Six Reasons to Read the Bible Every Day

[Music] so let's go back now let's take a step back why the Bible and let me develop a six-step argument for why we should look so closely at this book step number one God's call on every human being is that we glorify him by knowing him accurately in our thoughts and by enjoying him intensely in our emotions and by reflecting him consistently in our actions that is the call of God on your life I'll give you some Bible for that and just a minute but that's my starting place in this seminar I know why I exist and I know why you exist God's put you here to glorify him knowing enjoying showing another way to put it this is simply this this is simply a second way to say the same thing God is calling each of us to show his Supreme greatness I'm trying to find a word other than Glory just so if you stumble over the word Glory if I you will now see it means something like show his Supreme Greatness by using our mind to grasp his truth using our heart to feel his Beauty using our body to put that truth and Beauty on display those all say the the same thing so that's why you exist you have a mind in the image of God you have a emotion SL will in the image of God and you have a body to act it out in this world and we're called to make God look great by knowing him enjoying him reflecting him in this way that's step number one here the Bible versus P underneath it this is Isaiah 43 bring my sons from afar my daughters from the ends of the Earth everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory that's why you were made whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God I don't think there is a verse that my mother or my father put in letters to me more often than that verse right there 1 Corinthians 10:31 whatever you do Johnny whatever you do and we're open to you doing whatever God calls you to do you don't have to be an evangelist like your dad just do what God calls calls you to do but do it to the glory of God and if you can't don't do it that was pretty good guidance you say to a 15-year-old if you can't do it to the glory of God don't do it that was very helpful to me some more verses I said we do it by knowing and by enjoying they did not glorify him as God but exchanged the truth about God for a lie and since they did not approve to have God in their knowledge God gave them up to a debased mind I think that text clearly teaches that you got two Alternatives in life you can glorify God or you can throw the truth away and if you throw the truth away you won't glorify God they did not glorify him as God but they exchanged the truth for a lie we we glorify God God by using these Minds not to believe lies but to believe truth God is honored when we believe the truth about God not error about God so you to know what is true about God in order to glorify him with the way we know him and then with regard to enjoying Psalm 1495 let the let the Godly exalt in glory and let them sing for joy in their beds so we exalt in glory the implication I think being if you're bored by Glory you make Glory look bad if you thrilled with Glory you make Glory look good there's a correlation between your affectional response to glory and how glory is reflected off of your life this really does not hurt when I'm coughing uh so don't don't think oh my he's in pain he's not in any pain he's just annoyed so if you want to pray about that the Lord knew that I had a cold when he set all this up so this is a test for everybody and I feel very able to keep on going if you're not too frustrated Point number two in my in my sequence first one is that God made you to be glorified by knowing him enjoying him number two seeing God's glory is essential to knowing it and enjoying it so now we've got seeing as the main issue Jesus said seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand what in the world does seeing they do not see mean it means we have two kinds of eyes these and these I'll get that from the next verse Ephesians one Paul prayed that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened that you may know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints so Jesus said there is a a seeing and there is another seeing and Paul saidwell one of those seeings is the seeing of the heart and that's what he's praying for and that's what I was praying for and am praying for that you would be granted because the devil and the unbelievers can see with these they did they saw Jesus Judas saw him for three years and never prized what he saw he prized money the love of money is deadly it destroyed him eternally he saw him more closely than any of us will but he didn't see him not as a prize not as a treasure you know he stumbled over the treasure hidden in the field and he looked down and said is The Rock and went on to something else the God of this world has blinded the mind of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ the reason people hear and don't believe the gospel is because at that moment in the hearing they don't see Glory you that blinded the minds to keep them from seeing what light of gospel of Glory of Christ they see fact a here's a crucified man here's a good teacher a lot of admirable traits nothing compellingly glorious not more glorious than their Sports not more glorious than their favorite videos not more glorious than their food or their sex or or their job or their family he's just nice he just okay not glorious and therefore they don't believe they may go to church but they don't believe so number two is you got to see the glory if you're going to know it and enjoy it number three the first key to seeing God's glory is internal namely the new birth God who said let light shine out of darkness in the first creation has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that's the new birth the new birth language isn't used there but new creation is and that's the same reality first creation let there be light out of nothing there was light second creation dark dead heart let there be light there is light and the light is the Light of Christ that's seen Jesus said to Nicodemus unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit I think that means is spiritually alive right now your spirit is dead if you're not born again your your spiritual Capac capacities to discern glory in the gospel as more compelling than anything else your spiritual capacities to see Christ as supremely glorious is non-existent until the new birth and at the new birth you are Spirit meaning your spirit lives it's alive you're not just flesh anymore you're Spirit the Holy Spirit has moved in he's conformed you to himself you now have a Living spirit and that's the new the new birth so step number three is that uh we're going to glorify him by knowing him and enjoying him as we ought then we have to see him if we're going to see him something internally has to happen namely we've got to be born again and then something external has to happen we must hear and understand the word of God the gospel you have been born again this is First Peter now you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God so the New Birth by the spirit doesn't happen abstracted from disconnected from the word of God the Holy Spirit doesn't move throughout the world where the gospel is not preached and cause people to be born again and and there's a reason why he doesn't do it that way it's because he means for the new birth to be an ability to see Christ in the gospel that's the point of the new birth to have eyes to see Christ and glorify Christ the Holy Spirit was sent to glorify the Son of God John 16:14 well you can't glorify the Son of God if you have open eyes and see nothing but trees in the middle of Africa with no gospel you just open your eyes there's a sky and there's trees there's water and there's people Christ gets no glory at that moment he doesn't do it that way he always I I always picture these jets flying so this is this is the jet of the Gospel you know the the what are they call the Blue Angels or um they fly these incredible synchronizations and and this is the gospel and this is the holy spirit just wherever the gospel is going he's just he's just doing his work well if this plane lands this one's Landing he's Landing he's not going to go oh no problem I can just raise people from the dead anywhere I want well he could but he hasn't set it up that way because first pet says you are bornn again through the living and abiding word of God that's how people are born again so you can't make anybody be born again but you sure can tell them the word of God so that it now is an occasion where the Holy Spirit can use what you just said so that he can open their eyes to see the beauty and Glory of it I am sending you this Acts 26 this is amazing to me it's is so remarkable this is Jesus talking to Paul as he commissions him to go I am sending you to open their eyes you finite fallible nons Supernatural human being I'm I'm sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from Darkness to light from the power of Satan to God go do that Paul to which of course Paul would say I can't do that and and Jesus knows that and therefore the point of this is God's Supernatural regenerating work is always done through human agency always you have to hear or read in a human production the word of God in order to be born of God because God won't open the eyes of the blind to see nothing he opens the eyes to see Christ he said let there be light in your heart and you saw the light of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ and so the second thing that has to happen if we're going to glorify God is that we have to look at the book not just go out and pray for illumination oh holy spirit tell me what I need to know about God right now that's an insult to the holy spirit because his response is going to be I wrote a book don't ignore my book don't try to do it another way don't don't take shortcuts on me I did not preserve this book through the blood of the martyrs for you for you to go out in the woods and play games with me get on your face before my book and pray so yes you have to be born of God you have to internal work of the spirit and then you have to have somebody or some book show you the word step five when we are internally awake to the word of God and externally focused on the word of God so this was the last two points three and four we meet God and see him in his glory and here's a a precious verse that I've Loved for years in this regard the Lord appeared again at Shiloh for the Lord revealed himself revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord there's nothing I want more in this world than to meet God deal with God see God feel God experience the presence and power of God I want to be near God and not consumed I want to know God love God enjoy God be present with God now and forever and that verse says that the Lord revealed him to Samuel by the word of the Lord you want to meet God this is where you meet God or lest we sound too styish at that moment this in you lived and applied everywhere you go you you probably you will meet God in the speaking of the word of God as often as in the reading of the word of God I say that after years of of delivering the word in hospitals and counseling sessions and on the street and in knocking on doors that if you feel like I didn't get much this morning and then you deliver what you got in the delivery of that God shows up and you see him in that not separate from that but in that so God reveals himself by by the word one last step therefore we give ourselves to careful thoughtful reading of God's inspired spokesmen like the Apostle Paul and here's a a key passage concerning Paul's own sense of divine inspiration as he writes we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God and we that we might understand the things freely given to us by God and we impart this in words not taught not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual so Paul claims as he's a teacher of the Risen Christ to teach in words taught by the Holy Spirit I believe that the words we're going to look at in Romans 9 are those they are taught by the Holy Spirit so let me um sum up these six steps for you number one every one of us is called and this this the this is to answer the question why are we focusing so much attention on the Bible I mean just another little anecdote here I'm 68 years old and I moved away from my senior role as preaching Pastor for Bethlehem a year ago so and I have in front of me now a unknown amount of time and unknown amount of Health very good right now and uh and and I I could do anything I wanted to do I mean that I'm capable of doing I can't run eight miles anymore but I could do anything so what what am I doing I am giving myself to the Bible more than I ever have I teach this to Seminary students every Wednesday afternoon I work a couple of days a week trying to make these look at the book things I prepared my Romans 9 to come to Houston I don't get any honorarium for this it's not I I I don't need any more money I've got a retirement and I've got Social Security and I'm just fine I don't need any money so you can't make me do anything by enticing me with money so why in the world are you getting on a plane when you're sick in your head and and coming down here to talk for four hours and the answer is I love this book I I'm old and when I think about getting ready to meet Jesus which seems so close what better way than to read what he said and you go so deep with what he said that when he shows up or I show up there won't be any surprises I don't want to be surprised like oh I didn't know you were like that I thought I don't want to be ashamed I mean seriously I thought a lot about this I really did before I was before resigned at Bethlehem I thought a lot about this what are you going to do and and my answer was I'm going to spend more time in my Bible you might think well you were a pastor well you think pastors spend a lot of time in their Bible they run churches it's not a good thing I bet your pastor spends time in his Bible I mean there are pastors who do spend time in their Bibles but lots of pastors just run churches so all that to say um why look at this book when you're 68 years old as much as you're looking at it and and the answer is I I love it and I want to be ready to meet him so summarizing this six steps now but this is the big picture that accounts for everybody not just me you we're all called to glorify God by knowing him enjoying him and showing him number two we must see him in order to do that and number three we are able to see him internally because of the new birth and externally because we're looking we're looking and hearing the word of God number five we meet God himself glorious in his word no other place reliable can we meet God like that and finally therefore we are devoting detailed attention to read this book two more verses on that last one when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ isn't that amazing when you read this this is Ephesians 3:4 Paul said to the Ephesians when you read this you can see my insight in the mystery of Christ not when you pray for that Insight without reading but when you read it amazing and then this is one of my favorite verses with regard to why I'm part of a College and Seminary which gives a lot of effort to teach students how to think Paul said to Timothy think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything think for the Lord will give a lot of you probably have felt at some time in your life like you're in one camp or the other I'm the kind that depend on the Lord to give me insight and I'm the kind that think thinkers think waiters wait for gifts and they feel really spiritual and they don't think these people are because thinking is what everybody can do well Paul said says to Timothy think over what I say and I wonder for the Lord will give not think because you won't be given you have to get it yourself or wait to get the gift so you don't need to think but rather think for you will be given it's it's through the thinking I mean all all I know to say by way of experience of this is that for for 33 years I preached most weekends and I know that Friday which was my sermon preparation day were unbelievably hard days nothing came easy and I thought after decades it would get easy it never got easy you you you'd read a passage and you'd say God number one what does it mean what is Paul trying to say or John or Matthew or Mark or Peter what are they trying to say what how does this all fit together and that was hard and then the second question of and what parts of that need to be said to these people and how does it need to be said and how does it need to be applied both those questions were enormously difficult nothing ever came easy and that's why this verse here was so was so precious to me think over what I say and the Lord will give and he did he did I think I can say honestly I never entered the pulpit once where I was not thrilled to say what I had seen I can never remember saying this is going to be boring because because God is on this count boring I never said it I wouldn't have said it if I thought it God answers this prayer for those who think and pray he he acts he works okay um that's my answer to the question why um focus on the Bible because in the Bible God's spokesman are speaking and in speaking God himself reveals and he reels his glory a glory to be truly known a glory to be enjoyed and that's why we're on the planet to know him truly and enjoy him duly that's why we're looking at the book

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 229,375

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism

Id: BZW_UhURwtU

Length: 27min 57sec (1677 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 07 2017