Living by the Word of God

Yeah, I want to continue and amplify on what we have heard. I'll begin with a verse in 2 Timothy and chapter 3. Please turn with me there, 2 Timothy 3. In my commentary through the Bible, this is the first thing I've mentioned, this verse, 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is inspired by God as Margin says, breathe God, you know, like God breathed into Adam. Adam was just a lump of clay, shaped like a human being. When God breathed into Adam, it says he became a living soul. So the breath of God is the Holy Spirit. You can read the word of God without the breath of God. Sure, that was a problem with the Pharisees. Jesus read the same scriptures as the Pharisees, but there was a breath of God in what he, there was a dependence on the Holy Spirit as he read. So it's very important when we read God's word to receive that breath of God from it. Otherwise we have academic knowledge. I mean, you, it's like reading the newspaper, you get some facts and you can quote it, but it says here it's breathed by God, God breathed, and then it is profitable for teaching, for reproving people and yourself for correction, for training in righteousness. And the whole purpose is that the man or the woman of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Adequate means adequate to face any situation in life. I believe that. I mean, I've been studying God's word, no exaggeration, for 62 years. When I was converted in July, 1959, when I was born again, the first thing that gave me assurance of salvation was not any voice from heaven. I had asked the Lord to come into my heart maybe a hundred times in the previous five, six years. And my parents were believers and they taught me to read the Bible and read it, but I wasn't sure then, but I had the habit of reading every day some passage. And I remember one day in July, in July, 1959, I was in the Navy. I was in the Naval base in Cochin in South India. And that particular morning, my passage was John chapter six. Now I have read that I'm sure many times before. John's gospel is one of the first gospels everybody reads, but I'll tell you what the breath of God is. I was reading John six and I came to verse 37, where Jesus says, just the last part of it, the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Just a verse, but the breath of God came through that to my heart that day. And I was sure I was born again. And I had been tossed about for at least six years, asking the Lord to come into my heart a hundred times. That day, there was a breath of God on that verse. And it gave me a deep assurance. I said, Lord, I've come to you many times. He said, I never cast you out. 62 years later, it's going to be 63 now. I have never for a single day in these 63 years doubted that I was a child of God. Not that I never made mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I had ups and downs, but I never doubted that I was born again. That's what happens when a word comes to you with the breath of God and not just something you read. So that's why it's important to, you know, someone doesn't say those who read the word of God are blessed. Blessed is the man who meditates on the word of God day and night. For those of you young people who don't know that Psalm, Psalm 1, or perhaps some older people too, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. His delight is in the law of the Lord. You know, there are two ways in which you can read the Bible. One is because you're told no Bible, no breakfast. Okay. A law from childhood, no Bible, no breakfast. I have to read my Bible today. It's not delightful. It's like your mom is asking you to eat Brussels sprouts or broccoli or something. You just don't. If they're asking you to eat ice cream or something a bit different. How do you approach God's word? That's the point. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he doesn't read the law day and night. No, there's no, we've got a lot of other things to do the whole day. He meditates. That means in between his own work. Sometimes the word comes into his mind. That's how we meditate. And the result will be, he will be like a tree firmly planted. He won't shake. Have you seen these trees? Some of these trees down there in the redwood forest have been from the time of Jesus. They've been there 2000 years. You can't shake it. A tree firmly planted and in its season, it yields fruit, its leaf never withers. That means never discouraged, always green. And here, this is the best part of it. Whatever he does, he prospers. I remember reading that years ago. And I said, Lord, I'm not thinking of material prosperity here. The Bible was not given to us to teach us how to become rich. But that in every situation, I must prosper in what I do. It means I must do the will of God and finish my earthly course before I leave this earth. Whatever he does will prosper. Imagine if that word can be said about you, dear brothers and sisters. Whatever you do, whatever you put your hand to, somehow or the other, the blessing of God is there. Let's put it like that. The blessing of God will be on whatever you put your hand to. Bringing up children, blessing of God will be there in what you do. Even your earthly work, the blessing of God will be there. It's not a question of becoming rich. The blessing of God will be on your work. Even if you never become rich, your needs will always be met. The wonderful thing about Jesus was not his bank account, but he never lacked. He never lacked money when he needed it. God would provide it even for the mouth of a fish to pay his taxes. He never lacked anything. He would always prosper, even though he wasn't having a big bank account or any such thing. People like Judas could steal his money. It doesn't make a difference to him. He lived by the word of God. The fact that at the age of 12, he could discuss scripture with the greatest scholars in the temple. How was that? I've often said that. I think, personally, they never had a Bible at home. The only Bibles those days were in parchment scrolls, very expensive to buy. There'd be one copy in the synagogue. And as a little five-year-old boy, he'd go to the rabbi and say, can you please read something from the scripture to me? And the rabbi would be delighted that a five-year-old is coming to hear scripture. And he'd read something and then he'd say, stop, that's all I can remember for today. Go home, meditate on it, come back next day and say, rabbi, can you please continue with the next verse? And like that, over seven years, he really got to know the scriptures. By the time he was 12, boy, imagine if our children began to love scripture like that. He wasn't doing that all the time. He was helping his mother and doing so many things at home. He was going to school, he had to study, all that. But he found time in between to take a little bit of scripture every day and meditate on it. That's all you need. Just a little bit of scripture every day and think about it. And Jesus would think about it during the day and the father would speak to him through the Holy Spirit so that by the time he was 12, he could explain things. I believe that's what happened in the temple when the priests were all saying different things and Jesus would explain this is what it means. And they were amazed, how does this little child explain to us verses which we found so difficult to understand? Because when Jesus heard those scriptures, he got the breath of God from it. Not just an academic, you know, information in his head like those priests had. So that's how it was for Jesus and that's how it can be for us. See, the other passage that has often blessed me is Luke and verse chapter 24. Luke 24, it's again about scripture. The importance of hearing, reading, studying God's word. Before I get here, sorry, let me go to 2 Peter 1 first and then we come back to Luke 24. In 2 Peter chapter 2, it says here in verse 2, 2 Peter, sorry, 1 Peter, I'm mixing up, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2. Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word. The reason I wanted to come here first was I told you how I got this assurance of salvation in my heart. I dropped an anchor way back in July 59 and my ship has never drifted from that day. Assured God has accepted me. But another thing happened after that day. I found in my heart a tremendous thirst. I use the word thirst for the milk of the word of God. It says here like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word. So being born again is like becoming a newborn baby. It cannot open its mouth to ask for anything. But it cries and even a dumb father like me, if I hear a little baby crying, I know what it's crying for. It's milk. The mother knows this, my kid needs milk. And after a few hours, it's crying again. It's not crying for anything, for milk. Now when a child is born, a baby is born and it doesn't cry for milk, something is seriously wrong with that child. The doctors will say, I'm sorry, your child is underdeveloped. It didn't grow properly in the womb. It's not a healthy child. It's never crying for milk. It goes a whole day without crying for milk. You know, like people say, I didn't get time to read the Bible today. Are you born again? That's what I would ask. No cry in your heart for milk. That's serious. If a baby doesn't, imagine if a mother has a baby and it never cries for milk or goes just one day, forget two days, one day it goes without milk. We go to a doctor, something's wrong with my child, doc. You say that next time to yourself. When you say, I didn't get time today to read the Bible. Ask yourself whether you know the Lord. I'm not condemning anybody. I'm not trying to condemn anyone. I'm just asking you to check up. Are you really born again? I know what happened to me. Nobody taught me to study God's word. I'll tell you this honestly, no church taught me that. In the church, they didn't teach me to read or meditate, but when I got that verse, him that comes to me, I will not cast out. God breathed that into me and I was born again. From that day, I had a great desire to read God's word. I said, Lord, I'm 19 and a half years old, born in a Christian family, and I've never read the Bible once. I read the newspaper, but I haven't read the Bible once. I decided that day that I'm going to read through the whole Bible first, whether I understand it or not, at least read through it. And in six months, I read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. I read the whole thing. A lot of things, of course, I didn't understand, but at least I read through it. And then I also meditated on small portions of scripture. Ever since then, I've had this habit of a dual way of studying the Bible. One is reading large sections. When you have time, that may not be every day. Once in a while, we can read it when you're going for a walk or doing exercise or something like that. And then more important, meditating on a small portion, that's more important. So, because we get a lot out of meditation. So, this is the first thing I wanted to mention about one way that we know our new birth is genuine, that you're a healthy child is you have a desire to know the word of God, the milk of the word of God. And there'll be a cry in you every day. I want the milk. I want the milk. And those are the people who grow. That's how a baby grows. And I began to grow. And I began to have more and more of a hunger to God's word, to meditate on it. And I bought books. I was single those days and I had time on my hands. I would buy books that would help me to study the Bible. There are two types of commentaries I find. One are commentaries that give you information. I would read it two, three pages. I'd say, I'd throw it away. I don't want that. There were other things that spoke to my heart. That's one reason I wrote through the Bible, because I found very few commentaries that are practical, applying it to our daily life, which is how the Bible is supposed to be. But I found one or two commentaries, not very good ones, but a few that spoke to my heart. And I tried to read scripture along with them to try and hear what God is speaking to my heart. Coming to Luke 24. In Luke 24, we read the whole Bible being mentioned in these words, verse 27, Moses and the prophets. The phrase Moses refers to the five books of the Bible. Genesis, the first five. Genesis to Deuteronomy written by Moses. And then the rest of the books, the remaining 34 books in the Old Testament are called the prophets. These are historical and prophetical books. So the Old Testament is called the Moses and the prophets. Now Jesus was walking with two disciples after the resurrection from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And when I read in verse 13, it tells me the distance was seven miles. They were not running. It was a leisurely walk. I reckon it would have taken them about three hours. Three hours it took to walk from seven miles leisurely from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And what is happening in those three hours? It said Jesus walked with them and began with Moses and the prophets, explained to them everything concerning himself from Genesis to Malachi. You know what I got from that verse? There's something about Jesus in every book in the Old Testament. And I went to the Lord and I said, Lord, you're still there. You're alive. The same yesterday, today and forever. You've given me the Holy Spirit. Will you teach me also like you taught those disciples? You think the Lord will say no to you? If you go to Jesus, I challenge any of you to go to Jesus and say, Lord, I want only 15 minutes a day. And if your mothers are busy, okay, 15 minutes a day or whatever time you have, say, Lord Jesus, I want you to explain to me through the Holy Spirit, exactly like you walked with those disciples and opened up the Old Testament. And showed yourself in every book. I want to see Jesus in every book of the Bible. Today we have 66 books. I didn't want to get doctrine. I never went to a Bible school. I'll tell you honestly, in my entire life, I have never been blessed by a preacher who came from a Bible school. Never. All the preachers who have blessed me, whether it is Tozer or Wachmanee or D.L. Moody or Charles Finney or Bud Singh, they've all been people who never went to Bible school. Those are the ones who blessed me the most. Madame Dion, different ones like this. And I said, Lord, I want you to open the scriptures to me just like you opened it up to those people. He'll do it for you. If you believe that he loves you, he doesn't love you any less than he loved those two disciples. I personally believe those two disciples are a married couple. They were living in the same house. And when Jesus went there, they prepared a meal for him. It must have been a married couple. The thing is, we men are so arrogant. And when we read two disciples, we think there must be two men. Why should it be two men? Why can't it be a man and a woman? Two disciples walking with males. And so it's a wonderful thing that Jesus explained to them the scriptures and every book there was Jesus. And that gave me a hunger to find Jesus in every book of the Bible, in every page of the Bible, to see Jesus here and Jesus there and little, little things. I've shared that with you different, different times that we see something of Jesus in different things. For example, forgiveness. I'll give you one example. In Matthew chapter 12, we read that the Pharisees, when Jesus cast out a demon, the Pharisees said, that's because he's the prince of devils. Matthew 12, 24. This man casts out demons because he's the ruler of the demons and he tells the demons to go and they obey him. That's a very serious thing. You know, when Miriam, Moses' sister, criticized Moses, you know what happened to her? She got leprosy. When some young men made fun of Elisha, who had a bald head, you know what happened to those young men? Some bears came out from the forest and ate them up. Miriam got leprosy, those young fellows got death. What did the Pharisees get when they called the son of God, the prince of devils, worse than anything that Miriam or those boys said? You know what they got? Forgiveness. Matthew 12, verse 32. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man be forgiven immediately. Father, they've said a terrible thing, calling me the devil. Please forgive them. That is the eagerness Jesus had that somebody who insulted him should be forgiven. Do you know if somebody insults you, it's a crime against a child of God, you must pray they should be forgiven, lest some severe judgment come upon them. Do you want judgment to come upon them? Then you're following Moses and Elisha and all. We don't follow them. We follow Jesus. We don't want bears to come and eat them up. We don't want leprosy to come upon them. We want them to get forgiveness. That's why when he was crucified, one of the first things he did was, Father, forgive them. You know why? I don't know whether you noticed this. In the beginning, they gave him some vinegar mixed with myrrh, which was like an anesthetic they used to give to all the crucified people so that some of the pain of crucifixion is eased by this anesthetic, and it says he didn't take it. Why didn't he take it? Because towards the end, after he finished his six hours on the cross, at the end when they offered it to him, he took it. Why didn't he take it in the beginning? Because he didn't want to be anesthetized on the cross. There were things he had to do. He had to pray for the forgiveness of these people who were killing him. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I don't want to be anesthetized. I want to get these people forgiven because they've committed a terrible crime. Father, forgive them. He wanted to take care of his mother. He didn't want to be anesthetized because he wanted to help his mother, who was widowed. Many things I learned from these things, and there was a thief who was going to die and go to hell, and he had to save him and take him to heaven. That's why he didn't want to get anesthetized. Small little things like, I don't want to be sleepy at this time on the cross. I want to be alert, and when the work was done, then he said, okay, now I'll take the vinegar. He was so sensitive to the voice of the father, and I prayed, Lord, make me like that. Sensitive. There's a time when I can take it and a time when I can't take it. I must be alert because I must always be alert, not for his own need, alert to be available to do something for somebody else, to forgive somebody, to be alert to forgive someone, to alert to take care of a widowed mother, to alert to help a dying person, to lead him to paradise. So we can see Jesus in every page of scripture. The other thing I want to show you in John chapter 1, it's very interesting that in the Old Testament, that was called the word of God, 39 books, but when you come to the New Testament in John chapter 1, Jesus is called the word of God. The written word became the living word, and it said here the word was God, John 1 verse 1, and John 1 14, the word became flesh. So the word of God came, let me paraphrase, it came in human form. Everything that is written in the book came forth in human form, and I believe that's what God wants to do with us too. The purpose of our reading God's word is that that word might become flesh in us today, and when the word became flesh, it says here in verse 18, that which nobody could ever see, that is God as father, Jesus explained. Until that time, nobody knew God as a father, but now Jesus explained what the father was like, and that is one of the wonderful things. There are many other things we can see, but that's one of the wonderful things that we can see in the scriptures, God revealed as a father, and I fear that many who come to the scriptures still don't come to know God as father. Many in our churches, you know, remember Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, I will not leave you as orphans, the Holy Spirit will come and will reveal the father to you. Many Christians I've found are like orphans, insecure, something happens and it's like an orphan, no father, no mother, don't know what to do and panic. I had a picture in my mind once of, say a family got eviction orders, we have to see that sometimes in India, somebody's not paid the rent for the house for a long time, and then they get an order from the court, and the people tend to be turned out of the house. Imagine a house where they didn't pay the rent, and they've been ordered to be evicted the next morning, and the father and mother are in a panic, what to do, they haven't found another place, and there's a six-year-old boy sleeping in the bed, and you wake him up and say, how are you sleeping? Don't you know you're being evicted from the house? He said, go and tell my dad, I want to sleep. That's a child who's got complete trust in his father, so what if there's an order come from the court, we have to be evicted tomorrow, go and tell my dad, I'm going to sleep. Dear brothers and sisters, do you know the father like that? When you get something that's really panicky for the world, for a worldly person, you say, tell my dad, he takes care, I'm not an orphan, I've got a father, he takes care of all that. I don't know what that six-year-old say, I don't know what he's arranged for tomorrow, my dad, but I'm sure he's arranged for something, that's not my headache. It's wonderful to not be an orphan, that's one of the things that happened to me as I read God's word more and more, and the same Jesus who explained the father to his disciples, explained the father to me. It brought security in my life, it brought freedom from anxiety, fear, freedom from complaining that other people are so demanding or taking advantage of me or whatever it is, it all goes away when you know the father. Ask God to reveal the father and Jesus through the scriptures to you, that is the purpose of meditating on the scriptures. Amen.