Address—Tim Roach
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Hey Cortana, how long do you want to know?
Like to start by reading a couple of verses as to the word of God.
One is in Proverbs chapter 30.
Proverbs, chapter 30.
And verse 5.
Every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Think of the first part of it.
Every word of God is pure. Similar verse in Psalm 12.
And verse 6.
Psalm 12 verse 6.
The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 7 times the words of the Lord.
Now I've been.
Impressed by some. I don't know what you call them, statistics or not, but an earlier meeting someone was saying a certain percentage of people don't read their Bibles, and I'm amazed that it's such a big percentage. I don't know how accurate the figures are.
But it struck me that we really need to get the word of God for ourselves. It's nice to come to meetings and have someone else preach to us, or even a reading meeting and so on. But the important thing is for each of us in our own private lives to be reading the word of God. So let's just go to a verse a few verses in Exodus chapter 16.
And we get a little instruction here on something else that seems to me to fit.
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The subject of reading the Word of God. Exodus, chapter 16.
And we'll start.
Let's start at verse 15 or 14.
Exodus 16 verse 14. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as a hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, it is manna, or what is it?
For they wish not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread.
Which the Lord has given you to eat.
This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, and Omer for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them that are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet it with an Omer, he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.
They gathered every man according to his eating.
And Moses said, Let no man leave of it until the morning.
Notwithstanding they hearken not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating, and noticed this When the sun waxed hot, it melted.
What do you get from that? You know, if someone slept in and waited too long and the sun was hot, they wouldn't get their manna for the day. They wouldn't have their food for the day.
And I'd like to relate this gathering of the manna to every individual of us reading a part of the word of God every morning.
And you know, you say, well, Yep, I have something else I have to do first. And that's something else. Takes up all your time and you don't get to read you the the manna has melted. You've lost it for the day.
And it's a very important thing for each one of us to recognize that we need to gather this for ourselves.
I have the privilege of being brought up in a Christian home.
Where Dad used to read the scriptures to us.
Breakfast time and supper time.
You always have a portion of the word.
And he wasn't brought up in a Christian home himself.
He was 12 years of age and he had gone to an outreach.
Sunday School of the Brooklyn Assembly.
And he heard St. preaching.
And the worst that exercised them about his sins, as 12 years of age was the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
That was a verse that the man was preaching on.
And it was another preacher at another corner one time when he did get saved. And I don't know the verse that exercised him, but he did take his take the Lord as his savior, and he seemed to be, right from the start, a student of the word. And so we had a lot of good instruction at home. I'm not sure how much we valued at the time, but we were getting little by little, day by day.
The Word of God.
And I'm thankful for it.
It didn't be. It didn't seem ever. I don't recall ever being thinking it was a chore. Oh, we have to sit and read. No, it was part of our daily routine. I have to check that out with Jesse. See if she felt the same way.
Anyway, we had the word of God read to us on a daily basis, and still some of those verses are the ones I remember. You know, we got them early in life.
The point is here in this portion, if they waited too long, they missed it.
And we don't want to let anything interfere with the reading of the word. I notice it said. He that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little, had no lack. It might be on some occasion that.
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You have to go out and shovel snow or clear the car or whatever. There's something that takes up a good bit of your time, and you only get to read a verse or two and that can nourish you for the day. If you have time, you want to read more.
So I just, I'm not. I hope I'm not coming across as whipping you, but encouraging you, each one young and old, to be reading the scriptures for yourself daily and try not to miss a day.
Well, I want to go over to Ezra.
Where there was a man of God, Ezra himself.
Ezra.
I can't find the first verse I want to look for. It was Ezra was a ready scribe in the word of God and then it says in the 10th verse of Ezra 7.
I guess the other was.
Anyway, we'll start at verse.
Where is it?
Verse 10 Yes, Ezra 7 Verse 10 Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. The first step was that he prepared his own heart.
And then it says and to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it.
He wanted to learn what it was so he could do it. He could practice what he read. And this is very important, not just to read it for head knowledge or to say okay, I got it done for this day. This is something that should be of interest to us. And Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and he was willing to do it, to do what it said.
And then to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
You know, if you read up on some subject and you try to teach somebody what it is, if you haven't done it yourself, you really can't answer the questions. You must try it for yourself, no matter what it is.
Some machine or or whatever it is you you want, you must do it for yourself.
And then you have first hand knowledge. So Ezra not only wanted to fill his head, but he did. He acted on what he learned there. Now let's go over to Nehemiah and we'll see this put into practice. Nehemiah, chapter 8.
And verse one.
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate. And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the 7th month.
And he read therein.
Before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday.
Before the men and the women and those that could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
And as were the scribes stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose.
And beside him stood various others will skip to verse 5. Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered Amen. Amen was lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Now, Ezra.
He taught the people, he stood before the congregation and it, says the men.
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And the women and those that could understand.
I wonder what he meant by that.
Suppose it was the children, the men and the women, and those that could understand.
And children can understand the word of God, and they may not understand as much as an adult. They may not understand everything that's said.
But there are verses that they've learned in Sunday school and those are the ones that stick with you for life and they can't understand that and they can even apply it. So it it was a wonderful thing that it was only the men and women. It was the children too. And it's been so happy here to see so many children and some real little toddlers that aren't maybe taken in a word, they don't understand what we're talking about.
But they're here, and it's going to be a familiar thing to them to be present when the word of God is read.
And so in time, they will begin to learn, and they will begin to take it in.
Now.
It says it was before the Watergate.
That's that's interesting, the Watergate, and we often think of the scriptures as water, the water of the word. And if we went back to Nehemiah chapter 3 where they were rebuilding the wall and repairing the gates, when you come to the Watergate you don't find any repairs needed.
There's no repairs needed for this.
But we have repairs for the Sheep Gate and Valley Gate and so on. They all needed repairs, but not for the Watergate. So the word of God is pure and it's perfect. We can't fix it up. We can't paraphrase it.
We'll lose it. We'll lose some part of it if we do that. So this was done before the Watergate. I noticed the respect of the people, that when Ezra opened the book, they all stood up.
And we don't seem to have that habit. We don't need to do that now, I don't think. But that was the respect that people had, whether they were sitting or it must have been sitting because they stood up when the book was opened in respect for the word of God.
Well, I hope that we have a good respect for the word of God. We never want to make jokes about it. It's a serious book, and it has a lot to do with our lives and understanding the Lord.
Ezra opened the book in The Sight of the People.
And again, it speaks about all those that could hear and understand.
Now verse 6.
All the people answered Amen, Amen.
I'm amazed that so little is heard of Amen, even when someone prays at a conference.
Went over there, went over there.
We're not in the habit, maybe even our home assembly. We don't hear about a lot of amens. Sometimes we do.
It means I understand an agreement. It stands for an agreement. I think it's actually the Hebrew word for truth.
It's like you're saying truth. I agree with what you said. It's true.
So it says all the people now there were men and women and children, and it says all the people.
Said Amen.
And I don't want to start any kind of a controversy, but I think it's interesting that in First Corinthians 14, the verse that says that the women are keep silence in the in the assembly not to teach, but it says as also Seth the law. Here's part of the law, the Old Testament and they were all saying Amen.
They all sing. They were men singers and women singers, and we're glad that the sisters are singing.
I don't see any reason why they shouldn't say Amen to.
It's not teaching, it's agreement.
Well, these are the things that.
Are so much of interest.
As to the word of God, and are keeping it.
Teaching it to our children.
And reading it regularly. That's that's the point I want to really make as to the regular reading of the word of God.
That we would all take it to heart.
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No.
New Testament.
First Timothy.
Yeah, First Timothy, Chapter 4.
And verse 12.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word, and conversation, and charity, and spirit, and faith, and purity, till I come. Give attendance to reading, and to exhortation to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate.
Upon these things give thyself wholly to them thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. That's good advice, isn't it, For Timothy?
From Paul the age of Apostle.
Called Timothy, his son son in the face.
Let no man despise thy youth.
You might say. Well, that's beyond his control, isn't it?
I don't think it is, or it wouldn't say that.
You know, sometimes we get to carrying on and acting foolish.
I'm guilty of that myself.
And you could lose your respect.
Your respect of others.
If you're not careful.
So Timothy was to be careful in his life.
And he was to be.
An example of the believers in Word, in Word and conversation, the things that he spoke.
It's interesting when someone speaks in scripture terms, isn't it? We hear somebody saying something on scripture terms, even even a stranger. You hear somebody say something and say that sounds like scripture. It's interesting, You know, you look around and see who it is.
And then verse 13 it says till I come.
Give attendance to reading.
I've heard that that refers to the public reading of the word.
And so here we are, more or less of a public reading of the word. So we come to the reading meeting and we hear the word.
Even if we'd ever speak up, we hear the word someone's teaching us.
The Word of God.
And we are learning little by little here, little there, a little.
And then it says.
Well, Timothy had a special gift from God, verse 15. Meditate upon these things.
I think it was Gordon Hajo a number of times.
Said meditation is a lost art. It used to be, when traffic wasn't like it is today, that you could drive along and meditate.
But now you keep your wits about you and watch out.
For the bad drivers as well as the good ones.
But meditate.
So we don't just open our Bible and say read some verses and say, OK, that's it.
Think about what you've read.
Maybe read some ministry with it.
Or discuss it with your family, whoever is there.
We always enjoy that if we have visitors, Well, we read together, ourselves, my wife and I, and then we have visitors. Why? Maybe they contribute a little bit too, when we have a nice conversation over the scriptures that we've read. Much enjoyable. Meditate on these things. Give thyself wholly to them that they profiting may appear to all.
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And it's not a question of I'm going to learn some things so people will respect me, but it would happen.
If if Timothy was to read the scriptures and meditate on them and people would be saying that Timothy is growing, I can see that he's learning. He's he's growing in his soul.
And you don't do it for that purpose. But it will happen unconscious to yourself. Others will notice. So it was a wonderful thing for Timothy to do what the apostle said, to read the Word regularly, to meditate on it, and to put it into practice in his life.
As it says, take heed to thyself.
Sometimes we want to put self. We should be putting self out of sight. But here it says take heed to yourself.
It's not like reading the scripture and say, well that would be good for so and so.
That's good for me. Take heed to thyself.
And to the doctrine continue in them. In doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee so. It would be an example to others. Be a shame. If we taught people something from the Scripture and didn't obey it ourselves, it would be empty.
But Timothy was not to do that. He was to continue.
On and what he would had learned and been assured of.
I think there's one on 2nd.
Two Timothy, Chapter 3.
And we'll start at verse 14.
I suppose we could go back a little bit.
To verse 12 because we were talking about it when we were reading in Peter about Peter.
Verse 12 Yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Evil but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Well.
Timothy had to endure some persecution too, no doubt.
And evil would be increasing around them. But in verse 14 the apostle says to him, but continue Val and the things.
In the holy sorry, continue thou the things that I was learned have been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. That's quite a lesson in that verse. First of all, you know some object to those old English words, but.
In English, I heard common English. We don't know the difference between singular and plural. If I say you, it could be a whole bunch, it could be everybody here, it could be just you.
But when you say thou is Speaking of one person, the T words are singular, the Y words are plural. And so we have it here that Timothy was the one that's under surveillance. Here continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of.
And then it says, Knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
Well, that's maybe a little bit broad, but we know that Timothy's grandmother and Timothy's mother were godly women.
And he probably learned a lot from his mother.
And grandma.
And maybe they sat down with them and talked to him about the Scriptures. We don't know those details, but he learned them from those who are godly people, and he learned more from the Apostle Paul.
Knowing of whom thou hast learned them, I think that's an important thing to recognize.
Those from whom we hear things and we learn, should be those that are walking in the truth.
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That are growing, that are, that are following the truth themselves, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
And Timothy had the privilege that many of us here did of growing up in a Christian home.
At least a godly home.
That from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.
I'm going to stop there a bit.
I don't know how many still memorize verses. We don't have any small children in the assembly, so I don't have a Sunday school. But it's wonderful to hear those little guys stand up and say a verse. And they may not know many words, they may need help all the way through, but they're committing the word of God to memory.
That from a child that was known the holy Scriptures that are able to make thee wise unto salvation.
You know, and that can turn into salvation as they grow up and they learn that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, not just a short verse.
And then begin to realize, yes, Sinner, I'm a Sinner. Or they. They learn a verse in which the Lord Jesus is, is the Savior. He's the only Savior. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. And they begin to learn those things and it turns into faith and they believe.
And then it's very interesting, isn't it? All scripture. So the purpose of reading daily is because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It was not what men wrote.
You know, I remember some while back this foolish thought that somebody was putting out was that the reason there is differences in the Gospels is that each of the four writers wrote what they could remember.
That's false, and it's very false in that if they had to write what, they would have remembered.
Matthew, Mark and Luke would not have been able to write about the Transfiguration because they weren't there. And John was, but he doesn't say anything about it. You know, this is, this is God's inspiration inspired word. And so three men write about the amount of transfiguration. They weren't even there.
To see it, but they were given the words from the Holy Spirit and John who was there doesn't say anything about it.
That's strange, isn't it? You think you forgot it? Oh, he never could have forgotten that.
But it wasn't in character, the character of his book, he's writing on one who was.
Continuously on the mount. There wasn't any special occasion. He's writing about the Son of God.
And so it would have been out of character for John to mention it.
And the only eyewitness that mentions it is Peter.
When we were with him on the Holy Mount.
But he didn't write a gospel. The other gospel writers got it from God by the Spirit of God.
Well, this all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
For reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
I picked up an old calendar leaf.
Very old. It was a different format than what we have them today and but it had this on this verse on it and it said.
Doctrine tells us what is right.
Reproof tells us what is not right.
Correction tells us how to get right.
And instruction in righteousness how to keep right A.
I think I got those straight. I don't have them written down. But it's interesting that the the word of God is profitable for all these things. It tells us what is right, and that's why we need to keep reading it so we know it's right. We also know what's wrong.
And then it tells us how to keep right, keep on. And then it says for instruction and righteousness, that's how we can keep right.
So this is important that we continue to read the word of God.
And it says in the last verse of that chapter that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. I'd like to see that think that that word man is kind of generic word. It's all people, everybody, men, women and children.
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That the person of God going on with God may be perfect.
Thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Well, that's part of the the word of God.
It was one other thing I was going to speak of.
And as to the Word of God.
In the 4th chapter, Second Timothy.
And verse 13.
Paul says the cloak that I left at Trois with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee.
And the books, and especially the parchments.
He left something behind back there.
I wonder if the parchments might have been some of the books of the Bible that he was writing.
I don't know.
But he missed the books.
And be ashamed if you came to the conference and you're halfway here and you said got to bring my Bible.
When when you feel out of place, even if you pick up a a meeting room Bible, it's not the same as you're all.
Well, he left something behind and he missed it. So we we want to be sure that we.
Keep her Bible close at hand and that we read it and that we meditate on it and we pay attention to it.
And that we'd be happy people.
Let's sing another hymn.
Thinking of the Journey #290.
And where it says in second, the second verse, though the shore we hope to land on only by report is known, yet we freely all abandoned, led by that report alone.
And with Jesus through the trackless, deep move on, none of us has seen heaven. We've got a report, we've got a faithful report, and it's so marvelous it can't give any details, just tells us where Jesus is and that it's a wonderful place. OK, someone could start that Please #290.
Why those serious behold?
I understand. That's why I'm glad that I saw information you need to do this little business. And then I went to the middle of the world and I was going to do love you.
I hope you don't mind if I tell you a little story about this verse. Jim would remember Lawson Richards from Pleasantville, Nova Scotia, and he used to go back to the days of the sailing vessels when they would be out in the Grand Banks fishing for two or three months. When they got their load of fish, they would come home.
And this one time they were on their way home and it was a bit stormy. And the wind was contrary and the tide was against them and they were trying to make headway. You know, the sailing boat, you just don't have the power to go straight ahead into the wind. So they have to attack back and forth. And so they went out 10 miles, turned and came back.
They're in the same place. I tried again. They weren't making any headway.
Finally, the captain says we're going to go into the port here.
And what you don't realize when you hear a story like that is all the time they're out there, they're pounding over waves and they're keeping their balance, you know, and it's wearing out for people. And so as soon as they went past the breakwater into that harbor, perfect calm. And Lawson said, just like reaching heaven at last, that was his kind.
Well, he's reached it by now. He looked at me 96 and he's with the Lord now.