God's Word and You, Part 4

A leadership of the church needs to believe that God's word is efficacious, that God's word really does work exactly as God says it works.

So therefore, when it begins to develop a ministry, they are focused and centered on the word of God. Not only that, a church needs to make sure that that leadership is not only convinced of the authority of God's word and the ability of God's word, but their accountability to God's word. And I am pleased to be a part of a church that has a leadership that is convinced of the authority and ability and their accountability to God's holy word. I am very much pleased to be able to be a part of a church that recognizes God's word as the sole authority.

So that society is not our authority or what culture says, or what our feelings may think about what we believe, but what God's word actually does say. All that to say this, I want everybody in the church to be convinced of the authority of God's word as well. The ability of God's word and their accountability to God's word. I want you to long for God's word to speak to you that you might know exactly what it is it says concerning your situation and concerning your life that you might submit without question to the authority of God's holy word.

And so we are studying God's word. I think that each of you are growing more and more in love with the word of God as time goes on. More and more of you are seeing the effects of God's word in your life. You see, when you're committed to preaching the word verse by verse by verse, word by word, precept upon precept, line upon line, you believe in the ability of God's word to do its work. And it's doing just that. That's what makes Christ Community Church such a unique church. We have a body of people who really want to do what God says.

And that's why I am pleased to be the pastor at Christ Community Church because of what God's word is doing in the lives of the people that attend. All that to say, we want to continue our outline in our study of the word of God. We began by looking at the letter A. I am not going to review all those points for you. We are now at the letter L in our outline. That means that if God's word is going to dwell in you richly, you will love God's holy word. You're going to love God's word. Listen to the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119, verse number 97.

Oh, how I love thy law, he says. Over in verse number 113, he says, I hate those who are dumb-minded, but I love thy law. It says in verse number 127, Therefore I love thy commandments above gold. Yes, above fine gold. Over in verse number 159, Consider how I love thy precepts. Revive me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness. Down in verse number 163, I hate and despise falsehood, but I love thy law. The psalmist was in love with the law of God. The psalmist wanted to meditate upon God's word day and night because he was so in love with the word of God.

Let me ask you a question. Do you love the word of God? Are you enamored with the word of God? Do you want to spend time in the word of God? You know, as well as I do, that if you say you love your wife or you love your husband yet want to spend no time with them, you're going to have a hard time convincing them that you love them, right? Well, if you say you love the word of God, then don't spend any time in the word of God. You're going to have a hard time convincing people you love the word of God.

But if you want to be in the word, if you can't wait to read what God has for you that day, if you can't wait to investigate the truths of the Bible, you are demonstrating the fact that you love the word of God. I want you to love God's holy word. You speak about it on the way. Is it not true that when you love your wife or you love your husband, you want to talk about your husband or wife to other people, right? Well, same thing about the word of God. If you're in love with God's word, then it becomes the natural part of your conversation.

You can tell about what a man loves by listening to his conversation, right? Can people tell by your conversation that you love the word of God? I could spend a lot of time on this point. I would like to get through all 26 points before the end of this year. So I won't do that. But I don't really like to recommend books to people from the pulpit because that's just not something I do. But every once in a while, I'll recommend a book. And the reason I do that is because, you know, there are very few books published today that I would ever recommend you buy and read.

Very few. I could probably count them on my hand just because most people who write books today don't say much of anything. And so to read, it's a waste of your time. So what I try to do is direct you back to the Puritans of old, because those were men who walked and talked with God. Those are men who had a relationship with the living God that they would begin to put into print because they wanted people to know their God. And there's a book I refer to quite often. I've read it through many times.

It's called The Godly Man's Picture by Thomas Watson. It's a great book. If you're a man today, you need to pick up this book and read it. If you're a woman today, you need to pick up the book and read it because it deals with the godly character of the individual. This book is a great book. And in here, Thomas Watson talks about the man's love for the word of God. He talks about how a man of God loves to read the word of God. He loves the word of God written. He loves the word of God preached. Listen to how he characterizes the man who loves the word of God written.

When we want direction, do we consult this sacred oracle? When we find corruption strong, do we make use of this sword of the spirit to hew them down? When we are disconsolate, do we go to this bottle of the water of life for comfort? Then we are lovers of the word. But alas, how can they, who are seldom conversant with the scriptures, say they love them? Their eyes begin to be sore when they look at the Bible.

The two testaments are hung up like rusty armor, which is seldom or never made use of. The Lord wrote the law with his own finger. But though God took pains to write, men will not take pains to read. He goes on to say, do you love the word of God preached? Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive it into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Is it the removal of the ark that troubles us? Again, do we attend to the word with reverential devotion?

When the judge is giving his charge on the bench, all attend when the word is preached. The great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the word. Again, do we love the holiness of the word? The word is preached to beat down sin and advance holiness. Do we love it for its spirituality and purity? Many love the word preached only for its eloquence and notion. They come to a sermon as to a music lecture or as to a garden to pick flowers, but not to have their lusts subdued or their hearts bettered.

This is indeed a sign of grace and shows that you are a lover of the word. A corrupt heart loves the comforts of the word, but not the reproofs of the word. Those are good words. He goes on in his book to speak more eloquently about the godly man who loves the word of God. Do you love God's holy word? Do you love it when someone comes to you and says, let me tell you the sin.

Let me tell you what the word of God says about your sin. Do you love the reproofs of the word of God? You see, when God's word is preached, when you sit down and read the word of God, it's like a two-edged sword, right? It cuts through the things that are there in order to expose error, in order to expose lusts, in order to expose sin. And for most of us, we don't want our sin exposed, but that's what God's word does. It slices and dices the individual in order that what's on the inside might be exposed to the true light in order to expose the condition of the man that says, you know what?

I've sinned. I'm the man who sinned against the Lord. That's the man who loves the word of God more than he loves his sin, right? He wants to know the truth of God's holy word. You know, the Bible over in 2 Thessalonians 2 helps us understand why people go to hell. You ever wonder why someone would ever go to hell? Why someone would not choose Christ? Why someone would not hear the gospel and respond by turning from their sin and trusting Christ as Lord and Savior their lives in order to follow him the rest of their lives?

The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse number eight, speaking of the end times, and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming.

That is the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive, what? The love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason, God will send upon them a deluded influence so that they might believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness. The reason man goes to hell is because he will not receive the love of the truth.

It's because he loves his sin more than he loves the truth. That's why man who rejects Christ will burn in hell forever. Do you love the truth? Do you love it with all that you have, all your soul, heart, mind, and strength? I trust that you do. Next, oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. M, meditate on God's word. If you want God's word to dwell in you richly, if you want God's word to be such an intricate part of your life, you need to meditate on God's word. The Psalmist says, I love your word so much that I meditate on it day and night.

God told Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate on it day and night that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. But Joshua, if you're going to lead the people of God into the promised land, if you're going to lead two million disgruntled, murmuring Jews who are never satisfied, who wanted to kill the greatest leader that ever existed, Moses, then you need to meditate upon the word of God.

You know what that tells me? If you're a husband and you live with a murmuring, disgruntled wife, you got to meditate on God's word day and night. If you are an employer or an employee and around you are disgruntled, murmuring people who seek to kill you, you need to meditate on God's word day and night. For God says, if you do, I'm going to make your way prosperous and you will have good success.

You'll understand what it means to know me and to be for me in the marketplace, in your marriage, in your ministry, wherever God may lead you. But you need to meditate upon God's word. You need to do more than just read the word of God. You've got to read the word of God. You've got to rewrite the word of God in your own words. You've got to repeat the word of God. And you've got to realize that when you read the word of God, you never read the word of God alone because meditation takes two people, you and the spirit of God.

For it is the spirit of God who will illumine your heart and mind to the things you need to know. God's word needs to be chewed up. It needs to be swallowed. It needs to be digested. Our hearts need to be warmed at the fuel of meditation. Meditate on God's holy word. You've heard what the psalmist has said. How blessed it is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.

And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. So important to understand the power of meditation in the life of an individual. How about you? Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day long. Do you meditate upon the word of God? We want to rush through our readings. We want to hurry through our lessons. But we need to sit down and begin to meditate. Think through the word of God.

Love God's word. Meditate on God's word. And next, neglect not God's word. Neglect not God's word. I'm afraid that there are a lot of people who want to neglect the word of God. The Bible says in Proverbs 13, 13, despise not the word of the Lord.

For the man who does will be in debt to it. He will be judged by it. When you despise something, you neglect it. You treat it as if it means nothing to you. I have come to find that there are many people who neglect the word of God. Not because they don't want to read it. It's just the fact that they don't want to give it a priority in their lives. And I have found that there are many people who neglect the word of God, who despise the word of God. Do you do that? The Bible says in Hebrews 2, verse number three, how should we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

How about you? The word used in Hebrews 2, verse number three, is the same word used over in Matthew 22.

And if you have your Bible, I want you to turn that with me, if you would, please. Matthew chapter 22. In Matthew 22, Christ gives a parable about those who neglected the word of God. Listen to what it says. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parable saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast. And they were unwilling to come. Now you have to picture the scene because the king is the most prominent figure in the land, right?

And his son is going to be married. So there's going to be a great celebration, a great wedding feast. And in those days, the wedding feast was the greatest celebration that they had. And so the king was going to have this feast and he sent his slaves out to call the people who had already been invited to come. Now think about that. If you had been invited to the king's son's wedding, you got to be pretty important, right? Not everybody's invited to the king's son's wedding. But evidently there were some who were invited.

And so the call went out. It's time for the wedding feast to celebrate the great wedding celebration. The Bible says that the people who were previously invited were unwilling to come.

Amazing. Why wouldn't they come? Now, if you were to spurn the king's request, that would be instantaneous death. You just can't say no to the king. So this king, unlike most kings, is very gracious, very patient, very kind, very humble. And so it says in verse number four, again, he sent out other slaves saying, tell those who have been invited, behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatted livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. Tell them what I have done for them.

So they did. It says in verse number five, but they paid no attention. That is, but they neglected the invitation. They despised the invitation and went their way. You say, how can that possibly be? How can someone invited to the king's son's wedding, the greatest celebration in the land that man would ever see or ever know or ever be a part of, how is it that these people could neglect it? The Bible tells us. It says they went their own way. One to his farm, another to his business. You know what they did?

They went back and they decided to do what they always do. They went back and decided to continue on life's journey for themselves. They were only concerned about their lives. I have my ambitions to pursue. It's all about my farm. It's all about my business. You know what I found? What the context of the parable specifically deals with God who is the king and his son, Jesus Christ, and those who were previously invited, the nation of Israel. You know what I couldn't realize? That a lot of people in the church are just like that about the word of God, right?

They neglect the word of God for their own selfish pursuits. Their farm, their business, their home, their lifestyle of luxury, their recreation. As mundane as I think they are, I mean, that's what consumes them. That somehow what they're doing is more important than what God wants to do in their lives. And that's why men neglects the word of God. This king is a very patient king. How do we know? Verse six, and the rest, who are the rest? Well, those are others other than those who just were preoccupied doing their own thing.

Those who were ignorant and indifferent. These are those who are arrogant and vengeful. The rest seized the slaves and mistreated them and killed them. King finally became enraged.

Listen to what it says. Then he said to the slaves, the wedding is ready. But those who were invited, they weren't worthy. The pre-invited people weren't worthy. Why weren't they worthy? Is it because of their own, their own righteousness? Because of their own standing? No, they weren't worthy because they refuse the invitation. What makes one worthy is that they would accept the invitation. What makes one unworthy is that they refuse the invitation. So the wedding hall would be filled with dinner guests, both who were evil morally and those who were good morally.

Why? Because whether you're evil or good morally, the reason you're found worthy is because they responded to the invitation. The pre-invited guests rejected the invitation. And because they received the invitation, they had kingly garments. Listen to what it says. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes. You see those who responded to the invitation received wedding clothes. How did they get them? It couldn't be because they had enough money or enough of their own ingenuity to make their own wedding clothes.

No, the king had to give them wedding clothes. Why? Because they were from off the streets. They couldn't clothe themselves. And the wedding garments, of course, are the blood of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 61 tells us that very clearly. But the king came out. He found one not dressed in wedding garments. And he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? How did you get in here? He was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.

In that place, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Bind him, throw him out of here. Why? Because he's not worthy. Why isn't he worthy? He is not worthy because he doesn't have wedding garments. And why doesn't he have wedding garments? It's because he says, you know what? I'm going to come to the wedding feast the way I want to come to the wedding feast. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to go to heaven my way. And the king says, no, no, you can't come to the wedding feast unless you respond to the invitation and receive my garments.

You didn't either. You are unworthy. Therefore, bind him and cast him into outer darkness. All that to say this, don't neglect God's word. How shall we escape the judgment of God if we neglect so great a salvation? Why is salvation so great? It's great because it's the king who offers salvation freely to those who are so undeserving. That's why it's so great. If you receive my invitation, I will dress you in wedding garments and you will be a part of the wedding party. But if you neglect because you're unwilling to come, if you neglect because you have other things to do, guess what?

You've missed the opportunity. You've missed it. And the king becomes enraged. For a true believer to neglect his most precious commodity is inconceivable in the mind of God. If you're here today and you despise the word of God, if you've neglected the word of God, if at any time you have said no to God, say no, no longer. Because the patience and the forbearance of God does run out. And when it does, you can't enter. If you're here today and you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, don't despise the word.

Don't neglect the word of God. Don't do that. Neglect not the word of God. Have you neglected God's word? Have you neglected your meditation upon God's word? Have you neglected cultivating your love for God's word? Don't do that. Don't do that. Why? Because these words are your life. These are the words that will sustain you, keep you, purify you, protect you, be all to you that no one else can be. This is the word of God. I want you to love the word of God. I want you to meditate upon the word of God.

But I don't want you to neglect the word of God. Let's pray.