It's Balanced With a Disciplined Obedience - Scriptures, Part 1

As much as we want or don't want intimacy with God, we must really understand that He does want intimacy with us. And J. I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, tells us how God took the initiative in establishing intimacy with us. He recorded these words. What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it, that fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me.

I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me, and there is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention distracted from me. And no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is a momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love. And watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic. bas at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me.

In the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me. When I read those words, I was extremely encouraged. Because God knows all there is to know about me, all the good things and all the bad things. And yet he longs to know me. And as you read through the Bible, you understand that God knows us so much better than we know Him. He knows how many hairs are on our head, or if we don't have any hair on our head. He know all about what I'm going to say. You read Psalm 139, and it talks about in verse 4 that he knows what we're going to say before we even say it.

That's amazing. And yet, he still longs to know us intimately. And so, in order for us to know God, we have to do our part. He's done all that he can do. He leaves the rest up to us. So we must understand that intimacy with God begins with the divine inheritance but is balanced with a disciplined obedience. That's our part. It's a lifelong process. It's not going to happen overnight. And that's where you talk about the disciplines of scripture. And so we want to talk this evening, just cover two points.

First of all, we want to describe the discipline. And then we want to begin to delineate. The disciplines. That is, what are some of those spiritual disciplines that we must be engaging in if we're going to get to know the one? Who so readily knows us? James 4:8 says that we are to draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. So for that, turn with me in your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter 4.

1 Timothy chapter 4 and listen to the words of Paul. To young Timothy. Verse number seven: But have nothing to do with worldly fables, fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself. For the purpose of godliness. For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things. since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement. Deserving full accept. The Bible tells us that we need to discipline ourselves toward godliness.

Now, when you begin to talk about the disciplines of the Christian life, people say, Well, you know, I think you're kind of legalistic. You know, you're saying, well, you got to do this and you got to do that, and that seems kind of legalistic to me. Well, there is a difference between legalism and discipline. Legalism says I have to. Discipline says I want to. There's a big difference there. Legalism has compulsion behind it. I have to do something. Discipline has volition behind it. I choose to do something.

And the reason the Christian disciplines his life is because at the core of his being, he realizes that he is a partaker of the divine nature. And because God has taken the initiative to get to know him and done all that he can to bring him into his kingdom and make him a part of his family and a part of his life, there's a longing to know him even more. That's how you know that you're a Christian, by the way. There's a longing to get to know God. There's a longing to read His Word. There's a longing to spend time with Him.

If you say, I'm a born-again Christian, But I don't care about going to church and I don't care about reading the word and I don't care about prayer and I don't care about fellowshipping with other Christians. Folks, let me tell you something: you're not saved.

Why? Because you see, if you're a believer, your spirit is drawn to those of like spirits. And your spirit is drawn to God because God draws you to Himself. There's some kind of desire to read, to study, to learn about God in the depth of your being. And so when you discipline yourself, you're saying, This is something I want to do. No one's going to, you know, hold a hammer over your head and say, okay, now you to read your Bible for 30 minutes and you to pray for 30 minutes and then you got to get out and practice the discipline of mortification and surrender.

And you got to do it. No one's going to do that to you. This is all of your own volition. That's why Paul says you've got to do this in a vigorous kind of way. It's not going to be easy. I mean, if you set out to discipline yourself and to get yourself physically fit, my friends, that's a hard thing to do. I'm almost 40 years of age. I am so far out of shape that if I ever went to a gym, I'd have a heart attack and die. In fact, I belong to Joggers Anonymous. Every time I get the urge to jog, I call up a friend of mine until the urge goes away.

But when it comes to the spiritual life, you got to really get a hold of it. I had a guy in my office not too long ago who walked in and And I was in the process of studying. And when I do, I have a million books, well, not a million, maybe a thousand, books on my desk, all spread out, you know, and I'm writing and papers all over the place. He says, man, what are you doing? I said, I'm studying. He says, man, what a drag. He said, drag? I, no, man, they pay me to study here at this church. This is great, man.

He says, but how do you do it? I said, I just sit down and just want to know what the Lord says, so I read His Word. He goes, Well, how long do you study? I said, Well, I'd say five, six, seven hours a day, depending on how many people come in my door and talk to me. And so he began to ask me, you know, how I got into all this stuff. I just began to tell him what God did in my life. To encourage me to be a part of not only his kingdom and to accept me as a part of his kingdom, but to learn about that kingdom and the king who rules there.

And I said, it's an exciting thing. And I said, I have the most wonderful job in all the world because it's my job to motivate you to do what I do. And that is spend time with God and learn to live for Him. It's a wonderful, wonderful life. And so we have to realize that as we examine the spiritual disciplines spoken of in Scripture, we're not going to cover all of them. Time does not permit us to do so. But we want to give you a few of them in the weeks to come to stimulate your thinking and to move you on towards maturity in Christ.

It was Vance Hav who said, the alternative to discipline. Is dis. Think about it. The alternative to discipline is dis. If you don't discipline yourself toward godliness, if you don't practice the spiritual disciplines of the scripture, then what's going to befall you in days and months and in years ahead? Is disaster. Why? Because you'll be so far away from God. And God is saying, stay close to me. Cling to me. Hold fast to me. And so, with that, let's delineate the disciplines. I'm just going to cover one tonight, and that's scripture.

We will look at the basics and then the specifics. We won't get to the specifics this evening, but we are going to cover the basics in terms of scripture. And there are three of them that I want to give with you. Turn with me to Luke chapter 11.

Luke chapter 11. In Luke 11, Christ had been involved in Vanquishing the demons. He had prevailed over his critics. And in doing so, he had been accused of blasphemy. And the crowd was around, and they had been drawn to him because of his ability to cast out this demon. And so the attention was there by the people. And Christ was speaking and dealing with his critics. And right in the middle of his sermon, somebody interrupts him. Is a lady in the crowd. She was so excited about what Christ had done.

She was so excited about seeing what Jesus. Could do that, she had to speak. And she says in verse number 27 of Luke 11. And it came about while he said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. The first bas you need to understand is the principle of learning to hear God sp.

Jesus didn't scold the woman. Jesus didn't deny the truth of her remarks. But he did redirect her vision. To get her to understand that God wants more than your attention. And God wants more than your admiration. And these people admired him. Can you imagine what he did? Did you see what Jesus did? There was a great amount of admiration for him, and he had gathered everybody's attention. But Jesus wants more than that. He wants your adoration. He wants your affection. So he says, the blessed person, the truly blessed person, the one who has fullness of joy.

Is the one who he the word of the Lord. Over in Mark:, Jesus said, Take care. What you hear. Take care of what you he. That 's important. Jesus says, I want you to hear what I have to say.

You can hear a lot of different things, but Jesus says, I want you to hear what I have to say. So take heed, take care as to what you hear. And then he says over in Luke chapter 8, verse number 18: take care how you hear. Not only be careful about what you hear. But be careful about how you hear what you hear. See that? You see, God is into listening, He's into you responding by sitting back and listening to what He has to say. When we come together on Sunday mornings, we don't come together to fellowship.

We come together to focus on God. Because the more you focus on God, the better your fellowship will be. And so, when we come together, we come to listen to what God has to say. When you come to church, you're not coming to hear a preacher, you're coming to hear God speak. Isn't it interesting that the last words of Jesus in Revelation chapter 22 are words not to preachers? Are words not to teachers, they are words to hearers. Remember what he said over in Revelation 22, verse number 18? I testify to everyone who hears.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. In other words, are you listening? I testify to all of you who are hearing. That blessing and cursing depends on how you respond to what you hear. Isn't that interesting? God could have closed his book out anyway. Of course, you, he closes out with, Behold, I come quickly. But before he says that, are you listening? He says. Are you listening? I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this bo. God says, are you listening?

I hope so. Because blessing and cursing depend on how you hear and how you respond. To what you hear. But you need to go beyond the hearing to the reading. That's point number two.

The reading of the scripture. Revelation chapter 1. Verse number three. Blessed. There it is again. Mak. Extreme, utter blissfulness. Joyous. Living. Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy. And heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. The blessed man is the one who reads the word of God. Wh hears what he reads and obeys what he reads. That 's why Paul told Timothy: give att. To the reading of Scripture. 1 Timothy 4, verse number 13. Timothy, look, before I come, understand, you've got to give attention to the reading of Scripture.

Read the word of God. It's so important just to read it. People say, You know, I read the Bible, I don't get anything out of it. Let me ask you a question.

Well, let me make a statement. Since when did God say that if you read His word you get anything out of it? And when you read it, what difference does it make if you get anything out of it? The important thing is, you read it. I guarantee, you read your Bible, and you might not get anything out of it, it'll change your life. Guaranteed. Why? Because God's Word is living. God's Word is powerful. And you don't need anybody to explain it to you. But you know, we come together and we like to read books about the Bible, don't we?

We got more people who write more books about the Bible to get everybody reading their book instead of reading the Bible. And God says, read the word.

Blessed are those who read. The word. Are you a reader? How many magazines do you read in a week? How many magazines do you subscribe to? And do you read them from cover to cover? Well, how many times have you read your Bible from cover to cover? The living word of God. And the most commonly. Known response to that is: well, you know, I just, I just, I can't find the time. I don't have the time. And I've always been baffled by that remark because how can a truly born-again believer not have time to read the inspired Word of God?

Let me help you understand something. It doesn't take that long to read the Bible. You know how you know? They have the Bible on cassette tape. You can read through the Bible in 71 hours. That's how you know how quickly you can read through the Bible. We have the same 24-hour period Jesus had, right? Days never change. There's still 24 hours. You got the time. The problem is discipline. The problem is motivation. It was the evangelist Robert L. Summer in his book, The Wonder of the Word of God, who tells about a man from Kansas City.

who was severely injured in an explosion. His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both his hands. He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible and Braham. But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters.

One day, as he brought one of the braill prages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters, and he could feel them. Like a flash, he thought, I can read the Bible. Using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times. If he can do that, you can discipline yourself. To read the Bible. What did Jeremiah say in Jeremiah:? Thy words were found, and I did eat them. And they were the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.

We need to spend time with God. We need to hear His Word. We need to read His Word. And lastly, another basic principle: we need to study God's Word. The difference between reading and studying is this, a pen and a piece of paper. That's the difference between reading and studying. If you have a pen and you have paper, you can learn to study. The scriptures. It was Jerry Bridges who said that reading gives us breadth, but study gives us depth. Remember what Ezra said back in Ezra chapter 7, verse number 10?

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord. And to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. It was Ezra who devoted himself to the study of the law of God. It was Apollos in the book of Acts, who was a man who was mighty in the scriptures. I tried to sit my boys down and explain to them, gentlemen, I said, as you grow old, you must understand. There's only one thing you must be good at, and that is you must be mighty in the scriptures because nothing else matters.

Discipline your life to be mighty in the scriptures. That's all that counts. Apollos was that kind of man. God wants his people to be mighty, to be strong in the scriptures. And turn with me over to 2 Timothy 4, just to kind of put the icing on the cake for this whole thing about study.

Because I think it'll kind of bring it home to all of us in a more realistic kind of way. As you know, Timothy is, or 2 Timothy is Paul's last letter. He's in prison. He's about to die. His execution is imminent. And what would you do? What would you ask for if you knew that your execution was imminent? You were cold in a prison cell all by yourself. J TV. E, C, make sure you got the paper each day to figure out what was going on. What would you ask for? Listen to what the Apostle Paul asked for.

2 Timothy 4, verse number 13. When you come. Bring the cloak which I left at Troas with car and the books, especially the parchments. Paul asked for the scriptures. And now you might be out there saying, well, yeah, so would I. And maybe you would. But here's the interesting thing. The Apostle Paul was one who saw the living God on the road to Damascus. He's the one, remember over in 2 Corinthians 12, who was caught up into the third heaven.

He was the one who, with Acts chapter 14, experienced the miraculous power of God in his life and through his life. But even more importantly than that, he was a man who wrote scripture. And yet he still asked. For Scripture. That's the amazing thing. Maybe that doesn't strike you that way. To me, it does. Here's a man who was so humble. Here was a man who lived his whole life getting to know God. And before he dies, he wants to gather in all the information he can about his loving Lord before he enters into glory.

He wants to know it all. He wants no surprises when he gets to heaven. He wants to know it all because he wants to know God, the ruler of heaven. That Amazes me. And so we ask ourselves why Christians neglect the study of the Word of God. R. C. Sproll has said it painfully well when he recorded these words. Here then is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word, not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because.

It is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy. Is that not true? Folks, you're not stupid. None of you are. None of you lack intelligence. And the reason you're here tonight is because none of you lack desire. You have desire. That's why you're here. The problem is that we're lazy. Isn't it? It's not that we can't study it, it that we don't. That's why it's discipline. That's why it's hard work. That's why Paul says, exercise yourself unto godliness.

Discipline your life. And where does it begin? It begins with understanding that God Of the universe. It begins with the scriptures and learning to hear them, learning to read them, and learning to study them.