4 Discoveries In Daily Bible Reading

Introduction

Good morning to each and every one. We thank you for joining us as we come together on this day to give praise to our God, to worship him as we sing these praises to him, to remember the great sacrifice that he gave on our behalf, the blood of his son shed on the cross, that you and I could be forgiven of our sins. And now we come together to consider a portion of his word. We thank you for joining us and pray that all that is done today will be to the edification of your soul as you praise God and as you enjoy the fellowship of one another. Invite you to join us again next week as well. And here’s where we have to change things up a little bit because the beginning of the year is a fairly big uh deal for the South Bumbee congregation as we are changing our worship times, and uh uh there will be there are business cards actually out in the in the foyer.

Uh there’ll be a new sign, but those cards have uh the new times on them. We’ll be coming together beginning next Lord’s Day at 9 in the morning for a period of worship, followed by our Bible class, and then we’ll come back together again around 11 o’clock to again worship our God in song, to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and to again uh be edified through the study of the scriptures. We certainly invite you to come and to join us on those occasions. And as has been mentioned before, we’re gonna see how this works for a few months, and if this is uh a good change, as we hope it’ll be a good change, then it’ll become permanent, but uh.

Of course, first of the year, we we think about changes all the time. We think about changes that we want to make, and we as we consider uh changes in the congregation and how we are operating. And yeah, I want to talk about this morning is something that has never changed, but our appreciation of it and our use of it may have changed over time, and that is Bible reading. Of course, the Bible’s not changed. The Word of God has been there, and the Word of God will always be there. And I hope in your own personal habit that you won’t have to make a change this year either. I hope you already have, as a part of your habit, your daily routine, a daily study of the Word of God, getting into the Word of God and reading the Word of God.

But it may be that you need to make a change. And maybe that’s one of your resolutions for the new year is that I am going to read the Bible. And whether or not that’s, I’m going to read the whole Bible in a year, or whether you’re just saying, I’m going to make sure that I spend 15, 20, 30 minutes every day in reading the Bible, and I don’t necessarily have to have a set goal, well, that’s fine too. The important thing is that we read the Word of God. We do have, and we still have available, and we’ll have many more if we need them. These daily Bible reading programs out on the foyer, where you would read a few chapters, five days out of the week.

However, you want to look at them. If you fell behind and you needed to catch up, well, there’s two days built in the week already to do that. And encourage you to do that. And as I’ve mentioned before, Lord willing, in those 9 o’clock worship services, we’re going to consider one or more of the psalms that you’ve read that week as we come together and devote our hearts to God and we worship Him.

1. Discover Important Things About God

Now, I don’t mean by discovery something completely new. What we’re going to talk about this morning are things that you probably already know. But as you read your Bible day by day. These are things that you discover afresh over and over again. Different ways in which it’s recorded in the scripture that maybe you’ve not thought of or makes you think. And it’s very profitable. I’d like to consider that with you this morning, and hopefully it’ll be an encouragement to you if you’ve already decided to do so to really read your Bible throughout this next year and throughout the years to come. The first discovery that I would say that you would make, and is the most important discovery that you would make as you read your Bible on a daily basis, is you’re going to discover important things about God.

I want to encourage you when you read the Bible that you think of that first. That while, yes, there are many commands found throughout the scriptures, there are many lessons for us throughout the scriptures, and certainly the Bible is filled from cover to cover with important information about us. But I’d like for you to consider as you read the Bible, first of all, what is it telling me about God? Because why would I care what it says about me if I don’t understand what it says about him, first of all. Now, generally speaking, and this may not be the case of anyone here this morning, but within the world there are two impressions about God, and there are polar opposite impressions. There is the loving, doting, grandfather type figure, the one who really just wants to spoil people, and he’s all love, and yes, I’ll do this for you, I’ll do this for you, I’ll do this for you.

But you really don’t get that aspect of, well, you know, if I don’t follow him, then there’s trouble. No, it’s just all love and all good. But then the polar opposite side of that is, and there are those who would say that God is simply a tyrant, that he is mean, uh, he is just out to get you, uh that he is looking on us every second of the day, and he’s trying to see, hey, here they fell short, they’re in trouble, they’re gonna get it. Well, you could read the scriptures and you could find some, I won’t say evidence for those two views, but you could see where people might hold to one or two of the either of those views because you would find passages in the Bible about how God loves us.

But you would also find passages in the Bible about how God would judge us, and God wouldn’t even punish us for doing that which is wrong. But if you want to get a good picture of God, then you’ve got to read what God says of himself. And to do that, you need to read what he says in the scriptures. Certainly, there are many things we could talk about this morning in regards to what we discover about God, but I want to just highlight three very quickly. First of all, we would discover throughout the scriptures the holiness of God. That is a theme that runs throughout the scriptures. I’m going to have several passages from the book of Revelation this morning, and if you wonder why, well, it’s because it’s the last book that we read in our daily Bible reading that just concluded this year.

And you read through Revelation and you are impressed with the holiness of God, that He is apart from this world, that He is not stained by anything in this world. And certainly that that passage, that thought comes to mind when we read Revelation chapter 4. And here this great scene, the throne room scene, and God is there, and he’s surrounded by the 24 elders, and he’s surrounded by these four living creatures. But I just want to note very quickly what we read there beginning in verse 8. Revelation 4 and verse 8. The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the twenty four elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, O Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you create all things, and because of your will they existed and were created. That theme of the holiness of God begins on the first page of the Bible. If you were to start the Bible reading program, which would begin this week, even though the first is not till Tuesday, the first week of our daily Bible reading program technically begins today.

And if you were to start that program today or tomorrow and you would read Genesis chapter 1, what’s the point of Genesis chapter 1? Well, that shows how the world came into existence. Well, yes, it does. But how did it come into existence? By the word of God.

I can’t say anything and just make it happen. But God can. You would continue reading in a day or so, if not even on that first day, you come to Genesis chapter 3 and you see how man and woman sit in the garden, and you would see their impression of their own unholiness compared to God when they committed sin. You might make your way through the Old Testament, you come to the book of Leviticus. And oftentimes when people begin a Bible reading program. They say, I’m going to start reading the Bible. I’m going to start in Genesis, and I’m going to go all the way through. And you come to Leviticus, and that’s when people stop. So, what’s this about? Why would I want to read this?

But if you just keep with it, you come to, oh, about the 20th chapter, I believe it’s about verse 26, and God saying to the people, Therefore you shall be holy, for I am holy. Those restrictions and all those laws were to impress upon the children of Israel, I am holy. And you need to, every day, in every decision and everything that you do, you need to be impressed by this fact that God is holy, and I am calling you to a different kind of life. It’s important that you and I discover every day just how holy God is. If I’m going to reverence him as he deserves reverence, and if I’m to obey him as he deserves my following him, I need to be impressed with his holiness.

But then you’ll also be impressed by his love.

Go back in your old testaments to the 103rd Psalm with me. 103rd Psalm, and what I encourage you to do is you read.

But look at what that love of God has done for us and what he’s promising to us. 103rd Psalm, and you might find many of these passages within the Psalms, by the way. But 103rd Psalm in verses 10 through 12 may be familiar to you. That he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as you’re removed our transgressions from us. Here we are talking about holy God and his response to unholy man. Holy God could in his righteousness and his justice just punish us every time we did something that was wrong.

But what is this passage saying to us? Look at how willing God is to forgive. Look at how he has not carried all these things against us, we so easily could have. And how when he forgives, he truly does remove our sins from us. As far as the east is from the west, so far as God removed our transgressions from us.

And Titus the third chapter, and again, many passages that we could go to that would that would speak of these things. Mantius the third chapter. Notice what we read there beginning in verse 3 of Titus chapter 3. We also, once we’re foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. If you could ever describe unholiness in a verse. There it is. That’s what Paul is writing to Titus said, This is what we were. But what did God in his love do for us? Titus 3 and verse 4. But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we’d be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

How much does God love you? He loves you so much that he could do for you and will do for you that which only he can. Take you from that unholy existence, and because of his love and his kindness and his mercy make you holy, even as he is holy. And of course, that ties right in with the passage that many, if not most, or if not all of us, could quote in John 3 and verse 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life. What can you discover day by day as you look to the Word of God? Yes, he’s holy. Yes, he’s not like us. Yes, he deserves reverence, fear, and obedience.

But he is also the one who loves us like none other. But one other thing I’d like to highlight about what we find out about God, and this is again throughout the scriptures, it’s the faithfulness of God. You want to know why faith comes by hearing? Well, here it is. When you read the Word of God, when you hear the Word of God, you are learning about God, and what you’re learning about Him is that he is always faithful. You take as an example, God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis, the twelfth chapter. Many of you are familiar with the simple way we refer to them as land, nation, and seed. God promised to Abraham, first of all, that he’d become a great nation. That great nation would one day inherit a land, the land of Canaan, but that ultimately, through the seed of Abraham, all families of the earth would be blessed.

Abraham didn’t live to see any of those promises fulfilled. Some 400 years later, perhaps, in about Exodus chapter 1 and verse 6 and 7, we read about how Abraham’s descendants became a great nation. Abraham’s long dead. Some, oh, at least 40 years after that. And we’re not given exact chronology, but I take it back, it’s much more than 40. Moses wasn’t born yet. So we’re looking at at least 120 years after that, is when God brings Joshua and the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. And we read in Joshua chapter 21 and verses 43 through 45 that God did exactly as his promise. In fact, it says that not one of the promises that God had made was not fulfilled. God gave them the land just as he had promised to Abraham.

But then you go forward in the future, even some more 1,400 years. And now Jesus was about to be born. You may remember what Mary said when she had gone to visit her cousin Elizabeth in Luke, the first chapter, and verses 54 through 55, saying of God that he has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever. Mary understood the one to be born was the fulfillment of what Abraham was promised.

Did it happen in Abraham’s day? No. It didn’t happen in Abraham’s day, it didn’t happen in the days of his son or in his grandchildren, but it did happen. And so as we’re exhorted in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 23, let’s hold fast the assurance of our hope. Why? For he who promised is faithful. Let me encourage you as you read the scriptures. And you see how God makes these promises to man, you also see God keeps those promises. You discover wonderful and important things about God. They’re stated in many different ways. Encourage you as you read through the Bible, look for those things. What does it say about God’s holiness? What does it say about God’s love? What does it say about his faithfulness? You can go on down the list.

2. Discover Some Things About Ourselves

What does it say about his righteousness, about his justice and mercy, all kinds of things. We need to read the scriptures so we’ll understand more and more about God. But then if we come to understand some things about God, the second thing we need to come to understand is some things about ourselves. Yes, the Bible does contain much for you and I.

We already noted that in Hidas chapter 3 and in verse 3. Some other things that always bring it home to me. I think of David. Here’s a man after God’s own heart. But we’re also familiar with the story of David as we read that through the scriptures and how David committed a grievous sin with Bathsheba, and then even having her husband killed Uriah the Hittite in battle. But you would also read in Psalm 51 of David’s repentance to the Lord. This strikes us when we read passages like Psalm 51 and verse 5, where there David says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. No, not saying original sin, but the idea that here’s the circumstances under which I was born.

Here’s the world in which I lived in. And David is saying this of himself. Here’s a man after God’s own heart. But he would say of himself, How great a sinner I am. I tell you, it’s useful to read the scriptures. Because we are all prone to pride. We’re all prone to think a little higher of ourselves than perhaps we ought. But we read passages like of David and other great men of the Bible. And how even they sinned against God, and it should remind us that, no, Josh, you’re not that good. We read other passages, and these are passages you would be familiar with too. We could go through the whole chapter of Matthew chapter 5. We can look at all those different beatitudes and all those different things in which Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say unto you, and we look at principles regarding anger, and we look at principles regarding lust, we look at principles regarding forgiveness and turning the other cheek, and we look at those things and we say, Wow, I’ve got a lot to work on.

And when Jesus concludes it all in Matthew 5 and verse 48 and saying, Therefore you shall be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect. I look at that and I say, I’m not as good as I thought I was. I thought I was getting a good handle on all of this, but wow, I’ve still got a lot to work on.

And which of us, when we read James 1, 26 and 27 is not slapped in the face every time. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion, the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. And I look at that, it’s like, well, I’m a pretty good guy, but you know what? There’s a lot of good that I need to be doing out there that I just haven’t been doing. And I like to say that I keep that tongue under control most of the time, but there are some of the times when it’s not under control.

I’d like to say that I’m unstained from the world, but then I look at my life and say, well, no, the words right there in it. So I’m saying that we look at this not to make ourselves feel bad, but to recognize I need this instruction from God. I need God pointing out to me. Josh, don’t think too highly of yourself. Remember, Josh, what you’re called to. You’re called to holiness. There’s a lot of things we must work on. Which brings me then to the second thing that we need to be impressed upon our minds time and again as we read the scripture. That is just how needy we are. We look at how far short we fall. It should impress upon us over and over again.

Here’s why I need God. You read through the Gospels and you read those wonderful accounts of how Jesus healed so many. I tell you what should be impressed upon us, and it’s impressed upon me. Is when I look at the leper in Luke chapter 8, remember the one who comes up to Jesus and says, Lord, if you’re willing, I can be healed. Well, that’s there for a reason. It’s not just saying that if I was living in the time of Jesus and I was a leper and I could come to him, he would heal me, but saying, I need him now. That there’s something that only Jesus could do for me, that I need him. We look at passages like Matthew chapter 9, and when Jesus is looking out on the multitude who is surrounding him, he sees the people in Matthew 9 and verse 36, and he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

And we look at those passages, and we ought to be impressed by the fact that I needed him. That was me too. I was out there wandering away and wondering on my own, and who was looking after me? Who was taking care of me? What is said in Romans chapter 6 and verses 20 and 21 is true of us all. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. Here’s why I needed God, because here’s the road I was on. I was a slave to sin, and the outcome of that is always death. But then the discovery that we also make throughout the scriptures is that if I’m in Christ, then how complete we are.

Continuing on there in Romans chapter 6, verse 22. But now having been freed from sin and slave to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Here, Paul is simply stating, you have now come to Christ. He has given to you that which you cannot do for yourselves. You are now slaves of God, and you have been saved by the blood of Christ. What more could you ask for? And that’s where all the other instruction in the New Testament comes from, too. Why would you go back into the world? What are you looking for there? You read Matthew chapter 6, and you read about how our treasure should be in heaven and not on this earth, or how we should not be worried about the next day, why we should seek first the kingdom of God.

It’s all coming back to this point. If you are in Christ, if you’re in his kingdom, he’s already given to you that what you need. Going back to Revelation, go to Revelation chapter 3, and you remember what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea, that church who was lukewarm. They were neither hot nor cold, and he was going to spew them forth from his mouth. He says to them in Revelation 3 and verses 17 and 18. You say, I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And you did not know that you’re wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may become rich. And white garments so that you may clothe yourselves, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed.

3. You’ll Also Discover Great Ways to Pray

And Isaac to anoint your eyes so that you may see. What’s the point here? The history of Laodicea, and you can see how they were famed for all those things: gold, clothing, eye ointments. The point is, you’re looking into this world for things, and you’ve forsaken the true riches that are only available in me. Come to me. Buy these things from me, Jesus is saying, and you’ll truly be rich. Those lessons will be impressed upon us time and again. I’m just hitting highlights here. But these point these principles are made time and again as we search the scriptures. You’ll also discover great ways to pray. Do you find yourself in your praying to God, they become stagnant? You might even say boring sometimes. As we repeat oftentimes the same things and phrases that we’ve heard from other people, and it’s easy to say the same things over and over again.

And even though we may have our heart in it, and yet we say, prayer is just not as meaningful for me as it once was. Well, me urge you, read your Bible. Read your Bible, change prayer for you. I’ll just give you a personal couple of things that I’ve been doing over the past year that that’s really helped me along the way, and certainly not advocating that this is what you must do. I’m just showing a couple of things. I have begun, and I don’t know if I’ll change that this year, and certainly going through the Psalms, I may very well, but I’ve begun when I pray in the morning to God, I’ve begun with Psalm 18, verses 1 through 3. And this is how I’ll begin my prayer.

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I find whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. And what that does for me is it gets me in the mindset of here I’m coming before the one who deserves to be praised, for he is the fortress, the rock, the source of security for his people, always has been and always will be. Here’s why I should praise him. And when I end my prayers, I’ve been ending them with Psalm 139 and verses 23 and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. What that causes me to do is examine myself. What is it in my life that God could point out and I would want him to remove from me? It makes me think of those things. So that’s been beneficial to me, and I’ll tell you that if you read through the scriptures, you’ll find those things. You’ll find passages you can bring into your into your praying. Perhaps passages that you would not have thought of at first. I go back to Revelation again. There’s some fascinating things you can pray from the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 12. And you read in verse 11 about those who are with the Lamb.

And it says that they overcame him. That is, they overcame the devil, the dragon. They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, because of the word of their testimony. And he did not love their life even when faced with death. And so the week in which we had read this while I began praying that week was thank you, God, for allowing us to overcome. Because that’s what that chapter is about. That through the Lamb you can overcome. Through the blood of the Lamb, you can overcome anything that Satan would do. And so that gave me reason and cause to thank God for allowing us to overcome. Going back to the third chapter in that passage to Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, we did not yet read verse 19.

In verse 19, we read, Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.

4. You Discover God’s Purposes for You

I hadn’t. Then I read it and I thought, you know what? I should be thankful to God. I should be thankful that he loves me enough to reprove me, reprove his people when we transgress. And so that week I thanked God for reproving us. And I asked him, I petitioned him, Lord, help me to truly repent as you would have me to. The possibilities are endless. As you read through the scriptures and you’re impressed with these lessons and these passages, these principles of God and ourselves throughout time, it’ll also help you as you pray to God. But finally, you discovered God’s purposes for you. Everyone wants to know, why am I doing this? What am I supposed to be doing? Well, the Bible is simply about that.

Here’s your purpose. Your first purpose, God’s purpose for you, be with him. That’s what man was in the beginning. And you read the conclusion of the scriptures, that’s where man one day will be. To be with him. That point is made time and again throughout the scriptures. Matthew 25, verse 34, when Jesus said he would come back and separate those on his right from those on his left. He said to those on his right, enter into the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Here, come into the kingdom. This was made ready for you. This is what God intended for you. On the opposite side of that is Revelation, I’m sorry, Matthew 25 and verse 41, when he says to those on the left hand, depart from me.

Well, where are they going? To the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels. Wasn’t what God wanted for man. Wasn’t what God purposed for man. It’s not the kingdom. God’s purpose for you, if you ever wonder what’s God’s purpose for my life, God’s purpose for your life is to be with him. And that’s why he sent his son. And you can be with him if you’ll come to him through his son. If you’ll accept the grace that he offered, you’ll follow him, have faith in him, be baptized for your sins that they may be forgiven. You might say there are many other purposes the scriptures deal with, but I’m going to boil it down to these two. Our purpose to be with him, and our second purpose is to be a blessing to others.

Even as it was promised to Abraham, he was to be a blessing to others. God’s people are always supposed to be a blessing to others. This point is impressed upon us time and again throughout scriptures. You go through those Old Testament prophets, and what you’re going to see about the unfaithfulness of God’s people is mentioned time and time again, how they were not blessing others. Isaiah the third chapter in verses 13 through 15. God says, of the leaders of his people, the Lord arises to contend and stands to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people. It is you who have devour the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the face of the poor?

declares the Lord God of hosts. We already read Matthew chapter 9 and verse 36, where Jesus sees the multitude around him, and that they are there like straying sheep, they have no shepherd. And so what is he saying to his disciples? Go into the vineyard and ask God to send more.

We need to ask God for more. You go back to Matthew chapter 25. Why were those on the right hand going to be going into the kingdom? Because they aided those who were poor, and those who were sick, and those who were cast into prison for his sake. Saying, you went out and you did all these things, and they come back and they question it. Oh, when, Lord, did we do any of these things for you? When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. Over and over again through the scriptures. And why did Jesus say the second greatest commandment, like unto the first, you shall love your neighbor as yourself? What’s God’s purpose for you? To be with Him. And that as you follow Him, just as God acts on the benefit of mankind, you too act to the benefit of mankind.

Conclusion

You be a blessing to others. You be that light that they can see. There is one who’s looking to God. I want to look to God as well. You be that person who is charitable and loving and kind just as God is all those things. You discover God’s purpose is for you as you read the scriptures. We conclude this morning by again extending that invitation. That you can lay hold of God’s purpose for you. His plan, his idea for you is that you be with him. But in sin, we’re unholy. We’re not fit to be with him, but he can make us holy. Through the blood of his son, he can make us holy. Won’t you accept that wondrous gift? Won’t you take hold of the purpose that he has for you in your life?

Won’t you believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God? Repent of your wrongs, because those wrongs keep you from God. They make you unholy. Be baptized, to have your sins forgiven through the precious blood of Christ. God’s grace will be real in your life, and you can look forward to being with him for all eternity. Can we aid you in some way? Once you come as we stand and as we sing. Oh, I am recalled.