Image: Scene from May 17th CRBC Church Family Fellowship hosted by the G. Family.
Here are abbreviated notes from last Sunday afternoon’s message in the Spurgeon’s
Baptist Catechism series:
Q 73: How is the Word to be read and heard that it
may become effectual to salvation?
A: That the Word may become effectual to
salvation we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer,
receive it with faith, and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in
our lives.
Here are the catechism’ seven admonitions, along with its seven
prooftexts:
1. With diligence:
Proverbs 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching
daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Are we
diligent in daily reading of the Scriptures?
In at least weekly, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, attendance upon hearing the
Word of God (cf. Heb 10:25)?
Are we as
diligent in hearing the Word as we are in caring for our physical bodies? Would you go days and weeks without eating,
bathing, grooming? Then why go the same length
of time without Bible intake?
Are we as
diligent in keeping a commitment to hearing the word as we are to our jobs or
other commitments (schools, family, etc.)?
2. With
preparation:
1 Peter 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil
speakings, 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may
grow thereby:
Are we
aware that it takes spiritual preparation to hear the Word? Perhaps we do not sometimes “get something”
out of reading Scripture or hearing sermons because our hearts are distracted.
3. With
prayer:
Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of
thy law.
Might it be
helpful to begin your reading of the Bible with a prayer for illumination?
4. Receive it
with faith:
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but
the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it.
Note
the contrast here between those who are profited by the word and those for whom
it does not give profit. Our hearing
must be mixed with faith. If we are
always just spectators or evaluators, we will not get the full benefit of the
word. We must say “I believe, help thou
my unbelief.”
5. Receive it
with love:
2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them
that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might
be saved.
It is
possible to know the truth and to outwardly obey the truth but not to love the truth. Just as there are children who might be
outwardly obedient to parents but who rebel when they gain their independence,
so it is not enough just to know the truth or to merely obey the truth outwardly,
but we must love it.
6. Lay it up
in our hearts:
Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee.
There
is the reading of the word; there is the hearing of the word; and there is the
hiding of the word in our hearts. Have
you memorized the word of God? Do you
know more lyrics of secular songs or the dialogue or secular movies or even
uninspired Christian songs and movies than you do the word of God? Which will be of more profit for you? And how might memorized Scripture be used as
resources for your personal Christian life and for your ministry?
7. Practice
it in our lives:
James 1:25 But whoso looketh
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a
forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his
deed.
We are not only to know the truth, but we are to practice it.
The Bible is not to be a museum piece to
be observed, but its teachings are to be put into living practice.
Love your enemies… Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you… Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the love of Christ… Flee
fornication… Practice hospitality…. Keep yourselves from idols… Love God and
love your neighbor as yourself…
May God
helps us through Christ faithfully to read and hear his Word.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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