In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia begins explaining from the Bible about the Christian’s necessary spiritual discipline of the Bible. For part 1, Pastor Dave considers the “why” of this discipline and presents four truths about the Bible that should move you to pursue the Bible as your necessary food:
1. The Bible Is God’s Special Revelation
2. The Bible Is Our Sufficient Resource
3. The Bible Is Our Commanded Priority
4. The Bible Is Our Rewarding Delight
Full Transcript:
Let’s pray together one more time. Lord God, we ask with the psalmist in Psalm 119 that You would show us wondrous things from Your law, and able me to explain it and speak it. Convict when necessary, God, and transform us more into the image of Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.
While preparing for the message this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about food. Perhaps that is a risky subject to bring up so close to lunchtime. I’m sorry if you get hungry as I explain the following. Food is one of the simple and good gifts that God has given to us in this life. In generosity, God has given us much food and many different types of food to enjoy. I’m sure you have favorite foods, maybe favorite whole cuisines of food. These are good, and they are meant to be enjoyed in holy thankfulness to God. But have you ever gone without food for a time? Unlike many impoverished and war-torn places in the world, America is not a land that lacks food. We are abundant in food here. But still, maybe there was a time, a unique time, where maybe your family was really tight on money, and you could only afford a meager meal or no meal at all. Or maybe you once had to deal with a sudden family emergency and you couldn’t afford time to eat. You went without. Or maybe there are other times you didn’t eat by your own choice. Food was available, but you just didn’t go for it. Maybe growing up you didn’t like what your mom made for dinner one evening and she didn’t give you another option, so you ended up eating nothing. Or maybe you had a work project that you really wanted to finish and so you decided that you would sacrifice your lunch break to get it done. Or maybe you were so into a certain hobby, you were really enjoying yourself and you totally forgot to eat. That happens. Some people choose not to eat for a time as part of controlled fasting, either for a spiritual reason or for some health benefit. Other people skip meals due to an obsession with control and body image, becoming anorexic.
There are a variety of reasons that people will not eat. But the effect of not eating is generally negative and unpleasant for us as humans. When you don’t eat, you know what soon happens. You start to experience hunger pangs, that is, the uncomfortable contractions of your stomach and intestines as they go through the motions of digesting food that isn’t there. Or you soon start to become hangry, that is, you are irritable, even angry with other people because of your physical hunger. You may start to feel dejected, start to lose hope, start to feel like the spark has gone out of life because you’re hungry. Or you may start to feel sluggish, distracted, unable to focus, even exhausted because you lack the energy of food. We can experience these after missing just one or two meals. What about if we miss even more? Well, if we go a long time without eating, we can start to experience more serious consequences due to lack of nutrients. In children, a lack of proper food can impair growth, even lead to stunted growth, the permanent inability to reach full physical and mental development, often manifest in reduced height. In both children and adults, lack of food can weaken the immune system and lead to various vitamin and mineral deficiencies that cause disease. Extreme lack of nutrition can cause your body to start consuming its own muscles, even to the point that you are so weak you can’t even eat food anymore. In the end, as we know, a lack of food leads to starvation and death. As much as food is an enjoyable gift, food is also a humbling reminder from God that He made us as dependent creatures. We need God to sustain our lives through food, and we cannot go without food very long before we feel the consequences.
Now, what is true about physical food is also true about another kind of food, and I want you to see this yourselves. Please take your Bibles and open to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 8. This is page 193, if you would like to use the Pew Bible. Page 193, Deuteronomy 8. Look at something with me that God famously declares to Israel through Moses. This is Deuteronomy chapter 8:3. Moses says,
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Brethren, there is another kind of food that is more important to us than bread or physical food, and it is what is stated here, everything that proceeds from God’s mouth. Now, for the Israelites who originally heard this saying, what was it that proceeded from the mouth of their God that sustained their lives? Well, it was not only the sovereign decree of God that commanded manna to fall, water to appear, and flocks of quail to land near their camps so that they could have food and drink. It was also the revealed and commanded truth of God given to Israel as the Law, the scriptures. As much as physical food enabled Israel to live, Moses told them that God’s Word enabled them to live in a way that was just as important and even more important than physical food. Notice what Moses says to Israel only two verses earlier here in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 8:1. Moses says,
All the commandments that I am commanding you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your forefathers.
Notice here, Moses clarifies that knowing and doing the commandments as recorded in God’s Word, what does it lead to? To life. But look also at the end of this chapter, Deuteronomy 8:19-20. Moses again,
It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
How would Israel heed and hear the voice of Yahweh so that Israel would not perish? Well, it was through the Law, through the revealed Word. For Israel then, listening to, knowing, and obeying the Word of God was a matter of life and death. And you know what? The same is true for us Christians today. If we want real spiritual life, if we want to grow, if we want the joy and peace of Christ, we must continually feed on the words of truth, on everything that proceeds forth from the mouth of God.
Yet the tragic reality is that many professing Christians, they seldom feed, they seldom have a meal from God’s Word. They think they can live on bread alone, but God’s food doesn’t really matter. They do not take the time to learn the Bible, to think about what it says or to put it into practice. And they are consequently spiritually malnourished, even anorexic. Just as with physical food, the consequences of a lack of spiritual food, they make themselves manifest. You feel hunger pangs in your spirit, a pained longing for truth, for encouragement, for Christ. You become spiritually hangry, seemingly unable to be patient with others or to show them kindness. You lose hope, find yourself despairing during trials, unsure of how you will go on. You also feel spiritually lethargic, less motivated to pray, serve others, to fellowship, to evangelize. Furthermore, as with physical hunger, long-term consequences of spiritual hunger are quite serious. You simply will not grow spiritually. You will become stunted in your spiritual growth. You will become very vulnerable to sinful temptation, to false teaching, and even to outright apostasy. You could depart from the faith. You will lose the gains of spiritual muscle that you’ve already built up in your life. And ultimately, if you persist in this, you will experience death, certainly in your relationships with other people, but perhaps even in your relationship with God.
Now, I’m not saying that a life with regular feeding on God’s Word will result in automatic growth or spiritual invulnerability or other factors at work. But what I am saying, and what the Bible also declares, is that you cannot and I cannot consistently grow or remain spiritually healthy without a devotion to the spiritual discipline of the Word of God. Last week, we looked at 1 Timothy 4:7-8, and the call of God there to Christians, to us, to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness so that we may experience the eternal life of Christ.
We saw that such discipline is like the voluntary hard preparation of an athlete for competition, or to be like athletes. And any good athlete pays close attention to his diet, what he eats, whether he’s getting proper nutrients. And in this way, not only does he sustain his morale and motivation for training, but he also maintains the life and energy to exert himself both in the training and in the contest themselves.
So we too must discipline ourselves to receive the proper spiritual diet of God’s Word. After all, even amid the disruptions and difficulties of life, we usually make sure to feed ourselves physically. We are to do the same when it comes to feeding ourselves spiritually. We must embrace the mindset of commitment to feeding on God’s Word and not go long times without a meal. The basic truth I want you to get today is simple. If you want spiritual life and strength, you must eat.
To encourage us in the pursuit of regular food from God’s Word, I’d like us to consider what the Bible says as a whole regarding this topic. This means that rather than focusing on just one passage today, like I did last week, I’d like to bring to your attention a number of different texts in the Bible. And since I don’t want you to get slowed down or lost when it comes to turning to these different passages, I’ve sought to provide all of the passages, most of the passages on the slides, so you can look there. You’re welcome to turn in your Bibles as well.
The title of the message today is Disciplines of Grace, the Bible, Part 1. You can see from the title that we’re going to address this topic in more than one part, probably just two. Today we’ll focus on why you should discipline yourself with the Bible. And next time, we’ll talk about how. But this morning, we’re looking at the why.
I want to present to you four truths, four truths about the Bible that should move you to pursue the Bible as your necessary food. Four truths about the Bible that should move you to pursue the Bible as your necessary food. And the first truth we’ll look at is the most fundamental. Number one, the Bible is God’s special revelation. The Bible is God’s special revelation.
We Christians have come to know that the Bible is no ordinary book. It is not merely a work of wise principles, moral teaching, and religious ideas made by men. Nor is it only a record about divine revelation. That is a fallible report of how God made himself known to men in the past. No, the Bible itself is the divine revelation, even the very voice and breath of God. Consider how the Apostle Paul expresses this truth through his young protege, Timothy, in encouraging Timothy to remain devoted to the study of and proclamation of the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:16. You may know this verse well. 2 Timothy 3:16 says,
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
You notice here the phrase, inspired by God. All scripture, all the Bible, Paul says, is inspired by God. But don’t misunderstand. The sense of inspired here is not like of an artist who is inspired to paint a great painting via a breakthrough in his creative imagination. That is not the sense. The phrase in the original Greek inspired by God is actually just one word, theopneustos, which means literally God breathed. And this is quite a profound declaration from Paul. Paul says that all scripture, even every word of scripture, every word of the Bible is the very breath or word of God, which is why we call it the word of God. It is His breath. And if it is His breath, even His word, then it is imbued with divine qualities such as inerrancy. This is a work without error. It is perfect. It is authoritative. It is the final and binding word on all it discusses. And it is life-giving. Just as the breath of God created the world and gave life to the first humans, so it is the breath of God and His word that gives spiritual life to people today, even us.
The Apostle Peter similarly clarifies in his own effort in his letter to move believers to devote themselves to the Bible, how the Bible actually came about. And we’ll look at this from 2 Peter 1:20-21. Peter writes,
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
There’s a wondrous mystery in the creation of this book that we call the Bible. It was written by God, yet written by men at the same time. The human authors, the apostles and prophets, they wrote according to what was in their minds and personalities. They were consciously formulating records and arguments as part of purposeful messages to their original audiences. Their minds were engaged, yet it was God the whole time writing through the authors and prompting their thoughts and personalities to write His message, to both the original audiences and us today.
You see the phrase at the end of 2 Peter 1:20-21, men moved by the Holy Spirit. More literally, the phrase in Greek is carried or born along by the Holy Spirit, much like a ship is born along by the wind. We actually see the word used the same way in the book of Acts. Writers of scripture were carried or born along by the Holy Spirit to write exactly what God wanted them to write.
The message that God wanted them to write was not simply a message about God’s moral rules or even God’s way of salvation. It is a message or revelation of who God is, showing us through these God-breathed words, God Himself, so that we might behold, believe, and find life in Him. Some of you know, not too long ago, we studied together the Apostle John’s introduction in his gospel. And we saw these words at the end of that introduction in John 1:18. John 1:18, the Apostle John writes,
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
These words refer, first and foremost, to what Jesus did in His incarnation, coming in the flesh to the earth. He revealed God to His disciples and to the people of Israel in Himself. Yet even now, though Jesus has ascended back to heaven, we still see Him. Not through supernatural visions and not with our physical eyes, but through the word He gave His apostles to speak about Him and for Him. And this is true of the Old Testament as well. All of the Old Testament and the New Testament, it is not only a revelation from God, but it is also the revelation of God. It is the unveiling of who God is so that we may see Him. We really could not come to know God without God specially revealing Himself to us, even as we read earlier from Psalm 19 and as I prayed. We can see certain things about God from general revelation, from the heavens, from creation, from our consciences, but we need God Himself to give us a perfect and purposeful word of revelation to see who He really is in full. And this is what God has provided in the Bible.
And since this is what the Bible is, God’s special revelation, should we not devote ourselves to it, like it is something special? Will we take this precious word and this unveiling of God, God Himself, and treat it of little account? Like something we will only get to if we do everything else we feel like doing first. Surely not. If we are to be motivated to pursue God’s word as our food, we must remember first of all that it is God’s special revelation to us, and special in the highest sense of that word. It is a truly profound treasure given to us from God. That’s number one.
But perhaps someone will say, yes, the Bible is God’s word, but it’s ancient and outdated. We have many other sources of more relevant truth and wisdom today to which we must give attention. In response to that, let’s look at a second truth from God’s word about God’s word. Number two, the Bible is our sufficient resource. The Bible is our sufficient resource. The Bible is not only inerrant and authoritative, it is also sufficient. It is completely able to guide us in living our lives and showing us God without any necessary supplement or correction from man. And to see this in one place, let’s go back to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 3:16, and consider what that verse and the next verse has to say on this issue. 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Note the several new details in these verses. Paul says all Scripture, every Scripture, is profitable, beneficial, useful. Now think about what that means. You mean even the sections about how to offer sacrifices in the book of Leviticus, those are profitable? Yes. You mean even the prophecies on judgment, or prophecies of judgment on nations that don’t exist anymore, those are profitable? Yes. Even the sections where churches that are struggling with using miraculous gifts and need correction, even though those gifts have passed away and they fulfilled their purpose, even those are profitable for us? Yes. Though what’s written in the different books of the Bible, they were written 2,000 years ago or more, and they deal with situations that are a little different than what we deal with, God says that they are still profitable for us in multiple ways. 1 Timothy 3:16, they are profitable for teaching, for showing us what is the right way. Profitable for reproof, showing us where we go wrong, where we’ve gone wrong. Profitable for correction, for showing us how to get back on track when we’ve gone wrong. And for training in righteousness, for showing us how to make that new way of rightness our habit. All of this from every scripture, from all scripture.
And what is the intended outcome of this biblical instruction? Verse 17 in Timothy, it makes each man or woman of God adequate. Or we could translate that term complete, mature, perfect. Not that you will become sinless or never need to learn more, but you can, this text says, you can progress towards spiritual maturity so that you are in the end, what verse 17 says, equipped for every good work. Not just some works, not just most works, every good work. You have been matured so that you can do them.
Wouldn’t you like that for yourself? Wouldn’t you like to become spiritually mature and full of ability and delight in doing every good work from God? If you’re a Christian, I hope the answer is yes. Well guess what? That can happen! But only if you will devote yourself to the sufficient God-breathed Word. Other New Testament scriptures similarly emphasize the sufficiency of what God has given us in the Bible. Another one is 2 Peter 1:2-4,
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Do you want to become partakers, participators, imitators of the divine nature? Do you want to escape the deceitful corruption of the world? Do you want to experience God’s power for all of life and godliness? Well it comes, Peter says, through the true knowledge of Jesus Christ. Where do you find that knowledge? Where do you see Jesus revealed? Well, in His Word, of course. That’s what God has given us.
In Colossians, Colossians 2:2-3, I don’t have this one up there, just paraphrasing here, Paul adds that the one who comes to understand Christ according to God’s Word finds in Christ, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” This means there is nothing fundamental for life and godliness that you’re going to find outside of Christ and outside of the Bible. If it’s truly good and necessary, you already find it in Him and in His Word. And if you don’t find it in Him or in His Word, it’s not truly good or necessary.
Amazingly, God has so designed His Bible so that both the ancient words and the events recorded in those words, they are perfectly equipping and instructive for us today. Consider what Paul says in Romans. Romans 15:4, this is right after he quotes a section of the Old Testament as he urges the church to welcome one another over different preference and conviction issues. Romans 15:4,
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Do you hear that? What was written is for us now, in addition to the original audience, Paul says. But not just what was written, even the events that happened. For listen to what Paul says in another place, in 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul is detailing how God severely judged the exodus generation of Israel for their sin and idolatry in the wilderness. And then he says this, 1 Corinthians 10:11,
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
First part of it, he says, these things happened to them as an example. God was already, in His mind, knowing that this would serve as an example for generations many years after, an instructive example. And of course the record about them was also written for the instruction. So consider, from both these verses, Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul is talking, in the case of his original audience, about events and words that took place at least 1,500 years before they were living. 1,500 years! Yet he says, that is instructive for you now.
And the same thing is true for us about the Old Testament and the New Testament, even though we are another 2,000 years beyond. All that was recorded in the Bible, it was written for our instruction, even today. Which means that it is an ever-relevant word, an ever-fresh word, an ever-sufficient word. And can’t you testify of this experientially? Maybe from your own Bible reading or from a sermon that you heard? As you read it or as you hear it explained, something ancient, some ancient event, some ancient word, and then you say, wow, this is so relevant for my life. This is exactly what I needed to hear or read. That’s because this is a timeless book. This is a special book from God. It is a sufficient book.
So Christian, realize, whatever you need to live righteously and wisely has already been provided for you in the Bible. So should you not devote yourself to it? It’s like a one-stop shop in terms of your spiritual life. Should you not resist the temptation to seek out competing wisdom or lesser wisdom? Not that everything outside the Bible is evil, but it just doesn’t compare. And shouldn’t you make sure then that you don’t miss out on this supreme revelation that you’ve been given? Because the Bible is God’s special revelation and our sufficient resource, we should pursue the Bible as our necessary food.
But more than pointing out to us in the Bible how we ought to value His Word, why it’s worthy of our esteem, God directly commands us to seek it, to pay attention to it, and to put it into practice. Of course, God will hold us accountable for His commands. Here then is the third truth about the Bible that should move us to pursue it as our necessary food. Number three, the Bible is our commanded priority. The Bible is our commanded priority. Look now at what the Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:1-3. 1 Peter now, not 2 Peter. Peter is writing here to persecuted believers. He says this,
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
Can God get any more direct? We’re even seeing here another food metaphor, like what we saw earlier. God says through Peter, you dear afflicted believers, you need to long for the holy food of the Bible like a newborn baby desires and cries out for milk. Now, do you need to teach a baby to desire food or milk? I’m sure our parents can answer very emphatically, no, you don’t. It comes naturally. They cry out for food. Therefore, in some ways it shouldn’t even be a question of whether believers will desire the Word of God or not. If you’re a child of God, you should automatically long for the food that your Heavenly Father provides, you would think. But even we Christians can forget what the Word actually is. We can get distracted. We can devalue it. So we need to remind ourselves. Remind ourselves what the Word is, how much we need it, how good it tastes in the kindness of God, so that we do desire it again and repeatedly.
But Peter isn’t the only one in the Bible who passes on a command to devote ourselves to God’s Word. Let’s look at another example in Colossians, Colossians 3:16. I mentioned another verse from this letter. Recall that the letter of Colossians is written to believers, written by Paul to believers, exhorting them to hold fast to their supreme and sufficient Savior and not be taken in by false teaching that Christ or His revelation is lacking something. And then Paul says this in Colossians 3:16,
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Do you hear the command from God via Paul here? He says you are to so love, take in and apply the Word of God in your lives so that it not only dwells in your heart like a permanent member of the household, but it also overflows from you in encouragement and instruction to others. You can even see the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ reflected in this command, because notice Paul says with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. We can only teach and admonish with all wisdom if we have in fact received all wisdom, which we have in Christ in the Bible.
So considering this second command, Colossians 3:16, ask yourself, does the Word of Christ richly dwell in your heart? Richly dwell. Do you know it? Do you love it? Are you thinking about it? Talking about it? Is your heart like a sponge that is so saturated with the Word of God that if squeezed it would leak out the Bible?
Or consider a third example, a third example of a command to prioritize the Bible. This comes from Joshua 1:8. Here God is commissioning Joshua to lead Israel in the conquest of Canaan. He’s just about to begin starting with Jericho. This is going to be a difficult task. How is Joshua going to do it? What should be his priorities while he does it? Well, we hear about one. Joshua 1:8, God says to Joshua,
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Notice how God commands Joshua here to meditate on the Bible. Literally, the word meditate in Hebrew means to mutter or to mumble, which is maybe funny to us, but the reason for that is because when ancient Hebrews read something or recited something, they mumbled it out loud. It wasn’t customary for them to read in their minds like it is for us or even oftentimes to think in their minds. They thought out loud. They read out loud. And so we hear this exhortation from God to mumble or to meditate on the Word. And notice how often Joshua is to do this. How often? Day and night, or really all the time, continually. People should always be hearing Joshua mumbling the words of God to himself. That’s the idea. And why? Is there any purpose in this? Well, notice what God says at the end. He says, so that you might experience success. Your way will be prosperous. You will experience blessing as you are careful to do My word. So kind of like two purposes there, tiered, so that you’ll be careful to do it and you’ll experience blessing because of it.
Now someone might say, Hey, well, Joshua was a leader. I’m not a leader. I don’t need to do what he does. To that I say, come now. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. As we saw in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, leaders are to be examples for the rest of God’s people. And if leaders should devote themselves to God’s word, so should the followers. And besides, do followers not need to be careful to follow God’s word? Do they have no interest in finding blessing and spiritual success? Surely the answer is no. The command from God to Joshua applies to us all.
I could bring up other examples in the Bible where God commands us to seek His word or provides positive examples of those who do so. But even from these three, we can see that the Bible is indeed our commanded pursuit. And so, you’ve got to ask yourselves, is that a command that you obey? Is your obedience in this area evident in the way you prioritize your life and your time? And again, not with that bare minimum mindset – that’s not what an athlete does, but the one that looks to maximize benefits.
Now, as you might have noticed there at the end of this last example from Joshua, this command from God to prioritize His word is not meant to be a burden, not meant to be drudgery. Rather, like all of God’s commands, the command to prioritize the Bible is for our good, even for our guidance, our protection, and joy. Which is the last truth I would like to consider with you today. What else should move us to pursue God’s word as our necessary food? Number four, the truth that the Bible is our rewarding delight. The Bible really should be our rewarding delight. Again, I think many of you can testify of this. Those of you who, by God’s grace, have established a habit of seeking God through His word, you can testify that this isn’t just something you do to check a box or to get God off your back. No, it’s something you enjoy. It’s even a delight for you. Now, there’s toil involved. There is some fighting against the flesh involved, but it is not mere duty. Not those who have really come to understand it. It is really a delight. It is a conduit of blessing. And the authors of Scripture give the same testimony. I’m going to show you a couple, or a few rather.
We read Psalm 19 earlier, and verses 7 to 11 are a very famous text about how good God’s word is. I’m not going to go back through that text now, but I will highlight a few descriptions from that. Consider the benefit that David says the Bible brings. He says it restores the soul. It makes simpletons wise. It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eyes. It’s more desirable than gold. It’s sweeter than honey. It gives necessary warning. It leads to great reward for those who keep it. Now, that is a marvelous description. Now, either David, the psalmist, is a terrible liar and exaggerator, or God’s word really is designed to be our rewarding delight. And if so, shouldn’t we seek it like food? Not just necessary food, but delectable food?
Listen to another testimony. It’s already up on the screen. This one from the Psalms as well. The first Psalm, actually, Psalm 1:1-3. Here the psalmist writes,
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
Notice how the beginning of this psalm describes a blessed man or a blessed woman. What does that man do? He delights in God’s word, and he meditates on it day and night. And what is the result? He’s like a firmly planted, well-watered, and fruitful tree. This is a picture of health and abundance. This tree may see trials. It may see seasons of heat and hardship. The godly are not exempt from that. Yet the tree remains healthy, happy, secure through those times. And why? Because of where it’s planted, and how it’s continually drawing nutrients from really what is God Himself, drawing life from the stream. Now wouldn’t you like to be such a tree? Who doesn’t want to be like that? Wouldn’t you like to see this kind of spiritual blessing continuously in your life? If so, then discipline yourself to pursue God and His word. You can do this. By the grace of Christ, you can do this. Let the prospect of reward both fuel and motivate your disciplined pursuit – the reward of God.
Moving out of the Psalms for a second, listen to another testimony. Testimony and promise, this time from Proverbs. Proverbs 3:13-18. The writer here, Solomon, is speaking about the benefits of learning and putting into practice God’s wisdom in the fear of Yahweh, in the fear of the Lord. Here’s what Solomon writes in Proverbs 3:13-18,
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding.
For her profit is better than the profit of silver
And her gain better than fine gold.
She is more precious than jewels;
And nothing you desire compares with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways
And all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who hold her fast.
Wow, listen to those descriptions. And brethren, this is not hyperbole. Rather, Solomon says, if you want to be blessed in your life, especially in the ways that matter, the ones that matter most, then give yourself to the pursuit of God’s word of wisdom as more necessary and precious than food.
Let me give you one more testimony. Couldn’t talk about the Word of God without saying at least something about Psalm 119. Psalm 119, we’re going to be looking at verses 97 to 104. This is the longest psalm, longest chapter in the Bible, and it is all about celebrating God’s word and the blessings of those who delight in it. Just a portion of Psalm 119 here. Psalm 119:97-104. The psalmist says,
O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
Brethren, consider these testimonies. And consider this – these testimonies were written when the Bible was not even yet complete. The psalmists, Solomon, David, they were describing how delightful the Old Testament is, the portion that was complete by their time, especially the books of Moses with which we sometimes struggle. They said, this is delightful, this is instructive, this is equipping me. How much more delightful should the Word of God be to us now who have the revelation completed, who have Christ and His salvation fully revealed to us? It was true for these original authors, but it’s even more true for us.
So, again, ask yourselves, as the Spirit is really asking you, is the Bible your rewarding delight? Can your heart declare, like what we’ve just read, how good God’s Word is, and how sweet it is to your soul, how rewarding it is to you? We can get distracted, certain ideas can get in the way, but whatever is preventing you from seeing God’s Word as rewarding delight, it’s time to make a change. It’s time to repent. Remember, repent means that change of mind that results in a change of action. Change your mind about the Bible, because of what God’s Word says about it, and let that change the way you treat the Bible in your life. Believe God, and let God’s Word lead you in the blessed way. Let it guide you amid life’s difficulties and disturbances, its uncertainties. Let it guard you from sin, temptation, and false teaching, and let it even show you God and transform you by the beauty of Jesus Christ.
There’s one other scripture I want to share with you today, and that’s 2 Corinthians 3:18. In the context of this verse, the Apostle Paul is describing to the Corinthians his motivating joy as a minister of the Word, even the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says that this, you know, in the context, this is a joy that enables Paul to proclaim Jesus’ Word even amid the labor of ministry, the pain of persecution, and the heartbreak of betrayal. He experienced all of those. And more specifically, next to these verses, Paul contrasts the ministry of the Old Covenant with the ministry of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant, Paul clarifies, it revealed the glory of the Lord, but as through a veil, even like the veil Moses wore after communing with God and then speaking to the Israelites. They couldn’t handle Moses’ bright face, so he wore a veil. In contrast, Paul says of Christians now in 2 Corinthians 3:18,
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
In case this wasn’t obvious, where do we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, even the glory of Christ? Where can we behold such glory and be transformed by it, to become more like Jesus? Only the Word of God, the Gospel. That’s where we see Him. God Himself is the fountain of all blessing. His glory is our life. And He’s chosen to reveal Himself specially in His Word. So if you want to experience the all-satisfying and soul-transforming glory of God, if you want to know ultimate blessing to the point that you are compelled to share it with others, then you must pursue God’s Word like it is your necessary food.
We could say more, of course, but are these, what we’ve looked at today, not sufficient reason from God to pursue the Lord diligently, even desperately via His Bible? Being more concerned to feed on God and His truth than we even are to secure physical food for ourselves. After all, brethren, as we saw, the Bible is God’s special revelation. The Bible is our sufficient resource. The Bible is our commanded priority, and the Bible is our rewarding delight. Do you believe that?
You know, I think one of the reasons why we Christians sometimes don’t diligently pursue God’s Word is because we’ve come to take it for granted. The idea of God giving us His supernatural Word is familiar to us. It’s no longer wondrous. It’s old news, even a contemptible truth. When we think this way, we are very much like the ancient Israelites in Numbers 11, who grew contemptuous, get this, of the special manna that God was providing them from heaven. This was a delicious and miraculous food that was sustaining the Israelites’ very lives in an otherwise bleak and deadly wilderness. That is a food to be valued. That is a food to be thanking God every day for. But what did they do? Astonishingly, a good portion of Israelites not only took this food for granted, but they complained about it to God, and they asked Him for something else. May we not be like these Israelites, who ultimately despised God’s food and displeased God. And may we instead remember just how awesome and necessary the food is that God has provided us. May we no longer complain about this food or try to ignore it, making ourselves spiritually malnourished. Rather, may we diligently gather it up, feed on it, and enjoy it with thankfulness. For in this way, we will grow in godliness and come to know more the everlasting life that is our inheritance in Jesus Christ.
Now this week, we’ve only briefly looked at the why of feeding on God’s Word. Next time, we’ll take a look at the how. How the Bible itself tells us to pursue God’s Word. And we’ll get very practical about how you can make the pursuit of God’s truth a regular and rewarding reality in your life. But for now, let’s close in prayer.
Lord God, we cannot ignore what Your Word says about how good it is. That only makes sense, because You are a good God. Your commands are good. Your Word is good. But God, we can get so distracted. We can get so doubtful. We can get so fleshly-minded where we say, oh, I don’t have time for that. Or, that’s boring. Or, I’m not going to get any profit from that. Lord, we are fools. We are presented a banquet and then somehow refusing to partake. Lord, I know, we know, there are some things in the Bible that are difficult to understand. We need some help in actually being able to eat this food. But it is so necessary for us and so rewarding. So God, I pray that today You would renew such a commitment in us to Your Word. Not in a legalistic way. Not in a way that’s just going to check a box, make Pastor Dave happy. Oh God, so that we may experience the life that You have always meant for Your people. We need Your Word if we’re going to be spiritually healthy, if we’re going to experience the life that we have in Christ the way You meant. I pray that each person here would think soberly but also excitedly about how they can enjoy this precious food. Thank You again for it, God. We did not deserve Your revelation of Yourself and Lord, to have it so easily accessible to us, translated into our language, explained to us in a way we can understand. God, what a privilege. May we not neglect that. May we not take that for granted. In Jesus’ name, amen.