Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, July 14th. God's word is like a compass. our essential guide for every step of the journey. Stay with us for a timely warning about the dangers of wandering from the Word. Most everything we purchase today comes with an instruction book.
And usually what we do, we have a tendency to sort of glance at it. and then lay it aside, and then with our expertise of knowing all things about all things, we attempt to put it together. And so What we do is we sort of lay the instruction book aside, and after about an hour or two of absolute frustration, we humbly resort to the instruction book and find out how it all works, how you put it together.
Now we knew in the very beginning that Ever who made this and gave us instruction book Certainly she'd know how to put it together or how it works. But somehow we just think we can do it without the instruction book.
Well in life it's the same way. We have an instruction book on how to live. And when we just sort of give it a glance here and there once in a while, Try to put our life together, try to make things work exactly right. and ignore the book. We have the same frustration, only with far more devastating results.
This is God's instruction book. This is the infallible. Inerrant word of the living God. This is his message to mankind. This is his message to tell us How to live.
The tellers about himself. how to relate to each other. and all the things in life that you and I need. Nobody is smart enough to live in this life and ignore the instruction book for life, which is the Word of God. And then some of us who know it.
and know it well, make this awful mistake of wandering from it. We stray from it. And we think that somehow we have enough experience in life and enough knowledge that somehow we'll make it work even without this book. It just doesn't work. And the title of this message is Wandering from the Word.
And I want you to turn, if you will, to Psalm 119. And I want us to begin with verse 9 of the longest chapter in the whole Bible. How can a young man keep his way pure? by keeping it according to thy word. With all my heart I have sought thee.
Look at this next phrase.
Next prayer. Do not let me wander from thy commandments. Thy word I have treasured in my heart. that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord.
Teach me thy statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on thy precepts and regard thy ways. I shall delight in thy statutes.
I shall not forget thy word. The first thing I want to say is simply this, that to wander from the word is to obstruct God's purpose for the Word. That is, when you and I wander from the word, we stray from this and we just... Lay it aside, it's not a vital part of our life. What we do, we obstruct God's very purpose.
for giving us His Word.
Now, I divide that up into two parts. First of all, what is promotional, and second, what is preventive. And you say, well, what do you mean by that? Simply this. I want you to notice in this ninth verse what he says.
He says, how can a young man keep his way pure? And then he answers that by saying, by keeping it according to thy word. That is, how does anyone live a godly life? And if you'll notice, he doesn't give us a long list of answers. He says there's just one way.
And he simply says, By keeping our life according to thy word, or by so guiding our life and so governing and controlling and disciplining ourselves that our life. Complies with and is in accordance to and is lived by the principles of the Word of God.
So, first of all, He gives it to us to encourage us and instruct us to live a godly life. That is his purpose. Instruction. encouragement to live a godly life. He says if you want to live that kind of life, you just keep moving your lifestyle, your conduct, your conversation, your character until it is in keeping with the principles of Scripture.
That's the first reason. The second purpose he has in mind is that you and I might know God.
Now, there are a lot of people who have the idea that if I memorize Scripture, if I study the Word of God, and I go to enough Bible studies, then I've accomplished God's purpose in His Word. The Bible is never an end in itself.
Nowhere does it give us any indication in the scripture that if I memorize the word, if I study the word of God, If I'm able to share it with other people, If I got enough Bible studies, None of those things are God's ultimate purpose. His ultimate purpose is that you and I may know Him.
Now that's the positive part. But there's a second purpose He has in mind for His word, and that is preventive. Look if you'll notice what He says in verse 11. Thy word I have treasured in my heart for this purpose, that I might not sin against thee. First he said in verse 9, Keeping the word in my heart will keep me in line with His will.
Verse 11 says, keeping the Word and treasuring it in my heart will keep me from sin.
So he says the first part is to bring my life into relationship to Him. showing us his ways, revealing himself to us, but secondly, he says to prevent sin in our life. That's very clear in verse 11. Thy word have I treasured in my heart for this specific reason, that I might not sin against God or sin against thee. If you'll think about what the implication of that is, think about this for a moment.
He says, I treasure the word up in my heart. And this word has such power. That if I lay it upon my heart, Meditate upon it. memorize it, apply it to my life. If it becomes a vital part of my thinking and my lifestyle, it has such power, it will keep me and protect me when I'm tempted with sin.
When we ask ourselves the question, how does that work? If I have God's word in order to keep me from sinning, how does it work? Because all of us have to deal with sin at some point in our lives, daily, on some daily occasions, whether it is some temptation or something, whatever it might be, we all have to deal with the sin problems.
So the question is, how does this work when he says, I've hidden in my heart that I may not sin against thee.
Well, I want you to jot down several things. I'm going to give you several lists, so if you'll get your pencil out and think about it for a moment. First of all, if you will think in terms of how it works. Looking into the Word of God and searching and reading the Scripture, first of all, it identifies what sin is. There's some people who say, well, that's not a sin, well, this is not a sin.
The Word of God identifies what sin is. And all sin is disobedience toward God. Secondly, it warns us of the consequences. One of the values, I believe, of reading the Old Testament over and over and over and watching how God works in the lives of different people is the fact that we see the consequences of sin working out in the lives of His people.
So first of all it identifies sin. Secondly what it does it warns us of the consequences and thirdly it points us to the one person who can deal with our sin and that's Christ.
So the Word of God is very specific in its purpose, identifying sin. revealing the consequences of that sin and then pointing us to Christ who is the one who came to die for our sin, save us from our sin and the one through whom the Holy Spirit works in our life to give us and to grant us the power to overcome that sin. The fourth thing I want you to jot down is. That it instructs us in the ways to deal with sin in our life. all through the scriptures, especially in the New Testament and especially in the epistles of Paul.
And this is why most of the messages you hear from this pulpit come usually from those epistles because they are so absolutely practical. They deal with the things in life that we have to deal with and every aspect of that. And so one of the issues here is that the Word of God reveals to us how to deal with sin. The next thing I want you to jot down is this. It encourages us to flee from sin and to flee from temptation.
All through the scriptures we see it by example in the lives of God's servants and His people and also in clear instruction, flee youthful lust. And then last of all, it teaches us how to gain the victory. How to gain the victory over sin in our life, how to gain the victory over temptation, how to deal with those circumstances and situations in life that we're confronted with.
So God's word is very, very specific. in its instruction.
So when he says, How can a young man keep his way pure, keeping it according to his word? Thy word have I treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against the living God. And so he says, my purpose is twofold. He says, if you will do these two things, here's what will happen. That is, if you will get your life in compliance with my principles, secondly, if you will discover who I am, and thirdly, applying the word, will keeping yourself away from sin, he says, this is my purpose.
And so as we think about his purpose in our life, let me ask you a simple question. What part does the word of God play in your daily life?
Now, if you're a Sunday school teacher, if you're not careful, you will study the Word of God and read it only for teaching someone else. That is every pastor's temptation. to study the Word of God simply to get a sermon. And if you do, and if that is the only reason you study it, you're going to come up barren. Because God wants His Word, first of all, applied to our heart.
And we're going to talk about how to do that in a few moments. He wants it apply to our hearts.
So when we're reading the scriptures and memorizing the word, feasting upon it, meditating upon it, it should not be, first of all, for anybody else but for us. And so what he's giving us here is a word of encouragement. The second thing I want you to notice is this. that when you and I wander from the word, we stray from it. What happens is we hinder God's plan for that word in our life.
You say, well, isn't that what you've already talked about? Not really.
So what I want us to see here is something a little different. And I want you to notice some words that are all through these verses. For example, begin in verse 9. He speaks of keeping our life according to the Word. In verse 11, He speaks of treasuring up the Word of God in our life.
Look in verse 12. He says, teaching the statutes. And in verse 13, telling about the word of God with my lips. And in verse 14, rejoicing in the word of God, that is his testimonies. And in verse 15, he speaks of meditating upon the word.
And in verse 15, regarding the Word, and then 16, delighting the Word, and verse 16, again, remembering the Word of God.
So God has a very, very specific purpose in giving us the word, and when we're not in the word, we miss what God is up to. This isn't just another book. This is the word of the living God given to us. And think how blessed we are that we have a copy of the entire word of God. Old Testament believers didn't have that.
In fact, the Old Testament believers didn't have a copy of the Old Testament in Hebrew that they could put in their robe and walk around and pull it out. Because you see, they went to the temple and they went to the tabernacle to listen to the high priest and to listen to those who gave instruction from the law. And so it isn't that we don't have them. The question is, what do we do with them? If I shove it up on a shelf somewhere and it gathers a fine bit of dust till next Sunday, it isn't in my heart.
It may be in my house, it can be in my hand. God wants it in my heart because He wants our life. to comply with his will He wants us to be knowing him. He wants us to be. cautious to be warned about sin in our life and therefore God's purpose is very specific and His plan is such, keeping it, treasuring it up in our heart.
All of these are indications of the value God has placed upon His Word and the value we should have in the Word of God for ourselves. And so let's think about how God's Word works in our life. First of all, it begins with what? It begins with either hearing it or reading it. That is, the basic first step is we either hear the Word of God or we read the Word of God.
Secondly, We choose or choose not to believe the Word of God.
So, first of all, I have to hear it. or I have to read it. Then I have to decide, do I believe it? It is the living God who's given to us His living word in order that you and I may have eternal life, that we may live forever with Him. First of all, hearing, then believing, and then number three, write down exploring.
What do you mean by exploring?
Well, listen to what he says in verse 12. He says, teach me thy statutes.
Now, usually we have the idea, and it's a mistaken idea, and I think it's one of the reasons that oftentimes we hear truth, but it never changes our life. We have the idea that if I hear it and I believe it, then all I have to do is apply it and it'll work. But how many times have we heard a truth We believed it and we applied it to our life, at least we tried to apply it and it didn't work. Because there are two other steps. You see, it's not really that simple.
Just hear it, just believe it, just apply it. Because if I don't understand it, I can believe it if you tell me, if it's from the Word of God, but that doesn't mean I understand it. And so I want to add a couple of steps here. And the next step is to explore it. Look if you will in verse 12.
He says, Teach me thy statutes.
Okay, that is the third step. Teach me thy statutes. That is, explore it. What does this really mean? For example, if I should give you some truth and you say, well, I believe that, I'm going to apply it to my life.
But what does it really mean?
So I need to get into the Word and discover what is this exploring the Word of God means that I'm going to take that principle and apply it. to this passage and look at this scripture and relate it to this scripture there is, I really want to know what does that really say?
Now I heard what you said. What does it really say to me? What does it say about God? What does it say about other things in the scriptures? And so exploring that truth, looking at it, digging in it for yourself.
So as I explore it and relate it and compare it, then what happens, the next step is I make a discovery. I discover this is what that means. If you'll notice in verse 18, he says, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things from thy law. As you and I begin to search the Word of God, And as we begin to delve into it, what happens is this truth that we've heard, we have believed, and we begin to search about, all of a sudden, it begins to come off the page.
Now I understand.
Now I understand how it works.
Now I understand how it applies to my life.
Now I know what that means when it speaks of God doing thus and so.
Now I know what Jesus meant.
Now I understand what Paul meant. What happens is we make these awesome discoveries of what God is saying in His Word.
Now, many times you've read the same passage over and over and over again, and all of a sudden you come to a passage and you say, Where's that been?
Well, it's been there all the time. What happens is our life in certain circumstances and situations is such that we come across a circumstance, we come across an event in our life and all of a sudden God brings off the page a passage that we have read many times, but now it is applicable because all of a sudden we are into Something that we think, now what does this, what does this mean? Isn't it amazing how we can just read over passages of scripture and read them and read them and hop into bed and think, well, we've done our thing. But then when God brings us into a situation where we want to know his truth, what are you saying? How do you operate in these circumstances and situations?
Then we begin to explore. Then we begin to discover. And then the next step is application. Then I know how to apply that principle to my life. In the light of what God is teaching.
So, what happens is application. Following that application is rejoicing. You say, well, you should have rejoiced when you believed. Not necessarily. Look, if you will.
He says in this 14th verse, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies.
Now, when and why do I rejoice? I can't really rejoice about it. Simply because I heard it, though it may make me feel good. I can't really rejoice about it ultimately simply because I believe it. But as I begin to explore it and discover it and as I begin to apply it to my life, what happens?
All of a sudden, this rich truth, which before belonged to someone else, or was in the Word of God, now becomes mine. Then the rejoicing comes, which is followed by the last thing, the last step, and that is to share it. When you really know something, And you're happy about it, you're excited about it, you've got to tell it. And so one of the reasons a lot of people don't witness and they don't share what God is doing in their life is because they just heard something and it's made them feel good. But listen, feeling good doesn't make it yours.
It is yours when you're exploring it, when you discover it, when you apply it to your life, and God makes it work.
Now, as we said in the very beginning, you learn every principle in the Word of God. How do you know it works? And you see, none of us like this, but this is what God does. Just about the time we think we understand and we really begin to apply something, what does he do? He allows some event or some circumstance or situation in our life to come up that does what?
that test That truth or that principle. You and I will never know what we really believe until what we believe gets tested. We will never know how strong we are until our strength gets stretched. We will never know how much faith we've got until our faith is tried. We will never know what we will do in the storm until there's a storm.
We'll never know what we will do when we are confronted with those situations that would normally cause doubt until we are confronted with those circumstances. The only way for God to make His word rich in your life is to lay the principle there, going through these steps, and then what does God do? He arranges the circumstance in your life to let you realize and to understand this is the truth. Who comes out with the strongest witness? Who comes out with the most bold of testimonies?
Those who've been in the Word of God and memorizing Scripture? Or those who've been in the Word of God, exploring and discovering it, applying it to their life, then tested and tried and oftentimes bloody, come out saying, I can tell you it absolutely works. Here's what God did in my life. Thank you for listening to Wandering from the Word. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station.
And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
