How Shall We Respond to Scripture #1

Today's message is designed to help you respond to Scripture and to answer one final question. How shall we respond to Scripture? Is it possible to read the Bible on a regular basis, yet never see a change in your life?

Well the answer is, maybe. Hello I'm Bill Wright. You're listening to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, as he continues teaching God's people God's Word, Don looks at the absolute necessity of allowing God's Word to change you from the inside out, and what we can do on a practical level to make sure we see the changes God's Word tells us we should see. Well, Don, what would you say to the person who reads the Bible all the time, but really doesn't see a greater personal holiness manifesting in their life?

What might that lack of response indicate? Well, Bill, that's a great question. And my friend, you and I both know that it's easy to read Scripture out of a sense of habit, just because that's what you're supposed to do. And to read it without any real desire to change, it confronts me and it convicts me to know that David prayed, Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Psalm 19, verse 14.

He wanted God's Word to have a living dynamic in his life that made him pleasing to God. My friend, I would just encourage you to go to God with that same prayer each time you open his Word. Lord, work in my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit as I read your Word today. Thanks, Don. And friend, if you're ready, let's get started. Here is our teacher with part one of a message called, How Shall We Respond to Scripture?

Here on The Truth, call me. We finished with giving some opportunities and some suggestions on how to read Scripture for yourself and to become a systematic reader of God's Word. And the thing that is really on my heart to say today and to kind of wrap that up with is to help you understand and to show you biblically the importance of something very important. We don't read Scripture simply to check off a box and say that we did. We don't go after God's Word. We don't go into God's Word with a purely academic interest or to be able to boast and say, I read Scripture and someone else doesn't.

That's utterly foreign to the spirit of the Bible. Let me remind you of something that James says in James chapter one. You can turn there, although it won't be our text, but when there has been such a focus like we've had over the past couple of days on reading the Word of God and interpreting it and bringing it into our hearts, it is vital and essential to help you remember that that's not an end goal in and of itself. That this is not like reading a novel or a book and then you put it on the shelf and you go away unchanged. The whole point of this is to help you understand and internalize God's Word so that it changes your life. If there is not a life change that is produced in your life, then reading Scripture has not reached its goal. If you don't feel confronted in your sin, if you don't feel confronted to grow in Christ, to love Him more, then you've completely missed the point.

And we could say that even about being here on a week-by-week, Sunday-by-Sunday basis. Unless you realize that this has authority over your life and has a changing influence on you, you're missing the most important point of them all. And so we want to help you realize the scriptural importance of this and give you some leading from the Bible. With those things said, as we kind of turn our attention now to God's Word and being mindful of what we've done, look at James chapter 1 verse 19. James says, this you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. And what he's talking about in context there is to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to react in anger against God's Word when it comes and convicts you. That your mindset toward the Word of God would be one who is receiving rather than quick to speak.

Most of us have that tendency where we think we have two tongues and one ear instead of the reverse. And we need to be mindful of that, that Scripture should make us sober, that it should make us serious-minded, and that we should be mindful of our weakness and our tendency to speak foolishly. And that that would act as a restraint before we would respond to God's Word. Look at what he says as he goes on in verse 21.

This is all by way of introduction. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the Word implanted which is able to save your souls. But, prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. So Scripture cautions us about the serious nature of coming to God's Word. Scripture reminds us that we're not merely to read it as if it's some other book, but that our lives come under the authority... Oh, let me say that again. Your life comes under the authority of God's Word in a way that is not true of any other book that you read. And that God's Word, when it speaks to you, is calling you, it is commanding you, it is exercising authority over your soul and over your heart. And so we must be mindful of that and not detach our Bible reading, not detach our Bible study, not detach our Bible teaching from the totality of life that we live. That is absolutely essential for you to understand.

If that is not something that is ever immediate in your thinking, then you're really missing the point. And today's message is designed to help you respond to Scripture and to answer one final question as we wrap up this little in-house conference. How shall we respond to Scripture?

How is it? You should be asking yourself, how is it that I respond to God's Word? What should be the settled mindset of my heart as I read God's Word, as I hear it proclaimed, as I study it with others? And with that, I want you to go back to Psalm 19. We've studied this Psalm recently in the past.

We've studied it in the more distant past as well. And I just want to focus on one aspect of this Psalm to kind of help you have some direction for where you want to go from here. In this Psalm, by way of quick review, in the first six verses, David describes and exalts the glories of God in creation. And he responds to that about how God has made himself known in the heavens. Then he goes on in verses 7 through 11 and speaks about the more specific way that God has revealed himself in his Word.

It's perfect, it's true, it's right, and it has beneficial effects upon those who read it. Verse 7, it restores the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes, it is clean and righteous altogether, it is sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Just a rich treasure that we have in God's Word, far richer than finding a treasure chest full of ancient gold coins is the Word of God, the Bible that you hold on your lap. You know, if I could do anything, if there could be anything that would be the mark of this church, I would have us, and I see this developing in us and in your lives, that you would treasure God's Word, that you would not only revere it and read it, but that you would love it, that it would be one of the central affections of your heart because it is that precious, that sweet, more vital than your closest human relationship, the Word of God is, because it's the Word of God alone that points you to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the door to heaven, who is the door to the forgiveness of your sins, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Apart from Scripture, we're in darkness. With the Scriptures, we have the mind of God.

And so we thank God for that. And today what I want to focus on is how David ends this psalm, as he shows us how the Word should impact us. And this is, David isn't simply instructing us as a teacher to a student, this was his actual reaction to God's Word, to God's revelation. And what we see here is a humility that is marked by the man who loves God's Word, and that's what we want to take a look at as we see how to respond to Scripture.

David expresses three desires in these final three verses of the psalm that will help you respond rightly to Scripture. And I want you to see these things, I want you to take them to heart, and God would have you meditate and reflect and think not about the person next to you and say, oh, you know, Sam needs to hear this, or Jill needs to really hear this, I'm glad she's here to hear this message. No, what I want you to be thinking is, I'm glad that I'm here to hear this message because God's Word here is instructing and directing you in the way that your heart should be and what your attitude should be as an ongoing response to the Word of God.

So what can we say about it? What should it provoke in you? Well, first of all, it should provoke in you a seeking of pardon for your sin.

A seeking of pardon for your sin. And what this passage teaches us is that we fall short of the glory of God without even knowing it. We fall short in ways that we don't even recognize. And, you know, we tend to think, as Christians, I think there's probably an unspoken assumption that the measure of our sinfulness sometimes is by what we know to confess, or by what we actually confess, and so we're mindful of, you know, I said a bad word here, I had a bad attitude there, or spoke wrongly to my spouse here, and, you know, and you confess those things and it doesn't take a whole lot of time, and you say, okay, well, I'm doing pretty good then. Well, beloved, that's a wrong way for us to think.

You know, we're a lot more sinful than we realize. You fall short in a whole lot more ways than you're conscious of. And David, as he writes this passage in response to the Word of God, is mindful of that himself, and he brings us to a very central and fundamental truth. There in verse 12, look at it with me, he says, who can discern his errors?

Equip me of hidden faults. David says, God, who can understand the ways in which he is spiritually deficient? How can I know, how can I really fully grasp all of the ways that I fall short of the perfection of your glory?

How do I measure my wrong motivations, my speech that I say so thoughtlessly? How do I measure, Father, the lack of my earnestness in loving you with all of my heart, soul, strength, and mind? How do I measure the fact that I fall short in loving my neighbor as myself? God, there's just so many ways when I realize about what your perfection and what your Word calls me to, I start to realize that there's so many ways in which I don't measure up to your holiness, even though your Word tells me to be perfect as you yourself are perfect. And so David, David is realizing that there is a measure of his sinfulness that he doesn't recognize, and what is more, he understands that he is prone to self-deception. And that is probably the biggest threat that each one of you have here in this room, is that you are prone to self-deception, to think that you are more godly than you actually are, perhaps to think you're a Christian when you're not even. And we're prone to congratulate ourselves because we're better than someone else without realizing that we fall short of who God is and who our Christ is. And so David here is adopting a posture of humility in response to the Word of God that says, Lord, I'm sure I don't measure up in ways that I don't even understand. Look at verse 12 with me again. Who can discern his errors?

The anticipated answer is no one can. We don't even know the ways that we fall short of the glory of God. The best man among us does not see how sinful he is. He doesn't diagnose sin properly, and therefore he is prone to think more highly of himself than he ought. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all else and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? The commentator Matthew Henry said, and I quote, we are guilty of many sins which through our carelessness and partiality to ourselves we are not aware of. Many times we have been guilty of sins which we have now forgotten so that when we have been ever so particular in the confession of sin, we must conclude that God knows a great deal more evil of us than we do of ourselves. And so beloved, here's what I want you to see. Even when you are serious about dealing with sin in your life, even when you are watching guard over your soul, the concluding prayer of that Spirit still is, Lord, forgive me of hidden sin.

God, there's bound to be more here than I recognize. And so I appeal to your omniscience, I appeal to your grace, and I ask you to equip me of that which you see but I don't recognize. And then humility, we respond to the Word of God by recognizing that we need cleansing from sin, that we need Him to acquit us of our faults both known and unknown.

We take the posture of one who is responsible to God, who is humble before Him because we are mindful that we are sinful in His presence. You know what's great about that Spirit of going to God through Christ with that Spirit? You know what's wonderful about that? Is that in response to that Spirit, God doesn't respond and scold us, doesn't chastise us when we come to Him in humble repentance like what David is describing. God is actually willing and glad to answer that prayer out of His grace.

Isn't that magnificent? 1 John 1 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so we bring a portion of it and confess it and say, Lord, here's what I'm mindful of, here's what I'm conscious of, and forgive me of all of the rest that I don't see. And Scripture responds and says that's exactly what God does, that that's exactly why Christ died for you. It's exactly why He shed His blood on the cross, was so that you might be washed completely from all of your sin, and that you might be able to walk forward in life having risen from your knees, as it were, and confessing that sin and going forward with a sense that things are fully reconciled between you and God, and you can go forward with a clear conscience, confident of His favor and blessing being upon you. That's the proper response to Scripture. You humble yourself before Him, you confess sin, you trust Him to honor His promise to forgive, and then you move forward with a clear mind, with serenity deeply embedded in your heart, because of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ on your behalf.

It's wonderful, isn't it, beloved? David's prayer here can reawake and reawaken your desire for pardon from sin, reacquaint you with the ongoing responsibility that is ours to confess our sins before the Lord, even as believers, to say, Lord, forgive me for that. You know, there have been teachers in the past who don't deserve the moniker of Bible teacher applied to them, who have taught Christians that you don't need to confess sin even as a believer in Christ. That's utterly false, and that is very wicked teaching, because what that does is it hardens the conscience against God and says, I can sin with impunity, and I don't have to humble myself, and it just makes somebody very hard in sin while claiming to be a godly Christian.

We reject that. Don't you fall into that error, either in your thinking or in your practice. We walk with humility before God, and when we violate His Word and when our lives are not what they should be, we need to go to Him and humbly confess that as a true response to the Word of God. And so, you know, we're not here to cover our sin. We're here to uncover it and to expose it in the presence of God and deal with it honestly.

That's the only right thing to do. That's the only right response to the Word of God. Now, as David goes on in this portion of Scripture, he does more than seek pardon for his past sins. He goes on and he seeks protection from future sin. He seeks protection from future sin.

In verse 12, David looks to the past and he says, equip me of my hidden faults, the things that mark me now, the things that I've done in the past that I'm not aware of. But he changes focus. He pivots as he moves forward in verse 13. And watch this.

Watch what he does. He now looks to the future and he prays proactively in his pursuit of holiness. Look at verse 13 with me. He says, also, I'm not done dealing with sin here, Lord, as part of my response to God's Word. I'm not just going to rush through confession and examining myself in your presence so I can get to what I want.

He deals with it so thoroughly, so thoughtfully, so comprehensively. In verse 13 he says, also, in addition to what I just confessed, also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me.

That word presumptuous that he uses here describes a defiant attitude that says, I'll do what I want. It is the Spirit that takes liberties with the grace of God, that becomes self-assertive, that becomes indifferent to what the call of God and the commands of God on your heart and soul and mouth would be and says, I'm going to do what I want. David says, God, I don't want that Spirit anywhere near my heart. As I reflect on the greatness of your glory and creation, as I see the wonders of the way that you have displayed yourself and your Word, the last thing that I want, Father, one of the great spiritual priorities of my heart is that my Spirit would be compliant before you as I walk in this life. David says, God, guard me, protect me, help me so that I would not have that self-assertive, independent, defiant Spirit against you, but rather that my heart would be conformed to your will. He says, hold me back.

He says, Lord, whatever you do, whatever it takes in the power of your providence, in your work in my heart, whatever is necessary, Father, hold me back. Restrain me so that I don't go into that realm. I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be a bossy, assertive person like that in your presence.

I want to line up under you, not in opposition to you. I want to remember you, not forget you. I want to be under the influence of your Spirit. I want your Word to be guiding the kind of person that I am rather than the selfish, sinful impulses of my heart. You see, what David is praying about here is he's saying, God, God, shape my character.

Make me into a particular kind of person. He's not simply confessing individual sins here. He's thinking about the whole way that his character is in the presence of God in response to God's Word. Don't let me resist your will, oh God.

Now, here's a question. If you read that and think about it at all, sooner or later you come to this point and ask this question. Is a prayer like that really necessary for a man who loves God? Is it necessary to look ahead and to pray that way? If you're already in a compliant spirit, you're already of a mindset that you're confessing sin and saying, God, equip me of hidden faults. Is it necessary to take this other step, or is David just kind of being extravagant and unnecessary in his heart affections? Is that prayer necessary as a response to Scripture?

Yes, absolutely. If you know anything about your inner man, you know that that's true. You see, David knew that while he was presently submissive as he was writing this psalm, he knew that there were strands of wickedness. There were seeds of evil in his heart, just like there are in each one of yours, that could motivate him to sin against God in the future, even though at the moment he is submitting himself to God. He understands he's not yet perfected. He understands he's not yet glorified. So while his spirit, while his heart, while his thinking, while his mind is engaged and captivated by the Word of God and the glory of God, and says, Lord, I submit myself to you in this moment, here's what he does.

Watch this. It's really strategic. He takes advantage of his present godly frame of mind in order to set the stage for his future holiness. He's not just living in the moment. He's thinking ahead.

He's guarding against the wickedness of his heart by asking God to help him in the future. That's Don Green wrapping up his message today on The Truth Pulpit. Friend, if you'd like to hear today's message again, or you'd like to find out how you could support this broadcast ministry, we invite you to visit thetruthpulpit.com. Again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. We'll hear the second half of today's message on our next broadcast. Meanwhile, I'm Bill Wright. We'll see you then as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word, here on The Truth Pulpit.