How to Assimilate the Contents of the Bible (1)

Introduction: The Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church and the Means of Grace

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, April 4th, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you follow, please, as I read a brief portion from the familiar 19th Psalm, a psalm which celebrates the two great conduits of God's self-revelation. God has made himself known in what we commonly call general revelation, the heavens that declare God's glory and the firmament that shows his handiwork, but then beginning in verse 7 of Psalm 19, there is a celebration of that more perfect and only saving revelation which God has made in what we call the scriptures for salvation. A special revelation, and I read in your hearing verses 7 through 11 of Psalm 19. The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.

1:20 The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightened. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether.

1:43 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warm. In keeping them there is great reward. Let us plead with God that that perfect law of the Lord which restores the soul may indeed come to us with its warnings, with its sweetness, with its desirability, and that each one of us sitting before that word today will know the profit that comes when it is heard and received in faith. Let us pray. Our Father, we again thank you that though the heavens have from their very first moment of creation spoken forth in eloquent ways of your glory and your power, we bless you that you have given to us this book that speaks of things that the heavens can never tell us.

3:04 We thank you for your written word and pray that by the Holy Spirit we may be given both a hunger for it, understanding in its truth, and responsiveness of heart to its reproofs, to its correction, to its teaching, to its instruction in righteousness. Meet us and bless us with your gracious presence in the ministry of the word of God in this hour. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

3:39 What is it that has gathered this particular company of people as a body of worshipers in this place? What principles and perspectives have, under the blessing of God, caused these walls to be erected and these beams to be put in place? What principles and perspectives have, under the blessing of God, caused these walls to the blessing of God caused the various rooms in these buildings to be used six days a week as they are for various activities in connection with the kingdom of God? Well, it is just such questions we are seeking to address in our present series of studies entitled, A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. In this series, we are attempting to identify and to expound from the scriptures those principles which have been the very life, the rationale, the very molding and formative influence in our life and ministry for the past 25 years as a congregation. The format that I have chosen to construct this manifesto,

5:07 is that of broad affirmations and aspects of spiritual determination. And I have chosen that format because I believe it is the most effective way not only to clarify who we are, how we have become what we are, but also to call this present generation to a fresh commitment to these biblical principles and to a fresh commitment to the gospel. And I have chosen that format because I believe it is the most effective way not only to clarify who we are, but also to call this present generation to a fresh commitment to these biblical principles and to a renewed determination to live by them and by the grace of God to preserve them and commit them to the future generation. We are now engaged in a consideration of the ninth of these affirmations which have constituted the manifesto. And it is this, that we are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament teaching and expectation. Regarding conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. Our present focus in this ninth affirmation has to do with the balanced teaching and expectations concerning the Christian life.

6:25 And within this orbit of concern, I have stated that any teaching on the Christian life, which is biblical and balanced, will clearly assert that there is, that there is no one master key to living the Christian life. Secondly, that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. Thirdly, that there is no cancellation of any of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life. Fourth, that there is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded by God in the Christian life.

7:07 in conjunction with living the Christian life, and now we are examining this fifth principle, namely, that there are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. And since it has been three Lord's Days, since we were engaged in our study of this principle, let me take just a couple of minutes to try to bring into focus what we have considered thus far. When we refer to a means of grace in this setting, I am referring to an activity, a discipline, or a relationship instituted by God to be a means in the blessing of God to nurture the spiritual life imparted by God to His people. That's what we mean by a means of grace, an activity, discipline, or relationship instituted by God to be a means under the blessing of God of nurturing the life imparted by God to His people. And when I assert that there are no effective substitutes, I mean that whether in ignorance or through indolence or arrogance, men have sought to invent their own means

8:34 or refuse to employ, God's means, and yet have expected to grow in grace, that such expectations can only meet with ultimate disappointment. There are no effective substitutes for the divinely appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. And then I have suggested that it is helpful to consider those various means in two basic categories. The private or individual means of grace or the public and corporate means of grace.

The Practice of Personal Assimilation of the Bible: Crucial Importance

9:13 And we are presently focusing upon that first category, the private or individual means of grace. And we saw that at the head of those means is what I described as the habit and the disposition of personal prayer. We are presently considering the second of those private means of grace, namely, the practice of personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible. Now, the reason I didn't use the terms personal Bible reading is I wanted to use words that would get beyond the cliché, beyond that which is so familiar that we no longer hear the words and feel they're impressed. God has constituted as a means of grace the practice of personal prayer, the practice of personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible. And for two Lord's Days, I sought to accomplish only one thing. I tried to demonstrate from the Scriptures, considering ten lines of biblical evidence, the crucial importance of the mental and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible.

10:36 The content of Holy Scripture in living the Christian life. And all the way from Psalm 1, in which we have God's description of the blessed man, to the contemplation of the well-furnished, outfitted man, in 2 Timothy 3, 17, we looked at ten pivotal passages indicating that it is only through the personal, mental, and spiritual assimilation of the contents of the Bible that we can indeed grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having then established, I trust, the crucial importance of this means of grace, we move on this morning to take up together this whole question of should we seek to escape mentally, spiritually, the contents of the Bible. Having convinced your judgment, I trust that we must assimilate the contents of the Bible. We move now to the question, how do I set out to do it? How can it be accomplished?

How to Assimilate the Bible: Three Vital Aspects

12:02 And I want to lay before you three very simple but profoundly vital aspects in answer to that question. If we would know what it is personally, mentally, and spiritually to assimilate the contents of our Bibles, we must first of all read the Bible regularly, we must read the Bible broadly, and we must read the Bible,

1. Read the Bible Regularly: The Discipline of Daily Engagement

12:37 we must read our Bibles regularly, we must read our Bibles broadly, and the word that I have chosen, I'm sorry, the third heading is we must read our Bibles diligently. First of all then, we must read our Bibles regularly. Now some may say, Pastor Martin, why waste our time with the obvious? Well, for the simple reason that I believe it would be tragically embarrassing if I were to ask this congregation, with the honesty that you may have, with the honesty that you may have, with the honesty that you may have, you must have in the day of judgment to respond openly to the question. How many of you, with but few exceptions in terms of unusual seasons of sickness or disruption of the family schedule, recognizing those things exist, how many of you, as an ordinary course of your daily experience, are as regular in your reading of the Bible as you are in having your morning coffee, dressing for the day, eating your two or three square meals for the day, bathing, shaving, taking care of personal tidiness and neatness and presentability,

14:01 how many of you are as regular in your reading of the Bible as you are in having your morning breakfast, or your afternoon lunch? Now some of you might have to think back weeks or months to find a day when you didn't have your breakfast, your lunch, and your supper. Some of you may look back to last week, when something happened, Something came up, and you had to attend to a matter, and you had to skip breakfast. But the very next day, you were right back at breakfast.

14:33 It is an ordinary, regular element in your life. Likewise, with regard to the matters of personal grooming. There may have been a time, a week, two, three weeks ago, when you did not shower, when you did not shave. Those of you who go against nature, with myself, and don't allow nature to take its course and grow a beard, you men.

14:59 There may have been a day when you had to go off to work looking scruffy for one reason or another. But many of you would have to look back weeks or months to find a day when you did not take time to shave. It's a regular part of your schedule.

15:16 Your eating, your dressing. I think most of you could not remember. You could not remember a time when you went to school or work in your pajamas or your nightgown.

15:27 Why? Because getting dressed appropriate for school and office and shop is a regular aspect of your life. Now, I'm saying that if we are going to grow in grace, then our reading and assimilating of the Bible must be a regular part of our lives. As regular.

15:52 As these elements, and I say, I believe it would be embarrassing to not a few of you, if I were to ask how many cannot say, with judgment day honesty, that your Bible reading is as regular as these other items that I have mentioned, taking the time to labor the point that there may be occasional exceptions. I've labored the point almost bordering on insulting your intelligence, but I know the human mind. I know the human heart and how it would like to squeeze out. But you ask yourself, is your commitment to regular Bible reading as regular as breakfast, shaving, lunch, putting on your makeup, putting on your clothes, getting your six to seven to eight hours sleep?

16:45 But then when I went to my Bible to see if I could go after your conscience and bind your conscience to the regularity of God, Bible reading, it was amazing. It's sort of like trying to find a command in the Bible that says, thou shalt eat.

17:05 It does say whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, but it assumes we're eating. Can you find a command in the Bible to eat? The Bible says thou shalt do no murder, and inferred in that commandment, I must do all that is necessary to preserve life. But when you find a command to eat, tell me.

17:31 Listen, I've racked my brain to find a commandment to eat.

17:38 And when I was scouring the scriptures, can I find a specific text which says it is the duty of the people of God to read their Bibles regularly? I soon came to the conclusion that everything that we studied in those ten categories about the strategic place of the assimilation of the Word of God assumes...

18:03 assumes... that under ordinary circumstances, the people of God will be assimilating the scriptures regularly.

18:12 When it describes the blessed man in Psalm 1 as he who meditates in the Word of God day and night, the assumption is he doesn't do that just once a week or twice a week. If he does it day and night, that is all times during the day, the assumption is he is doing it every day. When God said to Joshua in chapter 1 of the charge given to him, this book of the law, you shall meditate upon it day and night, the assumption is he would do that every day. But nonetheless, it wasn't until I came upon the text in Proverbs chapter 8 that I found an explicit reference to the daily regularity of Bible reading. I want you to turn with me now as we seek to open up this first heading. We must read the scriptures regularly.

19:15 In Proverbs chapter 8, wisdom is here personified. That is, an inanimate thing is made into something living.

19:27 And though I would not go so far as to say that this is a personification of wisdom into the very person of Christ, who is incarnate wisdom, the one in whom there is the fullness of all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, who is said in 1 Corinthians 1 to be made unto us wisdom, nonetheless notice how wisdom is personified as I read beginning in verse 32 of Proverbs 8. Now therefore my sons hearken unto me. Wisdom is speaking as though he were a father addressing his sons. For blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door. And the imagery here is very, very graphic and beautiful and very compelling with respect to this matter of our reading our Bibles regularly.

20:48 After the general entreaty to hear instruction and to be wise and to refuse it not, wisdom speaks saying, blessed is the man, overtones of Psalm 1, blessed is the man that, hears me, and how does he hear me? He watches daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. And the picture seems to be this, that here is a person so determined to acquire wisdom that he does not have in himself, and he knows he can attain in no other place, that he is found pressing toward the gates, and the doorposts of wisdom, waiting daily for wisdom's appearance, that he might attend to wisdom's voice, and receive the instruction of wisdom. And the blessedness you see is not only found in that the man hears wisdom, but that he hears him with consistent discipline, disciplined regularity. Do you see that?

22:14 Blessed is the man that heareth me, not just occasionally, or when he has a whim or a fit of interest, but the man who hears me watching daily. If you would be that blessed man, that blessed woman, that blessed boy or girl, described in Psalm 1, then you must, be one who is committed as a matter of conscience before the living God to be found daily watching at wisdom's gates and waiting at wisdom's doorposts. What does that mean in terms of our present place with a completed, inscripturated revelation of the mind of God? It means that it means that I, I am committed to reading my Bible regularly. Now why have I taken precious time in the ministry this morning to state the obvious?

Satan's Strategy Against Regular Bible Reading

23:36 Well I do so because not only am I convinced that it would be embarrassing if with judgment day honesty we knew how many of you are not as regular in your Bible reading as you are with your breakfast and your lunch and your supper and putting on your promenade, proper clothing, etc. But I am convinced with increasing conviction with the passing of the years that as Satan goes about as a hungry lion on the prowl and according to 1 Peter 5, 8 he does, he is taking modern technology as a means to undermine the discipline of daily Bible reading. Think of the tremendous battle for the eyes and the ears of the people of God in our day, a battle the Apostle Paul didn't have to fight, a battle Solomon didn't have to fight, a battle Martin Luther and John Calvin and Matthew Henry did not have to fight. For some of you, you know before you go to the kitchen for your morning coffee the newspaper delivery has already been made and the newspaper is lying against the front, there it is, ready to attack your mind with the headlines, with world events,

25:05 with the things concerning which you may have a legitimate and innocent interest in their proper place, but towards which you are tempted to have an inordinate interest, i.e. the sports page, the editorial page, etc. You are only the flick of a switch away from the real world.

25:26 From the radio bringing into your ears in 22 minutes, you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world, is the boast of WINS. And how immediately in the morning the mind can be filled with everything from the weather report to the late breaking news of whether Yeltsin is going to get booted out or remain in power. Just the turning of a switch and the moving of a dial. And for others, the flipping on of the TV, to catch the morning news that as far as I understand from the TV guide begins in some places now as early as 5 in the morning.

26:07 And then periodically throughout the day. And then there is that instrument of modern technology, the telephone.

26:16 I was struck with how intrusive that instrument is when recently reading some comments about the study habits of Jonathan Edwards, someone was commenting, on his disciplined schedule to study 13 hours a day. And as they were commenting upon that study schedule, they said, and remember this as you try to evaluate how the man could have done this and be a father to his children and a husband to his wife and a pastor to his flock, as you try to wrestle through all of this, remember that never once in his whole life did he have to say, I have to answer a telephone. And I tried to think what one day would be like if I didn't have the telephone. Dear people, if Satan is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he is, and he has no scruples to take the most innocent, morally neutral things and bring them into his service, then surely if God has ordained regular, Bible reading as a means of grace and there is no effective substitute for it, if you were the devil, how would you keep the people of God

27:44 from a commitment to regular Bible reading? You'd just get them picking up the newspaper first with their coffee, flipping on the radio first. You would take all of these things innocent in themselves in order that you might do anything to keep the child of God from being found first of all at wisdom's gates and waiting at the post of wisdom's doors. And unless in the strength of Christ we can so discipline our use and non-use of these modern elements of communication that attack our eyes and our ears, we will make little, if any, progress whatsoever in commitment to regular Bible reading. And therefore I am taking the time on something so elementary to press this issue upon your conscience sitting here this morning. Are you reading your Bible regularly? You know you're sleeping regularly.

29:06 You know you're eating regularly. You know you're bathing regularly. You are clothing regularly. Are you reading your Bible regularly?

29:16 Are you daily found at wisdom's gates? And are you daily presenting yourself at wisdom's door? If not, I can think of no better way for you to spend the afternoon hours of this Lord's day than sitting down and saying, Oh, my God and my Father, help me to enter into a season of radical personal scheduled surgery. Until if I'm asked that question six months from now, I can say with a good conscience whatever else may be said about my Bible reading, this much I can say by the grace of God, it is a regular, part of my life. Glamorous is not offering some quick panacea. We're not offering some get-rich-quick scheme for spiritual development. No.

2. Read the Bible Broadly: Ranging Over All Scripture

30:31 We're talking about that gradual, unglamorous assimilation of the word of God that can only be experienced when we read our Bibles regularly. But then secondly, we must read the Scriptures broadly. Now again, I wrestled for the right word. First I said comprehensively.

30:59 Then I said no systematically. I said no, I think the best word is broadly. We must read the Scriptures broadly. And perhaps no single text is more vital in underscoring the necessity of reading the Scriptures broadly than 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16.

31:18 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16. Why ought we to read the Scriptures broadly? Ranging over the whole landscape of special revelation.

31:33 And I will be very careful not to say that every Christian ought to read his whole Bible once a year, once every two years, etc. I have no biblical grounds to bind your conscience to that kind of a timeframe. perspective. But I am saying from Scripture, I can seek to bind your conscience to the duty to read the Scriptures broadly.

32:02 And if you're committed to that, then as a matter of necessity, you will assume some schedule suitable to your particular needs and workable in the framework of your own particular other responsibilities. But you will read the Scriptures broadly. Why do I say 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16 is probably the most pivotal text? Well, it's self-evident.

32:30 Having told or reminded Timothy that it was through the Scriptures that he was brought to faith in Christ Jesus, he goes on to say that all Scripture is literally God breathed, out of God. Scripture is the breath of God materialized in the words of your Bibles. All Scripture is God breathed, and because it is what it is, it is able to do what it does. All Scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching. The objective revelation of teaching, what I am to know about God, about man, about the world, about sin, about salvation, about duty, about privilege, about promise, about the past, the present, the future, all of the truth concerning those things we need to know for this life and the life to come, the teaching of that truth

33:47 is in this throughout the Scripture, profitable for teaching. There is instruction in the historical sections, instruction in the genealogies, there is teaching in the poetical section, in the epistolatory section, there is teaching in the Apocalyptics of Ezekiel and of John, teaching of what is wrong in my life, and there is reproof to be found in historical narratives, as we shall see, reproofs to be found in those maxims in the book of Proverbs. There is reproof to be found in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ as He is set before us in what Hugh Martin so strikingly calls the four Gospels, the galleries of the King. And as we walk through the galleries of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

35:07 and behold our Lord Jesus, there is not only teaching, there is reproof. Scripture being inspired of God is not only profitable for teaching, for reproof, but also for correction. ...orthodontics, for the Greek word is the one from which we get our word orthodontics. And some of you kids have been to the orthodontist. And what's he doing? He's not doubling up his fist and knocking your teeth out.

35:40 He's putting on various devices to straighten out the crooked ones and make room for the ones you're going to. Need to be able to chew and look reasonably attractive. Scripture is profitable not only to point out our faults, our crooked places. It's profitable for reproof, for correction.

36:04 It's profitable for training in righteousness. And that word instruction is dis-training. What we do with our children when using every means from verbal instruction enforced by rewards and punishment, we seek in pieces to put into their character that which under God will result in their being well-rounded, mature. Mature is profitable for discipline or training in the realm of righteousness.

36:48 With respect to living, a righteous life to be found in the biographies of Moses and Joseph and Jacob and Timothy. Action or training in righteousness to be found in the account of the wilderness wanderings of God's people in the book of Exodus and in the book of Numbers. Training in righteousness to be found in Moses' lengthy farewell sermon on the plains of Moab in the book of Deuteronomy. Training in righteousness to be found in the scathing denunciations of the prophets who point out the areas where God's people were not true to their covenant engagements. There is training in righteousness in the whole of Scripture. I would rest the whole case for urge as a matter of duty to read the Scriptures broadly upon this one text. Scripture is God-breathed for being what it is, profitable to do what it is, profitable for teaching, for correction, and for reproof, all of it,

The Living Word and Broad Application of Scripture

38:14 which ranks a close second. And a much briefer text is found on the lips of our Lord Jesus in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4, why must we read the Scriptures broadly? 2 Timothy 3, 16, and now Matthew, chapter 4, and verse 4. In the account of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness, you'll remember that Satan came and made a proposition to our Lord, and the tempter came and said, if or since, Greek students know that that word can be translated either if, or since, and it's hard to discern precisely what the tempter was saying, since thou art the Son of God, structure stuff, or you claim to be, prove it, if you really are. In either way, the proposition was to validate your identity, command that these stones become bread. We understand from those who know something of the topography of that area that there were no doubt around our Lord a lot of little stones that looked like little barley loaves, and after fasting for forty days and nights, we are told that afterward, verse 2,

39:41 he became hungry. So our Lord was conscious of the gnawing pangs of hunger, and perhaps just looking upon those stones, his mind reflected on that which they appeared to resemble some little bread. Unrevealed to us, the Father had not yet made it plain that he was to break his fast, proposition to do so comes from the tempter. And how does our Lord meet that proposition?

40:17 But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but notice, by old versions that have the Elizabethan endings are helpful, every word that proceedeth, it's a present tense use of that verb. Every word is a participle of ek peruamai, that is leading, right now, out of the mouth of God. See what our Lord was doing? He regarded what was embodied in Scripture in the Old Testament, he was quoting from Deuteronomy, in its application to his present situation as a living word proceeding right there, out of the very mouth of God. Now he knew it was embodied once for all of Deuteronomy. He had memorized it somewhere along the line in his growth in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Our Lord had obviously committed large sections of Scripture to memory in the same way that all of us must memorize.

41:42 And this was one of the texts he had committed to memory, but he regarded the living relevance of the word of God as God speaking in that very space, in that very situation. And as I tried to think of an illustration of this, the first that came to my mind is a little practice that my wife and I have developed over the years. I don't know how long we've been doing it. And we never sat down and talked it through, we just started doing it and now we do it.

42:13 And if one of us fails to do it, we get scared. And that practice is that if my wife leaves the home and has reason to believe that she's not going to be there when I come home, there will always be a note right in the middle of our little two-person table in our little kitchen. And so if I come in and say, hi, hon, and she's not there, or most often I notice on the side of the house that her car is not there, I know she's not going to be home, first place I go is right to the kitchen table and there will be a little note, hi, hon, left for such and such, hope to be back, and then the other things she says are none of your business. That's good for you.

42:55 And conversely, I do the same thing with her. She happens to be out and wasn't expecting me to go out. I put my little thing, even if I go down for my little 20-minute cat nap, went down at 1.50, see you soon, love, me.

43:11 What is that note? Well, when I come home, my wife is absent. She's not there. But when I go to the table and see that note, that is my wife in the present tense to me.

43:27 That which she frames with the ballpoint pen into words and phrases and sentences is nothing but a piece of paper with ballpoint ink sitting on the table until I enter that kitchen. Then it becomes the living word of my wife and all the livingness of who she is to me, her husband. Now, I am not saying, some of you think I'm becoming the orthodox. This book is the word of the living God objectively, in and of itself.

44:03 If the whole world should turn in its arrogance and pride and read another line of it, it would still be the word of God. But the point I am making, and there is a great difference, that is just the word of a woman, a woman precious to me, but a fellow sinner, a fellow redeemed sinner. But this is the point that I want to make. I don't say, oh, well, that's just a piece of paper and it's got some scribblings from a ballpoint pen.

44:31 No, that becomes the medium of my wife, my beloved, showing that I was in her heart, I was in her thoughts. It is the word proceeding out of her mouth by way of that slip of paper on the table. And that says to my mind what she would say, could she speak to me from Willowbrook Mall? Could we somehow just lock up by mental telepathy, push a few steps and push a few buttons on the side of our heads?

45:05 What she would say to me from her place there at the mall or at one of her children or caring for the grandchildren, whatever her circumstances may be, it is her living word to me. Now that's the point our Lord is making. Man shall not live by bread alone. Every word that is proceeding out of the mouth of God, I must regard all Scripture as God's Word.

45:34 It proceeds out of His mouth for me to feed. He has ordained that in the entirety of His Word is the full spectrum of all that I need in the nutrients of the soul to make me strong as I grow up into the fullness of the staff. Why when we turn to the Scriptures you will find such examples as these, and this is only a sampling, why I urge you and seek to bind your consciences to read the Scriptures broadly. In Matthew 19, they come to our Lord Jesus with questions on a very sensitive ethical issue, the matter of marriage and divorce. And how does our Lord answer them? Verse 4 of Matthew 19, and He answered and said, Have you not read? Back to Genesis chapter 2.

46:48 He says, Have you not read? In such an elementary question, asking it sincerely, not knowing the answer, your ignorance is culpable. Have you not read? Reading your Bible's broad, teachable mind, you would know from the institution of marriage that from the beginning God's mind and will was permanent, monogamous.

47:18 Teachableness, I do not know because the context is not specific. But this much I do know. Our Lord says, Have you? If you had read and read with warning the Corinthians about sins to which they were peculiarly liable in that horrible, seething sin.

47:56 If you wanted to say that someone had really become debauched and debased, you'd use a verb, he's become Corinthianized. And he's warning them not to fall into the sins of idolatry, not to fall into the sins of fornication and tempting God and murmuring against God. First Corinthians 10. He's warning them.

48:27 First Corinthians 10 verses 7 through 10. He warns specifically about idolatry. He warns about fornication. He warns about tempting God.

48:40 He warns about the sin of murmuring against God. And now look at verse 11. Now these things happened unto them speaking of that generation of the wilderness Israelites and the record of their wanderings as found in the book of Exodus and also found in the book of Numbers. He says these things happened unto them by way of example and they were written for our admonition.

49:10 By the time they were written they couldn't do them any good. They had all died in the wilderness. Why were they written? Just to know about going from here to there.

49:22 And this problem and that problem. You better want to know because it is written for your admonition. These things happened unto them by way of example and were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come. And we are so to read broadly that when we follow the wilderness wanderings and see the various sins to which they were prone and into which they fell we are warned as we read in our opening text in Psalm 19.

50:00 But if we omit that saying oh who wants to know about a bunch of people wandering around in the wilderness across the world. What's that got to do with me? It's got everything in the world to do with you. And it's written for you.

50:15 It's written for me. In our reading of the scriptures to read broadly that we might receive that profit. One other example. Christians were getting weary under divine chastisement.

50:30 And in Hebrews chapter 12 the writer to Hebrews says look stop having a pity party. You think you've got it rough? You've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Your savior did.

50:46 Others who've gone before you did. And not only does he rebuke them for their pity me attitude but look at verse 5. You have forgotten the exhortation. Now look carefully at the language which reasons with you as with sons.

51:05 He says you have forgotten an exhortation that is reasoning with you. And then what does he do? He quotes right out of Proverbs chapter 3 verses 11 and following. You mean what was written by Solomon to his son in Proverbs 3 is written to me?

51:27 That's exactly what the text says.

51:30 So that means if I'm not reading broadly that is I am not reading with some degree of regularity in the book of Proverbs I am missing this particular instance it was forgetting that the chastisements were no sign of divine displeasure but of divine love and concern. You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons. And then he quotes the passage. Do I need to labor the point?

3. Read the Bible Diligently: Active Mental and Spiritual Engagement

52:09 Dear people if we are to assimilate the scriptures we must not only be committed to read the scriptures regularly but we must read the scriptures thirdly and finally and very briefly in the light of our time we must read the scriptures diligently. So Pastor what about meditation? Forget all of that. That will never come unless you get these first three things.

52:47 These are the three building blocks. Everything else comes on top of it. We must read the scriptures diligently. Now what do I mean by that?

52:56 I mean to demonstrate from scripture that this whole idea that if I will just read regularly and broadly and thread the words through my eyes hoping I'll get the divine zapping I'll somehow profit from the scriptures. No you won't. This whole idea that I come with a relatively passive mind and spirit waiting for the heavenly thing is contrary to the teaching of scripture itself. Perhaps the passage that gathers the entire teaching of the Bible into short compass more forcefully than any other is Proverbs chapter 2 verses 1 through 6.

53:41 Why must we read the scriptures diligently? Here's the answer. My son Proverbs 2 1 if thou wilt now notice the vigorous words if thou wilt receive my words and lay up my commandments with thee so as to incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding yea, if thou cry after this for understanding if thou seek her as silver and search for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He is the source of the wisdom that sanctifies and instructs and builds us up in Christ. God is knowledge and understanding.

54:52 Ah! But by what means do we discern what is coming out of his mouth? By sitting back and waiting to be zapped? No!

55:02 By receiving, laying, ironing, applying... Back when our kids were...

55:15 One of the things that was my own little invented play times with them is I'd take a handful of pennies and a couple of nickels and a few dimes and I'd hide them in one room. And on a given signal they would turn loose and whatever you found finders were keepers. I had just a bunch of pennies a few nickels and a couple of dimes. But I tell you you should see the kids when they would be turned loose.

55:48 I mean they would go after those things. My wife and I would know where especially the nickels and the dimes were and they would usually be in the most difficult places to find. And if they thought they'd really scoured the room and gotten everything we'd say no still two nickels out there and two dimes. Oh it's back to a turn and everything's switching.

56:07 For what? For pennies, nickels and dimes. Now suppose we had the wherewithal to put real bonafide one ounce gold nuggets and hide them and hide them. Right now what is gold?

56:25 Somewhere around $350 an ounce. And I say to my kids they're five one ounce gold nuggets. The telephone rang they said if that's for me tell them forget it I'm on the search for gold. One of the kids came by and said hey let's write it I'm on the search for gold.

57:05 Look at your Bibles. Seeker is still for his treasure then. Now children that's the basic problem with some of you. It is mental laziness and that is the curse one of the greatest curses of the TV.

57:27 Mental where go by while you passively sit and absorb and you simply don't have the mental muscle to get in there for gold. God is not going to rewrite television or no television. Newspaper or no newspaper. Dear people if we're concerned for this rising generation under God we must seek to equip them to face realistically that it is only in the diligent searching of the scriptures that they will come to a sound knowledge of God and of his ways. Second text in closing 2 Timothy 2 and verse 7 it's a precious text that underscores the necessity of reading the scriptures diligently. Paul by inspiration has spoken to Timothy or written to Timothy and he says in verse 7 in a present imperative use of a verb begin and keep on thinking concerning what I say.

58:55 Timothy I've written some things to you about your responsibilities as a minister of the gospel. I've used the imagery of a soldier. I've used the imagery of an athlete. I've used the imagery of a farmer.

59:12 Now Timothy bound up in that imagery is a whole catalog of spiritual wisdom. How are you going to attain to it? Timothy take all the faculties of your mind and concentrate them on the things that I say. The verb that he uses means to think upon to consider intently.

59:33 Timothy focus all of your mental energies upon what I say. Now look at the latter part of the verse. For the Lord shall give you understanding. See the promise that God will give understanding is not given while Timothy just sits back and waits to get sacked.

59:55 Timothy is to be diligent. Timothy is to apply all the faculties to what Paul has said. And as he does so with his heart in the posture of utter dependence upon the Spirit of God to teach him in the context of conscious personal mental diligence the Spirit of God is pleased to come alongside and to grant that illumination without which he could not and would not understand the full intention and meaning of the apostles. And surely if that was necessary for Timothy it is necessary for us.

Conclusion: Call to Regular, Broad, and Diligent Reading, and a Challenge to the Unconverted

60:37 No shortcuts no other way to spiritual maturity. Having sought to demonstrate how crucial is the mental and spiritual assimilation of the Word of God with those ten lines of Biblical evidence in the previous two messages I've addressed only one crucial question this morning. How should we read our Bibles? And I've answered we must read the Bible regularly.

61:05 We must read the Bible broadly. We must read the Bible diligently. Some of you say Pastor I really don't have any interest in reading the Bible at all. Well I'm not surprised because if you don't know the author in a saving way you're not interested in his Word for the Scripture tells us that the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

61:35 Furthermore the Scripture says this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. No you don't want to get too close to your sins and it tells you there's a hell that awaits you and that the only way to escape it is to turn from your sin and to throw yourself in all the flesh withering pride destroying elements of faith. Cast yourself upon Christ as he's offered in the Gospel trusting only in the virtue of his perfect life and death for your acceptance with God. No I'm not surprised you're not interested in reading this book.

62:14 It points you to a life of holiness. It says that mere religious ritual is a stench in the nostrils of God. That true religion is a matter of the heart and it focuses upon Christ and it's concerned with not only trusting Christ but pleasing Christ and obeying Christ. And I therefore plead if you have no hunger for the word of God to face the fact that most likely it's an indication you're lost and you need a savior.

62:46 But the vast majority of the world is not one that a person needs but that God has given the truth to those who are curious and willing to do what He has called for. Well then I'm not going to sit here and talk about the most important thing that a person It's for lack of desire and discipline And nothing will substitute May God help us That in the days to come We will be found as never before A people If anything else can be said of us in truth A people who read their Bibles Regularly Broadly And diligently by the grace of God Our Father we thank you for your holy word We think of the many Tribes of the earth Who this very day Don't have one page of it In their language We think of the nations of the earth That have come into being Have entered a place of prominence Have then gone off into oblivion Who never had a page Of this book

64:12 We have it, many translations Many copies of it And yet oh God So often it lies unused Forgive our sin Of ignoring your word Snubbing you For you speak in your word We pray that the Holy Spirit Would have deep, powerful Transforming dealings With all of our hearts That we may indeed become a people Committed to the reading Of the word of God Seal then your word to our hearts And have dealings with those Who do not know you Continue with us in this your day That in it we may glorify You and make profit In our own souls We ask through the Lord Jesus Christ Amen