We are continuing looking at priorities, convictions perspective priorities. The priority that we are looking at currently is manifested in a great illustration developed by the Navigators. It's called the Wheel Illustration and it gives us four disciplines of discipleship which connect the power of Christ as the center of our life with the daily practice of discipleship manifested by the rim, which is obedience. The four spokes, which serve as power transference in our spiritual life, just as they do in the laws of physics in a wheel, are the word, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship. And we looked at the Four Spokes of the Wheel in the traditional Navigator presentation. Then we looked at the Four Spokes of the Wheel as all ministry and as all spending time with God. Now we are going to look at the Four Spokes of the Wheel as centered upon the Word of God, the Holy, Eternal, Inerrant, Written Word of God. So, let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O Lord. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, and inerrant written word to set us apart to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you are sending it out. and for which you have gathered us together. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your word. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions, which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests, which enter in and choke your word, making it fruitless. Rather, give us good soil, O Lord. Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown word would send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheath now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. Cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each heart gathered here. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat, and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Oh Lord, we live in a dark and a wicked age. Broad is the way and many are on it, which leads to destruction. Make your word a light to our path. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your holy word. O Lord, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior. We pledge to you this day our total submission to your holy, eternal, and inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and Resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, let's look at the wheel and the Word of God, shall we? Really been encouraged about the study this morning. I've had a great time these last two hours in doing the final preparation. So I encourage you to read along on the notes if you printed them out or on the screen with me. So we know that the wheel is a diagnostic tool for discipleship. That's how it was developed. And Christ is the center or the power source of this illustration and of discipleship. But each aspect of the wheel illustration is centered upon the Word of God. And this is where some go wrong. in their application of the wheel because these disciplines of discipleship become for them self-evident truths rather than truths that are tested, tried, and submitted to the Word of God. And when we say the Word of God, we mean the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God. You see, the Lordship of Christ is inseparable from obedience to the Word of God. We do not, by our own meditations upon Jesus, we are not able simply by that to ascertain who Jesus is or what his will for us is. We remember from the prophet Isaiah that God has said, my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. That should give us an indication of how dangerous it is for a man just through his own meditations to come up with what it means for Christ to be Lord. I've cut and pasted this to your notes. Isaiah 55, 8 and 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Thus, obedience to Jesus and the Lordship of Christ is inseparable from the Word of God. For the word of God are the thoughts and ways of God, the written word of God, not our meditations. Now, our meditations upon the word of God are different, as we shall see, than simply emptying our minds and letting God speak to us. We live in a spiritist age where the thoughts of men are equated with the thoughts of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a phenomenon of the 21st century where I will be speaking about the importance of the Word of God and someone will raise his hand and say, you know, it seems like you're saying that the Word of God in the Bible, that that is the Word of God. It would have never occurred to Christians in the church before this Spiritist age to think of the Word of God as anything else other than the written Word of God, the Bible. And yet this man was shocked that when I was talking about the Word of God, I was using it as synonymous with the Bible, as opposed to the Bible plus thoughts and revelations from so-called false apostles, false prophets, false spiritist people in the church. Jesus made this clear in his teachings. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14, 21 and 22 states, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will disclose myself to him. See, John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14.21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me. John 14.23, if any man loves me, he will keep my word. John 14, 24, he does not love me, does not keep my word. Do you get the feeling Jesus is repeating himself here? He's driving this principle home. The Lordship of Christ is inseparable from obedience to the Word of God. If Christ is Lord of your life, if you love Jesus, then you keep his word. And to keep his word, you must know what it means. If someone said to their child, you know, do you love your mommy and daddy? Yes. Do you obey mommy and daddy? Yes. Well, what has mommy and daddy asked you to do? I don't know. Well, they're not going to love and obey mommy and daddy if they don't know what mommy and daddy have told them to do. And you are not going to love and obey Jesus if your life is not fixed upon the holy, eternal, inerrant written word of God. You see, Jesus made this clear by his example in John 14 31. But so that the world may know I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. For Jesus, to give evidence that he loves the Father, was to do exactly as the Father commanded him. How much more should we be hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating upon the Word of God for the purpose of obedience to the Word of God? It is a theme throughout Scripture. 1 John 5.3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. This is the love of God. You say you love God, you love Jesus, then you obey the Word of God. When I'm speaking at a conference or teaching in the U.S. or in another country, many times I'll start by saying, I did not do all this Bible study preparation and come all of this way to free you from God's written Word. Rather, I've come to bring myself and you in subjection to the Lordship of Christ and the Word of God. That rubs many people the wrong way in this rebellious age. Oh, Christ has set us free. We've been free. Well, yes, you were freed from sin, death, and judgment. you were free. I wonder if you could repeat that again. Oh, yes, I will be happy to. I did not come all this way. I did not come all this way to free you from the word of God. I did not come all this way to free you from the word of God. Rather, I have come all this way to bring myself and you into subjection of the written Word of God and the Lordship of Christ. When we became Christians, we were indeed freed, but we were not freed to be independent agents. Rather, we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We were moved from one kingdom to another. not simply to be free agents whereby we decide whether or not we are going to love Jesus or not. Milton, would you read Colossians 1, 13? Pastor Greg, would you read Acts 26, 18, please? Colossians 1.13 says, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. Yeah, we were freed in terms of being transferred from one kingdom to another. We did not become independent agents. That first passage was Colossians 1.13. Pastor Greg, would you read Acts 26.18? To open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Yes, we were transferred from one kingdom to another. We did not simply become free agents whereby we get to decide whether Jesus Christ is going to be Lord of our life or not. We were slaves of Satan. in his kingdom. Jesus saved us and we were transferred into his kingdom. But we do not in our audacity and pride say, well, I became a Christian in 1968, I made Christ Lord of my life in 1970. Christ was always your Lord. you were transferred from the Lordship, or the domain of Satan and darkness, Ephesians 2, 1-3, to the Kingdom of Light, His Beloved Son, Colossians 1.13, Acts 26-18. And in this Kingdom, Jesus reigns as Lord. You do not say, and as many say in their vanity, I made Christ Lord when I was in college. No, you say, I repented from the rebellion of the Lordship of Christ and returned to him, and returned to subjection to his Lordship. repented from my rebellion." Isn't it more pleasant to say, you made Christ Lord? How much power is that? Poor Jesus, He wasn't Lord, but you made Him Lord. We don't make Christ Lord. He is Lord. What we do is we quit repenting from our rebellion to His Lordship. So, Christ is the center of our life. that is manifested not on the basis of our thoughts and the contemplation of our ways, but rather upon the word of God, which is the word of God reveals to us his thoughts and his ways. So, let me make a note here. I will send you Word of God sheet and I will also send you the page from my prayer notebook on the ways of God. Because I have, I pray every day on verses that God would teach me His ways from His Word. So that's very important to us. Thank you, Milton, for asking me to repeat that. Allow me again to just rest it in. I find from these studies, my perspective on the doctrines is really sharpened and renewed. Just the statement you made, repentant of my rebellion to the Lordship of Christ, I did not make Jesus Lord. So the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the Word of God. I don't know if you could also say just something on the doctrines attributes of God I will be glad to in fact our next study when we finish convictions perspective priority are going to be on the attributes of God I think that's excellent Milton thank you for bringing that to my attention it says we teach in our Bible studies There are phrases that are bandied around in the church that we get used to. And you're right Milton, making Christ Lord is one of them. Jesus is Lord and we repent. It's much easier to talk about making Jesus Lord, I almost cannot say those words, than it is talking about repenting from rebellion to his Lordship. It's much easier about talking about Jesus set us free than Jesus transferred us freedom. It's much easier to talk about Jesus setting us free. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. that it is talking about Jesus freeing us from our enslavement and service of Satan and bringing us into his kingdom as his servant to serve him now let's see you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free was a verse I memorized early in my Christian life I believe that's John Well, let me pause this. I'm sorry, I was looking at 33. John 8, 31. Oh, but that says, Jesus, if you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Excellent. John 8, 31, 32. You're exactly right. The truth has set us free to be disciples of Christ under the authority of the Word, not to be free agents. That's important for us to remember. So, Obedience to Christ is inseparable from the holy, eternal, inerrant written word of God. All that we know about Jesus is preserved in God's holy, eternal, inerrant written word. Pastor Greg, would you read Luke 1, 1-4? And then Emmanuel, Would you read John 20, verse 30 and 31? And then Milton, would you read John 21, 25? So, having said that, let's go back to Luke 1. You'll have to take a big breath, Pastor Greg, as you read that. Luke 1, 1 through 4. In as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you in orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. Oh, that's an excellent rendition of the Greek. What translation are you using, Pastor? That's New King James. Yeah, they did that, as the British would say, spot on. So that reaffirms the fact that I keep telling people that one of the most accurate translations is the New King James. They can stick with that. Okay, John 20, 30, and 31. See therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Okay, and John 21, 25. So all that we know about Jesus is preserved in God's holy eternal inerrant written word. that is found not only in the four gospels but also in the epistles. It is either uniquely preserved revelation of God to man or all that we believe is a myth because there are no other writings that have been preserved by God concerning Jesus other than the Gospels and the Epistles. And I thank God for that. Now, early in my Christian life, when my mind still had maintained some of the world's thinking in my own rebellious spirit, it bothered me that the only really writings there were were about Jesus were in the word of God. I thought, you know, there should be lots of other writings about him. But can you imagine the confusion in the church if God had allowed other writings about Jesus to be preserved rather than the holy, eternal, and inerrant written word of God? I am thankful for that. Not only that, but it is also true with other figures of this time period and before. We don't know about Plato except through Plato's supposed writings. We don't know about Aristotle. We don't know about Caesar. The early Roman emperors, we know about them through their writings. It's not like there are modern historical figures, 20 or 30 biographies written by different people about these early figures. So we thank God that we have the Gospels and the Epistles to tell us about Jesus, but that's all that we know. So if you want to know about Jesus, you go to the written Word of God. That is the uniquely preserved revelation of God to man about Jesus and his commands, or everything we believe is a myth. You can't have it two ways. It's either one way or the other. And we hold to the fact that it is the unique revelation of God. Therefore, loving Jesus is inseparable from loving the holy, eternal, inerrant written word of God. It is nonsensical to speak of loving someone but not loving their words. Think of your own lives when you were first courting the woman that you are going to marry. Somebody says, well, do you ever talk to her? No, I hate the sound of her voice. That's crazy, isn't it? You would talk to each other, but you would also text each other. In my day, we wrote letters. And when you received a letter from that woman that you were wooing, that you hoped to marry, you kept it. and she kept your letters and you read and re-read them. You loved to hear her voice. You loved to read her text. You were excited that she would do that. It's unfortunate in the 21st century that many of the early correspondences of the love and affection of young Christian men and women are not preserved because they were done by text and emails, which have long since disappeared. On a side note, I regularly send written correspondence to my children and my grandchildren, affirming not only my own love for them, but what I'm praying for them, that I'm asking God to protect them from. That they could have something tangible, some tangible evidence that they have a father who loves them and prays for them every day. And I do the same thing for my wife, even though we live in the same home. Give her cards expressing my love for her. And I guarantee you, if you do that for your wife, she will keep those. That will tell you how important they are. So, that's free. That's on the side. This is not a marriage seminar, but I'll give that to you for free. So, to speak of loving Jesus is inseparable from loving His word. It's nonsensical to speak of loving someone, but not loving their words. it's nonsensical to speak of loving Jesus and not loving the Holy, Eternal, and Unwritten Word of God. Let's look at some Bible verses here. Emmanuel, would you read Psalm 119, 147, 148? Milton, would you read Psalm 119, 97? Pastor Greg, would you read Psalm 119, 113? So let's see, we'll start with Psalm 119, 147, and 148. Psalm 119, 147. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Psalm 119, 47, 48. I apologize. I like that Psalm 119, 147, 148. I've memorized that verse. It talks about having a daily quiet time in the word and prayer. But this is 47 and 48. Okay, 47 says, I find my delight in your commandment, which I love. I will lift up my hands towards your commandment, which I love, and I will meditate on your status. So, we love the word of God. We love his commandments. We meditate and think about what he's saying to us. Psalm 119.97. Oh, how I love your law. It keeps my meditation all the day long. And it's one of the great blessings of being a Christian. You're stuck in traffic. other people are being angry and bitter or coveting or lusting, you can meditate on the verses you've memorized. You're stuck in line at the bank, you're stuck in line somewhere at the post office, many people are getting restless, talking, griping, you can get out your verse cards and meditate upon the Word of God. Somebody will ask you what you are doing. Now you can have them check you on your verse and then lead them to Christ. That has happened to me. I've had people say, what are you doing? And ever since even when I was a college student, I would say, I'm reviewing and meditating on the word of God. Could you check me on this verse? and then they will check me on the verse and then that will lead right into the gospel. Psalm 119, 13. 13 or 113? I'm sorry, 113. Okay. Well, my brain is kind of slow this morning, guys. Thank you for your patience. I hate to double-minded, but I love your law. Yes. And, you know, an application for that is, we were, I was sharing in a Bible study this past week here in Houston. And we were talking about not stealing and someone had mentioned, you know, I just got through reading the biography of a Muslim man who also, whose father taught him not to steal. So even in other religions, and I stopped him. And I said, you know, Islam is an evil, satanic religion whose origins are from Satan. that brings, and the people who follow the demonic writings of the Koran are enslaved in the kingdom of darkness? You know, and I hate the writings and teachings of Muslims, but I love the law of God. Do you? Do you hate satanic writings? Do you hate the Book of Mormon? Do you hate the Koran? Do you hate the Hindu Book of the Dead? Do you hate Jehovah's Watchtower writings? I do. They're double-minded. Now, I want to see Muslims and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and Hindus come to Christ and I've had the privilege of leading them to Christ. But I hate those writings and I love Jesus and His law. See Psalm 119, 127 says, therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. That helps us in terms of our priorities. We make room for the Word of God, which we love, and for obedience to the Word of God, which we love, above advancement. Now, the fact that you love the Word of God and you obey His words, which you love, does not mean you cannot advance in this world. But it does mean that in some cases you will not be able to gain advancement because of that. When I was first teaching high school, my goal was to be the best teacher at the high school where I was teaching. Then I realized that some of the teachers there, they were divorced. They didn't have a life. They didn't go to church. They didn't have a wife and children that they were concerned about. They didn't give to missions. They didn't lead Bible studies. Their whole life was consumed by their job and by the material rewards that that job offered them. Well, I couldn't compete with them in terms of time. If God wanted to elevate me, Given the time I was able to give my job, that was fine. But the stewardship of my job was one slice of the pie of my life, not the only slice. For some people, their work was the whole pie. For me, my work was a slice of the pie, but I also had my walk with God, my wife, my children, my church, my ministry, my campus ministry with the Navigators. So I loved God's commandments and many times had to choose them above gold. Yes, fine gold. And I can look back on my life now with many of the men that I went to college with, and who were these men early in my relationship with discipleship with them, who have a much higher standard of living than I do. But what they don't have is good marriages, children walking with God, and a spiritual heritage of spiritual children who've come to Christ and been discipled in walking with God. Psalm 119, 163 to 165, I hate and despise falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous ordinances. Those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble." So the love of God not only is something that should spring from our love of Jesus, but it is a great blessing. And it not only gives us peace, but it protects us. So obedience to Christ is inseparable from the holy, eternal, inerrant written word of God. All that we know about Jesus is from the word of God. And therefore, loving Jesus is inseparable from the written word of God. So the Word of God as it pertains to Christ being the center of our life is very important. Let me illustrate this for you. We know that in the discipleship wheel Christ is the center. And then there are disciplines of the Christian life. Word, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship. And that powers the Christian life in terms of obedience. But for many Christians, Discipleship is the table illustration. You have this foundation, and that foundation is whatever they happen to believe. It can be, even if it is belief about Jesus, it is their belief. And on this foundation, they have four legs of their table. Word, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship. And then on the top is some sort of altar where they give up their sacrifices to God. That's not the wheel illustration, and we reject this. Because when we use the real illustration, we start out with things that we believe about Jesus. That's the Word of God. Things that we believe about the Word, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship from the Word of God. Things that we believe that we should be doing from the Word of God. It is not our belief system, our thoughts, ways. So, you lead a Roman Catholic to Christ? His belief system is going to be replaced by the Word of God. We do not leave a Roman Catholic in the area of prayer praying to Mary. In the area of prayer confessing his sins to the Pope in the area of the Word, elevating the teachings of the Church Fathers and of the Popes and of the Council of Cardinals or Bishops to the Word of God. They are subjected to them. When we lead someone who is in the Church of Christ, Christ the center means something. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. We reject baptismal regeneration. Salvation means something, John 5, 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but passes out of death into life. Eternal life means something. You cannot lose your salvation. When we lead Pentecostals and Charismatics to Christ, we bring them out of mysticism, extra-biblical revelation, and the belief that they don't have the Holy Spirit when they're saved, into a correct understanding Spirit. John 5.24 Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. Ephesians 1.13 And 14, in Him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you will be sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit. John 5.24, Here believe eternal life. Ephesians 1.13, Here believe the Holy Spirit. So we submit our definition of discipleship is not built upon our belief system. Rather, Christ is the center and in doing so we believe certain things about Christ from the word of God. Discipleship is not the ship illustration. And there are these sails. And there's a man on the ship. And he has the wheel. And that's the wheel. That wheel is driven by the man. And it's also blown about by every wind of doctrine that comes along. We reject that. The wheel is not turned by man, it's turned by Jesus, and it is not powered by every spiritual wind that comes blowing through. The fact that it is powered by Jesus and centered upon the Word of God gives it constancy and stability, and we need to remember that. So that's very important for us. Christ the center means something. When we say that we love Jesus, we are saying that we love the Word of God, and we are saying that we want to obey the Word of God. That means something, doesn't it? If your children say they are going to obey you, what are they going to obey? Are they going to obey what they think you want them to do? Are they going to obey what they would ask them to do if they were you? Or are they going to obey you? It's different, isn't it? When we say we're going to obey Jesus, we're not going to obey what, if we were Jesus, we would ask ourselves to do. We are not going to obey what we think Jesus would ask us to do. Rather, we are going to obey what Jesus has told us to do from His holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God. Well, this brings us to a good stopping point here. We'll pick up next week on the Word of God that is centered on the Word of God. But I have to teach on this because many people think the Word of God is centered upon mysticism and their thoughts. They say, I have a word from God for you. Milton, I have a word from God for you. You want to hear it? Matthew 633. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. All these things will be added to you. Matthew 633. Milton, I have a word of wisdom. Milton, I have a word of wisdom for you. You want the word of wisdom? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Leave not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He will direct your path. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Milton, I have a word of prophecy for you. You want the word of prophecy? Not the Bible again. Hebrews 9.27. It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. If somebody says they have a word from God for you, the next thing you want to hear is chapter, verse, and quote. The Holy, Eternal, Inherent, Written Word of God. Now for those who are listening to the tape sometime in the future, Milton has a big smile on his face and is laughing when he says, no, no, no, not the Word of God. Because we're both realizing how crazy that sounds, isn't it, Milton? Well, to want the word of God, I want a word from God, but I don't want the word of God. That's nonsensical. That's like saying to your brother, did Daddy leave us some instructions when he went to work this morning? Yes, he did. Here they are. Oh no, I don't want Daddy's instructions. I want the instructions of Daddy. That's crazy talk, isn't it? I don't want to hear Daddy's instructions. Let me think. If I was Daddy, I wouldn't say, clean the kitchen floor. I would say, go play football. Ah, so I'll go play football. No, that's not what you do. You listen to Daddy's instructions. I want you all. Mommy's not feeling well. I'm going to work. I want you two boys. I want you to clean the kitchen floor for her so that she can rest in bed. Hmm. Let's see. I think I have a word from Daddy. You don't have to clean the kitchen floor. That's all legalism. Go play football. That's fun. See, that's nonsensical, isn't it? We wouldn't treat our earthly father like that, let's not treat our heavenly father like that. We wouldn't deceive our earthly brother like that, let's not be deceptive spiritually with our earthly brother either. May God add his blessing to his holy word. In Christ's name I pray, amen.