TAKING IN GOD’S WORD (PART 1)
Text: Matthew 4:4
Jesus said, man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Intro:
- Spiritual disciplines can be described as
- Spiritual disciplines are spiritual exercises that when engaged in regularly bring us closer to God and allow us to become more godly in our character and behavior.
Donald Whitney:
No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be godly, we must know the Word of God – intimately.
1. Hearing God’s Word (Lk 11:28; James 1:22; Rom 10:17; 1 Cor 1:21; 1 Tim 4:13; 1 Thess 2:13)
Why must we discipline ourselves to hear the Word of God? Because if we’re not disciplined to do it, then we may only hear God’s Word accidentally, or incidentally, or
To be a
1 Thessalonians 2:13
13For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
- There is a vast difference between being disciplined in your attendance of church services and being disciplined to hear and receive the Word of God.
- If you’re disciplined to attend, church can be
- If you’re disciplined to hear and receive, then your church experience can be life changing.
2. Reading God’s Word
- Have you ever noticed how often Jesus asked questions like: Have you not read….?
- Have you not read where David ate the showbread…?
- Have you read that God created male and female and for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and two shall become one?
Have you not read concerning the resurrection that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God is the God of the living, not the dead.
He assumed that the people claiming to be the people of God had read the Word of God. And a case could be made that this question implies a familiarity with the entire Word.
Mt. 4:4 – Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The implication of this statement is that
Why should we read the Word of God? Why should we be disciplined in reading the Word of God? The main reason for exercising this spiritual discipline is so that we can be and/or become
Practical Suggestions for reading:
1]
2] Get a Bible reading
3. Studying God’s Word
Reading the bible gives us
1) Ezra (Ezra 7:10)
- Note the sequence: Ezra 1) devoted himself, 2) to study the Word, 3) to observe the Word, 4) to teach the Word.
- Before Ezra taught the Word, he practiced it. And before he practiced it, he studied it. And before he studied it, he disciplined himself to do so (i.e. he devoted himself to it).
2) Berean Believers (Acts 17:11)
- After Paul and Silas were run out of Thessalonica by a rowdy gang of Jews, they went and taught the Word in the city of Berea.
- What did they do that was noble? They studied and examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas taught was the truth.
3) Paul in 2nd imprisonment (2 Tim 4:13)
- Paul wrote a total of 13 NT books. Second Timothy is the last of his epistles. He is in jail and awaiting his impending death by Nero.
- Anticipating the arrival of his dear friend, Timothy, Paul writes and makes a special request.
- The books and parchments that Paul request here is almost certainly copies of the Holy Scriptures (up to this time).
- In his cold and miserable confinement, the apostle asks for two things: a coat by which to warm
If Paul needed to study the scriptures, surely you and I need to study the Word of God.
Why aren’t we more disciplined when it comes to studying the Word of God?
RC Sproul answered that question this way: “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 or 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.”
Do you know the difference between bible study and bible reading?