Desiring the Pure Milk of the Word

My sermon today will be part two of the series that began last week pertaining to our spiritual disciplines. Last week I covered the topic of prayer, and it reminded us that prayer is outgoing communication from us towards God. And through prayer we express to God our love, our praise, our worship. Also through prayers we'll express our desires, our hopes, perhaps requests we extend to God. Oftentimes our will is included in our prayers towards God, but hopefully they're given in such a way that we're humbly in sinking His will in return. Our spiritual disciplines, such as the Bible lines them out, are essentially prayer, Bible study, fasting, and meditation. You won't see that word, spiritual disciplines, necessarily linked to those things, but we understand that those are our tools that God gives us in both our spiritual growth and building our relationship with Him.

As I also mentioned, I'll add on to this sermon series the topic of fellowship as well, because I believe it's by our coming together and interacting with God's Spirit that we're able to, through iron sharpening iron, offer to one another what God has given us to lend an increase of one another. But again, these spiritual disciplines, brethren, they deepen our spiritual relationship with God. And as I mentioned last week, coming to know God is what we've been called to do. He is our Father. We are His children. This is a family relationship that we've been called into.

And there's a difference between knowing about somebody and knowing somebody. I gave the example. I could give you my vital statistics, and you would know about me, but until you met me and talked with me and forged a relationship, you would not truly know me in terms of a deep and abiding relationship. And it's the same with God. He reveals Himself to us through the pages of Scripture. And when we look into Scripture and we study those things, but simply knowing about God isn't where it ends, that is where it begins. It then leads to a relationship that we build with Him. So prayer is outgrowing towards God. Like any good relationship, in order for it to be structured on a solid foundation, there needs to be good and open communication.

And so we don't want to neglect to recognize as well that which is incoming. And so today I want to talk about our spiritual discipline of Bible study. I want to talk about desiring the pure milk of the Word. Because nobody, at least I don't, like to be in a one-way conversation. I mean, have you ever walked into a room, had a conversation with somebody, and the whole thing was dominated by them telling you everything that they know, and there was not a return of thoughts or ideas?

You know, that doesn't lead to a very fulfilling relationship. And the same is true with God. If we're busy and we think, all I have the time to do today is get down on my knees for a few moments in prayer, kind of give God my wish list, rush out the door, and don't have time to invest, such as we discussed last week, and don't have time to invest in the Bible study as well. Again, that's communication that's heading out one way.

And you and I are not receiving in what it is that God is giving us through His Word in order to build this relationship. God speaks to us through the Scripture. He gives us His Holy Spirit by which we can understand and internalize the things which He says. Now, God's Spirit is essential because God is Spirit, and we covered that on Pentecost.

And God's Word is spiritual. Jesus Christ said, the words I speak to you, these are spirit and they are life. And so to understand these words, to put them to practice in our life in the way that God intends, we need God's Spirit working with us as we come to conversion, baptism, dwelling in us as well. But it's a process by which this back-and-forth communication between us and God takes place. His Word is spiritual, and the mind of God and the character of God are contained therein.

The important principle of understanding God and coming to know Him is by recognizing God's authority as the mind behind the Scripture. And I want to look at a few Scriptures starting out here that remind us of the authority of the Word of God that you have sitting in your lap.

So let's begin in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. This is probably one of the most turn-to Scriptures if we're talking about the inspiration of Scripture. Yet it's very valid. Let's take a couple of moments here. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16. Here's the apostle Paul, the second-to-last book that he wrote, as far as we know ever, wrote to Timothy. 2 Timothy was the last book, the second-to-last chapter of this book. Paul says in verse 16, he says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So right off the bat, what we recognize here is the authority of Scripture. It says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word in the Greek is theonustos, and it literally means God breathed. And it's not that God literally spoke and penned each and every word, but by His Holy Spirit, in the inspiration of God, this word was written.

By God's Spirit in a number of men who actually physically penned the book. But the mind is of God, and the character and the message and the Spirit is of God. It is literally God breathed. God is the author of the Bible, and if you opened up the front cover, and if it said, Written by, I think it would be very safe to say God.

Although, again, He used physical human agents. But when you delve into Scripture, what you're going to find is that you have 66 books written across a span of at least 1500 years, probably closer to 2000, depending on where you put the book of Job. So 66 books, 2000 years, 40 different authors. Some were kings.

Some were scholars. Ezra was a scribe. Luke was a doctor. So you had educated individuals who wrote passages of Scripture. But you know what? You also had people that were considered common men and uneducated as well. You had fishermen. You had shepherds.

And you had those that the leaders of the day would say, Well, these were untrained and unlearned men, and yet they speak with authority while they had been with Christ. So the point is, it is God by His Spirit that inspires these words literally to bring them together so that you can turn to a book in the Old Testament, and you can turn to a book in what we call the New Testament, and there's agreement. And you can build understanding line upon line, precept upon precept. And again, there's agreement.

That doesn't come by the mind of men. That comes by the Spirit of God and the inspiration of God. Because God is the inspiration of these things, we can study the words and we can learn about God. About His mind, His temperament, about God's character and nature, and what it is that He wants us to develop in this relationship. Again, Bible study, studying the Word, is incoming from God to us.

And there are so many principles, brethren, that we need to internalize in our life if we're going to even respond to God according to the way He desires and the relationship He's called us into. Now, Paul, speaking to Timothy here, says that these words are profitable for doctrine, which is teaching. To establish teaching. We have what we call our list of doctrines. They are our teachings. It's ultimately teaching from God. That's what this word is.

It is doctrine, teaching, which comes from God, confirmed by Jesus Christ as He walked the earth and as He spoke and taught, confirmed as well by the apostles and what it is that they taught and they recorded for us in Scripture. So this word is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction. Just as we heard in the focused Scripture today and in the sermonette, these words are correcting. And that not necessarily need to be thought of in terms of a negative thing or a harsh thing. If you're going about your life going to church on Sunday, eating pork, doing whatever, and you open Scripture and say, God, I want to understand, and you start to read and you say, oh, I'm keeping the wrong day.

I'm doing things that God told me not to do and God by His Spirit is working with you. What do you make in your life? You make corrections. It's brought about by seeing these things in the Word of God.

Well, God desires, and hopefully is what's happening in us by His Spirit, is that we come to a level of maturity that we are self-correcting. Where we study the Word of God and we see, we don't have to be whacked up the side of the head, hopefully, but we see areas of growth that we need to have take place in our life. Places where we can mature and change. And the Word of God, as Paul says, is profitable for these things. And it's also profitable for instruction in righteousness. Instruction in righteousness. Well, who is the source of righteousness? Probably all of us, hopefully all of us could answer that. Who is the source of righteousness? Well, it is God. And these are His Words, and it is by His Spirit that we have this Word here today. And it is profitable for instruction in righteousness. In other words, instruction in those things that are according to the mind and the character of God.

So again, these God-breathed Words, brethren, teach us about God. They teach us how He desires that we would live our life. They teach us about the relationship that He desires to have with us. What He's called us to, the kingdom and the hope and the promise that He's laid before us. These are things that we see as we walk through the Scripture, and I would just say, apart from that, we would have no clue.

Apart from studying the Scripture, we might think we know God. We might think that we have a relationship, but it's based on our terms, as opposed to the terms that God has given us through His Word. So again, we need to recognize that God is the authority.

If you go online and you look up polls, like Gallup Poll or Pew Research Polls, what you're going to find, reading through a number of those polls, is that the number of Americans that believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God is on the decline. Now, a number of people believe that Scripture and the Bible is a good book, and that it is a moral book, and that you can pull out of that lessons for life. But more and more people believe it's more of a social commentary on life, written by just different men down through the ages. And there's a problem if you don't recognize the authority of Scripture. Because if God is not the authority of Scripture, then you get to be the authority as to what you'll pick and choose. What it is that maybe works for me, or is good for my life, or what it is that I'll just leave on the table. But you and I don't get to make that choice when we recognize that God is the authority of Scripture. That it is literally God-breathed by the inspiration of God. We take Scripture as a whole, and we say, the authority to do these things is God. It is not even of myself. So again, brethren, the blessing of the Scripture is that we really don't have to think too hard about what should I do in this life or not do. We simply obey God. We worship Him according to His Word. Now, 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 10 and 12, the last one we'll look at in terms of the authority of Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, here's the apostle Paul writing once again. And he says, 2 I wanted to begin here and read and include verse 12 because I want you to think about the relationship here. Again, this is studying Scripture for a relationship. My perspective of addressing this discipline of Bible study isn't necessarily to tell you how to Bible study or when to Bible study. Those things hopefully are evident, and we've been over those things before, but I want to be more approaching it from the motivation of we want to study. And we need to study because it is a relationship with God that we're developing. And we need to hunger and thirst after the Word of God. If you don't, you're not going to take the time. You're not going to put in the effort. But if you say, cry out for the Word of God, if you're thirsty for it, as in a desert, then you're going to put in the effort, in the time. And you're going to make that a priority in that way. But verse 12 here, Paul said, the goddess called you into his own kingdom and glory. And I wonder sometimes if we truly grasp what that means.

There's kingdoms in this world. When Paul wrote this, the Roman Empire was the dominant, world-dominant kingdom of the day. It came, and then it went. In our day and age here today, the United States, a dominant kingdom in the world today. And as great as the United States is, one day it will be gone. But the kingdom of God is steadfast and sure. The glory of men come and go. You can have kings. You can have presidents. Whatever ruler you want to name, whatever person, even athletes, whoever you want to put out there, someone who is maybe glorious in this life in terms of the physical perspective, they come and go. But the glory of God remains forever. God has called us into his own kingdom and his own glory. Brethren, we don't want to miss that point. Now verse 13, Paul says, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectively works in you who believe. And so again, the scripture that we have right in front of us, not just maybe what we would call the Old Testament, when Paul said that Timothy, all scriptures by inspiration of God, really what they had put together in terms of a canonized package at that point, would have been the Old Testament. But the other scriptures, the other writings by inspiration of God, were coming about. And so what you and I have today is a complete package of scripture is indeed inspired by God. And here the Apostle Paul, again, just basically said, you received the word that we brought, you not as the word of men, but as the word of God. And it is how we need to receive this word today. Not just a collection of social commentary and writings by different men across different time periods with no connection. Clearly, that's not what God has given us. He has given us His words, and they are words for life. Point for the message again today is we can't receive this word apart from opening the book and investing ourselves in it, and delving into the scripture spiritually, not for the point of self-edification only, but for the point and the purpose of deepening our relationship with God, of understanding His mind and His character, because it is contained here.

Psalm 19 describes the characteristics of scripture that point us to God.

Psalm 19, while we're on our way there, if you want, you can jot down in your notes. 2 Peter 1, verse 19-21, I skipped over that. We won't go back, but 2 Peter 1, 19-21, that talks about the fact that no scripture, no prophecy, scripture is by any private interpretation or origin, but holy men of God spoke as they were inspired by His Spirit, again from God.

But in Psalm 19, we see characteristics of God's word that point us to Him, because when we read the scripture, it should be something that brings to mind God, His nature, His character. And that character, that is to be instilled in us as well. Psalm 19, beginning in verse 7, David says, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, more than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. David said there is great reward to keeping these words and living this life. Because not only does it set us on a path of right and proper behavior, but it also teaches us of the mind and the character of God. I just want to, again, take a moment in case we didn't quite catch it, the descriptors here that are contained regarding Scripture. David said Scripture is perfect, is sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous. And who does that remind you of?

Well, brethren, that should remind you of the being whose mind and inspiration is behind this word. Scripture is perfect, sure, right, pure, true, clean, and righteous because God is those things. And it's His character and His nature that's manifested throughout these writings. And when we study those things, we come to understand who God is and how it is that we can relate to Him.

God hasn't called us to simply stay where we are. You know, you can be carnal and in the world and doing everything that the world does, and God calls you, and it's okay to stay there and just have a relationship with Him on those terms. That's not what God's called us to. He's called us out of the world, again, into His own kingdom in glory for the purpose that we would take on His nature and His character, and His righteousness could be imputed to us. By which then we could have a relationship, father to son, father to daughter. Again, this is a family relationship. All these words, these scriptures, they reveal to us the characteristics of God's nature. They reflect to us His qualities, and to quote a scripture that's often attributed to men, or it's attributed to men in the Bible, but I think it applies to God as well. It's Matthew 12, verse 34, where Christ said, Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And I would assume that principle is the same with God as well, in terms, out of the abundance of His character and His nature, who He is, His word is expressed. And so when we see these things and we read them and we apply them in our lives, we come to see God more clearly and understand who He is and what He's about and what it is He's accomplishing in the universe. We learn from God by keeping His word. Psalm, chapter 110.

David had an incredible perception as it came to God's word and understanding the benefits and the blessing of it. He didn't always keep it perfectly, but you know what? When he came to himself, when he was snapped back to his senses, he realized what a devastation it was to his life to ever stray from God's word. And so we have so many writings of David in the Psalms that glorify the blessing of living according to this word. But, brethren, you have to know it. You have to read it and you have to study it. Psalm, chapter 111 and verse 10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever. And so what we have here is a progression of thought. It begins with the fear of the Lord. And having a proper fear and reverence for God, understanding His authority, that He is the Creator God, the most powerful being in the universe, and we serve Him. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The response to that, then, is to be doers of the word. Not hearers only. Does the good understanding have all those who do His word? It doesn't say to know His word, but to do it. It does start with knowing, but that is not the end of the process. Bible study is not simply a means to an end on its own, and you do nothing with it, because unto Him who knows to do good and does not do it, to Him it is sin. So God's word is to lead to a motivation factor in our life, and it leads to understanding as we keep these ways. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. You can walk through the Scriptures and point out to just about anybody the Holy Days, what God requires, when to keep them, how to keep them, but that understanding won't be there, one apart from God's Spirit, but secondarily, it's not there apart from not actually keeping them.

As you put leavening out of your home for the days of unleavened bread and you go through seven days of eating that flat bread with no leavening, recognizing that it represents sin, you gain an understanding into the ways of God and what it is He's called us to. Apart from that, it just seems like some strange rules that you people follow from some outdated writing, but we come to understand that God's word is living, and it lives in our life, and as we walk through the Holy Days of the annual cycle that it reveals to us God's plan of salvation, what it is that God has in store, and it is in fact not outdated, the greatest yet lies ahead. But the response of fearing God then moves to being doers, and a good understanding have those who do His commandments, and then it transitions to His praise endures forever. Praise, worship, glorifying God, because you've lived this way, and you see it works, and it has an impact on your life for the good. You now come more fully to understand the nature of God and His character, and you develop it in your life as well, and it leads to a deepening of that relationship. Good understanding have all those who do His commandments. Let's notice the words of God through Moses, conveyed in Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy 8, this is Moses speaking to the children of Israel, but they are the words of God. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 1, It says, So it's not just hearing the commands I gave you. He says, you must be careful to observe them. And then comes the blessing. Verse 2, It comes down to a heart issue, which means it comes down to a character issue. Do we respond to God from the heart? Verse 3, So God expects His people to be sustained by His word. Physically, we live by bread. Spiritually, we live by the word of God. What it is that He gives us to apply in our life. And we need to yearn after it as the sustenance for our life. Again, just as you get up in the morning and you're hungry for a meal, we need to be hungry each and every day for the word of God. Recognizing its value. Recognizing we can't be sustained spiritually without it. How do we benefit from that sustenance God provides? Well, again, number one, we need to crave it and we need to study it. We need to take the time to delve into it deeply, not just take a glancing blow on our way out the door. You know, you don't get to know somebody's character by a superficial examination. We don't get to have a Facebook-like relationship with God. God says this is intimate and this is going to work both ways. And secondly, we take advantage of these things by yielding to God's Spirit, which guides and directs our understanding. Again, God is Spirit. His words are spiritual. We are being sustained by them spiritually, and apart from God's Spirit, we cannot have the benefit fully of what it is that God would offer us through these words. Let's notice the value that King David, again, placed on God's Word and the impact it had on his life. Let's go back to the book of Psalms, this time, chapter 119.

Psalm 119 will begin in verse 1. I wish if I had the time, I would read to you the entirety of Psalm 119. I'd encourage you to go home this week and do that, make a study of it. Time and time and time again, David sings forth the praises of God in his Word and the blessing that it is to his life. We're just going to hit a few of the highlights.

Psalm 119, verse 1, It says, Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. So it's not just about knowing his commandments and his testimonies, it's about going after them, seeking them, and seeking God.

Yearning and desiring for that relationship. Verse 3, he says, They also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes, then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. He says, I will praise you with uprightness of heart when I learn of your righteous judgments, and I will keep your statutes. O do not forsake me utterly. Verse 9 asks the question, it says, How can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word?

Again, it's that course correction that we were talking about. You're walking on one path. How do you want to cleanse your way? Well, you read the word of God and you apply it, and it puts you onto a different path, different from the way you're walking on apart from God.

How can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? With my whole heart I have sought you. O let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. David's talking about internalizing God's word and making it a part of who and what he is.

Again, the heart issue is a character issue. And we obey God from the heart. Not just maybe what feels good or seems right to us, but it's when we internalize his word it becomes a part of our character. Jesus Christ didn't live a perfect life because he had perfectly memorized every word of Scripture. He did know every word of Scripture, but he lived a perfect life because that was his character and his nature.

He had God's character. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen my Father. You know, the nature, the love, the way he behaved and conducted himself was according to the nature that we find here contained in Scripture. And Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. Not that we consider ourselves living by rules and regulations and this listing of do's and don'ts.

That's where it starts. But brethren, where it has to transition into then is our nature and character by God in us. That we live this way because it's who and what we are. That we hide the word of God in our heart so that we don't sin against him because that is who we are.

Continuing on, let's go to Psalm 119, verse 97. Psalm 119, verse 97. David says, oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. He's saying it's what I think about, it's what I focus on, it's what guides and directs my steps each and every day. I'll take a sermon down the line to talk about meditation. But again, David's just saying, this is my focus. This is how I live my life. As we read through this, we come to see the zeal and the passion that David has for the way of God because he says, I've lived it and it works.

And it is a blessing to my life. And brethren, for us, what I'm trying to convey is that if we can have the same zeal and passion for the word of God, then we will study it. We will invest ourself in it. We will find the schedule that works for us. But it has to start with seeing the value of God's word. Verse 98, David says, He's saying, you know what? Those people who are older than me, those who should be my teachers, those who have walked through this life and should have experienced more so than I, because I have less years, the benefits of your ways.

David says, I've exceeded them because I love your way and I meditate on it and I live it. It has become who and what I am. Verse 101, Again, a reference to what is the source of this word. Where does it come from? Well, it comes from God, who would teach his children. Verse 104, Delving into God's word and internalizing it was a light that directed David in terms of how he placed his feet each and every day. Brethren, we need to internalize this word as well so that it illuminates the path before us, and that God would have us to walk.

It's a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Verse 129, still in Psalm 119. Verse 129, David says, Scripture tells us, Not many wise, not many noble, according to this world and this age are called. It's not because of our great intellect that God says, All right, you're smart enough that I can now give you my word. Now, David says here, you've given the understanding to the simple through your word, but it is by God's Spirit that these things are discerned. Verse 156, Verse 156, Great are your tender mercies, O Lord!

Revive me according to your judgments. Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn from your testimonies. I see the treacherous, and I am disgusted, because they do not keep your word. Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, O Lord, according to your lovingkindness. The entirety of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. He says, Princes, persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your word. I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure.

And I hate and abhor lying, but I love your way. Seven times a day, I praise you because of your righteous judgments. Great peace of those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. I believe the original King James says, Nothing shall offend them. The fact we love God's way and His law so much that we live it, and we learn to have by our own nature and character the love of God, that we express both towards God and one another.

David said, again in verse 162, I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure. It's like if you went out today and you went down to the river, and you just reached in and you pulled out a gold nugget the size of your fist, and you looked at that and you said, Wow, here's a treasure that's going to change my life.

Do we look at God's word in that way? Do we treasure it? Do we stand in awe of the word of God like David did? If we do, we'll go after it. If we do, we'll be down at the living waters of by God's Spirit, in that sense, the creek of God's word digging the nuggets out, because they are life-changing, and we treasure them greatly.

Verse 166, David says, Lord, I hope for your salvation, and I do your commandments. My soul keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. And therein lies the key. All our ways are before God. God is ever watching. All that we do is either to the glory of God or it is not. You can say, well, how can you say everything? Well, if you're standing in line at the post office, you could be patient to the glory of God. But all that we do is either to His glory or it is not. And David says, all my ways are before you, and I live according to this word, because it is a blessing to my life. And it is to benefit to the relationship that we maintain. Again, the point of my message today isn't necessarily to tell us how to Bible study, but to hopefully inspire in us the zeal to desire God's Word, to see the value of it, to recognize that I can't live this spiritual life apart from the spiritual words of God and the instruction that see us along the way. Again, read through Psalm 119. David clearly understood God's Word, and that he dare not make a step without it. You can read other Psalms where he did make a step without it, and the groanings and the utterance and the crying out to God to restore him again. He knew where the value of his life came, and the understanding and the character of those things that lead to a relationship. Again, it's by God's Spirit in His Word. Back to the words of Paul, Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15, we're emphasizing the fact that we learn from God's Word.

It corrects us, gives us instruction, sets before us teaching and doctrine, it teaches us about righteousness. Romans chapter 15 and verse 4. Paul says, He says these things were written for our learning.

God's relationship with Abraham was written for our learning. Abraham's example for our learning, so we can understand what is faith, what is trust, what is picking up the life you've ever known in Follow Me. Words of David, 40-year wanderings of Israel, early New Testament church, the struggles, the trials, the persecutions, all the things that were endured, they were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. It's the hope that God provides. It's the comfort of God. It's the patience of God that we take on, again, that part of His nature and character, as we delve each and every day into His Word.

Last reference for today, let's go to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2.

The question I would ask, brethren, is how desperately do we yearn after God's Word?

How many other things in life compete for our time and for our focus? How many other things in life structure the nature and character of who we are outside this Word? I would hope, honestly, not very much, but I'm a realist. I live this life along with you. I know the good intentions and yet the distractions. But again, these are words of life. We can never afford to just put them on the back burner and assume that we can gain the benefit from them later. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 1.

Peter says, Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, these are things that divide relationships, divide us with God, divide us among one another. Peter says, Put all those things aside. And as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

He said, Desire, as a newborn babe, the milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

I spent part of a couple of days this week in the hospital with my mom. She was having shoulder replacement surgery. It was interesting to me. I forget, but every time I go to the hospital, I'm reminded. At least in Sacred Heart, it doesn't matter what wing of the hospital you're in, you'll just be going about your business, and suddenly out of the blue, you'll hear that doorbell sounding chime. It's a chime that goes off whenever a baby is born. So you could be sitting there in the surgical ward, and somebody is maybe even under some physical distress having surgery, and yet right in the midst of that, in another wing of the hospital, a new life is being born. A new child. Hopes and dreams and a new start.

Each one of those chimes represents a new life that has come into the world, and each one of those lives is craving one thing. It's craving the milk of its mother.

I remember when my children were born, Darla had a C-section for both of them, and so the instructions were, stay with the babies. You know, once the babies are taken and off to the nursery, my instructions were to go stay with the baby, make sure they don't put the bracelet on the wrong child. You know, those are ours now. And I just remember with Tabitha, it just struck me, it was so profound, I was sitting in the nursery, and Darla was still back in surgery, and Tabitha just a few moments old, and picking her up, and her head was kind of turned, and I'm holding her in my arms, and she opens her mouth, and she's looking. And she wasn't looking for anything I had to offer. But the fact is, there was an instinct. There was a desire. She was looking for the milk of her mother. Again, each of those chimes represent a baby doing that. That's the instinct that each of us were born with. We have foals, baby horses that are born on our place. Each of those foals, as soon as they can stagger onto their wobbly legs, they're looking for the right end of their mother. They're desiring the milk of life that sustains them, and it's instinctual.

Brethren, how much more, you and I, who are the spiritual children of God, how much more ought we to desire as newborn babes the pure milk of the spiritual word that we may grow thereby?

Bible study shouldn't be something that ends up being a, oh yeah, I almost forgot. For the children of God, led by His Spirit, it should be instinctual. And it should be what we desire for our very life. This is a newborn babe. God has called us out of this world and given us His Spirit, and He given us, as well, these words, which are spirit, and they are life. So, brethren, as we go forward from here, don't neglect the lifeline that God has given us. Our prayer to God is outgoing. This word, and by His Spirit, and the understanding it gives to us, is incoming. We learn of God's nature and character, and we develop a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father through the study of these things. Don't refuse it. Don't neglect it. Don't put it off until some day. Dilgently desire the pure milk of the word. Drink of it deeply, and drink of it often. Again, these after all are, brethren, the words of our Father to His children, and they are the words unto eternal life.