John Newton: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”
2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
We are in this sermon series, looking at God’s call for us as his children to grow in grace;
growing in grace, is simply: becoming more like Jesus; knowing God more deeply and loving him more richly and reflecting him more fully; so that we can have the deep delight in him which knowing and loving and serving him brings into our lives.
2 sides of that: what means God has provided to us through which we receive that grace to grow; “Ordinary means of grace”
And, what our role and responsibility in that process is – how we strive and discipline and devote ourselves to making use of those means of grace so that we can grow in grace. “spiritual disciplines”
If we devote ourselves to those means of Grace, God will be gracious to us and we will grow in grace.
And there’s three means of grace we’re going to look at, and then while looking at each, we’ll look at a few spiritual disciplines that go along with those means of grace.
How we can be more:
Devoted to God’s Word; Devoted to prayer; Devoted to God’s family
The Word of God is the first ordinary means of grace; and our attempts to read, know, & apply the word of God is our spiritual discipline.
And this may sound obvious but whether you think it’s obvious or not doesn’t mean it’s not necessary to remind ourselves of, because there’s arguably never been a time where people have the bible more readily available to them; yet despite that it’s certain that bible knowledge – basic bible knowledge – is at an all-time low; and that apparently the way we seek to solve that problem, is to go to church less regularly than we ever did before; to have church services less frequently than we ever have before; and to have shorter services and shorter sermons with probably much less bible in them than we ever did before; but more to the point, to read our bibles less than ever before; and to fill our minds and hearts with more trivialities than ever before.
And the point of this sermon isn’t to beat ourselves up. But if we believe what Christians believe the bible is, then we ought to want to read it more; we ought to desire to know it more; and we ought to feel the utmost urgent necessity to live it out more – to apply it more fully to our lives – to get it into our minds and hearts – to build our lives more centrally on it than they are right now.
And, wherever you are with your devotion to GOd’s word – you’ve got to start somewhere. But you’ve got to start today.
The whole thing about a discipline; the whole point of devotion; is that it simply doesn’t work to say, “I’ll start tomorrow.”
You got to start somewhere so don’t feel bad about where you’re starting. You got to start somewhere. But wherever that is, start now.
Redeemer Church – let’s be devoted to our bibles. Because we believe the bible is God’s word to us – where God has spoken his eternal truth – the words of eternal life – to his people – to you and to me.
And, I’m not going to talk too much about about the nature of the Bible – what the Bible is.
Rather I’m simply going to assume what Christians have always believed: that the Bible is God’s word. That though it was written by human authors as products of their minds and experiences and personalities and culture and language; nevertheless they were consciously inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write God’s words – such that by his Spirit, God created an identity between His words and the words of those human authors.
And as such it is always true and trustworthy.
And some people find that impossible to believe but only atheists or those who live or think like atheists, because that isn’t too hard for God. And there may be real questions about parts of God’s word, or how God’s word came to be as it is, but those real questions are for another sermon series – seriously, we will do another one about those issues.
But what I want to talk about more, is: how should we – or better yet, how would we, respond to that basic Christian believe – if we really believed it.
Because what that means, is that, God has spoken to us – on our level in such a way that we can understand; and in such a way that his words are always accessible to us to hear.
The God of the universe has spoken to you – and his words – the words of eternal life containing the richest of spiritual food and the most satisfying of spiritual drink – are there – right there – for you to hear every day.
That real, concrete, understandable & discoverable Truth – that philosophers and wise men and prophets have spent human history searching after yet even with their best efforts it evades them – Truth – has come to us.
Do you realize how significant that is? God has spoken. That’s the starting point of Christianity and that’s our only basis to have any hope that we can find something – that our search for God isn’t destined to be blind people wandering about in darkness with no hope of finding anything; but God has shone his light of truth into our lives by speaking his truth to us
Our God is a God who speaks. And if you claim to worship a God who speaks – then you must be a worshiper who listens to that God who speaks – that must be central to who you are.
God has spoken to us. He has told us everything we need to worship him, to know him, to serve & obey him –
Yet many of us, lament: “if only God would speak to me.”
Have you ever wondered or wished: “if only God would speak to me?”
Often we wonder this in a time of crisis or in special need of God’s guidance or deliverance; often we wish for this in a time of spiritual dryness or doubt or uncertainty or struggle;
and often what we want, is some extraordinary kind of divine revelation – something to meet the extraordinary circumstance that we’ve found ourselves in;
But our spiritual growth over the long haul happens not primarily through the extraordinary but primarily through the ordinary – and that includes how God speaks to us.
The ordinary, everyday way that God speaks to us is through his written word.
The extraordinary ways that we wish or seek to hear God’s voice – we wish for them or seek after them because we think it will give us a more sure word – a better, clearer word resulting in more confidence in what God has said – but let’s question that assumption:
Does an extraordinary way of God speaking give us more confidence, or less confidence, than the ordinary way of God speaking through his written word?
Imagine you want to hear a word from God – and you sort of set up a test – sort of like Gideon’s infamous fleece – and I say infamous because people have often used that story as a good example to follow but it isn’t!
It’s an example of a godless, faithless person who is repeatedly doubting God’s word when God has already spoken clearly to him!
John White in his book “The Fight” imagines this scenario – you want to know God’s word about something or his answer to something – and so you ask him that if his answer is affirmative to this question you have, let me have a phone call at 3 pm. And you think – ok it’s simple: if the phone buzzes at 3, answer is yes; if the phone doesn’t buzz at 3, the answer is no.
Now, 3pm comes, but the phone doesn’t buzz; but then you remember that you’re watch was set a little fast so you the official time and wind it back a bit; but then 3pm comes again and still no buzz; but then you realize you didn’t specify eastern-standard time; so you pray again and change the deal to 3:10pm EST.
Now, 3:10 comes, and the phone buzzes! But it’s not a phone call it’s a text! Does that count? God of course is up to date on all the latest technology and knows that no one calls anyone anymore and every texts instead – why did I ask God to communicate in such an obsolete way?
But you’re still not sure; so you specify – ok, phone-call at 3:15 means yes. But you get a phone call at 3:14. or 3:16 – how specific does that need to be? Or, maybe God is trying to test me by not giving me the sign I asked for?
Or if the test is met in an unmistakable way, then you ask for 2 out of 3.
And probably what you conclude after this will fall along the lines of what you wanted to begin with: if you wanted a yes answer, you’ll find a way to rig the test to get it; and if you wanted a no answer, you’ll find a way to make excuses to get it.
I think you get the point: This pursuit of hearing God’s voice in an extraordinary way doesn’t give you the certainty that you were seeking.
And the danger is that we will end up listening for, responding to, obeying, the voice of our own desires.
And so if it doesn’t give us more certainly; if it isn’t more readily accessible for us to hear – then why do we want that?
I think it’s because we want God to speak where God has been silent; and we where God has spoken, we’d often rather him be silent.
But in our first text – Deuteronomy 29:29 – we see quite plainly that God has revealed some things so that we can know those things; and that God has not revealed other things – so that we will not know those things.
And in both cases what we need is trust. Trust that in the secret things he knows what he is doing without even when we don’t know exactly what he’s doing; and trust in the revealed things that he knows what he is doing and so we can obey what he has commanded.
We often want God to give us directional guidance; but in many of the directional questions in life he wants us to be guided by the general principles in his word but as far as the specifics, he just wants us to make a decision and trust him with the results;
Because in many of those directional things God gives freedom; and most of the guidance God gives in his word isn’t directional but it’s ethical – and whereas in the directional things – he wants us to trust him enough to make a decision in freedom; in the ethical things he wants us to trust him enough to obey him.
Or, we want God to give us his secret will of why he decrees what he does or providentially rules over our lives as he does; and he has told us some general truths that he rules for his glory and our good, but he doesn’t give us the specifics of why he brings each and every thing into our lives and how he uses them towards those ends.
In those things he hasn’t revealed, we need to trust him – that he knows what he’s doing.
In those things he has revealed – we need to trust his word, and obey it.
And the problem often isn’t that God hasn’t spoken but that we don’t always like what God has to say!
This extraordinary pursuit of God’s voice doesn’t give you the certainty that you were seeking.
The same that’s true for if we set up a fleece is true for if we seek to hear God’s voice through some internal whisper or audible voice – was that God or just my own thoughts? Did anyone else hear that? Am I losing it?
God speaking in an audible voice is more rare in scripture than we often assume: normally God spoke to his people through the words of God’s specially appointed messengers (prophets & apostles) and that’s why we believe God’s word to us is contained in the Old & New Testaments – the OT being the collected writings of the prophets and and the NT being the collected writings of the apostles & their close companions – because that’s what Jesus believed about the OT prophets and that’s what Jesus promised to the NT apostles.
The same is true in seeking God’s word through circumstances – I certainly think that God guides and leads his people through the circumstances of life. But, those circumstances by themselves are not self-interpreting; and the way we interpret those circumstances and how God is guiding us is by examining them through the lens of God’s revealed truth in his word.
For example: God gives you an open door. But is that open door a God-given opportunity or a temptation by which he is testing you which ought to be resisted?
It’s not self-interpreting and it only provides guidance to the degree that it’s examined through the lens of God’s word.
And as we look back on God’s providence we see how God led and guided us as though with his very hand upon our lives; but as we look forward, we can only look to the word of God as the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path.
Recognizing that God speaks to us through the ordinary means of his Word brings God’s word nearer to us, than any other way.
That’s the point of the text in Dt 30
The whole book of Deuteronomy is about listening to God’s voice and hearing and heeding his words.
And the point of this text, is that we can do that because God’s word is accessible to us. It’s not hidden away; it’s not far away; it’s right there for you to hear; and the way you hear God’s voice, is by reading God’s word.
And as you read what God the truth that God has revealed in his word, the Holy Spirit illumines that truth to your heart and mind.
God isn’t still revealing his word. It’s already revealed, written down, contained in scripture so that it isn’t spoken and then as soon as it is spoken it disappears into thin air such that it’s not there anymore for you to hear again.
It’s written down; it’s contained. God isn’t still revealing; but he is still speaking in as much as he is shining his flashlight on his word so that is hits home to your mind and heart and life in a personal way.
God’s word is there for you always. It’s always right there for you to hear;
you don’t have to ascend into heaven to hear it; you don’t have to cross the sea to hear it;
But God has stooped down to speak to you and bent over backwards to make his word readily available to you; such that if you don’t hear, it’s your fault for not listening.
Think how accessible God’s word is. Most of us have every english translation of the bible right in our pocket! Most of us have multiple bibles in our homes. If you don’t have one, we have a free bible for you to take with you.
You have God’s word, in your own language. And not every child of God has that incomparable privilege and prays for that. You don’t need to learn another language to read God’s word; you don’t need to learn ancient Hebrew or Greek – praise God – trust me – praise God right now for that reality.
But even though it’s so accessible; why’s it so hard to crack open?
If God has spoken, we must listen. We must turn our ears; we must strain them to hear; we must seek to understand.
The degree to which you listen to someone’s words is, to some degree, a reflection of your view of that person.
Because, when someone is important to you, their words are important to you.
Think about when, if you’re married, you first started dating your wife – she probably thought you were a good listener then!
If you love someone, you love their words too.
The Bible is the word of God. This is God speaking to you.
How you respond to God’s word is inseparable from how you respond to God – and how you listen to the Bible reveals how significant God is to you.
In fact, scripture talks about itself in nearly idolatrous ways – in ways that would be idolatrous if there wasn’t such a close inseparable connection between God’s word and God himself.
All throughout Bible – close connection between God and his word – such that, God’s word is identified with him and due the same honor and worship that he is due –
God’s word is inseparable from him – an extension of him because it is a reflection of his character and his will – such that when we are confronted with God’s word, we are confronted with God himself.
If you told your child to pick up their toys, and they didn’t listen, and you asked them why they ignored you. Imagine if they say, “Oh no mommy, I didn’t ignore you, I just ignored your words.”
That wouldn’t fly. You may be impressed with their growing ability at attempting to weasel out of things, but it wouldn’t fly.
Around the house, one of the things I often say is: “can anyone hear my voice?”; and I say that in frustration after repeating myself over and over and over again with it having absolutely zero effect on my children.
And that’s frustrating when my words have no effect but woe to us if we let that be true of God’s word. Redeemer Church, let’s listen to God’s voice.
- Read the Word for breadth
Every January you hear about all the latest and greatest bible reading plans. Here’s my opinion:
The best bible reading plan is: Just read your bible in whatever way works for you to actually read it.
Ok maybe it can help to have more specific goals and plans but just read your bible. Read it like you’d read a book.
And it’s ok if you’re goal is to just read it. to Just learn more of God’s word – to know the content of it; to know what’s in it;
You know, it’s ok if you don’t find some deep spiritual meaning every time you read your bible;
In fact, I try to avoid the language of “quiet time” or “devotions” – it’s really fine if you want to use that language but I don’t like to because of the hyper-spiritualized ideas of these things – and I wonder if one of the reasons we avoid our bibles is because we think that every time we read them, we need to discover some deep hidden spiritual truth that we never knew before but that’s not realistic; or that’s guilt inducing when it doesn’t happen!
Because, if your expectation is something that probably won’t happen, then that expectation is a de-motivator.
And that’s great if it happens; but it’s also ok if you’re just reminded of something simple about God that you already knew; or if you’re just oriented towards God that day in a way that you wouldn’t be otherwise; or if you were helped in prayer because of what you read.
But as you read your bible for breadth, something different will happen: there may not be an immediate pay-off but there will be benefit over the long-term of ingraining the Word into your mind and knowing the big-picture and larger connections of it.
2. Read the Word for depth
If reading for breadth is surveying the land; reading fro depth is digging for diamonds.
Spend time studying portions of God’s word in a deeper way. Meditate on a psalm or a rich text of the NT.
Pick a book of the bible that you read over and over.
Maybe read a book alongside that which explains a theme in scripture or a book of the bible and it’s main message.
If God is God, then we will never reach the bottom of the depths of what we can know about him, and what we can love in him.
And if you want to love God deeper, then you need to know him more, because you can’t love what you don’t know.
Community Groups are a great way to help you read God’s word for depth: in community groups, you have a skilled leader who has spend a lot of time preparing and studying and a group of other Christians who can also offer their insights and perspectives and, who can not only help you learn from God’s word in a deeper way, but also who can help you learn how to learn from God’s word in a deeper way.
3. Read the Word devotionally
As you read it, be aware of God’s voice in it and of God’s presence with you by his Spirit.
As you read it, reflect, meditate, pray over what you read.
Ask yourself questions like this:
What can I learn about God’s character?
What can I learn about what God has done for me?
What can I learn about God’s promises?
What can I learn about my own sinfulness and God’s grace to me?
What can I learn about how God wants me to live and witness?
How do I need to change in order to more reflect Jesus in my life?
4. Read the Word for later
Meditate on God’s word even in times when you’re not reading God’s word.
Memorize portions of God’s word – “hide it away in your heart” for tomorrow – for when a trying time comes; for when temptation catches you off guard; for when suffering comes and tempts you to hopelessness let God’s word be in your mind and heart to keep hope alive in you.
5. Read the Word to do it
On of the great dangers about approaching the bible is the temptation to read it, but to forget to do it. To live it out. To build your life on it.
James warns us to be doers of the word, not just hearers of it;
Jesus warns us that the difference between the wise and foolish builder isn’t that one hears God’s word and the other doesn’t; its that one does God’s word and the other doesn’t.
Because the bible wasn’t given just for our information; but for our transformation: to shape us into the image of Jesus.
And so doing God’s word includes those times when we consciously choose to obey, and when we simply seek to conform who we are – mind heart and will – to the blueprint of Jesus that we find in scripture.
If you’re building something, chances are that building project will go better if you have a clear blueprint of what the final product should look like.
If you’re cooking something, chances are that that cooking project will go better if you have a recipe to get you to the finished product.
The gospel is God’s renovation work of the human soul. And growing in grace is about becoming more like the final product of what God wants to make us into – the renewal of his image in us – the character of Jesus.
And if we want our lives to become more like Jesus – we have to have a blueprint – a recipe – of what that finished product looks like.
we have to know the mold of what God wants to shape our lives into. And we get that in God’s word.
Let’s try to get more of God’s word into our minds and hearts so that we can more fully reflect the character and love of Jesus – the perfect image of God in humanity.