Years ago, an unknown author wrote this about the Word of God, and I've saved it because I think it's fantastic. He's talking about the Bible. He says, this book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here, paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. follow its precepts, and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to the resurrected life in Christ, yes, to glory itself for eternity." You know, what a wonderful description of the Word of God and the many benefits that it gives to us. This is what we're going to be looking at this morning. Now, as we continue on in our Series that I call living a godly and holy life in an ungodly unholy world We're looking at five key realities in our lives that are essential for us to live godly and holy In a way that that pleases the Lord five key realities Thus far we've seen the first key reality which I call Christ-centeredness and the preeminence of Christ, where Jesus is first in our life. That's the core. And because we placed our faith in Christ, He does a work in our heart. Again, the pilot light, if you will, or there's a spark, a flame that's ignited in our heart to where that's what we really want the most as Christians. That's our deepest desire, to love Him, to serve Him, to know Him. So that's the beginning, because when we get away from that, we get into all kinds of difficulties. We then began looking at the second, responsible dependence, growing in Christ. We've already seen that if we're going to live godly and holy lives, then we must maintain the biblical balance of both personal responsibility and total dependence on God. It's not either or, it's a both and. It's living and doing what God calls us to do in a responsible way and doing that in total dependence on the Lord. Now to do this, last time we saw the necessity of spiritual discipline. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 7, where Paul is calling us to discipline yourselves for the purpose of godliness. Discipline is involved. And again, that ties in with that responsibility, but as we are disciplining and doing what God calls us to do, we're to, again, remember, we're doing that in total dependence on the Holy Spirit. This morning, I wanted to begin looking at six primary spiritual disciplines. We're told to discipline ourselves. Well, in what? In what? And so we're gonna be looking at six primary spiritual disciplines. that God uses as His means to grow us in godliness and holiness. Now I say primary because there's a bunch of them that come out of Scripture that we see in the Word of God. And so what I'm gonna do is focus on six and then kinda put into some of these some of the different ones. But the one that we're gonna be looking at this morning, the first is what I call intake of God's Word. Intake of God's Word. And I want us to consider, as we look at God's Word, three important aspects of it. Three important aspects of the Word of God. The first is this. I call it the privilege of possessing God's Word. the privilege of possessing God's Word. You see, there's no spiritual discipline that is more important or more transforming than the regular intake of God's Word, the Bible. Nothing more important or more transforming than this. You see, it's God's primary means of grace in our life to grow us in Christ. and there is no substitute for it. The Word of God is central in a disciplined life that is pursuing godliness and holiness. You see, although creation itself, known as general revelation, declares God's existence, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature. We would never know who this almighty Creator God is were it not for the fact that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in His Word. And that's called special revelation. And the ultimate author of God's special revelation or His Word, the Bible, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has used the different personalities and backgrounds and writing styles of 40 different authors to comprise 66 books of the Bible in three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, over a period of 1,500 years. And see, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author who superintended, orchestrated, and did all of that to bring us what we have in our hands today in the Bible. 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21 tell us, But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. moved by the Holy Spirit, they spoke from God. Now, although we have no longer any of the original autographs, we have a plethora of manuscript copies. Therefore, we can have absolute confidence that in the best translations of the Bible, we hold in our hands the very Word of the living God. What a privilege! What a privilege we have to possess God's Word. A privilege that not all through history have had. Again, because the Bible was given progressively. We have progressive revelation. Those in the Old Testament didn't have the New Testament. Even those in the New Testament, many times, they just had pieces of it, if the letter came to them. And some of those letters were circular letters. They kind of went around the churches. There's been people in our day, or in not too many years past, that would just have a page of the Word of God. What a privilege we have to have the entire Word of God in our hands. Now, we don't worship the Bible, but we should show it the highest respect and honor because it is absolutely unique. It's absolutely unique. You see, unlike any other book, God's Word is inspired. It's inerrant. It's authoritative, sufficient, and it's eternal. First of all, the Bible's inspired. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is inspired by God. The word inspired means God breathed. Now concerning this, I like what John MacArthur writes, and I quote, men were not inspired, but scripture is. God breathed into them and they wrote it down. Word by word, what God breathed into them. It was more than dictation. They weren't just listening to some voice and writing mechanically every word. It was flowing through their heart, and through their soul, and through their mind, and through their emotions, and through their experiences. But it came out every word, the Word of God. As God breathed into them the message, and they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. They said it, and some of them wrote it down. Miraculous, supernatural, inexplicable process that yields to us the word of God." I like that. So first of all, the Bible is inspired. Second, it's inherent, meaning free from all air. It's infallible. In other words, it's absolute truth. That's strange in our world today. Today there is no absolute truth anymore. Truth is seen as relative. People say something is true only because it's true to me, or it's true to you. But if it's not true to me, then You know, your truth is not my truth. See, there's no absolute truth. But the Bible claims there is absolute truth. Because it comes from the triune God, who God Himself is the God of truth and the Spirit of truth. And Jesus said that He is what? The way, the truth, and the life. The psalmist proclaimed in Psalm 119, 143, your law is truth. Verse 151, all your commandments are truth. Verse 160, the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinance is everlasting. Jesus praying to the Father about us as his children, believers, said, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. So the Bible's inspired, it's inerrant. Third, it's authoritative, meaning that God's word is the final arbiter, or it's the final judge over everything. It stands alone in judgment over all of the beliefs, all of the traditions, the theological systems, the scientific and psychological theories of man. not man's views over it. It stands over everything. Romans 3, 4 declares, let God be true, and every man a liar. And fourth, the Bible's sufficient, meaning that it is powerful, not only to save, but also to transform our lives, to totally change us. to save us and to change us. 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. Again, we're told all scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction. Get this, for training or discipline in righteousness, godliness. Why? So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. It's sufficient. It's sufficient to address all the issues of life, either in precept or in principle. And then fifth, the Bible's eternal, meaning that it lasts forever. It lasts forever. We're told in 1 Peter 1, verses 24 and 25, for all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you, Peter says. This eternal, everlasting word. Again, what a privilege, what a privilege we have to possess today a copy of the very word of God, which is the will of God. and the wisdom of God. You see, in His Word, God tells us who He is, who man is, the origin and the end of all things. We're going through Daniel in Sunday school. We're looking at what is to come in the end. Again, it tells us all of that. It tells us God's redemptive plan and Jesus Christ, who is the central theme of all of Scripture, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It tells us God's will and purpose for our lives. As the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God is a weapon against Satan. And it has the power as it is used by the Holy Spirit to revive and restore our souls. As Don read this morning, to make wise the simple. To give joy, comfort, strength to our hearts. To protect us from sin and from doctrinal error. to give us instruction, understanding, wisdom, and guidance in all that we need to know in reference to salvation as well as sanctification. Again, what a privilege we have to possess the Word of God. The value of God's Word is priceless, and its pleasure to our soul is sweeter than honey. Let me say this, just because we have the Bible in our hands doesn't mean that we have it in our hearts. For that to happen, something's required. We see that in the second important aspect of God's Word, which is this, a hunger for knowing God's Word. A hunger for knowing God's Word. If there's one chapter in the Bible that exemplifies the heartbeat of a godly and holy person who hungers for God's Word, it's Psalm 119. Throughout this psalm, the psalmist uses eight different terms that refer to the scriptures. Law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, word, and ordinances. All words that refer to the same thing. The Word of God. He repeatedly relates His life to God's Word. And to the God of the Word. His hunger to know God through His Word is seen in verse 20. where he says, my soul is crushed with longing after your ordinances at all times. Verse 40, I long for your precepts. Verse 97, oh, I love your law. Verse 131, I open my mouth wide, kind of like a bird, and panted, for I long for your commandments. Similar passages in the Psalms include Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2. I think a very familiar passage that we probably all know. As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? You see the hunger, you see the thirst for the Word of God. Psalm 63, verse 1, where David cries out, O God, You are my God. I shall seek You earnestly, my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water. You see, that's the heartbeat of a godly and holy person who's in touch with their regenerate heart, as we saw in our first message. When God saved us, again, He changed our heart. He gave us a new heart, a heart of flesh. The deepest longing of the regenerate heart longs for God. It wants to know Him. It wants to love Him, to pursue after Him, to obey Him. Let me ask you, are you in touch with that regenerate heart this morning? That hungers and thirsts for God and His word? You see, if not, something's blocking it. Something's blocking it. It's not like you don't have it. It's not a matter of getting what we don't have. It's a matter of releasing what's already there. Getting rid of what's covering it up and blocking it. John Piper, I believe, is correct when he says, if we don't feel strong desire for God, It is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things and there's no room for the great." You know, when I began this series, I said, God has called us to be separate from the world. And yet a lot of times that's That's not the case in the church today. We are so close to the world, you can't hardly tell what a true believer is from one who claims to be. And I think that's a problem. That's a temptation with all of us, to get sucked into the world system. And we'll look at it next time. where Paul is telling us not to be conformed to this world, but to be what? Transformed by the renewal of our minds. And again, it's back to the issue of the word of God. You see, if we're not careful, the things of the world can become more important to us than the Lord, than His word. And we end up having little or no hunger for God's Word. That's why I said right at the beginning, the very first thing is a Christ-centeredness that has Him preeminent, Him first in our life, if we're going to be godly. If we miss that, we've lost it. We're on the wrong path. There's nothing that we can do but get back. to get on the right path. Jesus said in Matthew chapter four, verse four, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's how important the word of God is in our life as believers. You see, Job knew this. Job declared in Job 23, 12, I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. No wonder we're commanded in 1 Peter 2, verse 2, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow under respect to salvation. You see, there's a longing. There's a hunger, there's a thirst for the Word of God. Because that is the way by which we know Him. That is the way by which God primarily pours out His grace to make us what He wants us to be. So that we can be godly and we can live a holy life in an unholy world. And if we truly have a hunger for knowing God's Word, then no matter how busy we may be, no matter what obstacles we may face, we will discipline ourselves to make God's word a priority in our lives. And as I said last time, isn't it true? We always find time to do what we most want to do. What is most important to us to do? We'll make time, we'll find time. So the question is, is God's Word that important to us? Do we have a hunger to know Him through it? This brings us to the third important aspect of God's Word. The methods of learning God's Word. The methods of learning God's Word. You see, if we're convinced that we have the ultimate privilege of possessing the Word of God, the treasure that it is, and our heart is right to where now we're hungering after it, what do we do? How do we go about this? How do we learn God's Word? I want to give you six methods of learning God's Word. This morning, I'm only going to be looking at the first three. The first method. The first method is hearing. Hearing God's Word. Romans 10 verse 17 says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, or the word concerning Christ. This is more than just a salvation verse. This is a sanctification verse as well. We're continually growing in our faith as we hear the Word of God. Disciplining ourselves to hear God's Word now primarily refers to regularly attending church where we hear the Word of God faithfully preached and taught. Again, there's other ways. There's other ways that we can hear. One of my favorites through the years has always been listening to scripture on tape. Of course, I've tried to put it on a CD and it never worked. So I still have my old cassette player and I put my little cassettes in there and put my earplugs in. And most of the time I do it when I exercise. I just hear the word of God. You can get through the whole Bible that way in 71 hours. That is less than what the average person watches TV. As far as the hours in two weeks that people watch TV. You can hear it on radio, you can hear it on sermons, on CDs, you can hear it on websites. You see, in hearing the Word of God, we must not only be discerning, we need to be discerning, but we also need to listen intently. Paul commended the Thessalonians for just that. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, we're told, Again, when God's Word is preached, It's not men's words. It's the word of God. And so we listen. That's why I've said before, I think we can listen or we can learn from anyone who is teaching. They don't have to be a great teacher. They don't have to be a great popular preacher to learn. It's a hard attitude. We come to listen. We come to learn. We're asking God, show us what you have for me. Many people in the church today are not active listeners. They're not there to listen to God's Word, to learn from the Word of God. Paul said of them in 2 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4, "...for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." I think there's a lot of that in our day today. That's why I believe pastors do a great disservice to their flocks when they fail to preach and teach expositionally, verse by verse, the whole counsel of God. Again, I don't have a problem with series. I'm doing one now. But overall, where we're going through the Word of God, the power is the Word of God. See, the Bible means one thing in the context in which it's written. It can have many applications, but we want to dig in and find out what does God mean by what He's saying here. When we don't do that, when we only preach shallow superficial sermons, they result in what Ephesians 4.14 calls spiritual children who are tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. You see, without a regular diet of hearing the milk and the meat of God's Word, believers will not be grounded They're not going to be grounded in what they believe and why they believe it. And as a result, they will be unable to discern truth from error. And they will become easy prey for doctrinal error and for false teachers. So the first method of learning God's Word is hearing God's Word. The second is reading God's Word. Revelation 1.3. It says, blessed is he who reads from those. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near. Now again, this blessing I believe applies to all of scripture, but especially here in the book of Revelation, which I've heard many people say, I don't even read Revelation. Nobody can understand Revelation. This is the only book that gives us a blessing for reading it. We need to read it. You see, reading God's word every day is used by the Holy Spirit to give us breadth, give us the breadth of perspective. It helps us see the big picture, the overall perspective of the entire Bible. D.L. Moody accurately stated, and I quote, a man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months. Now we might try Thanksgiving time, but we can't do it. He says, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God's boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it." You see, that's what spending time daily in the Word of God is all about. You can't say, well, okay, I went to do my devotions a few days ago and I'm doing great. That's not true. And again, as I said last time, we're not trying to be legalistic here, but we need to understand the importance of the Word of God. We're already accepted. We're already loved fully in Him. We're secure in Christ. There's nothing we can do to make Him love us more or accept us more. So this isn't some kind of a works thing to get God to be more pleased with me. But it is important to understand that in our freedom in Christ, He has called us to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We have a responsibility in the process. You see, a survey of those who claim to be born-again Christians by the Barna Research Group said that only 18% which is less than 2 of every 10, read the Bible every day. And 23%, almost 1 in 4, say they never read the Bible. Again, these are those who profess to be born-again believers. I don't know who he's talking to. Surveys are kind of whatever. But my point is, to whatever degree that is true in our lives, You see, what does that say about our dependence on God? What does that say about our self-reliance? See, if we're not depending on the Word of God and finding life from that, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word, Jesus said. If we're not dependent on His Word for our life, our spiritual life, then what are we depending on? Ourselves. Self-reliance. We're back to self-centeredness, not Christ-centeredness. You see, just as we would physically be weak and unhealthy if we ate only one meal a week, not opening our Bible during the week except on Sunday mornings, will leave us spiritually weak and unhealthy. You know, you read, you know, and the Olympics are still going on, you read, you know, what an athlete eats. Of course, over there in Korea, they're saying, you know, the athletes are trying to really discipline themselves because the Koreans are giving them so much food to eat. Well, an athlete, you gotta be strict on your diet. And yet they're eating 3,000, 4,000 calories because they're working out so much. What if you go into the Olympics and you say, you know what? I don't need to eat. I'm just going to fast for, you know, three days. What kind of energy are you going to have? You're not going to have anything. You're going to be weak. You're going to be impaired. The same is true spiritually. Our food is the Word of God. Without a regular intake of God's Word in what we call our quiet time, or daily devotions, or time alone with God, whatever we want to call that time, we become what I call spiritual anorexic. I don't know if you've ever seen someone who is anorexic. Terrible situation. Now, there's dynamics going on that make them do that. I mean, the control issue that that gives, even though it's hard to understand. But they're a skeleton. and there's a warped view of themselves. As they stand in the mirror, they see themselves as fat, when they're just wasting away. And yet how true that is for us as Christians, when we starve ourselves from the Word of God and we become anorexic, we think we're doing fine, when really we're not. We're shriveled up for lack of nourishment. You see, just as we need daily physical food as fuel for our bodies, so we need daily spiritual food for fuel for our soul. You know, and every time we open our Bibles to read it, I think it's good to begin by praying the words of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3, 9. where he says, speak Lord, your servant is listening. Again, we don't just want to rush right through it so we can check it off, did that today. Again, we're asking the Spirit of God to use the Word of God to speak to our hearts. And the third method is studying God's Word. Whereas reading gives us breadth, studying gives us depth. You see, every Christian needs to be a student of the Bible. We're told in 2 Timothy 2.15 to be diligent, to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Here it is, accurately handling the word of truth. If we're going to accurately handle it, then we need to study to be able to do that. Colossians 3.16 says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. You see, the Lord wants us all. He wants all of us. Again, He calls us to all different things. He calls us to be a housewife. He calls us to work in different places. He calls some into full-time ministry. He calls others to do this or that. Again, He is sovereign in all of our lives, but He wants all of us to work within the framework that we have, to work at understanding the Bible, His Word, because it is life for our soul. He wants us to understand what He means by what He says in a particular passage. As I said, it always means one thing in the context in which it's written. But it can have many applications. And when we study God's Word, we're just digging deeper. We're doing that with pencil in hand. You see, I don't know about you, but if I don't have a pencil in my hand, What I say by my actions, and again, this is just me, is I don't really care enough to wanna make sure I remember what you're telling me. That's why you see me in any class. I got a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil. I wanna come say, Lord, speak. What is it that you want me to have from this? You see, when we study, we're going deeper into the passage to examine it. We're comparing Scripture with Scripture. We're asking questions. We're making observations. We're writing down what we learn, what the Spirit of God is prompting our hearts with. I think the Bereans were a prime example of this in Acts chapter 17, verse 11. were told they received the word with great eagerness, here it is, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things, what are these things? The very things that Paul himself was teaching them, that whether these things were true. What? Well, we're examining Paul. We're making sure Paul's telling us the truth. Obviously, if they did that with Paul, should we not do that with everybody? They're examining the Scriptures. This is why we offer Sunday school classes. This is why we offer home groups, so we can study more. But again, they do no good if we don't take advantage of them. It's through the process of studying God's word as our ultimate authority that sometimes, and I've seen that with myself, that I study myself right out of a position that I used to hold. As the spirit of God is open in my eyes and brings me more in line with biblical truth. But our heart has to be open. as we study, understanding God is the ultimate, and His Word is the ultimate authority. And we have to bring our views into line with His views. Now, since we can't live out what we don't know, to live godly and holy lives, it's vital, it's vital that we discipline ourselves to have a regular intake of God's Word. by hearing, by reading, by studying it. Let me give you three practical suggestions that I believe will help us to be consistent in our daily intake of God's word. First of all, first of all, make a commitment. Make a commitment to do that. Everything begins with commitment. Every Christian who makes progress in godliness and holiness is a person who made the commitment to discipline his life, to spend regular time in the Bible. You see, there simply is no other way. So first of all, commitment. Secondly, determine a time. You see, Satan is, this is where Satan always battles us at this point. He will try to persuade us that we're too sleepy in the morning, we're too busy during the day, and then we're too tired at night. When do we do it? And so it goes day after day after day where we're out of God's Word. You see that's Satan's ploy. It seems that there never is a suitable time for the Word of God Again, which we freely acknowledge is the greatest treasure outside of God himself that we can possibly possess, and yet we spend no time in it. See, therefore, we must discipline ourselves to provide time in our daily schedule. That's why last time we started with discipline. And what I would say here is whatever time works best for you, do it. You know, I'm a morning person. This morning I woke up at 2. My alarm was set for 4. I usually, you know, try to get up at 4. I'm just a morning person. I wake up. I wake up, my eyes are open. I'm ready to go. I'm fresh at that time. Now, you catch me around 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock. My eyes may be open, but nobody's home. I'm not a night person. Julie's the opposite. Whatever's best for you. But you got to determine a time. And then try to make that the same time every day. And third, have a plan. Whether it's hearing God's Word, reading it, or studying it, we need a plan. You need to have a plan on what you're going to do. For example, to read through the Bible in one year. You need to know what your reading plan is. For years, I used the one-year Bible. Because that way, you just kind of, okay, what day is this? Real easy. Just turn to the day and it already had it all worked out for me. I used that for a number of years. Julie has her own program that she devised where she reads in three portions every day. Right now I'm reading 11. I like the variety. Some people have three, some have five. If you read three chapters a day, for six days and then five on one day, you'll get through the whole Bible in a year. I think that's a good goal because we need to know the word of God. Whatever plan you use, we need a plan. Whatever will work for you. Again, if you need help, just let me know. A comment made by the Hindu religious leader Mahatma Gandhi has bothered me for years since I heard it. He said this, you Christians have in your keeping a document with enough dynamite in it to blow the whole of salvation to bits. We have in our keeping a document, the Bible, that has within it enough dynamite to blow the whole civilization to bits, to turn society upside down, to bring peace to this war-torn world. But then he says, but you read it as if it were just good literature and nothing else. End quote. It's like just reading through a novel. That's all it is. It's good literature, nothing else. See, in other words, he's saying that we don't take God's word seriously. We don't see it for what it really is. The Word of the Living God. It's sad to say, I think he's often right. If any of those statistics are correct as far as how much time we spend even opening its pages. Let me ask you this morning. Is God's Word really a priority in your life? Is God's Word really a priority in your life? Again, when I ask you these questions, I'm asking myself that all week. So I'm just giving it right back to you. Is it a priority? How much time do we spend in it? Since it is God's primary means of grace for growth in Christ, May we heed Paul's command in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness by the regular intake of God's Word through hearing, through reading, and through studying. We'll look at the remaining three methods of learning God's Word next time. Let's pray.