Address—J. Hyland
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Like to begin the meeting this afternoon with Hymn #29 in the appendix?
Lead like divine amid the uncertain encircling gloom. Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home. Lead thou me on. I've asked Brother Ernie to start this hymn #29 in the appendix.
Let's ask God's help and blessings. Amen.
Turn with me please to first of all to second Timothy Chapter 3.
Second Timothy chapter 3 and beginning at verse 14.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast 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 in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Hold your finger here. We're going to come right back to this portion. So I want to read a portion in First Peter chapter one.
First Peter, chapter one and verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
I have a burden on my heart this afternoon, and particularly addressing those who are younger, as this is scheduled as a young people's meeting to take up the subject. And some scriptures that I know are very familiar, a subject that's been taken up many times. And yet I believe it's necessary not only for those of us who are younger, but for all of us, and particularly brethren in the day in which we find ourselves. These are, as we sometimes mention, the last days and perilous times.
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These are times when the truth of God is being given up, It's being under undermined. It's being the souls of the Saints are being subverted through false teaching and those things that are not according to the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God. And I'd like to stress and impress upon our hearts this afternoon for the need for God's word in every aspect of our lives. I wonder if we really understand the preciousness of this book that we hold in our hands.
How much do we value the word of God? You know, I've had the experience, and it's a soul stirring experience to be in the presence of those who have received a copy of the Word of God for the first time, those who've never had the Word of God before for one reason or another. Maybe they haven't been able to afford it, maybe it hasn't been available. But, you know, it's a tremendous thing to realize that in these last moments of the Church's history.
God is allowing the word of God to reach into dark corners of the world where it's never reached before, and it's being translated today into languages and dialects that have never been in before the light of God's Word. And yet, I suppose that every one of us here own at least one Bible. I'll give you a little bit of homework. You young people go home after this conference and search around. Your parents home or your own home as such may be the case.
And see how many copies of the word of God you have in your home, be it the complete word of God or the New Testament, or some portion of it. I imagine you'll be somewhat astounded how many copies of the Word of God there are. And yet there are still people in this world tonight, believers who would give anything to own their own copy of the Word of God. I have seen tears stream down the faces.
Of men and women and young people as they have hugged to their chest a copy of the word of God for the first time. And so I want to impress upon our souls the need for God's word in every aspect of our lives. And I'd like to, by turning from 1 portion to the other, to see how the Word of God has a practical effect in many ways when we take it up and read it and take it in in the way that God has intended.
And so I began here with these words to Timothy Paul, reminding Timothy that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures. It would be, of course, portions of the Old Testament that were available at that time. Timothy, as we know, had a godly heritage. Now I realize there are some here today who were not brought up in a Christian home, some who did not, have not had a godly heritage, and the grace of God has reached out to you.
You've been saved by His wonderful grace and power. You've perhaps been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a wonderful thing. But I realize too, I look into the faces of many who, like myself, have had the privilege and of being brought up in a Christian home. Many of you perhaps don't appreciate the fact that the word of God is brought before you by your parents on a daily basis. I didn't always value it.
I didn't always appreciate it, but thank God I can look back now and rejoice in that heritage. And Timothy had had the Holy Scriptures brought before him from the time he was a child. But not only that, but he had also have the doctrines of Christianity brought before him by the Apostle Paul, because Paul reminds him that he had also heard the word from the lips of the Apostle Paul. And so we have all of the word of God in our hands this afternoon.
Tremendous. To think that the word of God is complete and that we have it in a volume that we can carry with us, that we can read so easily, that is so readily available to us here in North America. And so Timothy is exhorted to continue in that which he had learned, that which he had heard and been assured of. And that's my burden this afternoon for you young people. I'm thankful to see so many of you here.
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I'm thankful to see the progress, progress in your Christian life. Many of you I've known from the time you were a young child, and I've seen you grow not only physically, but I've seen you grow spiritually. There's a lot of spiritual energy amongst you young people, a lot of real desire to please the Lord. But you're the young people that the enemy is going to attack. You're the people, you're the you're the people that the enemy wants to turn aside. And I want to exhort you from the pages of God's Word to continue to seek grace.
It's not in our own strength. I was once a young person sitting in meetings like this, and I wondered how I was gonna get along in the situations of life. And while there's been many stumbles in the past of faith, now I can look back and say it was through Christ which strengtheneth me. It's all been of grace, it's all been the Lord's mercy, and our pathway is not done. But we can praise Him for what is passed and we can trust Him.
For what is to come, because we have a wonderful resource in our hands this afternoon. We have everything we need as we're going to see from various scriptures to get along through life, to have a life that is fruitful and for God's glory. And not just to begin well in the path of faith, but to end well also. And so we find here that He speaks of the holy scriptures that are able to make the wise unto salvation.
Now, salvation is taken up in different aspects in the word of God, but first of all, I'd like to apply this in connection with the salvation of our souls. I realize it's a much broader thought here, and we'll speak of that in a few moments. But he says first of all that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God. We're able to make him wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And if there's someone here, maybe a young person.
Maybe someone who's not so young today and you've been sitting here in these meetings and listening to the word of God and you're not saved. All I want to tell you that the way a blessing is open for you this afternoon, and it's the word of God that makes plain the way of salvation. It's so plain the way of righteousness is so plain, it says a wayfaring man, though a fool may not err therein. And how would we know God's plan of salvation for us if we didn't have God's word?
No, it's the Word of God that makes it plain to us. But more than that, it's the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit that God uses to impart divine life. That's why I read in First Peter where it says we're born again, not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Every one of us here today who are the possessors of divine life. It's been the result of hearing or reading in some way the word of God.
Because this book we hold in our hands today is living, and it's the only book that's living. This is just a little parenthesis in our thoughts. But that's why you'll never exhaust this book. Every other book written by man, no matter how deep and profound it may be, and no matter how many readings and how much study it may take. Yet eventually you can get to the bottom of it. You say there's no more we can get out of that.
But not the word of God. And that's why we can have a fresh enjoyment of it from day-to-day. We take up sometimes the same portions in conference readings, but it's fresh if it's presented in the power of the Spirit. And for all eternity, I suggest we're going to have a fresh enjoyment of the precious word of God. It's true, when we get home, the limitations are going to be removed. We're not going to know in part, and prophecy in part.
But I believe we're going to have a fresh enjoyment of this book for all eternity. We're going to marvel at it. We're gonna revel in it as the age has passed. And notice too. The verses we read in Peter tell us that it endures forever and it's settled in heaven. You know, men over the centuries have gathered together in large bundles and burnt it and tried to get rid of it and eradicate it from the earth. But they'll never get rid of it. Why? Because the originals in heaven, nothing can touch that.
It's forever settled in heaven, and it never changes either. But coming back to the portion we read in Timothy, there's far more to consider when it comes to the word of God than just its ability to present to us the way of salvation. As far as salvation from a lost eternity and knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we're on our way to heaven. Because, as I say, salvation has a much broader aspect than that in the New Testament.
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In fact, Timothy was told earlier to take heed to the doctrine, for in doing so thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. What does that mean? Well, salvation is often taken up in the sense of preservation. And Timothy was told to take heed to the word of God, because in doing so he would be preserved himself and those that he was called on to minister to.
Would be preserved as well. You know, there are many who have ministered the word of God so well, and in the end they didn't take heed to their own ministry and they missed the path and sad to say, often let others off the path as well. And so we find that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. I want to notice this little word, all scripture, because as I say, we need all of the word of God.
We need the Old Testament because it all speaks in one way or another of Christ. We don't have to read very far in the word of God to find that the subject is always Christ. In the Old Testament, we have the figures and foreshadows concerning the person and work of Christ, and we need to go back to those figures and foreshadows. And because we'll never really grasp the New Testament doctrines.
If we don't go back to the illustration, and so we need the figures and foreshadows. When we come over to the Gospels, we have the facts concerning the life of the Lord Jesus as he walked here in this world. I would just say in that regard too, in the Psalms we have the feelings of the Lord Jesus brought before us prophetically many of those Psalms, and we often read them on Lord's Day, Morning, the 22nd Psalm, the 40th Psalm, the 69th Psalm, the 102nd Psalm.
We read them because they bring before us prophetically the innermost feelings and expressions of the Lord Jesus, things we don't get in the gospel. So we have the feelings and the Psalms, but we have the facts in the Gospels, in the Acts we have the formation of Christianity with the descent, on the day of Pentecost, of the Spirit of God and those about 120 believers baptized into one body, the formation of the church.
Later on the Samaritans brought in, in the 8th chapter. In the 10th chapter the Gentiles brought in and we have a pattern of things laid out to us in the book of the Acts. In the Epistles we have the foundation of Christianity. Paul and others laid the foundation. Paul spoke of himself as a wise master builder. It says in Ephesians 2 other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
In the Revelation we have the fruition of all God's purposes in connection with the full exaltation of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But you can see how it all speaks of Christ, and so all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now I want to repeat a little illustration that will perhaps under help us in some way to understand what inspiration is. Inspiration is not dictation.
Dictation is taking down word for word what another has said, without any expression on the page or any indication of the personality of the person who takes the dictation. When I was in business, if I dictated a letter to my secretary and sent it off to another office, that letter was no reflection on my secretary. Nor could my secretary put a greeting on that letter from herself to someone else in another office.
No, that would have been very inappropriate. Dictation and inspiration are two very different things. Inspiration always left room for the personality of the individual to come out. As we said this morning, God often placed individuals in certain circumstances to give moral weight and import to what they said. It also left room for greetings and salutations from the one who did the dicta did the.
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Down the words by inspiration as well as others that were with him, perhaps on that occasion, like with Paul and his fellow laborers and so on. But I wanna give you a little illustration that perhaps will help us to understand in a small way what inspiration is.
When my girls were younger and learning to write, sometimes they would take a pencil in their hand and I would put my hand over their hand and I would guide their hand, perhaps to write their name or a little message.
And after they had written it, they would hold it up and they would perhaps say to their mother, mom, look what I wrote, I wrote this. Well, it's true, they did write it, but who really wrote it? My hand guided their pencil across the page. And so holy men of God, fake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, they didn't just put down their own opinions. They didn't write things the way they saw they they thought, they thought the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke and John.
They weren't just like reporters who wrote from different aspects. It's true they did write from different aspects of the life of the Lord Jesus. But some of them weren't even present when the Lord Jesus walked, walked on earth, or walked. Nor did they walk with him. And so they wrote by inspiration the hand of God. Like my hand guiding the pencil of one of my children, the hand of God guided their pen. And all scripture is given by inspiration of God. We say Paul wrote that or John wrote that. And that has a certain sense, like my girls saying, well, I wrote this, but they were guided by the Spirit of God.
And then it tells us that it's profitable and it's profitable for these various things and we don't have time to go into them. It's not really my thought, but just again, to impress upon us how it's all Scripture that we need in our path of faith, and we need it so that we will be thoroughly furnished unto all good work. There are two things in this epistle that furnish a person to all good works in the chapter before it's separation from evil.
We if we're going to be useful for the master, if we're going to be used for his glory and for the blessing of others, there must be separation from evil. In this chapter, it's being found, having a foundation in the word of God. It's taking up the truth of God and taking it in, letting it have its effect. Being acquainted with the doctrines of the Word of God, letting it have its effect as far as reproof for corruption, instruction, and righteousness.
And when it has that practical effect, then we will be useful in the master's work. Then we can be used in blessing to others. But now I'd like to go on, and we're going to look quickly at a number of scriptures this afternoon. And again, I say these scriptures bring before us the practical effect that the word of God has in our lives when we take it up and read it in the way that God intends for us. Let's go first of all to the book of Job.
Job, Chapter 23.
Job chapter 23 and verse 12. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. And then I want to read a verse in first John chapter 2.
First John chapter 2 and the last half of verse 14.
I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Well, we spoke of how the word of God is used to impart in the power of the Spirit, to impart divine life to us. But after we have that life, that life must be sustained. It's a perfect life, but it's a dependent life, and that life, just as a natural thing, it needs to be fed.
And where are we going to find food for that life? It's the word of God. It's the manna that came down from heaven as we get in the 16th chapter of the book of Exodus. And the Lord took up that illustration in the 6th chapter of John and exhorted his own defeat on the bread of heaven. And he left no doubt there in that chapter as to what the man of figures it was himself. It's the man Christ Jesus in the circumstances of life down here.
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And how are we going to feed on Christ? Well, as I say, we've got to open this book and read it. And why does it speak of feeding? Because when we eat something, we take it in and it becomes part of us. And like the children of Israel, we're in the wilderness. They were in a physical wilderness. And I have traveled through a good section of the Sinai Peninsula on quite a number of occasions. And when God calls to the wilderness in the Scripture, that is exactly what it is.
You drive for hours and you see nothing green, nothing to sustain life. They get 1/10 of an inch of rain or less a year on the Sinai Peninsula. There's nothing to sustain life. And God gave them, among other things, the manna, the bread of heaven. And it was necessary that they avail themselves of that bread if their physical life was going to be sustained. We're not in a physical wilderness this afternoon.
We had a wonderful meal. We're going, We're looking forward to another one in a little while. We have wonderful comfortable facilities here, but we are brethren, young people. We are in a spiritual wilderness. And what I mean by that is, just as there was nothing to sustain the natural man in the Sinai Peninsula, so there's nothing to sustain the new man. There's nothing to sustain the spiritual man here in this wilderness world. This world is a spiritual wilderness.
Oh, there's plenty to feed our lost. There's plenty to feed the flesh. It just seems you can hardly stand at the checkout counter in the store anymore without seeing something to feed the flesh. The billboards. Everywhere we go we see and hear things that will feed the flesh. And why is it so often we seem to have an appetite for the things of this world? I suggest that it's because we're not satisfying the new man with the bread of heaven.
If we would satisfy the new man, we wouldn't be so vulnerable to those things that are offered to us on every hand. And Job says here I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food, How careful we are to eat two or three good meals a day, and sometimes a snack in between. We're careful to take care of the natural. And that's true. That's proper. No man yet hated this flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ the Church.
But what about the spiritual? If we took care of the natural, the way we take care of the spiritual, we perhaps get very sick and weak. But how? How are we feeding the new man? Are we seeking to open this book every day and read something of it? When I was a young person, we used to often sing that hymn Feed on God's Word in the morning, Feed on God's Word at noon, Feed on God's Word in the evening to keep your heart in tune, Jeremiah says. Thy words were found and I did eat them.
And they were under me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. And again, when we eat something and take it in, it becomes part of us. And that's why I read in first John where the apostle John, in writing to young men, he speaks of them as being strong. You know, it says the glory of young men is their strength. And I love to see young men and their strength. I'm always happy when a young man will travel with me to a foreign country. And I'm very willing to let them lift those heavy crates of Bibles.
Those suitcases of tracks that we're getting to the next boat or the the next plane. The glory of young men is their strength. And some of us are beginning to feel our strength wane just a little bit. But that's not what John was Speaking of, these young men that he was writing to, They weren't strong because they went to the gym and worked out twice a week. Nothing wrong with that. Bodily exercise profits for a little time, but the source of their strength.
Was that the word of God was abiding in them. They had taken in the word of God. And do you want power for your pathway? You know, sometimes we read the old stories of missionaries and men and women of faith who've gone before, and we marvel at the power they had in their Christian life and how they were able to overcome sometimes in foreign countries under very harsh conditions. But when you read their life carefully, you find two things about them. They were men and women of prayer, and they were men and women of the Word.
They they not only spent time in prayer, but they spent time in the word. It's the source of our power and strength. There's no other way to have power in your Christian pathway. You wanna be like these young men, You wanna commendation like this. You've gotta read the word, You've gotta drink it in. And I wanna go on and look at some other verses that show how we are not just to casually read the word of God, not just open the Bible and read it and close it.
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And not think about it or take it in, but we need to have it as the very part of our being if we're going to go on in our pathway. And isn't it wonderful too to think that this book is the same as it has always been. It doesn't change. It is sufficient resource for us even as we approach 2013. And it abounds with testimony as to the fact that as I said.
It does live and abide forever. Never. Connor gets itself. And as we're gonna notice, it's even more up to date than the daily newspaper. It fits what's happening today, and it'll do the same tomorrow. Now let's go to the 119th Psalm.
Psalm 119.
And verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed? Thereto, according to thy word with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandment. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. I want to notice a couple of things in this, this, this portion. We've read first of all, the cleansing effect that the word of God has on our lives.
It's true. When we got saved, we were cleansed from our sins through the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. But this is a different cleansing that we have here. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? It's the washing of water by the word that we read so often about. You know, when the Lord Jesus gathered the disciples in the upper room in preparation for his departure out of this world.
And he's going to leave them in a world that was characterized by sin and defilement. The first instruction he gave them was the illustration of feet washing. Why did he do that? Because he knew they were going to be left in a world where they would pick up in their walk for Christ, the defilements all about them. There was an elderly brother in my home assembly in Smith Falls for many years. He's with the Lord now, but he used to tell us often that in his working days.
When he came home from the office, he felt like he needed a good wash, And he wasn't talking about soap and water, he was talking about the washing of water by the word. He felt like he had heard and seen things that defiled him. And we do. We pick up those things that defile, that chill our affections, the dull our souls. And when we get home in the evening, we need to have a good wash. Open this book and read it. You get home from school.
Open this book and read it, and let it have its cleansing, its cleansing effect. It's the flavor that we speak so often about where the priests had to come from day-to-day during their service, and wash their hands and and their feet. And so, wherewithal, shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word, And then he speaks of the heart. With my whole heart have I sought thee.
He says, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? And again, I know this has often been said, but I think it bears repeating. And that is that this book was not merely written for our intellect. Thank God for an intellect that vows to the word of God, and many great minds in history have vowed to the word of God and been used mightily. But that in itself is not enough. This book was written for our hearts and for our consciences.
I'll repeat something I've often said, and that is that when we read the word of God, the entrance of the word is the mind. Because there does need to be a knowledge. We're the growing grace and the knowledge. We need knowledge, and so there has to be a knowledge, and the entrance is through the mind. But that is not the dwelling place of the truth. The channel is the conscience, because this book was written for our conscience. And if it's gonna have its proper effect in our lives, it must reach the conscience.
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But that's not the dwelling place of the truth either. The dwelling place is the heart. And when the truth enters through the through the mind, into the conscience and dwells in the heart, then it's going to have a practical effect. Because when the heart is reached, then the feet will follow. The Lord Jesus said if a man loved me, he will keep my commandments. When there's real love involved, when the truth affects the heart, then there's going to be.
And unconscious, almost following the feet will follow, and not as a difficult thing because it says. And his commandments are not grievous, they're not grievous to a heart that is affected and motivated by love. That's why it takes purpose of heart to live in days like this. Not just desire. Desire is good, but it takes real purpose of heart. And so he says, By where do I hid in my heart? And we need to get the word down into our heart.
We know we might know a lot of things intellectually, and that's fine, but it's got to get down into the soul if it's going to have the practical effect, if we're going to be doers of the word and not hearers, Only if there's gonna be practical faith exhibited in our day-to-day walk. And it's that I might not sin against the the word of God affecting the heart is going to keep us from the paths of folly and sin.
It's going to keep us from the paths of unrighteousness. It's going to keep us from going after those things and into those things that are unholy and not according to his will. And so we need to hide the word of God in our hearts. How much does the word of God affect your heart and mind? We're going to notice some other scriptures. There's some other verses in this same Psalm. Notice is an interesting Psalm. It's the longest chapter in the Bible.
And I believe the headings of the different sections of this Psalm are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And I just want to pass on a very simple thought in this connection, because and I know the first divisions aren't necessarily inspired, but in almost every verse there's two or three. I counted one time. But in almost every verse there's some reference to the word of God either called by commandments or thy precepts, thy law, thy word, some reference to the word of God.
And I like to think about it like this, the Psalmist said. It's all here, as we would say from A-Z or as we say in Canada, from A-Z. And where are we going to get all this instruction for our pathway? It's God's word. How can we think we can be wiser than God? Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walk us to direct his footsteps, Solomon said. Who knoweth what is good for a man in this life? There's only one that knows what's good for us, and he's marked it out.
Well, in this regard, just let's drop down in this Psalm a little further to the 97th verse. Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimony. Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. Well, we find the Psalmist here recognizes.
That if he's going to have wisdom, as far as even the things of this world, it must come from the word of God. You know, a Christian who's reading their Bible has more understanding about what's happening in the news today than all the politicians and the men in high places. They may have their opinions, they may have their hopes and aspirations, They may think they're arranging things on the world platform today.
But the Christian, I say, who's reading his Bible, he knows more about what's happening and the purposes of God then all those wise worldly men. When you go to school, they teach you many things concerning the wisdom of man and the wisdom of this world. But if you're reading the word of God, you have more wisdom as to creation and many things than they have. They have, and you recognize too very quickly the folly and error of what they're teaching.
But I wanna notice something else that the Thomas says here. He speaks of meditation because as I said earlier, it's not enough just to read the word of God, but we need to meditate on God's Word. You know, it's not what we eat that does us any good. It's what we digest. When we digest it and it becomes part of us, then it's going to do our bodies good. And you'll never take in and digest the food of God's Word unless you meditate on it. We often speak of the clean animals.
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Under the Levitical order in the Old Testament. And one of the characteristics of a clean animal was that they chewed the cud. They took what they had eaten, what they had taken from the field, and they chewed it over. They went over and over it and over it again. And we need to not simply read the word of God in the morning and forget what we've read. No, that's not going to do us any good. I've enjoyed that in connection with the children of Israel.
Because, you know, they went out in the morning to gather the manna and then they put it into their Omer, a certain measure, and they took it with them. And it says when they dipped into their Omer, he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack. And I believe stopping during the day and dipping into our Omer is like meditation and I want to encourage you to do that. Maybe years ago a brother could work at his bench and have his Bible propped up and meditate and read the word of God as he worked with his hands.
Someone could go out and walk behind the plow and meditate on the word of God, but you can't drive down the freeway like that. You can't run a computer like that. You can't conduct a business seminar like that. It takes everything you've got from the minute you step out the door in the morning till you go back at night. It takes everything you've got to survive in the work, a day world in which we find ourselves. But I want to encourage you to stop during the day and dip into your Omer, and even if you only had a time, had time to gather a little.
He that gathered little had no lack. If you have time to read a chapter or two, thank God for it. You'll have nothing over. You need all of the word of God you can get. But even if you only had time to read a verse or two, go back over it. Dip into your Omar. You'll be surprised. You'll find God knew just what you were gonna need for that day. And you'll be able to enjoy Christ from those few lines and it will feed your soul for the day and get you through and soul day, the Psalmist said. It is my meditation.
All the day. Can you and I honestly say that that we stop all during the day and meditate? So if I can sum up what we've said so far in this way, we need to go out like the children of Israel in the morning and gather the manna. We need to satisfy our spiritual appetite with the bread of heaven, with Christ before the day begins. We need to meditate during the day on what we've gathered of Christ. And we need to come home in the evening and have a good wash We need to let the word of God have its cleansing effect. You see how it applies to, in a practical way to every aspect of our lives.
But now drop down a little further in this same Psalm to the 105th verse. My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Just notice the 133rd verse. Order my steps in Thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Well, we here, we have something else in connection with the word of God. We have it as light and instruction for our pathway here.
We often hear, don't we in the meeting, that God has a pathway for us, a path marked out. But will never young people know the path of faith if we don't orderly and consistently read the word of God. And I don't mean just reading here and there. That may be OK on occasion, but I believe the way God orders our footsteps through His Word is when we orderly and consistently read the scriptures.
And I know you've experienced this. You're reading along in your daily portion. Some question has arisen, some step you have to take in your Christian life, and all of a sudden there's the answer right there. You'll pardon the personal experience, but I had this brought home to my soul this past summer in a very real way, unlike any other summer, including the one before. I really struggled as to whether I should go to Egypt or not with all the difficulties.
That are going on over there. And even three days before I was to go, I really was before the Lord as to whether I should go. And I was reading in my daily reading in the book of Genesis. And three days before I was to leave I was reading about Jacob going down into Egypt to see Joseph for the last time. And when Jacob got to the border and he offered to sacrifice at their Sheba, the Lord said to him, fear not to go down into Egypt.
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I said, thank you, Lord, and I went with complete peace. Now, that scripture may never mean that to you again or to you. It may never mean not to me again. But that's how the God uses His word to guide you. Sometimes I talk to young people and those who are not so young, and they say I want to know the Lord's mind. I want to know what he has for me. But you're fine. They're not orderly and consistently reading the word of God. You'll never know the path of faith unless you get out this book every day.
And read through a portion and you'll never have an outline of sound words, as Timothy was exhorted to have. Unless you orderly and consistently read the word of God. To go through the different books, to go through the different writers to just get an outline of what they teach, that helps us then to fill in the pieces, that helps us not to miss apply the word of God. Just, I know we can spend our whole life on Scripture and we'll still only have an outline, but just to have a general outline of what Paul teaches and Peter teaches and the other New Testament writers and the Old Testament writers.
That, I say, is a safeguard and gives us that outline of truth. And so the steps of a Goodman are ordered by the Lord. I know if you belong to the Lord, you want your steps ordered by the Lord. Oh, he'll order your steps in the measure in which you read the word of God. In this way every day it's light for the pathway. But now let's go to John's Gospel, Chapter 5.
Johns Gospel chapter 5 and verse 39.
Just the first three words of the verse, search the scriptures. Now, I want to encourage you to search the scriptures. You know we need to not only orderly and consistently read the word of God so our steps will be directed, but we need to search the scriptures in the proverbs. I think it's the 29th proverb or maybe it's 27th proverb. It says that is the glory of God. To conceal the the matter, the honor of conceal the thing, The honor of kings is to search out the matter.
And God has woven the truth in a way that we need to take up this book and search it. Comparing scripture with scripture, God never encourages laziness in any aspect of our Christian life. And so the word of God is not a self help book. We don't turn to a certain page and in 12 easy steps get from point A to point B. No, we have to search out the word, the search out the scriptures. And there's a beautiful commendation given in the 17th chapter of Acts to the Bereans.
It says they were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Now the Brethren of Thessalonica were noble too, but the Bereans were more noble. Why? Because they not only listened to the ministry of the Apostle Paul, but they got out whatever portions of the word of God they would have had available to them at that time, and they searched it out for themselves. And you'll never really have it until you search it out for yourself to follow those subjects through the word of God.
It's precious, young people. I wish I'd done it more when I was your age, because what I'm saying to you today, I learned when I was young. For the most part, as we get a little older, things are beginning to slip. Just a little bit, a little bit. And so I want to encourage you to search out those things. And in that regard to memorize the word of God the 1St, as I'm quoting to you this afternoon, I didn't learn yesterday. I wish again I'd memorize more of the word of God.
When I was younger. Because if you memorize it when you're younger, then the Spirit of God can bring it back at the right time and make it good to you. He when there's difficulties arise, it's the sword of the Spirit, and it can be used of the Spirit in communion with the Spirit at the right time. But he can't bring something to your memory that you haven't read. He can't bring it back unless you've gone over it. And the more you memorize scripture, the more the Spirit of God can bring it back at those times.
When you need it the most. And so let's learn to search the scriptures. Not just to read, but to search. Maybe it means getting out of concordance and searching out some words, doing a word study, doing a phrase study. But search the scriptures. It'll be a tremendous blessing. Uh, to you. Now, I'd like to notice a burst in Exodus 16. We've mentioned it, but I'd just like to notice the verse there.
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Exodus Chapter 16.
And verse 16 This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded.
Gather of it. This is the manna. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an Omar for every man according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tent. And then I want to read a verse in the book of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy, Chapter 11.
Deuteronomy Chapter 11 and verse 18. Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontless between your eyes, and ye shall teach them to your children. Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest, by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou raises up, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house.
And upon thy gate. Well, I'd like to speak a little bit now to those of us who are heads of our home, those who have our fathers, those who have children, and young people under your roof. I believe these verses are a special exhortation to you. First of all, we find that with the gathering of the manna, it was really the men that went out and gathered. I don't want to take away from what I have previously said. We all brothers and sisters.
Men and women alike, we need to gather for ourselves a portion of the word of God every day. We need to feed on Christ. But if you notice carefully in the 16th of Exodus, I don't believe it with the women that went out to gather the manna. Every man, according to the verse we read, was to gather for himself and those that were in his tent, responsibility of the head of the home. I am thankful, profoundly thankful for a father who gathered a little for himself every day.
And for his children, it wasn't always a lot. And I just say to fathers, it doesn't have to be a long reading. Don't weary your children and young people. You know your children and young people better than anybody. Don't weary them with long readings. But just a thought or two, a little portion from the word of God. I enjoyed what a brother told me to who had to go to work very early in the morning, he said. You know what, I get got up, Get up. And I read a little myself.
And then I make a note of some scripture, a little thought I've enjoyed, and I put it with a magnet on the fridge. I think it's what he told me. And he said when my wife gets up a little later and gets the children ready for school, she shares that with the children before they go to school. There was a man that gathered for himself and took his responsibility to gather for his family as well. And then we have the exhortation too, in the book of Deuteronomy, where we read the responsibility of the Fathers, the heads of the home.
To bring the word of God before their household, I want to encourage you have a family reading. It may be in the morning, it may be in the evening. I know that different things work different for different people, for different households according to schedules, but make sure there is some time, even if it's only 10 or 15 minutes. Make sure there's some time during the day when you open fathers the word of God.
And read it to your children. It will be a blessing to you and it will be a blessing for your household as well. It's not just a suggestion, it is what is it given to us as an exhortation from the word of God. The Father's in the Old Testament were exhorted to do that. And if so, how much more you and me in Christianity. And then they were to put up the word of God for others to see as a testimony. I'm thankful when I go into a home and the first thing I see maybe on the door or in just inside in the foyer is a verse of Scripture. Thus the testimony. Someone comes in your home who's not saved, maybe they see. John 316.
Or first John one and seven. Or one of those good gospel verses as a testimony and hang up the scriptures around your home. It will be a preserving factor as well as it will govern what you do and what you say. If you have the conscious sense that the word of God is hanging there in your home on your walls, well, very quickly our time is almost gone. I want to read a portion in Acts chapter 2.
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Acts Chapter 2.
And verse 42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and embracing of bread and in prayers. What we often speak of this in connection with the assembly meetings. And I want to apply it in connection with meetings for ministry of the word of God. And I want to encourage all of us to avail ourselves of those meetings. It's wonderful to come to a conference like this, to have the word of God ministered, but you know it's a real test when we go home to the little assembly.
From which we have come, maybe I hear a young person say, or an older person too. Well, you know, we come to the assembly meetings for ministry at home, and not a lot of gift and not a lot of ability to explain things. And sometimes it just doesn't seem to be much. Well, be careful. It was one of the great sins of Israel in the wilderness that they despised the simple manner that God gave them. And let's be careful that we don't despise the simple manner that God gives us in the local assembly.
May be given in ever so stumbling away in ever so simple a way, but the word of God is the same. The spirit of God is there, is there, you're there. And I believe that God can meet our needs even in our weakness and be there at those meetings for ministry. We need them because I believe God has instituted ministry in the assembly in a way that gives us a balance. You know man is a creature by extreme. It says Ephraim is a cake not turned and if you put a cake on the griddle and you don't turn it.
It gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other. And I have found that those who do not avail themselves of ministry in the assembly, they're often like that. They get off on one side of the truth, they get off on a certain tangent. But in the assembly there's a balance. If the spirit of God is given liberty in meetings like this, we're thankful for those who can lay out the doctrinal principles. All others can make a practical application. If someone says something that's not quite balanced, another can balance it. There's correction if it's if it's needed. It doesn't mean that every assembly meeting for ministry is balanced, but in the overall.
Soap of things. If you veil your veil yourself of ministry in the assembly, you will get that balance. And so they continue steadfastly. They persevered. And I know it takes perseverance to adjust your schedule, and I know there are times we can't always make it, and God understands that. But we need to plan our lives around the assembly meetings, not plan our lives and try to work in the assembly. Plan our lives around the Lord and the assembly.
And then we're going to be able to be at those meetings. And so let's avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly. Well, I would just say in closing that there's a solemn warning in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 13, where Jeremiah weeps for those who did not, who did not give heed to the word of God. There were those who rejected or gave up the word of God. And he said, you're stumbling on the dark mountains and I'm weeping for you, He said, Mine eyes shall weep, soar and run down with tears.
And there's many who've had the light of God's word brought up in a Christian home, sat in meetings like this, many of my own generation that I've known, and they turned their back on the light of God's word. And now they want light and they're stumbling on the dark mountains. Oh, I beg of you not to do it. Read this precious book, take it in, make it a part of your life, and you'll find that there will be power and grace and food for your Christian pathway. This book.
Is able to guide us and direct us till we take that last footstep and we're safe home in the Father's house. Let's pray.