A Lamp to my Feet

In my experience in the ministry, I have noticed that there's something more difficult to do than regular prayer and fasting. One thing that's virtually more difficult is regular Bible study. It just seems like in this very busy world, it becomes almost a lost art about working with God's Word, studying it, taking time out to do so. People will ask, where will I find time to do so?

Or how will I find the interest to do so after so many years? Or maybe some think I've been in the church so long that regarding the Bible, I basically know everything. Well, if you think that way, you certainly know more than I do, because I have not, by any stretch of the imagination, been able to plumb the Scriptures.

They're still as fresh to me as the first day I cracked that Bible as a young boy. It's interesting, as we look at God's Word, that He gives us an analogy of what the importance of studying the Bible is all about. It is one of the essentials of approaching God, what we call the Big Four, which has to do with prayer, Bible study, meditation, and fasting, the four ways we can draw closer to God. He gives us an analogy in God's Word, which I want to go over today, to just stir up that imagination, stir up that interest. And that is from Psalms 119 verse 105.

It says, Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So the Bible is compared here to a lamp. And of course, in those days, they didn't have all of these bright lamps and lights that we have today. They didn't have light bulbs. They used ordinary clay lamps. They put oil on it, in it, and then they had a little wick sticking out of the end of it, and then they would light it up.

And that's what they used. They didn't have all of these great lights that we have today. People lived mostly in darkness. That's why people worked from sun up to sun down, because after that, it was a pretty dark world. You could see the stars and the moon a lot better than we do today, but it was that lamp that helps so much. So I'm going to use this analogy. We have here a candle, which is another type of a lamp that we use.

And just like David said, that he would use a lamp to light his way at night in dark places. We also need to light up our lives more from the dark places that surround us. Just like that first message. We know Satan is there like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. We have the darkness of the world. They even have now what they call the dark web, which is kind of a dark side to all of this internet. It seems like society just can't get away from the darkness. And yet God provides us with this vital tool, which is studying his word.

He gave it to us not to just put out there and decorate someplace or dust off just once every Sabbath. No, it should be a daily tool. And we can see that there are three ingredients in order to form a light like this. The first is, well, you need something to light things up, right? You need a spark here. Let me get that. Without this, you're never going to have a lamp. And so in David's day, they would use flint stones, two flint stones, which are very hard and sharp stones.

And they would strike each one until the spark would get going with a little bit of dross or a little bit of hay, whatever. And then they would be able to light their lamps. So that's the first ingredient that we need in order to have God's lamp, his word, light our lives. And to me, the analogy has to do with sparking that interest in the Bible. We need to always have that little interest.

Spark it up. Have the attention. Make it happen in your life. That it lights up with interest. We need to be inquisitive, like David, Solomon, Jesus, and Paul. These were people that studied deeply God's word. David mentioned in Psalm 119, verse 97. Let's go there for a moment. Psalm 119. Sometimes these subjects are not the most enjoyable, but just like having to do exercises, right? They say you need to have exercise, but who really wants to do it? It's not that easy to do, but it is important. Psalm 119, verse 97. David said, Oh, I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts. So David was constantly meditating upon God's word, studying it, drawing out lessons. And that is so important to realize that the Bible is full of lessons that apply in our lives.

God could have given us an encyclopedia of Bible topics from A to Z. But for that, you would have to be quite studious. Instead, he put life lessons. He put stories of real people that went through things that we go through. And for every situation in our life, there is a biblical person that went through that, that we can go back and examine the lessons they learned to encourage and to console us in our trials and difficulties.

Notice what it says about Solomon. 1 Kings 4. 1 Kings 4. If Solomon would have continued doing this all his life, he wouldn't have gotten himself into so much trouble at the end. But it says here in 1 Kings 4, verse 29, God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. So he studied profoundly things. We also should study things that interest us, that spark that inquisitive mind.

This requires studying the Bible and Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 5. We all have 24 hours. Every day we can dedicate some of that time to studying God's Word, letting it teach us. Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 5, it says, Get wisdom, get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you, love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom in all you're getting. Get understanding. That's a command from God for us to study His Word more deeply, to challenge yourself, to ask yourself, What does this part of the Bible mean to me?

President Theodore Roosevelt once said that a good knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. A lot of people spend years for a college education, but if we put the time in for the Bible, it says it's more valuable. You can gain wisdom in whatever job you have by applying these biblical principles. God considered it was so important to study the Bible regularly that He commanded the kings of Israel when they were chosen, that they copy a version of the Bible and read it every day of their lives.

Notice in Deuteronomy 17. God says, From the one before the priests, the Levites, that was the master copy that was kept in the temple. But the king had to go and get that master copy and write for himself a copy. And what happens when you write things down, you record them deeper in your mind than if you just would hear them. That's why when you write it down, you have a better remembrance of it.

Your memory is better. And it says here that verse 19 says, And it shall be with him. So He's going to carry it around. And he shall read it all the days of his life. So it just isn't once a week or once a month that you crack the Bible. Just for a little time every day if necessary. It changes your mood, your attitude. When you pray, you're speaking to God. When you study the Bible, God is speaking to you.

That's the dialogue we have. He's not going to come personally, but He says, look, I put it down. Search the Scriptures. You're going to find what my will is about what you are asking about. And what would be the benefits of studying God's Word in that way. The same one that would happen to all of us. He says, and it shall be with Him, and He shall read it all the days of His life, that He may learn to fear the Lord, His God. You learn to deeply respect His Word. If you don't know what it is, if you don't remember what God said about something, you can be deceived.

You might not be able to recall what God said. But if you are meditating on it, it's going to be a lot easier that you may learn to fear the Lord. And that means deeply respect what He commands. You take it very seriously. And what else? He says, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes.

So it's going to, again, be recorded in your mind. You're going to be reminded of it. And you're going to remember what God expects us to do. We have dozens and dozens of decisions that are made every week in our lives. Are those decisions made according to God's Word, according to His will? Or is it against His will and according to our will? So again, the better we understand what God's will is, the better we're going to be able to apply it. And then He says another benefit, that His heart may not be lifted above His brethren, that He may not turn aside.

So again, reading the Bible humbles you. It helps us to understand a lot better and more brilliant people, and a lot of great men and women had a terrible fall. Because they got vain, they got a swelled head, they lost their humility, like what Samuel told Saul, King Saul, after King Saul disobeyed what Samuel had said God wanted, and then Samuel replied to Saul, When you were little in your own eyes, you were following God, but now you're no longer little.

You're big in your own eyes. No, you think you don't need God. And so Saul eventually lost his kingship. He lost his life because of that lesson. He didn't read the Bible enough. You know who did? The one who succeeded him, King David. Boy, that's a person that feared God and followed him. Yes, he made mistakes, but you've got to remember, too. King David ruled for 40 years, and how many mistakes?

He made a couple of very serious mistakes. But the rest of his life, he humbled himself, and to the end, he was always praising God. He was close to God, and he's going to be part of God's kingdom with a very important position over the 12 tribes of Israel. So you see the contrast.

Who studied God's word better? Who applied it better? So he says that his heart, which means here the way he thinks of himself, may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn to the right hand, turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. He will be blessed by God. We see then how important it is to have this light shining every day. Put some light it up. Light up that interest. Start reading different parts.

You're always going to find something new, something that can be applied, just like the light. Here's a new scripture that I use now. It's in Psalms 143. Psalms 143. It's very helpful.

Oh, okay. Psalms 141.3. That's what I wanted to say. Psalms 141.3, it says, Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips every day. Help me, God. Keep my words from hurting, from saying the wrong things. Help me to say the right words, not words that offend, that hurt, that strike others. Help me to control my words and language. See? That's something else that now you incorporate in your prayers. Through the Bible, you see the importance of it. How many people, their lives would have changed if they would have just remembered praying to God, saying, Keep guard my mouth. Help me say the things that are appropriate and not things that are injurious, that are damaging toward others. That's just one small example.

So we need to light up that spark. If you don't ask questions, it's very hard to seek the answers. Ask yourself questions and go to the Scriptures for the answers. There are so many things that you will remember. So challenge yourself. Ask yourself practical questions. Lord, what lesson can I learn from what I went through? Here, there's going to be some part of Scripture that is going to apply.

What is the second ingredient in order to keep that lamp of God's Word lit in our lives and on our path? The second ingredient is called oxygen or air.

If I put a lid on this, it's going to go out very quickly because a lamp needs oxygen. A light needs this oxygen to work. You can't light this underwater because you don't have oxygen there. You need that air to be producing it. This reminds us of the need to not just light up that interest, but have a good environment around you. To be able to study God's Word. Find a place where you can study. Sometimes when you pray, have your Bible close by. Check things out through it. Notice the principle in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8.

God inspiring and talking to Joshua, it says, 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. Again, an environment to have a time and a place to do so. Everybody has some spare time, either in the morning or in the evenings, to just take a little time out and read God's Word, examine it more carefully.

Notice how the Bereans applied this principle in Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17.

We call this the Berean attitude, because these people, they knew how to check things out in the Scriptures. They took the time to examine things. When you read something like the Good News magazine, do you go ahead and have your Bible open, examine, check things out? Romans 17 and verse 10 says, Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. What was the result? Therefore, many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. It seems like some of the women could check things out for themselves. See? God gave women brains just like He did men. He expects us to use it to check things out. Don't take it for granted. Don't follow traditions of men or second-hand information. The greatest strength of personal conviction is when you check things out and prove it for yourself. Nobody's going to be able, then, to fool you very easily. God's Word is very carefully formulated. So, He didn't have anything in the Bible which is in excess. In other words, some of this just sort of is fluff that doesn't have any usefulness. All of it is useful. Notice in Psalm 12, verse 6, another beautiful Psalm. Psalm 12, verse 6, It says, the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver, tried, and a furnace of earth, purified seven times. So, the best silver is the one that's been purified, and it's burnt all the dross, all the extraneous material out of that metal. And you just have pure silver. God's Word has been purified. So, it can be so useful to us. But we've got to be like good metal workers and check things out. Make sure that we value the Bible as we should. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, we should be inquisitive. We should examine things. But we should avoid pet theories. Things that all of a sudden we just get obsessive about to the point where we lose our balance, we lose our normal way of thinking. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 3, all says to Timothy, As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. And so, yes, we should study the Bible, but with humility, realizing God has the last word on things.

We should avoid, like I said, straining a technical gnat in the Bible and swallowing a spiritual camel. That's what happened to the Pharisees. Yes, they were so adamant and insistent. They were tithing even the little leaves of mint, and yet they were offending so many with their self-righteousness and the way they were coming across in a wrong way, in a proud, arrogant way, which God detests.

So we need to have the right balance when we discuss things. And again, Bible study is a key to this. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2, verse 5. 2 Timothy 2, verse 5. Sorry, verse 15. 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. It says, So again, yes, we're to study God's word. We should be workers that are not ashamed of the way we have done. We can go out there in the twigs and be out there doing pirouettes in the sense of just with very minor things. And yet we can fall off the doctrinal tree because we're not grabbing that trunk of the tree. And again, there are certain things that only Christ is going to be able to clarify for us, especially the real technical issues that are not well defined in the Bible. We can't understand 100% of everything. But what we do understand, based on the Ten Commandments and all of this doctrinal tree that comes from it, we can be very strong and secure. We got our arms wrapped around that doctrinal trunk of the tree. Because if you get out there in some way mysterious and very complicated issue, sometimes a person can just go right off because that's the most important. That's what's going to cause our salvation to hang on. No? No, our salvation hangs on two things. Keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus Christ living in us. Revelation 14, verse 12. Revelation 14, verse 12. Here's the description of a church member.

It says, Here is the patience or endurance of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. You can't keep the commandments of God in the letter and in the Spirit without having Jesus Christ living in you. But you can't be correct if you just accept Jesus Christ and proceed to annul the Ten Commandments and annul the keeping of the commandments. You need both. So that's why we are here and not somewhere else because we need both things.

The commandments are what pleases God. They're the standard of conduct for mankind until everybody is transformed. But until that time, we've got to do all of these laws based on being on this earth. So, okay, we've got two ingredients. We've got the light. We've got the interest. We also have created the oxygen, the atmosphere, the environment. To be able to keep that light shining, now we have a third ingredient. And that is the fuel because you can have all the oxygen. You can have the wick. You can have the light. But that's not going to last very long. You need the bottom part. In this case, the wax in a candle or, in Christ's day, the oil in the lamp. And the oil in the Bible is symbolic of God's Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit is what draws us closer to God.

And without that, we're just not going to continue to have that search for the Scriptures that we need and that environment. Let's go to James 4, verse 8.

It says, and above... Oops, let's go...

4, 8. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So we need to draw closer to Him. He gives us His Holy Spirit according to how we draw closer to Him. If we go farther from Him, the connection is going to be a lot farther. We're not going to have the same strength. We're not going to be as close. And so the world's fuel, its spirit, is going to invade more of our lives. We need to be closer to God, and that way we're going to be farther away from the world and its temptations. Another scripture in this regard, 2 Timothy 1.

These are scriptures that we've gone over in the past, but it's always good to go over them again, examine them through this lens. It says, 1 Timothy 1, verse 6, It says, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So again, that fuel to keep that desire to study His word, to draw closer to God, has to do with God's Holy Spirit in us.

And without it, it can go out very quickly. Notice the example here in Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14. Timothy learned to study God's word since he was a child. It says, verse 14, But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from your childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Again, Paul stressed the need for that faith for Christ to be living in a person. Verse 16, And so, as we age, we learn to apply the Scriptures in a more balanced and mature way than we did when we started with that flush of enthusiasm, where there was a lot of enthusiasm, but there wasn't that much experience. There wasn't putting it into practice. So you need the theory, which is the study of the word, but then how do you apply it? And do you learn to apply it better as time goes along or worse? I know it took me ten good years just to be able to lay a good foundation.

At that time, it was more theory than practice. The next ten years, you were able to then apply it. Family is coming up. Apply it to your children. Apply it to yourself. And by the time you get to be about 40, there's a balance between theory and practice, between what you read and what you apply. And then the next decades, it's just building on that and applying God's word in more difficult situations as different trials come along.

I know I've had the honor of being part of the Council of Elders now for quite a number of years. And there we have to face very difficult issues. Sometimes you have to wrestle with issues that affect the church. And that's where you have to have the theory and the practice, the experience, how to apply it in a right way. God wants us to not be children in the way we think. He wants us to be children in the way our attitudes are of being innocent, being always giving and trusting in the right way. But He wants us to mature as a person as well. So this is an instruction manual, as it has been rightly described, for all the cases in our lives.

When we are young, when we go into middle age, and then we go into the third age, the Bible now applies more to me as you look at that stage of life. I'm thinking of grandkids and how to deal with them. How does the Bible tell us how to do it? We can't live commanding and ordering our little grandkids. No, that's up to our children. They're the parents. But you know how I feel? I like baseball to watch it. And you notice sometimes when they throw the ball to the plate, maybe there's a runner that's going to try to get to home plate, and they have always the pitcher who goes behind the catcher, because sometimes they throw that ball and it misses the catcher.

And if nobody's out there in the back, everybody's going to be coming in. So what do you do? You have what they call the back stopper. He's the one there. If something gets past the catcher, you're there to stop the ball. Well, that's the way we look at it. When our children are parents, they can't handle something, or they're just overwhelming for them. We're the back stops. We're there. We can step in, help out, and then we step back and let them learn as they have to through the experiences they go through.

So the Bible tells us that we should be able to save for the welfare of our grandkids and that they are kind of the crown of older age for those who have the opportunity. And if not grandkids, there's nephews, there are young people around that you can always mentor and help out. But again, the Bible has a person, and for every situation there is a lesson to learn. How many have gone through terrible diseases where you feel like Job, and you go and you read the book of Job and all that he went through, and sometimes you think it's never going to finish. And yet, then you go to the next stage of life afterwards.

Or maybe there's a marriage crisis that you're going through, and that's where you have to look in the Scriptures and see what God himself had to do with Israel sometimes and deal with things in the proper way, and of course with love. As it says in Ephesians 5, treating the wife in the proper way. But again, we can never let this little light go out in our lives. That God's lamp should always be a light in our feet.

In Romans 15, verse 4, the description of the Bible is very well mentioned here. What it does, Romans 15, verse 4, it says, For whatever things were written before in the Bible, were written for our learning, that we through the patience, which again the word here endurance and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. So it helps us to learn endurance. It helps us to learn patience, and it learns us to comfort us. God is going to work things out for us in the end.

No matter how dark and difficult it can appear, God is there. Nobody has removed him from his throne. No one can do so. I remember back in college days when there were problems, I remember a student saying, well, God's still on his throne. Jesus Christ is still at his right hand, and they are never going to be moved from there. They're still in charge. Things are going to be worked out if we just stay close to him. So let's go to one last Scripture. I'm going to end a little early today. James 4.

I'm sure nobody's going to mind if I end a little earlier. Anybody want another half hour? Raise your hand quickly. Okay, a couple. Hey, some of these study their Bible quite a bit. James 4 and verse 8. Well, no, I'm sorry. I already read that. James 5, verse 16. It says, Confess your trespasses to one another. This is what we do here. It talks about, and it's here in the context of healing, what we've gone through in physical illnesses and others. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. That's what it's talking about. Then these wonderful words, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man and also woman avails much. And then he gives an example. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours because Elijah had his ups and downs. He could be a spiritual giant one day, and the next day he's fleeing from Jezebel, fleeing into the desert, dropped everything he was doing, fled for his life. And you know what God said to him when he finally went up to Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb? He said, Elijah, what are you doing here? This is where I sent you. You're supposed to be over there in Israel. What are you doing? And Elijah, he was just mad. He thought, I'm the only one. I can't handle this anymore. God, you haven't given me enough help. Jezebel is such a wicked woman, and she's got all the soldiers with the death sentence on me. And then God says, Elijah, I know all of that. Didn't you do great miracles? Haven't I been with you? And then he says, Elijah, I'm going to show you that I don't always do things in a dramatic and powerful way. Sometimes I'm working things out very quietly behind the scenes. And so that little whisper where it says God was there. And so Elijah says here, he's got our own human nature. He could be very strong, and in another time he could be quite weak. And yet it says here about him, He says, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Tremendous miracle. He changed Bible history because of that, because one fervent prayer of a righteous man was able to do that. And so let's never sell God short. Let's never think that we have to give up. There's nothing else to do. God is more powerful than any doubts, any questions that we have. And so going back to this lesson, there are three ingredients in order to have a lamp to light our way. We need to, first of all, light up that interest. We need to light up the interest of studying the Bible. If you don't love it, you're not going to really study it. As some people say, what is your passion? Oh, you're going to find time for your passion. Don't we all? And if the Bible is our passion, we're going to include that in what we do as well. We also need that oxygen provided the right environment to be able to study. In other words, take out some time. Study. But don't study it just reading it mindlessly. Study it examining, questioning. How does this apply? And then provide the fuel for it, which is through God's Spirit drawing closer to God, keeping that light strong in our path. So as we face difficulties in life, brethren, we do have the God's Word as a lamp to our feet and a light in our path.