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FTGC-12

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How do we know that we are going to Heaven? How do we know the Bible is true? How do we know that God is real? It is because of the REVELATION God has made to us through His World He created, and through His special revelation of Himself through His Word He has sent to us. This week we are studying—GOD’S ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN, from Psalm 19!
Here we are again, another week has rolled around. Here is the next installment of the 52 Greatest Chapters. I’ve worked on mine all week, hope you are getting in the Word each day also.

Transcript

What a blessing to invite you to this Bible study today. For any of you just tuning in, I’ve said 11 times because this is our 12th class, that I just imagine as I’m looking at all of these cameras, that you’re sitting on the other side of a table, that were at Panera, or Starbucks, or sitting somewhere with our Bibles and discussing this chapter. We’re in the midst of the 52 Greatest Chapters in the Bible. We’ve come to the 12th week and we’re looking at Psalm 19.

Take your Bible and I’d like to show you why I’ve entitled this, God’s Only Way to Heaven and to Life. That’s right here in Psalm 19, in verse 7 in your Bible. We’ll talk about all 14 of the verses, but just focus with me at verse 7. This is what I’d say, there’s a lot to cover in this 19th chapter, but we’ve got to really look at verse 7. It says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” Depending on what version of the Bible you have, the NIV “refreshing the soul,” the ESV “restoring the soul,” the New American Standard “restoring or reviving.” All of these versions are saying this, and this is what’s so important, the word of God is the only thing that can go inside of us where no surgery, no radiation, no doctor, no chemical, no medication, no vaccine can touch us. The inner spiritual person can only be healed, restored, revived, only by the word of God.

This entire chapter is built around groupings of six. If you notice in verse 7 it says, “The law…” what are the next three words? Say them out loud, “The law…” What? “Of the LORD.” We have now got to a whole new level. The first thing we found is, God is telling us the only way to get transformed, converted, restored, revived, to come alive, to go to Heaven; only people God has regenerated, saved through the new birth, justified, all those big words you’ve heard about, only those go to Heaven. But guess what? Only those, live life has God intended it to be. The entire time we’re studying today, think about your life the way the Bible describes it should be.

“The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring your soul […] Making wise the simple.” Rejoicing your heart. Do you really have joy and rejoicing? Remember that verse we always talk about? Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing in my heart; For I am called by Your name.” Are your eyes enlightened so that you understand and see God’s truth? Do you have that sense of security? Do you know you have comprehensive righteousness?

My kids were asking me about car insurance, and they said, do I need this comprehensive? What is comprehensive? In car insurance it’s replacing your car and covering all if you have an accident, but comprehensive righteousness is making sure all of my sins are forever gone. That I am a saint by God’s grace. I used to shake people up when I was a pastor, for many years, serving in different congregations around the country here in America. I would see people at church, I say, hello St. Bill. They would be taken back and say, wait a minute. What? I’m not a Saint. That was almost a universal response, I’m not a saint. I would say, wait a minute. If you’ve read the Bible only saints go to Heaven. Most of them would say, okay then, if that’s the way you define it. I say, no, no, no, it’s the way that God defines it. Then, they say okay, I’m a saint but I don’t feel like it. I said, a lot of us don’t.

Let’s go to our slides so we can walk through our class together today as we sit across the table from each other. First of all we’re looking at God’s, because it’s the word of God, only way… remember God is the source of propositional truth, He’s the one that tells us what we can understand… the only way to Heaven. Week 12. Psalm 19.

Two verses I want you to think about, that we’re going to discuss, that helps you understand this only way. This is what Paul says, “So then faith comes by hearing.” How does a person come to faith or get saved by hearing? What do they hear? They hear the gospel presentation. They hear the plan of salvation. It’s by hearing the word of God, what God has said, that’s what saves people. That’s what transforms people.

Look at James 1. Remember James was the first pastor of the Church of Jerusalem. He was the brother of Jesus Christ. This is probably the first epistle of the New Testament, not in the order of your Bible, but chronologically. Look at what James said to his congregation, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness,” that’s called repenting, “and overflow of wickedness,” that’s how we were born. We were all born filthy and wicked, God calls it lost. We are dead in our trespasses and sin. Look at this, we repent “and receive with meekness the implanted word.” Why is all that so important? It’s “able to save your souls.” Whoa. The only way to Heaven, God’s way.

Another way we could put it as we go through the 52 Greatest Chapters in the Bible is that Psalm 19 says that God is the last word on everything. If you want to know what’s right, what’s wrong, how to live, how to change, how to please Him. If you want to know anything. He’s the last word on everything.

This is where we are, week 12, Psalm 19. We’re looking at the power of the word. I can’t wait. In fact, I have already studied. You can look up from your slide for a second. I’ve already studied and read this chapter through every day. I read through it and it’s like we’re in touch. In fact, the small groups that I have worked with, my 10 small groups that that I have gone through all of these chapters with, we would actually text each other every day. We were supposed to, all, either say yes, no, or help. Yes, means I read, prayed, worked on this, I’m seeking to obey it. No, means I didn’t do it. Help, means not only did I not do it, but I’m struggling now. I would encourage you, don’t do this study alone. Find someone either that you can be accountable to, your husband, your wife, your parents, your best friend, someone you work with, someone from your Bible study group or church. Find someone that you can share this with, that when they see you, you can say to them yes. Ask them to ask you; are you staying in the word every day? Are you growing spiritually? Are you reading, and praying, and asking God to change you? That’s the essence of this study, that we allow the transforming word.

I’ve already done chapter 19. Do you know what I’m excited about? The next one that’s on that slide you’re going to see. It’s Psalm 22. Look at this. We’re going to see next week, Jesus on the cross. We’re going to see Him as our Good Shepherd in the next week. Then, we’re going to see Him as the One from Revelation chapter 6. The King that returns in glory to take over the Earth, to roll back the power of sin, and to incarcerate Satan. Then, we’re going to see how to live a victorious life. David’s confession. Oh, Psalm 119, that’s an entire theology of the word of God and inspiration. Then the assurance that God sees us always, and everywhere. Great days ahead, but let’s get back to Psalm 19.

The first thing I want you to see, and here’s this chart. The reason I’m putting it on there as a slide for you is that you can always pause this and take a screenshot. That’s how you get these notes. I have people sending me, all the time, a little message on Facebook or YouTube comments saying, how can I get those charts? Screenshot them, that’s how. They ask me, can I screenshot them? Can I use these? Of course you can, any way you’d like, it’s a blessing. We want to share them with you.

Look at this with David. There are four eras, actually stages or eras, of David’s life. Here they are: David, the shepherd boy. He is living as a young man taking care of his sheep. This Psalm we’re looking at are his meditations when he was alone. We’re going to look at that. Psalm 23 where the lessons he learned about God, by looking at the sheep, and himself as a shepherd, and thinking, wow, I guard, and feed, and lead, these sheep. That’s what God does. He wrote Psalm 8 about David and Goliath, that great confrontation. Then, I’m not sure whether Psalms 132 and 101 are here or over here. Either there when David was this shepherd boy, or there when David was the victorious king. I’ll just share this, Psalm 132 says, Bible before breakfast, Bible before bunk. It’s one of the biggest challenges to spiritual life. Psalm 101 says, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes and I will not defile myself. Either David’s had all those things and wrote them under the inspiration of God’s Spirit when he became king, or I would prefer to believe as a young man. Now, this is where the most psalms of the 75 Psalms of David came from, when he was fleeing from Saul. You can read all those things, they’re just different passages. The yellow ones, by the way, are the ones that have superscripts. I’m going to show you those in just a minute. Then this era, some very powerful psalms. Then, from his final years.

Come with me over here to this other side. David actually wrote, at least half of the Psalms. We’re confident, because it says a Psalm of David, that David wrote 75 of them. Remember, as a shepherd boy, 19, 23, 101,132. I’ve already told you about the really great content in 101 and 132. Some of you should think about doing a little extra side study of those and maybe adopting David’s convictions about his heroes, and not setting anything wicked before his eyes, and having a priority of time with the Lord every day.

Fleeing Saul, I underline these. Do you see how these are underlined? Look in your Bible at Psalm 34, and I want to show you something really neat. In my Bible, in Psalm 34, if you can see it, right there it says in small letters, “A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.” Now, if your Bible doesn’t have three little lines of tiny print before the first verse of the 34 Psalm, you have a good Bible, but you don’t have a Bible that has, listen to me, the first verse in the Hebrew manuscript.

For just a second, I remind you of this resource that we use all week long. This is the MacArthur Study Bible. This study Bible will explain to you the superscripts. That’s what those little words I just read to you are and where they came from. They actually were written in as an introduction to the psalm in the Bible that Jesus used, in the Bible that all Jewish people use today. The Hebrew, the Tanakh, the Old Testament scriptures, the Psalms, all of them have as verse 1 what I just read to you. Psalm 34 tells us what the backdrop for this Psalm is. It’s when David was captured by the Philistines.

Look at Psalm 56. Keep going in your Bible to Psalm 56, those of you that have a Bible. By the way, I would migrate toward a Bible that has these because they transform your understanding of the life of David, 1 and 2 Samuel, and the book of Psalms. Look at Psalm 56, it says this, “To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.’ A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.” The reason I’m going through all this, this is the first Psalm that David wrote that we’ve studied. The first psalm in the Psalms that David wrote is the 3rd Psalm. That one is right here in his time is victorious king. I can put it there, Psalm 3, and I should underline it because it says that David wrote Psalm 3 when he was fleeing from his son Absalom That’s what I want you to realize. Psalm 142 is in the cave. Psalm 32 it’s after he has been hiding his sin. Psalm 38 is talking about before he confessed, how he got sick. Psalm 51 is when he repents of his adultery with Bathsheba. Then, in his final years these are some of the best songs. Psalm 18 is a summary of God’s faithfulness his whole life. Psalm 116 is, you all probably have heard one verse from Psalm 116 which says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Any of us, we’re saints, is precious in God’s sight. He loves us so much as our good shepherd that He holds us and actually carries us safely home when we go through the valley of the shadow of death. I wanted you to see this whole context of David writing these songs. Back to our slides. There are four stages in David’s life, four eras. Shepherd boy, Fleeing from Saul, Victorious king, and Final years.

Where did all this happen? Remember everything happens somewhere, sacred geography. This is the Mediterranean Sea. This is Cypress. This is modern day Egypt. Here is modern day Israel.

This is not as good of a map, it’s a little fuzzy, but let me show you the key places in all of this time when David is writing these psalms. When he’s a shepherd boy, he’s right here at Bethlehem. When he comes down here to fight Goliath, who came up from Gath and David came down from Bethlehem, right here at Azekah. This is the cave where David wrote, remember Psalm 42. This is Hebron where he served as king for seven years. This is Jerusalem that he conquered and for 33 years served as king. This is Gibeah and Gibeon, right in here is where Psalm was from. That’s who chased David all over the place. That’s what all this red line is. This is David running all over the place. Taking his parents, his family to Moab. Look what this is, the Dead Sea.

 

Look up from your slides for just a second and let me give you a bigger context over here. Basically, Jerusalem… This is Israel, a satellite view of Israel, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, Mediterranean Sea. Right here as to Jerusalem. I’ll hold still. That’s Jerusalem. Bethlehem is just five miles south of it. David went over here and fought Goliath. Went here and up to here to serve Saul. Saul chases him all through this wilderness. He ends up over here in a cave in En Gedi hiding from Saul and cutting off the corner of his garment. Then, David takes his family over here to Moab where Ruth was from and Boaz and all of those Old Testament history lessons. Then, he comes back and goes with the Philistines up here. They told him to go home. They kill Saul right here, David comes back down to where he’s from, finds out Saul is dead. Comes up here, crowned King at Hebron, and then seven years takes Jerusalem and makes that his kingdom. That’s a little Bible geography to help you understand. Back to your slides. Geography, everything happens somewhere. Most likely, Psalm 19 takes place right here, in Bethlehem. That’s probably where David was.

This is Jerusalem, this is where he probably wrote the most psalms as he was king for 33 years in the City of David.

Next, just for you to realize, see Bethlehem and Jerusalem? Look how high they are. These are mountains. Mount of Olives here. Look at Mount Herman, almost two miles high. When David travels, he’s going between mountains and valleys.

In fact, this next slide shows you the from the west to east… the cutaway, David, right here is Bethlehem, when he took his parents to Moab, he had to go from 2,600 feet to 1,200 feet below sea level and back up to around 3,000 feet in elevation. You talk about good health, they had amazing stamina to climb these mountains. When David was going down to fight the Philistines, he came from Bethlehem right here, all the way down to Gath which is almost at sea level. This is a Mediterranean Sea right there. The Dead Sea is 1,200 feet below sea level. Mediterranean at sea level. Gath, where the Philistines live, just above sea level. They lived in the sandy plain, dune area. Way up here is Bethlehem. So, a little geography.

Sacred history. Here’s where we are in the Psalms, right here. These events in 1 and 2 Samuel are what we’re looking at.

Extra online resources. Here’s one. Psalm 19 is all about the Book You Can Trust. About the authority, inerrancy, sufficiency, perspicuity, all those theological terms, of the scriptures. That’s on our YouTube channel.

Every day of the week I read this passage in my Bible and check in the MacArthur Study Bible. If you look up from your slide for just a second, I’ve already talked to you about the MacArthur Study Bible. There are two other types of resources that I can encourage you with. One is this Bible study we’re doing, it’s just one year-long course. Bonnie, my wonderful wife Bonnie, is sitting over there in the studio, running all these lights. There’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 different lights and 1, 2, 3, 4 cameras on me. She’s amazing to capture this. Bonnie and I don’t just teach this 52 Greatest Chapters study. Over here, I have six of our courses I’d like to tell you about, that we teach in all different parts of the world.

  • The Power of Word Filled Praying. How the word of God can transform your life, your prayer life.
  • The Power of Word Filled Living. This is talking about how the word of God can transform my mind, it can transform my emotions, it can transform my perspective as I go through life.
  • This is a survey I teach. Learn the Old Testament in 24 hours. It’s just a quick 45 minute lesson on every book. It’s actually the whole Bible. It’s called learn the Old Testament, but we cover the whole Bible.
  • This is very important. The Book You Can Trust. This entire series, these are MP3 classes. They have all of the actual printable notes in word documents and audio files. They are a package for someone that wants to study in depth. There are usually 24 to 36 lessons, classes in each one. It’s a course, a complete course, in a little MP3.

All of these are sold at our website, discoverthebook.org or each individual lesson is free of charge as a text file on the website or as an audio. Also, everything in each of these courses are online, if we’ve been able to capture them in video, on YouTube.

  • Just two more. Life of David called, David’s Spiritual Secret.
  • The Spirit filled life; it’s called A Word Filled Life of New Beginnings.

One last resource I want to tell you about is this. This is, Discipline Yourself for Godliness. This is a book about how to establish Bible study habits, scripture memory, how to get your time under control, discipline to the Lord. It talks about fasting. It talks about prayer. It talks about bringing order and quietness to your life. It’s all about the spiritual disciplines. This is a book as well as, there is an MP3, a course on the same thing. I wanted to show you those as part of the background. If you’re taking this course with us all year long, all of these extra resources can deepen your understanding of God’s word. Back to our slides. That’s the reading of the Bible and the background study in the MacArthur Study Bible.

What we’re doing is following the devotional method. I repeat this every class, because some of you it’s the first time you have joined us. You need a notebook where you write down a title for the chapter you’re reading. I’ll show you my notebook. I wrote down a title when I first started seven days ago. The power of God’s word. You’ll see momentarily, I have many titles. I keep writing new titles the more I study. Then, I noted as many lessons, trues, and doctrines as I can find. I’ve got lots of them. I will show them to you in a minute. Here’s, the most important part, here’s the life changer. I write a prayer in which I asked the Lord to unleash at least one of the things in my prayer. I’m going to read to you at the end. I have about 10 different requests from the trues and lessons that I found. I asked Him to change me.

This is actually my journal. You can look up from your slides. This is part of what I write out, one page. I type all the rest because to show it to you on these slides I’ve got to type it anyways, but I do the manual writing. This is just a normal notebook, moleskin notebook. I put a little pen on the front. I keep this with my Bible, everywhere I go. Bonnie and I traveled 125,000 miles last year, teaching around the world. Everywhere I went, on every flight we took, in my carry on was my Bible and my notebook, I was jotting down what I was finding.

Let me read to you what’s in my notebook and then I’ll show it to you.

  • Psalm 19:1-2, God says creation testifies about Him.
  • Psalm 19:3-6, God says everyone everywhere has been exposed to His truth. That’s the, “heavens declare the glory of God.”
  • Psalm 19:7, God’s law, which is the divine teachings of the Divine Teacher, can change me inside. Wow. As you see, that’s right here, the most important verse of this chapter. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting, transforming, restoring, reviving my inner person.
  • Psalm 19:8, verse 8, God’s word can bring me joy and give me clarity in life. Clarity. Some of you have gotten to this point, you say, wow, this is way over my head. I don’t even understand the Bible. In fact, I don’t even read it. I’ve never wanted to read it. You need to back up to verse 7, only the word of God can revive, bring to life, convert, regenerate your soul. You say, what is that? Being saved? Yes.

I just got a note last night, so sweetly from a lady. She didn’t say what country she’s from, I think somewhere in the Caribbean by her email address, the country there. You know what she said? I was listening to your last class, and she said, you stopped and told everybody if they didn’t know Christ to pray right then. If you have never called in the name of the Lord, if you’ve never said God, be merciful to me a sinner. If you’ve never said, I want your salvation. I am guilty. I agree with you God, I’m a sinner. I believe Jesus, you died in my place as my substitute paying the penalty of my sins and I reach out to you. I call to you. You can do that right now and guess what? God said, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What does saved mean? Listen, a new heart. I will give you a new spirit, I will put within you. I will take away your hard heart and I will put in a soft heart and cause you to walk in my way. God’s salvation is amazing. It is the way to Heaven, but it’s the best life possible.

Back to the slides. Here’s my journal. I’ve typed it out for you. The first thing I write is, at the top of the page, week 12, and the chapter we’re on, Psalm 19. I told you, I have many titles. My first day I called it The Power of God’s Word. Then the next time I read it through, I put God’s Universal Message in His World that’s general revelation, that’s through creation and everything) & His word (that’s special revelation). I keep putting more titles down.

Then, I summarize all these lessons. I don’t just write out the lessons. I also do a big picture, and this is what I wrote. David meditated upon God’s Word while he was alone, as a shepherd boy, as a teenager.

The first six verses it’s, the revelation of God in nature declares His glory, as Creator, to every person on Earth. Remember it says, there’s no speech, nor language where His voice isn’t heard. The second half, David listened to God speak to him from His Word when he was alone. You say how? David went to the tabernacle. David had heard the word of God. He obviously had memorized portions of the scripture that he heard at the tabernacle and in the readings. David responded to God’s presence when he was alone.

This is what I found in the 19th Psalm. I found that there are:

Six different times that God’s word is given a title. God’s law, testimony, precepts, commandments, God’s fear, God’s judgment.

There are six characteristics of the word of God. It’s perfect, that means it covers everything. It’s comprehensive, it’s sure that means you can rely on it. It’s right, by the way that Hebrew word is actually, the right direction. There’s motion in that Hebrew word. God’s precepts are propositional truth to believers, gives us a direction, and when we follow that direction, look what happens, we have joy. It rejoices our heart. God’s instructions, His law is comprehensively perfect and that’s the only thing that can save us. God’s testimony, that’s about Himself. His self-revelation, it’s reliable. You can trust God. It makes us wise because we were born ignorant. We didn’t know Him. His propositional truth sets us in the right direction, brings joy. His commandments, non-negotiable what He wants, are very clear. The more we see them it changes how we see life. His fear, and that’s the Hebrew word for reverence or worship, is clean. It speaks of this idea of an errancy, that what He has told us has no flaw. If you will worship Him, and if I will worship Him the way He says, we will endure forever. His judgment, that’s His verdict, as the divine judge of the universe are true, and it brings us comprehensive righteousness.

Look up from your slide. Over here, this is the same chart only simplified, but remember what all six of these have in common? Look at verse 7. I want to show you 19:7, “The law of the LORD.” Verse 7, the second half of it, The testimony of what? “Of the LORD.” Verse 8, the statutes of what? “Of the LORD.” Do you get it? Six times it says “… of the LORD.” Then, six of these titles of God’s word. His laws, testimony, precept, commandment, fear, and judgment. Then six descriptors, characteristics of His word, perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true. Then it says what it does, it restores, makes us wise, rejoices, enlightens, endures, and gives us comprehensive righteousness. Look down at your slides. Those are the overview that I found.

Here are the lessons. Number one, I wrote, God’s perfect law restores. The word of God is the Divine Teacher. As the Divine Teacher, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting my soul. God’s truth totally transforms. That’s what I started thinking about there. Then, His sure testimony makes me wise. He’s the divine witness, also in verse7. His right statues rejoice my heart because He gives me the directions to the only secure place in the universe. These are all I’ve worked on this a whole week. I keep writing, and writing, and writing.

I wrote His pure commandments enlightens my eyes. His clean fear causes me to endure or live forever. That’s what fearing God is. I lovingly acknowledge by my actions that God is watching me. His true judgments vindicate what He has said. The word of God, those are the divine decisions. He comes as the Word of God in Revelation 19. God’s judgments are His final word on everything, and it brings us to non-negotiable living. We don’t say well, I’m not sure about that. We say no, that doesn’t please God.

I told you that this is where we’re building toward, this is the application prayer. From all those notes that you saw in that chart and what you see on the marker board that I keep showing you, with all that my mind I bowed my head with my eyes looking at the scripture and I read this conclusion to the Lord. I’ll read it to you.

Lord, before I knew you, I could see your power and majesty in creation. Thank you for declaring that you are close enough to all of us, now and throughout all history. So that, anyone who reaches out can touch you. Right there is what it says in Acts 17:27. You are my, I want to hear what You have to say. You can heal, transform, and renew me on the inside, my non-physical, the part that no doctor can get, the spiritual dimension of my life. I asked for your wisdom, and joy, and clarity, and cleansing. Help me to delight in You as my true treasure. Scan me and zap any cancerous sin growths and liberate me from all chains that sin tries to form. You are listening, so I want my words and thoughts to please You. For Christ’s sake, Amen.

Look up from your slide and look in your Bible. This is what it says, some of the parts of my prayer. You haven’t done this chapter yet; you might not have caught this. Look at what it says in verse 12, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me.” See all this? Sin’s chains, and everything. I will be blameless and innocent. What I’m saying is, Lord, I want you to scan me and see if there’s anything that you see in my life you want to change.

Then this is my goal, verse 14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” I can’t help, but notice in my Bible, can you see that? There’s some little writing in my Bible right there. Did you know that Bonnie and I, as we raised our children, for each of their birthdays we would pick the Psalm for how old they were on that birthday. This is just a little reminder that when each of our children turned age 19. From the 19th Psalm, I picked one verse that I prayed for them their whole 19th year. By the way, you can do this. There are 150 Psalms, so for anybody’s birthday there’s a great verse from the Psalm number of their birthday. You just read it over. If you want to transform a birthday party into a spiritual event, say hey, I have a present for you. I am going to pray that God will do this in your life this year. For the 19th year it’s verse 14. I would look at each of my children and even if it was some other friend’s teenager I would say, I’m praying that the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart… in other words, what you say and what you think… your intents as well as your public expressions would be acceptable in God’s sight. That He would be your Lord, your Strength, and your Redeemer. What a great way to share a spiritual truth with people. Back down to the slides. That’s the application prayer. You can see especially this ending; it comes from verses 12 to 14.

Real quickly, I want to just go through my favorite verses about the word of God. First of all, God’s word is the guiding word that we’re supposed to trust. Joshua 1:8 says that if we “observe to do according to all that is written in it,” the Bible, that makes us prosperous and successful. That’s the guiding word to guide you into what pleases God and that He can bless.

The transforming word, that’s a regular verse, a favorite of mine, Jeremiah 15:16. “Your words were found,” that’s my Bible study. Eating them is when I meditate on it. The by-product is, it becomes joy and rejoicing in my heart. Look at this, “I’m called by Your name.” It gives me great assurance.

The encouraging word. We’re in the middle of the COVID vaccination time and just lightening up all the lockdowns and distancing. Many people have gotten discouraged. Here’s one of my favorite verses Psalm 119, verse 25. “My soul,” that’s my emotions, my inner parts, “cling to the dust,” that means I’m really low. Do you know the only thing that can revive me is? God’s word. The author of Psalm 119, I believe it was Ezra and when we get to that Psalm I’ll explain why, but look at this as a prayer request. He has many of these all the way through the 119th Psalm. He’s saying, Lord revived me, please. Only you can bring me out of this depression.

It’s the filling word. God wants His word to fill our lives. Colossians 3:16-17 says, “Let,” and that Greek word means invite, welcome, ask for “the word of Christ to dwell in you richly.” God wants to fill us so that we overflow. “Teaching” others. “Admonishing,” that’s sharing verses with them, “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing…” That means we’re full of the joy of the Lord. We’re full of his grace in our hearts and look, we’re thankful. When God’s word fills us and we let it dwell in us richly we’re full of joy, and song, and grace, and thanksgiving.

 

Here’s another one, the cleansing word. I’ll never forget, as a young man going to Bible College, I had to memorize these verses in Hebrews. I got to Hebrews 9:14, and here’s the verse, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God.” Look at this, as a 19 year old I surrendered back to the Lord after, running from Him and being rebellious. I said Lord, there’s so many things I’ve seen, I’ve heard, that I’ve done, I am defeated by that, and He said in this verse to me, I can cleanse all of those dead works that keep you from serving me so that you can do Hebrews 10:22.

The cleansing word leads to the assuring word. I could draw near with a true heart, knowing it’s all clean and God is not condemning me. I’m fully assured that I have all of His promises. My heart has been sprinkled from all those things that used to make me guilty and condemn me. I feel all clean. I’m washed with the pure water, the word.

Two final challenges. I’ve already said this. Find someone you can share your findings and application prayer with.

Start reviewing scripture. Those last six or seven verses I shared with you are a good place to start.

Of course, I always say this, if you don’t have a missionary right now that you regularly uphold in prayer, Bonnie, and there’s my wonderful wife right there. That’s why I’m smiling, right there, because that’s my wonderful wife. We are full-time missionaries. In fact, in just a few days, we’re leaving for another round of teaching and remote classroom studios. We’re equipping and mobilizing other believers to reach the least reached peoples of Asia, Europe, and Africa. We traveled between those international destinations serving the Lord.

You can look up from your slide, it’s been a joy to share week 12 with you. For some of you, you’re overwhelmed, you don’t have to do everything all at once. Get started. Get a notebook. Get a Bible. Read this chapter. Don’t try and catch up if you’re just joining us today. Start at week 12 and go forward. Go to our website, discoverthebook.org, get this list of the 52 Greatest Chapters. Also, how to do this study, how to do the devotional method. If you want to see all the past classes, they’re right here on this channel, there’s a whole channel of them on YouTube. Also, they’re all posted on Facebook on our page there, which was called The 52 Greatest Chapters. Find one of those vehicles and get started. If you are behind don’t defeat yourself by trying to catch up, just start this week and go through each day this chapter, and grow together in the word of God, looking for trues. Then, converting them into a prayer. Then, bowing before the Lord and asking Him to change your life.

It’s been a joy to sit here with you like we’re in a small group. I pray God will bless your time in His word this week. Buh-bye see you next week, Lord willing.

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