“In Thy book revealed, I see the Lord.” That is my message for today. You can all go home—or, if you want to wait and eat, we can eat. But I do have a little bit more to say, if you have a little patience.
This morning, it was on my heart to reinforce what our brother Kenny shared last week concerning studying the Word, being in the Word, and having a passion and love for the Word of God.
At our Bible study the other night, we were talking about helps for studying, and someone mentioned that Strong’s Concordance, which is about this big and that thick, was a little bulky to handle. For those who find Strong’s a little big to handle, Nelson has what they call a Quick Reference Bible Concordance. It has most of the key Scriptures that would come to your heart. I take it with me on trips, particularly if I am speaking somewhere else. It is a big help to me.
There are also two computer sites that I use: BibleGateway.com and Crosswalk.com. Just do not pay attention to all the advertisements, the things they want you to buy, and the sermons they want you to read. You can go in there, utilize them easily, and find Scriptures and summaries of things. I find those quite helpful.
There are all kinds of Bibles out there, as Kenny mentioned. One that I use occasionally is a New American Standard Key Word Study Bible. I think Lance recommended this one. The reason it is so good is that, as you read the Word, it has Strong’s numbers beside the words. You can go back and find the Greek or Hebrew interpretation of the word.
This Bible does the same thing. As you read along, you see the little number, and you can go right to the back of the book. The Greek and Hebrew are there, and you do not have to be a Greek expert or a Hebrew expert. It tells you what the word means in Greek or Hebrew and gives you the original meaning. I find that very helpful in studying the Word, and I used it in this study. So I thought I would bring it today and use it.
Those are just a couple of things we find helpful in the study of God’s Word.
Let us pray.
Lord, as we come to Thee today, we are not really looking for a how-to course. We are looking for the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts. Lord, as that song says, “Reveal Thyself in Thy holy Word.” Lord Jesus, we come to Thee that we might learn how to discover Christ.
We ask, Lord, that as I share today, You would give us hearing ears and open eyes, Lord, as only the Holy Spirit can do it. Lord, we are not after a doctrinal dissertation on the Bible, but we want our hearts to be inspired to read Your Word, love Your Word, and discover Christ in Your Word. Lord, make it alive to us today. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let us turn to a few Scriptures as we begin. First, John 5:39.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life;
and it is these that bear witness of Me.
The Scriptures bear witness of Me. You know, the Pharisees were very doctrinally oriented and very legally oriented, and they just could not find Christ when they read the Word. What a great loss. The Scriptures, He says, bear witness of Me.
James 1:21. These are four key verses for what I want to share today.
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
Receive the Word in humility—the Word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
Psalm 119, the one Kenny asked us to read: Psalm 119:10-12.
With all my heart I have sought Thee;
do not let me wander from Thy commandments.
Thy word I have treasured in my heart,
that I may not sin against Thee.
Thy Word have I treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
Acts 17:11. This is another verse that our brother Kenny used. I am going to read a few verses beyond that.
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things that Paul had spoken were so.
And many of them therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they also came there likewise, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
As we have considered this matter of studying the Bible together every other Friday night, our heart is that the Lord would teach us to love His Word, enter into His Word, and search His Word—that we might find Christ, follow Christ, see what is on the Lord’s heart, and enter into His purpose for our lives in the hour in which we live.
Fundamentally, our heart is that we might follow Christ. This Word that God has given to us is a guidebook, and it leads us to Christ. As the song said, it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. That is why it is so important.
I thank the Lord for Martin Luther. Often we think he was the main focal point of the Reformation. Actually, his greatest work was not the theses that he nailed to the door of the Catholic Church. His greatest work, brothers and sisters, was that he interpreted the Word of God into the language that the people could understand. For the first time, they were able to receive the Word of God themselves and study the Word for themselves.
It is the guidebook to Christ. I believe that is why God gave it to us. The Father wants us to see Christ—Who He is in fullness. He has given us these various brothers and prophets, and we see Scripture in many forms: some in poetry, some in prose. It is all that we might discover Who the Lord Jesus is.
In Psalm 119:105—it says:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
The pathway of life leads to Christ, brothers and sisters, and He has given us the Word for that purpose. The purpose of the Word of God is to reveal Christ.
In John 5:39, which I just read, He says:
You search the Scriptures;
for in them you think you have eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, we do find eternal life in the Scriptures, and they are they which testify of Me. Somehow, they read the Scriptures but missed Christ.
The Scriptures cannot just be handled intellectually. They have to be approached under the anointing of the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, unless you are a Christian, this Word means nothing. It becomes an intellectual study, a theology, good words to live by, so to speak—a philosophy of life.
But under that approach, it never becomes living to you, and it never fundamentally changes your life. We have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to receive Him as Lord and Savior. Then we are given the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and then we can fellowship with God.
In fellowship with Him, when we begin to read the Scriptures, it is revealed to us what God really means them to be.
An example of how important the Scriptures are, even to the Lord Jesus, is found on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:27-45. After the Lord had risen from the dead, He met these two brothers. They began to talk to Him and said, “Have You not heard about all the turmoil in Jerusalem—about how this One whom we thought was going to become king was crucified?”
The Lord began to open the Scriptures to them, those books of the Old Testament. It says that He expounded to them the Scriptures concerning Himself. And you know what it says? It says their hearts burned within them.
Now, brothers and sisters, if we are studying the Bible and our hearts are not burning, that should signal to us, “Hey, I am just reading here.” As we read the Bible, our hearts should be stirred.
Later, as He broke bread with them, He opened their eyes to see Whom the Scriptures were talking about. In other words, it took an act of God for them to see what the Scriptures were really talking about. They were talking about Jesus Christ.
The Lord did not have to go back to the Scriptures. He could have simply said, “I am the Lord Jesus. I am the One. Do you not recognize Me?” But He did not do that. It was important to the Lord that they saw from the Scriptures, from God’s Word, that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lamb of God.
In John 5:46, the Lord Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, and He says:
If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me;
for he wrote of Me.
But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe My words?
In other words, He is saying to them, “You should have been able to see Me in the Word of God. If you really knew the Word of God, if God had really spoken to you in the Word, then you would have recognized Who I am. These words really speak of Me.”
He is exhorting the Pharisees: “You did not believe the Word. You do not believe the Scriptures. You are not going to believe Me standing here talking to you.”
I remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus died, and the rich man also died. One was in paradise and one was in Hades. Lazarus was in paradise, in the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man saw Lazarus and said, “Father Abraham, I am burning here. Can You not just give me water to touch my tongue? It is so tormenting here where I am, and I see Lazarus enjoying himself in pleasure.”
Then he said, “Would You please raise Lazarus from the dead and send him back to my relatives? Because if one rises from the dead and goes back to talk to them, they will believe and understand there is a heaven and a hell. They will understand that they need Jesus.”
Abraham said, “They did not believe the Word, the Scriptures. They will not believe even if one risen from the dead goes and speaks to them.” We would probably want to argue with that a little bit. We might say, “Surely, if somebody they knew was dead rose from the dead and said, ‘Hey, it is real. Jesus is real,’ they would believe.”
But He said no. If they are not able to believe the Scriptures, the Word of God, they will not believe even in that miraculous act.
Brothers and sisters, my heart is that through this we would see the importance God places on His Word, on the Scriptures, and on knowing the Scriptures. The Word says of itself that it is inspired by God. All these writings, both Old Testament and New Testament, are inspired by God.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul said:
You received what I said not as the word of men,
but as it is in truth, the word of God.
Paul was saying, “Yes, I spoke, but it was not my words. It was not the words of man. You received the Word of God as the Word of God, which it really is.”
As we study the Bible and come before the Lord reading it, we need to be impressed in our hearts that this is God speaking to us. We are not just studying a book. These people were able to receive because they took it as the Word of God—God’s Word, not man’s.
Christ is revealed to us through the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God.
As we study the Word, it is important that we be in fellowship with the Lord. If we are out of fellowship with the Lord and trying to search the Scriptures, we will find no enlightenment there.
Praise God, if you are not in fellowship with the Lord and are reading the Scriptures, He may convict you. I am not saying that if you are out of fellowship with the Lord, you should not read the Word. You really should—probably more desperately than ever.
But in truly seeing Christ in the Scriptures, if you really want to know Christ, it is important that we be in fellowship with the Lord. He will speak to us through the Word. In His Word, He reveals His person, Who He is, and His character. In His Word, He reveals His ways.
Brothers and sisters, it is important to know God’s ways. They are different from man’s ways. They are higher than man’s ways. If we try to live by man’s ways instead of God’s ways, we will find ourselves in deep trouble. The Word of God makes His ways known to us.
In Psalm 103:7, it says:
He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel.
Moses was a man of God, and God was able to show Moses not only miraculous acts but, more importantly, His ways. Moses learned the ways of God.
We also learn His purpose and what is on God’s heart. I remember David. He was thinking in his heart, “I want to build the Lord a permanent house. He has been in a tent so long, moving from place to place. I have this heart within me for a permanent place.”
The Lord responded through the prophet and said, “All the way through, I have never shared with anyone that I wanted a permanent place. But go ahead, David, and prepare. You cannot build it, but you prepare, and your son will build this place.”
Of course, brothers and sisters, the temple really speaks of the bride of Christ. It speaks of that heavenly city in Revelation that was on God’s heart. The temple David and Solomon built was only a picture of what was really on God’s heart.
The point is that David loved the Scriptures. David searched the Scriptures. David was a man of God, and God was able to share His heart with him.
We do not reveal our hearts to just anyone, do we? I have seen some people that you run into at McDonald’s, and all of a sudden they are telling you their life story and all their personal stuff. But, for the most part, things deep in our hearts we do not share with everyone.
With those we are close to, those with whom we are in true fellowship, those we trust, and those we know love us, we share our hearts. That is the way the Lord is. He is not going to force Himself upon any of us.
Brothers and sisters, if we respond to His love in love, He will share His heart with us, and we find His heart in His Word.
We can study the Word of God as a textbook, the way we did in school or college. We can look into it trying to get all the facts straight so that we can repeat them back to the teacher or have all the answers on a test. But that is not the way this Book works.
Yes, you can study it as a textbook. There are many theologians out there. I hear them on television, and I see them on television. I am amazed at some of the conclusions they come to.
I remember one man saying, “Christ never said that He was the Son of God.” Well, you know, if you search the Scriptures in a narrow, literal way, He may not have said those exact words. But it was on the testimony that He was the Son of God that He was crucified and put on the cross.
When He was before Pilate, Pilate said, “Art Thou King of the Jews?” And the Lord said, “Thou sayest.” Even on that testimony of Himself—that indeed He was the Son of God—He was crucified.
It takes the Holy Spirit to make the Word of God alive to us. Somebody pointed out in our Friday night meeting about Ed Miller. Whenever you hear Ed Miller speak, the very first thing he shares in the study of the Bible is a principle that should never be forgotten.
What is that principle? Total reliance on the Holy Spirit. That is what our brother Ed Miller shares, and he is absolutely right: total reliance on the Holy Spirit.
John 16:13 says that the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. That is in the Bible. That is in God’s Word. He is letting us know that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and that Spirit is the Spirit of truth and will guide us into all truth.
First John 2:27 says:
The anointing which you have received abides in you.
The same anointing teaches you all things and is truth.
The anointing is within you, and He will teach you as you begin to read the Word. It will make sense to you. You will begin to understand it.
I guess the main point is that studying the Bible is not a mental exercise. It is a spiritual exercise. It has to be a spiritual exercise. It is a living study in the Word.
Brothers and sisters, praise the Lord that when we study His Word, it is not based on our intellect. Aren’t you grateful? If you are like me, I am grateful. If it were based on intellect, those who are poor, those who lack reading skills, and those with lower IQs would struggle. We could not be good Christians if it were based on intellect—but it is not.
What is studying the Word of God based on, brothers and sisters? Two things: your heart, not your intellect.
What does the Word say? If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you shall be filled. A heart hungry and thirsty for the Lord, He will not deny. He will see that you are fed through His Word.
I do not care if your IQ is seventy. He can show you Who He is in His Word. You do not have to have great understandings of Bible theology, brothers and sisters. Thank God. Even to us simple ones, He is able to make His Word living to us, and we can experience Christ.
Secondly, it is not dependent on your reasoning power, but on the Holy Spirit. I know the Holy Spirit speaks to our minds, and we are able to understand and interpret what the Holy Spirit says through our minds. That is the purpose of the mind: to interpret what God is saying through the Spirit.
So it takes a heart, and it takes the Holy Spirit—the two H’s: your heart and the Holy Spirit. Then you can study His Word, and you can receive much revelation of Jesus Christ in His Word.
The Holy Spirit is the One who leads us into all truth, and the truth we are studying reveals Christ. So the Holy Spirit always leads us to Christ, and Christ leads us to the Father.
Do you want to know God? You are going to have to know Christ. Do you want to know Christ? Then you are going to have to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the way the Godhead works.
Once we seek to know the Lord in the Scriptures and have made Jesus our Lord and Savior, the natural desire is to become His disciple and follow Him. But we find something further has to happen in our lives in order to follow the Lord. Our lives have to be transformed.
Romans 12:2 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that, with unveiled faces, we are being transformed into His likeness. A transformation has to take place in our lives. Our souls have to be transformed.
That brings me to my second main Scripture, James 1:21:
With meekness receive the engrafted word,
which is able to save your souls.
The version I had says, “With humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” I think this is interesting because James is not speaking to unsaved people. James is speaking to Christians.
Why would he say, “You need to receive the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls,” if they are already saved?
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, we discover that we are a three-part man:
May the God of peace sanctify you wholly—spirit, soul, and body—that you may be complete.
God’s salvation, brothers and sisters, is much broader than we normally think. It includes spirit, soul, and body.
When we accept Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and quickens our dead spirit—our spirit that was dead toward God through sin and trespasses. He quickens it, and our spirit is made alive. We are able to commune with God. That is what we normally refer to as a salvation experience.
We have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit has come to quicken our dead spirit. It was not dead in the sense that it was annihilated; it was dead toward God and unable to commune with God. Now we are able to commune with God.
Colossians 2:13 says:
And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
That is a glorious day, brothers and sisters, when your sins are forgiven and you are put back into contact with God, your Creator, and have a living relationship with Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit. That is salvation as we normally think of it when we ask Christ into our hearts.
That is salvation, but it is not the complete salvation God has in mind. The Word also speaks of the day in which we will receive glorified bodies.
Remember the Lord Jesus Christ when He rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples. He said, “Look. Touch the scars in My hands and My side.” He even ate some fish, and yet He could appear and disappear. He could go right through the wall. He had a glorified body.
Brothers and sisters, one day we too will be raised and quickened in a moment, and we will have a glorified body. That is something to be thankful for.
I am now sixty-three years old, and I have found that my body is quickly deteriorating. We found cancer a few years ago. Praise the Lord, that has been taken care of. But your body is just not going to make it.
God has made provision for salvation of the body. It will be a new body, but obviously one similar in nature to what you have, because you could still see the wounds there. Yet it could appear and disappear here and there in an instant.
Just think about it. I could go see my son in California in less than a second, in the twinkling of an eye, with a glorified body. That is salvation of the body.
The salvation of your spirit is past. When you accepted Jesus Christ, it was done, and it is done forever. You will never lose that. You might get out of communication with the Lord through sin, but if you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive you, and that communication can be restored. Your spirit will not be made dead.
Your spirit can get very depressed because you are out of fellowship with the Lord. But, brothers and sisters, thank God, the Holy Spirit will always be there. We have a lot to be thankful for. One day even our bodies will come into that full salvation God intended.
Romans 8:23 says:
We groan within, waiting eagerly for the adoption as sons,
the redemption of our body.
First Corinthians 15:51-54 speaks of putting off this corruptible and putting on the incorruptible. That includes our body. Praise the Lord for that salvation.
But what of our soul? Our soul is coming into its full salvation today. Truly, because we have the Lord Jesus Christ, our soul will never be obliterated. But our soul does need to come into the salvation God intends for us. We find in the Word of God that it is really a process.
Mark 8:34-36 says:
Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever will lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.
If you look in the Greek, you see that the word translated “life” there is the same word used for “soul.” Really, in the Greek, it is a double word: soul-life—the life of the soul.
So let me reread it: “Whosoever will save the life of his soul shall lose it; but whosoever will lose the life of his soul for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.” Now, that could be a bit confusing.
The enemy seems to struggle anytime I touch the self-life. He does not want us to touch the self-life. He wants us to leave it alone.
Our soul is energized by this life, and in the Bible it is referred to as the self-life. In other places, it is referred to as the life of the flesh. John 3:6 says:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Flesh and spirit. There are two births that we must experience. First, in order to be physically alive, we must experience our physical birth through our parents. Second, in order to be spiritually alive, we must be born again, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus came to the Lord and asked what he could do to enter the kingdom of heaven. He was really asking, “Is there something further I can do in my life to make myself better? Is there something I need to learn?” And the Lord said, “You must be born again.”
It is the second birth, brothers and sisters—born of the Spirit. Not only must we be born of the flesh, which we are through our parents, but the flesh is defiled and corrupted through sin. Now we need a spiritual birth. We need a new creation in us.
When we accept Christ, another life comes within our soul. Now we find that we have two lives. We have that natural self-life, which knows a lot and lives by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It lives based on its knowledge and abilities, which may be great.
But we also now have the life of Christ within us. The salvation of the soul is to bring us into the place where we are fully dependent on the life of Christ and not dependent on the self-life.
That is why the Word of God says that if you are going to follow Him, if you are going to be His disciple, you have to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Him. It is no use trying to follow Him if you are unwilling to deny yourself and take up the cross.
Denying self, brothers and sisters, is not deciding to deny yourself things. When I had this hiatal hernia and thought I had a heart attack, I began to deny myself foods that I like, and as much food as I normally like. That has helped me, but that is not the denying of self the Lord is talking about here.
Denying self is, first, recognizing that you have a self-life that energizes your soul, and then denying it. You say, “No, it has been done away with. It has been crucified in Christ.” That is the scriptural ground for your stand in Christ. That old self-life has been crucified in Christ.
I am going to leave it there. I do not recognize it when it raises its ugly head to try to control my life and tell me what to do. I am simply not going to recognize it. I am going to deny it.
The old self-life comes up and says, “Hey, Jerry.” And you say, “Well, who is Jerry? Are you talking about Jerry, the old man, or Jerry in Christ? Jerry, the old man, I no longer recognize. I do not want to have anything to do with him.” That is denying self.
Let me share it this way. I tried to come up with an illustration that would stick and help us on this matter of the salvation of the soul. Your soul is like a room that has a light fixture in it—the kind that holds the bulbs. In that fixture, there are two sockets.
When you are born of your parents, there is a light bulb in one of those sockets. Call it a yellow light, just to make it different. It is the life that comes from your parents. It is a faulty life. It is the life of the flesh. It is the self-life.
But it does burn bright, and it does give you light. Through it, you learn how to live the best you can and do the best you can. It is based on the things you learn and the way you are brought up. It is based on many things. It lights your way, and you are used to it, depend on it, and love that light. You do not know how much you love that light.
But when you accept Jesus Christ, a new light bulb is put in the other socket. That socket was there—it is your spirit—but it was dead toward God. As soon as the light comes into it, it is alive to God. It is a pure light, a bright light, a holy light, a righteous light.
That light comes from the life of Christ. Remember, John says:
In Him was life;
and the life was the light of men.
The light we are used to living by is the light the self-life has gained through knowledge. But the light that we must learn to depend on and live by is the light that comes from the life of God—from that other light bulb.
Now, the only way I can make this work is to have a dimmer switch on both lights. Maybe an electrician can work it up for us.
Basically, as you begin to deny self and take up the cross, you are doing two things. Denying self means, “I do not recognize this person anymore.” Taking up the cross means, “Not the will of the old life, but, Lord, Thy will be done.” That is really the cross: not my will, but Thy will.
When those two things take place, you are taking the dimmer switch and turning down that old yellow light a notch or two. In turn, you are turning up the other light a notch or two, and it becomes brighter.
This is the process, brothers and sisters, of the salvation of the soul. It will go on all our lives as long as we live here. But praise the Lord, one day that process will be completed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will come into His full salvation.
The Lord wants us to come into that salvation now. As you read these Scriptures, you begin to see that they are connected with the kingdom of God. Every time He talks about denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him, it is followed by this issue of the kingdom of God.
In other words, He is saying, “Do you want to be ready to reign and rule with Me for a thousand years?” In order to qualify to reign and rule with Him during the millennium, there has to be a transformation in your soul. There has to be salvation of your soul.
To what extent that is required of us, only the Lord knows. My belief is that it will be based on what God has revealed to you. If you walk in what God has revealed to you, then I believe you will be qualified. To whom much is given, much is required. The more Christ has revealed Himself to you, the more He is expecting.
The Scripture in James says that we are to receive the implanted Word, or engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls. Now that we understand what James is talking about, you can see how important the Word of God is to you.
In the Greek, the word for “implanted” or “engrafted” has a very interesting meaning. It means breathed upon. It means germinate. It means grow. In other words, it is the living Word.
The Word has to germinate in you as you read and study. The Holy Spirit makes it alive. He breathes that Word upon you, and it becomes alive and real. If we walk in that Word, then our souls will be transformed into the image of Christ. Our souls will enter into the salvation of God.
But, brothers and sisters, it does require that we walk in it. Sometimes the Lord touches our hearts with His Word, and a week or two later we find that we are not really walking in what the Lord has shown us. Therefore, our souls have not yet come into that transformation work.
James 1:22 says that we are not to be merely hearers of the Word but doers of the Word. To enter into the salvation of the soul that James is talking about, you have to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer.
It is not enough simply to have the Word made alive to you. You have to walk in that living Word.
Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is quick, powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder soul and spirit. What does this have to do with the salvation of our soul?
Here is the problem: the self-life. Once you become a Christian, you want to be the best. There should be something in your heart that says, “Lord, I want to be like You. I want to serve You.” Immediately, the self says, “Hey, I can do that.”
That old self-life says, “I can do that,” and it will strive to do that. It will strive to be good. Let me tell you something: that self-life can be good. It can be pious. It can be righteous. But it is still fundamentally self-centered. It is all about self.
As we worship, sing songs, pray together, walk in our daily lives, and try to hear from the Holy Spirit and live our Christian lives, it is almost impossible to distinguish what is coming out of your self-life and what is coming from the Spirit. They can be that intermingled.
But the Lord has provision. He says the Word of God is powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. As you are in His Word, or as His Word comes to you in daily life, the Holy Spirit will come along and say, “You thought that was spirit, Jerry, but that was really the flesh. That was really you.”
The best example I have is Jessie Penn-Lewis, because I respect that sister so much. She really learned the ways of the cross and denying self. But one night she was awakened, and there was a great light in her room. In a vision, a great light was shining upon all her work that she had done for Christ.
All of her work was filthy. She was very distraught and said, “But Lord, I have consecrated myself to Thee. I have given my life to Thee. Now You are telling me all the work I have done for You is filthy.”
The Lord said, “It was consecrated self that was doing that work, not My life in you.”
Brothers and sisters, I respect Jessie Penn-Lewis. She had such a heart for the Lord. It just goes to show that we are not always as spiritual as we think we are.
We really have to trust the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. You cannot figure it out. You cannot analyze whether something is of self or of the Spirit. You must let the Lord show you and enlighten you.
The picture in the Word of God is laying yourself on the altar. That is all you can do. Present yourself to the Lord and say, “Lord, You have to show me. You have to do it.”
Do not get hung up trying to say, “Was that flesh or not?” The Holy Spirit will let you know, but you have to be willing to hear Him. This is the way in which we are transformed.
I have two warnings. I will try to make this quick.
The first warning concerns the consequences of not knowing His Word and not entering into His Word. One of the most spiritual men I know of fell into that trap, and that was David.
When David finally captured Jerusalem, the first thing he wanted to do was go and get the ark. We have to remember that the ark represents the very presence of God. It represents all the work of God and the presence of God. In other words, it represents Christ.
The ark was critical and essential to the life of Israel and to spiritual worship. Yet it had been captured by the Philistines. Israel had gone into battle with them and was losing. They said, “Let us go get the ark out of the tent. As soon as we bring it out here, we will win.”
They were using God as a magic cure, a charm. “All I have to do is say the name of the Lord, and everything will be all right.” Well, they brought it out, they were slaughtered, and the ark was taken.
The ark was with the Philistines for seven months, and all they got from it was boils, plagues, and diseases. After seven months they said, “We cannot keep that ark here any longer, but we cannot destroy it either. There is no telling what the God of Israel might do to us.”
They put it on a newly made ox cart, using oxen that had never been under the yoke, and sent it on the road. It went right back to Israel.
God always looks after His testimony, even when men fail.
The ark was placed in the house of Obed-edom, and it was there for twenty years. Saul never sought after the ark. He did not care. But David did. He knew it represented the presence of God. He loved the presence of God and wanted the ark in its proper place in Jerusalem.
He built a tent for it until the temple could be built. Then he got thirty thousand of his best men and went to get the ark. It was a big deal.
I can imagine David saying, “Look, we need to go get the ark. We need the ark, guys. We need it in our midst.” And they said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are we going to get it?” Someone may have said, “Does it really matter how we get it, as long as we get it here?”
Someone might have said, “When the Philistines wanted to send the ark back, they built a new ox cart, got oxen, put the ark on the cart, and miraculously the Lord led those oxen right back to us. Surely that must be the Lord’s way.” I do not know whether that conversation happened, brothers and sisters, but that is the way they decided to bring it back.
They built a new ox cart, put the ark on it, and began bringing it back. On the way, the cart got in a rut or off the road, and the ark began to tilt. Uzzah reached up and touched the ark to steady it. When he did, he was struck dead by God.
David was at a total loss. In fact, the Word says he got angry at God because of this breach.
This is a great lesson, brothers and sisters—two principles, really. The ox cart represented the way of the Philistines. David was using man’s way instead of God’s way. It was man’s idea to use an ox cart to bring up the ark.
God had allowed the Philistines to send it that way, but the Philistines were not His people. Israel was. Israel should have known God’s way. It was not the way of man, and it was not the way of the Philistines.
The other principle is found in Uzzah reaching up to steady the ark. The hand of the flesh can never enter into the work of God—the work of Christ. The hand of the flesh should never touch it.
The ark represents Christ, His character, and His work on Calvary. Anytime man, with his own self, alters the work of God or tries to diminish the character of Christ in any way, it is the hand of the flesh, and it always brings death. That is the principle.
As harsh as it may seem, David’s heart was pure. David’s heart was right in bringing up the ark, but he did not use God’s way. He allowed the hand of the flesh to touch the ark.
For three months David did nothing. But after three months he called his men together. The Scriptures are 1 Chronicles 15:13, 15. He said, “I want the Levites to consecrate themselves, because they are the ones who should be carrying the ark. They should carry it with poles, with the ark on their shoulders.”
David had been angry at God, but thank the Lord that he calmed down enough to begin searching the Word of God. He was a man of the Word, but for some reason he had missed this. In his excitement and the stirring up of his own soul at the thought of getting the ark, he had missed the way of God.
He went back to the Word. Exodus 25:13-15 says that the Levites were the ones who should carry the ark, and Numbers 4:5-6 says that the ark had to be carried on poles. The ark had rings in it; they slipped the poles through them and placed it on their shoulders.
In other words, Christ has always got to be Head, not man. They had violated God’s principle and God’s way.
Not knowing the Word, brothers and sisters, can be serious. We can suffer serious consequences because we do not know the Word. I do not want to scare anybody, but I do want to say that knowing God’s Word is important, particularly when we are serving the Lord and doing things for Him.
In our service to Him, we have to do it His way. Bottom line: David took action for the Lord, but he failed to search the Scriptures.
The last warning comes from Acts 17:11-13:
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Many of them believed, along with a number of Greek women and men.
But when the Jews found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they came there likewise, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
Brothers and sisters, if we diligently begin to search the Scriptures—and I think the Lord has been trying to show this assembly that we need to diligently search the Scriptures—remember that there is an enemy who does not want you to search the Scriptures.
Not only that, but as we search the Scriptures, the enemy wants to bring in as much mixture as he can. That is what these Jews were doing. They did not deny that Christ was a Savior, but they said that you still had to follow all these Old Testament rules and do all the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
In other words, they were mixing Judaism and Christianity. It was mixture. The enemy always tries to get in because he wants to destroy the effect of the Word of God.
For instance, the Quran is not the Bible, but in the Quran they recognize Jesus as a prophet. But they do not recognize Him as the Son of God. They say there is one God and no Son. That is blasphemy. That is not according to the Scriptures; it is according to their Quran.
It is so close, is it not? If you talk to them, they will say, “Jesus was a great man. He was a prophet of God.” But He was the Son of God. To deny that He is the Son of God affects the character and person of Christ. It is blasphemy.
Another example is infant baptism. I think I was sprinkled as an infant. I have learned that it had no spiritual value. I hope I do not offend anyone.
Baptism is recognizing that, once you have been saved, you agree with Christ that the old man is crucified and that you are raised in newness of life in Christ. It is all about Christ and being in Christ.
You cannot bury a person until he is dead. Until you accept Jesus Christ, there is no way for baptism to be effective. Infant baptism may seem spiritual and right to many people because they want to dedicate their children to the Lord, but eventually it can lead people to say that they do not need Christ dying on the cross for their sins; they only need to be baptized.
It takes away from the work of Christ. Oh, how the Word of God gets twisted.
Another example: I listened to a prominent brother this morning. I have listened to him a number of times. He has a national ministry in the United States. He is on television every Sunday, and the church is packed. It is the largest church in the United States, in Houston, Texas.
I listened to him again this morning because I knew I was going to say something, and I did not want to say something that was untrue. His messages are great. They are encouraging. In fact, he says that his ministry is to encourage the Christian saints.
He uses great illustrations. I believe that if you follow what this brother says, you will be personally helped in your life. You will become a better person. I have no doubt.
But that is exactly what concerns me. He was talking about negative thoughts. His whole sermon was that Christians should not dwell on negative thoughts. That is very true. The Word of God says that whatever things are good, pure, and righteous are the things upon which we should think.
So why is this a concern to me? Through his sermons, he mentions God quite a few times. He brings up Bible Scriptures to make his point. He uses some of the best illustrations I have ever heard. If you follow what he says, you will become a better person.
But there is something very subtle going on here. Christians flock to this ministry by the thousands.
What is the problem? The problem I am having, and the problem that is prevalent throughout Christianity today, is that what it is really doing is making you a better man or woman.
If you follow what our brother says, the old man will become much better. The old man will become much more acceptable. But it is still the old man being cleaned up. It is sanctification by methods.
This week, it happened to be not dwelling on negative thoughts. In older days, I heard this message called the power of positive thinking. It is a substitute for Christ’s work on the cross.
You should not have negative thoughts. You need to remember who you are: you are a Christian. Dwelling on negative thoughts will bring you down. Every morning, you should get up, dwell on the Lord, and think positive thoughts. Throughout the day, when a negative thought comes, you should put it out of your mind. Then you will be a better person.
But there is another way: “Man, I am having all these negative thoughts today. Lord, that is really the self-life. You have told me I need to deny the self-life. Lord, trust in Your life. Depend on Your life for this day. Lord, think about You and what You have done.”
Brothers and sisters, those approaches sound so close, but there is a difference between heaven and hell here. The difference is between building up the old man and making him look better, or allowing the old man to be crucified in your life and depending on and trusting in the life of God.
God has asked us to live very simply: a life of faith, trusting and leaning on Him. When you have negative thoughts, I would encourage you to think, “Hey, Jerry, you are walking in the old man. That is the self-life. The Lord has crucified that. It has nothing to do with Him. I will not have anything to do with this negative-thinking guy either.”
“Thank You, Lord. You have saved me at Calvary. You have crucified the old man that he might be done away with, and I stand in Your work on Calvary’s cross.”
I hope you see the difference. One is man-centered. It builds up the old man. It makes him look better, more pious, more righteous, but it still allows him to live. He will do anything to stay alive. He will memorize Scripture, study the Word, and pray.
The only salvation we have is in the Word of God, allowing the Word of God, as a sword, to divide between these two things.
That is my warning, brothers and sisters. As we read His Word, may the Lord really give us insight into Who Christ is. May He show us what His ways are. May the Lord give us discernment to recognize the difference between the self-life and the Spirit.
Particularly in the hour in which we live, frankly, much of Christianity is not Christ-centered. It speaks of Christ, recognizes Christ, and talks about His Scriptures, but it ends up using one method after another to improve you.
God has said, “Look, I do not want you improved. I want a new creation. I am after that new creation that I have implanted in you. That seed I have put in you is My life, and that seed needs to grow.”
“If you will study My Word and look to Me, I will see that it grows, and I will keep you from being deceived.”
Brothers and sisters, we live in an hour when this becomes vital to our lives. May we be encouraged to study His Word in these days.
Lord, I just come to Thee today. I ask that You would bless, Lord, what was of Thee. Lord, if I have said something that is really not of Thee, just take it from our memories and our hearts.
Lord, we want only Your Word to be manifest in our midst. Lord, we want Your Word to be living and real to us in these days. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.