Reading God's Word - Rev 1:3

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon Arpey Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Please open in your Bibles with me to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1, and we'll just be starting with verse 3 today. And this is the beginning of a different type of series than we've been working through in Philippians. This is a five-week series on how do we use God's Word and we're going to start this morning on how do we read God's Word and what is it and why do we read it. And so we're going to be kind of looking throughout scripture at this, but we're gonna start in Revelation chapter 1 verse 3. That's page 1087 of your Pew Bibles. Revelation chapter 1 verse 3, this is God's Word.

Blessed is he who reads those words, sorry, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God endures forever.

I don't know about you, but I love buffets. I mean, when we moved here and I asked John if we could go out to eat one time and I found out you guys have an entire buffet for nothing but pizza, I thought this is the type of place I need to be. And buffets are something amazing, isn't it?

Because when you go, there's always something that everybody's going to like. If you go to a Chinese restaurant, if you just like rice, you can get three different types of rice. If you like noodles, you can get four different types of noodles. If you like meat, you can get a gajillion options of meat. Buffets are wonderful, because it has a little bit of everything in it.

And if you want healthy, you can do that. But there's also dessert. Well, the scriptures are like that too. The scriptures have something for every one of you that you need and you'll love. If you like history, there's history. If you like poetry, there's poetry. If you like apocalypse and prophecy, there's apocalypse and prophecy. If you want wisdom, you can go to the Scriptures and you can find wisdom. If you want songs, you can turn to the Psalter and you can find songs to sing.

The Scriptures are a buffet of spiritual food for you. And the question is, will you come and eat? Will you be blessed by reading the words of Scripture? That's your call this morning, is be blessed by reading the words of God. And first, before we do that, we need to look at why would we read God's Word? Well, because it's valuable. God's Word is valuable. Point number one, value God's Word.

God's Word in 2 Timothy 3.16-17, it says, God's Word is, all Scripture is God-breathed or given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God might be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Word of God is the Scriptures. The Scriptures are the very breathed-out Word of the maker of the universe.

I don't know about you, but that should give it enough weight by itself. Have you ever received a letter from someone important in your life? I don't know about you, but I've never received a letter from anyone more important than my grandma. But maybe some of you have received a letter from the president. Maybe some of you have received a letter from someone far more important than just a family member.

But what happens a lot of times when somebody who writes a letter to the president and gets a letter back? It's amazing. They start treasuring that letter. And some people will even put it in a frame and put it up on the wall because that letter was written, handwritten to me by the president. You have a handwritten letter from the maker of the universe to you. Are you going to read it? It's valuable.

But the Word of God is like balm at times. Have you ever found yourself downtrodden and disheartened, and you're able to go to those words of Scripture in Romans chapter 8? For all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes." What a balm for your soul that is.

Or in Philippians, when God tells you, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving in your heart, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Don't be anxious. Or when you're worried about what's going on in your life and you remember Jesus talking to you from Matthew chapter 6 where he says, no, no, don't worry. Don't worry about what you're going to wear, what you're going to eat. Look at the birds. They don't sow nor toil nor store up in barns and yet God cares for you, for them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

We get that balm from the scripture that applies, the Holy Spirit applies to our heart. We go to the word and we find here in the word spiritual milk that we long for, don't we? When things are hard or times are good, we've come and we long for it. Have you ever seen a baby animal who really wants to eat? Well, I know some of you have because I've heard your cows mooing in the fields. Those calves long for their mom and they tell their mom, I want to eat, come here, I'm going to find you. That's the way we are to long for God's Word. It's what we get our food from. But it's not just the milk that we drink, it's also the meat that we chew.

Have you ever come to those points in the Scriptures where you're just like, man, I've got to read like four books on this because I don't know what this means. And you've got to chew it over, and it might take you a long time to figure out exactly what this means. Why this matters? Some of you, you know what I'm talking about when you've been through those genealogies and you're chewing through and you're trying to figure out, okay, I know I'm supposed to be eaten.

I'm finding nutrients, but it's hard. Or what about when it's really hard because it's dealing with a sin in your life and you really got to chew on that. It's like milk and like meat, but God's Word is sweeter than honey is what Psalm 19 says. In Ezekiel chapter 3, the angel holds out a scroll to Ezekiel and he says, eat it. And Ezekiel puts the scroll in his mouth and he eats God's words and he says, it went into my belly and became sweet to my mouth.

When I was young we used to every summer go up, or every fall we would go up to this apple orchard up in the mountains. And the apples were great, the cider was great, but there was one thing that they had there that you could only get up at this orchard, and it was local honey. And I remember I would love every time mom and dad would take us up to this apple orchard and they would have honeycomb there. I mean, they just sliced it straight up, honeycomb, and you would, oh. I don't know what was in my parents to let kids just eat straight sugar, but man, chewing on honeycomb and just how sweet it was in the mouth, that's what scripture is like. At a timely time in your life when God gives you that exact word, it's sweet. It is sweet to us.

It's more precious than gold. It's like Psalm 12 says that the word of God is flawless like seven times purified silver. For those of you who are married, do you remember what it was like to go and give your cold hard cash to buy a piece of gold? When you had to go buy your wedding ring, something was more valuable than all the money you had in your pocket because you were going to go buy a gold ring.

God's Word is more valuable than anything else. It's pure. Refined seven times. Something we desire. God's Word is enduring. Matthew 24, 35 says the whole world will pass away. But God's Word will never pass away. God's Word is enduring. This is why after we read the New Testament or the Old Testament, whatever passage we're going to be seeing in the sermon that day, we always say, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 8. Just before that is Isaiah chapter 40, verse 6, where it says, all men are like grass and the flowers of the fields. And they're going to go away. But God's Word is going to endure forever. From generation to generation, it'll always be there. It'll always be true. God's Word is enduring. It's also powerful.

It's powerful to enlighten the eyes and convert sinners. D.L. Moody, the famous preacher in the late 1800s, was in Chicago preaching one time, and there was a drunken man who was walking past the back doors of the church while he was preaching. And on the back wall of that church were written the words, God is love. And the drunkard looked in that door and saw those words, God is love.

And he said, that's a lie. No, he's not. And he tried to walk away. And as he walked away and he kept hearing Moody preach, he didn't really care what Moody was preaching about, but he kept thinking about those words, God is love. And as he kept chewing that over in his mind, and as he kept thinking about that, he eventually walked in the church, sat in the back and started sobbing.

D.L. Moody came up to him, this famous preacher, and he said, well, what's wrong? And he said, well, I'm converted. He said, what do you mean you're converted? What did I say that converted you? He said, oh, you didn't say anything. That said everything. Moody, the famous preacher who saw thousands converted under his ministry, this drunkard showed that it wasn't the preaching of the Word, but it was the Word itself that carries with it the power of God to convert sinners.

So we need to value God's Word. Is it beautiful to you? Do you value God's Word? Is this something you esteem? Is God's Word to you sweet like honey and more precious than gold? Maybe you need a little bit of readjustment for the things you value. But value God's Word.

God's Word will build you up. Point number two, be built up by God's Word. Be built up by God's Word. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Again, all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction, yes, but for training up in righteousness, that you may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Scriptures build us up. Colossians chapter 2 is clear that it's in the Scriptures that we are rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith.

Are you being built up? Are you in God's Word that you would be deeply rooted? Are you in God's Word that you would be like that tree of Psalm 1, where you are being fed constantly by the stream of water that's next to your tree, so you bear fruit and always have green leaves? We're rooted in Him, we're built up in Him through His Word, and it's as we are in His Word that He changes us. to become more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ.

When Jesus is praying for His disciples in His high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, there's a famous verse that Jesus prays about His own disciples to the Father. He says, sanctify them. That means make them holy. Sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is truth. Are you being sanctified? Are you becoming more holy? Are you being built up in the Word, rooted in your faith because of the Word? We must be those who are in the Word. Because it's when we are in the Word that we become more and more like Jesus Christ. And this isn't just for young people. Kids, this is for you, yeah. But for you who are far older than I am, or far more godly than I am, it's also for you.

The famous preacher in the 1700s, George Whitefield, One of the things he did every single day, a practice that he had, is at 4 a.m. every morning, he got up, this is days before alarm clocks, alright, got up at 4 a.m. and read his Bible and prayed for an hour.

This is a man that could quote scripture like the back of his hand, but every day with his Bible reading. Every day in the scriptures, every day, every day, every day. If you're wondering why your Christian life might be stagnant, but your Bible's gathering dust, pick it up. Read the scriptures. Be built up in your faith.

One of the favorite memories I have that I cherish in my mind and in my heart of my grandfather is when we were on vacation with him and seeing this man who's legally blind and can't read the pages of his Bible sitting there with a magnifying glass that seemed like it was this big and he could make out one letter at a time. and straining for an hour to try to read just a few verses, just to get it in. Sometimes straining so hard that he would fall asleep looking through his magnifying glass. Are you straining to see God's Word? Are you reading it? Are you loving it? Are you cherishing it? Are you being built up by it? But God's Word, more than just being something that builds us up, it also is meant to defend you.

Third Point

That's your third point. Defend yourself with God's Word. Defend yourself with God's Word. And the first thing you defend yourself against is you defend yourself against the world. We defend ourselves against the world with God's Word. Ephesians chapter 6 is famous for that set of verses all about putting on the armor of God. And one of the most intricate pieces of the armor of God, everything else is defensive in that armor.

Your helmet, your breastplate, your shield, your shod in your feet. But one of them is offensive. One of them you actually slay with, and that's the sword. Are you grasping the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word? That's what the Scriptures call, again and again, the Word is God's sword. Your sword that He gives you to defend yourself against the world.

Don't be fooled, Christian. Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion, and he seeks to devour you. Are you going to be ready when the attack comes? You're not going to be fighting against flesh and blood, but against evils and principalities and rulers who are not of this world. You need a sword that's not going to be strapped to your side, but that's going to be buried in your heart. You're going to have God's Word to defend yourself when you need it. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 talks about God's Word as being living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. This is your main weapon, Christian.

If you've been struggling with a sin in your life and you just can't root it out, if you've been struggling with melancholy or you've been struggling with just being in your Christian life? You've been struggling with the onslaughts of the world that's pushing against you? Have you taken up the sword of the Lord? Are you in His Word? Are you reading?

See, we're told to be in the world, but not of the world. So if we're in the world, but not of the world, how do we know Where are we supposed to go? Well, God's Word in Psalm 19 tells us His Word is a lamp unto our feet. So His Word is both a sword and a flashlight, a lamp to our feet.

When the snares that the world has set before you, if you've ever been on the internet for more than 10 minutes, you know the world has all sorts of snares and pitfalls waiting for you to try to catch you up in greed, catch you up in lust, turn on your TV, drive down the road and see billboards. You don't have to do much to know that there are people who are marketing specifically to try to get you to slip up. How will you avoid those pitfalls? How will you avoid those snares?

You need to be in His Word. His Word will act as a lamp unto your feet. And when you start going off to the right or to the left, Isaiah is clear to us that the voice will call from behind saying, this is the way. That voice from behind is the voice of Scripture that you've buried in your heart because you've read and you've read and you've read. Are you reading His Word? Are you ready to defend yourself? But there's a different enemy as well. There's someone else you have to defend yourself from.

And you can point that finger right back here. The sword also turns into a scalpel often, when our hearts become callous. When all that sin and that evil and those desires that we wish we didn't have are there, it's the sword that we run to, the scalpel, that will cut through it. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, again, all scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine. And then the hard part, for reproof and correction.

I don't know about you, but there's sometimes when you read your Bible and you read something and you go, man, I wish I hadn't read that. Because it's like the finger of God is pointing right at your own life and saying, yeah, that pet sin's got to go, buddy. Are you going to deal with it?

It's when we read God's Word that it works against our own hearts. And this is the way that the Lord is renewing your heart. This is why Romans chapter 12, verse 12, we need to have our minds renewed. Because when we read God's Word, when we fill our minds with God's thoughts, our thoughts start to be conformed to His thoughts. We need to have our mind switched from track A to track B, and it's never going to happen if we're not reading track B. We've got to be moved over there. You have your entire life where the world is teaching you their philosophy, teaching you the way you should want things and the way you should think about things. God's Word teaches us a way that's far better. We need to have our minds renewed. We need to have our hearts changed. And this isn't just for us.

Deuteronomy chapter 17, part of it is when God is saying, look, there's going to be some day you're going to want a king, Israel. And when you want a king, here's the rules for that king. And one of the rules for the kings in Deuteronomy 17 was that he had to actually take out a pin and a piece of parchment and he had to actually write out God's Word.

Why? Because the king needed to know God's Word. The king needed to know what the real king's desires were. The earthly king in Israel needed to know what the king of the universe wanted him to do. The things to stay away from. He was supposed to meditate on it day and night. And this didn't always happen in Israel. We know that.

If you've read through the stories of 1st and 2nd Kings or 1st and 2nd Chronicles, it ain't pretty. It ain't pretty. By the time we get to 2nd Kings 22, there are Asherah and Baal idols in the temple. There are temple prostitutes around. God's word is forgotten. Nobody even knows where it's at. The nation is falling apart and people are going and they're making alliances with foreign kings. This is not Israel. This is not the people that God called out of Egypt to be.

And yet here they find themselves. And then the miraculous thing happens in 2 Kings 22. They find the law. One of the priests finds the law. And we got copies of the Bible all over this place. Could you imagine for hundreds of years, we just hadn't read it? And it just becomes one dusty book on the shelf back there, and then one of you all just happen to find it?

And you go, whoa! Whoa, this isn't the way it's supposed to be. What's going on here? And that's what they do. They take it to King Josiah. And King Josiah, this young king, reads the book and tears his clothes and puts ashes on his head and puts sackcloth on. And he says, this is wrong. Everything we've been doing is wrong. And he gets all the idols out of the temple and he gets all the asherahs out of the temple and he gets rid of the shrine prostitutes and he tears down the high places.

And they actually start to keep the Sabbath again. And they actually become again what God had told them to be, but it was because they read God's Word. And 2 Kings 23, Josiah gathers all the people together, and we're going to spend all week next week looking at this, gathers the people together so that they could read God's Word.

Are you hearing it? Are you reading it? Are you in it? Because our natural inclination is to just slip back, to just slide away. We need to use God's Word to defend against even our own hearts. That's a sad place to end that point, if we aren't doing it. But the reality is, that doesn't have to be you. We're not to be those who are backsliding. We're not to be those who are forgetting God's Word.

But your last point is be blessed, Christian. Be blessed by reading God's Word. Be blessed with reading God's Word. Revelation chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near.

When the colonies first started in America, they knew that this was going to be the natural inclination of people, that this experiment, this great city upon a hill that John Winthrop had started in Massachusetts, they knew that this would easily just go by the wayside and lukewarmness would set in, and that the great Satan would come in and try to deceive the people, and so our public school system was set up. to stop that. Our public school system in New England was set up with the title, The Great Deluder of Satan Act. And in the primer that they would read every day, even when you would teach a kid letters, A, in Adam's fall, we send all. And the public school system in our country was set up so that children would learn to read the Bible themselves. that they wouldn't be deluded by Satan.

We're to be those who are blessed with God's Word. The Bible is the number one best-published book in all of history, all over the world. You're not going to find that on the New York Times bestsellers list, but if you go to publishers, it is the number one best-selling book in the world. Why? Because people are blessed by it. People are converted by it, lives are changed, families are saved, souls no longer go to hell, and lives are rebuilt because of God's Word. Be blessed by reading God's Word.

So the real question this year, we're coming up, what do we got, a day and a half left of this year before next year starts. Will next year be the year that you're faithfully in the Scriptures? Will 2019 be the year that you can say, oh, I was in the scripture so much and it started that year. Will you be in God's word this year? Will you read His word? I'm going to give you some helpful tips here on reading God's word as we finish up the sermon.

But one thing I want to stress to you is everything here this morning is not legalism. This isn't saying, if you read God's word, you're going to be saved. No, no one goes to heaven because they read God's word. You're made anew because God applies those words to your heart. Just because you read the Bible every day of your life, but you have no love for God, doesn't mean you'll be saved.

And if you decide, oh, I can't read my whole Bible in one year, I just can't do it. I don't read that quickly. Nobody in this church is gonna look at you and go, The question is, are you? Are you in His Word? Are you valuing His Word? God's people are people of the Book.

So, as we read God's Word this year, first, don't take on too much. Please, I hope that Maybe something that I've said, the Lord might have applied to your heart and you're like, yeah, this year I'm going to read God's word. Please don't say you're going to read all of the Bible four times this year. If you can, wonderful. Maybe you can. I can't. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Be realistic with yourself. Set real goals for yourself. For some of you, that means some of the plans back there are get through the Bible in three years. If you read about a chapter a day for three years, you'll get through the whole Bible. There's a plan back there for two years.

Maybe you can do a little bit more than that. There are some of you that are ambitious and you can get through the Bible in a year and there's plenty back there. It's about five chapters a day. There's some of those where you think, well, I just can't do every day, but I could probably do five days a week. There are some plans back there for you. So two days, you get to play catch up.

If you one day got five chapters and the next day you got two, well, you can do seven on Sabbath. That's a good way to spend your Sunday, catch up on your Bible reading. But for some of you, if you've never read the Bible before, if you've never tried every day to be in God's word, I'd encourage you, there's a plan back there that's just check the box.

It's just chapter by chapter, just check the box. And just pick seven verses from the book of Mark. Start with the book of Mark. It's a book that doesn't have genealogies in it, so you're not gonna get bogged down by that. It has a consistent flow to the story. And you can just start in the book of Mark.

Just try seven verses. Try seven verses. I guarantee you, if you read seven verses every day for 21 days, by the time you come back in three weeks, you're gonna go, I can do more than seven verses. Start, don't bite off more than you can chew. Honestly assess yourself and give yourself a plan that you can go with for the year, as long as you are in God's Word.

Well, in your bulletins, I don't have my bulletin with me, but in your bulletins is a little card. It's another helpful tip for Bible reading, is you got to establish a habit. I don't know about you, but if I say I'm going to work out when I want to, I never want to. And so I'll say, well, I'll start running, and then running never happens. Unless you actually put it on your schedule, it's not going to happen. Most likely. Maybe some of you are different than me. That's fine. But put it on your schedule.

Do you have free time during your lunch hour? Can you do it right with your morning cup of coffee when your eyes are groggy but you got nothing else to do? Can you do it right at dinner with your spouse? When is the time that works in your life and schedule it and say, I'm going to do it?

And science has shown that it takes a minimum of 21 days to establish a new habit. Every day for 21 days. Some of us, it's really easy to establish bad habits. I can eat M&M's 21 days easy. This is going to be harder than that. Will you do it for 21 days?

And if you're ready to be someone to actually just ask you, John's going to be at the back of the church and you can just write your name on that card and just check, yes, I'm going to commit to reading for 21 days straight. And we're not going to give you phone calls and stuff like that, but I might just randomly ask you, how's your Bible reading going? You're the one who decides to do it.

But this session would encourage you. Be people in God's Word. It's valuable. Defend yourself with it. It's a blessing to you. And I promise you. that God's Word will not return void. You'll be blessed by being in His Word. Be in His Word. Lord, we thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You so much for leaning down, stooping down from the heavens and talking to us in words we can understand. Thank You for being such a good Father to us and for loving us. Lord, we pray that we would be those who would long for Your Spirit. Lord, we pray that You would sanctify us. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.