It's Balanced With a Disciplined Obedience - Scriptures, Part 3

Tonight, we want to give you just some specific principles that will get you started on your road to understanding more of who God is. Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Luke.

The book of Luke, the fourth chapter. And the very first principle I want to give you this evening is what we'll call the principle of preparation.

And that is how we become God consci. If we're going to sit down and read about God and His Word, then we somehow have to grasp that it's God we're speaking to and God we're listening from. And so, a daily quiet time ought to have, as its primary objective, a sense of meeting with a personal God. We must learn how to get in touch with who God is. And so you need to prepare your heart if you're going to receive from God's word open what he says. Then you must prepare the heart to receive what's there.

We read it last week: Psalm 119, verse number 18: Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things. In your law, we've got to learn to quiet our heart before God. We've got to learn to listen to God, and we've got to learn to prepare our hearts to meet God. Psalm 46, verse 10, Be still and know that I am God. Cease from striving. That means if we're going to spend time reading God's Word, the distractions around us have got to subside. They've got to be put away. And we've got to get away. And I think that the Lord Jesus exemplifies that for us.

Over in Luke chapter 4, verse number 42, we read these words. And when day came, He departed and went to a lonely place. The Lord Jesus knew what it meant to get away to a lonely place so that he could focus specifically. On his father. In order for us to get something out of the word of God, there has to be a preparation, a time in which we set aside. To focus in on God al. It says over in Proverbs chapter 8, verse number 34: Blessed is the man who listens to me. Again, it's the blessed man who listens to the Lord God, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts.

For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from The Lord. This man watches daily. This man waits expectantly for God to speak, listening for God to give direction. And so he anticipates the God of the universe, the pre one, to somehow speak to him because he knows that the blessed man is the one who listens daily at the gates of the temple. In other words, we're looking to hear from God. We're preparing our hearts. We want to receive from God what He has. For us, God wants to conform us to His image.

That's what Romans 8 tells us. In order to do that, we must prepare our hearts to listen to what He has to say. There has to be a preparation time. Learning to become God-conscious, which leads us to point number two: the principle of investigation.

If we're going to investigate the Word of God, then somehow our hearts have got to be prepared. So, you can't skip preparation and rush into an investigation because it's that preparation period where God begins to reveal to you those things that need to be confessed, those things that need to be dealt with. So, that when you begin to dig into the Word of God, you're ready to go. The principle number two is investigation.

If preparation is becoming God-conscious, then investigation is becoming time-c. In two areas. Turn with me to Psalm 63.

Psalm 63, verse number 1. The psalm says these words: O God, thou art my God. I shall seek thee ear. Maybe your text says earnestly, but I'm going to seek thee early. If there's going to be an investigation, two things must happen when you're going to become time conscious. One is, one is, you've got to seek God early. And number two, you've got to seek God earnestly in that order.

Early. And earnestly. Now, I'm a real big pusher of people getting up to spend time with God. And I want to give you several reasons why I think that's important. Number one, because Jesus did.

Of course, he spent all time communicating with God. But over in Mark chapter 1, I think it's very interesting. If you recall our study in there a couple of years ago. You probably don't, but let me refresh your memory.

It was one of the busiest days of our Lord's life. I mean, after all, he had went to the synagogue and he began to teach. He was then confronted by a man who was demon-possessed. So he cast out the demon. And then it goes on to verse number 29 of Mark chapter 1 that he healed Peter's mother-in-law of the fever. And then it says in verse number 32: when evening had come, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill, those who were demon-possessed, and the whole city had gathered at the door.

Now, can you imagine that? Here's Jesus inside the house, and the whole city gathers at the door. It's nighttime. He's tired. It's been a long day. But there are people who needed to be healed. And so, it says in verse number 34, And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demon to speak. Because he knew who he was. Long day in the life of the Lord Jesus. One of those days where you get up when the sun is up and you're going all day like Hogan's goat and It's in the middle of the night, and people are still at your house.

They're staying around, they want more coffee, you know, they want to talk more, they got more problems, so you keep talking to them. And finally, they leave and say, Man, boy, I can go to bed.

And you think that Jesus might want to sleep in the next day, right? Well, verse number 35 says, And in the early morning, while it was still what? Dark, he arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. He got up before the sun came up. He got up and it was still dark. The psalmist says, Early will I seek thee. There's something about seeking God early. Why? Because when you talk about time, you talk about four things. First of all, you talk about the setting of the tone, right?

You set the tone for the day. Number two, it indicates the priority, doesn't it? Whatever's a priority in your life, it's the first thing you want to do.

If God's not a priority, then you could take or leave time with Him in the morning, right? Or time with Him anytime during the day, if He's not a priority. And thirdly, you have to understand that the mind is the least cluttered in the morning.

And lastly, your energy is the greatest in the morning. Of course, you're going to say, No, that's not the way it is, me. I'm not a morning person. Ask God to change you, and you'll become a morning person. Psalmist said, Early, ear will I seek thee. The Bible speaks of those who meet with God in the evening time, too. At the noont, too. And so I don't want to be too dogmatic about getting up in the morning, but I do want to say that I do believe it is the best time. And I believe our Lord understood that in order for him to be freed from distractions, if you've got small kids, they're up early.

You've got to get up earlier than they do. Because once they get up, I don't know what it's like in your house. I got five kids one other way. That's going to give me six here by the end of the year. It's a noisy place comes 7 a. m. So, you've got to make sure that you get up early enough to spend time with the Lord so that you're ready to face all those little faces that sit down at breakfast. The second thing I want you to see is that you've got to seek the Lord earnestly.

If you're going to spend time investigating God's word, it's got to be early and it's got to be earnestly. And when I say that, I mean if you're not prepared to spend at least 30 minutes with God, if you can't give God 30 minutes, my friends, you're too busy. But if you can spend at least 30 minutes with God, you're going to need that just to begin to investigate the Word of God. We've got to spend time in observation, we've got to spend time in interpretation, and we've got to spend time in application.

When you spend time in observation, you're asking the question, What do I see? Or what does it say? You want to be able to ask the question, What? Why, how, who, and when, and where. Asking all those questions about the text begins to get you in the observatory mode. And it makes interpretation that much easier. But you got to be like a detective. You got to search for the clues. You got to point out the little details. Because the little details are important, right? For instance, we just talked about it in Mark chapter 1.

Jesus rose up early in the morning before, or while it was still dark. Well, that's important when you understand the context of Mark chapter 1. He was so busy the day before doing all these things, yet he knew. That the vitality to his life was in his relationship with his Heavenly Father. He knew that. And so he spent time with him early. In the morning. And so you got to ask the question: What do I see? And then when you move on to your interpretation, you got to ask the question, Well, what does it mean?

Not what does it mean to me? But what does it mean? You see, there's only one interpretation of the Bible. There are many applications, but there's only one interpretation of the Bible. That's important to understand. And when you begin to interpret the Bible, you've got to understand that there's a lot of barriers that are there, a lot of gaps that are there. There's a historical gap, there's a cultural gap, there's a geographical gap, and all those gaps have to be bridged. In order for you to accurately interpret the scripture, when you look at 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, it talks about how the word of the Lord sounded forth from them, trumpeted forth from them, all the way from Macedonia to Acha.

Well, when you understand that Thessalonic was located on the Ignatian Freeway, then you begin to understand how God's word sounded forth from those people so quickly. Because people would be coming in and out of Thessal all the time. And they would tell them about the Lord Jesus and what He had done. And because they heard, they would spread the word of the Lord out. All around the region. So you have to understand that geography plays a big part in your interpretation. The context plays a big part in your interpretation, doesn't it?

People say, you know, we're glad that you're here tonight because where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. So we're going to pray, and God's here because look at all these people here tonight.

That's a wrong interpretation of Matthew 18. That's not what the text says. The text says that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. That is because it's in the context of church discipline. When you go to a sitting brother and you're living out what I tell you to do in Matthew 18, to one person go, then two people go, and then you bring it to the church. When you're doing the process of church discipline correctly, Jesus says, I'm with you because you're doing it my way.

Has nothing to do with prayer. That's not the context of Matthew 18. You see? So we've got to be careful how we interpret because you've got to take everything within the context in which it was written in. And so, as you go through the Word of God and begin to interpret all that's there, you have to understand that when you interpret Scripture, you must interpret it within the literal, historical, grammatical. And practical way in which it was written. There's also a thing called synthesis that deals with how scripture interprets scripture.

You know, we got to realize that whenever we interpret the Bible, the Bible is never going to contradict itself, right? So, when I go to Matthew or Mark chapter 16, verse number 15, I believe it is, when Jesus says, belie and be baptized.

And you'll have eternal life. Does that mean that I've got to be baptized in order to be saved? If I pull that verse out and use that one verse, then I can prove baptismal regeneration. But that's not what the Bible teaches. Why? The Bible teaches that we're saved by grace through faith. There's no works involved in our salvation. And so, scripture interprets scripture. The Bible is never going to contradict itself. The previous church, in which I was pastoring, one of the criticisms that I received was that I used too many scripture references in my sermons.

And a guy said, Man, you just, I mean, we're going through the Bible and you're jumping from this book to that book to this book to that book. You don't stay in the text. And I said, well, that's true, I know. Because I believe that if Jesus said it, Paul said it. And if Paul said it, James said it. And if James said it, Peter said it. And if Peter said it, John said it. They're all going to say the same thing. And if you don't do that, if you don't use scripture to prove scripture. If you just stay in one little section, what you do then is you'll come up with doctrinal heres.

You 've got to be very careful about that. But the Bible interprets the Bible. It's the best commentary on the Bible. That's why it's good to have a concordance. That's why it's good to have something that will help you correlate scripture. Helps you through the interpretation process, which leads us to point number three, and that is meditation.

Turn with me to Psalm 119. And I hope that I don't think I am, and if I am, please forgive me. I don't mean to be too technical. I'm not a technical kind of guy. I'm a real simple, basic black and white kind of guy. All right? And if I'm too technical for you, you know, just bear with me, and everything's going to be okay. I'm trying to be as simplistic as I possibly can to get you off the ground in terms of Bible stud. And the third principle in being able to digest the Word of God is the principle of meditation.

Preparation is becoming God-conscious. And investigation is becoming time conscious. How much time I spend with God, and what I do at that time, and when I spend time with Him. And meditation is becoming need conscious. That is, we all have needs, right? You got them, I got them. And so when we go to the text, we can't set our needs aside. We go with the needs because God wants to address. Those needs. The psalmist said in Psalm 119, verse number 15, these words: I will meditate on th precepts and regard thy ways.

Verse number 23. Even though princes sit and talk against me, thy servant meditates on thy statutes. Verse number 48. Says this, and I shall lift up my hands to thy commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on thy statut. Verse number 78 says, May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie, but I shall meditate on Thy pre. Verse number 97. Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Verse number 98. Thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine.

Verse number 99, I have more insight than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. Verse number 1. My eyes anticipate the night watches, that I may meditate on thy Word. You kind of get the idea that the psalmist likes to meditate. What does that mean? Well, to meditate means, or it's just another biblical word for reading thoughtfully. Paul told Timothy over in 1 Timothy chapter 4. After he began to talk to him about discipline and how he needed to discipline himself unto godliness and how he needed to give attention to the reading, the teaching, the exhortation.

How he needed to set himself up as an example in his speech, his life, his purity, his love, and his faith. He says this in verse number 15. Take pains with these things. Be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all. That's meditation. Timothy, I want you to be absorbed with these principles. I want you to let them sink deep into your life because if you do, Your progress will be evident to all. If you don't, others will not see your progress. You see, your maturity, your life, as you grow and you walk with God, is going to be a direct or associated directly with your time that you spend molling over.

And wrestling with the truth and the commands of God. And that's where meditation comes in. Don't set your struggles aside, take them with you when you open the book. And begin to read it in light of where you're at and listen to God speak and spend time camping out on a phrase, a verse, a paragraph. And say, God, make this a part of my life. Which leads us to the fourth principle, and that's the principle of app. The principle of application, John chapter 13. That's becoming response conscious. John chapter 13, verse number 17.

You know the story? The night before the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. When they were arguing about who was the greatest in the kingdom, he quietly gets up and he girds himself with a towel and begins to wash the disciples' feet. He has a little confrontational episode with Peter because Peter was ashamed to have the Lord Jesus wash his feet, wash his feet. And Jesus sets them straight theologically and then says in verse number 17 of John chapter 13: If you know these things, you are blessed. If you do them, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him is what?

Sin. Folks, we've got to learn to put into practice the things that we read about, the things that we know the Word of God says.

That's where application comes in. Because God is going to speak to you. If you're serious about Bible study, God will speak. And when God speaks, He's looking for you to follow and to do what He says in His Word. And you got to continue to ask yourself the questions: Is there an example for me to follow? Is there a sin to avoid? Is there a promise to claim, a prayer to repeat, a command to obey, a condition to meet? A verse to memorize, an error to mark, a challenge to face? If so, how do I do it?

Where do I go from here? It was Thomas Watson, that great Puritan, who said these words: Take every word as spoken to yourself. When the word thunders against sin, Think thus, God means my sins. When it presseth any duty, God intends me in this. Many put off scripture from themselves as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written. But if you intend to profit, By the word, bring it home to yourselves. A medicine will do no good unless it is app. You say, well, you, I just have a hard time remembering all the things that the Lord teaches me.

I got a solution for you. You're not going to like it, but I'm going to give it to you. If you have a hard time study the scriptures, if you have a hard time getting anything out of the scriptures, here's your solution. You ready? Two words. Teach it. Teach it. And you'll never have that problem again. Just teach it. Find somebody else. Hey, folks, believe me, there's somebody who knows less than you do. I know for some of you it's hard to believe, but believe me, there is somebody who knows less than you do.

Find that person, sit them down, and say, Hey man, we got to have a Bible study together. Are you ready? Let's do it together. And you'll find your whole life change. Because God begins to speak volumes to you. And you got to remember it, because you've got to teach it. Why is the Dead Sea dead? It has no out. That's why it's dead, folks. We come and sit in church, and we get all this good stuff coming into us, and it just keeps soaking and getting deeper and deeper and deeper. And you know as well as I do.

You have a sponge full of water and it sits there and it keeps getting more water in it. By a couple of weeks, it's going to start to smell, right? You got to squeeze that baby out and start all over again. God says, I'm going to squeeze you out.

I want to fill you up, then I'm going to squeeze you out. I want to fill you up, then I'm going to squeeze you There's nothing like a good sponge that's broken in, is there? Boy, you can do a myriad of cleaning with that baby. And that's what God wants to do with your life. He wants to fill you up and squeeze you out. Are you teaching anybody? It'll change your whole outlook on Bible study. Nothing gets you into the Word of God any quicker. Than studying the Word of God. Maybe it's just teaching your kids.

Maybe it's teaching a neighbor. I'm not saying you've got to have a pulpit and stand up and teach class. I'm not saying that. Just find one of the person to disciple. What are the person to invest in? And you'll begin to see things you never saw before because God begins to teach you. So that you can teach somebody else. And by the way, is that not what Jesus commanded us to do? Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them? God knew. You got to get it out. And lastly, the principle of memorization.

Becoming equipped conscious. Memorization. Proverbs chapter four, verse number four, says this. Let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and live. Folks, that's memorization. Retain my words. Hold fast to my words. Grasp them. Seize them. Lay hold of my words. Mem is the key to your Bible study. You memorize scripture, I guarantee your attitude will be altered. I guarantee your mind will be metamorphosized. I guarantee that your evangelism will be energized. I guarantee that your prayer life will be extremely potent.

Why? Because you'll pray scripture. Everything will begin to change. Your faith will be fortified and sin will be squelched. But if you don't memorize scripture, sin will flourish in your life. Thy word have I what? Hidden my heart. That I might not sin against thee. You hide God's word in your heart, it'll keep you from sin. God will bring those verses to your memory. And you'll be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. But you got to begin. You got to start someplace. And that's the most difficult thing, isn't it?

May God give you strength and grace and mercy as you practice the discipline of Scripture.