Getting into the Word of God

The story of Monica’s son

The only person Monica loved more than her son was her God, the Lord Jesus Christ. When her son was a baby, she used to sing hymns to him while she was breast feeding him. She dedicated him to the Lord and prayed he would be a blessing to the kingdom of God.

Monica’s faith and love were well known throughout the Christian community of her city and when her son grew up, his brilliance was equally well known. But so was his immorality and hostility towards God. The young man had become a rhetoric professor. He had given himself over to the full time occupation of drunkenness, sexual immorality, and turning people away from the one, true God with his philosophical speculation. Even the most highly trained Christian intellectuals could not make headway against Monica’s son.

A dream encouraged her

Monica had come close to utter despair several times, but she refused to give up. She continued to labour in prayer for the salvation of her son. When her son was 19 years old, Monica had a dream. In this dream she and her son were walking hand in hand together in heaven. She knew God was telling her through the dream, that he would save her immoral son, and the dream encouraged her to intensify her prayers. Time went on, instead of her son growing closer to God, he seemed to growing further away.

A prophecy also

A famous and respected church leader came to visit the city and Monica managed to get an audience with him. She begged him to speak to her son, but the man knew words from him would only harden the young man more. 

How will my son ever be saved Monica sobbed?

Woman he said ‘it is impossible for the son of those tears to perish.’ 

But it was the words of scripture that led him to faith

Slowly her son started getting interested in Christianity. He started reaching out to God. Nine years after Monica’s dream, he son was sitting in a garden, suddenly he heard the voice of a boy or girl chanting over and over again, “pick it up; read it; pick it up, read it.” He sensed the voice was a divine command from heaven to open the scriptures and read. Monica’s son took up the bible and his eyes fell on Romans 13:13-14, which says: ‘Let us behave decently, as in the day time, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.’

He later wrote: I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.’

His heart was miraculously transformed. At that moment he put his faith in Christ and he never looked back. His name was Augustine and he became one of the most influential theologians of the church.

But think about how God was involved in him coming to faith. His mother’s prayers- when Monica was discouraged, God gave her a dream to encourage her, when her head went down again, he gave her a prophetic word from a bishop in the church and when the time was right, God sent his audible voice to the wayward Augustine. You might be tempted to think that the written word of God, the Bible, wouldn’t be necessary in the presence of dreams, prophetic words and an audible voice. But in Augustine’s case, the voice was meant to lead him to the text of Scripture- to Romans 13, which God illuminated in such a way as to lead him to faith in Christ and being born again. When the Bible is illuminated by the Holy Spirit and our hearts are open to receive its message, its power to transform us is tremendous. 

The light of the Bible can break us out of the darkness of the greatest deception and despair.

How Dorothy was saved by words of scripture

Jack Deere tells of a woman he knew called Dorothy who was sinking into suicidal despair. She came to church on Easter Sunday hoping to find an excuse not to take her life. She listened to a sermon on Luke 24, but nothing about it gave her any hope. That night she stood in front of the mirror to say good-bye to a life filled with suffering and despair. As she prepared to commit suicide, a text of scripture from the morning sermon rose up in her heart- ‘Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ Luke 24:26. 

‘That was it’, she thought! First the suffering, then the glory. If she ended her suffering by her own hand, she might miss the glory later. If Christ suffered before he came into his glory, then so would she. She put down the pills and picked up the Bible with new hope.

Such is the power of God’s Word, the Bible.

All Christians need to read the Bible regularly

I was speaking to Neil this week and asked him what he would like me to preach on and the thing that came to his mind was the need for Christians to read the Bible every day. 

And so that is roughly what I’m going to preach on this morning. The need for regular Bible reading. I would recommend regular and frequent reading of the Bible and memorisation of the Bible as well. 

Why? 

Why not just go to church on Sundays and hear a sermon, isn’t that enough? Why also read the Bible through the week? 

Why not just rely on your conscience and voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to you and guide you through the week? Why also read the Bible? And why read it regularly? 

What difference will frequent and regular Bible reading make to your life?

Regular Bible reading will give you real success 

If you want your life to be a success- as God defines success- real success, then regular Bible reading and meditation on what you read will make a huge difference.

Joshua’s example of success through meditating on God’s word

The life of Joshua the successor to Moses tell us this. 

Moses one of the greatest and longest lasting leaders in the Bible has just died. Moses the friend of God, much respected and loved by the people. He successfully led the rebellious people of God out of Egypt and through the Promised Land in a career lasting 40 years. Who could fill such a great man’s shoes? 

Joshua was God’s choice to do just that. And Joshua must have been pretty scared. We see this because in his commissioning service at the start of the book of Joshua, we read that God had to warn him three times to be brave and very courageous. But how could he make a success of his leadership of these people and not muck it up? 

It is very difficult stepping into the shoes of a great leader. I think of Alex Ferguson manager of Manchester United Football team. He won every trophy going and the English Premiership 13 times and was manager for 27 years. When the time came for Ferguson to retire, David Moyes took over. Moyes was a good manager but he just couldn’t fill Ferguson’s shoes, he lasted less than a year. 

God promised Joshua He would be with him

Well Joshua’s leadership was a success and he managed to take the people forward victoriously. There were two secrets to Joshua’s future success. The first secret was not found in his leadership skills or his discipline, but in God’s promise to him. God promised ‘I will be with you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ God made a commitment to prosper Joshua. 

Joshua had to meditate on scripture in order to succeed

But Joshua’s part, his responsibility was to overcome his fear, to be strong and courageous and to be careful to obey God’s commands in scripture. The Lord said to Joshua you must not ‘let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written on it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ 

Joshua had to obey the teachings of the scripture, the book of the Law, then God would give him success. But to obey them, he had to know them. And to know them he had to read them, memorise them, meditate or think about them and get them on his lips. Read them out loud. Recite them verbally, frequently through his waking hours. 

There is a level of obedience to God which is called ‘careful to do everything written in it.’ To get to that level of obedience, requires meditation on scripture day and night.

But it brings success. Because of it Joshua lived an obedient life and God greatly blessed it. God will bless obedience, He loves it when we obey.

It’s good to read out loud the words of the Bible

I don’t know if you notice that saying something out loud helps you remember it. I find that out when people tell me their prayer requests. I repeat the names of the person we are to pray for and it helps me to remember them! It’s good to read out verbally out loud parts of the Bible and read them our regularly and this will help you memorize them. 

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say, the only people who will ever have the full divine success the Lord wishes to give them in this life, are those who meditate on his Holy Word and get to truths of the Bible into their memory into their subconscious. 

The promise of Psalm 1- meditation brings flourishing

Psalm 1 makes a very similar promise to God’s promise to Joshua. It says  

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

The word law here means more than just God’s commands in the Bible, it means scripture generally, it basically means the Bible. And it is saying the person who delights in scripture and meditates or thinks deeply about it, will be like a flourishing tree.

Scripture allows us grow like the trees of the Amazon

I don’t know if you have ever been to the nation of Brazil. If you travel to Brasilia the capital, which is a few thousand feet up above sea level in altitude, you will find poor sandy red soil, a bit of scrubland, a bit of grass and the trees are mostly no more than eight or ten feet high- stunted, twisted and in the dry season, they have a struggle to survive. They are poor little trees. But if you take a plane and head west to inland Brazil, you will come to the Amazon jungle. Try walking through that landscape- the lush growth is so thick, it’s almost impenetrable. The verdant trees grow straight and strong and to full height. 

This is the picture here. The implication is that a man who is not righteous but who hangs out with bad characters is a man whose spiritual and character development is stunted, he doesn’t have strong character. But a righteous person, a person who avoids bad company, but who instead meditates on scripture, who delights in the reading the Bible, that person is like a tree planted by the river, he or she produces fruit, good works, good character, love joy, peace, patience, self-control, he is the picture of spiritual health, like a tree whose leaves are always green. 

People who delight and meditate and live out the truths and teaching of the Bible, will be like the trees you see in the Amazon basin, their life is rich, full, they are evergreen fruit bearers. They are attractive, and everything they do they prosper. Prospering does not mean that they will have a big bank balance, Jesus prospered but he didn’t have much money. Nor is it promising they will be successful in business. It is making a promise more wonderful than that. You know there are plenty of people who by middle age have made a lot of money and been successful in business and when they look back, they say ‘What have I done that is really of lasting value?’

When the Bible says ‘Whatever he does shall prosper’ it is saying that what he does will be worthwhile. And he will have the satisfaction of reaching the end of his life and looking back and saying ‘What I’ve done was of lasting value.’ Isaiah says of Jesus that ‘the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.’ Well the will of the Lord will prosper in the hand of the person who is steeped in scripture. Who really gets into the Bible and gets the words of the Bible inside them.

Psalm 119 Hiding the words of scripture in our hearts keeps us clean

Psalm 119:9 asks a question- ‘How can a young man keep his way pure?’ 

And immediately it gives us the answer to that question.

‘By living according to your word.’ 

By living according to the Bible.

But to live according to the word, you need to know the word.

Verse 11 tells us that this is what the psalmist himself has done. He writes in verse 11: ‘I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.’

Knowing the Bible and having it in your mind and memory, gives you the knowledge you need to live clean. 

The Bible is like the Highway Code

Some of us have been learning to drive and are studying the Highway Code. 

You are reading it eagerly because you want to pass the test and get on the road and be a good driver. Well the Bible is God’s Highway Code. Study it eagerly and get to know it and you’ll travel far with the Lord and you won’t get any penalty points on your licence along the way! It will save you from having accidents. It will keep you on the right side of the law so you can enjoy your journey in life! 

Jesus said to his disciples John 15:3;  ^‘You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.’

The word of Christ cleaned up his disciples, they were dirty when he found them, by the Sea of Galilee, in the tax collectors booth or wherever, but when they received his words, they were cleansed. Washed.

So the Bible that we have inside us, in our memories cleans us up and keeps us living right. 

Memorizing scripture can result in good decisions - Jack Deere’s story 

I’m quoting a lot from Jack Deere in his book ‘Surprised by the voice of God’ today. In it he writes’; Many times the Holy Spirit has brought the words of Scripture to my mind, not only to guide me, but also to save me from disasters. He has used the words of Scripture to guide me in serving others, to keep me from hurting them, and to increase my love for his Son and his people.’

One day in church Deere was listening to a woman in the ministry team being too forceful in what she was saying to a younger woman she was praying with. She was doing it wrong. Jack as the pastor felt it was his responsibility to correct the older woman, but he waited till after the prayer time to correct her, so as to minimise embarrassment. Before he went over to correct the women, he asked the Lord if he had permission and the words of Isaiah 42:3 came ringing into his mind ‘A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.’ 

This was a prophecy about Jesus Christ that Jack Deere had memorized and treasured in his heart 20 years before and now the Holy Spirit was speaking through these words.

He realised that the Lord saw this woman as a ‘bruised reed’ and a ‘smouldering wick’. All it would take was one rebuke from her pastor to break her and snuff her out. A few seconds earlier he had felt irritated by the woman, but now he saw her through the Lord’s eyes, and he felt Jesus’ compassion for her. The Lord was telling him that this was not the day to rebuke the lady, that He, the Lord, would handle her correction in another way and another time. 20 years before, when Jack Deere was sitting at his desk and memorizing Isaiah 42:1-4, he had no idea God would ever use these verses to turn his irritation into compassion.

Reading and memorising scripture requires discipline over time to work 

Being a disciple of Jesus requires discipline. It requires disciplined training. Like going to the gym and working the weights or training for a marathon, it means having regular workouts over a long period of time. Going to the gym for the first week in January doesn’t do you much good. But if you keep going for a few weeks, you will start to see a difference, go for a few months and you will see a big difference. If you try a diet, you might lose a few pounds, but you will find these pounds again very quickly (and a few extra pounds) unless you can have a diet that you can sustain long term. 

My friends get into a long term sustained routine of reading the Bible and meditating on it. All meditating means is thinking about it. Ask questions of the passage you read. Ask yourself: 

What does it say? 

What does it mean? 

What does it mean for me?

Read it and ask these questions of the text

Do it regularly and keep it up. You could try it every day in the morning before going out. Or the evening. But keep it up. When you work at reading and meditating on the Bible it will over time make a big difference. Not immediately but in the long term. It will keep you from sinning, it will make your fruitful and will help you flourish, you’ll grow into that green fruitful tree, it will guide you. It will reveal God to you. It will show you God’s thoughts about you, how God sees you. Your faith will grow. Your hope in God will rise. Your love for him and others will increase.

And finally obey what you read!

And obey what you read. When you listen to the Word of God, your heart gets filled with spiritual food. That is good, but it is there to serve a purpose. That purpose is for you to go out and do the work of God. To share the blessing. If you keep God’s blessing to yourself, you come a bloated and sick Christian. But God blesses us when go out and do what he says.

 Do what Augustine is said to have done after his conversion. He would read the gospels in the morning and then go out in the afternoon and put into action what he had just read. When Augustine read about the rich young ruler, he went and gave his possession to the poor. When he read how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, Augustine washed the feet of his brothers in Christ. The words of scripture that Augustine received bore fruit. Let the word we have received bear fruit in our lives. Let’s be doers of the word.