Question 2: Are You Governed Increasingly By God’s Word?

The sum and substance of the preparation needed for a coming eternity is that you believe what the Bible tells you and do what the Bible bids you.
--Thomas Chalmers

Are You Governed Increasingly By God’s Word?

What do you believe the most valuable tangible object in the world is?

--The Hope Diamond
--The Mona Lisa
--Michelangelo’s sculpture of David
--The gold mask buried in King Tut’s tomb

As costly as these are the cost of some enormous skyscraper would be higher.

And yet, offer any of these to a man who is hours away from death and I’m sure that he will say no.

Therefore, I submit that the single most valuable item on the earth is the Bible. God’s word is like water, according to Ephesians 5:26. It is also food.

As the prophet Jeremiah said to God, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Jesus himself proclaimed that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

It is true that without physical food our bodies would die in a matter of days. But without soul nourishment, we perish forever.

Food and water are essentials, but there are other things basic to life, and the Word of God is compared to these as well.

--It is called light (Psalm 119:105)
--A fire and a tool (Jeremiah 23:29)
--A weapon (Ephesians 6:17)
--Seed (I Peter 1:23)

Moreover the Word of God is perfect, sure, right, pure, true, and righteous, sweeter than honey, and to be desired more than much fine gold (Psalm 119:72)

It can convert the soul, make wise the simple, rejoice the heart, and enlighten the eyes (Psalm 19:7-9)

The Bible is unlike any other book, religious or secular, “for the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)

Given the incomparable value of Scripture, the Christian’s need for its constant influence cannot be overstated. God’s Word s the manna by which the Heavenly Father feeds His children so that they can grow more into the likeness of His perfect Son. That is why the Lord has told us to “desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:2)

While the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and certain cult groups in our own are evidence that more is needed to become Christlike than megadoses of Scripture, still it is true that little input of God’s Word results in little resemblance to God’s Son.

So one question by which you can evaluate your spiritual health and growth is, “Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?

Like The Imprint Of Words Upon the Air

Do you find yourself inquiring –consciously—how the Bible speaks to specific areas of life? Do you ask others, perhaps those in spiritual leadership or who are mature, to help you apply Scripture in particular situations? Is it your practice to actually turn the pages of the Bible in search of the will of God?

In his nineteenth-century book Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, British minister Octavius Winslow further described those in this spiritual regression:

When a professing [Christian] man can read his Bible with no spiritual taste, or when he searches it, not with a sincere desire to know the mind of the Spirit in order to [walk] a holy and obedient walk, but with a merely curious, or literary taste and aim, it is a sure evidence that his soul is making but a retrograde movement in real spirituality. Nothing perhaps more strongly indicates the tone of a believer’s spirituality, than the light in which the Scriptures are regarded by him. They may be read, and yet be read as any other book, without the deep and solemn conviction that “all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:16-17). They may be read without a spiritual relish, without being turned into prayer, without treasuring up in the heart and reducing to daily practice its holy precepts, its precious promises, its sweet consolations, its faithful warnings, its affectionate admonitions, its tender rebukes.

The person who can content himself with few or routine contacts with Scripture may be manifesting something far worse than spiritual decline.

The Bible characterizes a genuine believer as not merely an admirer of God’s truth, but one who loves it.

The writer of Psalm 119 said repeatedly:
--And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love. V. 47
--My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, which I love. V. 48
--Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. V. 97
--I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law. V. 113
--You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. V. 119
--Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold! V. 127
--I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law! V. 163

Conversely, Scripture speaks of the non-Christian as “those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (II Thessalonians 2:10).

John Piper noted;
“Loving the truth is a matter of perishing or being saved. Indifference to the truth is a mark of spiritual death.”

Are you indifferent to the truth of Scripture? Or does God’s word have a growing influence in your life?

Aren’t we here because we want to be more like Christ? What influence did Scripture have on His earthly life?

The Word Governed By The Word

Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God (John 1:1), was continually governed by the inscribed Word of God.

Just before He started His earthly ministry Jesus went to be Baptized and then came His temptation by Satan. When Satan tempted Him, Jesus went straight to the scriptures. Repeatedly He repulsed the tempter’s crafty beguilements with the words “it is written” (see Matthew 4:1-11).

Jesus could have reasoned:

--Look, Satan, you know that I’m not only a man, I am God. Fully God. God cannot be tempted. You’re wasting your time
--Don’t you realize by now that you can’t win
--Maybe he could have said, My power is greater than yours. He might have challenged Satan to a contest of supernatural abilities, similar to the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:20-40)

Jesus found all the he needed in what God the Father had spoken. For it was here that He hurled Deuteronomy 8:3 at His wicked enemy: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

All throughout the Gospels we find Jesus quoting scripture.

Thought He was undiminished deity, Jesus quoted Scriptures He had memorized as a man, learning them from childhood in the same kinds of ways people like ourselves can.

As it was for Jesus, it is normal for Jesus’ followers to be governed by Scripture.

And those who are becoming more like Jesus will, over time, live more and more “ by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

To The Law And To The Testimony

The prophet Isaiah lived in a time not unlike our own. People commonly sought answers in all the wrong places. “To the law and to the testimony!” the prophet directed his hearers (Isaiah 8:20). “If they do not speak according to this word,” he warned, “it is because there is no light in them.” In other words, if people’s lives aren’t guided by God’s revelation, it’s because they are spiritual darkness. The light of God’s Spirit has never dawned within them.

As Spirit-Indwelled people grow to resemble Jesus more and more, they should think more quickly and more often, “to the law and to the testimony!” This means immediately asking yourself, “What does the Bible say?” when dealing with even the common issues, whenever you have a question about anything.

All of life—events and choices great or small—should be governed by the Word of God.

To live this way requires the constant consultation of Scripture. And this is exactly what the well-known words of Psalm 119:105 imply:

Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.

Wherever we go, whatever decisions are before us, the way of life should be illuminated by God’s Word. To live otherwise us to walk in darkness.

No Christian, of course, always and perfectly lives in accordance with Scripture. Only Jesus has done that.

So we speak of being governed by Scripture as:

1) A general characteristic of a true follower of Jesus

2) Something that increasingly characterizes the growing Christian.

The Bible should be the measure and evaluator of all things in the life of every believer. God categorically claims that His Word can equip us for EVERY good work:

II Timothy 3:16-17
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Developing Your Dependence On God’s Word

Deepening your desire for God’s word.

I Peter 2:2
2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

Without spiritual food there is no spiritual growth. And the best way to cultivate this is to feast on the Word of God.

Don’t simply read the scriptures but meditate on it.

What do the words tell you about Christ?

How can you experience deeper communion with Him because of what’s written there?

For what situation or person could you use the passage as a basis for prayer?

Try rewriting the verse in your own words.

Find at least one way you could apply it.

Make time for God’s Word.

Read the Bible daily and do not close it until you know at least one thing God would have you do in response to your reading.

Five areas to consider for a biblical perspective.

➢ Church: attendance, baptism, membership, serving in, giving to, learning in, praying with, fellowship, Lord’s Supper, promoting unity
➢ Discipleship: meditation on Scripture, prayer, evangelism, missions, priorities/stewardship
➢ Family
➢ Money
➢ Word

Train yourself to ask, “How does the Bible speak to this?”