Our subject this evening is enjoying your Bible.
The psalmist said in Psalm 119 and verse
105, thy word is a lamp unto my
feet and a light unto my path.
In other words, the Word of God meant
something real and vital to him.
And I just want to ask you very
simply this evening, what place has the Bible
in your life?
It is to the spiritual life what food
is to the physical life.
That analogy is often used in Scripture.
For instance, you recall the Apostle Peter saying
on one occasion that we are to desire
the sincere milk of the Word.
And the man who takes no food won't
live very long.
Food is necessary and the Bible is necessary.
Now the question is, how can I enjoy
my Bible?
And I want to answer that question and
just do so by using the simple analogy
of the book being to your spiritual life
in the purpose of God, what food is
to your body.
What place has the Bible in your life?
In the first place, food for your body
must be a balanced diet.
We hear an awful lot these days about
vitamins, about a balanced diet being necessary to
sustain blood, and flesh, and brain, and heart,
and nerves, and muscle, and all the rest.
If you have all one kind of food,
it's not good for your body.
And if you have all one kind of
spiritual food, it's not good for your body
either, for your soul.
And one kind of feeding on the Bible
is not good.
Some people read only the Old Testament bits
of the Psalms, some people read only the
Gospels, others constantly go back to favorite portions,
and whole chunks of the Bible remain unread.
If I would enjoy the Word of God,
I must learn to feed on the whole
book, on its history, and its poetry, on
its theology, its prophecy, and learn to rejoice
in the whole teaching, and the whole balance,
and revelation of the Word of God.
You see, a balanced spiritual diet makes a
balanced Christian.
Too many of us are lopsided.
If you use your Bible properly, if you
read the whole book, and make the whole
book yours, it makes you strong for several
things.
For example, it makes you strong for growth
in the Christian life.
You remember how disappointed Paul was with the
Corinthian church?
1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2,
where he says, I have yet to speak
unto you as unto babes.
There was no spiritual growth.
Now, insufficient or bad food will arrest growth,
and many Christians are in danger of contracting
spiritual polio, simply because of neglecting good food,
getting this spiritually deformed.
Beware, my friend, what you read.
Bad books act like poison, and as many
a man lost his appetite for the Word
of God, because of some of the trash
he's been reading, and he's ruined his own
personal quiet time, and his morning watch with
God, because he spent the last hour of
the previous day reading some cheap novel.
Ask yourself tonight, if you're alone, if there's
nobody around, and if you want to read
a book, do you prefer the Word of
God, which is the light to your path,
or do you prefer the novel, which perhaps,
may I dare to suggest, has even something
of the unpleasant in it?
That's a very difficult question for you maybe
to answer honestly, some of you.
What place has the Bible got in your
life?
It's good for growth, and we neglect it
at our peril.
And listen, it's good for conflict with the
devil.
When people sometimes talk with me about spiritual
things, and say they are finding themselves defeated
in life by temptation, I ask them usually
a question.
I say, did you have any breakfast this
morning?
Well, sure.
Well, tell me, did you have any spiritual
breakfast this morning?
And they know what I mean, and they
say, well, quite frankly, I haven't time this
morning.
Really?
Did you have any spiritual breakfast yesterday?
No, I was really a bit busy yesterday
too, I just didn't have time.
Well, have you had any spiritual breakfast this
week?
No, not this week.
It's really been awful pressure this week, I
haven't had a chance.
Well, has it been this month, or even
this year?
No, no wonder, no wonder, when we don't
have a good square meal from the book,
no wonder we go down when we're tempted.
You can't stand up to the devil if
you don't feed on the Word of God.
The Bible is good for conflict with the
enemy, and you could only stand against the
enemy when you're feeding on the Word.
The Word of God is good for service
in the Christian life.
You know, one of the outstanding sporting events
in Britain is the boat race, which takes
place every year between Oxford and Cambridge University.
A little while ago, I read in a
paper of the breakfast the men on the
crew have when they're in training.
It almost made me wish that I was
on the crew.
What a breakfast!
Steak, and all sorts of things that I
would never think of eating in the morning.
What a meal!
Ah, but you see, it was the food
that made them strong when they were in
training, and it was this that made them
fit, and oh, the coveted honour of winning
the race!
But you know, there's a much greater honour
than that for the Christian, it's that of
extending the Kingdom of God in the hearts
of other people.
And if I'm to be used in Christian
work then, then I find that the Bible
will make me strong, and your service needs
strength, and strength needs food, and the Word
of God is the place where you get
food.
It makes you strong for your service for
the Lord.
And then again, the Word of God makes
you strong for the emergencies which occur in
life.
Sometimes the day goes smoothly enough, but the
strength that you have for that is so
useless for the battle you're going to face
tomorrow.
I remember, don't you, how the Lord Jesus
vanquished the enemy?
How he met every emergency in the wilderness,
in that tremendous conflict, by the word, it
is written, it is written, it is written.
And right through all the crises of his
earthly life, all the way to the cross,
he used the authority of God's Word.
And therefore I must ask you, dear friend,
is your Bible well-read?
Is it well-used?
I like to see a well-marked Bible,
that's what makes you strong.
I never forget just a few years ago,
when a very dear friend of mine, some
of you remember him, Reverend George Duncan was
over here at Mid-America Keswick, and each
morning at Moody Bible Institute he was given
almost an hour to speak to the whole
student body and faculty concerning the deeper things
of the Christian life.
And he spoke with such simplicity and yet
with such authority.
And I remember on one occasion that he
spoke about this very subject, getting to grips
with the Word of God.
And he gave some very practical lessons about
it, and it all seemed so real to
him and so vital.
Soon after that meeting, that morning, I had
to go with him to his hotel room.
And as we went into the room together,
I noticed there was his Bible open on
a desk.
And here alongside it there was some black
ink, and some green ink, and some red
ink.
And here was a black ink pen, and
a green ink pen, and a red ink
pen.
And I looked at that Bible, and I
felt I was on holy ground, because I
turned it over and found all its pages
so marked.
Ah, that's what gives strength.
No substitute for that in the Christian life.
A boy once asked his Sunday school teacher
the meaning of the words, urim and thummim.
The teacher was honest enough to say that
she didn't know.
But she said, I'll give you a good
motto for your Bible, urim and thummim.
Are you doing that?
Is your Bible well-read?
Oh, the Word of God gives you strength
for all of these things.
In the second place, food for the body
must be eaten slowly.
You know, food should give your body power.
Lots of folks today get ulcers because they
eat the food too quickly.
And they're always moving at such a pace
of no time to stop, to sit down
quietly for a meal.
And if you bolt food, it gives you
a pain.
And food has got to be digested and
masticated, and you've got to take time over
it.
And the Word of God has got to
be read, and marked, and learned, and inwardly
digested.
I've often used the simple illustration, I won't
do it again, but I just remind you
of that wonderful creature, the cow, with so
many stomachs that it can digest its food.
And the Christian is supposed to digest his
food, and masticate it, and take time over
it.
The Bible, if I'm to get anything about
it, out of it, and to enjoy it,
I've got to read it slowly.
To dash into a very quick Bible reading
with my Scripture Union portion, read it fast,
comment upon it, and then leave it, is
to get nothing at all out of the
Word of God.
It needs time.
You take, for instance, a verse, that familiar
verse, for an example, Galatians 2 20.
You all know it.
I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me.
And the life that I now live, I
live through faith in the Son of God
who loved me, and gave himself for me.
What does that verse tell me?
It tells me five things, if I think
about it, reading it backwards, five lovely things.
It tells me that Jesus loves me.
It tells me that Jesus died for me.
It tells me that he asks me to
trust him, that I might live my life
through faith in him.
It tells me that if I trust him,
he lives in me.
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me.
It tells me that I have been identified,
made one with him in his death and
resurrection.
It's the whole gospel in that one verse.
It tells me all this.
Ah, but I've got to take time to
dig it out.
And if I would read my Bible profitably,
the word is, carry, not hurry, carry over
the Word of God.
So the Bible, the food for my body,
must be taken slowly, and the food from
the Word of God must be digested, and
I must take time to meditate on it.
Another thing, food for my body must be
taken regularly.
How many meals do you have a day?
Three?
Or if you add the snacks, four, five,
or even six.
How many spiritual meals do you have a
day?
One?
Or perhaps not really, one a week.
Cafeteria snacks occasionally, but a real meal from
the Word, once a day, or once a
week.
A pastor once asked a very dirty, dirty
tramp, how often do you have a bath?
And then replied to his amazement, every Christmas,
whether I need it or not.
Hmm.
How many meals do I have from my,
the Word of God?
Oh, I need a timetable if I'm going
to get anything out of my Bible.
Just any time is no time.
Perhaps three times a day would be impossible
for you.
Then insist on at least two, in the
morning and in the evening.
And take these verses from the book, dear
friend, tonight, for your motto from the Word
of God.
Acts 17, 11.
Study the Word of God regularly.
The Bereans who searched every day in the
Scripture to see if these things were so.
Study the Word of God prayerfully.
John 16, 13.
For the Holy Spirit himself shall guide you
into all truth.
Study the Word of God thoroughly.
2 Timothy 2, 15.
Study to show thyself a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed.
Food for the body must be taken regularly.
Food for the soul must be taken regularly.
Don't fit in your Bible study round the
circle of activity.
Fit in the activity round the necessity of
food from the Word of God.
And then again, food for the body must
be eaten in good company.
You never enjoy a meal so much if
you're eating it by yourself.
It's not so good for your digestion.
I think fellowship and eating a meal with
other people makes it all the more enjoyable.
And the best company for the study of
the Word of God is the author of
the book, the Holy Spirit himself.
It makes such a difference in life when
you come to know the author.
As a matter of fact, without him and
without his presence, you just cannot understand the
book.
But once you come to know the author,
the Spirit of God, then in every difficulty,
in every problem, he's there for you to
consult him.
He dwells, you see, in the book.
And he dwells in the heart of the
man who's studying the book, if that man
is a Christian.
He's the author of the book.
That's why the Word of God has authority,
because the Holy Spirit is the author.
And its authority comes from its inspiration.
2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 21 tells
us that the Word of God is in
-breathed by the Spirit.
Holy men of God moved by the Holy
Spirit wrote these things.
This is why the book has authority.
This is what makes it different from any
other book.
And when you turn to the Word of
God, you turn to it immediately as a
book which is in-breathed from God himself.
That's why as you study the Word, you
meet God in it.
Food for the body needs to be eaten
in good company.
And food for the soul is enjoyable when
you take it in the presence and in
the company of the Holy Spirit.
But one more thing.
When your appetite fails you, it's time to
consult the doctor.
When you've stopped enjoying eating, and when you
don't like your food, that's the time to
consult a physician.
Hunger is the natural God-given desire for
food, and appetite is the enjoyment of it.
And when either of these fail in life,
there's something wrong.
Isn't it a wonderful thing, folk, that food,
ordinary food for your body, is enjoyable?
That's really quite a miracle that you enjoy
it.
And it should be so with the spiritual
food from the Word of God.
But you only enjoy food when it's doing
the thing that God means it to do.
And you only enjoy the Word of God
when it's fulfilling in your life the purpose
for which God gave it.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why
God gave us the Bible?
Let me tell you.
John 20, 31.
He gave it to us that we might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing
we might have life in his name.
That's why he gave the Word of God.
He gave it in order that we might
not sin.
First John, chapter 2, verse 1.
Little children, these things I write unto you,
that ye sin not.
Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119, verse 11.
He gave us the book that it might
stop us sinning.
Sin will keep you from the Bible.
The Bible will keep you from sin.
He gave us the book to do that.
He gave us the book that we might
have assurance of life.
First John, chapter 5, and verse 13.
These things are written unto you that you
might know that you have eternal life.
He gave us the book that it might
make us like the Lord Jesus.
John, chapter 17, and verse 17.
Sanctify them through thy truth, for thy word
is truth.
And dear friend, you begin to enjoy the
book in your daily life when it's fulfilling
the purpose for which God gave it.
I ask you again, is it doing that
in your heart?
Has the Word of God brought you to
believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing
that you might have life?
Is the Word of God the sanctifying factor
that because you read it and study it,
it keeps you from sin?
Has the Word of God brought you that
sense of absolute assurance, because you know that
it keeps you from sin?
Jesus Christ as your Lord and therefore you're
sure you have life.
And is your Bible making you day by
day more like the Lord Jesus?
And that's how you enjoy the Bible.
You enjoy it when it's doing the thing
that God gave it to you for.
And I close by giving you four great
words, well-known words, that you should always
have before you as you turn to the
Word of God.
Four great principles of Bible study.
The first word is admit it to your
mind and life.
Admit the Word of God to your mind.
Let it in, let it soak, let it
take root in your mind and in your
life.
Then submit to the authority of the Word
of God in your daily living.
Let this book be the final word of
authority in everything.
Whatever decision you have to make, refer it
first of all to the Word.
What's that?
The Scripture.
Commit the Word of God to your life
and to your character until what you read
here becomes part of you.
Not just a theory.
I believe that one of the great dangers
is our objective study of the Bible.
Is the study of it simply for systematic
theology instead of food for our soul?
Commit it to your life till it becomes
part of you.
And then transmit it through your life in
testimony to others.
Admit it, submit to it, commit it to
your life and then transmit it in testimony
to other people.
You enjoying the Word of God?
I do pray that the book may live
in your heart today and all through the
days.
That you must, might rejoice in it constantly.
And if I may close with a very
practical word.
One very simple method of the study of
the Word of God which will be an
immense help to you is to read your
Scripture Union notes every day.
And we'd be so glad here at church
to help you to understand them and how,
and to know how you may, may receive
them.
The constant systematic prayerful study of the Word
is that which makes the Christian strong.
May the Lord help us to enjoy the
book.
Shall we bow together in prayer?
We thank Thee Lord for Thy Word, for
the written Word in which we find the
living Word.
We thank Thee tonight for the reminder in
the ministry of song and music of the
assurance that we have as we turn to
the book.
We thank Thee that Thou hast given us
the book that we might grow like the
Lord Jesus.
And we pray that the purpose of the
book might be fulfilled in our lives each
day as we submit to it and commit
it to our lives and transmit its message
to the world outside.
Lord give to us the joy, the sheer
delight of communion with Thee in the Word.
We ask it for Jesus' sake.
Amen.