Commit Yourselves to Growing Spiritually, Part 1

Tonight, as we look at our series on the biblical principles that God gives us to build a marriage that honors the Lord, you know, they're like building blocks, one upon another.

And as we go through them throughout this year and next year, you're going to see how it is God uses these blocks of principles in our lives to help us build toward the kind of marriage that brings honor and glory to the name of the Lord. It's so important. And, you know, we began a few weeks ago with acknowledging Christ as Lord. That's where it begins. For if you haven't done that, then your marriage goes nowhere when it comes to things that are of utmost importance. And then last week, we talked about how to build intimacy through biblical love.

You know, the only way you can be intimate one with another is to have the kind of love that honors the Lord Jesus. So we talked about that. And then tonight, we want to talk about building block number three, and that is the letter C, which truly is you need to commit yourself to growing spiritually.

You need to commit yourself to growing spiritually. Why is that? Why is that so important? It's pivotal. Why? Because your marriage, you know, we've told you this over the years, truly is a picture of Christ's relationship to the church. And so if I want to accurately portray Christ in the marriage, I must come to know Christ. I must exemplify the character of Christ. So that as my wife and I paint a picture every day on a brand new canvas, that canvas gives a clear understanding as to the identity of Christ and the purposes that he's called me to fulfill as his child.

And so therefore, in order for that to happen, I must be growing spiritually. It was the late Watchman Nee, whose theology was a little off, probably more than just a little bit off. It was off, but he did say these words, which I thought were very profound. He says, anyone who serves God will discover sooner or later that the great hindrance to his work is not others, but himself. Translation, the great hindrance in your marriage is not your spouse, it's yourself. We want to blame our spouse. We want to blame him or her for the way things are, that they're not really turning out the way we thought they were, so it must be their fault, couldn't be our fault.

So we want to blame the husband, we want to blame the wife for the condition of the marriage or the condition of the family or the situations that we find ourselves in. Yet, the problem is me. Am I growing in my walk with the Lord? Am I exemplifying Christ in the relationship? Do I have the kind of attitude that glorifies the name of Christ? So sometimes we forget that the greatest hindrance to any progress is not others, it's me. Am I willing to admit that? Am I willing to deal with that so I can move the marriage from where it is to where it needs to be for the honor and glory of Christ?

That means I must commit myself to growing spiritually. I must understand what it means to live the Christ-like life. So how does that happen? If I'm going to commit myself to growing spiritually so that I can become the man or the woman God wants me to be, how does that happen? Turn with me in your Bible to 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter chapter 3. Peter was a growing man. He grew spiritually. He went from a hard-headed, hot-tempered Galilean to a humble apostle. He went from a simple fisherman to a significant fisher of men. All because God did a work in his life. And so when you read 1 Peter and 2 Peter, you see a different man than you did in the Gospels. In the book of Acts, there's been a change in the man as well. But when you read 1 and 2 Peter, you see the great change. And so he ends his second letter with these words in verse number 17.

He says, You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard. Be alert. Be vigilant. Be awake. Understand this. You need to be on your guard. You need to be armed. So many times we forget about that. But the Bible says that we, in Proverbs 4.23, that we are to guard our hearts, right?

With all diligence. I mean, there's vigilance behind that. There's drive behind that. Why? Because out of your heart flow all the issues of life. So Peter says, look, I want you to be on guard to watch out about what's going to happen. He says these words. He says, You are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness. I want you to be aware of something. That you can very easily succumb to the error of unprincipled men. In the context of 2 Peter, it deals with false teachers.

But let me help you understand this. That in the context of your marriage, there are many unprincipled people that give you really bad advice, bad counsel, bad direction. In fact, that same word, unprincipled, is used over in chapter 2, verse number 7, when it talks about Lot, when it says that God rescued Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. Remember, Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he was oppressed by the conduct, by the homosexuality of unprincipled men. The word unprincipled means unrestrained men.

It talks about the fact that they are without law. Those are unprincipled men. And so when you get counsel from people, when people talk to you about marriage and family and love and all those kind of things, Peter says, look, be careful that you don't be carried away and you stray from your steadfastness. You stray from your foundation. You stray from those things that keep you grounded, that someone would sway you and move you in a different direction. He says this, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. That's how he ends. I want you to keep on growing. I want you to be constant in your growth. Is it not true that so many times our growth comes in spurts? You know, we get excited about the Lord, you know, and we get saved, we get baptized, right? We're excited about the Lord, and so we're in church, we're in the word, we're taking elective classes, we're sharing our faith, and we're really excited about the Lord, right? And over time, sometimes that excitement wears down, and all of a sudden we stop growing, and we just kind of become stagnant at times.

In fact, most of us are more stagnant than we are progressing in our walk with the Lord. So Peter wants to remind these beloved brethren that they need to be constant in their spiritual growth, and they need to be growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever asked yourself this question, what does it mean to grow in grace? I mean, if grace is God's unmerited favor towards those who are undeserving and unworthy, it's a gift that God gives to us, how do you grow in that?

If God graces us to save us, for we know that we're saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we understand that, that God has graced us, he's favored us, not because of anything that we have done, it's unmerited favor that God has bestowed upon us, how do I grow in that? What does that mean? Well, that's why you're here. You know, when you grow in grace, you grow in the ability to be compassionate. When you grow in knowledge, you grow in the opportunity to simply be discerning. When you grow in grace, you learn to be tolerant, loving, kind, and merciful.

When you grow in knowledge, you learn to be strong, steadfast, committed, resilient. The result of growing in grace is vulnerability, and the result of growing in knowledge is stability. When you grow in grace, you become more and more vulnerable, but when you grow in knowledge of the Lord Jesus, you become more and more stable. But just because you're saved by grace doesn't mean that that's the end of grace. And so if we're going to grow spiritually, that I might be able to paint an accurate picture of the Lord in my family, I've got to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When He came, He was full of what? Grace and truth. Very important. And so, because I'm saved by grace, it doesn't mean that grace ends, because the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 verse number 1, Paul says to Timothy, you be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

So not only are we saved by grace, but we are strengthened by grace. Paul tells Timothy, because Christ is in you, alright, I want you to be strengthened by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God of grace, 1 Peter 5 verse number 10, He's the God of all grace. And because He's the God of all grace, and He resides within you, the only way you can be strong is to be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. But note this, grace not only saves us and strengthens us, God's grace sanctifies us.

It sets us apart. Titus chapter 2 verse number 11, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, teaching them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that they may live soberly, godly and righteously in this present age. In other words, God's grace appeared. And God's grace didn't just appear in the Lord Jesus Christ, but because of the saving grace of God, that saving grace now sanctifies you. It teaches you how to live your life. That's a great thing. So if I'm going to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am growing in my understanding of His strength, in His salvation, and also I am growing in His sanctification.

But it doesn't stop there. I am sustained by grace. If I'm saved by grace, if I'm strengthened by grace, I am sanctified by grace, then I will be sustained by grace. Remember 2 Corinthians chapter 12, when Paul went to the Lord and he beseeched the Lord three times that He might remove from me this thorn, this messenger of Satan, this thorn in the flesh. And the Lord said, no, but the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you. In other words, I'm going to sustain you by my grace. My grace is so sufficient because I'm the God of all grace.

My grace is so sufficient that it will sustain you through this messenger of Satan that you have received. And Paul says, I have that, so I would not boast in myself, because in the previous verses before that, he talks about being caught up to the third heaven and being able to see the glories of heaven.

But God kept him humble with this messenger of Satan, but told him that his grace would sustain him because his grace was sufficient for all things. And Paul knew that in his weaknesses, he would be the strongest. Why? Because of the grace of the living God. So the grace that saves you is the grace that strengthens you. The grace that strengthens you is the grace that sanctifies you. The grace that sanctifies you is the grace that sustains you. And the grace that sustains you is the grace that God uses that you might serve him for his glory and for his honor.

For Paul says over in 1 Timothy, excuse me, 1 Timothy chapter, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, Therefore do not be ashamed in the testimony of our Lord or of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and his grace. God called us into his kingdom by his grace. But don't be ashamed of the gospel because we are preachers of the gospel, so in your service of the king, God will give you the grace not to be ashamed that you might stand strong that you might serve him in a mighty way.

We have all gifts of the spirit. The Bible calls them in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, grace gifts. The gifts are given to us because of the grace of God. We didn't earn the gift that God gave us, the spiritual gift that God gave us. God granted it to us. I didn't earn the gift of prophecy or earn the gift of exhortation. I didn't earn those. God granted those to me. It was this gift to me. And so he's going to grant me the power to fulfill that. So if I'm going to grow in the grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I'm going to grow in my understanding not just of his salvation, but how he's going to sanctify me and set me apart, how he's going to strengthen me each and every day, how he's going to sustain me through difficulties, through suffering, through hardship, through pain.

As I'm growing each and every day, those things become more and more evident. And so that's what it means to be growing in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In fact, in 1 Peter 4.10, it says that God has what is called manifold grace. That is, there is a variety of graces that God has for every situation, no matter what it is. Have you ever seen someone go through a very difficult time and ask yourself the question, how do they do that? Let's say they lost a child early on in life. How do they get through the loss of a child?

Or they lost a spouse, and you say, how do they get through that difficult time? And we say, boy, I could never do that. Ah, that's true. But you don't need grace of the loss of a loved one until you lose a loved one. You don't need the grace of the loss of a child until you lose a child. You don't need that grace yet. You don't need the grace that God will sustain you through a very difficult divorce until that happens, and then God, by his grace, will sustain you and strengthen you because he saved you and will allow you and give you that grace because the grace of God is a manifold grace.

It's a multifaceted grace that God grants because he's the God of all grace, not the God of some grace. Peter says in 1 Peter 5, 10, he's the God of all grace, and so we rejoice in that. So the Bible says in James 4 verse number 6 that God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud.

So if we're going to grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we do it from a very humble perspective, believing that I deserve nothing. See, the problem with us is that we think we deserve so very much, but we really don't. You deserve to die. I'll grant you that. Why? Because the wages of sin is death. The penalty of sin is death. So I got news for you. You're all going to die. If you didn't know that, it's going to happen. It might not happen today, but it's going to happen because that's what we deserve.

You deserve to die, but God in his grace allows you to live. That's why you're here. You're breathing today because of God's grace, and God's bestowed that upon us. And so Peter says, I need you to constantly be growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But not only that, I need you to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Notice what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say, I want you to grow in your understanding of the Bible. It doesn't say that. I want you to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Big difference. I know a lot of people who know an awful lot about the Bible, but they really know very little about the Lord. What did Christ say to the Pharisees in John chapter 5? Oh, you search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life, but you miss the fact that the scriptures speak about me, me. And yet you are unwilling to come to me that you might have life.

Because I'm the God of life. So you're searching the scriptures, you know the Old Testament, you know about the prophecies, you know about everything that was said in the Old Testament, and you find yourself as masters of the Old Testament, but yet you'd miss me. How do you do that? How do you read the scripture and miss me? I'm the theme of the scriptures, I'm the redeemer of the scriptures, I'm the Messiah of the scriptures. How do you study the Bible and miss me? See, that's our biggest problem.

We study the Bible because we have a need in a certain situation or in a specific area instead of studying the Bible just to get to know who Jesus Christ is. Because the answer to every one of your problems stems from your understanding or your lack of understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to come to know Him. That's what's important. Daniel 11, 32, those who know their God will display strength and do great exploits. Let me ask you a question.

Do you display strength? Are you doing great exploits for the name of Christ? Those who know their God will display strength and do great exploits. Daniel knew that. He understood that. He knew his God. And so there comes a point where Peter says, listen, above everything else that you're doing, be careful about being led astray by unprincipled men, unlawful men, those who might want to remove you from your steadfastness. You ever been counseled by somebody that says, hey, you know what, just let him go.

You've gone through enough. Just let him go. Maybe you should leave him and find a new guy. Not recognizing that maybe you're the problem in the relationship, but not helping you work through the biblical principles of a loving wife or a loving husband. No, just quit and leave him. Well, that's a lawless counseling session. You need to be able to understand what the Bible says concerning your response to that.

You need to be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You need to come to know the Lord intimately. And so over in Colossians chapter one, listen to Paul's prayer for those at the church of Colossae. In verse number nine, he says, for this reason, also says the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. In all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthen with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.

Paul says, listen, we have been qualified, not because we qualified ourselves, but because the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, he is the ultimate qualifier. And so he qualified the unqualified to be partakers of his great inheritance. God did that. And so if we're going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, I want you to understand five principles, okay? All the things I said right now is all introductory. I want to give you five principles. I don't think I'm going to finish in this evening, but if I don't, it's okay.

Lord willing, I'll have next week. But if Jesus comes before that, it's okay. You won't need the principles, okay? But if he tarries, we'll pick it up next week if I don't finish this evening, okay? So Colossians 1.9 leads us to the very first principle.

If I'm going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, I must understand principle number one, and that is simply this, everything begins with a divine inheritance.

That's number one. If I'm going to grow, it begins with a divine inheritance. In other words, I have inherited eternal life. Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 19, verse 27. After Christ's conversation with the rich young ruler, and Christ makes that great and wonderful statement that it's impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven on your own, but all things are possible with God. Peter says in verse 27, behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then will there be for us?

That's a question everybody asks. What's in it for me? And here's Peter asking the question, well, what about us? I know this rich young ruler loves his riches. He has another God, and that is his money, and it's impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven because he must relinquish his own self-sufficiency to enrapture himself with the sufficiency of God. But Lord, we've left everything. We've left our father, we've left our nets, we've left our finances, we left our future. We left it all to follow you.

What's in it for us? So Christ tells them. Truly, I say to you that you have followed me in the regeneration when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. This is future. There's going to be a day where you will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. He's talking to the apostles. He says, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my namesake will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life.

You will inherit eternal life. You see, in order to grow, you must be alive. You must be living. Therefore, in order to grow, you must have eternal life. And the inheritance that God gives us is eternal life. We are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, and God is life and Christ is life. We now have their life. We have eternal life, which is more than just longevity. It can't be longevity. Why? Because unbelievers die and they experience eternal life separated from God. So they're going to have eternity living away from God, but we have eternity living with God.

So eternal life is more than just living a long time. It's living a quality of life, a life that honors the Lord, that depends upon the Lord, that glorifies the Lord. It's the quality of life that God gives you that will be fulfilled in eternity when we go home to be with Him. But the Bible also says in Matthew 5, verse number 5, that the meek shall inherit the earth. Whoa. The meek shall inherit the earth. There's coming a time where those who come into God's kingdom and they experience the joys of heaven, that one day they will inherit the whole planet.

Now, that might not be of interest to you, but God says there's going to come a time where I'm going to rule and reign on this planet.

And when I rule and reign from the city of Jerusalem and my apostles sit on 12 thrones and they judge the 12 tribes of Israel, you will inherit the earth. We also inherit the Holy Spirit. In fact, He is the down payment. He is the guarantee of our inheritance. Listen to what it says over in the book of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, the Bible says these words, verse number 11, in Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with the view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. God has given us His spirit as a down payment, as a guarantee that we will receive the inheritance that God has promised to those who have come to Him. And the spirit of God works in you, works in me, and because we have the spirit, He is called the comforter, therefore we have divine comfort.

Because we have the spirit, He is the ultimate guide that leads us into all truth, therefore we never lose direction. Because we have the spirit, He is at work in us to cleanse us and to work through us. We have the power to accomplish all that God asks us to accomplish. So part of the inheritance is not just the spirit of God, but the spirit of God who is the guarantee that everything that God has promised us will be fulfilled exactly as He said. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 1.20, it says all the promises of God are yes in Jesus Christ.

All the promises, they're all yes in Jesus. So if I'm going to grow spiritually, it begins with a divine inheritance. It begins with the fact that I have eternal life. I have the life of God in me. I can't grow without that life. So it begins with a divine inheritance, and number two, it's balanced by a disciplined obedience.

It is balanced by a disciplined obedience. Very, very important. Why? Because the Bible says in Philippians 2, these words, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but it's God who is at work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

In other words, everything about the Christian life is a life of discipline. Now discipline is a bad word today. It's a great word, but in our culture, we're a very flabby culture. We're a very weak culture. We're a soft culture. We live in a soft country. We have a soft president. We have soft leadership, and it affects everybody who is here. We live in an undisciplined society. But yet Paul would say to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, verse number 7, that you are to discipline yourself unto godliness. Why?

Because bodily exercise profits a little, but when you discipline yourself unto godliness, it profits for eternity. He doesn't say that bodily exercise doesn't profit. It does, but only for a little bit, because it's temporary, right? I mean, you can work out all you want in your 20s and 30s, even in your 40s and 50s, but when you get to your 60s, 70s, 80s, everything starts to sag. It just does, okay, because it's temporary. It doesn't last forever. It's only for a while. But godliness lasts forever, and therefore, there is this discipline of the godly life that needs to take place in our lives.

That's why that which begins with the divine inheritance is balanced by a disciplined obedience. That is, we are to follow what God says in His Word.

So important. The word discipline, or train, and first thing before is where we get our English word, gymnasium, right?

Because, you know, think about it. When you think of a gymnasium, what do you think of? A nasty smell, right? Sweaty bodies, right? People don't go to the gym and work out and smell good. They all smell bad. Why? Because it takes work to work out. It takes the expenditure of energy to work out, and when you work out, it takes a long time to get to where you want to be. You just don't take a pill and look like me overnight. It doesn't happen that way, right? No, I'm just kidding. But the fact of the matter is you can't take a pill and be strong.

You've got to work out, and you've got to discipline yourself. It's hard work. That's why people don't want to do it. That's why I belong to Exercise Anonymous. Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I call somebody up until the urge goes away. It's just something I don't want to do. I don't want to go through all the sweat and all the work and all the tears and all the bloodshed just to get ripped. I don't need that, right? But people do that. They do it. They like it. But spiritually, you've got to go through the exercise.

Spiritually, you have to go through the discipline. Spiritually, you have to really work at it. Spiritually, you have to discipline yourself unto godliness. That's what Paul tells Timothy. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27, Paul says there is this discipline that I'm engaged in where I realize that there is something that needs to happen in my life so that I can be the man God wants me to be. So he's working at his salvation with fear and trembling, but he works it out because it's God who is at work in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

So in other words, the spirit of God is working in and through me that I might be able to accomplish the things God wants me to accomplish. So what are those spiritual disciplines? I wrote down 20 spiritual disciplines in the scripture. I'm not going to give you all 20. But I wrote 20 of them down, and they all begin with the letter S, every single one of them. But let me give you a few of them to help you understand how to train yourself unto godliness.

If you're going to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, then you must train yourself to be godly. There is a discipline of the heart and of the mind that must take place. Very, very important. You know, we don't sit on a mountaintop pondering our navel thinking that we're going to grow spiritually. It doesn't work that way. So the very first discipline in scripture is the discipline of the scriptures, the discipline of the scriptures, the discipline of hearing the scripture, the discipline of reading the scripture, and the discipline of studying the scripture.

Now think about that. We lose a lot of people right out the gate, because to discipline yourself when it comes to scripture means that I've got to be a willing listener, I've got to be quick to hear what the word of God says.

The Bible says in the book of Revelation chapter 1, and the book of Revelation chapter 21, it says, listen, blessed are those who hear the words of this book, and blessed are those who keep the words of this book, and blessed are those who teach the words of this book.

Why? Because there's a blessing about the words of God. And so you need to hear it, you need to keep it, you need to study it. But that's the discipline. That's why Christ says to the seven churches in Asia Minor, he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Are you a good listener? Do you hear? You know, it takes discipline to listen. It takes a lot of discipline to listen, because none of us likes to listen.

We all like to talk. We all think we're smarter than the other guy in the room. In fact, most of us think we're the smartest guy in the room. So everybody wants to know my opinion. Everybody wants to know what I think. That's why Instagram blows up, and Twitter blows up, and whatever kind of social media you have blows up. Why? Because you want everybody to know what you think. You really do. You want them to know what's happening in your life, because you know better than they do. And so you're going to educate everybody.

But to listen to the words of God. We talked about it on Sunday. Remember, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse number 1? Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, because you're going there to listen.

That's a discipline. The discipline of listening to the words of God. Hearing the words of God. Reading the words of God. So incredibly important. Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter says this. He says, therefore, putting aside, stripping off all malice. That's just another word for wickedness. And all deceit. All deceitfulness. All hypocrisy. That's phoniness. And envy. That's selfishness. And all slander. That's just unkindness. Strip all that off. Why do you have to strip all that stuff off?

Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, since you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Why is it we are lacking discipline when it comes to the scripture? It's because there's so much slander and so much malice and so much deceit and so much phoniness in our lives, that unless we strip that all away, we're not going to long for the pure milk of the word. What is it that keeps you longing for the truth? What is it that keeps you away from the truth?

Your own sin. A heart that's deceitful. A heart that's hypocritical. A heart that's full of envy and slander. So Peter says, strip all that stuff away. Get rid of all that. Because if you don't, you cannot long for the pure milk of the word, that you might grow thereby. You can't grow without the milk of the word. You need to feed on it every single day. So important. How many meals a day do you eat? Three? Two? Five? I don't know. How many times a day do you take food and put it in your mouth? You don't want to starve yourself from any food.

You want to make sure your stomach's filled, right? So you'll feed yourself today and tomorrow and the next day. But the Bible says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And if you came to me and you were very, very, very thin and your face was all gaunt and you were pale and you came to me and said, man, I'm not doing good. And I said, well, when's the last time you ate? Three weeks ago. Well, get some food in you. You have to eat something. Don't come in here having not eaten anything and expect me to make your physicality go away. Well, same is true spiritually. You come to me and you've got all kinds of issues and I'm going to say, are you in the word? Are you spending time in the word?

Are you hearing the word? Are you studying the word? Are you growing in the word? Are you longing for the pure milk of the word? You say, no, I'm really not. Well, then how can I help you? Because your answer is in the word. Your answer is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's this discipline of Scripture that is extremely, extremely important where we need to be men and women of the word. The Bible says in Hebrews 4.12 that God's word is a living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword.

It pierces the depth of the soul and divides everything and cleanses everything. Without the discipline of Scripture, we will not grow. We need to be in the word. We need to be memorizing the word. We need to be studying the word. So important. But listen, not only the discipline of Scripture, listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 119. This is so rich. Psalm 119, how blessed are those whose ways blame us who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart.

They also do no unrighteousness. They walk in His ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them. There, the blessing of the man of God who's in the word of God all throughout Psalm 119. All you have to do is just read what it says and you realize there is so much blessing that's there. The discipline of Scripture is so important. Do you listen to the word of God? Do you read the word of God? Do you study the word of God? Do you long for the pure milk of the word that you may grow?

Peter says, I want you to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're going to grow in the grace of God, who is the God of all grace, you must come to know the Lord Jesus Christ or you won't understand the attribute of the grace of God that you might be able to exhibit that grace to others. You can't. So the first discipline is the discipline of Scripture.

The second one is the discipline of supplication, prayer, where I go to my God and I cry out to Him. Remember what it says over in Psalm 145? It says, the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. That's why Scripture is the number one discipline and supplication is the number two discipline because I can't pray properly unless I know how to call upon the God who is truth.

So I have to know the truth to call upon the God of truth. And then it says this, He will fulfill the desires of all those who fear Him. He will also hear their cry and He will save them. He will save them. The discipline of supplication, you're practicing that. If you're a part of our prayer chain, you're practicing that even as we speak. Why? Because you're a part of that 15-minute time slot where you're praying for the families of our church. That takes discipline. To do it every day for three months takes discipline.

To get up in the morning to pray takes discipline. It takes diligence. It takes a steadfast commitment to accomplish those things. And therefore, it's the training unto godliness. Listen, prayer is not easy. If prayer was easy, you'd be on your knees all day. That's why Paul says you've got to pray without ceasing. That's why he says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything like prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, right? But what do we do? We don't spend time in prayer.

We spend time being anxious about what's going to happen next, worrying about tomorrow, worrying about what's going to happen on the next day, or with my kids, or with my husband, or with my wife. Because we're worried about those things instead of going to God and saying, I'm going to pray with thanksgiving, because I know that God wants to do something great, and I'm going to give it all to him. So Christ says in Luke 18, men are always to pray and not to faint.

In other words, if you pray, you won't faint. If you're fainting, it's because you're not praying. Men are always to pray and not to faint. That's why the Lord said to his men in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, pray with me for one hour. Jesus is going to the cross. Jesus is going to die for the sins of man, right? And so he asked his men to pray with him for one hour. That's it. And they fell asleep. He says, pray, lest you enter into temptation. And so when he got up and he found them sleeping, he woke them up and said, can't you just pray with me for one hour?

I'm asking you to pray just for one hour. It's a discipline, fellas. You got to do this just for one hour. It's not a long time, but I need you to pray because I'm going to die for the sins of man. I'm going to the cross tomorrow. I need you to pray. If you don't pray, you're going to enter into temptation. And guess what? Who denied the Lord? All of them. They all did. They ran and hid. They were ashamed. Why? Because they didn't pray. Christ told them, pray unless you enter into temptation. They fell asleep.

They were lazy. They were worn out. They could not discipline themselves, muster up the energy to say, I'm going to pray with my God for this one hour. The discipline of prayer, the discipline of supplication is a discipline that is so much needed in the church for every life. If I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, then there is a definite need to pray. Why? Listen to John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. Wow. Whatever you ask in my name, in other words, according to my will, according to my character, who I am, because name represents character in the Bible.

So you pray according to my character, who I am, and I will do it. Then he says this, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. When you pray according to my name, you are praying for the glory of God. And I'm going to answer every prayer so that your needs aren't met, but that the Son is glorified. And if your needs are met through his glory, great. If they're not met, God's still going to get the glory, because God answers prayer for his glory, not for your sake. See, we think prayer is a rabbit's foot for us to get God to do whatever it is we need him to do.

It doesn't work that way. Prayer is a discipline. It's a discipline where you are engaged in praying for the salvation of lost family members, salvation for work associates, praying for the physical health of those who are ill. You are laboring in prayer on your knees, beseeching the throne of grace. We are to come boldly before the throne. Hebrews 4.16 says that we can do that. Go boldly before the throne of grace. Prayer is a discipline, the discipline of Scripture, the discipline of supplication, the discipline of silence, the discipline of silence.

Hebrews 2, sorry, Habakkuk 2, verse number 20. The Lord is in his temple. Let all the earth be silent. Silent. The discipline of silence. It's a Sabbath rest of your lips, because you're not looking to find anything. You're looking to hear about everything. The discipline of silence is so important. The Bible says in Psalm 46, verse number 10, be still, be quiet, and know that I am God.

Isaiah 30, verse number 15, says this. It says, in quietness, in silence, and in trust is your strength, but you were unwilling to do that. You would not sit in silence. You would not wait for me. You were too busy being active. I need you to be silent before me. Over in the book of Lamentations, this is what the Bible says.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. Let him sit alone and be silent since he has laid it upon him. It is good to be silent and to wait for the Lord. The discipline of silence is so important. The third discipline is the discipline of solitude.

That was the number one discipline that Jesus practiced upon earth. The discipline of solitude. He was always going off into the mountains. He was always escaping from the crowd. He was always going off to be by himself. In Mark chapter 6, after the death of John the Baptist, he tells the disciples, you need to come apart for a while. Come apart for a while and rest. Why? Because the discipline of solitude is so important. Why? Because it is in that solitude I can be silent. As I read the scriptures, as I listen for the voice of the Lord speak to me through his word, I am able to hear what he has to say.

But the discipline of solitude is so incredibly important. Remember Psalm 23? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me what? What? Lie down in green pastures? Right. He leads me beside what? Still waters. Why? Because he quiets my soul. I let rest in silence and solitude with him. If we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it all begins with the divine inheritance. I have inherited eternal life and therefore I have life that is able to grow in the likeness of Christ.

And that life is balanced by a disciplined obedience through the discipline of scripture, supplication, silence, solitude, self-examination, self-scrutiny, the discipline of self-examination, the discipline of self-denial, the discipline of song, the discipline of service. And the list goes on and on and on. Why? Because there's a practice that we engage in that as we go to train, we are exercising ourself unto godliness. And it only happens when I dive into the word of God and I listen to his voice and I hear him speak and I understand what he wants me to do and I follow his direction.

We'll finish these next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for our time together this evening. As quick as it is, there's so much to say. But our prayer, Father, is that all who are here would want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, we need to grow, all of us do, because none of us is where we need to be and we won't be until we go home to heaven. But in the meantime, we want to grow in Christ's likeness that we might represent you to our wife, to our husband, to our children, to our neighborhood, to our workplace, to our church, that people would see Christ in us.

In Jesus' name, amen.