How to Study the Bible part 2

[00:00:00] This evening I thought we would turn back to one of the points that we made last week in our study on how to read and study the Bible. It was the second point that we made, the need to take Bible reading and study seriously. [00:00:26] I think we pointed out last week that unless we really do approach the whole matter of the way we read the Bible and study the Bible seriously, we cannot possibly expect to get much out of it. If we simply skim through a few verses or read a passage so that at the end of it we don't even know what we've read, our minds, in fact, have been thinking about something else whilst our eyes have been reading the words. Well, we will not obviously expect. [00:01:05] We should not obviously expect to get anything out of God's Word. [00:01:12] The more seriously we approach the reading and the study of the Bible, the more we shall get from it. [00:01:22] Now, we've said an awful lot, I think, last week about the way we should approach it, many other matters. But tonight I wanted to spend a little more time upon the four points that we mentioned in taking Bible reading and study seriously. If you remember, we spoke of searching and meditating and comparing and obeying. [00:01:54] So I thought this evening we would just look for a little longer at this whole matter. [00:02:01] Now, one thing perhaps we could say about God's Word is that God's Word has within it the power to. To do something in us. And this, I am afraid, is often not realized. [00:02:18] This book is different to all other books in this sense that when the Holy Spirit takes the words of this book and makes it live, he is able to effectively in us. What we read in the book. Now this is what we call revelation. [00:02:43] But it suddenly comes in a flash. You could have studied something, you've got it all up here, you know all about it, and then all of a sudden it's revealed to you. And in an instant, that which is revealed to you becomes somehow your experience. [00:03:06] For instance, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, Chapter four, and verse six, seeing, says Paul, it is God that said light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [00:03:45] Now, you see, the interesting thing is that Paul compares this word with the way God spoke in the beginning when he said, let there be light. Light. And if you read in Genesis 1, you find. And it was so. [00:04:04] In other words, as soon as God said something, it was done. [00:04:10] And so it is with us. God's Word has the most tremendous power to do something it is in fact creative. In two Peter and chapter three, we had the same idea, Verse five. [00:04:33] For this they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water by the Word of God. [00:04:45] Verse 7. But the heavens that now are and the earth by the same word have been stored up for fire. The idea there is that God's Word is creative. When God says something, it's done. [00:04:59] He just doesn't say a few words. And they remain theory. God says something and what he says has the power within it to do his will, to actually effect his will to influence and change and mold things. Now, you know, if you and I came to God's Word in that light, if we looked upon it as the greatest molding force in our lives, it would transform our reading and our approach to God's Word the way that we approach the whole thing. The whole matter comes down to this, that this book God can use to do something in us. [00:05:50] And if it's approached in the right way, he will do just that. [00:05:56] Now, these four things we mentioned about taking Bible reading and study seriously. First, this word search or Investigate. Acts, chapter 17, verse 11. [00:06:13] Acts, chapter 17, 11. [00:06:19] Now, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily whether these things were so. Now, your authorized Version says searching the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so. And this word is in fact a very interesting point word indeed. [00:06:45] There are three ways that we can look at this word. [00:06:50] All actually basically mean the same thing, but each way of looking at it just brings some fresh aspect of taking Bible reading and study seriously. First of all, it means to examine. Now, my version, and I don't know what the Revised Standard Version does that use the word examine. Yes, evidently this is the favorite word of the modern versions, examine. And you know, it's used, as I think I mentioned last week, when Pilate said of the Lord Jesus, I have examined him. It was the technical word used of examination by torture. [00:07:33] When, you know, in the old days, they examined a person, they interrogated them, they didn't just ask them some nice questions across the table and leave it like that. [00:07:45] They brainwashed them on the rack or being whipped or in other ways being tortured. [00:07:54] And in this way, they were examined under torture. And this is the word that is used here of the Scriptures. These people were more noble than those at Thessalonica because they examined the Scriptures exhaustively. That's the idea. They examined the Scriptures Exhaustively. The idea is of careful analytical examination, as by a magnifying glass or under a microscope. That's the idea. Examination of God's Word minutely. [00:08:37] Now, are you taking your reading of God's Word seriously like that? Are you examining it minutely? [00:08:47] Are you taking the very words that are used and thinking about them, asking yourself, what does this word mean? [00:08:59] Are you looking up the references, the cross references? Are you examining each part of God's Word? This is why the folk at Thessalonica were commended, because they not only heard what was said on the platform, they not only heard what the apostle and others said. They went back home and they took the Bible and they put what was said under the microscope of God's Word. And they looked very carefully. Now, is this thing so. Oh, if only there was more of that amongst us. Not just taking what the speaker says, whoever he is, but taking what he says as coming from God, going home and examining it as to whether really it can bear examination. [00:09:51] Do you understand? [00:09:53] Really carefully, analytically, examining all and everything in the light of God's Word. Well, that would bring us into very great blessing. You know, some people hear, this is the purpose of God, so and so and so and so they say, well, of course, Lance said, that's the purpose of God. It must be the purpose of God. Or they say, Mr. Spark says that that's the purpose of God. It must be the purpose of God. Or brother Nee says that this is the meaning of the cross. It must be be the meaning of the cross. Or Billy Graham says, this is the meaning of the church. It must be the meaning of the church. Do you see what that means? Really, we ought to take what these dear brethren say and go back. Don't just pretend, oh, can't be the word of God or just swallow it wholly, but take it back and examine it in the light of God's Word, microscopically examine what is said in God's Word concerning this. Now, if that was the kind of way that we approach the reading and the study of the Bible, what the Lord might be able to do, none of us have yet conceived. [00:11:12] You see, God's Word is the most dynamic power in the universe. [00:11:19] It's not just a written word. [00:11:22] Once. [00:11:23] Once it's approached in the right way, once you rely upon the Holy Spirit. God's Word is like the atom. [00:11:31] Once it's split, once it's opened, My word, the power that's inherent within it, the way it can change things, it can affect things, it can influence things in your Life. [00:11:44] If only you and I would allow God's Word to do something in us. [00:11:49] My but if we want God's Word to do something in us, we've got to allow it to do something in us. We've got to get to God's Word, not to things about God's Word, but we've got to get to the pure source, the Fountainhead, and get to God's Word itself. And we've got to take God's Word itself and examine it carefully. Now, I wonder whether you and I are examining God's Word. I'll give you a few examples. And I'm sorry that I haven't had a lot of time today. And I was very much in a fog as well about this evening. So I'm afraid that my examples are ones that I have come to have meant been a blessing to me. And if I'd only had much more time to think, I think I could have found very many more. But I'll give you one or two from my own experience. For instance, chapter Psalm 37. [00:12:46] Psalm 37. [00:12:52] Now you see, verse five. We've spoken upon this some Sundays ago, I think. Commit thy way unto the Lord. [00:12:59] Commit thy way unto the Lord. Now then, don't just read it. Here you are, you're in your morning time with the Lord, and you're reading. Fret not thyself because of evil doers Neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteous for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither of the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good, Dwell in the land, Feed and is faithful, and delight thyself also in the Lord. The train will be going every and he will give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way out of the Lord. No, that's no good at all. [00:13:25] That's no good at all. You've got to take it, even if it means taking a verse at a time. Even if it means cutting yourself down to one verse at a time. Well, now take this. You come to commit thy way unto the what does it mean to commit thy way? It's no good saying commit thou always, of course. Commit thy way unto the Lord. What does it mean? [00:13:44] Ask yourself, what does this word mean? [00:13:48] Commit thy way unto the Lord. Now the first thing is, it's to the Lord. [00:13:53] Not to a thing, not to a movement, not to the saints, not to truth, but to a person. [00:14:03] Commit thy way unto the Lord. Now that's tremendous, isn't it? [00:14:10] And then what does it say? What does commit Mean, now you must sit down and think. Put it under. Put it under a microscope. You see? Look at it. Now look, it says K in my version. It's got a little K there. And if you look up K, it says Psalm 55, verse 22. Well, let's look up Psalm 55. 22. [00:14:35] Well, listen to this. [00:14:37] Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will sustain me. [00:14:43] Now then. So this is the cross weapons. Commit thy way unto the Lord. [00:14:48] Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will sustain thee. Now, is that what it means? Does this throw light upon that? [00:14:57] Well, now look at this. There's a footnote in my version. It's got a little 8 by cast thy burn. It has the figure 8. If I look down at the bottom, the footnote, it says, what he hath given me. Well, isn't that beautiful? Well, I'm getting a blessing already, you see. Commit thy way unto the Lord. I found out that there's a little cross reference is cast thy burden upon the Lord. Burden. Oh, I'm so burdened. [00:15:25] Perhaps some of the burdens I've got are my own fault. [00:15:29] But I'm so burdened when he says, cast thy burden upon the Lord. But look at this castle. Cast what he hath given thee upon the Lord. [00:15:39] Isn't that beautiful? Cast what he hath given thee upon the Lord. Microscopic examination of God's word. Look what he's getting this. Cast what he hath given. Commit thy way unto the Lord. [00:15:52] Cast thy burden upon the Lord. [00:15:55] Cast what he hath given thee upon the Lord. [00:16:00] Well, well, well, what's he given you? He's given you a job to do, and it's a big burden. Cast what he's given to you upon the Lord. Well, I think that's rather wonderful. See, then I look up, go back to my first reference again, K. And I look down, I see it says Proverbs 16:3. [00:16:20] So I shall look at Proverbs 16 and verse 3. [00:16:25] Proverbs 16, verse 3. [00:16:32] And what do I find? Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy purposes shall be established. [00:16:39] Well, commit thy way unto the Lord. Cast thy burden upon the Lord. Cast what he hath given thee upon the Lord. And now commit thy works unto the Lord. What are your works? Well, well, well. [00:16:53] Commit thy works unto the Lord and he will care for thee. Well, now, isn't that wonderful? [00:17:03] And then I go back again to Psalm 37, and I look at my cross reference again in ick. And it says 1 Peter 5:7. [00:17:13] So now I turn up the New Testament 1 Peter 5 and verse. [00:17:21] And what do I read? [00:17:27] I read this. Casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. [00:17:36] Microscopic examination of God's word. Well now, there you are. Look here, five minutes. [00:17:43] Five minutes we've taken to go through all that from Commit thy way unto the Lord. Look where it's got us. Isn't that enough food for you for the whole day? Perhaps for the whole week? I mean, you can go away, you can live upon that when it's your works that are troubling you. Commit thy works unto the Lord, he will establish it. If you've got a burden, cast thy burden upon the Lord. If you're full of care, Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Or if your ways, you're not very sure about your way, commit your way unto the Lord. But just wait, we go back to Psalm 37:5. [00:18:20] Now we must ask ourselves something. What does it mean to commit? [00:18:26] What does it mean to commit? [00:18:30] Well now if you look down, if you've got a version, which you ought to have, if you want to study God's Word, you won't get this in the authorized Version. You look down at the footnote 12. [00:18:41] It says, Hebrew, roll thy way upon the Lord. So here we've got an alternative shade of meaning. Roll thy way upon the Lord. Not only commit thy way upon the Lord, that is, commit it over into his care, make him manager of it, make him Lord of it, commit it over to him. But now roll it upon the Lord. See, it's a big boulder, It's a great burden. Get behind it and get it moving and roll it. Once you've got it rolling, it'll not stop. And just keep it rolling till you've got the whole thing well and truly upon the Lord, Roll thy way upon the Lord, and he will, and trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass. Now you see that microscopic examination of God's word. [00:19:40] Now you see some of us are dead, not only from the neck upwards, but from the neck downwards spiritually, because we don't allow God's Word to do its work. And then we come and we say, well, of course, I don't know what it is, or second hand for me, it doesn't mean anything to me. I find myself utterly bored. And all the rest of it. Well, you see, I mean the whole point is this. Christianity is nothing unless it's original. [00:20:07] It's like everything else, you can take it on. [00:20:11] And the only way you can stop yourself from taking these things on is by reading God's Word yourself. [00:20:21] And it's no good reading God's word in a wooden way, you know, a sort of thick headed wooden way. It just won't do anything for, for you at all. Not anything. You might as well read Shakespeare. [00:20:36] The whole point is that if you want God's Word to do anything for you, you've got to approach it trusting the Lord. [00:20:45] You've got to use your intelligence. But your intelligence must first be broken of its own self sufficiency so it rests on the Holy Spirit. Then you can use your intelligence as much as you want. [00:21:00] The Holy Spirit will see to that. And the more you do, the more God will speak with you and do for you. [00:21:11] Now I read something this morning that I thought was very true. Listen to it. I'll say it. It was said by Martin Anstey. [00:21:20] He's in the presence of the Lord now. He said, if the Bible doesn't separate you from your sin, your sin will separate you from the Bible. [00:21:38] Think about it. [00:21:41] If the Bible doesn't separate you from your sin, your sin will separate you from the Bible. Generally speaking, if we're not really reading God's word, we can be sure there is sin somewhere. [00:22:02] Now I would like to just give you one other example of. [00:22:06] Well, no, we'll go on to the second idea because it's very much the same. See, the second idea of this word is investigation. [00:22:13] This word searching. Investigate. Not only examine microscopically, but investigate. Now what is the, the idea here? Well, it is one of thoughtful consideration. [00:22:27] Thoughtful consideration. Investigate. Not only examine microscopically analyze, but investigate. Let's go right through the thing. Right through it. [00:22:40] Try to find out as much as you possibly can. Really investigate. Of course it's the same idea as examination, but it just has this slight difference. I thought of one or two instances again. I thought for instance of Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53. [00:23:08] And verse four. [00:23:13] Well now you see, when you're looking at this word in Isaiah, you come to this word, Isaiah 53, 4. [00:23:30] We yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. [00:23:39] And supposing, as I suggested last week, You're engaging in analytical study of God's word, that is word by word. And you're looking at this and you've been thinking about surely he borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. And then you're looking at the other versions, you see, and you look at the Revised Standard Version and it more or less says the same and then you look at another version, perhaps Moffat, and it says something in a little more modern language. And then you look at the Latin, Vulgate, Knox's Vulgate. And you certainly read. [00:24:23] And we thought him a leper. [00:24:28] A leper, you think a leper. Now where did they get that word, a leper, that strain. So you look back and you say we did a steam of sticken. Well then you think there must be something very strange about this, I better look it up in the concordance. So you get your big concordance out after you've paid your £3 10 for it and it's well and truly yours and you open it up and you start to look through stricken. [00:24:57] Well, you come, you come to it here and when you look through it says stricken through to be stricken. [00:25:09] Well then you look, there is a verse in Lamentations 4, 9, and that's one word. [00:25:17] And then you come to Isaiah 53, verse 4, and you suddenly see, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. And you find. Do you know what the word is? To touch, to come upon, to strike, or to plague. [00:25:36] And then you find that in Isaiah 53 and verse 8 for the transgression of my people was he stricken. He was plagued, you find it, you see, he was plagued. [00:25:48] And well of course by this time you're dead excited and you begin to wonder. Well, I never did plagued, you see. [00:25:57] Now then, can we find out is this word used anywhere else in scripture? Well, you see, if we look here we find that it's a Hebrew word, Naga. [00:26:07] And if we turn to the back, of course this is the thing you all ought to learn. It doesn't matter how simple minded you are, the most simple minded person can use Young's Analytical Concordance. Don't be put off with it. [00:26:19] It's been built, you know, but sent him mad actually. But it was built especially, especially for simple people. No, truthfully it wasn't for people who were clever or all the ways. Now at the back you find that every word used in the concordance, both Hebrew and Greek, is listed alphabetically. And if you look up and you come to the word Naga, you will find everything under. And then you will. It's used in other words. And then if you turn back to Leviticus, chapter 13 and verse 14, chapter 13 and chapter 14, well you find it's the word used not once, but again and again and again and again and again in almost every single verse of those two chapters and it's the word plague. [00:27:11] Look. Verse three, Verse two. When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising or a scab or a bright spirit, Spartan, it becoming the skin of his flesh. The plague of leprosy. That's the word, you see. In fact, the Vulgate translators had got more idea of the meaning of this word stricken than perhaps we realize when they came to translate it into Latin, you see, Jeremy thought for a long time and thought, should I put stricken? [00:27:39] And he thought, well, if I put stricken, what will that mean to them? [00:27:43] Will it mean much to them if I got stricken? You see, he thought to himself, the idea is plagued. Plagued with leprosy, in other words. [00:27:51] We thought he was a sinner, you see. We thought that his being crucified like a criminal on the cross was because he was a sinner. [00:28:01] But in fact, it was to the transgression that was due to my people that he became a leper. [00:28:08] He did become a leper, but he became a leper for us. [00:28:13] Do you understand? [00:28:14] So Jeremy thought, now what shall I do when I. What Latin word shall I use? And so he thought, I know what I'll put in. I'll say we did esteem him a leper, because in fact, that's really what it means. [00:28:26] Now, you see, you've investigating God's word, and you see, don't you think it'll mean something to you? Don't you think that that morning when you're in your little study or the evening you're studying your little bit of the word, don't you think a fresh revelation of the cross will break on you when you realize Jesus, the sinless one, became a leper for me. [00:28:55] All my leprosy was placed on him. Him. [00:29:00] Well, I think I personally, you see, I. I think it's absolutely wonderful. [00:29:04] And then again, I mean, if you look at 1 Peter. [00:29:09] 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 7. Now, we've already looked at this word, casting all thy care upon him, for he careth for you. [00:29:27] Now, you see, when you think of that, when you really think of that word, you see, you might think, casting, casting, casting all your care upon him. Now, what does it mean, casting all your care? Well, look it up in the concordance. [00:29:49] And this is what it said. [00:29:51] Hurl upon. [00:29:53] Ah, to hurl upon. [00:29:58] Now, you know, you don't. You can cast rubbish into the dust bin. [00:30:05] You can cast rubbish upon the compass heap. [00:30:10] But when you hurl something upon it, why, word, you're getting rid of it, aren't you? [00:30:17] You're really putting some energy into it. You're not just gently tipping it out like that. You're getting hold of it and you're throwing it upon the thing. Now, do you know what Peter said to the saints? He said, look, anxiety, care, worry is so clinging that the only way to get rid of it is to get hold of it and hurl it upon the Lord. Hurl it upon the Lord. And that's the only way to get rid of worry. [00:30:46] Some people think that the only way to deal. They think the scriptural way of dealing with worry is to be very genteel, you see. And so they worry and no, be not anxious, they say to themselves. And it flits away for a moment, and like a returning pigeon, back it comes into the mind, and there it is again. They're worrying again and think, no, no, no, I mustn't be anxious. And out it flips again. And then gradually, like a pigeon, it comes back and it's come home to roost. [00:31:15] Worry is the thing that comes home to roost. And back it comes again and again to the dear old dovecot to sit there back in its home. The only way to get rid of it is to take hold of the thing and hurl it upon the Lord. Now that means absolute determination. Take hold of the thing. That's your anxiety. And hold. Hurl it upon the Lord. Well, now, you see, how are you going to find that out if you don't investigate God's word? [00:31:43] I mean, if you just read it as casting, you might not realize the full force of it all. But when you've investigated the word, you see, you've discovered what it means. So that's another thought. Don't only examine microscopically, but search out, investigate. And of course, the last words, the one, the word used in your authorized version, search. [00:32:06] Now, in other words, we are to search as one does, for a lost brooch or a lost treasure. [00:32:17] You've got a precious brooch or a ring and one of the stones falls out. And what do you do about it? You search and you search everywhere for it. You see what happens when someone gets lost? [00:32:36] Well, there's an aerial search. You know, planes go up even to somehow or other try to survey everything until they can find where the lost people are. [00:32:49] You search for it. [00:32:52] Well, now, this is what we're meant to do with God's word. In Acts chapter 17, the verse we began off with, and verse 11, we are told these were more noble than those at Thessalonica in that they searched the scriptures daily. [00:33:16] In other words, they really went through The Scriptures. Do you understand what I mean? [00:33:21] It's not just a question of examining microscopically investigating, tracing the source right back to the source, as we've done on those two portions, but really searching through the Scriptures, really taking, as it were, an aerial survey of the whole thing, looking everywhere, you see, really getting down to the job seriously, and see, searching the thing out, that's serious business. [00:33:52] So the first thing is to search God's word. Now, the second thing is to meditate upon God's word. Now, you remember we gave you two Scriptures there. Joshua, chapter one and verse eight. [00:34:11] This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night. [00:34:21] For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good Success. [00:34:26] Psalm, chapter 1. Psalm 1. Sorry, Psalm 1. [00:34:32] Psalm 1, verse 2. [00:34:37] His delight is in the Lord. The Lord. And on his law doth he make meditate day and night. [00:34:44] Now, meditate. The word here, by the way, is muse or mutter. [00:34:49] I think I explained that to you last week. It's the. The idea is of a man who's so lost in meditation that he's muttering to himself, he's sort of saying something like this, commit thy way out of the Lord. What does that mean, commit that way out of the law? [00:35:06] Well, I suppose it means that he's lost. [00:35:09] He's so lost in meditation that he's chattering to himself, he's musing, he's talking, as it were. He's turning the thing over in his heart and in his mind. [00:35:20] Now, this word meditate's a lost art. And it's because it's a lost art that many a Christian's life is barren. [00:35:29] You see, meditation is linked with refreshment. And I often think of meditation somehow in my mind, it's always linked with dew. [00:35:40] You see, when a person's quiet dew falls. [00:35:45] Now, in Egypt and in Middle east, everything in the summer and for most of the winter is dependent on the dew. [00:35:55] And so sometimes heavy is that dew. Dew in the morning that it's almost a mist which passes through early in the morning and leaves all the gum trees and everything dripping for just a few moments until the sun is out. [00:36:10] But that moisture enables everything that's alive to live through another day. [00:36:19] That's the whole thing. [00:36:21] And you see it. It's an interesting thing, the dew. You've never seen the dew fall, have you? [00:36:27] The dew comes quietly, silently, when somehow or other no one is about. The thing we associate with dew is quietness. [00:36:40] Quietness well, now you see, what does this word meditate mean? Well, there can be no hurry at all. Now people say to me, oh, that's impossible. I just can't meditate. I live a very busy life. Yes, well, of course, that's just the point. You see, meditation doesn't mean that you've got to have two hours or even an hour. It just means that you take a grip upon yourself and you say 10 minutes of this day is going to be spent in inactivity. [00:37:12] That's all in absolute size. I mean the natural scale. Some people go. Go mad on yoga and other things just simply because there's a lot of meditation involved in it, that's all. And whilst in many ways that may have not so much relation to the spiritual thing, yet there's no doubt about it at all that there's a vital need in the human constitution for absolute quietness and silence. [00:37:47] Now, what does this mean, meditate? It doesn't mean that you sit there with an empty mind. [00:37:52] It means that you fill your mind with God's word and sit quietly, reflecting. [00:38:00] You've got God's Word and you're thinking about it. You're not hurrying over it, but it's. You're reflecting on it. That's the way revelation comes. It won't always come in a flat. Whilst you're reflecting. Something will dawn on you. I'm sure that there's something here that you and I have got to learn. It's no good grumbling about others or about what you've been taught or about the company you're in here or elsewhere, or even the Lord himself. If you don't give time to meditate upon God's Word. [00:38:42] You must give God's Word a chance. I put it crudely, but you must give God's Word a chance. And meditation is the key. Time has got to be created for meditation. [00:38:57] You'll find every single thing against it, but you've got to do it. And then you'll find the busiest lives of those that shut the door and sit down and think because they've got to the only way through. [00:39:12] Now, I would like to say just one other thing about this. This quiet reflection and musing upon God's Word. How rare it is. [00:39:22] How really rare it is to take some poor sort of. Of God's Word and just sit and think about it. [00:39:32] Now, you see, prayer, worship and communion are linked with meditation. [00:39:41] Have you ever thought in your time with the Lord of taking some portion of God's Word and just quietly Turning it over in your mind and your heart with him. [00:39:54] I don't mean asking the Lord all the time, pleading with the Lord, interceding. No, I just mean communing, talking about it. [00:40:04] Well, Lord, delight thyself in thee. [00:40:10] What does that mean. [00:40:16] With the Lord? [00:40:18] The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Have you ever thought about it? Sit down and think about the secret. Oh, dear Lord, you've got a secret. [00:40:29] I wish that I could be in possession of your secret. [00:40:35] Do I really fear thee, Lord? [00:40:38] Meditation that leads to worship. Sometimes we can worship the Lord from some portion of his Word we're meditating upon. We can bow down in worship the Lord, say, lord, how wonderful. How simply wonderful that is. [00:40:56] Well, now, that's meditation. It's a lost art, and I hate to call it an art because somehow it seems as if it's a thing. Whereas really meditation should be part and parcel of the Christian life quite spontaneously part of the Christian and essential part. All I say is this, that in our studying and reading of God's Word, there's got to be a place for prayer and for mingled with it and worship mingled with it and communion in it. [00:41:28] It's God's Word, and we need to remember that very much. And then there's this other word, compare. [00:41:36] Compare. [00:41:37] How? [00:41:38] How do we compare? Well, you remember the Scriptures we gave last week. 1 Corinthians 2:13 in authorized version rendering comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [00:41:58] 2 Peter 1:20. No, scripture is a picture, private interpretation. And then 2 Timothy 2:15 rightly handling or rightly dividing the word of God. Comparing. [00:42:12] Now we said last week we need to compare Scripture with Scripture, remembering that the Bible is an unfolding revelation. [00:42:21] And we can't just take one Scripture and build a whole lot of we must compare Scripture with Scripture. How? Well, by marginal references is one way. By the concordance is another way. For instance, you come up against something and look at the marginal references and compare what other passages say about this particular matter. I'll give you an example of that, shall I? [00:42:53] 2 Peter 1, verse 21. 2 Peter 1, verse 21. No prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God being moved by the Holy Spirit. Now what does it mean being moved by the Holy Spirit? [00:43:13] Well, now look up G in the margin. 1 Peter 1:11 1 Peter 1:11 Searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ. Now there is another Scripture that throws light upon 2 Peter 1:21. Then if you look up 2 Samuel 23, 2, you have another scripture, 2 Samuel. [00:43:57] 2 Samuel 23 and verse 3, Verse 2, the spirit of the Lord spake by me or in me, and his word was upon my tongue. Now here you see, you've got another scripture that throws light upon that. Luke 1, verse 70, Luke 1, verse 70, As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from Old Acts 1:16. [00:44:43] Now you see where as you follow through these different references, you begin to discover that you've got something else in the word, all being compared with it. Brethren, it was needful that the Scripture should be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David. Now you've got some idea of what it means to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Spirit, you see, you're comparing it with other scriptures. [00:45:10] We could say so many other things about this need of comparing here in marginal references. The concordance is a helpful way of comparing scripture with Scripture. You've got a particular word and you want to make sure that it's the same original word that is translated. So you look it up in the concordance and there you've got all the reference. [00:45:31] And by following them up you can compare all of the different references. Sometimes it's a subject you want to look up. And if you take a Bible dictionary and you look up the subject in the Bible dictionary, it will refer you to every part in God's word where this particular subject is mentioned. And in this way you compare matter with matter. Do you understand? You compare scripture with scripture and you are preserved from unbalanced interpretation. Now, all this is very, very important, I think, indeed I've got down here 1 Timothy 5:23. I don't quite know what this is. [00:46:18] Oh, yes, supposing you were reading in your study, 1 Timothy 5:23, be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities you may well feel, especially if you like wine. Here the scripture tells us we must give up drinking water. [00:46:42] And someone says, God's word is God's word. [00:46:45] God's word is God's word. Here God's word says, well, what does it say? Be no longer a drinker of water. [00:46:55] Well, then everyone said, then does that mean we must obey God's word and we must give up water altogether? We must become water abstainers. [00:47:06] God's Word says, so give up drinking water. [00:47:11] Be no longer a drinker of water, it says, and it goes on to positively tell us, use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Well, well, well, now, you see, from that one scripture, I'm using a rather absurd example, and yet it's true. [00:47:27] This goes to the root of the matter where you get people taking truth to an extreme. This is the kind of thing they do. They don't do it with this verse, but this is the kind of thing they do. They'll take a little phrase like this. [00:47:41] Exclusivism has taken a verse or 2 in 2 Timothy and has built upon that a huge structure. And do you know what it's all built upon? Purging. In a big house, there are many vessels, some unto honour and some are to dishonour. If, therefore, a man shall purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor. [00:48:02] And upon this one verse they have built this whole matter of separation from believers to the point now that we heard the other day of known Christians who went to their. She went to her sister, went to her own brother, flesh brother. And when it came to tea time, they said, we'll give you tea, but we shall have to have tea in this room. And you must have it in that room. [00:48:26] Known Christians. [00:48:28] Now, you see, someone says, but how can they do it? Well, you see, they've taken one or two verses, such as the ones in 2 Timothy, about purging yourself from vessels of dishonour, that you may be a vessel unto honour, forgetting what it says in Ephesians 4, about giving diligence to keep or maintain the unity of the Spirit. [00:48:50] You see, forgetting what it says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, about I'm of Apollos, I'm of Chevas, I'm of Peter, and I am am of Christ. [00:49:03] The exclusive position overlooked entirely. [00:49:08] And so you see, you see, here is the danger of taking switch, when here we've got it in, in a rather perhaps extreme way. Be no longer a drinker of water, but take use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Well, now I think this way. We must look up one or two others. Scriptures, Proverbs, chapter 20, Proverbs, chapter 20. [00:49:37] And verse one. [00:49:41] Wine is a mocker, strong drink of brawler, and whosoever erreth thereby is not wise. [00:49:49] Now what do we say about that? [00:49:52] Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whosoever earth thereby or it says in my margin, wheelers, thereby is not wise. [00:50:05] And then again, chapter 21, verse 17. [00:50:11] He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. [00:50:20] Now, you see, there's a lot else in scripture about drink as well. You see, you've got to take this scripture, you've got to take that scripture, you've got to bring them together, and you've got to understand that you cannot build a great doctrine on one scripture at the expense of the other. [00:50:36] Now that's what we mean about comparing. Can I give you another good example of this? [00:50:42] Let me, for instance, turn you to Acts, chapter 13. [00:50:47] Acts chapter 13 is a good classic example. [00:50:55] Verse 48. And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Oh, now here you are reading your portion in the morning and as you read you're very thrilled about it all. And then suddenly you come to this and dear, dear, dear, you're most upset. [00:51:21] As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. [00:51:28] Then you start to think, now what did Brother so and so say at such and such a conference? [00:51:35] Well, I remember what Mother so and so said. [00:51:38] He said, wherever you get this matter of foreordination, it is not connected with eternal life or salvation. It is connected with adoption as son and conforming to the image of Christ. [00:51:55] And then you look at this verse and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. [00:52:08] Oh, you think, I wonder if brother so and so has seen that verse. [00:52:16] You begin to wonder, oh, you say, well, what's the point of praying in the prayer meeting for the unsaved, as many as were ordained to eternal life? Indeed. [00:52:31] Then you start Romans chapter eight, you see, and then you see this. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Whom he foreordained, them he also called. And whom he called them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. Oh, you think, well, I never did. [00:52:55] I'm afraid I've got to be a Calvinist. [00:52:59] It's quite clear in God's Word that we are ordained unto eternal life. [00:53:06] And you couldn't get very, very twisted on this matter. You can say, you can go to Brother so and so and say, I'm very sorry I can't work in the Sunday school anymore. [00:53:17] Oh, you say it says better since you can't, I can. [00:53:20] No, no, I think it's entirely wrong. I think it's entirely wrong. You see, I believe that as many as are ordained will, will believe those who are ordained unto eternal life. Will believe. We don't have to do anything. God will do it. Oh, you go off to someone else, you say, I'm sorry, I can't go fishing anymore. I think fishing is all of the flesh. [00:53:39] All of the flesh. [00:53:41] Quite wrong. You see, I believe that as many as are ordained unto eternal life do believe they'll be added to the church. All you've got to do is get things right at the center and they'll all pack in. [00:53:52] You don't have to go out. You don't have to do anything. [00:53:55] And then after a little while, you'll start to worry about the brother who preaches the gospel on Sunday evening. And you'll say, really, I don't really he's led to the spirit at all. How can he go out to the unsaved like that? Preaching at them, saying to them, come, come, come. He shouldn't say that. [00:54:09] He shouldn't say that. [00:54:10] He should say that. Look here. [00:54:13] Those of you who are ordained unto eternal life, you'll be saved. [00:54:17] And the rest will draw a curtain over them. [00:54:20] But I mean, those of you who are ordained unto eternal life, you're going to be saved. You see what I mean? You see, in the end, you get to such a position, you can't pray. Now. You think that's absurd? It's not absurd. [00:54:32] I can take you to a group in Richmond who have no Sunday school, no open air, no evangelistic outreach, know nothing at all. And they've gone so far that they're not even sure that they themselves are saved. [00:54:48] And that's true. [00:54:50] They're the strictest of the strict Baptist. And they're not Salems. Another group I'm referring to, they're Juno. At the beginning of the century, they were a thriving company. How many of them were left? They're all white here. And I was just about seven or eight of them left. [00:55:08] You see, the whole thing has been driven to an extreme. [00:55:15] Absolutely to an extreme. [00:55:19] And of course, then you see. Well, I just read compare Scripture. [00:55:24] Now you start to compare. Now, this is where I'm afraid I should have to leave you. Because if I'd only had time and thought about this early, come to me earlier, I could have thought of a lot of scriptures. But as well I can think of Revelation 22:17. [00:55:40] He that is athirst let him come. He that will let him take the water of life freely. [00:55:49] Would you believe it? Now what am I going to do? [00:55:52] As many as were ordained unto eternal life believe. [00:55:56] He that will let him take the water of life freely and then again, think of it. Come unto me all ye that labour that are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. [00:56:10] Learn of me. Take my yoke upon you. You shall find rest unto your soul. [00:56:16] You see, it's amazing, isn't it? Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no ways cast out. [00:56:22] And so we can go on. And we can go on, and we can go on. You see, you can take a scripture like this where it says in Isaiah 53, often taken by people who believe this very much, yet he bear the last verse, yet he bare the sin of many. [00:56:41] Ah, they say, isn't that wonderful? [00:56:44] That means he bare the sin of the elect. [00:56:49] See not the world. [00:56:52] But you see, elsewhere, it says in 1 John, chapter 2 and verse 2, that he gave himself for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sin of the whole world. [00:57:07] Now, you see what I mean by about comparing Scripture with Scripture? [00:57:12] You see, if you're not careful, you see this? He bare the sin of the many. It's a Hebrew phrase, as we would speak of the many, meaning the all, really. [00:57:26] And you've got to compare and compare and bring both together and understand somewhere the truth lies between the two all the time. You cannot build doctrine or great doctrinal structure on one scripture at the extreme expense of another. [00:57:42] So Spurgeon used to say to some, very dishonestly. He used to say in the pulpit, I am an Arminian, and in the prayer meeting, I am a Calvinist. [00:57:56] On my knees I say, lord, save the elect. And in the pulpit I say, everyone will come. [00:58:05] And that's true. [00:58:07] We just. That's all we can do. [00:58:10] This is a mystery. But somehow or other we've got to be saved from going to extremes. Well, there we are. We've spent a little time on these things. I think we said quite a lot about obeying last week. The vital importance of obedience to God's Word, Much, I think, hangs on small issues in this matter. And when God speaks to us through His Word, as we meditate, as we investigate and examine and search, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, as God speaks to us, we must be obedient. [00:58:44] And if we're not obedient, we will have no further light. [00:58:51] Now, if I'm speaking to anyone this evening who feels God's Word is dead to them, and they would say, well, I've listened to all that you've got to say, but it doesn't touch me at all. God's Word doesn't mean a thing to me. I want to say to you just a simple thing. Somewhere or other you've disobeyed. [00:59:10] It's as simple as that. [00:59:13] Somewhere or other you've disobeyed. Like God refuses to speak another word until you're obedient to life given. [00:59:23] When you are obedient to light given, you see more light in the light. It goes on and you go on and you go on and you go on. And the parcel to just is a shining light that shines more and more to the perfect day. That's how it ought to be. Not going darker and darker and more uncertain than ever, but going on into the light. In all the storms and the conflicts are going on. But you see, you've got to be obedient. Like God is no trifler and you must not think that he can show you something at great cost and you turn your back on it and say no, and then expect him to show you anything more. He won't do it. No. Until you've got through that lesson, until you've learned that lesson and you're obedient on that lesson, no further light. When Abraham built an altar and then fell, he went down into Egypt. And when God wonderfully brought him back from Egypt in the most amazing way, he was taken back to the altar he left. [01:00:25] And there he had to offer again on the same altar. In other words, God takes us back to the same point at which we rebelled or at which we fell. [01:00:35] It's always the same. [01:00:37] And there's no further light until we get back there. And I would like to say, Joe, one further thing on obedience. Sometimes an awful lot hangs on a small issue. [01:00:50] Maybe it's something you just don't think is very important. [01:00:54] It might be about dress, it might be about a behaviour, it may be about your pleasure, it may be about your work, it may be about culturality, it may be about your way that you contribute. And yet to you it's a snort. [01:01:11] I mean, what does that matter? With a great almighty God in heaven and me, a little creature here on earth, how can it have any effect, you don't know, upon that little thing? A world depends. [01:01:25] I found it again and again in my own experience, and I've seen it. My observation, I can show you people to night or right back in the far country. And it all hung on a very small little issue that they were not prepared to be obedient to. And so they refused light. [01:01:45] And then things became dead. And as it became dead, they lived on past experience until they began to feel they were Hypocrites. They were play acting and they felt nothing anymore meant anything to them. Gradually, their hearts became stone inside, and in the end, they began to rebel against the whole thing until suddenly they'd gone. Spurgeon once gave a wonderful illustration of this example of it. He said he was out at Brighton one morning. He was never a man who suffered very well a hundred years ago. Of course, this is in the days of sailing ships. And there was a huge fleet out there in the channel, becalmed, and they couldn't move. And all the folk in Brighton were coming out to stand on the cliffs and along the front to watch these ships right out there, watch them through telescopes and so on, and try to identify them. And then the most amazing thing happened. A sudden storm hit them in the night. [01:02:42] A terrific storm, thunderstorm and squall. [01:02:46] And morning came the next day. One third of the ships had vanished. They'd gone down. [01:02:56] And do you know, Spurgeon couldn't believe that so many ships could go down. And he went to ask some old sea salts and so on about it. And they said to me, it's quite simple. You see, these were wooden ships, by the way. You see, the old sailors, he said, you see, barnacles grew up. [01:03:13] And you see, they never. [01:03:15] They never regularly cleaned off the barnacles. [01:03:19] And in the end, it was those things that had rotted the ship. And when the storm came, who couldn't stand up, they just went over and down. [01:03:29] And Spurgeon preached an amazing song. If you want to go and sing it. There go the ships. [01:03:36] My Word. It was a sermon. He spoke about all kinds of ships. Tea ships and gunpowder ships he likened to go to Christians. You see, there were the tea ships and the gunpowder ships and this kind of ship and that kind of ship. And he spoke of this illustration, this example of when the storm came and some of them went down. And that's how it does happen. I've often thought about it since. Suddenly a storm comes to a company or to individuals, and you look around and certain people that outwardly didn't seem superficially to be failing have gone in the storm. They've gone down. [01:04:17] But actually the rock had set in many, many, many, many months before. [01:04:25] So, you see, we need to be obedient. God's word is the key. Ye are clean to the word that I spoke unto. [01:04:32] God's word keeps us clean. It keeps us in the light. It keeps us going on with him. It keeps us free. [01:04:39] It keeps us growing. May God give us grace to approach the whole question of Bible reading and study seriously.