The ABC’s of the Christian Life (24): Following Jesus Christ Rightly (16): Christian Meditation

First Baptist Church Leominster

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I can't say that there's anything original here with me today, dealing with an important matter.

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But I'd have to say that what we have before us is basically from sources that I found to be helpful in the past regarding this important subject, this matter of Christian meditation.

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I addressed it once before, and I was looking back in my records, and I see that I did so just shy of ten years ago.

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We dealt with this matter of meditation. But what you have before you today is enhanced from what we addressed so long ago.

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Spiritual meditation, Christian meditation. So let's begin with reading just two verses out of Psalm 1.

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We'll read the entire psalm in a little bit, but right now we'll just look at the first two verses with emphasis on verse 2.

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This is Psalm 1, the head of the psalms. It's an introductory psalm, really, to the entire 150 psalms.

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King David, inspired of God, wrote these words, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

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But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates, there's the word, he meditates day and night.

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So today we want to address this very important subject of spiritual meditation.

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It's essential, I believe, if we want to follow Jesus Christ rightly, and that's of course consistent with our theme that we've had for a number of months now.

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This spiritual discipline, again, is the practice of Christian meditation, and we have to preface the word meditation with Christian to distinguish it from what much of the world thinks about meditation.

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We'll say a few words about that in a minute. But Christian meditation is really the key that unlocks the full spiritual benefit of the word of God to us and in us.

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Spiritual meditation. Not all who hear God's word profit spiritually from doing so.

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They hear the word of God, but it brings no change to them, no real spiritual benefit to them.

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Of course, with respect to unbelievers, they can hear the word of God, and it not only doesn't profit them, but it actually aggravates their condemnation.

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One once said, this is Thomas Watson, and I'm going to quote Thomas Watson a great deal today. He's my favorite

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Puritan. This is writing style, just incredible. He wrote,

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If the word preached be not effectual to men's conversion, it will be effectual to their condemnation. The word will be effectual one way or the other.

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If it does not make the heart better, it will make your guilt heavier. We pity those who have not the word preached to them, but it will be worse for them that have had the word preached in their hearing, but it did not profit them.

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Dreadful is their case, they go loaded with sermons to hell. They're the ones who are in the worst state.

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But sadly, Christians may also forfeit the blessing of the word of God brought to them when they listen to the word of God as it's taught to them, preached to them, because it's to be applied through the spiritual practice or discipline of spiritual meditation.

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And therefore, if they refuse or fail to implement this practice, the word of God will have little influence upon them, little effect.

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Due to a failure to practice this spiritual discipline, true believers may forfeit joy, peace, fruitfulness in their own souls, and they'll also forfeit spiritual power and maybe influence, potential influence that they could have with others.

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And so spiritual meditation is an important, even a vital matter which each of us should practice.

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But if the truth be known, I fear few Christians practice this to the degree we should.

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Meditation is a practice that has fallen into disuse, perhaps because of the busyness of our culture.

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In fact, some would say it's even a forgotten spiritual discipline. When I sought a resource for this topic on meditation,

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I turned to one of my resources in my library, the Dictionary of Theological Terms.

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Surely you'll find something there on meditation. There was not one entry on meditation in over 800 entries into this so -called

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Dictionary of Theological Terms. But there was a time when

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Bible believers viewed meditation as vital to a healthy

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Christian life. And that's how the scriptures present it, by the way, as we'll see. And so I suspect the failure of believers to practice meditation as described by the

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Word of God is one of the main reasons we don't profit from the Word of God to the degree that we could.

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There was a time before radio, stereos, and television that homes were places characterized by quietness.

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That's a thing of the past, isn't it? Reading and conversing were the primary activities of free time within the family, and those days were conducive to the quiet meditation on matters of importance.

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For Christians, these were occasions they thought much about their life and their faith and the cause of Christ.

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And yet, even though we might say that this practice has fallen into disuse today in our society, it really has fallen into disuse throughout

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Church history. Thomas Watson, who lived in the 17th century, wrote of this in his days.

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It gives us a true account why there are so few godly Christians in the world, namely because there are so few meditating

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Christians. We have known many who have Bible ears, but they are swift to hear, but they are slow to meditate.

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This duty, now this is Watson writing in the 17th century, this duty of spiritual meditation,

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Christian meditation, is almost grown out of fashion. People are so much in the shot that they are seldom on the mount with God.

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And by the way, I obtained a book recently, and I perused it pretty thoroughly in the last couple of days.

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I regret I didn't read it from cover to cover, every word, in preparation for this morning. But it's a book, the footnote there,

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The Christian on the Mount, and he alludes to that expression here in this quotation, The Christian on the

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Mount, and it's a treatise on Christian meditation. It's an excellent book, and Ron's going to be buying some copies of it,

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Lord willing, for our book table, and I recommend it to you. It's a wonderful book. But he said, people are so much in the shot that they are seldom on the mount with God.

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Where is the meditating Christian? Where is he who meditates on sin, hell, eternity, the recompense of reward, who takes a prospect of heaven every day?

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Where is the meditating Christian? It is to be bewailed in our times that so many who go under the name of professing believers have banished godly discourse from their tables and meditation from their closets.

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Speaking about prayer closets. In another place, Watson wrote, The farmer meditates on his acres of land, not upon his soul.

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His meditation is how he may improve a barren piece of ground, not how he may improve a barren mind.

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He'll not let his ground lie fallow, but he lets his heart lie fallow. And so today we'll attempt to set forth what

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Christian meditation is, why it's important, and we'll also set forth ways in which we can practice this spiritual discipline in our lives.

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And hopefully the Lord will not only instruct us in these matters, but also inspire us and motivate us that we would be more diligent.

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And as I was working through this, I realized, you know, this is something that I don't do as I should, but this is something

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I've always done. Christian meditation. Think about things. Think them through.

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I know my position, responsibility, it is conducive for that. But I think that this really is a matter that is essential to Christian growth and vitality.

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Christian meditation. What does the Word of God teach us about meditation? Well, spiritual meditation is to be the

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Christian's delight in practice. And I've got three passages. We could have given 30 passages, but we've got three passages that speak of this importance.

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The first, Paul writing to Timothy. These things command and teach. Paul is telling

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Timothy how to be a good minister of Jesus Christ in the church at Ephesus. These things command and teach.

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Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and purity.

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Till I come, give attention to reading. And what he means by that is public reading of the Scriptures in church.

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To exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by the prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery.

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And then verse 15. Again, I've emboldened it, italicized it for emphasis. Meditate on these things,

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Paul told Timothy, dwell upon them. Give yourself entirely to them so that your progress may be evident to all.

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Progress results from this discipline. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

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So Paul pressed upon Timothy the importance of meditate on these matters. We also read in James 1, 19 and following of this matter.

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Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

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Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word or engrafted word.

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And that carries an idea of meditation upon it, inculcating, you know, the ideas, the truths of the word within the mind, within the life, which is able to save your souls.

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But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he is.

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So he sees the word, hears the word, but then he walks away, he doesn't think about it.

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He forgets about it. It doesn't impact him. He doesn't meditate upon it. He just, he's exposed to it.

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He hears it. Yeah, well, fine. And then he's off doing his own thing throughout the day.

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He observes himself, goes away, immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and this looking isn't just a casual glance, of course, it's, it is giving yourself to it and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer of the doer of the word.

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This one will be blessed in what he does, is the one who truly gives himself, herself, to the word of God and thinks about it, meditates about it, and not just in the morning when you open your

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Bible and read the text for the day, but you take it with you. You're contemplating it. You're meditating upon it.

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And then when we read in Philippians 4 .8 and following, this is from the New King James Version because it uses the word meditate, whereas the other translations will use the word just think.

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But meditate carries, I think, a little stronger idea. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

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And so these are the kinds of things that should occupy our minds and we should dwell upon. And so these passages of God's word emphasize the responsibility believers have to give great attention to the word of God.

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Paul pressed upon Timothy the importance, in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

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And similarly James wrote to his readers, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word and grafted word which is able to save your souls.

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And so we see in these passages the great need to be very attentive to the word of God as to what it teaches.

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Both Paul and James emphasize a need to contemplate on what is read and heard, respecting

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God's word. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them, is what

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Paul wrote to Timothy. And James emphasized the same idea but in a different way, really from the negative side.

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He used a metaphor of a man who looks into a mirror but as soon as he looks away he forgets what he saw in the mirror.

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This is a man who hears the word of God but fails to take it with him, fails to contemplate it, fails to meditate upon it.

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But sadly there are many who hear the word of God but give little attention to it. They are slow to hear, that is, they are inattentive.

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Rather than being swift to hear, which means they are eager and desirous to learn to hear.

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And then many who do hear, in a measure, forget what they've heard before long. But the wise person will be one who is attentive to what he hears and he will seek to apply the word of God to his life, or rather he applies his life to the word of God.

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It's the standard, isn't it? As James wrote, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

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But the point we wish to emphasize is in order to profit from the word of God it is critically important that we meditate upon the word of God.

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Again let's consider Psalm 1 that we read the first two verses of. Notice how meditation is the practice of the righteous man in Psalm 1 who is said in contrast to the unrighteous man who fails to do it.

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We have Christians and non -Christians set before us. Here the desires and practice of the godly man is set against the desires and practice of the ungodly man.

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Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

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But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

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It is his constant companion. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall now wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

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The ungodly are not this way, they are not so. They are like the chaff which the wind drives away, and therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, that is they will not be exonerated in the judgment, but be condemned in the judgment, they will not stand in the judgment.

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Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, they have no place in eternity. For the

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Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The way is the life of each one.

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So here we have the righteous man compared and contrasted with the unrighteous man. That is the distinction between the

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Christian and the non -Christian. The Christian's desire and delight is in the law of God, that is the

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Holy Scriptures. He meditates on God's word day and night, but the ungodly man does not do so.

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He has other interests, delights, or practice. His heart lies elsewhere. What he chews upon, and sometimes meditation is described as kind of chewing on, like a cow chewing its cud.

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What he chews upon reveals his unclean heart, the ungodly man. Thomas Watson set this forth in his typical illustrative manner.

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This is one of the reasons I so like him. The beast in the old law, that is the

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Mosaic law, that did not chew the cud were unclean. The professor, that is the professing

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Christian, who does not by meditation chew the cud is to be counted unclean. In other words, he's setting forth, this is so much a characteristic of what a true

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Christian is, that if you're not going to meditate on the word of God, you're no Christian. And that's what

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Psalm 1 declares, isn't it? The righteous man meditates on the law of God day and night, the ungodly man doesn't.

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This is not to say that the Christian thinks of nothing else, that he ponders nothing but the Bible. That is not the case.

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What's being described is just a habitual tendency on the part of the

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Christian. The Holy Scriptures do set forth the Christian's interest and delight. The word of God governs his thinking and directs his steps.

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This describes his life. He looks to the word of God. He says,

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Jeremiah who wrote, thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.

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God puts that in the heart of a Christian, doesn't he? It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

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Here again the words of Thomas Watson, he who delights in God's law is often thinking on it. What a man delights in, his thoughts are running upon.

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He who delights in money finds his mind taken up with it, and therefore the covetous man is described as one who minds earthly things.

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Thus if there is delight in the things of God, the mind will be musing upon them. Oh, what a rare treasure is the word of God.

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It is the field where the pearl of great price is hidden. We value the

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Scriptures. Let's be more specific. What is biblical meditation? Christian meditation is fundamentally different than what is often thought to be meditation in today's world.

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It's a sad thing that the very idea of meditation has largely been taken over by proponents of Eastern mysticism.

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And when people talk about meditation today or they hear the word, that's what they commonly think about. There is a form of Eastern mysticism that is current in our culture and is common among the cults as well as false religions.

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Buddhists practice meditation. Hindus do also. Muslims meditate. But Christians seem not to.

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Joel Beakey wrote, he's a good man, How tragic that the very word meditation, once regarded as a core discipline of Christianity and a crucial preparation for and adjunct to the work of prayer, is now associated with unbiblical

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New Age spirituality. But there is a clear and sharp distinction between Christian meditation and this other kind of meditation we've just described.

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Christian meditation is fundamentally different. Proponents of meditation of this

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Eastern mystic type seek to employ the mind in order to try and become detached from the world so they can become connected with what they perceive to be

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God or a God spirit out there. They attempt to empty their minds so that they can become more in tune, they claim, with God who is spirit.

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The meditation described in the Bible, however, does not try to empty the mind, but rather the effort is to fill the mind and focus the mind on the truth of God, on the word of God.

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So it's two different animals entirely. And is that not what these two or three biblical writers were addressing,

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David in the Old Testament, James and Paul in the New? As Paul wrote, meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them.

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James wrote, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

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This one will be blessed in what he does. And so meditation is not emptying our mind, but filling our mind with biblical truth from the word of God, the scriptures.

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Actually, the Bible says a great deal about this subject. Listen to God's instruction to Joshua, who took over after Moses, of course.

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And Joshua led the people of Israel to conquer the promised land. God said to Joshua, Moses, my servant, is dead.

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Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all his people, to the land which I am giving to you, the children of Israel.

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Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this

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Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

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No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you.

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I'll not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and be of good courage. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which

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I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which

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Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

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And there's verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.

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He was the righteous man of Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2, right? So that you may observe to do according to all that was written in it.

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To put into practice. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

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And that word was to Joshua from God, and that word is to you and to me from God also. And so Joshua was to meditate upon the word of God.

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To the end that he would do it, obey it, perform it. And so here we see one of the important elements of biblical meditation.

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Again, Thomas Watson defined the nature of Christian meditation in this way.

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A holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.

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This has to take place more than just, you know, 45 minutes or an hour on Sunday morning or two hours.

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It's something that we must give ourselves to wholly throughout the week. How much time did you spend this week thinking seriously about how to apply the word of God to your life?

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You ponder those things? People do not do this generally. They want to be told, frankly.

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This is how people naturally, they want to be told what to do. Pastor, just tell me what

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I'm supposed to do. That's what they want to hear. They want a

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Christianity that involves little effort, little attention, little reflection, little effort at thinking.

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But this is not the faith of the scriptures. They just want to be told what to do. And I and others can tell you what to do.

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I've often said that, you know, it's an easy prescription for writing a bestselling

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Christian book on the market. All you have to do is to identify and describe some problem in a person's life.

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Describe it very keenly, accurately, so when that person reads that book, boy, this guy really knows me.

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This is how I am. And then it doesn't matter what you prescribe as far as a treatment. You can tell them to go stand on their head in the corner for 10 minutes a day and they'll be cured and they will accept that because they just, they want to be told what to do.

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This is just the nature of the beast. But this is not how God works in his people.

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He would have us think about things, learn things, muse upon them, reflect upon them, apply them, and look to the

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Lord to enable us to do so. And our lives are transformed through this understanding, through this knowledge.

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We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, is what Paul wrote about in Romans chapter 12.

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Understand that biblical meditation differs from biblical, say, Bible memory. Memory of God's word is very important.

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To be able to recall God's word at needful times in order to direct one's steps forward is necessary.

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But meditation brings much more benefit to the Christian than memory. The memory is as one storing food in the cabinet to be eaten later.

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But meditation is like sitting down to feast on the meal once it's prepared. It's an entirely different avenue of discipline.

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And then biblical meditation differs from Bible study, although it can take place at the same time.

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And again, Thomas Watson shows how they differ from one another in three different ways. First, they differ in their nature.

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Bible study is a work of the brain. Meditation of the heart. Study sets the mind to work.

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Meditation sets the heart to work. He talks about how meditation takes the truth of God's word and makes it real to our affections.

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And then that influences our will. Jonathan Edwards wrote about that too. Secondly, they differ in their design.

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Bible study and Bible meditation. The design of study is notion, in other words, information.

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The design of meditation is piety, living rightly, spiritually.

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The design of study is finding out of a truth. The design of meditation is the spiritual improvement of a truth, in other words, the application of the truth to one's thinking and life.

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The one searches for the vein of gold, the other digs out the gold. Thirdly, they differ in the outcome and result.

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Study leaves a man never a whit better. I've known some very intelligent, informed people about the

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Bible over the years. They were godless. And then again,

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Watson's ability to throw out a metaphor. It's like a winter sun that has little warmth or influence.

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We know something about that, don't we? Meditation leaves one in a holy frame. It melts the heart when it's frozen and makes it drop into tears of love.

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And so here you see how meditation is transforming and affects a person's life and affections.

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The Puritan promotion and practice of meditation. They were a wonderful group of people.

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They were great promoters, the Puritans of meditation. Who were the Puritans? The Puritans were a group of people in the 17th century who first attempted to purify the

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Church of England. They were Puritans. Attempted to reform the Church of England after it broke with Rome.

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Later the Puritans became separatists. They determined the Church of England is not going to be purified.

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We need to separate. They became separatists. And so they became either Presbyterians or Congregationalists or Baptists.

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Our NERF meeting on this coming Tuesday, we'll have a couple dozen of my friends. They're Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists, some

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Independents. But we're all in agreement about the gospel. We all see that we were born out of this 17th century context in Britain.

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Many of these separatists immigrated to New England. Puritans advocated conforming all aspects of life to the teachings of the

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Bible alone. And most people today don't generally think well of the

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Puritans. You know, they think of Puritans as being Puritanical. But this opinion is really largely based on bias, ignorance, and because they've been maligned,

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Puritans have been maligned by a culture that's opposed to their beliefs, values, and holy manner of life.

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And we'd have to admit that as the Puritans themselves began to wander away from the centrality of the faith, they did become quite legalistic and quite tyrannical.

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We're talking about the Puritans who were godly and humble and sought to conform their thinking and their lives to the holy scriptures.

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These were the Puritans. And they wrote a great deal about meditation. There was one man,

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Edmund Calame, he published a book in 1634 entitled, The Art of Divine Meditation.

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And he described the spiritual discipline in this way, A true meditation is when a man does so meditate of Christ as to get his heart inflamed with the love of Christ.

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So meditate of the truths of God as to be transformed into them. And so meditate of sin as to get his heart to hate sin.

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He illustrated the nature of meditation that if it's to be profitable to the soul, the word of God must enter three different doors.

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First, the door of understanding. The door of heart and affections. And then the door of practical living.

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All three. He wrote thou must so meditate of God as to walk as God walks.

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And so meditate of Christ as to prize him and live in obedience to him. Again, this takes more than just a few minutes on a

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Sunday morning. Puritans described meditation as of two kinds.

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I found this very interesting. Occasional meditation and deliberate meditation.

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What's the difference? Well occasional meditation, sometimes called extemporal meditation, refers to that which can take place at any time, in any place, and among any people.

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This is meditation that can take place on any occasion. It is occasional meditation.

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This is the practice of the Christian to interpret and reflect on the natural things about him in a spiritual manner.

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The believer makes use of what he sees with his eyes or hears with his ears as a ladder to climb to heaven.

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As our Lord saw spiritual truths illustrated all about him so that he put them forth in parables, so should we see the world daily filled with parables that illustrate

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God and his ways. Thomas Manton, I have his entire 22 volumes, works another

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Puritan, said this, God trained up the old church, and he's referring to Israel in the

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Old Testament, God trained up the old church by types and ceremonies that upon the common object they may ascend to spiritual thoughts.

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And our Lord in the New Testament taught by parables and similitudes taken from ordinary functions and offices among them, that in every trade and calling we might be employed in our worldly business with a heavenly mind, that whether in the shop or at the loom, or in the field, we might still think of Christ in heaven.

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And so the Puritans developed a worldview. And when

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I say a worldview, it was really quite different. It was a biblical worldview, but it was quite different than ours.

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We live in a world now that we might even say we live in a bunch of different worlds.

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We think and act a certain way in church on Sunday morning. We kind of walk into our

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Christian world. But tomorrow morning you walk into the world of that classroom, or the world of that factory, that world of the workplace, and a whole set of values and ways of thinking and talking takes place.

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It's like we put on different hats, assume different roles. We shouldn't be that way. We ought to be

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Christians 24 hours a day, as the Lord enables us. But the

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Puritans developed this worldview, in which they saw everything about them every day as revealing or illustrating the nature and ways of God among His people, as well as His ways among God's enemies.

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And so back in the 5th century, it was Augustine's mother, Monica, who said one day to her son,

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Oh, if the sun is so bright, this is probably when Augustine wasn't a Christian, Oh, if the sun is so bright, what is the light of God's presence?

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Can you imagine that? And so this is how they would see the world and apply the world.

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This is how mothers and fathers ought to speak to their children, to give them a sense that they live in God's world.

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And it is everywhere. So here is instruction on how to practice occasional meditation.

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When you dress yourselves in the morning, awaken your meditation and think thus. Have I been dressing the hidden man of the heart?

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Have I looked at my heart in the glass or mirror of God's word? Have I put on my clothes?

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Have I put on Christ? Paul uses that language, the metaphors, doesn't he? When you sit down at dinner, let your meditation feed upon this first course.

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How blessed are those who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. You know, when we sit down for a meal, we ought to think about things like that.

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What a royal feast will that be that God prepares. What a love feast will that be where none shall be admitted but friends.

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He goes on. It's like the person, the days unfolding. When you go to bed at night, imagine this.

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That shortly I shall put off the earthly clothes of my body and make my bed in the grave. When you see a poor man going on the streets, raise this meditation.

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Here is a walking picture of Christ. He had no place to lay his head. My Savior became poor that I, through His poverty, might be made rich.

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Nearly a quote from 2 Corinthians. When you walk abroad in your orchard and you see plants bearing and the herbs nourishing, think how pleasing a sight it is to God, seeing a thriving

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Christian. How beautiful are the trees of righteousness when they are hung full of fruit, when they abound in faith, humility, and knowledge.

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When you eat the grape from the tree or the vine, think of Christ, the true vine. How precious is the blood of the grape.

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Such rare clusters grow there that the angels themselves delight to taste of. An allusion to Peter, speaking about angels, desire to look into these matters.

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He went on and on and on. I just gave a little foretaste of some of the things he said. We ought to be able to, we're in God's world.

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And everything is a manifestation of His glory. You know, the psalmist wrote, day after day, the creation shouts out the glory of God.

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Night after night, it's a display of who God is, what He's like. And we ought to, you know, we're creatures of the earth and we're fallen.

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And so we think of our own selves, our own little world, finite. And the ways and thoughts and the philosophies of the world encroach upon our thinking.

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And we're to escape that. And we do so through spiritual meditation. But aside from occasional meditation, there is, there was, what they call deliberate meditation.

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This is a part of your daily quiet time. And I read in one place, it's not in your notes,

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I read one place where he said, you know, he said, I would advise a half an hour.

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And it's best in the morning as you're preparing for the day. They would regard this as a more important kind of meditation than the occasional.

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This is part of their daily devotion, set time every day. Calumny described this practice as when a man sets apart some time, goes into a private closet or a private walk, and there solemnly and deliberately meditate of the things of heaven.

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And you find examples of this in Scripture. Isaac, where was he? He was out in the fields meditating when the servant came with Rebecca, his future wife.

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Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. I enjoy walking outside at night when the stars are out.

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I meditate when I'm in my shop, working on my house. Those are some of the most fruitful times.

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One of them wrote how this meditation is absolutely essential to sermon making. Jonathan Edwards used to ride his horse out there in Northampton region.

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He'd do it daily. Some might prefer

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David's practice. How did he meditate? When I remember you on my bed, he's praying to God, I meditate on you in the night watches because you've been my help.

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Therefore, in the shadow of your wings, I rejoice. My soul follows close behind you. Your right hand upholds me.

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These are his thoughts when he couldn't sleep at night. What were our thoughts when we can't sleep at night?

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Some of us are plagued with that kind of thing. Another described four sources of material upon which to practice this deliberate meditation.

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First, from Scripture. Second, reflecting on practical truths of Christianity categories.

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Third, providential occasions from one's own experience, reflecting on the death of a brother -in -law and family and whatnot.

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Or sermons. One of the greatest compliments that was ever given to me was by a man in Germany.

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And he was talking about his close friend who had proceeded to be his pastor, who was a very eloquent and he was a good man, articulate preacher.

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And then I followed. And he said, you know, Lars, he says, he says, one thing that from you, he says,

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I used to really be lifted high when I listened to Ronnie. But I find that I'm still thinking about what you said on Wednesday.

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I thought I'll go that route. I'll prefer that. One wrote, it's better to hear one sermon only and meditate on that than hear two sermons and meditate on neither.

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Some of the Puritans suggested subjects on which to meditate. They would focus on a particular aspect of life and mull over the biblical teaching, respecting the matter from every possible angle.

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And so Joseph Hall listed 87 subjects on which to meditate. I listed them at the end of your notes.

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Please don't read them now. More reasons we should practice spiritual meditation as we close things up.

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Well, again, first of all, because God commanded us to do so. And then secondly, because of the great benefit that comes to us.

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And thirdly, because of the great loss, if we fail to do so, we ought to be spiritually minded people that we can draw other people to see that they're living in God's world.

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You see a mother with a newborn baby in the store, you know, God bless you. God has been very good to you.

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He's given you life. I'll pray that the Lord help you to raise this child to his glory.

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You know, what mother isn't going to receive that kind of word? We're to help people realize, you know, we're in God's world.

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The psalmist, we won't read Psalm 19, but the psalmist talks about how he meditated on the

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Lord. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

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And down at verse 14, he wrote, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, there it is, be acceptable in your sight,

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O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. We ought to be a meditating people. In another place,

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David expressed, Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Puritans gave reasons for meditation.

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We should meditate because God commands us to do. We should meditate on the word as a letter that God has written to us.

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Third, one cannot be a solid Christian without meditating. Thomas Manton said,

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Faith is lean, ready to starve, unless it's fed with continual meditation on the promises. As David saith,

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Psalm 119, Unless the law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction.

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Watson wrote, A Christian without meditation is like a soldier without arms, or a workman without tools.

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Without meditation, the truths of God will not stay with us. The heart is hard, the memory slippery, and without meditation, all is lost.

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Four, without meditation, the preached word will fail to profit us. Watson, there's much difference between the knowledge of a truth and the meditation of a truth, as there is between the light of a torch and the light of the sun.

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Again, this is typical Watson. Set up a lamp or a torch in the garden and it has no influence.

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Nothing grows. The sun has a sweet influence. It makes plants to grow and the herbs to flourish.

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So knowledge is but like a torch lighted in the understanding, which has little or no influence.

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It makes a man no better. But meditation is like the shining of the sun. It operates on the affections.

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It warms the heart and makes it more holy. Meditation fetches life from a truth.

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Isn't that beautiful? Without meditation, fifth, our prayers will be less effective.

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Meditation must follow hearing and precede prayer, wrote Manton. Six, Christians who fail to meditate are unable to defend the truth.

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They've got no background and little self -knowledge. And seventh, the Puritans taught that such meditation is an essential part of sermon preparation.

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And it is. I remember reading

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D. Martin Lloyd -Jones years ago and how you'd say, you know, that he spent his idle time preaching sermons to himself.

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It's just how they kind of emerge. But you have to be thinking in the right avenues, with a direction in that way, or it's not going to happen.

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Well, I've listed obstacles. You know, we've all got excuses. I'm too busy. I'm too ignorant.

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Maybe I'm too lazy. I've got worldly pleasures and friendships that take precedence.

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There are all kinds of excuses. And then from Beakey's book, Puritan Reform Spirituality, which is a wonderful book.

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And there's one chapter in there on meditation from which I got most of this information. It's just a wonderful book. I recommend it.

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He listed 22 reasons for meditation. We're not going to read them, but they are there for you.

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And then again, as I mentioned before, after, at the end,

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I listed actually two lists. One, subjects of deliberate meditation from Puritans.

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This was collected by Joel Beakey, and it's according to classical categories of systematic theology.

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And the numbers in parentheses, it's the second to the last page, he mentioned, he identified the number of Puritan writers he found addressing each of these subjects.

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And then the Joseph Hall list included how many? 84 subjects that he suggested for deliberate meditation.

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In other words, he'd take one and just zero in on it and pray about it, consider it.

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What does Scripture say about this? What's my understanding of it? What do other people say about it?

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And just think about this matter and work it through. And it's the ones who meditate on the word of God that profit from it, who are transformed by it, and will have an influence on others through it.

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Important discipline that, Lord willing, each of us will apply more diligently.

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This is an area that when it's opened up, you realize, I've got a long way to go, and there's a lot that can be done yet in the time the

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Lord gives us, amen? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word.

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We thank you, our God, for people you've raised up through history to help teach us your word, illustrate it, and apply it to us.

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Help us, our God, to be ones characterized by spiritual meditation upon the things of Jesus Christ, upon the things of your word, that,

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Lord, we might love you more, that we might better know you and know your ways among us, and that we might better understand what your will is, that we might walk in ways that please you.