Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Wheel: the Word Part III

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

The Parable of the Sower

If you would, why don’t you open your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. We’re going to continue our discussion of the Word. As you recall, we are looking at, kind of reviewing, the Christian wheel. And if you remember, there are four spokes on the wheel. The first one we’re talking about is the Word. And I shared with you one of the tools that the Navigators use, which is called the Word Hand, which talks about five aspects of the Word. Anybody want to repeat what’s that? Hearing the Word, reading the Word, studying the Word, memorizing the Word, and meditating on the Word, right? It’s five aspects of the Word. We could call that the methodology, the method, the way of approaching the Word. But today I want to talk about profiting from the Word. And here in Luke 8, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the soil. Together in Luke 8, starting in verse 4, he says:

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”

(Luke 8:4–15)

I love that, don’t you? So here we see that the Word, compared to a seed, is something that by its very nature generates life. A seed planted in the ground will grow, provided that it’s good ground. Now I live in O’Fallon, and if you live in O’Fallon you know that the soil in O’Fallon is just clay. So trees in my lawn die, plants in my lawn die, the grass wants to die. Why? Because there’s a problem with the soil. It’s not the seed, it’s the soil. In every case, the different grounds here all received the same seed. But only in the case of the good or the noble ground did the seed actually bear fruit.

So we see that several obstacles—you know, Satan wants to take the Word, right? So we have what’s called, I call, the blind heart. And then we have the stony ground, which is the people that have no root. These are those we call the hard heart. And then the third obstacle is those who are wrapped up in the pleasures of this life, the cares of this age. And these are the ones I would call the divided heart. And so these three don’t bear fruit. Only the last, the good heart, or as the New King James says, the noble heart, brings forth fruit. So in order to bear fruit, or in order for us to profit from reading the Word and hearing the Word, meditating on the Word, we need to cultivate a noble heart. That is, we must have certain dispositions regarding the Word of God as we approach it. And these are conditions, if you will, which make the ground or the soil receptive to the seed of the Word. Because you see, it is possible to read the Word and to hear the Word and even to memorize the Word, etc., but the soil has to be such that the Word can grow and then bear fruit in that soil. So we don’t want stony soil, we don’t want hard soil, right? We don’t want weeds and thorns, we want good soil, which Jesus calls a noble heart. So what are these conditions? What are these dispositions we need to have regarding the Word of God? Let me mention a few this morning.

The Fear of the Lord

The first disposition we need to have is, for lack of a better phrase, we need to have the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. Look at Proverbs chapter 1, we’ll come back to Luke, but we’ll probably jump around and look at a lot of Scripture today. Look at Proverbs 1, it says here in verse 7, it says, the fear of the Lord, this is the New King James:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

(Proverbs 1:7)

The word “beginning” here, your version may read differently: the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. And we’ll read that text later. But this idea of the fear of the Lord is the idea of faith and reverence. Faith and reverence. The importance of faith regarding the Word of God is such that we know from the book of Hebrews that without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith God is not pleased. And we also learned from the book of Hebrews in chapters 3 and 4 that without faith it is not possible to profit from the Word of God. Look at Hebrews 3 with me. In Hebrews 3, the author is talking about the Israelites in the wilderness and how they perished there. Why? They would not hear God’s voice. In other words, they wouldn’t listen to the word that God was telling them. So he says in 3:15, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. Your version may say disobedience. The word in the original is such that it may be translated either way, because the one leads to the other. The one applies to the other. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. The Word by itself is not like a magical potion, an incantation—just quote the Word and poof, things happen. You have to come to the Word with a believing heart.

In Hebrews 11, this is called the Hall of Fame of Faith. It says that in verse 1: [audio unclear] the importance of faith with the Word of God. And then he goes on and he gives a list of Old Testament saints, men and women, who believed God, who had faith in God. And they demonstrated their faith by responding to God’s Word. For example, here in verse 7 it says, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear.” You know, if God warned Noah, and Noah said, oh well, you know, maybe, maybe not, whatever—well, Noah would have perished, right? It’s because he believed the Word that he responded and then he prepared the ark. And all the way through in these famous saints of the Old Testament, they were given a revelation and they responded to that revelation. In other words, they received His Word by faith. Without faith, Noah would have perished. We have to remember something which is so fundamental that I almost feel ashamed to have to remind us, but it’s true, that when we are talking about the Scriptures, we are talking about God’s Word, not the word of man. I’m talking about God’s Word, not the word of man. So we must learn to reverence His Word as we would His very person. Indeed, so high is God’s Word that David says in Psalm 138 verse 2:

I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

(Psalm 138:2)

What we need to remember as we approach the Word of God is that when Scripture speaks, God speaks. When Scripture promises, God promises. When Scripture warns, God warns. And because we know it is God’s Word, we know it is true, for He cannot lie. We know it is right because He cannot err. We know it is pure because He cannot sin. We know it is sure because He cannot change, because it is God’s Word. It’s not like any other word. It’s a divine word. And we need to approach the Word, remembering it is God’s Word. And we must respect this Word. We must reverence this Word and we must respond to this Word in faith because it’s God’s Word. Now you can come to church and you can ignore what I say in the pulpit because I’m a man. But if the Word of God is read from this pulpit, then you must receive it because it is the Word of God. And that’s what Paul said to the Thessalonians. He said he applauded them. He said, because when we came to you, you received the word not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, meaning in fact, you received it as the word of God. And then he adds this, which effectively works in you who believe. So we must approach the Word, first of all, with a godly fear, which means a reverence for the Word of God and a faith and trust in the Word of God. Apart from that, we cannot please Him, and apart from that, we cannot profit from the Word. And it doesn’t matter how much you read it, meditate on it, memorize it, if you do not reverence it and trust it, you will not grow. You won’t grow.

Genuine Appreciation

Secondly, the second condition of the good soil is what I call genuine appreciation. Genuine appreciation. And it’s really linked to the first one, because if we truly understand that this is a divine word, we will be grateful that we have it. We will be grateful that God has not left us in darkness. I got saved at an age that I can remember not being saved. I can remember being in darkness. Any of you remember those days? Raise your hand, honey. Raise your hand. We remember what it was like to stumble and fall. We remember what it was like to not know why we were here. We know what it was like to not know if there was a God, to not know if we had any purpose, to not know if there’s any reason for not just our own existence, but for the whole world, because the current philosophy is that everything happens randomly and by chance, and there’s no purpose to anything. And then for God to save us and illuminate us and open our eyes to the truth of His Word. What a precious blessing. Amen. To now know, to now see truth, to see light after living in darkness. And so all throughout Psalm 119, David talks about how he rejoices. Look at Psalm 119, we’ll just look at a few verses there. Psalm 119, in verse 111, David says:

Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.

(Psalm 119:111)

And all throughout this—well, look at the next verse. He says in 113, “I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law.” Verse 119 at the end, “Therefore I love Your testimonies.” All throughout this psalm, David says, I love Your Word. I rejoice in Your Word. I delight in Your Word, over and over. Look at verse 47 and 48. David says, “And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments.” I will lift my hands, not just to You. I will lift my hands to Your commandments. See this? [audio unclear] He who loves God loves His Word. Need I say it again? He who loves God loves His Word. Just as in the old days when you were corresponding and you got a letter—we actually wrote letters. Now it’s email, or it’s a text. But if it’s from somebody you love, you value that communication, don’t you? You value it. Because it’s from your beloved. And so the Word of God is from our beloved. It is from the lover of our souls. And it is written to us, God’s chosen people, His elect people, His beloved people. And it is full of God’s love for His people. And so when you understand that, you rejoice and you delight in His Word because it’s His Word. It’s the word of the one you love. And you love the Lord, amen. And you love the Lord, so you love His Word. So we need to learn to value the Scriptures for what they truly are. What they truly are. Look at Psalm 19, and we’re going to come back to 119 in a moment. Psalm 19 verse 7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect,” or spotless, “converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure.” [audio unclear] He says, not only is the Word to be desired more than gold, he says it is to be desired more than much gold, and to be desired more than much fine gold. What he’s really saying is the Word should be prized and valued above all riches. That’s what he’s saying. “Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” In other words, it is valuable, and it is precious, and it is sweet, and it is delightful, he’s saying. So we must learn to prize and appreciate God’s Word. And as I’ve said many times, the more you truly read and meditate upon and study God’s Word, the more you will prize it, because you’ll appreciate it for what it is. But if you just read it in just kind of a cursory glance, or you know, a few minutes here and a few minutes there and you’re not really in the Word—I mean, when David is in the Word, Psalm 119, I mean, he’s in the Word. You know what I mean? He’s reading it, he’s studying, he’s meditating, he’s rejoicing, he’s in the Word. And when you’re in the Word, then you experience all the blessings that come from the Word. But a shallow reading of the Word won’t give you that. We must remember the Scriptures are truly the Word of God to us. We respond to them in faith and then we respond to them in gratitude and appreciation, and because we love the Lord we love His Word.

A Famine of the Word

And by way of warning I do have to remind you that if we neglect or we despise God’s Word, then what God says is that those who reject His Word, He will send to them a famine of His Word. A famine of His Word. Look at Amos chapter 8. See how fast you can find the book of Amos. Amos chapter 8. Y’all there? Say yes. Yes. Hosea, Joel, Amos. Does that help? Verse 11:

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it.”

(Amos 8:11–12)

And when you read the book of Amos, there were several sins which were being addressed in Israel at the time, in Judah at the time, and one of those sins was the fact that they didn’t want to hear the word of the Lord. And so it says here, “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,” and then you were corrupting those who devoted themselves to God, “and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Do not prophesy.’” Don’t speak to us the word of God. That was their attitude at the time. Don’t tell us what God says. So God calls Amos and he says, “I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord: You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not spout against the house of Isaac.’” In other words, when God reproves them, he’s saying, you don’t want to hear what I had to say. And when you read the prophets, you read Jeremiah, you see repeatedly how God raised up faithful men to speak His word to His people and how often those men were rejected and slain because they delivered the true word of God. And God’s people didn’t want to hear it. They didn’t want to hear it. It’s a frightening thought, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but if I’m in a conversation and the person doesn’t want to hear what I have to say, then I don’t say anything, and— [audio unclear]

Simplicity and Purity

Their heart was divided. They would probably say they love the Word, but they love the world too. So we must receive the Word in simplicity, which means not permitting any rivals to God. Simplicity here simply means an undivided and sincere heart, a silent love, a loving God’s Word, as David says, with the whole heart, the whole heart. Repeatedly, in Psalm 119, and we won’t look at it, but I encourage you to read Psalm 119 in your devotions, David repeatedly talks about seeking the Lord with his whole heart, God’s Word with his whole heart. That is to say he wanted an undivided heart. Jesus said we cannot serve God and mammon. Not that we should not, but that we cannot. And as much as we try, we cannot grow from the Word if we love the world. It simply doesn’t work that way. [audio unclear] in our lives. We won’t just fit it in. You hearing me? We’re not just going to fit it in. It’s way too important for that. We value it way, way too much. Now I don’t know about you, but I bet you don’t have to fit in eating a couple of meals today. What you have to do is try to fit into your clothes when you’re done. Fit it in. But that’s how we do the Word—“Well, we got to fit it in, right?” We don’t fit it in. We make it a priority in our lives because of whose Word it is. We love God’s Word and we receive it in simplicity, meaning we don’t let other things become rivals to God’s Word. Amen. And sincerity means we receive the Word not just in simplicity but in purity. In purity. Look at James 1:21. James is talking about receiving the Word, and after saying that in verse 18, that we were born by God’s Word—“Of His own will He brought us forth,” or birthed us, “by the word of truth”—“that every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” Here’s how I want you to hear: he’s saying if you’re going to receive the Word, put aside these sins so the Word can be, and not be choked, right, like Jesus said, by the weeds of these sins. Receive the Word and it’ll be implanted in your soul. It will save your soul. Peter says the first thing in 1 Peter, look at this chapter 1, just flip over to your right. 1 Peter 1, he says, verse 22, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” Then he says, and therefore, because this is true, “laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,” or some versions say, grow unto salvation. So we see the same thing. So if you’re harboring anger, if you’re envious, if you’re deceitful, if you lie, if you speak evil to people, etc., etc., these are sins which will hinder the growth of the Word in your life. They will hinder you bearing fruit from the Word. So he’s saying, put these things aside and as a newborn babe, desire the pure milk of the Word. He summed it up very simply when he said, either the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. And it’s really that simple. It really is.

And here’s what I see so often when we talk about things like the disciplines, the Word and prayer, that very often people, if they’re honest, and some people are honest, they’ll say, you know what? The real problem is I don’t desire to do it. So I don’t do it. In other words, instead of acting and living on principle or out of conviction that something is the right thing to do, we are so often governed by our emotions, right? And so if we want to do it, we do it, versus I know I need to do it, so I do it. But what we need to do, and if you’re in that condition, and some of you probably are, you don’t desire the Word. Here’s the question you gotta ask yourself, once you’re willing to admit that. The question you have to ask yourself is this, why? Because the normal state of things for a Christian, the normal state is a hunger for the Word. Just as the normal state of a newborn is to crave milk, you don’t, when you have a little bitty baby, diagram it in a chart and you teach the baby to want milk. No, it doesn’t work that way. It’s in the DNA. In the DNA. The baby craves and desires with a passion its mother’s milk. That is normal. If a child did not want milk, you would say there’s a problem with my child. I need to get it checked out. Something’s wrong. So just as a newborn has an inbred native appetite for milk, so the Christian has an inborn appetite for the Word. [audio unclear] and see how much you’ve been in the Word. That’ll tell you. Be honest about it. But then go, the next step is you gotta be honest and say, okay, well, why don’t I desire the Word? In other words, we need to acknowledge that that’s a problem. That it’s unnatural. Something is choking the Word. Something is suppressing the appetite. And Jesus says it’s pleasures of this life, cares of this age, and other things that come in and just choke the Word out. If you’re harboring sin, I can guarantee you, that sin will keep you from the Word of God. It’s inevitable. So in order to grow, we need to sincerely desire the Word. We need to be willing to let the Word have its proper place and do its proper work in our lives. And if that means dealing with sin in our lives, we need to do that.

Humility Before the Word

Fourthly, we need to have an attitude of humility toward the Word. As James says here in chapter 1, we just read it, he says, receive the Word. He says, after laying aside filthiness and wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted Word. With meekness the implanted Word. In chapter 4 verse 6 he says, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” Who does God resist? Who does God resist? Say it loud. Say it again. Louder. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to, again, again, the humble. Now, if you believe the Bible is inspired, is God’s Word, you believe this statement is true, right? So what this verse is telling us, what God is saying, is that we have to be willing to submit to His Word in order to grow from it. In order to receive the Word in a proper spirit, whether it’s receiving a sermon or reading or meditation or whatever, we must receive it with meekness, meaning a willingness to defer to God, to submit to God, and to do what God says. Listen, if this Scripture is really inspired by God, what this verse is saying is that without humility there will be no growth in the Word. Because God withholds His grace from the proud. And listen to this. His grace is given to the humble and no one else. No one else. There are no exceptions to this rule. You are not the exception. And if we come to the Word with an unwillingness to submit to its authority, then that is a manifestation of our pride. And because we are proud, we will not profit from the Word. That’s what James is telling us. We have to receive it with meekness, with docility, with the willingness to submit to it, to be shaped by it, to conform to it. This means that when we come to the Word of God, when we truly receive it in meekness and humility, it means that we allow the Word, listen to me, we allow the Word to show us our sin. Hear me now. We allow the Word to show us our sin. You’re not reading the same Bible. We should be convicted. We should feel convicted when we read the Word of God. That’s part of what it does, because Paul says that the Word of God is profitable for what? Rebuke or reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. It will show us where we are off. Whether we are off in our doctrine, whether we are off in our attitude, whether we are off in our life, the Word will show us. And when the Word shows us, really it’s the Lord showing us through His Word. When He shows us what we are supposed to do, we are to humble ourselves before that, and repent. Repent means we acknowledge what God says is true. So both James and Peter say we lay aside sin so that we can receive the Word and even desire the Word. And one of the reasons that too many Christians have no savor for the Word is because of the world and the sin in their lives. [audio unclear] Those who, in Luke, accept the Word or keep the Word—these terms actually mean, could be translated, they welcome and embrace the Word. They receive it in all that it says about everything, including our own self.

Pray Over the Word

Two more points very quickly. Prayer. We must pray as we read, study, meditate, memorize, etc., God’s Word. We must pray over the Word, over and over and over. In Psalm 119, what you see is David’s not just lauding God’s Word, which he is. He’s saying, Your statutes are awesome, and Your testimonies are amazing, and then he’s praying. God is speaking to David through the Word and David’s responding back in prayer. And when you look at David’s dialogue with God in Psalm 119, there are two, two main things that he asked for, and others asked for. But there’s two of them that I want to highlight this morning. One is that he is praying for illumination. Okay? Illumination. He says, “Open my eyes,” verse 18 of Psalm 119, “that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” And repeatedly you see these phrases: teach me Your commandments, give me understanding, open my eyes. So I love Your Word, but I need to see it, God. I need You to open my eyes. I need You to illuminate me. So we’ve all had those moments if you’re truly saved, to know the Lord. You’ve had those moments. Because the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. But how much more would that happen if we were seeking that illumination and praying over the Word: God, open my eyes so I can really see the beauty, the wonder of Your Word. And then he prays for communion with God. It’s interesting as David’s lauding God’s Word. Sometimes he’s talking about God’s Word, then the next minute he’s talking about God. And he says, he says in verse 57, he says, “You are my portion, O Lord.” Not just Your Word, but You are my portion. In other words, I love Your Word because of You. So when you pray for illumination, you ask for understanding, you ask for insight, but you’re asking for communion, fellowship with the Lord. I’ve been doing some reading about the Old Testament tabernacle. And it’s interesting, as I was looking at the diagram of the tabernacle, it’s got an outer court, it’s got an inner court, and then it has the Holy of Holies. You know the Holy of Holies? The Holy of Holies was only like 15 feet by 15 feet. It was not a big place. And I thought, where am I? Am I in the outer court? Am I in the inner court? Or am I in the inner inner court? Where am I? And I think a lot of Christians live in the outer court. In other words, they know a lot of things about God, but as far as knowing Him, communing with Him, fellowshiping with Him, that’s in the Holy of Holies. That’s where that is. And it’s important that we know about God and about Jesus. And it’s important we have right doctrine. But if we have only right doctrine and not fellowship, then that will become a dead orthodoxy. Truth but no life. So David prays repeatedly in Psalm 119, not just to know the Word, but that through the Word, God would reveal Himself to him, His lovingkindness, His mercy, His salvation. He wanted to experience the reality of Jehovah through His time in the Word. Remember as we look at the Christian wheel, as we talk about the spokes, remember who the hub is. It’s Jesus. It’s Jesus. Not just Jesus as the power that moves the wheel, but also Jesus as the goal. He’s the goal. Jesus Himself said to the Father that eternal life was knowing You, Father, and Your Son, Jesus Christ. That’s eternal life. Not believing in You and believing in Your Son, but knowing You, knowing Your Son. So remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7 when he talks about there will be someday some will come to Him. Say, Lord, we cast out demons in Your name and Lord, we did all these wonderful things in Your name. And what’s Jesus’ answer? He says, depart from Me. Why? I didn’t know you. And I didn’t know you because you didn’t know Me. In other words, there was no relationship there. There was head knowledge. There was even religion. There was action. There was some kind of service, but there was no relationship. We’re not saved by doctrine. We’re saved by Jesus. Knowing Jesus, not knowing about Jesus. And the difference is a monumental difference. It’s the difference between heaven and hell. And this is why you see, whenever you read about the great revivals of history, it’s always the same story. All these Christians get saved. Their head knowledge becomes a reality. It becomes truth to them. Whereas before it was speculative knowledge. No one goes to heaven because they think right. They go to heaven because they’re united to Jesus Christ in a genuine spiritual union by true faith. What did Jesus say in John 15? He said to His believers, apart from Me you can do nothing. You can’t build a church. And you can’t. And apart from Me you can get a big crowd. And apart from Me, you can build a business. And apart from Me, you can do all kinds of wonderful things. But in reality, apart from Me, you can’t do anything that’s true spiritual fruit. Nothing. So as we contemplate the Word, as we talk about the Word, and reading the Word, and studying the Word, we have to understand the Word is a relationship with the living God. That’s why as we approach the Word, we must do so with prayer. That He would open our eyes not only to the truth of His Word, but the Lord would come and fellowship with us. I don’t know if you’ve ever prayed that prayer, but you need to go home and open your Bible and say, Jesus, come and meet me now, I’ll wait here. I’ll be waiting. David said that he would wait for the Lord as the watchman waits for the sunrise. Now that means 12 hours? You don’t fit Jesus in.

Fruit with Patience

It doesn’t work that way. You open your Bible, you know what you’re going to do: wake up, “You didn’t come to me, I better read my verse of the day.” But this leads to my last point. Jesus said that the good fruit, the noble fruit, the noble heart brings forth fruit with patience. Patience. The very analogy of growing assumes the passage of time, right? No one plants a garden and they come out the very next day and they expect all the flowers to be there. Because they know it takes time. Growing in the Word and growing by the Word takes time. We will not master the Word, or should I say will not be mastered by the Word, in weeks or even in months. It’s a lifetime commitment. And some of you were running well, but who did hinder you? Some of you used to read the Bible a lot, but who did hinder you? Some of you used to memorize the Scripture, but who did hinder you? You’re not running anymore. You might be walking and some of you are sitting on the side of the road. What did hinder you? The commitment that we need is a lifetime commitment. Not until we hit middle age, not until our kids grow up and move out. It is a lifetime commitment, a devotion to God’s Word because it’s God’s Word. So it takes time and we must learn this fundamental principle of the kingdom. It is so basic, we don’t want to receive it, that if you’re going to know God, you’re going to have to set aside time and devote time to waiting on Him. I don’t know about you, but when you really think about the way we often treat the Lord, it’s amazing He ever blesses us. I mean, He blesses us tremendously. But it’s really amazing to think that we might give Him 10 minutes a day. I might give You 10 minutes if I’m not too busy today, Jesus. And then when we finally give Him time, we expect to snap our fingers and He’s just going to come. It’s insulting. It is insulting. None of you would tolerate being treated that way. You wouldn’t tolerate it. Is God supposed to tolerate it? It’s no wonder He doesn’t show up in your quiet time. It’s no wonder if we have such a lack of fear of God, such a lack of love for Him and His Word, that we treat Him that way. It’s no wonder if the Word is barren unto us. It’s not a magical book. Can you read a couple verses? It doesn’t work that way. This is the divine Word and it has been given us to be a medium through which we know God and His Son, Jesus Christ. But we must linger over this Word and over this Word and pray over this Word and have the proper disposition toward this Word. And when we do that, when we open God’s Word and we come into God’s presence and we invite God to come to us, we ask God to reveal Himself to us, we have to learn to wait for Him. This is why the quickie quiet time isn’t enough. Now I’m not saying don’t have a quiet time every day of 15 or 20 minutes. I think that’s wonderful, but it’s not enough. And so you know what God did? God gave us one day in the seven. He gave us one whole day called the Sabbath. We call it the Lord’s Day. One whole day! That means you can open your Bible, you can pray, you can meditate, and you can do that for hours. And you don’t have to feel guilty about not cutting the grass. You don’t have to feel guilty about not doing something, because the day is for that. Isn’t God good? It takes time. Can you imagine marrying your spouse and having never met your spouse, but you send a lot of texts and emails? Never bothered to spend time together, but we communicated through these quick short bursts of information. That’s not how real relationships work. We have got to set aside time and not see it as a drudgery, not see it as an obligation, not see it as a new legalism. That’s not it. It is a privilege for us to come into the presence of God. And He has made a way by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, that veil into the Holy of Holies, guess what? It was torn in two. Meaning that He has entered in and we in Him now have a way. And we can have fellowship with the true God. It’s amazing. That’s amazing grace. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Let’s take a moment. I’d like you to just ponder what the Lord has said to you today through His Word and through His Spirit. Now, if the Lord has spoken to you, I’m sure He’s spoken to many of you. You need to receive that, whatever He said to you. Maybe you’ve been convicted about sin in your life. Maybe you’ve been convicted about not spending appropriate time with the Lord, being too busy with other things. Whatever the Lord has spoken to you, respond to the Lord. Not to me, respond to the Lord. Hear His voice speaking to you. His Word is more valuable than gold. It is sweeter than honey. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We are thankful for Your Word. We honor Your Word, Lord. We praise You that You have granted us and entrusted Your Word to us. Lord, I ask that we all ask, that we would truly prize and value Your Word as we ought. And I pray, Lord, for all of us that we might renew our commitment to You and to Your Word. If we allow other things and rivals in our heart, we repent of those things, Lord. I ask, Lord, that You give us a united heart, a sincere heart, a reverent heart, that we might be the good ground, the noble ground. That not only hears, but receives and accepts, embraces, loves, cherishes Your Word, and that we grow thereby. I want to thank You, Lord, that when we ask for Your fellowship, if we are patient, You will give it, because You’re a gracious God. Amen.