03a) Pastor's Spiritual Development, Part 2

Prayer for Divine Help and Introduction to the Course Unit

0:03 Father, we would desire to respond in obedience to your word which commands your people to be still and to know that you are God. And as we at times feel ourselves pressed and harassed by the niggling details of life, how thankful we are that you are the God who carries on all of your eternal purposes, governing all in your universe from the farthest star in the farthest galaxy to the smallest sub-particle of every atom. And never once are you confused, never once are you frustrated,

0:46 never once are you a millisecond behind in what you do. How we thank you that you are just the God that you are. And we would own afresh. The many manifestations of our own creatureliness, of our own weakness as creatures, our dependantness.

1:07 And we now quiet ourselves before you and would plead that out of your own infinite fullness of grace and strength you would come to us and minister to us with power. O Lord, help me amidst the unusual pressures of these past days to feel affectionate. Refresh these issues that are so crucial to our life as Christian men and even more crucial as the servants of Christ. May I speak of them with fresh unction of the Holy Spirit.

1:44 May I know the felt pressure of these truths upon my own spirit even as I speak of them to my brethren. Come Lord and help us all that we may be conscious that we are having dealings with you the living God in this place in these hours together we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ amen now you men are well aware that the focus of our concern in this unit of your pastoral theology course is what I have called the life of the man of God in the pastoral office and in

Recap of Previous Lectures: Axioms of Pastoral Ministry and Spiritual Life

2:26 addressing this most crucial and elementary aspect of pastoral theology we began with a principle and I stated it this way that as a general rule sustained effective pastoral ministry will be realized in direct proportion to the health and vigor of the redeemed humanity of the man of God we then considered some of the biblical witness which supported the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the

2:56 man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and the faith of the man of God and that in three areas spiritually intellectually and the and physically and emotionally. And as you know from our previous lecture in taking up the subject of the spiritual life of the man of God,

3:36 we once again began with an axiom, namely the statement that we have a responsibility before God to strive to maintain a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and His ways. And after exegeting the axiom word by word or phrase by phrase in several instances, we then began to answer the question, how and by what means is this axiom to be experienced? And we had time.

4:17 We had time only in our previous lecture to address several observations regarding these means, namely that they are integrated and interdependent, they are all basic and foundational, and they are ultimately useful only because of their divinely ordained function in enabling us to draw upon the fullness of grace that is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And then...

4:47 and we concluded the lecture by addressing what I call the ordinary context within which we cultivate this acquaintance with God and His ways. Using these means, the context in which ordinarily we will find ourselves engaged in their use is the context of suffering, tribulation, affliction, temptation, and opposition. Now we come this morning, and in your notes you will find you are on page 25, to begin to consider large number four, the specific identity of the means ordained by God

The Discipline of Devotional Assimilation of the Word of God

5:30 for the cultivation of this acquaintance with God and His ways. And as we seek to identify these means, hopefully we will cover the five that are in your notes, pages 25, to 27, but we begin first of all with what I am calling the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the Word of God, the devotional assimilation of the Word of God. Now it is not my purpose by careful exegesis to prove that in God's plan and purpose there is a profound and vital relationship between spiritual health,

6:15 and the assimilation of the Scriptures. That would take a lecture in itself. The oft-quoted texts which demonstrate this connection, I trust, are well known to each of you men. Psalm 119, verses 9 through 11, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word?

6:41 Thy word have I laid up in my heart. That I might not sin against thee. Joshua 1.8, the command to the commander-in-chief of the Lord's armies, that the book of the law was to be resident in the sphere of his meditative exercises day and night, and in that path he would make his way prosperous.

7:08 Psalm 1.1-3, where the righteous is described as the man who does not walk, in the counsel of the ungodly, does not take the posture of scoffer and sinner, but, verse 3, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. The well-known words of our Lord's high priestly prayer in John 17.17, Sanctify them in the truth, thy word is truth.

7:41 And 1 Peter 2.2, those of us who...

7:45 took in hand the navigator's topical memory system as young Christians, this is one of the first texts we memorized. As newborn babes, long for the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And 1 John 2.14b, speaking of those who are strong because the word of God abides in them.

The Importance of Devotional Assimilation for Pastors (Murphy and Alexander)

8:10 One of the best summary statements of this relationship between, the assimilation of the word of God and our own spiritual health and vigor that I have ever encountered in all of my reading, particularly as it relates to the scriptures in the life and heart of the man of God, devotionally assimilated, is found in Murphy's work on pastoral theology, page 76 and following, and it will be the most lengthy quote I will give you today, but I cannot improve upon his... his expression of these issues.

8:48 This is a very important duty for every Christian, that is, the devotional assimilation of the word of God. The word is the great instrument by which the spirit increases holiness in the hearts of believers. It is by faith in that word that men are ordained to be sanctified. Christ teaches the necessity of the truth when, in his great intercessory prayer, he made sure of its essence, efficacy by the petition, sanctify them through the truth, thy word is truth.

9:22 The spirit will honor his own truth and will make it effectual. It is by Christ, the bread of life, that the soul is to be nourished, and Christ is to be found chiefly in the scriptures. See how he's picked up the thread of that final principle I laid before you in the previous lecture, that these means are effectual only, because God has ordained them as conduits through which something of the fullness of Christ is communicated to us. From the scriptures come light, and heat, and strength, and impulse, all of which are important elements of true godliness in the soul.

10:06 Not only to the young man, but to all who ask a similar question, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, comes the inspired answer, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Oh, how the devout study and personal application of the scriptures enrich the soul. A simple passage, devoutly meditated upon, makes the heart better. Then the growth in piety which is produced in this way is not ephemeral or spurious in any sense.

10:42 It is healthy and will be permanent in its results. All the books on personal piety that were ever written are not to be compared in wisdom, in authority, or in efficacy with the Bible itself. Now there is special need for the devotional study of the Bible by the pastor. His piety should be of the most elevated type.

11:09 His own spiritual wants, as well as those of the people to whom he ministers, demand. It should also be progressive, ever-rising and expanding as his work becomes more solemn. Nothing will meet these requirements but a piety that is truly scriptural. No type of piety but that which is wrought out from the word of God will do for him, and that which is wrought out from the word of God will do for him, and that which is wrought out from the word of God will do for him, whose example is largely to give form and character to the religion of hundreds.

11:53 Then the more thoroughly the minister studies the Bible for his own edification, the better will he understand how to bring it home to others. And no spirituality, but that which the Holy Ghost teaches in His word, will rightly equip or steady pastors in their great work. The Bible is a good example of this. The elders stay heeled in their great work for God for souls profound.

12:23 No spirituality but that which the Holy Ghost teaches in His word will rightly equip or steady pastors in their great work for God for souls and for eternity. For the minister especially it is very important that his soul be put in direct contact with the word of the Lord. He should get just as near as it is. He ought to grow in the neither side and grow in the right side of all things.

12:48 And so that is how Leshanah Elderly Practises Religious Transições is practiced by the Congregation of the Apostles幫ados He's all about being a German minister, is possible to the mind of the spirit. The very thoughts of that spirit he should endeavor to think over in his own heart. The soul will generally become assimilated to him, capital H, whose inspired utterances are kept constantly and impressively before him. We shall grow holy by the adoring contemplation of him who is holiness itself. And then he quotes 2 Corinthians 3.18,

13:19 but we all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. The word is pure, and its effect is always to purify. We do not sufficiently appreciate the supernatural influence of the scriptures in sanctifying the spirit of the Lord. We do not sufficiently appreciate the supernatural influence of the scriptures in sanctifying the spirit of the Lord. We do not sufficiently appreciate

13:41 those who are kept under their influence. Wisdom worthy of profound reflection is contained in the remarks of Dr. Archibald Alexander on this point. Quote, There is something wonderful in the power which the word of God possesses over the consciences of men. To those who never read or hear it, this

14:04 fact must be unknown. But it is manifest to those who are conversant with the sacred volume, or who are in the habit of hearing it expounded. Why should this book, above all others, have the power of penetrating, and as it were, searching the inmost recesses of the soul, and showing to a man the multitude and enormity of the evils of his heart and life? This may by some be attributed to early education, but I believe if the experiment could be fairly tried, it would be found that men who have never been brought up with the power of God, who have never been brought up with the power

14:41 of God, would experience its power over the conscience. The entrance of thy words gives light. To every pastor, then, would we say, study the Bible with constant and close self-application. Make its chapters and verses familiar, not merely by the effort to gain an intellectual understanding of them, but by the effort to gain an intellectual understanding of them.

Distinction Between Devotional and Ministerial Study of the Word

15:11 But by the effort to gain an intellectual understanding of them, not merely by the effort by the blessed comfort you have found from them in your own souls. Adopt some rule of systematic devotional reading, and let it not be intermitted for any trivial consideration. Adopt some rule of systematic devotional reading, and let it not be intermitted for any trivial consideration. Let your study of the Word be profound, so as to get down into its very marrow and sweetness.

15:45 Let your meditations be constant, so that all the day long you may have some scripture before the mind. Let it be with you, as his biographer says of McShane, that, quote, he fed on the Word, not in order to prepare himself for his people, but for his personal edification. To do so was a fundamental rule with him, end quote. And let all...

16:10 Let all this devotional study of the Word be mingled with prayer, that the same Spirit who inspired that Word would give its life and power in its effects upon your own soul. And brethren, when I say that first among the means ordained by God for the cultivation of this real, expanding, varied, original acquaintance with God and His ways, is the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the Word of God, this is what I'm speaking about.

16:51 Now, I'm not suggesting that your more technical and official ministerial dealings with the Word of God should not be devotional in tone. I'm not saying that when you leave the chair where you read the scriptures devotionally and come to the desk, you step out of the devotional framework, frame of mind. No, carry with you from the chair, the place where you read the Word of God to feed your own soul, that spirit of dependence upon God the Holy Ghost to teach you. Carry with you that sense of the Lord being at your elbow and looking over your shoulder.

17:31 I am not in any way setting up some artificial and unbiblical dichotomy between the study of the Word of God that is calculated, devotional assimilation, and that which is the more technical or rhetorical dealing with the Word of God in sermon preparation. But at the same time, I am saying that there must be a commitment that there will be regular dealings with the Word of God which have as their primary and only conscious focus the feeding. The feeding. The feeding.

18:11 The feeding. The feeding. The feeding. The feeding.

18:11 The feeding. The feeding. The feeding. The feeding.

18:11 The feeding. The feeding. I have chosen the words carefully and deliberately. There must be a commitment to dealings with the Word of God which have as their primary and only conscious focus not the feeding of others, but the nurture of our own souls.

18:33 Not dealings with the Word in which you are preparing to speak to others about your God and your Christ, but to speak to others about your God and your Christ, and to speak on His behalf. But dealings with the Word in which your great concern is God speaking to you and about your relationship to Him. Now several things need to be said about this devotional assimilation of the Word, and I have set before you three statements. The first, it is a reading which ought to be structured and consistent.

Characteristic 1: Structured and Consistent Devotional Reading

19:13 The first, it is a reading which ought to be structured and consistent. The first, it is a reading which ought to be structured and consistent. The first, it is a reading which ought to be structured and consistent. The last time I gave this lecture four and a half years ago, and then looked at the notes I gave the men, there was no scripture listed under it, and that bothered me, though there were scriptural illusions, and so I speed-read Psalm 119, and then prefaced it with Psalm 1-2, and buttressed it with Colossians 3 and verse 16.

19:39 Psalm 1, that should be verse 3, not verse 2. Psalm 1, that should be verse 3, not verse 2. Psalm 1, that should be verse 3, not verse 2. Psalm 1, that should be verse 3, not verse 2.

19:44 So I read two verses of Psalm 1. No, it is verse 2, I'm sorry. Verse 1, what the righteous man does not do, but now verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law doth he meditate day and night. Now, how can there be, as a pattern of life, meditation upon the law of God day and night, unless there are stated regular seasons for the initial mastication of that word?

20:21 We can't regurgitate and chew the cud by meditation unless there are seasons of initial encounter and mastication of that word. But then when we turn to Psalm 119, and I say this was just a speed-reading of the Psalm that yielded these texts, that surely, if they do not explicitly mandate structured and consistent exposure, they do by strong inference. Psalm 119 and verse 30,

20:59 I have chosen the way of faithfulness, thine ordinances have I set before me. There is a conscious, deliberate setting of the ordinances before the mind. There is a conscious, deliberate setting of the ordinances before the mind. There is a conscious, deliberate setting of the ordinances before the mind.

21:15 There is anazon to see how it works. There is a conscious, deliberate setting of the ordinances before the mind. There is a conscious, deliberate setting of care before the mind. and should it be no omission that inings of the permissive piece of the dispvae look like this we're a Rebel.

21:19 This sh义 Lead, but the rentaluralist advanced the Ultimate. This is the second, and foremost, root principle established by丹 The cue word in the Kingdom of God is, or , or , from , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , or , not merely meditating when one of them came with a sudden unexpected glow by some divine athletus,

21:52 but bringing the mind and heart to the revelatory data with a commitment to the will to meditate upon that revelation of God's mind. Then, verse 62, at midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous ordinances. Every time I read that in my own devotional reading, and I recently came through Psalm 119, it struck me that if David was rising at midnight, he must have had a good four-hour cycle of sleep before midnight. I wonder what time he went to bed.

22:30 Some of us are just about drifting off at midnight to rise at midnight. Be a foreman. But the principle is, you see, he was committed to rise in the middle of the night to give thanks to God for his righteous ordinances. How can he do that without his mind being fixed upon those ordinances and the soul feeling a fresh kindling of love and delight in the words of God?

22:57 Verse 97 of the same psalm, O how love I thy law! It is my meditation. It is my meditation all the day. And again, it is impossible for the mind to meditate upon that which it does not retain.

23:14 It cannot retain that to which it is not regularly exposed. And then verse 148 of the same psalm, Mine eyes anticipated the night watches. In situations when he was called upon to pull his own watch, it's the military imagery, he anticipated them wide that I might meditate on thy word. There was a principled commitment to his mind being engaged with the word of God.

23:47 And then the familiar words of Colossians 3 and verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let it dwell in you richly. Well, how can the word of Christ dwell in us richly? Unless there is structured and consistent exposure to that word.

Characteristic 2: Systematic and Comprehensive Devotional Reading

24:10 So, in terms of this discipline of the devotional assimilation of the word, it ought first of all to be structured and consistent. But then, secondly, it ought to be systematic and comprehensive. Systematic and comprehensive.

24:32 And I use those words to try to capture the emphasis of the texts that are listed. When Paul writes to Timothy as the man of God, that peculiar title that he gave to Timothy, rich with its roots in the Old Testament, comes to great flowering, of course, under Elijah and Elisha, but goes back to Moses, the man of God. All scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now, notice, not that the people of God, generically, but that the man of God, specifically, may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

25:15 Timothy, the first function of scripture in your life is its function in you. Then, he says, in chapter 4, verse 1 and following, I charge you in the sight of God, verse 2, preach the word. What word? That word that is constantly and continually primarily the word of your own constant nurture as a man of God.

25:43 Let that word be to you as a man of God, Timothy, these things. Then, when you preach it with urgency, in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, that word that is, first of all, made its impress upon your own soul as the man of God, it is that word which will be effectual unto the blessing of God to others. And then our Lord Jesus, quoting from Deuteronomy, as he does in the wilderness temptations, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Man is to live not by bread alone and not by what we would call

26:28 the major and the dominant truths of the mouth of God, but by every word, that proceeds from the mouth of God. And I've been struck afresh, as I've said is my goal this year, as part of my tape listening during my workouts to get through, in the first half of the year, the Old Testament, listening to Alexander Scorby, reading it, and I'm right now in the book of Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, yes, Deuteronomy. And time after time, I have been tremendously, both humbled and refreshed, in my own soul, as little details of the giving of the law

27:11 in that setting have eluded my mind. I've just not thought of them. And so many principles. I lay in bed the other night, just running some of them by with my wife, and how in pastoral situations there are principles embedded in those laws that are so applicable to us in the New Covenant.

27:33 One of them, of course, Paul picks right up, in 1 Timothy, and it is the injunction, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. And he makes that amazing statement. Did God say this for the ox' sake? He says, no, He said it for our sake.

27:49 God said it for our sake. God embedded that, that we might know that those who labor in the word and in doctrine ought to be remunerated. They ought not to be, a remuneration ought not to be withheld from the Lord. From them.

28:07 The amazing scope and depth of the word of God and how we need every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And then the statement of our Lord in Matthew 22 and verse 29. I read it in the parallel account in Mark in my own New Testament reading earlier this morning. When Jesus is dealing with those who think they've got Him hung up on the horns of a dilemma, our Lord is able to say, You err.

28:38 You miss the mark. Not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. You do not know the mind of God in Scripture. You do not have an experiential acquaintance with the power of the God of Scripture.

28:56 If you did, you wouldn't think you had me cornered with your logical deductions from this furious story of the woman who had the seven brothers and then there are all ready to break out into belly laughter as the Lord gets all hung up trying to answer this casuistic element that they laid before Him and He just looked them straight in the eyes and says, You miss the mark. You don't know your Bibles and you don't know God and His mighty power. If you knew your Bibles and knew the God of the Bible, you'd have no such silly question because you would know from your Bibles that in the resurrection there is a totally different state. We do not have marriage as we now know it

29:40 and furthermore you would know that God is the God of the living and therefore if He can create Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and if He can say I am their God and sustain their spirits while in the disembodied state what is the big deal to bring their dust together and to constitute them resurrected saints in the last day? I spoke the worlds into being out of nothing. I can gather the dust from around the world wherever it is and reconstitute. Well, you see, the older I get the more I find myself saying as I listen and read the stuff that comes out in the name of evangelical religion you do err.

30:24 Greatly err is the term used in Mark not knowing just knowing the scriptures. I'm amazed that people can let so much come in without it being filtered out with just a knowledge of their English body. They ought to have a grid that filters out about 99% of the claptrap that they grab onto and say this is marvelous when someone with but a modicum of a broad acquaintance with his English Bible would say oh, wait a minute wait a minute how do we square this with this text in this instance and this recorded precedent in the word of God. And brethren I urge you if you fail

31:08 in everything else with respect to this matter of what you are as a man before God do not fail in the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the word of God that is both structured and consistent and systematic and comprehensive. Now by systematic and comprehensive what I'm referring to is that you have some commitment and you will want to vary it because as one old preacher said a grave is nothing but a rut with the ends kicked out. I mean a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out. I mixed the figure.

31:49 That's all a rut is. It's a grave with the ends kicked out. And most of us are so constituted that what was a framework for systematic comprehensive reading of the scriptures for a couple of years if we don't alter it we find it very very difficult to fight the battle of dryness. But know where you are that in the course of two years three years you know that you're working through from Genesis to Revelation you may want to read your New Testament through every year continually read through the Psalms and Proverbs get through your Old Testament once every two years you may want to take McShane's daily Bible readings for one year and do a more surface sweep through the scriptures devotionally the next year may you want to split it up take two years

32:33 to get through it it may be that you want to get which is an excellent help in this area the Bibles that have no comments on them that we have in our bookstore that have a Bible reading program with the text right there my wife last year went through the entire reading and she said honey it was good for me because I had lost a grasp on many of the things in the general content but now this year I'm splitting it up and it's going to take me two years to get through the next time. So whatever it is I certainly have no authority from God to impose upon you this or that method but have a method and know what it is and brethren hear me now have a means

33:17 of personal accountability that you can't kid yourself as to what you're doing in this area. For me that personal accountability is in my devotional Bible a little tick mark with a date and the calendar and the ticks don't lie. It's amazing how I can kid myself after a busy weekend and say well I missed a day or two and I can't and I find lo and behold from Thursday to Tuesday morning I had not had my full devotional reading and so that has to be catch up time which Tuesday often is but I know where I've been where I'm at and I can point my finger right at myself and say hey watch out watch out that's the beginning

34:01 you begin to get some days like that when you're allowing the matter of your commitment to the discipline of the devotional assimilation of the word of God to be eroded and you're You are in big, bad trouble. That's what I say to myself. And I let my picks and my dates in pencil in my devotional Bible be my living Nathans who are constantly keeping their fingers pointed at me. Simple.

34:28 But I have found it effective. You have some way whereby to make yourself accountable to God to that systematic and comprehensive. If all of us by temperament have sections of the word of God to which we more naturally gravitate and which in terms of how we're put together we feel are more profitable to us and whatever allowance may be given to pursue those natural interests, make sure that your conviction that man shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God will mark your commitment to a systematic, systematic and comprehensive Bible reading program.

35:12 Let me quote here from Bridges, page 52 or 53. In general, quoting Mr. Scott, the commentator, I have found it advantageous to read the scriptures with such exactness as to weigh every expression and the connection as if I were about to preach upon every verse. And that is the way I have found it advantageous to read the scriptures with such exactness than to apply the result to my own case, character, experience and conduct as if it had been directly addressed to me.

35:47 In short, to make the passages into a kind of sermon as if about to preach to others, then to turn the whole application on myself as far as suited to my case. At other times, I've read a passage more generally and then selected two or three of the most important observations from it and endeavored to employ my mind in meditating on them and consider how they bore on the state of my heart or on my past life or on those things that I heard or observed in the world or the church and to compare them with the variety of sentiments, experiences, conducts

36:29 or prominent characters with which we become gradually more and more acquainted. It is most...

36:37 It is most important also that our research should compass as far as possible the whole extent of the mind, M-I-N-E, the Bible likened to a mind. The wise scattering of the truth over the whole surface of scripture is far more adapted to the ends of instruction than would have been a compression of its component parts within their several departments. None of us, none of us probably are wholly...

37:07 wholly free from undue partialities. And, had our favorite doctrines been concentrated in particular divisions of the scriptures, an exclusive or disproportioned attention to those parts would have contracted our views of the whole system. The present disposition of truth, however, compels us to study the entire volume and thus by considering the whole mind of God, our views are extended to the length and breadth of the land while we insensibly imbibe more of the enlarged spirit of divine revelation. Systematic and comprehensive,

Characteristic 3: Prayerful and Meditative Devotional Reading

37:51 it is this principle that has been underscored by Bridges in the quote that I have set before you. But then, the third thing that should mark this devotional assimilation of the word of God, it ought to be prayerful and meditative. Now, by prayerful, I mean we ought consciously to bow over our Bibles and, if not using the exact words of Psalm 119.18, surely the spirit, Lord, undress my eyes, open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

38:32 Now, remember, the one who prayed that was himself an organ of revelatory data. He was an instrument. Through which God was given us inscripturated revelatory data. And yet, he does not assume that that powerful, unique dimension of the Spirit's ministry upon his own heart and mind and pen automatically when he then picked up the very things he wrote that he might understand.

39:02 Remember, it says of the prophets, they searched diligently concerning the very things they uttered. Uttering them did not automatically give them insight to them. And we must, under God, seek to develop and cultivate that spirit of utter dependence that causes us to cry instinctively whenever we go to the place where we are committed to this devotional assimilation of the Word of God. Open thou mine eyes.

39:33 Or in the language of Psalm 139.23 and 24, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

39:53 To plead with God that the Word will do its searching work in us as we take it into our hands. And by meditative, I'm thinking of such words as are found in Jeremiah 15.16. I love that passage because of the vivid imagery.

40:12 Thy words were found. And what did Jeremiah say he did? I exegeted them, and thy word was unto me the sum and substance of my ministry to others? No.

40:24 Thy words were found, and I did eat them. There was a process of mastication and assimilation, like unto eating. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. And what was the result?

40:38 And thy word was unto me in that process the joy of my ministry. The joy and the rejoicing of my heart. The joy and the rejoicing were the fruit of the eating. And the eating was the result of the finding.

40:54 Thy words were found, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. And meditation is spiritual eating, assimilating to ourselves the words of the living God. Again, Bridges on pages 162 and 3 has an excellent statement so searching.

Warning Against Professionalism and the Battle of the Basics

41:23 Time must be found for the spiritual feeding upon scriptural truths as well as for critical investigation of their meaning or for a ministerial application of their message. If we should study the Bible more as ministers than as Christians, more, more to find matter for instruction of our people than food for the nourishment of our own souls, we neglect to place ourselves at the feet of our divine teacher. Our communion with him is cut off and we become mere formalists in our sacred profession. Henry Martin seems to have been

42:07 tenderly conscious of this temptation, the godly, saintly missionary to India. This is what Henry Martin said. Every time, every time that I open the scriptures, my thoughts are about a sermon or exposition, so that even in private I seem to be reading in public. End quote.

42:26 We cannot live by feeding others or heal ourselves by the mere employment of healing our people. And therefore by this course of official service our familiarity with the awful realities of death and eternity may be rather like that of a grave digger, the physician and the soldier than the man of God viewing eternity with deep seriousness and concern and bringing to his people the profitable fruit of his contemplations. It has been well remarked that when once a man begins to view religion not as of personal but merely of professional importance, he has an obstacle in his course

43:10 with which a private Christian is totally ungrateful. Unacquainted. Then there's a lovely footnote quoting from Henry Martin. Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul.

43:29 So shall I be rendered more capable also of performing the duties of the ministry in a holy, solemn manner. And that imagery of the grave digger stamped on my mind having just laid our dear sister Mabel in the earth yesterday. I shake the image of those men, six or seven, who milled around as we arrived at the graveside, obviously totally oblivious from all that could be discerned in their conversation and demeanor. Somber, solemn reality of death and the grave and judgment.

44:13 With it, so frequently, some of the most hardened people I've ever dealt with are funeral directors. That's why I don't go in the hearse with them, though they always offer to take the reverend along. I follow in my own car. I have been so vexed in my soul because they're with it all the time.

44:34 They become inured to it. Well, Henry Martin and Bridges observed that this is exactly what can happen to us unless the scriptures are read first of all and fundamentally and primarily for the nourishment of our own. Mark it well, my younger brethren. This is the battle of the basics.

44:59 This is the battle of the basics. This is the battle of the basics. This is the battle of the basics. This is the battle of the basics.

45:00 This is the battle of the basics. This is the battle of the basics. This is the trenches of the fundamentals. And if the Lord spares you, the most telling thing about you ten years from now, twenty years from now, thirty years from now, will be what you did with what you've heard this morning.

45:17 That will be the most significant thing. Not the only significant thing, but it will be the most significant thing. How well in the strength of Christ you maintained your commitment by the grace of God. by the grace of God.

45:34 To this devotional assimilation of the word of God, structured and consistent, systematic and comprehensive, fearful. Be like the little boy who was given a mirror in order to see the dirt spots in his own face to clean them. But he saw that when he could catch the sun's rays and reflect it, he could have lots of fun blinding the eyes of others with his mirror. And he spends all his time letting the sun's rays be reflected onto others.

46:10 Never takes the mirror to see the dirt on his own face. We can be like that in the ministry. Spending all our time, how shall I take the rays of the sun of God's truth and reflect them upon others to their light and warmth and heat and even exposure of their sins when the mirror needs first of all to be set before the face of our own souls. And brethren, if God at all blesses your labor, with that will come increased responsibilities, increased demands.

46:43 And I've lived long enough to see that the very thing that lay at the heart of a man's usefulness was eventually cut off by the fruits of that usefulness. And now he's only a shadow of what he once was. A shadow with a reputation. A shadow with a reputation.

47:05 The reputation was earned. The reputation was earned. But it had its deep tap roots in a commitment to this devotional assimilation of the Word of God. But then the very demands that grew out of that usefulness took the man off from the tap roots.

47:28 And now he's just a shadow and a reputation. And few things scare me more than that frightening reality. Well, let's break here and then we'll take up in the next hour the second of these disciplines, the maintaining of the habit, and the spirit of secret prayer.