Sermon: The Art of Bible Meditation

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It's good to be with you and to enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit as we worship together.

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I bring you greetings from my home church, King's Church, all the way in Peoria, Arizona. Come a long way.

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And the elders and the saints there greet you. It is so good to be with you to see what the

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Lord is doing. It's not that long ago I was with you, and it's always a joy and a privilege to be with you.

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If you have a Bible, I would encourage you, if you can, to open up to the book of Joshua chapter 1,

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Joshua chapter 1, and beginning in verse 1.

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And ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God. After the death of Moses, the servant of the

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Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead.

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Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all its people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

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Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

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From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the

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Hittites to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

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Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

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Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

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Only, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you.

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Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

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This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

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For then you'll make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

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Let's pray together. Lord, we are deaf to your truth without you giving us ears to hear.

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We are blind to your truth unless you give us eyes to see. Open up our ears, open up our eyes.

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Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. It's been well said that the longest journey is the journey of around 18 inches from the head to the heart.

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Many have what we would call head knowledge, but we also would see to have heart knowledge.

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Biblically speaking, although I've said this, the longest journey is the journey from the head to the heart.

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Biblically speaking, I don't believe it's entirely accurate. I think we know what is being communicated there, but biblically, the words heart, soul and mind are often used interchangeably, where you think you're reading a passage one word, you are surprised at times to find one of the other words mentioned.

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Heart, soul and mind. But yet a great deal of truth is communicated in the head to heart language.

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I'm sure you're one of those who would want what you believe to be not just something you're mentally assent to, something that you agree with, but is really something truly believed in the heart.

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It's interesting, to me at least, that in the book of Romans, the heart and mouth connection is mentioned.

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You remember that in Romans 10 verse 9, if you shall confess with your mouth

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Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

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What does it mean to believe with the heart? Well, one thing we understand is, it's not speaking of, it's not referring to the physical blood pump of the heart.

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There would be enormous theological implications if that wasn't the case. If you happen to have had a heart transplant and you believe, when you believe, is it you getting saved or the guy who died who gave you the heart?

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We all understand that's foolish. No, when the Bible speaks of the heart, it's talking about the very core of our being rather than the blood pump.

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And so we need to have that journey, don't we, of believing what we believe out of conviction rather than just mere preference.

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I know when I was converted at the age of 14, some looked at me and thought it would be a passing phase.

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It would be something I was into for a little while, into Jesus for a little while, then into something else, then into something else, and decades on,

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I'm still believing in Jesus because I believe it was a genuine work of the

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Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit invades and ransacks the human heart, He regenerates,

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He makes alive that which was dead, and giving the gift of repentance and faith, we call out to God, believing something, certain prepositions.

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And those are mentioned in that verse I quoted, Romans 10, verse 9. We believe Jesus is

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Lord. At the time when that was written, it was not popular by any means to say the words

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Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. It might just cost you your life.

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You were required to say Caesar is Lord. But instead, the Christians affirmed Jesus is

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Lord. And by that, they could be thrown to the lions, and many were.

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They lost their heads over that confession of faith in Jesus. And so, that's exactly why in 1

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Corinthians 12, verse 3, the Apostle Paul writes and says no one can say Jesus is

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Lord except by the Holy Spirit. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. No one who's just got a passing interest in Christ is going to say that.

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It takes God for that true confession to arise out of the heart. Can we say it all together?

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Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. If you're saying that out of conviction of the heart, it's because the

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Holy Spirit has been very kind to you, taking out the heart of stone, putting in a heart of flesh that now beats to know

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Him. With that invasion of the human heart. Some people believe God would never, because He's a gentleman, you understand, never violate the human heart.

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You better hope He does. No spiritually dead person is asking for a heart transplant.

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They like the heart they have. They like their disposition, one of hostility towards God.

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The Bible says no one seeks after God. There's none that does good, no, not one. We are not

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God -seekers according to Romans chapter 3 and verse 11. There is no

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God -seeker. So if you're seeking God, God has actually been kind to you in seeking you first.

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We love Him because He first did what? Loved us, amen. And so that heart and mouth connection is in view in Romans chapter 10 verse 9.

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It goes on to say, for with the heart, man believes, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, confessions made unto salvation.

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So to be saved, we have to believe in the heart. So we are really interested in this subject, aren't we?

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What does it mean to believe in the heart? Well again, it doesn't mean to believe with the blood pump. It means to believe at the very core of our being.

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Not only is that the case, but when we go back and look at our Bibles and discuss something that is going to come up in verse 8 of this first chapter of Joshua, we're going to see that the mouth is involved.

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The mouth. Look again at verse 8. This book of the law, just pausing there for a moment, that is a reference to the first five books of Moses, what we call the

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Pentateuch. That was all that was written at that time, but by extension, if we would say what is the book of the law in our day, it's the whole

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Bible. All Scripture is breathed out by God.

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Theo Neustaus, breathed out by God, and that is the record from Genesis to Revelation.

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But for Joshua in his day, what was written was the book of the law, the Torah, that shall not depart, you'd expect it to say from your eyes, wouldn't you?

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Don't let it out of your sight. But it's much more specific than that. If you look at it, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, mouth.

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Just as an exercise, would you begin counting in your mind, not out loud, but in your mind, counting from one to a hundred slowly, just one, two, just begin that process, three, four.

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Now, while you're doing that, let me ask you to say out loud your name and your place of birth.

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Everybody, your name and your place of birth. What is it? I heard a number of states being listed.

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All right. What happened to your counting? It stopped, right? Some of you are keeping it going.

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You're the very, very unusual people, but most of you stopped, and that is a function of the brain.

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We understand this, that when you say something, though your mind might be on other things, when you're saying something, your mind pauses, your mind stops to say, what's that coming out of my mouth?

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I must pay attention to it. And that, I believe, is what's going on here. Joshua, understanding the enormous weight that was on him to fulfill and fill the shoes of Moses, had many thoughts, perhaps of anxiety,

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I think that's why there's this constant refrain, be courageous, be strong, be courageous, why?

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There would be a temptation not to be, filling the shoes of Moses. He had many thoughts assailing him, but God's requirement of him was to not allow the book of the law to depart from his mouth, so that he would say what

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God says. He would say what God says. His mind may be assaulted, but his mind would pause when his words were spoken, and that word being the word of God.

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This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Say the word, say the word, say the word, but you shall meditate on it, it being the book of the law.

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How often? Day and night. So in other words, at least in the morning hours and in the evening hours,

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Joshua, you need to meditate. You need to not let the book of God's law out of your mouth, but meditate in it, meditate on it, day and night, and it's not simply a mental exercise, it's so that we might do what was written in the book, so that you may be careful to do according to all that's written in it, and then

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Joshua, you'll be able to make your way prosperous and have good success.

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And this is talking about well -being, this is talking about an abundance of spiritual treasure.

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We understand that, but how do we actually do it? Let's go to Psalm 1.

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It's interesting that that is the passage that was just read, Psalm 1.

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And here we have something unusual, rather than something prescriptive, you'll notice, it is descriptive.

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What do I mean by that? When you go to a doctor, if you are examined and the doctor has any idea what to do, he will give you a prescription, whereby he is prescribing something for you to do.

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He is giving you a command in that sense, he's saying, take these tablets three times a day or whatever the prescription is, he's telling you to do something.

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That's what we call prescriptive language. That's not what is in view here, this is descriptive, this is describing something, and what we have in view here is the description of the blessed man.

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And, verse 1 says, blessed is the man, and that includes the ladies and all as well, it's a generic term here.

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Blessed is the man, and it goes for the women too, the blessed man is someone who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

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So, verse 1 speaks of the blessed man, and in the original language, it's in the plural, it would be a legitimate translation to write it in this way, oh, the blessednesses of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

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And in verse 1, what we have in view are things that the blessed man doesn't do.

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He doesn't do this, he doesn't do that, and he doesn't do the other. These are things he does not do.

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The verse 2 highlights that which he does do, but his, that's the blessed man, his delight is in the law of the

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Lord. Again, we would say this is in the word of God, and on his law, he meditates day and night.

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Same thought, isn't it, as what we've already read in the book of Joshua. Instead of walking in this way, standing in that way, sitting with these people in the seat of the scoffers, no, the blessed man, a description of him is that his delight is in the law of the

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Lord. And though this is descriptive language, certainly by way of implication, high implication is this is the way anyone will be blessed.

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Do the same thing. Observe what the blessed man does, and you too will be blessed in the same way.

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That's inherent in terms of an implication. His delight is in the law of the

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Lord, not his law, he meditates, say the word meditates, he meditates day and night.

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In other words, this is not a casual pursuit, this is not something he does once a month, this is something that is his regular habit.

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Not every habit is a wrong habit. We sometimes have habits we have to give up, right?

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But there's at least one habit mentioned in the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, it's coming to church, coming to the gathered assembly, and it says gather all the more, and not be like some who are in the habit of not coming, they've made that the habit.

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So there are some good habits, cleaning your teeth, taking a shower, good habits. So is the habit of daily meditation in the word of God, and we don't talk too much about it but in church history people talk much about this because this is the delight of the blessed man.

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You want to be blessed, a major key is meditation, day and night, on the word of God.

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It's wonderful. How do we do it? Well first of all we have to talk about what we're not talking about, does that make sense?

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Let's talk about what we're not talking about. And what we're not talking about is the current idea of meditation in the world.

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If you're in the workplace and you've got the lunch hour, some might say, I'm going off campus or I'm going off from the office and I'm going out to meditate.

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And usually what they're talking about is not going to their car and reading the

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Bible and thinking about it, but to get alone by themselves, getting into a certain position, usually in a sitting position, and trying to empty their mind of everything.

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And that idea has permeated our society, Eastern religious ideas about meditation.

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Not talking about medication, talking about meditation. And that's the idea in most people's mind.

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And I want to say to you today, that's the complete opposite of what the

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Bible has to say about meditation. When we as influenced by the scriptures meditate, the

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Hebrew understanding is that it's not an emptying of the mind, it's a focus of the mind.

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It's filling our mind with the right thoughts about God and speaking them out, muttering them.

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In fact, that's definitional of the word to meditate.

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And so it's an intent, an intentional thing to focus on God's word and say it out loud, mutter it.

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There's much to be gained by Bible reading. I encourage everybody to read their Bibles.

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I'd encourage people to have a plan of reading your Bible. It's a good thing.

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There are many good ones, but a very simple one is to read three chapters a day and five on a

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Sunday. There are better ones than this. But if you do that, within a year, you'll have read your Bible through. How many of you believe the

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Bible is the word of God? Can I see your hands? Can I see the hands of those who have read it?

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All of it. Some hands go down, right? I want to give you this challenge.

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If you believe that this book is the inspired word of God, let me ask you this, have you read any other book?

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If the answer is yes, I want to challenge you. Read this book. This is the book of all books.

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At least say it is the inspired word of God and by this time next year,

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I'd have read my Bible through. It's a good thing to read your Bible, massively good.

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I would never wish to discourage anyone from reading the Bible, quite the opposite, okay? You understand. However, I'm saying this,

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Bible reading is not the same as Bible meditation. C .H.

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Spurgeon once said this. If some people like to read so many chapters every day, I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters.

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Oh, to be bathed in a text of scripture and to let it be sucked up into your very soul till it saturates your heart.

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Set your heart upon God's word. Let your whole nature be plunged into it as a cloth into a dye."

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Thomas Brooks, the Puritan, once said this, remember that it's not hasty reading but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul.

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It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet.

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This quote, by the way, is in your bulletin. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest

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Christian, end of quote. Hear that? It's not he that reads most.

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You can have a plan of reading and say, right, I'm going to read my three chapters, my four chapters, and I've read it, can't remember a thing, but I've done my duty.

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I can check it off. I've done it for the day. Or you can read your Bible and read only a few verses and meditate on those verses.

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As we've looked at Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8, meditation is a key to the blessed life and that's confirmed in Psalm 1.

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Don't let that book depart from your mouth. Don't let it.

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Be intentional. Be focused. Psalm 39, verse 3, we're in the book of Psalms, let's go there,

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Psalm 39, verse 3, David writes these words. You might say,

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I'm feeling a little cold in my spiritual walk. Well, here's the ingredients necessary to make your heart hot.

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Verse 3, my heart became hot within me as I mused the fire burned.

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Then I spoke with my tongue. Again, notice the mouth connection is in view. It's that word mused that I want us to think about because that's a component of meditation.

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It's to think. It's to ponder. The Hebrew word for meditate, hagar, means to pause, to reflect, to ponder, and it also means to mutter.

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All of that is wrapped up in that Hebrew word. As I mused, you know that word mused means to think.

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I send out an email every Saturday to the church. I call it Saturday musings, things

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I'm thinking about that I think would be good for us to think about in preparation for the

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Lord's day. It's interesting, if you put the letter A in front of the word mused, it means the negation of the musing.

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So when we are amused, in a linguistical sense at least, we mean

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I'm not thinking. It's interesting too that we have amusement parks.

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So rather than coming to a park where you will think, this is the advertising, come to the amusement park where thinking's not even on the agenda.

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You will not think as long as you're in our park. I preached once and the lady came up to me and said, you really made me think.

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And the way she said it, I realized she was not thrilled with that. She'd rather come to church and not think.

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But it's a good thing to think. It's in fact a legitimate form of biblical worship.

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Jesus said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

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And loving God with our mind includes musing about Him, thinking about Him, thinking right thoughts about Him, allowing our thoughts to be cultivated and shaped and formed by what the word of God says.

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Otherwise, our thoughts about God are prone to idolatry. We make up our own

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God. We make up our own rules. We think I like this, I'll choose this. I don't like that,

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I'll reject that. No. Our thinking should be based, born out of the

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Holy Scriptures so that we think rightly about God, rightly about the way of salvation. Thomas Manton, another

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Puritan, wrote this. The end, and when he's speaking about end, he's speaking about the goal.

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The end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon the affections.

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Study is like a winter sun that shines but warms not, but meditation is like a blowing upon the fire where we do not mind the blaze but the heat.

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The end of study is to hoard up truth, but of meditation to lay it forth in conference or holy conversation.

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Jerry Bridges said this, the word meditate is used in the Old Testament, literally, it means to mutter, to murmur, and by implication to talk to oneself.

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When we meditate on the Scriptures, we talk to ourselves about them, turning over in our minds the meanings, the implications, and the applications to our own lives.

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To meditate on the Scriptures, he went on to say, is to think about them, turning them over in our minds, applying them to our life situations.

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The objective of our meditation is application, obedience to the

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Scripture. So, end of quote. Now, it's not enough to simply read the

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Bible. I'm encouraging you, I'm encouraging you, read your Bible, but also meditate on what you read.

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When we understand that this is our task, it can be something that we do well or we do badly, but I want to give you some, hopefully some help along the way to think about what you're reading when you're reading.

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As I mentioned of self -talk, we're not really good at that, but we need to realize we're doing that all the time.

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You are talking to yourself, having an internal conversation all the time. You might be sitting in an office, maybe a dentist or a doctor's office, and someone walks into the door, excuse me, walks through the door into the office there with you, and you may never say anything out loud, but you're making a conversation happen between your ears with yourself, and you're asking these kind of questions.

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Is this person a threat? No, it's a lady with a dog. Okay, we're okay, nothing to worry about.

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Or else, you're having a conversation, am I too hot, am I too cold? What's the weather like?

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Should I be wearing this when I go out or that? Should I take an umbrella? What should I do?

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You're always having an internal conversation, and the

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Bible says you should have that conversation with yourself often regarding what

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God says, and challenge yourself to believe it. You might say, well,

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I'd like to see that in Scripture. All right, we're in chapter 39, let's go to chapter 42.

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Chapter 42, verse 5, where the Psalmist writes this, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

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Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation. Drop down to the next

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Psalm, Psalm 43, verse 5, similar words. Why are you cast down,

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O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

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God. You realize what you're reading here is self -talk, a talking to yourself.

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It's a muttering, it's a thought muttered. And here the

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Psalmist is taking himself to himself and asking himself questions.

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Soul, I want to ask you something. I can see that you're discouraged. Why are you downcast?

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Put it all on the table, tell me. Why are you downcast, O my soul?

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And then, as he asks the question, he then gives himself this prescription, hope in God.

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All right? I can see why you're discouraged. I can see why you're feeling the way you're feeling.

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But you know too much to stay in that condition. Hope in the God you know.

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Think about his promise. Think about his promises. Understand that he is for you, what could be against you?

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And speaking to himself, he comes out of that depression. And that is the first line of counseling, self -talk.

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It's not the only kind of counseling. The Bible speaks of multitude of counselors being a place of safety or wisdom.

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Proverbs chapter 11 verse 14, there is safety in the multitude of counsel.

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But the first counsel is the counsel you have with yourself. And there we have meditation and muttering in full view.

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Back to Psalm 1, if you will. Oh, the blessedness.

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The blessednesses of the man who doesn't walk here, stand here, sit there, but his delight is in the law of the

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Lord. And then he meditates in that law day and night.

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I just want to say this is not a casual pursuit. This is not a trivial pursuit. This is full -on focused desire, full -on focused methodology.

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He does it day and night. That's a description of the blessed man. Four marks of the blessed man.

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Three things he avoids, one thing he does. The Puritans thought of meditation as something of a halfway house between scripture reading and prayer.

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There might be a short prayer. Lord, open up the scripture as I read it, but then a good reading of the word and then meditation on that word, which will form the basis of the prayer.

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And I think that's a very good thing. Starting with praying for our illumination, that we might see what we would not see without the

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Holy Spirit's help. Then reading scripture, then meditating on it. I would encourage you, if this is not a habit of yours, to begin the habit.

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Many Christians have confessed to me that they think they're done when they've read the

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Bible and it's important to meditate on it. And people say, you know, I haven't got time to meditate.

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Well, let me ask you this, have you got time to worry? Worry is simply meditation on the wrong thing.

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So if you are worrying, you've made time for worrying. Stop that and start a new habit.

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The habit of meditation. And start with just two or three minutes.

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It doesn't have to be lengthy, but start. Make a start. That will grow in time when you start seeing the benefit of it,

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I'm sure. But build up from there. But make it a part of your life. Now, in saying that, people might react and say, that's legalism.

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No, no, it's not legalism. Legalism is the idea that what you and I do forms the basis of our standing with God.

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And nothing we do gives us that. Jesus Christ and Him alone gives us our standing with the

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Father. He is our standing with the Father. We stand in Christ Jesus.

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But there are things for us to do. It's like Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.

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Works don't save us. It's by grace that we're saved through faith, that not of ourselves.

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It's the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one may boast. But verse 10 comes along with that as the foundation.

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We're saved by grace through faith alone. And verse 10 of Ephesians 2 says, for we are

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His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Martin Luther made this declaration,

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God doesn't need your good works, your neighbor does. I like that. They do.

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But our works never form the basis of our standing with God. But many people have the idea, unless I do this, unless I do that,

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I'm not right with God. Let me banish that thought from your mind. You are saved and justified by the grace of God alone in Jesus Christ, plus nothing.

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However, there are things that you and I are called to do, but they are never the basis of our standing with God.

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Works are the fruit and not the root of our salvation.

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Amen. So avoid legalism, avoid pietism. Piety is a good thing.

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Piety is the idea of the pursuit of godliness. And that's all in our Bibles from Old to New Testament.

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Godliness is a good thing. But godliness doesn't get us to perfection in this world, and we need perfection to stand in the right standing we have before God.

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And only Jesus lived the perfect life, and he is our standing. So piety, that's good, pietism, no, reject.

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Piety is living a life in conformity to God's word. So what

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I'm talking about, if you haven't already picked it up, is gospel -driven meditation.

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Like the hub in the wheel. The gospel should be center stage in our life, and everything we do flows out of the gospel.

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It's not a means to get in right standing with God, it's because we're in right standing with God.

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The Holy Spirit has ransacked the human heart, given us a desire for him, we desire his word, and in reading and meditating on his word, we find out what is pleasing to him, and we are blessed in the process.

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Just as an aside, if you look in chapter 1 of the Psalms here, I read this for many years, and I want to tell you just something that is a result of my meditation in Psalm 1.

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You know how when you're reading the Bible and you read John chapter 3, John chapter 6,

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John chapter 8, John chapter 10, John chapter 17, Romans chapter 8,

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Romans chapter 9, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, you can't help but realize you're reading

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Reformed theology in the lips of Jesus and in the lips of Paul, right? You see divine election there, and then when you see it, the lights come on, you begin to see it everywhere, right?

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You see it in Genesis. I'm teaching verse by verse through the first 11 chapters of Genesis right now.

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You see divine election everywhere. God called Abraham, Abraham as he was then in chapter 12, not

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Hammurabi down the street. You see it everywhere, but I couldn't see it in Psalm 1.

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I thought this is just a description of the blessed man, and then one day as I meditated on verse 3,

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I thought, oh, I had not seen that in decades of reading it. Look at verse 3.

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He, who's the he here? The blessed man. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither in all that he does, he prospers.

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And one day it hit me, trees don't plant themselves.

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This is an intentional act by a gardener whereby he plants a tree in a certain place, not haphazardly, but intentionally a planting by streams of water.

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And I thought, who's the planter here? God. If you're a true

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Christian, God has planted you as a tree by streams of water where there's nourishment that yields its fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither in all he does, he prospers.

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But God is the one behind all the fruit that you bear. And I thought, there it is.

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That's the result of meditation. I'm sure you could come up to me and say, the same thing has happened in your own heart and in your own life.

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You've been reading a passage for years, then you suddenly read it and think, oh, it was there all the time.

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It was staring at me in the face. And now I see it. But it's the result of you thinking about it.

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In 2 Timothy chapter 2. In fact, we can go there.

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I believe there's enough time. 1 2 Timothy chapter 2.

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All the five T's are together. First and second Thessalonians, first and second Timothy, then

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Titus. Second Timothy chapter 2, Paul had written already a number of things to Timothy.

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And then in verse 7, he says this, think over what

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I say. Let me stop there. Many have the idea that if you're going to get illumination from God, by the way, we're not talking about revelation from God.

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God has revealed His word. This is His revelation. I'm not seeking revelation today.

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How about you? I hope that's a no. We're not after new revelation.

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I don't want to understand a new revelation of the Trinity. New revelation of the cross, something that's never been thought of before.

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It could be, it could be that God was waiting for little Johnny Samson to come, where He would bake this big revelation that no one's ever heard of before.

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But it is more likely that it, should it be something new, I just started a cult.

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If it's true, it won't be new, because the Holy Spirit has been with His church all through the centuries.

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Amen. So I'm not here to give you a new revelation, but I'd like illumination, wouldn't you?

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I'd like the Holy Spirit who has revealed the word to illuminate what's in the text. And Paul writes to Timothy and says, as he writes, think over what

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I say, and that just sounds so unsupernatural. You know, if you're going to understand the scripture, you've got to get to Sedona.

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You've got to sit on some mountain, you've got to be in the right place where you feel the vortex, you're feeling it.

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And suddenly, pachooom, wow.

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That's what we're after, right? No? No? Paul writes, what I want you to do,

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Timothy, is not go to Sedona, not go to a mountaintop and have an experience. What I want you to do, hear me, hear me, hear me, think.

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It just sounds so mundane, doesn't it? Think. I was expecting more from you,

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Paul. No. Think over what I say.

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I believe Paul was conscious that he was writing scripture, or if he wasn't, the

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Holy Spirit was. Think over what I say. And here again is thinking about the revelation that is coming to you.

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Think about it. Think it through. Think logically. Think about all the ramifications of what

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I've said. And as you think, something's going to happen. Think over what

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I say. And thinking is a big part of meditation. Think over what I say, for the

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Lord will give you understanding in everything. That's what we're after. I want to understand.

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I want to know what I can know, what it's humanly possible to know. And the means to it, the way to it, is not some experience, but, tell me, thinking.

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That's right, think. Thinking is the means. And yet, with all the thinking that you'll do,

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Timothy, with all the thinking that you do, recognize when you come to a place of understanding, it wasn't because of your great thinking.

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Though that was the means God used, you got understanding because the

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Lord gave it. Isn't that beautiful? Think over what

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I say, for the Lord will give you. It's a gift of God. He's giving you understanding in everything, but the means is thinking.

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So it's not going to happen automatically. It's not going to happen simply because you're the

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Timothy that I'm writing to. No, you need to understand this is not automatic.

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You've got to do some thinking, and that is the means by which the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

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Praise the Lord. How are you doing? How are you doing in your self -counsel?

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Some of us need to take ourselves aside and go on a walk, say, hey,

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I've just about had it with you. This depression you're in, you need to talk yourself, you need to talk yourself out of it.

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Don't you understand that God's for you? Don't you understand this big concept of the providence of God?

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If not, meditate on that. You need to understand everything that's happening in your life.

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Talk yourself through it. Romans 8 verse 28 applies to you. God will work even this for your good.

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There's nothing that's wasted for the Christian. All things work together for the good of those who love

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God and according to his purpose. So talk yourself out of it and say, stop being depressed.

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Hope in God. Now, there may be other things and other components that are necessary, but that's the starting point.

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You've got to talk yourself out of it with self -talk based on the scripture. Let's go to Romans chapter 5.

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And I particularly choose this verse because I'm sure it's one we know very, very well. What I want to do for the next few minutes is just walk you through some of my own meditations on this verse.

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And I'm doing this to kind of lay out for you how to do the meditation.

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What's that Mildred? Medication? I've got three pills. I'm good. No, no. Not medication. Meditation. Romans 5 verse 1,

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Paul when he writes the word therefore is basing it on all that has been said in the preceding verses.

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Whenever you see therefore you ask, what is it therefore? And on the basis of all that's been written in chapters 1 through 4, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take the example of someone having a lack of assurance regarding their salvation.

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What I would encourage you to do is meditate on the scriptures that pertain to that issue.

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And here's one of the many verses we could go to and you understand there are many verses we could go to, but this is just one.

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Look at what is said and what is written here. Therefore, since we have been, stop there.

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Every word is important. Since we have been, let me ask you this question, is what we're reading spoken of in the past tense, the present tense, or the future tense?

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What is have been? Past tense. Since something has happened, we have been justified by faith.

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Who's the we? We, I believe here, refers to those who've put faith in Jesus.

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And for those who have put faith in Jesus, Paul writes, something's already happened.

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It's not something that is happening now as a process, it's something that has taken place in the past.

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Here's what we understand and Romans 3 verse 28 has already expressed it, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law, apart from human action.

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There though, sola fide is not expressed, certainly the theme of it is expressed here.

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Justification is by faith apart from works and that's all that we mean when we say someone is justified by faith alone.

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And verse 1 of chapter 5 again, therefore, since we have been justified by faith. In other words, as you think through the ramifications of the words we're just reading, the moment a sinner has genuine faith in Jesus Christ, God declares them just in His sight, right in His sight.

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Justification is a courtroom word, it's not anything other than that. It's not a feeling, it's not an experience.

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It's a declaration of God that a sinner that was once estranged from Him is now right in His sight.

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And God, the judge in the court, for the one who has faith in Jesus says, I make this declaration, sinner, you are justified, you are not guilty.

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Someone else has taken the blame for your sin, my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who was born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who died an atoning death on the cross.

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He has borne your sins in His body on the tree, 1 Peter 2, 24.

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And you are forgiven, you're not guilty, and the righteousness of my son is now counted in your account so that his life counts as your life.

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Jerry Bridges made the statement, I believe it's a great one, justified means not merely that we are treated just as if I'd never sinned, but more than that, just as if I'd always obeyed.

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Wow. Now, I get my righteousness from someone else, yes, that's the gospel, ladies and gentlemen.

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Have you put your faith in Christ? Have you repented? Have you trusted in Christ? The moment you do that,

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God justifies you in His court. And so eight seconds later, after your faith has been put in the hands of God and you believe what

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God has said regarding His son, you've confessed with your mouth Jesus is Lord, believed in your heart that God's raised

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Him from the dead, you've confessed your sins, you've looked to Christ alone, God says at that moment, you are justified, now and forever.

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Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot grow in justification. Sanctification, oh yeah.

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Some of us are on the spectrum and some, there's some signs of life and others you think, whoa, look how far they've gone in their

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Christian life, we're all somewhere. But recognize your sanctification is not the basis of your justification and your justification is not up for renegotiation.

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God has had the court case and for the Christian, the one who's had faith in Jesus, the court case is over.

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The devil's standing outside the court, says, I don't like this, God says, who cares?

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God justifies, who is He who condemns? Romans chapter 8. I want this court to reconvene, the devil says, sorry, court's over, lights are off, never turning on again for this one, we've already made the decision,

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I've already made my decree, this man is justified now and forever. And in terms of righteousness, you can't grow in it, it's perfect, perfect righteousness that's been transferred to your account and this moment and 8 ,000 years from now, you can't be more justified or righteous in the sight of God than the moment you believed.

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Since we have been, past tense, justified. But I don't remember the court decision,

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God says, read my book, I'm telling you about the decision, a decision's been made concerning you, you are justified now and forever.

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I'd like to experience that, who says? Read the book, the book tells you what has happened.

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I don't need an experience of this, I just need to meditate on it and it thrills my soul.

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It puts fire within me, as I muse on this, the fire burns.

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Hey you need to watch it, I've got Pentecostal roots here, boy. Want to run around the building and put my hands in the air or something.

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But if we understand this, we can't stay silent, we've got to throw up our hands and say, thank you God, I'm justified by faith,

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I have been justified, I'm not going to get there one day, that is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

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They say that unless someone is inherently righteous,

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God could never declare them righteous. They call it a legal fiction, no, sin was really transferred to the back of Jesus.

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All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to our own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

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There was a transfer of the sins of all those who would ever believe, transferred the sin of all the elect, put on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and He died in their place and the righteous life of Christ is transferred to the account of the believer.

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Second Corinthians 5 .21, for He, God, made Him Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, that's shouting ground.

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And all this is meditation, since we have been justified by faith, we've only done half the verse, it's exciting.

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Look at the result of it, we have peace with God. Oh, that's a misunderstood expression.

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In the Middle East if there's a headline on a Thursday or on a Friday and it is that peace is broken out in the

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Middle East, what they mean is they've agreed to a ceasefire for about three days, but the hatred is still there and once the clock ticks over midnight on a certain day or 6 p .m.

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in their way of thinking, hostility start again, they erupt again. That's not what is in view here.

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The Hebrew concept is Shalom, of peace, and this is the New Testament word for it in the original.

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We have peace with God, a settled peace, no more hostility. God was against you.

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John chapter 3 verse 36 tells us that the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe, but the moment we believe in Christ, the hostility is gone, not just for a weekend, but forever and ever and ever, peace with God.

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And the Bible says, get this, we have it, not we will get it one day.

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So we can look back on our justification and the Roman Catholic Church can never allow for that, that's why they have the concept of purgatory, so that when someone dies with impurities in the soul, which is just about everybody according to them, really it is everybody, unless God sees absolute perfection in the soul, he cannot declare them right in his sight and pronounce them as righteous.

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That would be a legal fiction, they're not righteous, God can't call them righteous, they don't understand the gospel.

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The gospel is for law breakers, Romans chapter 4 verses 4 and 5, speak of it, you can read it in your own time.

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God justifies the ungodly, not those who are climbing ladders to get there, but while they're still a sinner,

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Christ died in their place, Romans chapter 5 verse 6. You can't grow in justification, though you can grow in sanctification, and the result of it is peace with God, oh, let my soul meditate on that, peace with God.

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How have you got peace with God? I did nothing, Jesus did everything, and that's what the final part of the verse said.

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Through our actions, no, through our performance, no, through our gradual sanctification, no, through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, this is solus Christus in a nutshell, by Christ plus nothing, by Christ and Christ alone, we have peace with God and we can look back at our justification.

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How about that? Let me encourage you when you're in your scripture, read it, think about what you're reading, and ask yourself questions, do what

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Paul instructed Timothy to do, think over what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding.

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Finally let's turn to Philippians, let's flip to Philippians, it's interesting, there are different ways you might meditate,

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Genesis 24, 63 is an interesting verse, as Isaiah went out to meditate in the field toward evening, for him, he meditated in the field, for you it might be an armchair, it might be a favorite place on a wall, but find a place where you can meditate, where you won't be interrupted, and turn your cell phone off so you're not distracted.

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But I would encourage you, talk to yourself. Let's close with verse 8, finally,

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I always feel bad when I go to a passage and I read the word finally, because I'm ignoring all that's gone before, that's never a good thing, but this is a topical sermon, maybe

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I'll get away with it, we'll see. But hopefully I'm not ripping it out of its context, but as he comes to a conclusion, he says finally brothers, and what he's about to present to us are 8 filters, 8 filters for our thinking.

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When I was teaching each of my children to drive, which is always a scary thing, drive a car, first thing

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I did was stand outside the car and I say, I said things like this, this is a car, am

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I going too fast? It doesn't move unless you want it to move, you can look at it all day, it's not going to move, it's in park, it's not going to move.

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It will go when you want it to go, it will go where you want it to go, it will go as fast as you want it to go, and it will stop when you want it to stop, actually you're in charge.

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And when you and I go out in our car, hopefully we've got a destination in mind, there are some folk who just go out in the car and say,

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I'm just going to drive, I don't care where I go, I'm just going to drive, okay that's interesting, I'd like to know where we're going, if you're going to the mall, there are ways to the mall, if you're going to Seattle, don't follow signs to Florida, you'll not end up in Seattle, Washington, know where you're going.

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I say this for this sake as an illustration, you and I are to drive our thoughts because you and I are in control, just as you are in control of the car, if you were to drive the car into a store through the window, there might be ramifications, you can't just say the car decided it liked the store, no you drove it there.

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So if you find yourself messed up in your thinking, you and I, we're the ones most responsible for it because we're in control, that's the point

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I'm making, and that's why we're given this command in verse 8, finally brothers, here's the first filter, whatever is true.

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All right, so there's this first filter, you know how in a water filter, you might start with impure water but it's good news because you got a filter, you can eradicate the things that would disturb your stomach by eliminating them from what goes down beneath the filter and the bad stuff is kept to the top and you can have the pure water belief, understand that.

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Here's the first filter, what we think about must be true, then the second one, whatever is honorable, now not everything that is true is honorable, you might say to me, what he did to me is true, yes that's true, but does it pass the second filter test, is it honorable, is what he did honorable, no, well stop thinking about it, don't think about that, that's a filter that would eliminate that from your thought life, don't think about that, think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable number 2, whatever is just number 3, number 4 what is pure, number 5 what is lovely, what is commendable, that's the next one, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, stop, stop, stop, 8 filters there, true, honorable, that means it's worthy of our meditation, it's just, it's pure, it's lovely, it's commendable, it's excellent, it's worthy of praise, then

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Paul says, think about these things, that means you can, I realize other thoughts will assail you, yet you are ultimately in charge of your thoughts, let me quote

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Martin Luther, he once said, you cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair, and you can't keep the devil from suggesting thoughts to you, but you can choose not to dwell or act on them, in other words, drive your thoughts through the 8 filter test of Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, as I conclude, let me suggest to you, scripture gets through all the 8 filters, it's the pure word of God, it is true, it is honorable, it is just, it is pure, it is lovely, it's commendable, it's excellent, it's worthy of praise,

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Psalmist said this in Psalm 119 verse 11, I have stored up your word in my heart, how did he do that?

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He meditated on it, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, the word meditation is not mentioned but the concept certainly is, the storing up of the word of God in the heart, if you think about that verse,

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I've stored up your word, your words the best thing, in my heart that's the best place, that I might not sin against you, that's the best reason, as I conclude, may your and my delight as a

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Christian, the delight of the blessed man be in the law of the Lord, let it become a daily duty and delight,

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George Muller said this and with this I'll close, it often astonishes me that I did not see the importance of meditation upon scripture earlier in my

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Christian life, as the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so it is with the inner man, what is the food for the inner man?

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Not prayer but the Word of God, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through our minds just as water runs through a pipe, no, we must consider what we read, ponder over it and apply it to our hearts, the psalmist said

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Psalm 119 verse 97, oh how

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I love your law, it is my meditation all the day, let's pray together,

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Father, thank you for your Word, may this brief instruction encourage and inspire us to meditate on your law, on your

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Word, that we might be the blessed man, the blessed woman and in this you be glorified, we ask in Jesus' name,