Live on the word of god

No. 2577-44:313. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, March 15,

1883, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, July 3, 1898.

1.

The main thing for every one of us is life. What would it profit a

man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own life? Of

what avail would riches be if life were gone? What is the value of

broad acres to a dead man, or the applause of nations to one who lies

in his sepulchre? The first thing, therefore, that a man is to look

after, is life. There are some people who take this truth in a wrong

sense, and so make mischief of it. They say, “We must live”; whereas,

in the sense in which they mean it, there is no such necessity at

all. That we must continue to live here, is not at all clear; it

would be far better for us to die than to live by sinning. Martyrs

have preferred to suffer most fearful deaths rather than, even by a

word, to bring disgrace on the name of Christ; and every true

Christian would prefer immediate death rather than dishonour his

great Lord and Master.

2.

Now, brethren, according to our common notion, if we must live, we

must eat; we must eat bread, which is the staff of life; and,

sometimes, when bread is scarce, and hunger sets up its sharp pangs,

men have been driven to do iniquity to provide themselves with

necessary food. You remember how our Divine Lord, who is our perfect

Example in all things, acted when he was in this case. When he had

fasted in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, he was hungry,

and then the evil one came to him, and said, “If you are the Son of

God, command that these stones be made bread.” This was, in effect,

saying, “Stop trusting in your Heavenly Father. He has evidently

deserted you; he has left you in the wilderness among the wild

beasts; and though he feeds them, he has not fed you. He has left you

to starve; therefore, help yourself; exercise your own power. Though

you have put it under God’s keeping, and, being here on earth, you

have become your Father’s servant, yet steal a little of your service

from your Father, and use it on your own behalf. Take some of that

power which you have devoted to his great work, and employ it for

your own comfort. Stop trusting in your Father; command those stones

to be made bread.” At once this text flashed out, as the Master drew

it out, like a sword from its scabbard: “It is written, ‘Man shall

not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the

mouth of God.’ ” It was only by the use of this “sword of the Spirit,

which is the Word of God,” that the arch-enemy was driven off from

Christ; and I want to use that weapon now. I may say of it what David

said of the sword of Goliath, “There is none like that; give it to

me.” That sword, with which Christ won the victory, is the best one

for his servants to use.

4.

According to our text, we are called on to observe that the power

which keeps us alive is not in the bread itself, but in God, who

chooses to make use of the bread as his agent in nourishing our body.

I do not infer from this truth that therefore I ought never to eat,

but to live by faith, because God can make me live without bread.

Some people seem to me to be very unwise when they infer that,

because God can heal me, therefore I am never to take fit and proper

medicine for a disease, because I am to trust in God, I do trust in

God, but I trust in God in God’s own way; and his way of procedure is

this, if I wish to satisfy hunger, I must ordinarily eat bread; if I

wish to be cured of any malady, I must take the remedy he has

provided. That is his general rule of working; but, still, it would

be an equally grievous error, and would show another form of folly,

if we were to say that it is the bread or the medicine that does the

work. It is the bread that feeds, it is the medicine that heals;

but it is God who works by these means; or, if he pleases, who works

without them. If it were necessary that his child should live, and

he did not choose to put ravens into commission to bring him bread

and meat, or if he did not command a widow woman to sustain his

servant, yet he could support him without any means, for “man shall

not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the

mouth of God.” When the Lord speaks, and tells him to live, he lives.

God spoke the world into existence; his Word still keeps the whole

fabric of the universe on its pillars; and, surely, that Word is able

to sustain our soul in life even without the use of outward means, or

by means as long as God pleases.

5.

That, I think, is the meaning of the text. God took his people into

the wilderness, where there was no sowing, no reaping, no making

bread, and they seemed as if they must starve to death there; but,

then, God made the manna drop from heaven, to show that, if not by

one means, yet by another he could sustain them. He took them where

there were no rippling brooks or gentle purling streams of water, but

his servant struck the flinty rock, and the water came out to show

that God could give men drink, not only from the fountains of the

deep below, or by rain from the clouds above, but from the solid

rocks if he so pleased. God can give you bread to eat, my friend.

Though not perhaps in the way you hope, it may come in a fashion of

which you have never even dreamed. I have read of one who was

condemned to be starved to death; and, as the judge pronounced the

sentence, he said to him, “And what can your God do for you now?” The

man replied, “My God can do this for me, — if he pleases, he can feed

me from your table.” And so it happened, though the judge never knew

it, for his own wife sent food to the poor man, and kept him in life

until at last he regained his liberty. God has a way of using most

unlikely instruments to accomplish his purpose. He can, if he

pleases, make the waters stand upright as a heap, until the chosen

nation has passed through the midst of the sea; or he can permit the

fire to blaze around his people, and yet keep them from being burned,

as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out unharmed from

Nebuchadnezzar’s burning fiery furnace, and not even the smell of

fire had passed on them.

6.

I now come to the more spiritual meaning of the text; and I pray God

to make it to be rich food for your souls. I ask you to notice,

first, the Word: “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of

the Lord.” Secondly, consider the use we are to make of the Word;

we are to live on it; and then, thirdly, note the adaptation of

that Word to our use, — every word of it, for, according to the text,

we do not live on some words that come out of God’s mouth: “but

man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

7.

I. First, then, let us think a little about THE WORD OF THE LORD.

8.

What do we mean by the expression “the Word of God?” God condescends

to use figures of speech such as we can understand, for we are like

little children, who have to learn by pictures. Now, with regard to a

man, his word is often the expression of his wish. He desires

such and such a thing to be done, and he says to his servant, “Do

this,” or to another, “Come here,” or, “Go there.” His word is the

expression of his wish. Alas! with us, our wishes are often strong,

and our words are feeble; we order such and such a thing to be done,

but it is not done. We have, perhaps, a thousand wishes in our hearts

which, if we were to utter them, would be to make ourselves appear

ridiculous. We may wish to do this and that, but if we were to say,

“Let these things be done,” they would not be done in spite of all

our saying; for, often, where the word of a man is, there is

weakness. It is only where the Word of God is that there is power.

Speaking according to the manner of men, when God wills a thing, he

says, “Let it be,” and it is immediately. Power goes out from God

with his will. He said, “Let there be light: and there was light.”

God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to

one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.” God said,

“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to separate the

day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and

for days, and for years: and let them be for lights in the firmament

of the heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so.” He only has

to will anything, and it comes to pass. His Word is his will in

motion, his power put into action; that is the common and emphatic

sense of the term.

9.

God’s Word is also the expression of his truth. A man says to us,

“I promise you such and such,” and we say to him, “We rely on your

word.” A man’s honour is involved in his word; he who does not keep

his word is not a man of honour, and he soon falls very naturally and

very properly into disgrace with his fellows. Men will not trust one

whose word is not reliable. Alas! the words of men are not only

feeble, but they are often fickle and false; but the Word of God is

the promise of one who knows what he is saying, who is able to

perform what he promises, and who will never change nor ever be

untrue; so that, if we look at his Word as being the expression of

his truth, we see his faithfulness; and on these two, — the power that

can keep the promise, and the will which is faithful to keep it, — we

may rest with joy and confidence.

Well, you are to regard this Word of God as constantly coming out

from his lips afresh. The Holy Spirit puts into the Word a power

which makes it go right into your heart with the very tone and

majesty of the God of grace, the Father of your spirit. This manna

always falls fresh from heaven. The Israelites never had stale bread

in the wilderness; they gathered the “angels’ food” new every morning

just as it came down from the skies. In the same way, take every

passage of God’s Word as coming to you fresh from God; regard it as

your Heavenly Father speaking it straight to your heart.

12.

I was reading, one day, in one of Mark Guy Pearse’s books, a pretty

thought that I had never noticed before. He puts into the mouth of a

very simple but godly man, who is talking about his Heavenly Father,

words something like this — “I am quite sure my Father will take care

of me. He never rested during the six days of creation until he had

outfitted a place for his child to come and live in; until he had put

the finishing stroke on it, and got the house all ready for Adam, he

would not rest at all. And now my Heavenly Father will not rest until

he has made heaven ready for me, and made me ready for heaven; and

all that I need on the way he will surely give me.” When I read that,

it came just as fresh to me as if I had seen the second chapter of

the Book of Genesis written. It did not look to me like an old, stale

record, but a fresh and living message proceeding out of the mouth of

God, then and there. And there is many a dear child of God who,

taught by the Spirit, has given new readings to old texts, and, as it

were, hung the old oil paintings in a better light, until we have

said, as we have looked at them, “Can they be the same pictures? They

seem to have fresh beauty and fresh force put into them.” This is

what you are to feed on, dear children of God, — his own Word, as you

have it here; but you must feed on it as continually coming out of

his very mouth.

13.

The text further says, “man lives by every word that proceeds out

of the mouth of the Lord.” Do not be at all disturbed, dear

friends, concerning the doctrine of inspiration, as to how the Bible

is inspired, whether by this process, or by that. I do not care very

much how it is; I know that it is inspired, and that is enough for

me, and I believe that it is verbally inspired. I find the apostle

Paul hanging a weighty argument on the use of a singular or a plural,

where he says, “He says not, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many; but as of

one, ‘And to your seed,’ which is Christ.” I find the apostle

Peter dwelling on a word spoken by a woman, and making it teach an

important lesson: “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord,”

and so forth. And, you remember that, not long ago, we had the text,

“ ‘And it shall be at that day,’ says the Lord, ‘that you shall call

me «Ishi»; and shall call me no more «Baali.» For I will take away

the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be

remembered by their name’ ”; {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2571, “The

Climax Of God’s Love” 2572} in which a great truth was involved in

the use of two words that were somewhat similar in meaning. I do not

say that any of our English versions is inspired, for there are

mistakes in the translation; but if we could get at the original

text, just as it was first written, I am not afraid to say that every

jot or tittle — every cross of a t and every dot of an i — was

infallibly inspired by God the Holy Spirit. I believe in the

infallibility and the infinity of Holy Scripture. God inspired the

whole record, Genesis as well as Revelation, and all that is between;

and he desires us to believe in one part of the Word as much as in

another. If you do not believe that, it will not be food for you; I

am sure that it will not; it will only be a kind of emetic {a} to

you, and not food. It cannot feed your soul as long as you are

disputing about it. If it is not God’s Word, then it is man’s word,

or the devil’s word; and if you care to live on the devil’s word, or

on man’s word, I do not. But God’s Word is food for the soul that

dwells with God, and it cannot be satisfied with anything else.

14.

II. Now let us pass on to our second point; that is, THE USE WE

ARE TO MAKE OF GOD’S WORD. We are to live on it.

15.

I was sitting, one day, in the New Forest, under a beech tree. I like

to look at the beech, and study it, as I do many other trees, for

every tree has its own peculiarities and habits, its special ways of

twisting its boughs, and growing its bark, and opening its leaves,

and so forth. As I looked up at that beech, and admired the wisdom of

God in making it, I saw a squirrel running round and round the trunk,

and up the branches, and I thought to myself, “Ah! this beech tree is

a great deal more to you than it is to me, for it is your home, your

living, your all.” Its big branches were the main streets of his

city, and its little boughs were the lanes; somewhere in that tree he

had his house, and the beech mast {b} was his daily food, he lived on

it. Well, now, the way to deal with God’s Word is not merely to

contemplate it, or to study it, as a student does; but to live on it

as that squirrel lives on his beech tree. Let it be to you,

spiritually, your house, your home, your food, your medicine, your

clothing, the one essential element of your souls life and growth.

16.

There are some, whom I know, who take God’s Word, and play with it.

They are interested in its narratives, they study its histories in

the light of modern research, and so on; but it was not meant merely

for such a purpose as that. Loaves of bread are not put on the table

for you to carve them into different shapes simply to look at, they

are intended to be eaten. That is the proper use for bread, and that

is the proper use for God’s Word.

17.

Some do even worse than this; they do not so much play with the Bible

as fight over it. They contend fiercely for a doctrine, and condemn

everyone who cannot accept their particular interpretation of it. I

think that I have heard preachers who have seemed to me to bring out

a doctrine on purpose to fight over it. I have a dog, that has a rug

on which he sleeps, and when I go home tonight, he will bring it out,

and shake it before me, not that he particularly cares for his rug,

but because he knows that I shall say, “I will have it,” and then he

will bark at me, and in his language say, “No, you will not.” There

are some people who bring out the doctrines of grace just in that

way. I can see them trotting along with the doctrine of election just

in order that some Arminian brother may dispute with them about it,

and that then they may bark at him. Do not act like that, beloved.

The worst implement with which you can knock a man down, is the

Bible; it is intended for us to live on, — not to be the weapon of our

controversies, but our daily food, on which we rejoice to live. I

do not think that our Bibles were given to us that we might merely

employ them as telescopes to peer into the heavens, to try to find

out what is going to happen in fifty years’ time; I am weary with

the prophecies and speculations that, as a general rule, end in

nothing. I know some brethren with whom one cannot talk about any

passage but they say, “Oh, you have not seen the last little book of

R. B. S. (those are not the real initials of the good brother), in

which he says that this passage does not apply to us, it is meant

only for the Jews”; or else, “That was only for the Church in the

wilderness, and not for us in these days.” Let us not so misuse the

Word of God, but prize it as the bread on which we are to live: “Man

does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that

proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

18.

“But how can we live on words?” one asks. You have spoken well; we

cannot live on words if they are the words of men; but there is

nothing like the Word of God to live on. To that Word we owe our

life. He spoke us into being, he spoke the soul into our body. By

that Word of God we are daily kept alive; only let God reverse it,

and say, “Return, you children of men,” and we must at once go back

to the dust from where we came.

19.

Certainly, it is by God’s Word that we began to live spiritually; we

believed in Christ through the effective working of his Word. The

living and incorruptible seed was sown in our heart, and by it we

began to live; and it is by that same Word that our soul has been

sustained in life. Up to this moment, you and I have received no

nutriment from the Holy Spirit except by that Word of God which is

the food of the spiritual Israel in the wilderness of this world.

Christ said, “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed”;

and it is by him, as the Word of God, that our life is yet further to

grow. There is no development of the Christian that will come to him

in any way but by God’s Word, incarnate or inspired. He who spoke us

into being must speak us into an even stronger being. Faith is God’s

gift; but so is assurance. The very first spark of life is the gift

of God’s grace; but so is the seraphic flame of zeal. That all comes

from God’s Word; and when we are about to enter heaven, the last

touch that shall perfect us will be given by no engraving tool but by

the Word of God. Our Lord prayed for his disciples, “Sanctify them

through your truth; your Word is truth”; and that Word shall complete

the entire process. See, then, beloved, on what your innermost spirit

must live, — God’s holy Word.

20.

Brothers and sisters, may I ask you whether you are all sufficiently

aware of this great truth? You never received spiritual life by your

own feelings. When you believed God’s Word then you lived; and you

will never get an increase of spiritual life, and grow in grace, by

your own feelings or your own doings. It must still be by your

believing the promises, and feeding on the Word. There is no other

food for your souls; everything else in the end will prove only to

be husks. Therefore, are you hungry? Come, and feed on the Word. Have

you backslidden? Come, and feed again on the Word. God heals his

people by feeding them. “How so?” you ask. When the church at

Laodicea was neither cold nor hot, so that Christ felt that he must

spew her out of his mouth, yet even then he said to the angel of that

church, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hears my

voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with

him, and he with me.” I am bold to say, “There is no cure for

lukewarmness like a good supper with Christ.” If he enters in, and

sups with you, and you with him, your lukewarmness will disappear at

once. Do not begin to be saved by faith, and then go on to be saved

by works; do not try to mix the two. If you are of the house of

Sarah, do not bow your knee before Hagar, and go back to the

bondwoman. If you have lived on the pure, simple Word, crediting it

by a living, God-given faith, go on to live in the same way, and grow

by the Word. Feed on it continually, so that you may be “strong in

the Lord, and in the power of his might.”

21.

III. Now I come to my last point, which I want to insist on very

urgently, and that is, THE ADAPTATION OF THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE

FEEDING OF OUR SOULS: “Man lives by every word that proceeds out of

the mouth of the Lord.”

22.

“By every word.” If you restrict yourselves in your food to one or

two articles, every physician will tell you that there is a danger

that your body may not be supplied with every form of nutriment that

it requires. A good wide range of diet is recommended to those who

would have vigorous health. And in spiritual things, if you keep to

one part of God’s Word, you may live on it, but the tendency will be

for you not to attain to complete spiritual health through the lack

of some nutriment with which the Word would have supplied you had you

used it all. Every Word of God is that on which man lives in the

highest and healthiest state.

23.

Look, for example, at the doctrine in the Word of God. “I do not

like doctrine,” one says. Do you know what you are saying? You are a

disciple, yet you do not like teaching, for doctrine means teaching.

For a disciple to say that he does not like to be taught, is as good

as to say that he does not like to be a disciple; and, in fact, that

he is not one in the true meaning of that term. Whatever truth is

laid down in God’s Word, it is important for us to know it.

24.

“Oh!” one says, “but there are some truths that are not important.” I

do not know of any. In places where they cut diamonds, they sweep

up the dust, because the very dust of diamonds is valuable; and in

the Word of God, all the truth is so precious that the very tiniest

truth, if there is such a thing, is still diamond dust, and is

unspeakably precious. “But,” you object, “I do not see that such a

truth would be of any practical use.” You may not see it, dear

friend, but it is so. If I could write out my experience as Pastor of

this church, I could show that there have been people converted to

God by doctrines that some might have thought unlikely to produce

that result. I have known the doctrine of the resurrection to bring

sinners to Christ; I have known scores brought to the Saviour by the

doctrine of election, — the very kind of people who, as far as I can

see, would never have come if that truth had not happened to be an

angular doctrine that just struck their heart in the right place, and

fitted into the crevices of their nature. I believe that everything

that is in God’s Word ought to be preached, ought to be believed, and

ought to be studied by us. Every doctrine is profitable for some

purpose or other. If it is not food, it is medicine, and children

need a tonic sometimes as much as they need milk. Every plant in

God’s garden serves some good purpose, so let us cultivate them all,

and not neglect any doctrine.

25.

Yet, when I come to God’s Word, I find that it is not all doctrine,

and I discover much of precept. Now, perhaps a man says, “I do

not care about precepts.” We used to have a set of Christian people,

so-called, who, if you preached about any duty of a believer, said at

once, “We cannot bear the word ‘duty’; it has a legal sound in it.” I

remember saying to one who called me “a legal preacher,” “That is all

right; ‘legal’ means lawful; and you mean, I suppose, that I am a

lawful preacher, and that you are an unlawful person to object to my

preaching.” But so it used to be; if you preached good sound

doctrine, if you preached on the privileges of believers, then they

were as pleased as possible; but when you once began to talk about

the practical parts of God’s Word, then immediately they were

offended. No wonder, for their conscience pricked them for their

neglect of those portions of the Scriptures. But, dear friends, we

live on the precepts as well as on the doctrines, and they have

become to us as our necessary food. You know how David said of the

Lord’s commandments, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea,

than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb;

moreover by them is your servant warned: and in keeping of them there

is great reward.”

26.

Blessed be God, there is also a large portion of this Book that is

taken up with promises. Dear friends, be well acquainted with the

promises. I have often found it profitable to consult that little

book in which Dr. Samuel Clarke has arranged the promises of

Scripture under different headings. It is very helpful, when you are

in trouble, to refer to all the promises which are given to those who

are in similar circumstances to yours; for example, to the sick, or

to those in poverty, or those suffering from slander. As you read

them over, one after another, you say to yourselves, “This is my

cheque book; I can take out the promises as I want them, sign them by

faith, present them at the great Bank of Grace, and come away

enriched with present help in time of need.” That is the way to use

God’s promises, so that they shall minister to the life of our spirit.

27.

But, dear friends, much of God’s Word is taken up with histories.

Here you have the story of the Creation and of the Fall, of Abraham,

and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and of Moses, and of the kings and

princes and people of Israel. You ask, perhaps, “Is this food?”

Certainly. There are critics, nowadays, who speak very slightingly of

the Old Testament, and talk as if the Gospels comprised the entirety

of God’s Word; even the Epistles are considered to be of inferior

quality. But this is all wrong; it is by every Word of God that man

lives; and, often, a history, giving us an example of faith, or a

proof of God’s faithfulness in helping his tried people, becomes more

suitable food than the promise might be by itself. There is more

force, men say, in the concrete, than there is in the abstract.

Certainly, there is more power in a thing put into actual life than

there is in that same thing merely stated in words. If ever you go to

the picture galleries of Versailles, you may walk through — I was about

to say — miles of galleries, among portraits of kings and notable men

of different ages; but you do not see anyone stopping to look at

them, neither do you care to see them yourself. They are just

portraits; but, downstairs, there are paintings of the same men, only

they are pictured in battle array, or in various positions which show

them in action. Now you stand and look at them, for you are

interested in the representation of the scenes in which they lived.

So, sometimes, God’s promises hang up like pictures on the wall, and

we do not notice them; but when we see men who have trusted those

promises, and proved the truth of them, then there is a kind of human

interest about them which wins our attention, and speaks to our

hearts. Never neglect the historical parts of God’s Word, for they

are full of food for the children of God.

28.

It is precisely the same with regard to the prophecies. I once

heard Mr. George Müller say that he liked to read his Bible through

again and again, and he liked especially to read those portions of

the Bible which he did not understand. That seems rather an

exceptional thing to say, does it not? For what profit can come to us

if we do not understand what we read? The good man put it to me like

this; he said, “There is a little boy who is with his father, and

there is a good deal of what his father says that he comprehends, and

he takes it in, and he is very pleased to hear his father talk. But

sometimes his father speaks of things that are quite beyond him, yet

the boy likes to listen; he learns a little here and there, and,

eventually, when he has listened year after year, he begins to

understand what his father says as he never would have done if he had

run away whenever his father began to talk beyond his comprehension.”

So it is with the prophecies, and other deep parts of God’s Word. If

you read them once or twice, but do not comprehend them, still study

them, give your heart to them, for, eventually, the precious truth

will permeate your spirit, and you will imperceptibly drink wisdom

which otherwise you never would have received.

29.

Every part of the Word of God is food for the soul; so, dear friends,

it may be that there is a message of threatening, which speaks

very sharply to you, but which is also most profitable for you.

Perhaps, some Sabbath, you go out of the Tabernacle, and you say,

“Our Pastor has not comforted us this morning; he seems to have

harrowed us and ploughed us.” Yes, I know that it is so sometimes;

but it is for your profit, for, as Hezekiah said, “by these things

men live.” It frequently happens that we need humbling, and proving,

and testing, and bringing down; and every right-minded child of God

will say, “Do not let my training be according to my mind, but let it

be according to God’s mind.” That sermon which pleases us most, may

not profit us at all; while the one which grieves and vexes us may,

perhaps, be doing us a most essential service. When the Word of God

searches you through and through, open your heart to it. Let the

wind blow right through your whole being, and carry away every rag

and relic that ought to be taken from you.

30.

There are some of God’s words that are very short, but they contain

an abundance of food for the soul. I have sometimes stood still, as I

have been looking at a text, and I have felt like Jonathan when he

found the honey. I could not eat it all; I could only dip my rod into

it, and taste it; and I wanted to call you all up, to see if you

could clear this woods, which was so laden with sweetness. At other

times, on my way home, when I have not got much myself during the

sermon, the Master has given me a feast on the road; and I have

laughed to myself again and again for very joy of heart over some

precious passage out of which fresh light has broken to cheer my

spirit, and make me glad in the Lord. Oh, keep to the Word, my

brothers! Keep to it as God’s Word, and as coming out of his mouth.

Suck it down into your soul; you cannot have too much of it. Feed on

it day and night, for by this God will make you to live the life that

is life indeed.

God the Father, Attributes of God

191 — The Truth Of God The Promiser

1 Praise, everlasting praise, be paid

   To him that earth’s foundation laid;

   Praise to the God, whose strong decrees,

   Sway the creation as he please.

2 Praise to the goodness of the Lord,

   Who rules his people by his word;

   And there, as strong as his decrees,

   He sets his kindest promises.

3 Firm are the words his prophets give,

   Sweet words, on which his children live:

   Each of them is the voice of God,

   Who spoke, and spread the skies abroad.

4 Each of them powerful as that sound

   That bid the new made world go round;

   And stronger than the solid poles

   On which the wheel of nature rolls.

5 Oh, for a strong, a lasting faith,

   To credit what th’ Almighty saith!

   T’ embrace the message of his Son,

   And call the joys of heaven our own.

6 Then should the earth’s old pillars shake,

   And all the wheels of nature break,

   Our steady souls should fear no more

   Than solid rocks when billows roar.

7 Our everlasting hopes arise

   Above the ruinable skies,

   Where th’ eternal Builder reigns,

   And his own courts his power sustains.

                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Christian, Joy and Peace

711 — God’s Presence Is Light In Darkness

1 My God, the spring of all my joys,

      The life of my delights,

   The glory of my brightest days,

      And comfort of my nights.

2 In darkest shades if he appear,

      My dawning is begun;

   He is my soul’s sweet morning star,

      And he my rising sun.

3 The opening heavens around me shine

      With beams of sacred bliss,

   While Jesus shows his heart is mine,

      And whispers, I am his.

4 My soul would leave this heavy clay

      At that transporting word,

   Run up with joy the shining way

      T’ embrace my dearest Lord.

5 Fearless of hell and ghastly death,

      I’d break through every foe;

   The wings of love, and arms of faith,

      Should bear me conqueror through.

                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

God the Father, Attributes of God

192 — Faithful And Powerful In Performing His Promises

1 Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme,

   And speak some boundless thing;

   The mighty works, or mightier name

   Of our eternal King.

2 Tell of his wondrous faithfulness,

   And sound his power abroad;

   Sing the sweet promise of his grace,

   And the performing God.

3 Proclaim Salvation from the Lord,

   For wretched, dying men:

   His hand has writ the sacred word

   With an immortal pen.

4 Engraved as in eternal brass

   The mighty promise shines;

   Nor can the powers of darkness rase

   Those everlasting lines.

5 He that can dash whole worlds to death,

   And make them when he please;

   He speaks, and that almighty breath

   Fulfils his great decrees.

6 His very word of grace is strong

   As that which built the skies;

   The voice that rolls the stars along

   Speaks all the promises.

7 Oh, might I hear thine heavenly tongue

   But whisper, “Thou art mine!”

   Those gentle words should raise my song

   To notes almost divine.

8 How would my leaping heart rejoice,

   And think my heaven secure!

   I trust the all creating voice,

   And faith desires no more.

                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47)

The word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.

Even our physical life depends on God’s word, because by his word we were created (Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3), and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

And our spiritual life begins by the word of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Not only do we begin to live by God’s word, but we also go on living by God’s word: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

So our physical life is created and upheld by the word of God, and our spiritual life is quickened and sustained by the word of God. How many stories could be gathered to bear witness to the life-giving power of the word of God!

Indeed, the Bible is “no empty word for you” — it is your life! The foundation of all joy is life. Nothing is more fundamental than sheer existence — our creation and our preservation.

All this is owing to the word of God’s power. By that same power, he has spoken in Scripture for the creation and sustenance of our spiritual life. Therefore, the Bible is no empty word, but is your very life — the foundation and kindling of your joy!

In sensus plenior:

Bread represents the body of Christ and the cross, and «every word which proceeds from the mouth of God» is represented by fish.

Bread as the cross

Bread represents the cross, because Jesus said it represented his body after having broken it [1], and Paul interprets it by saying «broken for you» though Jesus’s body was not broken on the cross. The riddle (apparent contradiction) is solved this way:

All of the things which were parted, broken and torn are symbols of the cross where the Father is separated from the son. [3]

Three testimonies of the Word on earth

1Jo 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit,
and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

Three testimonies are related to the methods by which we respond to God, or don’t.

The Spirit testifies to us by way of general revelation and by the still small voice that draws us to God. Like the sheep who hear the shepherds voice and recognize it, though they don’t understand the words, we hear God, or we are deaf.

The water, as the propositional word of God containing expressions of Holiness and Grace, we see the works of God in a manner which may be understood intellectually. Or we are blind.

Since the «life is in the blood», the testimony of the blood is the very life of Christ as the incarnate Word, revealing to us those things which are beyond hearing and seeing. We can walk with Christ, meaning to live in him, or we are lame.

Fish as the Word

Christ is the ante-type of the clean fish

• He wears the full armor of God, (the word for scales means armor)
• He lives (swims) in the Word (water)
• He is devoured by the lobster which is an abomination. (The lobster lives in the earthly bottom and snatches fish to devour them.) Men, working in the flesh, put Christ to death.

Jesus fed bread and fish together

Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.

In other words, man does not live by the cross alone, but by the word revealed By the Spirit, the water and the blood… the whole word of God.

Cannot see

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

One cannot see (understand) the Kingdom of God until the second birth which comes through the cross (bread). But we cannot live by bread alone.

Keep my commandments

Jesus says that if we love him, we are to keep his commandments [4]

In saying this, he is simply teaching what was taught in the scriptures: that we should love God and keep His commandments. [5]

The connection between manna and the word
Manna is the bread which gave Israel life and which gives sinners life, representing the cross. Symbolically, Israel was called out of Egypt/the world and spent 40 years in a desolate place (like Christ in the tomb) and did not see the promised land (the kingdom of God) until they were «born again» by crossing the Jordan as a type of Christ’s resurrection.

The manna is what sustained them keeping them from ‘tasting death’, and the Word of God is what keeps us living in the Kingdom of Heaven. The manna makes us born-again, while we «walk in the word». [6]

The bread gives life, the fish sustain it.

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Side note:

See how the metaphoric meanings are reusable:

The stone is the Word of God expressing the Law and the serpent the original liar.

Lu 11:11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will
he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a fish, will he for a fish give
him a serpent?

Paraphrase: If your son asks for mercy (the cross) will you give him the law?
If he asks for «every word which proceeds from the mouth of God» will you give him a lie?

They are reusable because they must mean the same thing everywhere they occur, since they are written by the same author (God). This cross-linking and locking is what makes the meaning of a sensus plenior interpretation sure.

[1]

Mt 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it,
and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this
is my body.

Mr 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and
blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is
my body.

Lu 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it,
and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you:
this do in remembrance of me.

[2]

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, Take,
eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me.

[3]

Mt 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?

Mr 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried
with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is,
being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[4]

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and
I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even
as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we
love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jo 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments are not grievous.

2Jo 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This
is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye
should walk in it.

[5]

Ex 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments.

De 5:10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of
them that love me and keep my commandments.

De 7:9 Know therefore
that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments
to a thousand generations;

De 11:1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD
thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and
his commandments, alway.

[6]

1Ki 2:4 That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning
me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me
in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not
fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.

1Ki 6:12 Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou
wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my
commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee,
which I spake unto David thy father:

Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This
is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye
turn to the left.

Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up
to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and
he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the
law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

This is the thirty-fourth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

Available now: Prayers for Our Lives: 95 Lifelines to God for Everyday Circumstances by Mel Lawrenz.

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“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

This passage says that there are a variety of ways the word of Christ goes deep enough to dwell. Teaching is paramount, so we need to keep searching like eagles for teachers, authors, and Bible study leaders who explain and apply the word faithfully. “Admonishing with wisdom” suggests a flow of quality conversation among believers about what they are learning from God. “Singing” praise is another powerful way the word of God is carried deeply into our hearts. Singing “with gratitude in [our] hearts to God” is a way that the crusty and hardened exterior of our lives gets cracked open, and seeds drop deeply in, and they begin to live and grow.

Here is the connection between Bible study and worship. Why sing? So the word will dwell richly. Why a variety of sounds (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs)? So the word will knock on every door of our hearts that is the least bit cracked open. Why teach? So that the word will be clearly explained and powerfully applied. Worship is not the span between the start and the end of singing, but this great and varied advance of the word of God on our souls. God takes up as many fronts as he needs to so that we will stop and listen.

And then there is meditation—a method of reading Scripture in such a way that it has a chance to get planted. Meditation is a word the Bible uses to describe a way of holding and pondering God’s truth so that it sinks in. It is wise, pensive concentration.

At the edge of the promised land, Joshua told the people they were going to need real spiritual muscle. Wars lay ahead. Three times at the Jordan River he said: “be strong and courageous,” and then: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

The Psalms speak about meditating on the word of God, and continuing that meditation through every pulse of life. Psalm 119 describes a committed discipline of taking the word in:

• “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways” (vs. 15).
• “Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees” (vs. 23).
• “Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders” (vs. 27).
• “I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees” (vs. 48).
• “May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts” (vs. 78).
• “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (vs. 97).
• “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes” (vs. 99).
• “My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises” (vs. 148).

Okay, now, be honest. Did you just skim over those verses, or did you ponder them? If you’re like me, then you will find yourself occasionally reading over quotations of Scripture instead of reading through them. How hurried we can be!

That’s what Christian meditation is all about—turning hurry into rumination. Slowing from a run into a walk. Tasting and digesting instead of devouring. It’s the only way to build spiritual muscle for the good times and the tough times.

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Prayers for Our Lives: 95 Lifelines to God for Everyday Circumstances by Mel Lawrenz.

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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.