace comes to us in Christ and in the gospel? In Titus 2.11, the answer is given. For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, looking for the blessing of God. In Titus 2.11, the answer is given. For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, in the

12:46 familiar text, Hebrews 12.14, follow after peace with all men and the holiness or the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord. It is clear that all who have come within the dynamics of the orbit of God's grace are not only called to holiness, they are by the Spirit of God so transformed and so inwardly taught that they are committed to pursue that life of holiness, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. But in the pursuit of that life of universal holiness, what place do the scriptures have? Well, no text is more cogent, more pointed in answer to that question than the text read in your hearing at the outset of the ministry this morning. Psalm 119, verses 9 and 11. Remember now, we are seeking to see if indeed the scriptures, mentally and spiritually

14:06 assimilated, are the same as the scriptures. If indeed the scriptures are the same as the scriptures, then experimentally do it. Well, the way would give a sign of that Confucian doctrine. Sickness and only the forgiveness and ungodliness are central as an appointed means of God in pursuit of a life of holiness.

14:18 We are reading here, in these familiar words, the question wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way. The answer is this, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. As the term is spoken here, the Holy Spirit gives the blessing upon his way. This way of holiness is, in its most practical description, with all of its possible levels of sin straight up, true understanding of every researcher to achieve the state of God's real UH as the miracle godATEIRESM rewarded juice. The There Och thus conditions of his body, the fame of Christ, and the שה getting it up. The bottom line is that his otherワ I am seeking, because now say I want to know. Where do you see God in your world. How description, the way of adherence to the word of God. Framing one's life by the scriptures is a very good and practical description of holiness. But now how does one actually work through the mechanics of framing his life by the scriptures? Verse 11 gives us the answer. Thy word, now notice, thy word have I set on my nightstand, hoping that by osmosis it will have a mysterious sanctifying influence to make me a holy man. No, it doesn't say that. It says thy

15:23 word have I up as a treasure where in my heart it has been assimilated into the citadel of my being. It is not all the vestibule of the ear. It is not all stored up in the cupboards of the brain. It is laid up as a treasure in the middle of my being, my heart. Out of it are the issues of life.

16:00 Where the deepest springs of motive and thought and design and choosing and refusing, where all of those springs have their origin, there the psalmist speaks. There is a treasure of the words of the Bible. That's what he is saying. Thy word that I might not sin against thee. And in this text we find that if we are to be holy men and women, if we are to cleanse our, if we are to have practical godliness in which we deny ungodliness and worldliness, we are to be holy men and women. We are to be holy men and women. We are to be lusts and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present evil world. There is but one way to do that. And that is to have the word of God measured up in our. You see, you can bow to give in air

17:12 sin. You can plead on for the cultivation of a given and specific virtue. You can read volume six of Owen mortify sin. How to deal temptation. How to reckon with indwelling sin. And then even saturate your soul in his glorious exposition in the last half of that book on Psalm 130. And yet make not one of a million of the word of the word of the depths where the battle is won or lost in our struggle with sin.

18:19 And in the cultivation of virtues, it is one in the. That's the great battleground of heaven and of hell. And unless the word of God is treasured up in a lot, make progress in being holy men and holy women. The scriptures have a central place in the spiritually pure for godly man. Our Lord Jesus continually intercedes for us at the right hand of the father. And as the veil is pulled back. With respect to at least the main dimensions of his intercessory prayer in John 17, as he prays for us, this is one of his petitions, John 17 and verse seven. And I trust we'll feel the fresh the weight of this petition, praying with respect to his own that though they are not of the world, yet they are still in the world.

19:30 John 17 and verse. 17. Sanctify them in the truth. And then he identifies that truth.

19:42 The word is true. Father, sanctify them, set them apart more and more unto yourself from the defilement of this present world. From the defilement of their own hearts, father, I die to make them a holy people, people or I am about to die to make them a holy people. Now from his present posture of intercession it's in the past tense. Father I died for them that I might redeem them from all iniquity and purify them to myself a people zealous of good works. A people who would indeed continually deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world who would order their footsteps according to your revealed will. Father sanctify them in the truth and then he identifies where that truth is to be found. Thy word is truth.

20:46 Now do you see the personal implications? If you do not make the time for the personal mental and spiritual assimilation of the word of God into your heart you will not be able to do it. You will not be able to do it. You will not be able to do it.

21:02 I say it reverently you frustrate the very intercession of the son of God on your behalf.

21:14 Now ultimately our Lord is not frustrated. We abominate the notion of a frustrated savior but I use the terminology in this context. The stuff of which the prayer of Jesus is answered is the word of God. That word in your heart.

21:41 How dare be answered. Father sanctify them in the truth. That work goes on in the realm of the truth and that truth is identified as the word of God and therefore if you are sporadic in your contact with the content of your Bible and if in your contact with the Bible you're content merely to thread the words through the eyes to allow them to pile up on the outer vestments of the Bible to be found in the cupboards of the categories of the mind but they are not prayed in and absorbed by faith and penitence and holy resolution until they become part of the texture of your heart you will make no progress in sanctification. No wonder Ryle wrote as he did in spite of the great privilege of having our Bible. The great sin of Christendom is neglect. But then consider if you're counting up to ten this would be number seven if you're counting today number two. Consider the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually

The Central Place of Scripture in the Spiritually Growing Man

23:02 growing man. In the spiritually growing man. Now again the will of God with respect to the growth of his children is clear. Second Peter three and verse eighteen. After describing the context of instability. The presence of false teachers who will twist the scriptures to their own destruction and to their followers. In other words Peter the realist acknowledges that to go on and grow is to grow in a hostile climate. But the will of God is clear. But grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are commanded to grow. Stunted growth is sinful in the child of God. There ought to be continuous and never ending growth until we're transplanted to another garden. Ephesians four fifteen a

24:13 passage we've looked at in the adult class much in recent days speaks in this way. Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things. Colossians two six to eight. Many other passages speak of the will of God that his people be constantly growing. But now what means as God ordained by which to effect that growth. The plant grows as it draws nourishment from the soil. As it draws moisture from the soil.

24:49 As the process of photosynthesis goes on as its leaves reach out to the sunlight. That's how a plant grows. How does the life of God in the soul of man grow. Well let again Peter give part of our answer. We read in Peter's epistle first Peter chapter two and verse one. Putting away therefore all wickedness and all guile.

25:20 And hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings. As newborn babes long for the spiritual milk which is without guile that you may grow thereby unto salvation. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious unto whom coming here the Christian is described as one who having come to Christ. Christ continues to come to him.

25:54 And in that coming he comes as one who has received life from God. And as one who is appointed to grow and develop in that life. And he is to grow and develop as he spits out the poison that would stunt his growth. Putting away therefore wickedness, guile, hypocrisies and envies.

26:20 Long for the spiritual milk that you may grow thereby unto salvation. And from the analogy of scripture such passages as Hebrews 5, 12b and 13. We know that that food which is likened unto milk or unto meat or strong substance. Is the word of God.

26:47 It is the teaching of holy scripture. For in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12b we read. For when you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God. And are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food.

27:12 Solid food, verse 14, is for full grown men. Verse 13. Everyone that partakes of the milk is without experience in the word of righteousness. So the concepts of milk and substantial food with reference to instruction is clearly established from this passage.

27:36 We could see it again from the first Corinthians 3 passage. Where Paul says he would like to have given to the Corinthians more substantial food. But he had to feed them with milk. With more elementary truth.

27:51 Now then what does that have to do with our subject? Well we are considering the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually growing man. How are we to grow? By feeding upon the milk of the word when we are babes.

28:12 And as we develop and grow in spiritual stature. Assimilating more substantial food that which we have come to call the meat of the word of God. But both the milk and the substantial food, the meat, are all the word of the living God. What a consistent well balanced diet is to the body when free of infectious debilitating diseases.

28:45 So is the milk. And the meat of the scriptures to the soul of the believer. As many of you know, last week we had the privilege of a visit for a few days from our son-in-law and our daughter and our newest grandson, little Landon. And as I saw him stripped down to his diapers, I commented to Heidi and Gord, it looks like someone stuck a catheter in every one of his limbs and blew him up.

29:18 He is so fattened out on Heidi's milk that he does look like someone stuck a plastic catheter up here and just blew. And kept blowing until they could blow no more. And a little puff of fat over his knuckles and over his wrist and then stuck another catheter into his hip and blew up his legs. But in reality, you see, that's not so.

29:42 All of those wrinkles made by the accumulation of fat have beneath them subsided. And they are still there. And they are still there. And they are still there.

29:47 And they are still there. And they are still there. And there are substancial cells. And those cells have been developed and are being nourished by the milk that he craves about every two and a half to three hours.

30:01 And those cells have been developed and are being nourished by the milk that he craves about every two and a half to three hours. Now please don't have the people tell me, anyone living on more than a four hour schedule has got his parents wrapped around his finger. Please, have mercy on me. Please, have mercy on me.

30:14 I'm just telling you the facts, alright? And about every two and a half hours when he hollers, He tanks up, and it's evident, it's evident that he is growing thereby. All right? That's the imagery.

30:32 Now, if suddenly in his little brain he should come up with the notion, no longer do I need my mother's breast and the nourishment that comes from it, no longer do I need what would come by means of a spoon and some cereal or out of a Gerber's baby food jar or from whatever source. I will come up with a new means of growth. If he were capable of such thought and capable of implementing it, his death would be the horrible, horrible witness of his father. There is no substitute for the growth of that baby of solid nourishment.

31:20 You see the imagery? And yet there are some of you who sit here and no one would ever think you've been blown up with a spiritual catheter stuck in you. In fact, they would wonder if indeed you were a spiritual anorexic.

31:37 The anorexic, the person who either gets such a distorted view of what it is to be attractive that they starve themselves to death until they look like someone coming out of Dachau or Pukingball.

31:55 I wonder if God were to materialize the state of the soul of every one of you this morning, what would you look like?

32:04 Blown up little Landon?

32:07 Or the pictures you've seen of the camps in Germany? Of the Jews that were incarcerated?

32:16 Or the anorexics that I've seen back when I used to be able to run and I'd see some gaunt bag of bones out running to burn up more calories so she could get thinner and thinner. You say, Pastor, that's sick. Yes, it is sick. But I'll tell you something more sick.

32:38 It's for people who have all the divine nutrients to make them fat and flourishing in the things of God.

32:49 Because they will not do what is necessary to adjust time and priorities and use of the phone and of the bed and of sleep and of the TV to have regular... systematic assimilation of the contents of their Bible into the cells of their soul until they become fat and healthy in the things of God.

33:23 And for some of you, I don't know what it's going to take. You're told you don't need...

33:39 You need to start getting the substance of this book into your heart. It's sincere.

33:52 That you... You may grow there.

33:56 If there is anyone here, I don't know of anyone, anyone who might subsequently listen to the message, I do not make light of someone who's genetically programmed to be what we call a midget. Someone who is genetically programmed to stop growing at about this height. They have peculiar problems functioning in a society that assumes a normal genetic program. The And while because sin has insinuated itself into the gene pool of humanity one of the fruits, his dwarfism for midgets, as well as deformed people. May I say it reverently God has never ordained a spiritual genetic structure to produce spiritual midgets.

35:02 There's nothing in the Bible that says God has decreed that you should be a midget.

35:12 But you are to grow up with me unto the fullness of the measure of the statue of Christ. Unto a full grown man. And the scriptures assimilated have a central place in that spiritually growing man. But then thirdly consider the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually strong man.

The Central Place of Scripture in the Spiritually Strong Man

35:51 Consider the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures. In the spiritually strong man. Now again the will of God is clear. It is God's will that his children be strong.

36:06 Not in their own strength. For example Ephesians 6.10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

36:22 You see the piling up of the image of strength. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Strong strength. Might.

36:35 Or take the vigorous language of 1 Corinthians 16. Where Paul is speaking to both males and females. To all believers. Verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 16.

36:48 Be watchful. Stand fast in the faith. Acquit yourself. Like men.

36:57 Be strong. Be strong. Here is the exhortation. To be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

37:09 To acquit ourselves like men. And the indication is that the manly quality that is to be seen spiritually even in women is strength. This is why we abominate feminacy. And men taking on the sorrows.

37:25 After more gentle physical characteristics of women. Yes we want to see Christ like men. Who in that sense have the soul of a woman. If we mean by that tenderness, susceptibility, responsiveness to need.

37:44 But the bearing and demeanor of a man is to be one of strength. Acquit yourselves like men. Be strong. It is the will of God that each of us.

37:55 Be spiritually strong men and women. Well how is that strength to be attained? Well John gives us the answer in 1 John chapter 2. And we are back to the central place of assimilating the word of God.

38:12 John in writing addresses various categories of spiritual condition. He is not dealing with chronological age in these categories. But. He is dealing with spiritual conditions.

38:28 Verse 12 of chapter 2 in John's first epistle. 1 John 2.12. I write unto you my little children.

38:36 Obviously he wasn't talking about little kids running around in the assembly. He is talking about his little born ones. Because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I write unto you fathers.

38:50 Those of you mature to the place where you are considered fathers. In the faith. Because you know him who is from the beginning.

39:00 I write unto you young men. You who are spiritually categorized as men. But young men. The dominant characteristic of which is strength and vigor.

39:14 I write unto you young men because. Now notice. Ye have overcome the evil one. Now how.

39:25 How did they get the strength to overcome the evil one. Well he tells us. Read on. I have written unto you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.

39:37 I have written unto you. 14 B. Young men because you are strong. And the word of God.

39:52 And ye have overcome the evil one. The word. As it's. Residence in them.

40:12 It has been mentally and spiritually.

40:18 There's the emphasis again. Doesn't say because you have an intellectual acquaintance with the word. You have a glancing contact with the word. No.

40:28 The word of God is abiding in you. It's taken up its residence within you. Its overtones resonate through all the rooms of your soul. And all activities of your inner life.

40:42 Isaiah says. Even the youths shall faint and become weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. But what is that waiting upon the Lord.

40:58 Not only the waiting of prayer which seems to be the emphasis of Isaiah 40 from which I've just quoted verses 30 and 31. But it is the waiting before God to receive his words until those words take up their residence. And that is in our hearts. And who's gone out for the wrestling team.

41:20 In fact I spoke to one down in Mebane. It was very interesting. And as you know. What's fair about high school and college wrestling and Olympic wrestling.

41:32 Is that everyone must wrestle someone within a few pounds or several kilos of his own weight. So there cannot be a great weight advantage. And this young man son of one of the deacons there in the Mebane church. had gone to a Christian school that had no wrestling programs, so when he transferred into the public school, he was with guys who'd wrestled four, five, six years.

41:56 He'd never wrestled at all, but he did very well. And he got to a certain level, went off to a certain tournament, and then he met a guy who was just within a pound or two of his weight. But he said he never, never encountered anything wrestling within his weight class so strong. He said this guy kind of looked at him sneeringly to intimidate him, but then he backed it up with his actions.

42:24 And then as he described the first encounter with this fellow, he had a special hold that he used to do a takedown. And he said when he got this fellow's arm, he said, I couldn't even get my fingers around his triceps and his biceps enough to pull.

42:42 And then when he broke the hold, he said almost with disdain, he treated me like a feather. Picked me up. Put me on my back and pinned me, he said. In the first period, he said, hardly a minute had passed.

42:54 He said, but I want to tell you something. From that point on, when I went back into that gym, he said, I pumped iron like I never did before. I hit the weights like I never did before. I said to myself, never again am I going to be humiliated by someone in my weight class like that fellow humiliated.

43:15 You see the lesson? He recognized that that man, of his same age, weight class, had come to that level of strength by the discipline of many years of the pumping of the weights in the weight class, in the weight room, of doing what he had to do to develop that muscularity and flexibility to get maximum strength out of his 142 pounds.

43:42 And it doesn't come by wishful thinking. There was a determination. It was thrilling to see it in the eye of that young fellow. I believe he's a professor in technology.

43:50 He's a Christian son of that beacon. He looked at me and he said, Pastor Martin, never again is anyone ever going to do that to me on a mat. Would to God some of you would have that attitude with regard to that besetting sin that has thrown you times without number. It's put you on your back and pinned you sitting here this morning.

44:13 It's got you pinned.

44:17 And what have you done? When in mercy it lets you go and you go and get God's forgiveness, and there's a little half resolution that by the grace of God somehow or other some way down the road I'll be strong enough to overcome. There's no difference in the level to which your mind and soul are interacting with this book. There's no half a day set aside to pray if necessary to fast and to search the scriptures.

44:50 There is no writing out of scripture on cards and sticking them in your pocket to memorize. To memorize them at a stoplight. To memorize the scripture during a coffee break. My friend, you really don't care if you get thrown again.

45:06 You're not determined enough to undergo the regimen to develop the kind of strength that John is talking about. I write unto you young men, you have overcome the evil one. You are strong. Why?

45:23 The word of God abides in you. And you have overcome.

45:31 My friend, it's not you ultimately who are humiliated by that fall. It's a humiliation of your Savior.

45:44 It speaks that His grace is so paltry and His strength so limited that when people think of you they think of that area of chronic moral deviation. Chronic ethical aberration. That is a blot upon the name of your Savior.

46:07 And how long will it be before you say by the grace of God enough is enough. Enough is enough. I'm going into the weight room. I'm going into the gymnasium.

46:23 I'm going into the place where the word of God that passes the vestibule of my ear. I will not rest until it abides in me and makes me strong. Strong to overcome the evil.

The Danger of Spiritual Weakness and the Call to Discipline

46:47 Many of you are part of a spoon-fed spoiled to death instant gratification generation. I laugh when I see the advertisements. Get in shape without any sweat. Lose 50 pounds without giving up anything you want to eat.

47:06 Nonsense.

47:14 Nonsense.

47:17 And my friend, you keep hoping, thinking, somewhere in some circumstance, one of the pastors will hold the key to unlock the problem to your chronic spiritual weakness. The key is right here before you.

47:33 There is no effective substitute for the divinely appointed means of grace.

The Central Place of Scripture in the Spiritually Armed Man

47:43 And that great means of grace to make you a spiritually growing, spiritually strong man is the mental, spiritual, spiritual assimilation of the word of God. And then, more briefly, because the last two are related, but I think there's enough difference to differentiate them. Consider the central place of the assimilation of the scriptures in the spiritually armed, A-R-M-E-D, man. The Bible, again, is clear that we're in a warfare.

48:22 And it's a life and death warfare. And only those who overcome will inherit. Eternal life, Revelation 2 and 3. All of the seven messages to the seven churches conclude with a promise to those who overcome.

48:37 Overcomers alone will be found in glory at last. And in this warfare, what is our military hardware? What is our armory, our weaponry, our protection? Well, Ephesians 6, 10 to 19 is the most concentrated, passage that gives the answer.

49:00 And within that passage, will you notice Ephesians 6 and verse 17? If we would be spiritually armed, men and women, to overcome as we must and as we shall, if we are the children of God, we are told in verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which, which is the Word of God. We are to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It's a present imperative of the Greek verb, dahomai, to take or to receive to oneself. And very interestingly, it is the word used most frequently when there is a description of a saving, reception of the Word. For example, in Acts 11 in verse 1, it's a synonym for people getting converted. We read in Acts 11, 1, now the apostles and the brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had, dahomai, had received the Word of God.

50:22 Now, when do people get saved? And how did the people in Cornelius' household receive the Word? It was a spiritual, assimilation of that Word by faith into their very being. Likewise, in Acts 17, 11, in that familiar text often quoted in this place, concerning the Bereans, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they, dahomai, received the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily whether these things were so.

50:59 In 1 Thessalonians 1, 6, Paul speaks of the Thessalonians who received the Word of God. James 1, 21 speaks of receiving them with meekness, the engrafted Word. So you see, it is right that I should use the word assimilation. Consider the central place of the assimilation of the Scriptures in the spiritually armed man.

51:27 For Paul says, 1 Thessalonians 1, 6, seeking, receiving, assimilating into yourself the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The Spirit is the forger of that sword, and the one by whose wisdom and power we wield that sword. Hebrews 4, 12, the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. You see our Lord wielding it in the wilderness.

52:01 Temptation, I need not turn there. You are familiar with the contents. When the tempter comes and engages our Lord, how does our Lord deal with him? I say it reverently.

52:12 He doesn't double up his fist and punch him in the strength of his own messianic identity as the God-Man. He takes the sword of the Spirit and says, It is good. May I say it reverently? He doesn't lay a hand on the devil.

52:35 He doesn't lay a hand on the devil. a hand on the devil. He takes the sword of the spirit, which is the word of lashes, and he cut Paris with the sword. And if the Lord Jesus, with no indwelling sin, with the inherent power of his own godhood joined to humanity, felt his need to fight spiritual warfare with the sword of the spirit, who are we to think we can go out and come from the field victorious, unarmed, because of our unfamiliarity with the contents of this book, through spiritual laziness, lack of discipline, whatever the cause may be, it is inexcusable. Inexcusable. Have you read the story of the man who tragically lost his sight? Not only lost his sight by being severely burned, he lost all the feeling in his

53:59 hands. He became converted and wanted to read the word of God. And he heard of the Braille system and got a Bible in Braille and tried to read it with his fingertips, but there was no feeling. But he found that he could feel with the end of his tongue. And in the first couple of years of his spiritual life, he read his Bible through three times on the end of his tongue picking up its A, M, and D with the little bumps of the Braille.

54:42 And you say you have no time!

54:46 You say your too busy! Remember the man, may the vision of it come to you. Heeding on the word of God with the nerve endings. I couldn't help but think of the words of Jeremiah 15,16.

55:05 Thy words were found and I And thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. Why is it so many battles are lost? It's because we go out unarmed with the sword of the Spirit.

The Central Place of Scripture in the Spiritually Outfitted Man

55:28 There is no substitute, no substitute, no substitute for this appointed means of grace. And finally, consider the central place of the assimilation of the Scriptures in the spiritually outfitted, the spiritually outfitted man. And I didn't know what other word to use. Does God desire us to be fully outfitted for a life of godliness and usefulness? Yes.

55:57 2 Peter 1, 2-4 describes the goodness of God in giving us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And He's given us a full panoply. A full panoply of promises commensurate with that design of His own heart. Would we be outfitted for all God wants us to be as parents and citizens and neighbors and husbands and wives and churchmen and churchwomen?

56:25 Yes. But where do we get outfitted? Now you know where I'm going, don't you? 2 Timothy chapter 3.

56:35 So there the apostle speaks to Timothy and says, Timothy, I've laid upon you manifold duty. And responsibilities both personally and ecclesiastically.

56:50 But now, Timothy, as you face the task, don't be discouraged. Verse 16 of 2 Timothy 3. All Scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, which is in righteousness. Now notice that the man of God in that context has an explicit reference to Timothy.

57:14 1 Timothy 6-11. Thou, O man of God, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely. Exartizo.

57:27 Furnished completely unto every good work. And I tried to think of an illustration for what it means to be outfitted for every good work. And I thought of a man who's plotted for years as an avocation to take a long journey. It would carry him through an area of the world where there were high, breathtaking mountains.

57:54 Wide, swelling rivers. Parched deserts. Some places where he would face predatory beasts. Other places, bone-chilling cold.

58:07 Consuming heat. Well, what does he do if he wants to be thoroughly outfitted for everything that he will face? He carefully maps. He goes out his proposed journey.

58:19 Learns all he can about the topography and the climate at the given times of the year he proposes to be there. And he accumulates everything necessary that when he comes to that point in the journey, he shall not be found lacking any part of his outfit. Whether it's a gun with a high-powered shell that can take down large predators, whether it's a tent to protect him from the cold, whether it is a device by which he can purify water, it matters not that he knows all that he'll face in the journey he's committed to being thoroughly outfitted for every contingency. My dear brothers and sisters, it's in this book that we get thoroughly outfitted for every good work. That's what Paul says. That's Timothy up to.

59:23 Timothy, I know, I know the things I've laid upon you are weighty and vast and manifold. But Timothy, don't be discouraged. The very scriptures that made you wide and wise unto salvation, by them, Timothy, as a man of God, you can be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Timothy, when you meet the person who has traumatic emotional disturbance, you don't need disturbance.

59:51 Somehow put them in the deep freeze and hope that in the 20th century, when the gurus of modern psychiatry and psychology come on the scene, that we'll resurrect him and then get him sorted out. Timothy, you're thoroughly furnished with the book.

60:09 When you meet people that have tremendous problems coming out of their pagan past, they never knew the love of a father, never knew the tender care of a mother. They were raised amidst heathenism and the worst forms, forms of idolatry and debauchery. Timothy, you don't need to be tracing down the navel of their dysfunctional family and dysfunctional society and dysfunctional this and that. Timothy, know this book and you're outfitted for every good work to see them brought safely to heaven like Christ.

60:47 That's what he told him. And folks, that's what this leadership is committed to. If you expect to be treated with kid gloves because you had a dysfunctional family, you had a bad father image and a bad mother image and bad sibling relationships, forget it.

61:06 You'll not find us harsh about your problems. You'll find us sensitive and caring, but at the end of the day, if you claim to be a Christian united to Christ, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and Jesus is praying for you at the right hand of the Father, and a book is here to thoroughly furnish unto every...

61:24 Good work, stop this nonsense of thinking you're something special. And you need special medicine, found in some special medicine chest of deep psychological insights. It's nonsense.

61:38 It denigrates the sufficiency of this book and the sufficiency of the Savior.

61:48 Would we be outfitted men and women? Then only one way. Gotta get this book in here. Gotta get this book in here.

61:59 And there's no... Shortcuts to do it.

Conclusion: A Call to Repentance and Serious Engagement with God's Word

62:02 God willing, in a subsequent message, I hope to preach on how can we, mentally and spiritually, assimilate this book. But I've spent two Lord's days, spending two solid hours, preaching my heart out, giving you ten biblical lines of evidence to show the central place of the assimilation of the Scriptures as a means of grace.

62:29 If that doesn't push you over the hill, then get some... Get some of you off your seat of self-imposed laziness and excuse-making and blame-shifting into a phase where you say, by the grace of God and the strength of the Holy Ghost and the disruption of anything sinful, though it may be innocent in itself, anything or anybody that's going to stand in my way from being outfitted to every good work.

63:00 I'll treat as an enemy. I'll treat as an enemy and deal with it ruthlessly until I become, by the grace of God, the spiritually wise, the spiritually stable, the spiritually blessed, the spiritually successful, the spiritually armed, the spiritually outfitted, and all of these things that we have seen. Now, my unconverted friend, there's no hope for you ever getting to heaven until you take this book seriously. In chapter 3, Paul says, Timothy, from a babe you've known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ until you start taking this book seriously.

63:45 You go on in the arrogance of your pride and in your love of sin and no time to read your Bible and pray and ask God to show you yourself and show you the Savior. My friend, there's no hope for you, soul. And I beg of you not to treat this book lightly for it's only by this, this book, that you'll be shown the path to heaven and be put in the way to heaven. But dear people of God, I call upon you this morning in the light of this tenfold evidence of the central place of the scriptures to repent of the meager measure to which you've interacted with this book.

64:25 Plead with God for wisdom to reorder every priority necessary until, by the grace of God, this blessing, this blessed book, has its place in your heart to the end that Christ Jesus will see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Let us pray.

64:54 Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. Oh, how we praise you that you've given us this book. As we think of that blind man with no feeling in his fingers, with his tongue absorbing your words with such an appetite, oh, God, we're ashamed of our laziness, ashamed of our distractedness. Have mercy upon us.

65:21 Have dealings with us. Lord, may those dealings not be like the morning dew that is burned away by the first bright rays of the sun of the world's pressure. But, oh, God, do something in us today that will bear fruit for the rest of our days of this earthly pilgrimage. Hear us and answer us.

65:43 We beg of you. In Jesus' name. Amen.