Hi Everyone
Here are the notes for last Friday's Bible Study. Do listen to the audio to get the most of it!
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God's best to you!
Chris
We are Destroyed for the Lack of Knowledge
Hosea 4:6a My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (NKJV)
Many Christians lead defeated lives, seeking meaning. Many of us do not live up to the hope of calling that God has for us. This is for a lack of knowledge of God.
We as Christians often have no lack of Christian activity – church services, fellowship, outreach, even prayer meetings. However, without knowledge of the Word, we will not grow.
We have only a very short time and the best investment is to build on the Rock.
Yes, we can believe in Jesus for salvation, but the less knowledge we have of God and His Word, the less we will live fruitful and meaningful lives here on earth.
Daniel 11:32b but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (NKJV)
Those who do know will carry out great exploits. If our lives today does not seem like this, then we need to know our God more!
Know God = Know His Word
God is revealed in His Word.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (NKJV)
If we want to know the Lord, know the Word. Jesus IS the Word and when you read the Word in faith, taking care to trust what it says, you are taking God into your soul! (“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” Eph 3:17)
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (NKJV)
The more you know God, the more of His eternal life you will be connected with. God has promises for you in every area of your life, but you will enjoy them to the degree that you know them.
E.g. If you don’t know that God gives you peace not as the world gives, you may feel stressed, anxious or unhappy all your life.
That is why God emphasizes so much throughout the Word about knowledge, referring to knowing Him.
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (NKJV)
Many Christians get past the first part only to get saved. The second part will take the rest of our lives, but we can only get it from encountering God in His Word.
Promises of Knowing the Word
God treats His Word above His name – so ironclad it is.
Psalm 138:2b For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. (NKJV)
There are many promises come from just knowing the Word.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (NKJV)
The Word is access to walking in the Spirit. We cannot say we walk in the Spirit unless we are found in the Word.
Proverbs 3:1 My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; 2 For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you. (NKJV)
Length of days, so time spent in the Word is never wasted, as the days will seem longer. Long life here is also a promise. Dare we stand on this?
Proverbs 4:20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. (NKJV)
Hear, see and meditate. There is a promise of health to our bodies. Hold on to this promise!
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)
The mirror is the Word. It shows us who we are in Christ, our New Creation. We thus go from glory to glory!
Acts 20:32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (NKJV)
The Word is of His grace. It builds us up and gives us an inheritance among those saved (i.e. some saved may not have/have as much inheritance!)
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (NKJV)
Grace and peace are multiplied when we know God and Jesus. No other way than through the Word.
Want to be washed? Want to be renewed? Get into the Word!
John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. (NKJV)
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (NKJV)
Word gives us great discernment. Our view of the world and how things are become clearer all the time as we get into the Word. It is called wisdom.
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV)
Word brings faith!
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (NKJV)
This is our goal in life – to bear much fruit that the Father is glorified, to be His disciples, His representation to Man. We can’t bear fruit without the Word!
We Need to Get Into the Word
Nothing will change in our lives without it. No “Christian” activity outside of the Word will change us. All other Christian activity must be based on the Word – prayer, fellowship, discipleship, outreach etc.
We can even have zeal for God without knowledge. Many are often zealous about church activities and miss out the knowledge of God. Christianity is, after all, a relationship not a cause.
Romans 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (NKJV)
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. (NKJV)
Love Jesus = Keep His Word
Don’t know His Word = Can’t Keep His Word = Don’t Love Jesus
We cannot say we love the Lord but not His Word – they are inseparable.
1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, (NKJV)
Desire the pure milk, not the junk food. We need to get into the Word ourselves, above just reading devotionals, hearing messages etc. All these are good, but we need to read the Word for ourselves to really know God.
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. (NKJV)
Staying away from the Word puts us at risk of drifting away! There is no such thing as a backslider who earnestly gave heed to the Word.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (NKJV)
This is Christian fellowship! When using the Word, we encourage one another in wisdom.
Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (NKJV)
Meditate on the Word day and night!
Deuteronomy 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. (NKJV)
There is no time that we should not talk about God’s Word. It should completely permeate our lives. Our children need to hear it from us in everything in life, not just once a week in church.
The Take Away
- Without God’s Word, there is no hope
- God and His Word are inseparable
- We know God through His Word
- The many, many benefits of knowing God are found in knowing Him through the Word
- Reading, meditating, giving of ourselves completely to the Word is non-negotiable as a Christian
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