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Working out the word, you know this one, Luke 6, 46. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? Lord, Lord, I'm not obedient. Well, why are you calling me Lord, Lord then? Is he your Lord?
If he's your Lord, you listen. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words, and what, does them, hear and do. I will show you what he is like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
And when the flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. Especially the men, as the priest of your home, your job is to edify your children and your wife, teach them in the word.
You're building your house on the rock. It doesn't say if the storm comes, it says when the storm comes. We're gonna constantly be hit by storms. You have to be building your house on the rock. Unfortunately, in evangelical American Christianity, we had a de-emphasis on works.
Oh, no, no, no, you're not saved by works.
Oh, no, okay.
All right, so what do I gotta do? You just have to trust Jesus. Okay, I trust Jesus. Okay, good, you're born again. If you trust Jesus and he's your Lord, if you trust him and he warns you about what to do and the ramifications of not doing it, true trust is gonna lead to works, right?
Works are the outflowing of real faith. James would say, you say you have faith, show me your faith. Faith without works is dead. In other words, there's many people who make a profession of faith but don't have possession of faith.
Say, you know, I'm a Christian, and then live like the world. They're no different. That's not a real Christian. A real Christian hears and does, he builds. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
When the stream broke against it, it immediately fell, and the ruin of that house was great. I don't want that for anyone in here, anyone. I don't want that for my enemies. I want them to see the value and the richness of God's word and what it means to put it in action and how you live a solid life on a foundation that can't be shaken when you follow God's word.
You have to work this out, right? Anyone been here? Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
For he looks at himself and goes away at once and forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his what?
Hearing? No, he will be blessed in his doing. When you look into the perfect law of God, what should you see?
Our sin?
Yes, you know where I'm going, Ezekiel 36, right? God says, I will, I will, I will sprinkle clean water on you, I will give you a new heart, I will put my spirit in you, I will write my laws upon your heart and compel you to follow them.
I will, I will, I will, all God's promises. And then you, you will remember your evil deeds and the things that you did that were not good and you will loathe yourselves, right? So this is the law gospel tension, right?
We have to recognize that we have nothing to give to God. We're not bringing something good to him. He brought something good to us and redeemed us. Now our job is to trust in him and depend on him all the more.
Recognizing salvation is out of my hands. I am not trusting in my love for God, I'm trusting in God's love for me, right? I can't love God enough. Does my love change God? No, God's love changes me, okay?
So we need to remember who we are, remember that this is about God's glory. We're not bringing anything to God that impresses him. Need to work it out. So working out the word leads to wielding the word.
What do I mean by wielding the word?
Yes, sure, absolutely.
Saying the word to yourself, addressing your doubts. What else? You had something?
Yeah, exactly.
So we speak the word to ourselves, we apply it to our own hearts, and guess what? Then we also take the word and we speak to our family and our friends, we speak to unbelievers. We use God's words to penetrate their minds and hearts.
I don't wanna give people my eloquent speech. What I gotta do is quote a verse.
This is God's word, let God's word do the work.
Proverbs 15, to make an apt answer is a joy to a man and a word in season how good it is. You come to somebody who's going through a difficult time and you give them a Bible verse, and all of a sudden it's like, wow, where'd you hear that?
The scriptures.
This is what the scripture has to say about what you're going through. We just finished a series on counseling. Every born-again believer is a counselor. You gotta use God's word and counsel people.
Wherever they're at.
First Peter 3 .15, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord is holy. Always be prepared to make a defense, to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.
So people are gonna ask you, if you're living a Christian life, normally people ask you, why are you acting like this? Well, I'm a Christian. Really? What does that mean? Boom, here's my opportunity to share with them.
I'm gonna give a defense. I'm gonna use God's word. I'm gonna give them the scriptures that I've memorized in hopes that God's gonna prick their hearts. Colossians 4 .5 .6, walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time.
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So you're gonna be put in situations where you're gonna have interaction with unbelievers or even believers, and your job is to walk in wisdom.
Where does wisdom come from? The fear of the Lord, the word of God. We read it in Proverbs chapter two, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Tie these words around your neck. It's God's word.
So when we give them a nugget of wisdom from God's word, that makes a difference. And we need to be able to do that on a regular basis. Colossians 3 .16, this is one of the verses we pastor uses for counseling.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, so it's gotta dwell in you, it's gotta abide in you, teaching, instruction, teaching people how to live, and admonishing one another in wisdom. In other words, you're gonna confront people.
Brother and sister in the Lord, you see them doing something, you admonish, you confront them with their sin. And what do you do? You bring them back to the word. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, right?
So you're letting the word of God dwell in you, you have to take it in, and then you give thanks to God for what he's given you. And then you use those words to help teach others, to confront others when they need to be confronted.
Then we have 2 Corinthians 10 .4. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. What are our weapons of warfare? The word of God, praying in the spirit.
Praying in the spirit doesn't mean speaking in tongues. Praying in the spirit means aligning your prayers with the word of God and praying them. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
So where do arguments, opinions, and thoughts reside? Yes, in the mind, right? So when you're sharing the gospel with someone, or you're using God's word in talking to someone, God's word has divine power, right?
That's going to, we're gonna confront them with the truth and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We confront the unbeliever. We confront the believer in certain cases, right? Because God's word has divine power.
That's going to change their minds. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, right?
You gotta read the word of God.
It's gotta change your mind, and then you speak to the people in the situation that they're in, and you speak truth into their situation, and admonish them. Ephesians 6, 16 through 19. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is what?
The word of God. It's a sword. Praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, also for me, that the words may be given to me in opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, right?
So the sword of the spirit is the word of God. We use that word to cut people when necessary, or we use it as a scalpel to get to their inner parts and help them. So wielding the word, when you're using the word in your daily life, with your family, co-workers, other relatives, leads to worshiping in the word.
Colossians 3 .16, we just read this one, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, what? Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, right?
I love the fact, and we should have opened up in song before we did our Bible study, which I said we were gonna do, but I didn't. But singing changes things, right? The Israelites would send the music ministry, the worshipers, before the battle, singing and playing instruments, and it struck fear in the hearts of their opponents.
Like their opponents are like, these guys are playing music on the battlefield. Like, they're pretty confident in their God.
Yes?
Yeah, it's one of the ways we do battle. We sing and worship God. Why, that directs our attention to him. We're dependent on him for the victory. Like, we don't win the battle unless God wins the battle.
Romans 16 through 25, I love how Paul, as he's writing his epistles, all of a sudden he goes through this deep theological stuff and then he just bursts out in praise. He's like, now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, that was kept secret for long ages, but now has been made disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God, be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ.
Like, he busts out in praise in the middle of his epistles, Ephesians. In chapter three, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, amen.
Reading the word, you should bust out into doxology. There's sometimes I'm reading the word and I hit something and I'm like, and I recognize my own sinfulness and I'm like, this is a God who pursued me, conquered and subdued my heart and I just stop and I start worshiping God.
That's what the word of God should evoke in us. Because what? We're reading about the God who is majestic, the God who is holy, the God who is other, no God before him, no God after him, the God who breathed and created the universe.
And then somehow you look at the size of this universe, and he placed me on this little tiny speck of dust in this solar system and he knows me and he sent his son into the world to die on this little speck of dust we called earth on the very trees that he made to rescue me from my sin.
Oh my goodness, thank you Lord, thank you Lord. So we walk in the word, we worship in the word,.
We wield the word.
But then we have the warning in the word, Hebrews four. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Are you reading the word of God, applying it to your life, recognizing that we're gonna have to give an account of what we've done with his word to him.
And I love Ezra, just providentially I happen to be reading Ezra this week. Ezra has set his heart to study the law of God and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. This is a verse that we have to wake up every morning and say, I am gonna set my heart to study God's word.
Not only that, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna teach it and give it to others. We need to be in the word, we need to be taking it in and breathing it out. So are you wanting the word of God? Are you walking in the word?
Do you have a daily habit of reading God's word? Are you following a Bible plan? You don't need to follow a Bible plan, but you need to read God's word. And I suggest you do it systematically so that you get through the whole thing.
And once you're done, you start over. Are you working out the word? If you're not being confronted by the word of God about your sinfulness, about your behavior, who else is going to tell you better than God what you need to do, right?
We need to be confronted by God, hear it, and then work it out in our lives. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We're not working for our salvation, we're working out what God has worked in.
But we cooperate with God's spirit when we read his word and allow him to do a work in our heart. When I say allow, I'm not saying that we're sovereign over God. I want you to read the word and let the word read you.
I want you to get into the word and get the word in you, and then wield the word. Start memorizing the word of God and use it in situations where it's gonna be profitable, right? I love people who memorize tons and tons and tons of scripture, and you talk to them and it's like they just know the word.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, right?
And then worship in the word. Like Paul Washer says, read the Bible or die.
Questions?
So I wanted this to be an encouragement to you, to exhort you to get into the word of God. Again, I didn't wanna feed you with a PowerPoint, but I wanted to stir you up to love and good works by reading the word of God to get you to understand just how important it is.
This is vital to us as believers. We're not gonna advance the kingdom apart from God's word. We need to look like what Jesus says a disciple looks like. That doesn't mean we have to be perfect. We're striving for perfection, but when you do make a mistake, you know what you do quickly?
You ask for forgiveness. You acknowledge it. You own it and say, I blew it. Can you forgive me, right? That's a big thing, because when unbelievers see you blow it and then slough it off like it doesn't matter,.
They say to yourself,.
Hmm, this guy's talking to me about God all day long. He just did something, said something, and it doesn't seem to faze him, right? So we need to be picturing what the word tells us to be. No questions, nothing else?
Ed, you got it for you, brother. Right, exactly, exactly. Paul tells Timothy, watch your life and your doctrine closely, and in doing so, you'll save both yourself and your hearers. He puts life and doctrine together.
Like, your life is intimately related to your doctrine, what you believe about God, right? Tozer says, the first thing that comes into your mind when somebody mentions God is the most important thing about you.
Like, what's the first thing you think about when somebody says God?
That's vital.
And go into, yeah, Jerry.
Amen, amen.
Absolutely. You know, the illustration, as Jake was talking, the illustration came to mind was, you know, like football players throughout the week, they're studying their plays, and you got the Xs and the Os, and they got this guy's going this way.
What if they just read that and then didn't employ it? Like, you gotta study the plays, and then you have to play. You don't just study it and say, hmm, this is great. Oh, look at, oh, we got such a great battle plan.
Oh, we're gonna blow them away, and now don't play the game. You're studying the play so that when you're on the field, you execute the play. When we're studying the word of God, we're being edified, we're being built up, and then when we're on the field, now we exercise the word of God.
That's what we have to do. It can't just be an intellectual exercise. It can't just be, you know, to win a debate online. You know, I'm not saying don't share your views online. That's great. Help people.
But it has to be something that gets from here to here. Yes, Ryan.
Sure.
And do it. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it. And again, what happens is, in Protestant churches, unfortunately, there's a de-emphasis on works. Works don't save you, works don't save you.
Right, works don't save you, but they're vital. They're vital to the enterprise. You know, like you just said, to hear the word of God and do it. You know, don't keep your light under a bushel. Like, glorify, let your deeds be seen by all, and glorify your Father in heaven.
In Matthew 25, when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, he says, blessed are you. When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. They're like, when did we do that? When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.
In other words, they were put on the right-hand side.
Because of what they did, right?
And I'm not saying that this is a works-righteousness thing, it's not. It was evidence of a changed heart. It was evidence that Jesus was their Lord. You're saved by grace through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works, lest any man boast, for you were created in Christ Jesus, what?
For good works to walk in them. You were saved to serve. You weren't saved to sit. Saved to serve, right? He's coming back for a bride without spot or wrinkle. I heard somebody says, the only time you get wrinkles in a robe is when you're sitting down on it.
If you're working, no wrinkles, you're moving, right? So let's be people of the word. Let's be diligent to read it and diligent to employ it, okay?
Let's pray.
You have been listening to the Reformed Rookie Podcast, where we aim to teach Reformed theology to beginners or rookies. Be sure to look us up on the web at www .reformedrookie .com, where you will find many more learning tools and aids to help you grow in your understanding of all things Reformed.
And remember, semper reformanda.
Dr. Luther, are you prepared to retract these writings?
In Psalm, I discuss faith and good works. If I were to retract these, I should be denying accepted Christian truths.
Martin Luther, you have not yet answered the question. Will you recant or will you not?
Here it is. I am bound to my beliefs by the texts of the Bible. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
