Let The Word of God Dwell in You Richly

[00:00:00] This evening for a little while upon a subject that perhaps we do not often speak about. [00:00:11] But I think it is very, very important and one that we may well all benefit greatly from. [00:00:20] And I'm going to turn you in the course of what we say over quite a number of scriptures. But I would like first of all to turn you to colossians chapter three and verse 16. [00:00:37] Just this one phrase. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. [00:00:48] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. [00:00:58] There is something very wonderful about that little phrase, let. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. [00:01:12] I think that in that little sentence there is a very real counteractive to a whole lot of muddled thinking about the word of the Lord. [00:01:26] Many, many people like to make an excuse about the word of the Lord and like to make out that if it doesn't knock them off their feet, if it doesn't absolutely pulverize them, then it's not their fault if nothing's happening inside of them. The scripture says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. There is evidently a real measure of human responsibility in this whole question of the word of God. [00:02:03] And I am not only thinking of the written word of God, but the word as it comes to us in all its different forms. Sometimes someone may bring to us the word of God in conversation. Sometimes the word of God comes to us as we're gathered like this. [00:02:19] Sometimes the word of God comes to us as we are reading the scriptures by ourselves during some time of the day. [00:02:30] Sometimes the word of the Lord comes to us when we have some very real situation or problem that's developing and we have no answer to it and we don't understand it. And somehow we seek the Lord, and suddenly some part of the word lights up and we understand something. [00:02:48] Now, the apostle Paul said, let the word. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The word dwell is abide. [00:03:02] Let it abide. [00:03:05] Don't just give it short thrift. Don't just sort of allow it in for a little while. You know, all of us have a great tendency with the word of God when it comes to us not to dwell on it and not to let it dwell in us, but just to flicker around it like a moth round a candle for a while, diving in and out, and then to get away and to forget it altogether. But this is not the way that the word of God should be handled. We are to allow the word of God to abide in us richly, richly, not in a meager way, not in a straitened way, not in an impoverished way, but in a rich way, to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. Now there is a tremendous amount and I have been amazed as the reason it's so much on my heart, the amount in the word of God which would take us the whole of this evening. Just looking at scripture references, if we were to do that just on this one question of the word of Christ or the word of God and its relationship to us in every way. [00:04:29] Let us look at one Thessalonians and verse one and verse six. [00:04:37] Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy have written a joint letter. [00:04:45] This is the joint letter. I no doubt that Paul is the main inspiration behind the letter, but nevertheless Sylvanus and Timothy are linked with him at the beginning. They are the joint authors evidently of this letter. And it says in verse six, and ye became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and Archaea. For from you have sounded forth the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God ward is gone forth. [00:05:35] They received the word of God. They received it. [00:05:41] They received it. And when they received it in such a way, in spite of the situation there, in spite of the circumstances that surrounded them, they received the word of God in such a way that it did something inside of them and they became themselves a life giving center for the word of life. [00:06:07] Now these two scriptures have something in common. There is a measure of human responsibility over the word of God. [00:06:15] In one Paul says, let the word of Christ dwell in you. In the other he speaks of their having received it in joy of the Holy Spirit, though in much affliction. [00:06:27] Now if you will turn to Luke chapter six, we find the parable that the Lord Jesus gave. [00:06:45] Perhaps we miss the point often of this parable. Usually it's made the theme of an address to unsaved people. [00:06:56] It's usually applied in that way. But I wonder whether sometimes we, we have somewhat missed the point in what the Lord was seeking to teach and to instruct. Listen and why, and why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say. [00:07:22] Everyone that cometh unto me and heareth my words and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon the rock. And when a flood arose and the stream brake against that house, and could not shake it because it had been well. [00:07:52] But he that heareth and doeth not is, is like a man that built a house upon the earth without a foundation against which the stream break and straightway it fell in. And the ruin of that house was great. [00:08:09] The whole point of this parable are between two kinds of people. [00:08:14] All call him Lord. That's the point. All call him Lord. [00:08:19] His parable is a remarkable parable. For outwardly, both, if you went and saw both houses alongside of each other, they're on the same ground. The soil is the same, the landscape is the same, the area is the same. Everything about these two houses is exactly the same. [00:08:41] All you do not know is this, that one house has foundations that go down so many feet of through the earth to the bedrock underneath it. The other you cannot tell, but it has no foundations at all. The bricks, the stone, may just be so many inches into the earth, the top soil, that's all. [00:09:07] Seemingly everything is the same. Outwardly, they're very nice little homes. [00:09:13] Inside they may be very nice. In fact, the one that hasn't got the foundations may be better furnished than the other, we do not know. [00:09:21] But only when the storm broke and the whole fury of the storm broke upon that area, alike, upon both homes, and the sudden flight came down was it discovered that one house was not built on the bedrock and it was swept away, collapsed like a pack of cards. Now, the Lord quite clearly gives us the clue to it. Why call ye me lord, lord, and do not the things which I say? [00:10:02] Evidently he is dealing here with a class of people, all of whom call him Lord. [00:10:10] One class listen to his word, read his word. In a sense, they understand his word. They may even be enthralled with his word, but they do not. There is no practical outworking of his word. The other. [00:10:31] They not only hear the word of the Lord, they not only understand it, but somehow or other there is a practical outcome. Something is done. Now, the Lord says of that latter kind, they are those who have gone to the difficulty of digging down to a foundation, and they are built upon the foundation. [00:10:58] Now, you know, this happens again and again amongst the Lord's people. [00:11:04] We all, generally speaking, seem somewhat the same. [00:11:09] We may all use the same type of phraseology. We sing the hymns. We can pray a lot about us that would seem to be possible, and so on to the understanding or to those that do not know as well. We may all seem to be quite the same. Same level, same standard, same everything. It's only when the storm comes that suddenly it discovers people. It exposes where we really are. It does not expose us for what we are at the point so much as our history. [00:11:51] What really lies behind, whether there has been a real digging down to a foundation. You know, Paul says an awful lot in his epistles about being grounded or about being established, being stabilized, being rooted. They're all the same thoughts behind them, all grounded, rooted, established, founded. [00:12:21] The thought is that having come to the Lord now, there should be a downward route that goes deeper and deeper and gets itself into the rock of Christ and is absolutely indestructible. [00:12:41] It reminds me very much, you know, of the, in another context, the parable of the sower. [00:12:51] Four kinds. [00:12:54] Seed that was immediately seized by the birds of the air. [00:12:58] Seed that fell onto rocky ground, and it immediately sprang up only when the sun came out to wither and die. [00:13:10] Seed that fell amongst thorns, and they grew up and choked it. [00:13:21] And the seed that grew deeply into good soil and bore much fruit. [00:13:28] The Lord Jesus explained it very beautifully, that parable. He explained it all as the word of God. And he explained it all by four definite reactions to the word of God. [00:13:44] One was the word of God, which came to such dull, dull hearts and ears that it was seized immediately by Satan. And that was the end. [00:13:56] The other were those that joyfully received the word. Oh, they were thrilled with it. What a wonderful adventure. How marvelous. How excited they were. Oh, it was tremendous. A while they went on merrily. It was all so thrilling, all so marvelous. And then suddenly, the heat of persecution, the heat of tribulation, began to pour its rays upon them, and they withered up. They had no root in themselves. It's so interesting. The Lord himself says they have no root in themselves, and they wither up. [00:14:30] And there are others who have come into good ground. But unfortunately, there are thorns. [00:14:38] And the thorns grow too quickly. And as the seed takes root, so it becomes choked. And the Lord said, this was the cares of the world, the things of the world, choking the word of God so on in that life. [00:14:55] We don't have to be in the world, of course, to have the cares of the world. [00:14:59] Many of us know just what this means. [00:15:01] We hear something that really goes home to us. But we have so many of our problems and other things and so on that we're all worried about. And we haven't got the secret yet of casting or hurling our care upon the Lord. That the word of God is choked by it, strangled light. [00:15:18] And the other is the word of God that sown into good ground and brings forth fruit. [00:15:25] Well, I believe this is all very, very important, this whole question of letting the word of Christ dwell on us richly. [00:15:33] And I've been looking at one or two things I'd like to point to just three clear things that we can find in scripture about the word of God. [00:15:46] It is obvious, then that there is quite a measure of human responsibility in this whole matter of the word of God, how we receive the word of God. How often people say to me that what should be their attitude to the word of God? When a word comes, when some. When they read something, they have some problem, they feel they can't overcome it. They say, well, here it is in the word of God. And here it is. There's something quite contrary to it in me. Now, what should I do about that? [00:16:18] They say, if I'm absolutely honest, this isn't true in me. [00:16:24] If I'm going to be absolutely honest. Here the Lord says one thing, and here I find another in me. What should I do about it? What should be the answer? Quite a few people have different answers. Some say, give up. Some do give up. They say, it's impossible. It's absolutely impossible. [00:16:42] We can't be honest and go on. [00:16:45] There are others who say something quite different. They say, oh, it's impossible. And they just think back and they listen sort of half interestedly to anything that's said. And they read half interestedly what's in the word of God. But they feel it will never have any effect upon them. It can never do anything, and that's that. And of course, those people, often without realizing it, and we're all guilty to this, become the stumbling block to others, especially to the younger ones. They see us and they see. They say, look at that. How can so and so go on like that? [00:17:26] To them, we are often the stumbling ones. And there are others who evidently, somehow or other, found the answer of the way in which they should react. Even though the problem is no easier in theme than anyone else, they have found the answer as to their reaction to it, what they should do. [00:17:46] Well, let's just look at one or two of these scriptures we have spoken about the word here, dwelling in us richly. Let's look at Hebrews chapter four and verse twelve. [00:18:11] The word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing, even to the dividing of soul and spirit, are both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and the intents of the heart. [00:18:32] That's a description of the word of God. A sword, a two edged sword. It cuts two ways. [00:18:38] And what does it do? It divides between soul and spirit. That is, it divides in us between what is of Christ and what is of ourselves, what belongs to our self life, and what belongs to Christ. [00:18:52] The word of God is the great distinguishing factor, the great discriminating. [00:18:59] If we receive the word of God and allow it to dwell in us, if we commit ourselves to the word of God, what happens immediately things begin to happen within. [00:19:12] The first step is that even if we haven't got the victory over ourselves, we do at least know that is me. [00:19:20] And that's a tremendous step to take, to be able to, in a detached way, look at yourself and say, that's me. [00:19:29] That's me. So and so said something, and all of a sudden you're up. You say, why should they do say so and so? Why should they treat me like this? It's not right. [00:19:45] And many people, you know, they've got all kinds of scriptures that they hurry to to justify what they call righteous indignation, wrath, which is back for a moment, and so on. Be ye angry and sin not, and so on. Oh, I've heard them all at different times. When someone's annoyed and angry about what someone else said, there's altogether a great difference between being angry over someone for whom you are responsible or who is responsible to you, and they have failed. Altogether different between that and being vindictively annoyed and angered by someone saying something to you or treating you in a way that's wrong. But that was a great thing. When the word of God does something in your heart, to be able to say, oh, that's me. [00:20:43] All that business there, it's not spiritual. [00:20:46] I'm not going to try and justify that. [00:20:49] I may not be able at the present stage to do much about it, but that's me. That's absolutely me. And if I get judged by others on that ground, they have perfect right to judge me. That's me. [00:21:04] And so we could go on in a variety of ways to point out all kinds of things. When we allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, it begins to do something. It's like a two edged sword. It's not a very nice thing to have a two inch sword at work inside. Cutting, cutting up and down somehow or other, dividing all the time. Dividing, dividing, putting on one side this and on the other side that, saying, this belongs to you and that is of Christ. [00:21:37] But that's what happens when we allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. But does it always? [00:21:44] The key is found in chapter four and in verse two. For it says, for indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they. But the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. [00:22:04] It was not. It was not accepted in faith. [00:22:10] There was no real faith. [00:22:14] You'll never get anywhere when you have the attitude that so many of us have when we read the word of God and elsewhere, when it's just shared unbelief, we say, it can't be done. [00:22:26] The attitude of so many, when they read the word of God, in spite of their knowledge of the law and everything, it can't be done. It's unbelief. So, of course, there's no working of a sword within that's dividing, and it's doing something that's producing something that's making you spiritually intelligent as to yourself, spiritually intelligent as to Christ. You see, one of the marks of spiritual maturity is that we should be spiritually intelligent as to ourselves. We should be able to recognize ourselves. We should be able to recognize ourselves for what we are, and we shall be able to recognize what is of Christ and recognize it for what it is. Paul said that he told all men to not to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think, but to think of themselves soberly according to the measure which God had dealt with them. [00:23:22] That takes a spiritual man to be able to know what is of Christ in him, and to be able not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but just to think of himself as exactly for exactly the measure he's got. [00:23:40] And you see this work, this work of the word of God in us, what is our reaction when we really read the word of God? What is our reaction when we hear the word of God, God from the platform, for instance, is there ever any real working afterwards in our lives? Has it been? Have we been united by faith to the word of God? Have we received it in trust, real trust from the Lord? [00:24:18] Well, there's a tremendous amount, I believe, in this whole question of the word of God and it working in us, doing something in us. Oh, this terrible mania amongst religious people of listening to addresses, terrible mania. And, of course, because of what happened at the reformation, and no one's going to despise that. Preaching has become the great, the central thing of Protestantism. [00:24:50] Whereas, as we know in the New Testament ministry, preaching was only a means to an end. Never was, never any preaching unless it had a means to an end, to do something, to help something to develop something, to build something up. When you got the church, then you had preaching. You didn't have preaching without the church. Preaching was for one thing. It says in Ephesians four, to build up the saints, to develop the saints, to bring them to the place that they ought to be, to help them function as they ought to function in an interrelated way. Well, anyway, there we are. But we still haven't got to the root of this problem. [00:25:33] Paul says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. [00:25:40] Let it. How do we. Let the word of God dwell in us? [00:25:45] How do we receive the word of God? How can I know whether in actual fact I am hearing the word of the Lord and doing it? [00:25:58] Is there any evidence? Is there anything that I can put my finger upon in my life and say, I am only hearing the word of God? [00:26:07] There's no practical outworking. Well, I'm amazed at the amount in scripture. Along a certain line, I've got three examples of it. Jeremiah, chapter 15, and verse 16. [00:26:29] Jeremiah, 1516. [00:26:32] Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me a joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, o Lord God of hosts. And then in Ezekiel, chapter two, and verse nine. [00:26:57] And when I, that was ezekiel, looked, behold, a hand was put forth unto me, and though a roll of a book was therein, and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without, and they were written therein, lamentations, mourning and woe. [00:27:13] And he said unto me, son of man, eat that which thou findest. Eat this roe, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the roll. I like that. I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the roll. And then in the portion that we read together earlier this evening in revelation ten, we have the same thing again, verse nine. [00:27:49] I went unto the angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book. And he saith unto me, take it and eat it up. [00:27:57] Take it and eat it up. [00:28:02] Well, there is a secret. [00:28:05] How does the word of Christ dwell in us richly? [00:28:09] How do we receive the word of God? We receive it in this way. When we find it, we digest it, we feed on it, we eat it, we absorb it. [00:28:26] That's the way that we become doers of the word of God and not just hearers. [00:28:32] You see, we must all agree. And I wish everyone were here this evening so that we all could hear the exact words that I use in this letter. I think that we all, in this company, as in all other companies of christians, we suffer from that pernicious disease of taking things off secondhand. [00:28:58] It just simply is that something is said or we hear something or something is generally accepted, and everyone sort of just somehow imbibes it or accepts it and does it. [00:29:16] It's a pernicious disease. [00:29:20] And of course, it's only when persecution arises or it's only when tribulation comes. It's only when real, a real storm, spiritual storm hits, that you suddenly discover that many people, this is not their experience, this is not their history, this is not really in them. [00:29:41] It is something they have imbibed, something they have just taken on like a chameleon. They take on the colorings of their surroundings. [00:29:51] If they were. If they were planted elsewhere, they would probably as quickly take on the colorings of something else. [00:29:57] And if that were the case, then it would depend very much upon the context of the company we were in. If it was a baptist company, we would be good Baptists. If it was congregated, would be good congregations, Presbyterians, good Presbyterians. And so we could go on. [00:30:11] We don't question things. We don't discern things, we don't prove things, we don't examine things, we don't digest things, we don't digest them. [00:30:28] The vast difference, you see in listening to a word being followed by a word, glorying in a word and going away, a vast difference between that and listening to a word and eating it. Digesting it. You know what happens when you digest anything? Do you? I don't want to be crude or vulgar, but you know what happens when you digest anything. Certain amount is expelled, and everything which is of value, all the bitumen within that thing that you have eaten, is drawn out, condensed and drawn out, put into a form into which it can be, can be sent all over the body to wherever it's needed, and what's not, what's rubbish, what is just. No good is expelled. [00:31:30] Now, that's what we should do with the word of God. [00:31:35] It should be mixed with faith in us. [00:31:38] How does the word of Christ dwell in us? Richly. First, there must be an attitude of faith. It must be mixed with faith as we receive it, and then not only must it be mixed with faith, but we must digest it. If we find the word of God, we must eat it. [00:31:55] You know, it was a difficult thing for Jeremiah, you know, when he found the words of the Lord. This was his own testimony in Jeremiah 15, you know, he had no idea what it was going to do. To him. But you read on in that chapter, and you'll soon find out what he did to him. Oh, he said it did some terrible things to him. At first, he was so joyful about it. But then all of a sudden, I. It began to do things inside. And he found that he could not sit any longer in the many making. And amongst those that rejoiced. And later on, a terrible cry comes out of his rent heart. Oh, Lord, why? Why must I have this perpetual pain within me? It's the same with John. He finds a little book. He's told to eat it. It's so sweet to his mouth. It's delightful. It's like honey. But when it gets into his stomach, it evidently gives him a terrible pain. It's bitter. When it gets inside of him, it does something, you see. Same with Ezekiel. What a ministry with Ezekiel. When you read about Ezekiel, well, what is the key to these different scriptures? It is simply, you see, that they have found the word of God. God, and digested it. [00:33:14] So, you see, if we may see, first of all, the word of God is like a dividing sword within. It is all the time doing a dividing, discriminating, discerning work within, making us wise to what is of Satan. Making us wise as to his devices. Making us wise as to this world. Making us wise to ourselves, making us wise to God, making us wise to the gentle, persuasive dealings of the Holy Spirit. Making us wise to Christ. [00:33:50] My sheep know my voice. What a wonderful. What a wonderful illustration the Lord used there. You know, in the eastern fold, often five, six, seven flocks all use the same fold. [00:34:03] How were those sheep sorted out? Each shepherd went outside a little way outside of the fold and called his name. [00:34:16] And immediately the different sheep began to sort themselves out. And there was never any mistake. They found their way to their own master because they knew his voice. [00:34:29] From little lands, they had. They had come to know the voice of their master. The Lord Jesus says, in all the different calls upon you, he says, my sheep know my voice, and they follow me. There might be many other callers, but my sheep know my voice. You see, the word of God has done such a work in that we are aware of the voice of the Lord. How does a person begin to distinguish the voice of the Lord? It's not a voice like my voice that I'm speaking to you with. How do you begin to know the voice of the Lord? Well, you know, quite frankly, it's by a process of elimination. [00:35:14] The Holy Spirit begins to make us wise to all other kinds of voices. [00:35:19] And as we grow up, we begin to know that's the voice of the Lord. [00:35:26] And what we once thought sometimes was the word Lord. That's me. [00:35:32] I've often told you some of the stories. I know what the Lord's told different people to do and how he's told them to do it, and how it has most obviously turned out to be nothing to do with the Lord whatsoever. [00:35:49] We have to distinguish the word of the Lord. Well, there we are. These prophets are examples of a reaction to the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord came to them. What were they going to do? Were they just going to listen? Were they just going to be enthralled? Or were they just going to, as it were, going to become teachers? No, they had to take it themselves and eat it and digest it so that they became part of them. They did something in them. [00:36:20] Well, I wanted you to look at those different scriptures. I want just to add two or three more very simply to them, which are only reinforcing what I've said. Actually, one is in one john four, one, beloved, believe not every spirit of, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Now, putting that in plain language, it simply means, don't believe everything that you hear, minister. That's all. [00:36:55] Don't just believe everything because a man says he's a preacher, because a man says he's called of God, because a man is supposed to be the spokesman and mouthpiece of God. Don't believe all that he says. [00:37:07] Don't believe all this. I love the way Paul in one of two places says things like this. He had become so aware inwardly of what was the law and what was not the Lord, that one or two places he goes so far as to say, now, I, Paul, say that, and not the Lord that takes the courage to say a thing like that. I don't say that by the Holy Spirit. He said in one place in his letter to Corinthians. I say, in other words, if I'm wrong, well, that's all right. Don't listen to me on that point. [00:37:40] I'm telling you something that I think is the best way, but I'm not clear. [00:37:45] I'm giving you my advice. [00:37:47] A remarkable thing that is. He says it once or twice elsewhere as well. I pause for this, not by command, but I think that this might be the wish for try prove the shtets. Prove them. Now, it's very interesting that in one, Thessalonians five and verse 20, you've got the same thing. Despise not prophesyings, but prove all things. [00:38:15] It's the word again. You will find it again in one corinthians 14, about prophets. [00:38:24] It says, verse 29, let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern or examine. [00:38:32] You. See, the most interesting point is this, that in all that we've said about letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, about accepting it in faith, about digesting it, it does not mean that we should believe everything that we hear from the platform. [00:38:47] It does not mean. I think some people are probably very surprised that I'm saying this, but I, for one, have never, ever mocked it, anyone, to believe what one has ministered just like that. Indeed, I noted again and again that the people who believe so easily and so quickly turn out in the end to have accepted it all so easily that it doesn't mean a thing to them. [00:39:12] Much better the person who questions it and disagrees or even feels that, well, I just. I can't believe this. I can't believe this. But goes back to the law and says to the Lord, now, Lord, I heard this, and this, and this is this. So that's how we learned. [00:39:35] Paul commended the Bereans, the church at Berea, because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. You see, even Paul didn't want people to just accept what he said and say, oh, brother, so and so said this this evening that all sisters should not wear hats. So, of course, we're not wearing hats anymore. [00:39:59] We feel that bother. So and so is quite a spokesman of the Lord. And if he said that it wasn't really in the word of God, then we're quite sure that, well, that gives me a great peace. [00:40:12] I shall be very free this coming week. And we might say many other things, too, all other kinds of things. Someone might say something and people say, wasn't that good? I'm so glad he said so and so, because that just makes me feel happy. [00:40:31] Now I can do so and so and so and so. But, you know, although you laugh, that, unfortunately, is but the rather excessive illustration of the truth. [00:40:43] So often we take on things, we accept things on the platform without the searching of the scripture, without getting back to the Lord, without the seeking to digest it, to analyse it, to examine it. Nowhere in scripture does it say that we should just accept what is said on the platform. Everywhere in scripture it says we should examine it, we should try it, we should prove it, to digest something. [00:41:16] I'm not saying that we could make this the excuse for cutting out, as dear Spurgeon once said, from any message, just cutting out what we don't like. [00:41:30] Some people love to do that. They consider that to be the infirmity. As Spurgeon said to the preacher, so if he says so and so and so and so, they say, that's the infirmity in the old victorian way of speaking, the infirmity of the preacher, a lovely way out of a lot of practical situations. But, you see, that doesn't mean that. It means that we take things back to the Lord and we spread things out. Maybe it is the infirmity of the preacher. Maybe it's not. What we've got to do is put it before the Lord and say, now, lord, I'm going to be dictated to by thee. I'm going to search the scripture on this point, brother. So and so said, so and so and so and so. I'm looking, and I'm going to search. That's the way we grow. That's the way things. The word of Christ dwells in us richly. That's the way we begin to blossom and develop. That's the way things become original in us. [00:42:30] Of course, I know we all have busy lives. We all have difficult lives and so on. But the most important thing in our lives is to prove the word of God and not to take on ministry or anything else, just like we would a lecture of some society which we accept and dismiss. [00:42:51] Well, there we are. I say, those are some scriptures that I think we could all well take note of. I would like just to leave you with one last scripture upon this in James, the letter of James chapter one, verse 21, is a beautiful illustration of this. [00:43:21] Wherefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness or malice, receive with meekness the implanted word I see in my margin. It says inborn. In the authoritis engrafted, the inborn word, something born into. [00:43:46] Born into us. Receive it with meekness, not fighting, not rebelling, not murmuring, not trying to escape it, but with meekness. [00:43:57] And then listen, which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word and not hearers, only deluding your own selves. [00:44:13] Deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face. My margin says the face of his birth in a mirror. [00:44:26] For he beholdeth himself and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forget getteth, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed. What a picture that is, is that anyone who just comes to the word of God and hears it and doesn't do it, it's a person actually who is looking at their face in a mirror. They look at themselves, they tidy themselves up a bit, they go away, and then they forget what they look like. I've noticed it again and again, people, they're soon back in the miller to have another look themselves because they've forgotten what they really look like. Some of us, when we're getting dressed up for something, we have to go again and again to the mirror because we're not quite sure whether everything was right. [00:45:25] We've got to put it all right. We forget now. Oh, it's my entire stream back. [00:45:32] Is everything just right up there? [00:45:35] The hair right, and all the rest of it go back and back and back to the moon. And so you see, that's what James says the christians like, who doesn't do the word of God. He just goes back and looks in, goes away, comes back and has another look in and goes away. And each time he looks into the word, sees himself, doesn't do anything, every time he comes back, he's just the same, doesn't do anything. [00:46:08] But you see the person who is the doer, the person who looks in and continues, that's the continues. In other words, again, it's the same thought. Receives the word of God and digests, absorbs it doesn't just come and go, but comes and stays. [00:46:28] That person is the one who's blessed. [00:46:32] That's the person who's being transformed. [00:46:35] The Lord Jesus said, if you love me, ye will keep my commandments. [00:46:44] And I thought a lot about it, how that just, well, how that finds it all out. Every one of us finds it all out, doesn't it? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I thought the word of the Lord, what a lot it's got to say about husbands loving their wives and wives being subject to their husband and children and their relationship to parents and parents, their relationship to children. And in our jobs, are we attitude to our employers or those who have responsibility for others or the attitude of those who have responsibility for others to their employees or to do it to those for whom they are responsible? What a lot the word of God has got to say. What a lot the word of God has got to say about relationships, one with another, how we react to each other, how we nurture each other, how we get through with each other. You see, my point is simply this. If we were allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, what a big change would take place in many of our lives. All kinds of little things, little things and little things are the things that make up life. All kinds of little things would begin to be modified, would begin to be, to be put right, would be adjusted. [00:48:14] That's the point. [00:48:16] Oh, the Lord just preserve us from listening to messages or just reading the word of God, or just studying the word of God at that stand, and we get to the place where we say, well, it's a wonderful idea. Wouldn't admit it all, but we say in our hearts, it's a wonderful ideal, but it just can't work out, really. [00:48:47] And so we listen and we listen and we listen. Whereas the word of God has got a lot to say about all kinds of practical situations, which if we allowed the word of God to dwell in us and allowed him to work out his way in us, we would find that that's got to be modified, that's got to be adjusted, that's got to be put right, because we're coming into full light. [00:49:14] It's a shining way, and it's growing in brightness because we're understanding things. The word of God is doing something. It's dividing. It's making us wise to God and wise to ourselves. [00:49:28] And then you know what the end of that is? Christians who are established, who are grounded, who are not easily moved, they've done things because the Holy Spirit has spoken. They've done things not only because they've heard it and in meekness have accepted it in one way, but they have taken it back to the Lord and examined it and proved it and tried it, whether it is so, and when they are certain, they have committed themselves in utter obedience to what the Lord has shown. Oh, there's all the difference between people listening to something, hurrying out and immediately putting it into a deck, and people who take it to the Lord and open the word and start to discover whether this is really so. And when they find it so, they give themselves to it. Those people are not easily shaken. [00:50:18] Or may the Lord help us to allow the word of Christ just to dwell in us richly in all wisdom, dear Lord, as we have spoken about thy word, I we pray thee that thou wilt make it to be real to every one of our lives. [00:50:46] Thou hast given us the priceless privilege and responsibility of thy word, that revelation of thyself to mankind. [00:50:56] Lord, we do pray that in our reading of thy word and in every way in which thy word comes to us, whether it is in the ministry of thy word, I. Or whether it is in conversation one with another. Lord, we pray thee, make us those who do not just accept everything willingly. But, lord, those who try these things and examine these things and search thy word before thee, and with the help of thy spirit to find whether it is so. [00:51:28] O Lord, makers of people deeply taught in thy word, for we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:51:40] Amen.