SUNDAY 29th
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 ‘ And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, TO WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS, to love him, to serve the Lord your God will all your heart and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?’
Around the beginning of September last year, I purchased a two-volume set of books, ‘A Legacy of Preaching’ which looks at the life, theology, and method of history’s great preachers. I commenced reading the first volume the week that I first came up to Gateshead to preach at the Church over the weekend in September. Those who were there may remember that I quoted from the book from Origen of Alexandria that ‘he compared his preaching to a small ship within the vast ocean of God’s revelation.’ Well, last week I finally finished volume one, not because I’m a slow reader but because it has been one of many books that I have been making my way through. But it was the final chapter that has prompted me to bring the Daily Devotions for this week.
The final chapter was on the preaching ministry of George Whitefield who lived 1714-1770 and who is considered as one of the greatest preachers of all time. He was a contemporary of John and Charles Wesley.
In this particular chapter it mentions one of the sermons he had practised preaching, it doesn’t give the sermon but the headings within it – I was immediately struck by the fact that it had seven headings, but then struck by what the headings were and thought this would be a good skeleton for which I can put flesh on during this week. So, I am not pinching his sermon, just borrowing his outline!
The theme was ‘How true salvation demonstrates itself in the life of a person who is “walking with God.”’
It’s a great subject and no matter how long we may have been on our Christian pilgrimage it is good for us to check out how our ‘walk with God’ is doing. And perhaps even more so at this time when we are not able to come together in fellowship.
So, this week I will venture to cover this vast subject in a small way.
Whitefield’s seven points were:
First, believers walk with God by reading his Word
Second, believers walk with God by secret prayer
Third, believers walk with God by meditation on the Word of God
Fourth, believers walk with God by observing his providential work in the circumstances of their lives
Fifth, believers walk with God by watching the work of the Spirit in their lives
Six, Believers walk with God through consistent worship
Seven, believers walk with God through consistent fellowship with other believers
At first we probably think looking at this list how obvious the points are but in actuality the living it out can sometimes be more difficult, My prayer this week will be that during this week our walk with God will become more real and intimate as we learn to keep in step with the Spirit.
For today and only briefly – Point 1: Believers walk with God by reading his word. This will be linked with Tuesday’s devotion to his third point of meditating on the Word of God. The last sermon I preached before we had to temporarily close was based on Psalm 19 with the question, how much do we value the Word of God? (John Armstrong spoke to me afterward and said that I needed to type the sermon out and make it available to be read. So, I have done this and will add it on emmanuelpentecostalchurchgateshead.wordpress.com)
If we claim to be walking with God, then we should love, respect and value his Word. Just as we have a need to eat food for our physical bodies everyday to enable us to function, so we also have the need to have spiritual food for our souls every day to keep us spiritually strengthened and renewed. At first when we are saved it is the milk of God’s Word, but as we grow more spiritually, we need the stronger meat. (1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Hebrews 6:11-14, 1 Peter 2:2) The Psalmist reminds us time and time again of the importance of God’s word in our lives, the whole of Psalm 119 is full of references to it, for example see verses 1, 9, 17, 74, 89, 103, 105, 111, 129, 160, 162. In fact, it’s a good spiritual exercise to go through this Psalm and see all the different references and the way the Word is described. And David had so much less of God’s Word than we have today, but what he had was no less important then what the Word is to us today.
This has already turned into a lengthy devotion, its difficult to keep them short! But I pray that the challenge is there for each one of us to realise that in our daily walk with God we need to have a daily intake of his Word. It is our spiritual nourishment.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
J.H. Sammis CCLI 788682
Psalm 19:7-11
How much do we value the Word of God?
How strongly do we agree with this statement?
‘The Bible is and must be our final authority in all matters concerning our lives and faith.’
Although the Bible is the best-selling book, it is possibly the most neglected. Most definitely among unbelievers but the challenge for us who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is this; how neglected is the Bible in our lives? How often do we read it – REALLY read it and live according to it?
I guess the value we place on the Word of God is governed by how important we think it is and whether we agree and accept what the Bible says about itself.
Hebrews 4:12 ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’
2 Timothy 3:14-17 ‘But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.’
If it is from God, then because amongst other things God is truth, true in who he is and in what he says then the Bible is also true. Jesus himself said in his High Priestly prayer, ‘Sanctify them in the truth; YOUR WORD IS TRUTH.’ (John 17:17) So this book which we should value is a book of truth.
A problem today is that we are living in a post-modern, or even a pagan society. Within society there seems to be no room for absolutes – we can believe whatever we like and what I believe can be the opposite to what someone else believes and yet we can both be right. What you see is truth in your eyes, what I see is truth in my eyes. Actually when it comes to faith, the situation is serious, for we have seen in society a complete switch in what is believed to be right or wrong, some things that a very high percentage of the population would have seen as wrong 40 years ago are now considered right today, so much so that those of us who seek to cling to truth and say that what once was wrong cannot be right today and cannot ever be considered right are being marginalized. In other words, clinging to absolute truths and that which is right according to Gods Word as our standard, means we will face opposition. But we must stand firm, for truth and for right and for righteousness, for in such things wrong can never become right and right can never become wrong. Truth is unchangeable. Why is this happening?
One answer I suggest is that we seem to be living in an atheistic age – no one believes in God – BUT, maybe it is more likely that we are living in an age of IGNORANCE towards God. In the UK we have shifted from being a Christian nation to a secular nation. We have moved away from our Judeo-Christian heritage. We have in the last 100 years gone from ‘most would attend a Church or Chapel’ to just a minority now ‘attending a Church or a Chapel.’
Whether God exists or not doesn’t seem to matter, it’s a case of eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. It is as if the conclusion society today has come to is this; ‘So what, we are born, we live, we die and that is it.’
Where does this ignorance come from? I read a quote which I marked down from author Clark. H Pinnock which he said in 1984. ‘. . a rebelliousness in the modern period that seeks to edge God out of the world and leave humanity autonomous in it. . .’ This is exactly what has happened. Secularism, the pursuit of self, pleasure, leisure and other things we could identify have helped cause this to happen. We have plenty of things to fill up or lives and satisfy us, we don’t need God. But, one reason why this has happened is that the world’s best-selling book HAS become the most neglected. Society wants to do its own thing, ‘we don’t want God and we don’t want his book.’
God, his laws, his ways – holiness, righteousness, purity, morality etc. no longer suit mankind. WE WILL DO IT OUR WAY. We will do what we like, live how we want, say what we like, believe what we like, act how we like because at the end of the day there are no consequences. BUT HOW WRONG society is.
Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 say the same thing: ‘The FOOL says in his heart there is no God.’ But the Psalms also continue ‘They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds: there is none who does good, not even one.’ If the fool, (as the Bible puts it)that is the unbelieving world says ‘there is no God’, and thinks this way does it matter? YES, YES, YES! Why? Because a denial of the existence of God doesn’t do away with his existence! HE IS STILL THERE, HE IS STILL GOD, therefore he will still do all that he has declared and decreed and sadly for those who have chosen to deny and reject him the consequences are awful, for not only is God real, so is Hell!
The problem that springs from modern society and its rejection of God and the Bible is this: It has led to a total breakdown in society because mankind no longer lives as God intended him to live.
Corrupt hearts without God leads to a corrupt society and the Bible and its authority becomes relevant to only a few – those who still fear God and seek to live by his Word. But, sadly even within Christendom, the Authority and Standards of Gods Word are being brushed aside. Just as Satan said to Eve, ‘Did God say.’ So called believers are also challenging what ‘God has said’ in Scripture. It is not only individuals, but whole denominations and Christian organisations are challenging ‘what God has said’ in Scripture, therefore if in some areas of Christendom there is a low view of Scripture and its authority is it no wonder the world, society, unbelievers don’t care?
But I (and I trust we in Emmanuel Pentecostal Church) still hold Scripture in high regard as the infallible Word of God and as the ultimate authority for who we are, what we are and what we believe.
This Book (The Bible) must be our final authority in truth, doctrine, faith and practise – EVEN IF IT STANDS OPPOSED TO WHAT SOCITY SAYS!
It must be our final authority in ETHICS, MORALITY and on every matter to which it contains, there are two phrases used: Moral authority – What God commands I do and Veracious authority – What God says I believe.
Did God say? Yes, and what he has said has been miraculously recorded and preserved for us today in this book we call the Holy Bible 2 Peter 1:20-21’ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ Interestingly the lack of trust and belief in the authority of Scripture was already happening in Peters day for later in the same epistle he writes ‘. . . as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.’ (2 Peter 3:16) and then in verses 17-18: ‘You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.’ May we never distort Scripture to say what we want it to be saying, but always be faithful to that which God has said and is still saying and remind ourselves his Word is unchanging and eternal. 1 Peter 1:22-25 ‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’
When I was preparing these few thoughts, I turned to my on-line library and a message came up saying ‘ONE BOOK NEEDS UPDATING’ it happened to be an update for an on-line Bible to correct it for the digital platform. Can I say that this precious Book, the Word of God does not need updating it is as relevant today as when it was first inspired.
We need a spiritual revival to affect the Church and then society in many ways, we need a revival of the acceptance and belief in the authority of Scripture and we need a revival of practising what the Bible says!