It is my great privilege and honor to be invited to address you today. I have, of course, loved the work of the Trinitarian Bible Society over many years. We have, as most of us do, many Bibles in our home, and they're nearly all stamped with those letters TBS. And we highly value all that you do. Now, my text is to be found in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mightest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Now these words are spoken by the Lord himself to Joshua. Moses now is dead. And what a man he was. He spent 40 years in the palace in Egypt with Pharaoh, learning to be something important. And then Moses spent 40 years in the desert learning to be nothing. And when he had learned both those lessons, God called him for 40 years of massive service, delivering Israel out of Egypt, taking them through the wilderness, and bringing them to the borders of the promised land. Now he was gone to glory. And who would follow? And who could follow a man like Moses? Who could follow a Spurgeon? who could follow a Calvin, for that is what Joshua is called to do. And God gives him the secret as to how it's going to be done. It is by obedience to the Word of God. Here is the way God puts it, Thou shalt meditate in this law day and night that thou mightest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. We know very well that by the grace of God that Joshua did exactly what God taught him to do, not perfectly, but he did it substantially, conscientiously. And the Lord blessed him. In life he was blessed, in death he was blessed, And we're told a wonderful thing about when he was gone out of this world. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders which outlived Joshua. So his ministry was so blessed that not only his generation but the next generation was highly favoured by God with success. Now the words of my text were not of course said to Joshua for his sake only, but to us all. We are, says God, to meditate in this book, day and night, with this promise, if we do so, we shall have good success in life and our way will be made prosperous by God. So that then is my theme. And it brings us to search out the meaning of this word, to meditate. What does it mean to meditate? I define it like this, it is to set our mind on the Word of God, so as to be guided and controlled by the Bible in all that we do. We are to be soaked, as it were, in the truths of Holy Scripture. if I may be forgiven for using a brief illustration. Supposing now we have a white cloth. And suppose we want it to be made red. What do we do? Well, you could squirt a little red paint on it here and there. I don't think that would do. Or you might get a brush and you could brush a little red paint on it here and there. I don't think that would do. Or you could dip it quickly in the dye I don't think that would do. We all know what needs to be done to make that into a red cloth. We have to soak it, we have to saturate it, we have to steep it in the dye. That's what's not happening in our country today, beloved friends. Too few people are soaking their souls in the Word of God. And that's what is most needed, may I suggest to you, with great respect today. Men and women and young people whose souls are full of the knowledge of God. I'm not saying something which is utterly beyond the capability of human beings. I know we cannot do it perfectly. But think of the Puritans. John Owen. All those books. What was the secret of all those books? How did he know all those things? He was soaked in the Word of God. We've all heard of Matthew Henry, the great commentator from Chester in England. Matthew Henry, how did he manage to write all those commentaries that fell ashelf? He was saturated in the Word of God. These men are to us the example of what God is speaking about here when he says to Joshua, we are to meditate in the Word of God day and night. because of what this word is. What is this book? What is this word? Well, it is not what men think it is. It is the wisdom of God. There are two kinds of wisdom. There's the wisdom of man and there's the wisdom of God. And these two, beloved friends, are absolute opposites, the one to the other. Either people go in the direction of the wisdom of man, or we must go in the direction of the wisdom of God. You can't amalgamate the two. You can't compromise the two. They are separate. That's what the Apostle Paul argues in this very epistle. He says the wisdom of God is foolishness with men, and the wisdom of men is foolishness with God. They are opposites. That's what's going wrong in our schools today, our colleges today, our universities today. We need to get back to this book. This is what made our nation great in the days when we once had an empire and influenced America and Canada and Australia and New Zealand and India and Africa and beyond. This was the secret of it all. Our forefathers went out to various parts of the country and of the world, and their concern was to bring the Word of God to the nations of the world. That was their inspiration. Now, why should we look upon the Bible in that way? Well, because of what it says about itself. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The Scripture cannot be broken. Jesus Christ is telling us these things. He who knows all. Thy word is truth, says Christ. Not simply that thy word is true. There are many things that are true that are not truth. They contain a certain amount of truth, perhaps. But you see the great concern God has set before Joshua and you and me is this. If we are to prosper in life, if we are to have good success in life, the secret is to immerse our minds, our thoughts, our hopes, our confidences in this one great word with this caution. There are two things we must never do with the Bible. And this is written in plain, clear letters in the last chapter of the Bible itself, Revelation 22. On the one hand, we mustn't add to it. On the other hand, we must not subtract from it. These were the great mistakes of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees added tradition to the Word of God and ruined it. The Roman Catholic Church traditionally has added to the Word of God the traditions that have come down from the ages past. On the other hand, What has happened is, in recent times, the higher criticism has subtracted from the Word of God. Oh yes, say these great German scholars, of course the Bible is a very important book, we can't afford to neglect it, but you realize, say the scholars, you can't take it just too seriously, because we know that some things in the Bible are not reliable. Do they? How dare they? By what authority? They have no right to think of the Bible in that way when Jesus Christ our Lord says, thy word is truth. And that therefore is the way we must go in life. We must say to ourselves, well, these clever scientists who invent their wonderful ideas and theories, let them keep them to themselves. I'm not going to go that way. I'm going to go by this book. These modern philosophers tell us that we ought to be careful of psychology and psychiatry and to read the consciences of men in a way different from the Bible. We say to ourselves, no, no. Conscience is directed by the Word of God and by no other means. And you see, that's where sadly today so much is going wrong. We mustn't answer the Bible, we mustn't subtract from the Bible, And I'm not being dogmatic when I say this, but I rather wonder am I perhaps right when I say, dear friends, the charismatic movement has taught some people to add to the Bible things that have no authority. I don't want to be too sharp. I know that they're evangelical in many ways, and I respect them and love them, but we must be very careful we never add anything to this book. And that in matters of doctrine, practice, worship, and the rest, here's our guide, first and last. And it's because there's been such a movement away from that attitude that I'm afraid, beloved friends, many churches today are on a slippery slope. May I dare to suggest with affection and love, and yet I hope with conviction, we need to get back to what God said to Joshua in this passage. Meditate in this book day and night, night and day. If you do so, you will make your way prosperous, your church prosperous, your society prosperous, your school prosperous, your university prosperous. Here's the success, here's the formula, and here's the way. Well now, it's very clear that in the Bible we have many examples of how meditation on the scriptures is commended to us by God. I'll just take one or two examples to show what I mean. Isaac, in Genesis chapter 24, he was looking for a wife, and the wife was on her way with the servant who was bringing her from her home country. And as they drew near to where Isaac was walking in the fields, a lady saw him. Who is that? Oh, said the servant, that's Isaac, whom you are hoping will marry you. Oh, she veiled her face. What was Isaac doing? We're told in the Scriptures he was meditating on the Word of God. That's what he was doing. Meditating on the Word of God. Psalm 1, in his law the godly man meditates day and night. Psalm 119, again and again, I meditate on thy holy laws. Take Paul to Timothy. Says Paul to Timothy, Meditate on these things. Give thyself wholly to them. Now, it's not just a question of what is said by the great texts of scripture. Of course, of course, of course, of course, this was the formula of the great preachers of the past. We all respect the profoundly gifted Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Let me quote from him. This is Spurgeon now about meditation. The surest road to wisdom, says Spurgeon, is not speculating, reasoning, or reading human books, but meditation on the word of God. Now that's not me from Inverness, I'm nobody saying these things. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that was his formula, that's why he was the man he was. Of making many books, there's no end. But here's the one book which has no end. Let me give you Dr. Lloyd-Jones. Dr. Lloyd-Jones says this, Bible reading and public worship are very important. And then says he, there is meditation and time to think. Then he goes on, throw the newspaper on one side and think about God and your own soul. Well that's not Somebody in the Reformation time speaking, that's Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whom some of us knew and respected so much. You see, the need to be full of this spirit of meditation on the Word of God. Let me give you one further quotation from Henry Law, not so well known, but I mention him partly because he was profoundly influential in the conversion of life of George Whitefield. And was there ever a better English preacher than George Whitefield? And he was influenced by this man, Henry Law. Let me quote you what Henry Law says on this subject. Devotion is nothing else but right apprehensions and right affections towards God. Well that's simply another way of saying meditating on God and on his truth. So, my beloved friends, I'm bold to say that meditation is one of the great duties that God has set before us in his word, and it is a task and a responsibility which is all too possible in the heatedness of life to lay aside and fail to keep. You know, when you're on trains and buses and so on today, everybody's doing this, aren't they? Fiddling with a little thing in their hand. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. That's not a sin. But ask yourself a question, Where do they find time for secret prayer? If they're doing this day and night, when do they do their secret prayer? The Bible says, pray without ceasing. Well, you can do this for a while and send off your emails and your messages and your texts and so on. That's fine, and that's fine. But there's a limit to the value of these things. We ought to have our mind principally set on those things that are above. All right. What then are the subjects upon which you should meditate? What are the themes? What are the theological subjects which ought to preoccupy our mind at night and day, day and night, all the days of our life? I make some suggestions, if I may. First of all, we should meditate on the being of God himself. You know, this is where so much preaching goes wrong. People have a weak view of God. And you can tell that in the way they speak of him, and the way they approach him. You can tell a man's attitude to God as soon as he opens his mouth in prayer. Ah, you say, yes, yes, I know that man is in the right relationship with God. Or not. You can tell it by the way he addresses his maker. Think of God as the Bible presents him, dear friends. Infinite, eternal, unchangeable, infinitely holy, infinitely righteous, infinitely loving, Seeing all things, knowing all things, watching all that you say and all that you do. He knows how many blades of grass there are in the world. He knows how many grains of sand there are in the world. He knows what's happening today. He knew what happened yesterday. He knows what's happening tomorrow. He knows the day you will die. This great God who sees our thoughts. I was a very young Christian when I was discovered by a text of scripture that God could read my thoughts. I couldn't believe it. I never thought of it. God knows what I think. What a shock. But you see, he does. And we need to remember that. Then we need to consider the sinfulness of sin. What is sin? Well, it is disobedience to this great and holy God. We are but the creatures of his hand, and who on earth are we to do what God has forbidden us to do? And let us take deeply seriously the sinfulness of sin. I'm afraid to say that even some Christians that I meet today, they do not take seriously the Ten Commandments. Some people say the Ten Commandments are for the Old Testament. No, no, no, no, no. The way to think of the Ten Commandments is this. They were a covenant for Adam But they're not a covenant for the Christian. But that doesn't mean we throw them away. They were a covenant for Adam, which he broke. But to the Christian who's got a covenant with Christ in grace, the Ten Commandments are the rule of life. They're not a covenant of life, but the rule of life. And that means to say that the way to live to please God and to get his blessing is to keep the Ten Commandments conscientiously and carefully. And we meditate on that fact. I take one example because this is very often broken in modern society. We often hear people say, gosh, gosh is simply God. Minced is what we call a minced oath. Gosh is God. And if a Christian says, oh gosh, he's blaspheming, he doesn't realize it, but he is. Another one is, gee, gee is Jesus. When a Christian says, oh gee, he's sinning against God, he doesn't realize that. Great Scott, he's not always saying great God. Golly, God again. Heavens above, that's where he lives. Goodness gracious me, no those are the attributes of God. My dear friends, I'm not trying to be smart, I'm just saying we need to realize that as we meditate on the truths of the word of God, His law, His being, His teaching, we begin to see how much we need to reform our own lives and how much we have to repent of and how many sins we have to confess to God with sorrow and grief and shame. And then think of the love of Christ. Oh, meditate on the love of Christ. It's staggering. Dear friends, God the Son, infinite, eternal, unchangeable like the Father and the Spirit, He has taken our human nature into union with Himself. One person with two natures. What a condescension! There's no illustration possible to show what a wonderful kindness that was in His part. How would you like to take into union with your own body, the body of a world? Well, that's what it is. This infinite, glorious, eternal Son of God sitting upon the throne of the universe takes your nature and mine into union with Himself. One person, two natures. And His motive in doing so is to glorify His Father by saving His people who were given to Him before the foundation of the world, as we heard in prayer. Oh my friends, doesn't that put a dimension on His love which is staggering? Is it not amazing? Is it not beyond all possibility of understanding. Who can comprehend it? And then take this thought also. The relationship of the church to Christ. All meditate on that. That Christ is the husband of his wife, his bride, his church. And as a husband loves his wife and is jealous for her highest good, so is Christ jealous for your good and mine as members of his mystical body in the church. Oh, profound thought. He loved those with an infinite love. He laid down his life, not simply to suffer being crucified, that's terrible enough, but more than the pain of crucifixion was the pain of damnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ placed his soul under that damnation and curse of Almighty God, which I deserve as a sinner. and which he took upon himself in his love and kindness to us. Are there words to express our gratitude? Are there words to convey our sense of the wonder, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And then, how wonderful also that the Lord Jesus Christ, having done all these glorious things, should then make himself to be the friend of his people, not only in this life, but in that which is to come. Heaven a world of love. Heaven a place where we shall enjoy God higher than the angels. Here's the mystery of mysteries to me. Let's meditate on this for a moment. That God has caused the sin of Adam to do us more good than anything else that ever happened, apart from the death of Christ, because In Adam, we had a righteousness of man. But in Christ, we have a divine righteousness. In Adam, we were well with God in terms of the covenant of works. But in Christ's covenant of grace, we are actually made to be the bride of him who is one of the members of the Trinity and the glorious God himself. How can it be that God in his stupendous kindness could do such a thing? And it is when we meditate on all of these things we begin to see what a debt we owe to God and to Christ. This is what sent missionaries all around the world and sends them still. You remember what C.T. Studd said? He said, if Jesus Christ is God and died for me, no sacrifice on my part can be too great to make for him. Where did Studd go? China? India? Africa where he died. He was a very rich man from a very rich family in England. Could have had a wonderfully happy time as it were, but if Jesus Christ is God and died for me, no sacrifice on my part would be too great to make to him. It was his meditation, it was the consequence of his thought that led him to that attitude. One more subject of meditation before I move on quickly. My friends, the wonderful design of God in sending the Gospel into the whole world. I must say this thought is one of the dominant thoughts of my mind continually. In the Old Testament, it was the Jews who were saved. Very few Gentiles were. If you had been born 2,000 years ago, my friend, there would be no Gospel in Britain. We'd all be living and dying, going to hell, every one of us. But then, after Pentecost, the whole thing reversed. Gentiles were brought in. Jews, apart from a few, were shut out, blinded. They couldn't see who Christ was and is. How about, the Apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans 11, that's not the end of the story. The day will come when God will bring the Jews in again. And when that happens, it will be life from the dead to the whole world. What shall the receiving of the Bible be but life from the dead? And isn't it interesting that Jesus said this in Luke, I think, 21. He says that Jerusalem should be trodden on the foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 1948, Jews were back in their own country. All those enemies round about have been fighting them ever since and tried to get rid of them from Israel, but they couldn't do so. They didn't succeed. Seven nations fought against them, but they didn't succeed. Jews have been there ever since. I'm not a prophet, but it does suggest that we must be prayerfully considering these texts of scripture which show that God has yet a purpose to bring life from the dead through something to happen to them once in the future. By meditation, I said, we come to see how important these things are. So, finally and briefly, let me suggest what are the benefits that can come to us when we meditate. I shall be brief. First of all, it makes us a better Christian to be gifted in the practice of meditation. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a man thinketh. To know a man's thoughts is to know the real man. And that's the trouble today, I'm afraid. I'm not sure whether you agree with this. I put it to you as a theory. The moral problems, which I won't spell in so many words because you know what I'm talking about, but the severe moral problems which are affecting our generation connected with forms of marriage, I think, unless I'm mistaken, I think they're very much connected with the theory of evolution. Let me argue my case. Romans chapter 1 says about the ancient world, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. But then they began to worship gods of their own, you see. They suppressed the knowledge of God. They didn't want the knowledge of God. They hated the knowledge of God. What happened was this, as they hated God and didn't want to know him, God said to them, very well, I'll give you up. Paul said it three times in Romans chapter 1. God gave him up, he gave him up, he gave him over. And what was the consequence of this reprobation? What did happen after the reprobation? Well, they behaved in a certain way. God gave them over so that they began to behave in a certain way. They changed the idea of marriage. Why not? Why can't I come out? Why should I be ashamed of myself? Let me tell all the world I'm coming out. I'm being bold about it all. Yes, I'm different from the most of you. You see, it's reprobation. What's at the root of it all? Failure to recognize that God is who he is and give him his place in our thoughts and minds and practice and behavior in our life. And when people don't want to know God, the danger is he will reprobate them and say, very well, you don't want to know me, I'll give you over. And see how you'll stand in the day of judgment when you have to face me, that awesome dreadful God of truth and righteousness. See how you get on in that day. And we know what will happen to them. So, my beloved friends, it's so important that you and I, who live in this dangerous generation, should make it our practice not simply to read a little here, a little there, to sprinkle a bit on this and a bit on that. Oh, let us saturate our soul and mind and conscience and our whole attitude in the teaching of this blessed book. And this is how it is put to us in the scripture itself, in my text. So shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. Isn't that what people are wanting everywhere today? Good success. How can I have a good life? How can I have a successful life? The answer's in this text. Them that honour me, I will honour. Those that despise me will be a likely esteem. So, my dearly beloved, and I'm speaking to honoured Christian people here today, I say, let this text sit deep down into your mind, so it can saturate your soul in the teaching of the Word of God.