A Firm Foundation 8

Right, is it? Ready.

Excellent.

Raul always flatters me when he kind of looks, decides, and then puts his earpiece in.

Sometimes I'll start and I'll see him take it out and throw it away.

Or my favorite, my favorite is, I'll start telling him some of my best stories and I'm about a few seconds and he'll say, is this a long story? Because I'm already bored.

I did that to me in surgery.

Oh God.

It's pouring out my heart.

Raul, this is a long story.

Okay team, I don't, if you can't see that.

If you're upset and you care, feel free to shift.

All right team, well, we have taken up in our series on scripture several questions which commonly suggest themselves to thoughtful inquiring minds.

Questions concerning scripture's authority, clarity, historicity, canonicity, transmission.

And if you are just joining us and these are questions of interest to you, the recordings are accessible on Trinity website.

I was supposed to say that.

Okay, well, we want to conclude our series on a most practical note.

Come on in, come on in team, you're making it.

Perfect timing, we're just beginning here.

We want to conclude this series on a most practical note.

Taking up not so much a further doctrine or belief about scripture as a practice with regard to scripture.

For as vital for disciples of Jesus as are their right beliefs about scripture or anything for that matter.

Having the right beliefs as James disturbingly reminds us will not necessarily distinguish us from demons.

As James says in James 2.19, even the demons believe.

As Jonathan Edwards glosses this, Satan himself is educated in the best divinity school in the universe, the heaven of heavens.

So we must put these beliefs into practice.

That's going to be what we want to focus on in this final session, to explore a practice together.

Namely, how do we engage the scriptures that we now hopefully appropriately esteem.

How do we engage the scriptures to our spiritual prophet?

Or, to use the language of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3.16,

how do we get the word of Christ to come to dwell in us richly?

And sisters and brothers, I can think of few more vital and practical subjects as this.

And this topic is, for me, one that is kind of mingled with wonderful nostalgia and memories.

For I want to take as my guiding text a passage of scripture that my dad opened up to me when I was a young man.

In fact, actually just a little boy.

I can remember it so vividly.

Just opening up the scripture and saying, hey, let's work through a passage, son.

And what he did, I knew from his life that what he was giving to me was not incidental,

but at the heart of his own life and walk with God.

Dad lived in the word.

My earliest memories are running through the woods, memorizing scripture with him.

We even had this arrangement that if I memorized a verse, I was a really little guy.

If I memorized a verse, he would memorize the chapter in which it was contained.

We would do that together.

I really got him once, and I memorized one in Psalm 119.

He memorized the whole thing.

And if I memorized the chapter, he'd have to memorize the book.

But, yeah, it was a good arrangement.

Start with the verse.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And countless times over breakfast, I would see him kind of with boyish delight.

Just he'd open up his Bible and say, look what I found in the word today.

Isn't this fantastic?

Look at this.

Look at this.

And his engagement with the word was not episodic.

There was really no ebb or flow.

It was really consistent.

In fact, the day that he died, he died in a bicycle accident.

And he was rooting the word.

Maybe that's why he crashed, because he had his little verse pack with him.

He's memorizing scripture.

He was riding his bike.

But the Lord took him.

And so, all this to say, this model came to me with the credit of a godly life, which bore much fruit.

And I want to pass it on.

That's what I want to do today.

And he took this outline from the book of James.

James 1, 21 to 25.

Let me read that.

Read that for us.

James 1.

James 1, verse 20.

James 1:20

Picking up in 21.

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But 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 is like one who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once 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.

She will be blessed in all she is doing.

All right.

All right.

There we go.

The context of this is the role of the word in bringing spiritual life.

So verse 18, just before, we have been brought forth by the word of truth.

So now James goes on to explain how that word sustains the life that it has inaugurated.

And so I'm going to adopt the outline that dad gave me, and illustrate the truths with profuse and delightful reference to the Puritans, particularly.

I'm rather fond of the Puritans.

So here are the four steps that dad drew from this passage.

First, when we come to the word preparation, verse 21, preparation.

Putting aside all filthiness.

Or in the inimitable King James Version, superfluity of naughtiness.

What a phrase.

Put away all superfluity of naughtiness.

You know, often we dive right in to scriptures.

But it's fitting and needful to prepare our hearts for the engagement.

As Thomas Watson, these people that I'm naming, they're all just famous Puritans.

As Thomas Watson put it, many come rashly to the reading of the word.

And no wonder if they come without preparation, that they go away without profit.

Or Thomas Manton.

They that look for the bridegroom had need trim up their lamps.

In agricultural metaphor, weed before you seed.

Weed before you seed.

Jeremiah 4 tells us, plow up the fallow ground, sow not among thorns.

Sometimes, you know, if I haven't dealt with my heart and I just dive right into scripture,

it's like I'm trying to sow good seed among thorns.

We don't want to do that.

So how do we put aside all this superfluity of naughtiness?

Well, we check to see if we're cherishing any sin.

And David's prayer is a good model here in Psalm 139, 23, where,

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

See if there be any wicked, hurtful way in me.

And if the Holy Spirit reveals anything, well, we confess it, according to 1 John 1, 9,

and he will cleanse us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So we just simply repair to the fountain.

In those wonderful words of Zechariah, that fountain opened for sin and impurity.

Or as I told our girls as they were growing up, you know,

you wash your hands before the meal.

And that's what we're doing with respect to scripture.

We're just washing our hands before our meal.

The second part of preparation concerns our attitude or our disposition.

Notice how it says there, in humility.

In humility.

So we place ourselves under the word and recognize its authority.

It judges us.

Not we it.

So we need to drop our defensive guarded posture.

And rather read with a readiness to submit to it.

And where does God disclose himself?

Well, the highest heaven, it says, but also to the humblest heart.

Isn't that wonderful?

Isaiah 66, 2.

But to this one I will look.

To him who is humble and of contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.

Or Luke 1 puts it this way, 52 and 53.

He gives grace to the humble.

He hath filled the hungry with good things.

So we want to come to the word hungry and humble.

Hungry and humble.

And then in the final phrase of our text in James here.

Receive the word.

Notice, able to save.

This highlights our dependence upon the scriptures.

We need to welcome the scriptures work in our lives.

For the Bible's work in our hearts is God's saving work.

Recall that receiving the word is a condition of salvation.

I want to be really careful here.

Not for salvation, but of salvation.

In other words, if we are being saved, we are necessarily receiving the word.

These things just are correlates.

They will go together.

They will go together.

So there's our preparation.

That's the first step.

Preparation.

Any questions or comments about preparation?

You seeing this in the text?

Emerge from the text?

Okay.

Yeah, pretty straightforward, I guess.

All right.

So, with heart prepared, we turn to the second step.

And that is, again, borrowing from my dad, meditation.

Meditation.

And this is suggested by the word that we have in verse 25.

What's rendered in our text?

Looks intently.

Looks intently.

Parakupsis is the word.

It's kind of like the image of bending over and peering.

It's the same word that's used of John, you know, at the tomb.

Bending over and peering in and looking with all your strength.

Referring to the disciples of the sepulchre in Luke 24, 17.

Or, wonderfully, that marvelous phrase in 1 Peter 1, 12, about the angels desiring to search out God's saving actions.

They longed to look into salvation.

Same thing.

So, what is it that we intently look into?

What is the object of our meditation?

Meditation.

Actually, let me add a little sidebar here.

And because as evangelicals, oftentimes we narrow the scope of our meditation.

But then we're kind of parting company with a long and hallowed tradition of Christian sisters and brothers

who also believe that we can meditate on nature and providence.

So, Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God.

Or, Acts 17, God is the shaper of history.

So, these are also areas where we can meditate.

It does have a long and faithful pedigree.

As Thomas Manton puts it,

A gracious heart, that is a believing heart,

A gracious heart is like an alembic.

An alembic, it's like an apparatus of distillation.

It distills things.

A gracious heart is like a distillation apparatus.

It can distill useful meditations out of all things it meeteth with.

As it seeth all things in God, so it seeth God in all things.

Isn't that wonderful?

As it seeth all things in God, in the framework of God.

For from him and to him and through him, or through him and to him are all things.

We see all things in God, therefore we see God in all things.

Wonderful, wonderful thought.

And again, John Owen and his great work on spiritual mindedness.

He actually, the first one that he takes is a characteristic of a spiritual person.

is that they are able to discern God's hand in providence.

Interesting, isn't it?

Jonathan Edwards' work, Divine Emblems.

Everything has a stamp of their creator.

So he turns to nature to distill some meditations from.

John Bunyan's Divine Emblems, too, is another.

In fact, probably the first book of poetry for children in the English language.

John Bunyan's Divine Emblems, wonderful, where he says, go to the ant and you'll have a little

poem about an ant and some sort of useful meditation for children and for grownups, too.

Those are the book, the stripe of books that parents love to read to their kids because

they're so good.

So, but nature or history cannot be an adequate supply of any new content to revelation.

Okay?

All it can do is really, it cannot inform, it can just impress.

So we know what we know from Scripture, from his revelation.

But then this bright, wonderful world and the motions of history can illustrate and impress

these truths that we've got from Scripture.

And what a wonderful gift that is, that he surrounds us with all these things because

we need impression.

We need impressing if we're going to walk a godly life.

So, I just add that because sometimes that's new for this most recent generation.

Oh, we can meditate on nature and history and stuff, too?

Yes, we can.

But, but the chief object of meditation is Scripture.

And this is the object that James, in our passage, is indicating.

Notice, he refers to it as the perfect law.

Parallel to where else in Scripture you would see the law of the Lord in Psalm 1 or Psalm

119.

Okay?

Does this just refer to the laws of the Bible like the Ten Commandments?

It might seem so, the law of the Lord?

No.

No.

James here, and this is the common biblical idiom, is not speaking of a particular portion

of God's word.

Rather, all of God's word considered authoritatively.

That's why it's very natural to refer to all of God's word is the law.

It's not all law per se, but all of it is authoritative.

It comes to us that way, and it highlights that aspect.

So, that's what's going on there.

And the term is a helpful one, for it reminds us that we need to accept its authority completely.

If you get rid of what you don't like, you can't wrestle with God.

God can't challenge you and correct you.

It can't then be a life-changing encounter.

As we consider meditation, let me enforce how vital it is for the disciple, but alas, how

commonly neglected.

As Richard Baxter writes, why so much preaching is lost among us.

And professors, not university appointments, but those who claim to have faith, professors,

you know.

And professors can run from sermon to sermon, and are never weary of hearing or reading,

and yet have such languishing, starved souls.

I know no truer or greater cause than their ignorance and unconscionable neglect of meditation.

Isn't that interesting?

And pretty scary.

So, there we are running from sermon to sermon to sermon, getting all this stuff,

and yet our souls can still be languishing, languishing, starved souls.

And he says, it's the lack of meditation.

The lack of meditation.

Yeah.

But I'm sure that the reason for that is because they were much more distracted by media than

we are today.

So, I'm sure we don't have these sorts of problems.

It is helpful to consider meditation in relation to, first, the dynamic, how it works, and then

the discipline, how we work at it.

Okay?

How it works, and then how we work at it.

So, first, the dynamic.

How does it work?

Psalm 1 tells us that the one who meditates is like a tree.

And just, you know, running with a better word.

Water comes in one end and fruit at the other.

Okay?

Unlike a pipe where it's water in, water out.

Okay?

A change, a change takes place in the substance of the tree.

And this is what meditation does.

Meditation.

Here's an important phrase.

Meditation makes the word flesh.

Meditation makes the word flesh.

It takes the principles and truths and works them into our being.

Meditation.

Meditation.

Meditation.

Emotionally.

Affectively.

Actively.

Actively.

The word becomes us.

Meditation is a way to make the Bible like the burning bush before Moses.

out of which God speaks to us

directly and arrestingly.

Meditation is the descent of the mind

into the heart.

And as with the Mount of Transfiguration,

the truth begins to shine.

And as with the Mount of Transfiguration,

you remember,

as the truth is transfigured before us,

that's what transforms us.

Truth in its transfiguration,

that's what transforms us.

Truth works into and explodes in the heart

like a combustion engine,

kind of imparting the soul with speed and strength.

Or think of the heart like photographic film.

I don't know.

Remember that ancient thing that we happened so long ago?

The photographic film,

chemically treated to make it sensitive to light.

Okay?

And that's the Holy Spirit working on the heart

to make it sensitive to the impressions.

And then meditation brings the truth like light,

impressing itself upon the heart

that's prepared or sensitized by the Holy Spirit.

And the corresponding images that it creates,

that are produced,

are these new affections.

What then our heart longs for

and is delighted with.

That's the change.

It's a wonderful one.

And meditation actually reworks

the affectional currents of our heart

such that they can start flowing

in different directions.

Like they did with the Chicago River.

I don't know how they do this,

but they actually got the river

to start flowing in a different direction.

And that's what meditation does to our hearts.

And oh, do we not have a need for that,

for some change in the currents.

And simple Bible reading,

even Bible study,

and I'm really a fan of Bible reading

and Bible study.

You know, don't get me wrong here.

But even these things will not achieve this.

Such inner working really requires meditation.

As Thomas Watson writes,

study is the finding out of a truth.

Meditation is the spiritual improvement of a truth.

The Puritans would use improvement,

that it changes us,

it makes us different people.

That's what they meant by improvement.

The spiritual improvement of a truth.

The one searcheth for the vein of gold.

The other digs out the gold.

Study.

Oh, listen to this metaphor.

Study is like a winter sun

that hath little warmth and influence.

Meditation melts the heart when it is frozen

and makes it drop into tears of love.

What a wonderful metaphor.

A winter sun.

Or again, with a similar metaphor.

This is Thomas Watson.

There is as 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.

Set up a lamp or a torch in the garden

and it hath no influence.

The sun hath a sweet influence.

It maketh the plants to grow

and the herb to flourish.

So, or likewise,

knowledge is but like a torch

lighted in the understanding

which hath little or no influence.

It maketh not a man the better.

But meditation is like the shining of the sun.

It operates upon the affections.

It warms the heart and makes it holy.

Meditation fetcheth life in a truth.

That is, pulls life out of the truth.

If we would experience real change,

we must give ourselves to meditation.

A man shall as soon live without his heart,

writes Thomas Brooks,

as he shall be able to get good

by what he reads without meditation.

Wow, I mean, this is really forceful claims.

But these people have credibility.

They really do.

A man shall as soon live without his heart,

as he shall be able to get good

by what he reads without meditation.

Excellent.

You say that study is like looking at a meal,

but meditation is eating it.

Excellent.

And in fact, I'm going to use,

Baxter's going to use a metaphor

just like that in just a moment.

That's excellent.

Saints have a lasting rest

or the Reformed passage?

Saints have a lasting rest.

Yeah, yeah, that one.

No, yeah.

So these are some vaunting claims, friends.

You know, do you feel like it overstates the case

or do you feel the ring of truth to this?

So how may we practice this vital discipline?

Okay, so we were looking at the dynamic,

you know, how it works.

Now, the discipline that we must practice,

how we work at it, okay?

Meditation is the essential discipline

of all of the disciplines.

And really, it's a compound discipline

involving both study and prayer.

As Thomas Manton explains,

meditation is a middle sort of duty

between word and prayer

and hath respect to both.

The word feedeth meditation

and meditation feedeth prayer.

And the prayer that arises

is what we might call answering prayer.

Okay, this is distinct from calling prayer.

Okay, Peter steps out of the boat.

Help me, Jesus, I'm drowning.

Okay, that's calling prayer.

Okay, really great.

And we want to do it all the time.

All right.

But in answering prayer,

God chooses the subject.

He sets the tone

and he commences the conversation.

You see, meditation begins with Bible study

but proceeds to prayer.

But see there, but God is choosing

what the subject matter is

of the conversation with that.

In the wonderful phrase of Richard Baxter,

meditation is taking the truth

and praying it down into your soul

until it catches fire.

Praying the truth down into your soul

until it catches fire.

Helpful on the meditation process,

I find Augustine.

There are a few of them I'm talking about.

Augustine of Hippo, 354 to 430.

And he speaks of meditation

as the ascent of the soul into God

and breaks down the discipline

into three steps.

Okay, three steps.

The first he calls retentio.

Retentio.

Okay.

And this is the distillation

of the truths of scripture

and holding them centrally

before our mind.

Basically, Bible study.

And here, observational skills

are really key.

So pray with David

for powers of observation

as we do this.

Psalm 119, verse 18,

Psalms 119:18

open my eyes.

And you grow in this,

we grow in this,

by forcing ourselves to do it

and just staying at it.

Kind of like what we know to do

with our kids

when we're teaching them

to eat a meal.

Good, take a bite.

Good, good.

Okay, take another one.

Yep, lift the fork,

open the mouth,

put it in.

Chew, chew, chew.

Good, okay.

Now take another one.

You just have to keep at it.

We don't do this naturally.

Louie Agassiz,

19th century Harvard naturalist,

would have his students observe

a fish in a bowl

for two whole days.

Graduate students would come up

and he was the most,

you know,

father of natural science

in America,

Louie Agassiz.

I mean, you'd study with him,

you were going to be great.

And they'd show up,

you know,

pretty confident

that they were the cat's pajamas

and he'd say,

here, stare at this fish

and make some observations.

And he would make them do it.

He would hold their head

to the bowl

for two days.

Two days.

And they'd go crazy.

But they'd get to be good.

You know,

one time he was asked,

what was your greatest

contribution scientifically?

And this guy had a CV

and he said,

I have taught

men and women

to observe.

That was his greatest,

that's what he felt

to be his greatest contribution.

And lingering

is required.

This is not cursory,

but protracted.

Thomas Manton writes,

the Christian

is like some heavy birds

as the bustard,

I guess the buzzard,

and others

that cannot get upon wing

without a run

of a furlong or two.

Have you seen those things?

What a great image.

You see him kind of flapping,

trying to get up

off the ground.

And we're like that.

Manton again writes,

content not thyself

with the surface

of the truth,

like a swallow

skimming the water

of a lake.

But get into

the bowels of it.

Puritans are a real model here.

They would see the text

like a multifaceted diamond.

And they'd kind of hold it up

and gaze at it

for a long, long time,

make observations,

and then just slightly turn it,

look at another face of it,

then slightly turn it,

keep looking at that.

Often they would write

entire books

on a single verse.

On a single verse.

A common phrase

that is always spoken

with this thrill and delight

is,

ah,

this verse is full of matter.

It's full of matter.

Here's perhaps

my all-time favorite

Richard Baxter quote.

Okay?

57thly.

Unbelievable!

57thly.

He's given you a list

of his observations.

You know in his sermon,

57thly.

You know,

even the most stalwart

preacher today

will never get to 57 points.

But they did.

Routinely.

57thly.

Ah.

Yeah,

that has a savor

of heaven about that.

And we need to,

we need to break

these observational barriers.

You know what I mean?

Well,

you're staring at the Bible,

you think you've got everything,

you think you've got everything,

but you stay at it,

and then suddenly,

boom!

And then so much more

comes in.

I used to do this

with disciples

in the early days

where we'd take

John 3.16.

They'd even memorize.

They thought,

I know it!

I know it!

Say,

all right, men,

we're going to make

100,

and women,

I did it with my daughters too,

we're going to make

100 observations.

And, you know,

it was agony

keeping them there,

you know,

just like eating.

Take another bite of peas,

you know,

there's nothing more,

no, no, no, no, no, no.

You know,

I'd physically hold their head,

you know,

so they can't move.

You know,

we'd fetter them.

But it was one of the most

exciting experiences they had.

They'd get to 100 observations

on a single verse,

and it changed their lives.

It changed their lives.

They couldn't believe it.

Oh, my goodness.

Well,

some practical aids

for the process.

You know,

when you're looking at a text,

paraphrase it.

You think you understand it?

Try to put it

in your own words.

Whoa,

pretty challenging.

Outline it.

Forces you to discern connections.

Here's one.

Isolate one word.

What is this ad?

What if I take this word away?

What goes missing?

Just one word.

Bombard it with questions.

The journalistic questions.

These prompt observations.

Just like reading a book.

You know,

you want to,

you know,

before you go into a book,

go into a book with questions,

or else you're not going to

end up with answers.

You know,

like,

oh, wow,

I just,

I just read War and Peace.

Wow,

well,

what was it about?

Oh,

Russia?

Start with questions,

or you're not going to end up

with any answers.

Here's a leaf

from Jonathan Edwards.

This is a discipline

that he had.

He took a Bible

and broke open the spine,

and then he would put blank pages

between the pages of text,

and it was already one

that had the massive margins.

And then he would just,

he would just make observations

all over this blank Bible.

And this is what I'll offer to you.

If I need to preach on something,

or if I need to meditate on something,

I'll just take a big piece of paper,

just write the verse out

in the middle of the thing,

and then there's just white,

and then just fill it

with observations.

Fill it with observations.

And clearly,

this is not the kind of

through the Bible

in a year approach,

but it's very,

very rewarding.

When you slow down,

you will see things

that you would have missed

kind of with the flyover

or the drive-by technique.

It was like that's

when we talked on the phone

or on our ride,

Psalm 119, 36 and 37.

Turn my heart from,

incline my heart to your testimonies

and not to covetousness.

Turn my eye away

from looking at worthless things

and revive me in your way.

And all those first words,

me and you,

I found out that it was God

who turned my eyes.

Yes.

It was God who revived me.

Yes.

It was God who inclined

my heart to his ways

and not me.

Yes.

He was doing it.

That's how you find,

oh, I don't do anything.

It's him who does everything.

Excellent.

It's the glory of scripture.

That's a great idea.

I never saw that.

Yeah.

I'm like, oh, I don't do this.

He does it.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

I mean, you will go away

laden with riches

if you linger and meditate.

Absolutely.

It seemed,

writes Jonathan Edwards,

it seemed,

or sorry,

I seemed

often to see

so much light

exhibited

by every sentence

and such refreshing

food communicated

that I could not

get along

in reading.

Often dwelling long

on one sentence

to see the wonders

contained in it.

And yet almost

every sentence

seemed to be

so full of wonder.

Don't you

hear that confession

beckoning you?

Come on and see.

Come on and see.

So there's the first step.

Retentio.

This is kind of Augustine's

how do we do this.

Second step.

Contemplatio.

Contemplatio.

Contemplation, I guess.

Here, we seek

to gaze at God

through the truths

that we have distilled.

Okay, we move

from breaking down

the truth,

analysis,

to gazing at it

as a whole,

intuition,

so to speak.

Okay?

And the Puritans

would draw from

gemology

to elucidate.

You know,

they would say,

well, the first is

cutting the diamond

painstakingly.

And then the second

is holding it up

and admiring its beauty.

Admiring its beauty.

Or if you're a musician,

you're moving

from studying the score

to actually hearing

the music.

And so,

we take the truths

from our study

and,

says Samuel Ward,

oh,

I love this.

We roll them under,

roll them under

thy tongue.

Chew on them

till thou feel

some sweetness

in the palate

of thy soul.

Isn't that great?

I remember

when I was little kids,

missionary kids,

once a week,

we'd go to the candy store

and we'd each get

to get one piece

of candy.

And I'd get the toffee

because it was so good

and it would last

a long time

and I'd find that

part of your tongue

that was most responsive

to sweetness

and I would roll

that thing under my tongue

and it would last me

all five blocks

walking home.

You know,

and that's what he says,

do it with scripture.

You know,

roll them under

thy tongue.

Chew on them

till thou feel

some sweetness

in the palate

of thy soul.

Isn't that a wonderful image?

Oh,

Samuel Ward,

thank you,

dear brother.

And here,

we labor to make

our portion

in meditation

become a window

or an oculus

and we want to

yearn with all

of our strength

to see Christ,

to behold his glory

in that text.

Christ.

So,

I ask myself there,

how can I adore

Christ in this truth?

What here stirs me

to praise?

What attribute

of God

sparkles here?

This is where,

in the wonderful

phrase of Martin

Lloyd-Jones,

the truth

begins to shine.

The truth

begins to shine.

Where you begin

to feel

his reality

pressing upon you

and his attributes

begin to blaze.

Here,

meditation becomes

the bellows

of the affections.

Remember those things?

You know,

on the coal.

That's Thomas Watson.

Like bellows

on the coal

of what we have

taken in

in our Bible study.

So,

meditation is bellows.

This is critical

because our hearts,

are they not?

Our hearts

are like

green wood.

They're like

green wood.

Thomas Manton

writes,

green wood

is not kindled

by a flash

or a spark,

but by

constant blowing.

Wonderful.

Then,

Psalm 39.3,

while I meditated,

the fire burned.

Again,

Watson,

the reason

we come away

so cold

from reading

the word

is because

we do not

warm ourselves

at the fire

of meditation.

And this

takes us to

Augustine's

third step,

dilectio.

delight.

Oh, oh, oh, sorry.

Yeah, yeah, here we go.

Dilectio.

Delight.

Delight.

And this

is where

your soul

becomes

a palate

and you

taste of the

glory that's

disclosed.

And we can

scarcely,

this can scarcely

be called a step

because we're

not in control

of this.

It's kind of like

whitewater rafting.

Have you done some of that?

Or kayaking

in these

great

Vermont streams

where

it takes

a lot of

skills,

but the thrill

isn't the skills.

It just takes

skills to stay

on the river,

but the thrill

is the river.

It's the river.

And that's

what we're

coming into now.

You know,

just the thrill

of the river.

That's the delight.

Skills are just

to keep you there.

Turn over my canoe

so fast.

And it's often,

you know,

we're not in control

of this.

It's often,

but it is often

the accompanying

experience.

The accompanying

experience.

We can build

the altar,

but the fire

must fall

from heaven.

And sometimes

our hearts

don't glow.

My heart

doesn't glow.

A lot of the time

my heart

doesn't glow.

It's okay.

I'll come back

tomorrow.

And I'll gaze

again tomorrow.

It's all right.

I learned a lot.

You know,

it's okay.

Sometimes,

writes John Owen.

John Owen.

Sometimes.

Sometimes

these meditations

fill us

with joy

unspeakable

and full

of glory.

There is

to us

granted

a relish

and a

savor

in which

lies

the sweetness

and satisfaction

of the

spiritual life.

We taste

then by

experience

that God

is gracious

and that

the love

of Christ

is better

than wine.

John Owen.

Meditations

on the

glory of

Christ.

Or,

as Richard

Baxter

put it,

sometimes,

don't be

discouraged

if it doesn't

happen often,

sometimes

our meditations

be as the

chariot

of Elijah

and take us

up into

heaven.

Isn't that

wonderful?

Again,

that's

saints'

everlasting

rest.

Before we

move from

meditation,

I want to

underscore

one final

time its

vital

importance

in the

life of

the

disciple.

As Thomas

White writes

in his

Art of Divine

Meditation,

1672,

so these are

periods still,

it is

better

to hear

one sermon

only and

meditate on

that

than to

hear two

sermons

and meditate

on neither.

Okay?

Or as

Baxter

quaintly put it,

Raoul

anticipated

him here,

a man

may eat

too much,

but he

cannot digest

too well.

Isn't

that great?

A man

may eat

too much,

boy do I

know that,

but he

cannot digest

too well.

Saints'

everlasting

rest.

Near the

end,

page 549.

In fact,

the whole

point of

eating,

surely,

is to

digest and

assimilate

it.

That's the

whole point.

Every sermon,

writes James

Usher,

is but

a preparation

for meditation.

Every sermon

is but,

nothing but,

a preparation

for meditation.

Which is a

preparation for

the consummation.

Yeah,

excellent.

That's great.

Yes,

that's right.

It will

accustom us

to our

occupation for

eternity.

That's right.

Faith is

lean,

writes

Manton,

and ready

to starve

unless it

be fed

with

continual

meditation.

So,

as Thomas

Watson writes,

a Christian

without

meditation

is like

a soldier

without

arms,

or a

workman

without

tools.

Without

meditation,

the truths

of God

will not

stay with

us.

The heart

is hard,

and the

memory is

slippery.

And so,

without

meditation,

all is

lost.

All is

lost.

Christ,

so let

me leave

you with

this charge

from the

pen of

Watson.

If you

have

formerly,

formerly

neglected it,

bewail your

neglect,

and now

begin to

make a

conscience

of it.

Lock up

yourself

with God

at least

once a

day by

holy

meditation.

Ascend

this hill,

and when

you are

gotten to

the top

of it,

you shall

see a

fair

prospect.

Christ

and

heaven

before

you.

Let me

put in

your mind

that saying

of Bernard.

He's talking

about Bernard

of Clairvaux,

Saint Bernard.

O saint,

knowest thou

not that

thy husband

Christ is

bashful,

and will

not be

familiar in

company?

Retire

thyself by

meditation into

the closet

or the

field,

and there

thou shalt

have Christ's

embraces.

So,

we have

preparation,

then

meditation,

and the

third step

is

application.

Application.

Verses

22 through

24 and

25.

Or in

the words

of James

here,

our original

text,

becoming

or being

a doer

of the

word and

not merely

a hearer.

Now,

if we

neglect

this step,

we will

have lots

of company,

for we

will merely

swell a

throng that

no man

can count.

Those who

open the

word and

close it

without effect,

like the

fellow who

looks in

the mirror,

but walks

away and

forgets what

he saw,

the gross

deformity,

okay,

the spinach.

and the

result is

no benefit

at all.

Deluded.

Deluded,

James says.

And this

is pervasive,

but perilous.

Perilous.

Bible study

that stops

short of

response

becomes a

tool of

the devil

to make

us like

the other

denizens

of hell,

full of

truth

and

ungodliness.

Or in

Watson's

words,

reading

without

practice

will be

but a

torch

to light

men

to hell.

Okay,

now this

may seem

an extreme

contention,

but minds

more steeped

in scripture

assert the

same thing.

Jonathan

Edwards

has a

sermon

called

True

Grace

Distinguished

from the

Experience

of Devils.

Okay,

True

Grace

Distinguished

from the

Experience

of Devils

in which

he says,

Satan

is educated

in the

best

school

of

divinity,

namely

the

heaven

of

heavens.

Okay,

so it's

not just

knowledge.

And Jesus

underscores

the necessity

of application.

Matthew 7

from Sermon

on the

Mount,

7,

24

through

27.

Remember

contrasting

the person

that builds

their house

on the

rock

and the

person

that builds

on the

sand.

Do you

remember

what the

contrast is?

What is

the difference

between the

one who

builds their

house on

the rock

and builds

their house

on the

sand?

Was it

hearing the

words?

Anybody

remember?

No.

No.

That's right.

That is

correct.

It is he

who hears

these words

of mine

and

puts them

into practice.

Remember

that's the

contrast.

The guy

whose house

is on

the sand,

oh they

hear all

these words,

they hear

all these

words.

They might

give a

tentative

lunch.

So that's

the contrast

there.

Not an

acquaintance

with Christ's

words but

their application

is determinative.

In other

words,

Mark 4

24 and

25,

Jesus makes

a similar

point.

Use what

you've got

or lose

it.

Use or

lose.

He who

has,

more

will be

given.

He who

has not

even what

they have

or thought

he had

will be

taken away.

Apply or

forfeit.

Apply or

forfeit.

And this

crucial step

naturally

becomes the

sure focus

of spiritual

warfare.

Remember what

Jesus said

in the

parable of

the soils?

The devil

comes and

takes away

the seed.

The seed of

the word

that's been

strewn on

us.

The devil

comes and

takes away

the seed.

That is,

keeps would-be

disciples from

acting on

it.

You're no

doubt familiar

with C.S.

Lewis's

Screwtape

letters,

the correspondence

between junior

and senior

demons,

Wormwood and

Screwtape.

So here's,

the great

thing,

writes Screwtape

to Wormwood,

is to prevent

your,

Wormwood's

Christian client,

who he's

trying to

keep from

becoming,

is to

prevent him

doing anything.

As long as he

does not

convert it into

action,

it doesn't

matter how

much he

thinks about

this new

repentance.

Let the

little brute

wallow in

it.

Let him,

if he has

any bent

that way,

to write a

book about

it.

That's

often an

excellent way

of sterilizing

the seeds,

which the

enemy,

because he's

referring to

God when he

says enemy,

these are

demons,

which the

enemy plants

in the

human soul.

Let him

do anything

but act.

We must

remember that

our aim is

ultimately not,

not really to

master the

scriptures,

but for them

to master

us.

That's what

we want.

We get into

the word so

it can get

into us.

And to

this end,

we must keep

telling ourselves

that God is

addressing me

when we

read it.

Kierkegaard,

in a sermon

on this very

verse,

entitled,

What is

required in

order to

look at

oneself with

true blessing

in the

mirror of

the word?

It's a

wonderful

sermon.

He writes,

the first

requirement is

that you

must not

look at

the mirror,

but must

see yourself

in the

mirror.

Isn't that

a wonderful

observation?

As a result

of meditating

on that

very passage,

you know,

what do we

do?

You know,

just looking

at the

Bible,

that's just

like looking

at the

mirror.

But what's

the point

of looking

at a

mirror?

Not

seeing the

mirror.

It's

seeing

yourself

in the

mirror.

That's

what James'

image is

about,

seeing

ourself

in the

mirror.

Kierkegaard

continues,

and remember

to say

to yourself

incessantly,

it is I

to whom

it is

speaking.

It is

I about

whom it

is speaking.

Let me

briefly touch

upon a few

practicals of

application.

a helpful

question to

ask is,

Lord,

what is it

in this

passage or

this truth

that you

are seeking

to impress

upon me?

And why

do you

want me

to know

this now,

today,

at this

moment in

my life?

Lord,

what is

it in

this particular

passage and

truth that

you are

seeking to

impress on

me,

and why

do you

want me

to know

it now,

today?

in this

particular

moment.

And if

you're having

difficulty

coming up

with an

application,

consider the

categories of

2 Timothy 3.16.

Remember,

all scriptures

inspired by

God and

is profitable

for,

and then

use these

categories.

Doctrine,

teaching

truth,

reproof,

refuting

error,

correction,

reformation

of life,

teaching and

righteousness,

that is,

discipline in

right living,

in other

words,

the road,

how you

got off

it,

how to

get back

on it,

and how

to stay

on it.

It's really

comprehensive.

It's wonderful.

Also,

I find

helpful,

consider each

hat that

you wear.

I'm a

disciple of

Jesus.

I'm also a

husband.

I'm a

father.

I'm a son.

I'm a

friend.

I'm an

employee.

I'm a

cyclist.

I'm a

cyclist.

Exactly.

And if

this is

really what

God is

like,

what I

found here

in Scripture,

what difference

does that

make for

how I

live today

as a

father,

as a

husband?

Then you

put your

different hats

on.

How does

this make a

difference for

me in

these different

roles that I

have?

What

emotions,

attitudes,

behaviors

flare up

in these

different

arenas,

in these

different

roles that

I have?

What

flare up

when I

am forgetful

of this

truth?

How would

my private

life,

my family

life,

my church

life,

my friend

life,

my cycling

life be

different if

I grasped

this more

deeply?

So these

are really

helpful

application

questions.

And here

are six

quick tips

to make

it take.

So one,

be specific

in your