Question: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
Answer: The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
Scripture memory: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… ESV 2 Timothy 3:16
A brief explanation:
God is not silent, He has spoken. God has clearly spoken and revealed Himself in creation and in men’s consciences, but He has especially revealed Himself in His God-Breathed-Out Word (Psalm 19; Rom. 1:19ff; 2:14-16; Eph. 2:20). God condescended to reveal Himself to His creatures, and to grant them knowledge about Himself and about His will. God has given us the Holy Scriptures, sixty-six books of the Bible, to know Him, and learn from Him so that we might glorify and enjoy Him! Isn’t God good to us?!
Man rebelled in Adam and refused to heed God’s Word. In this terrible fall, man’s mind was darkened, and His ability to hear was damaged. God’s Word is not readily available on our minds and hearts as sinful creatures. We do not by nature think God’s thoughts after Him as we were created to do. Even when man has God’s Word, he is not content with it, but often refuses to listen, or desires to know of secrets about God and about himself that God has not been pleased to reveal (Deut. 29:29). Sinful man also desires in his fallen, “endarkened†state to add to God’s Word (Rev. 22:18). But let us received with humility the Word as God has revealed it (Isa. 66:2; Jer. 9:20a; James 1:21). God has spoken to us with authority and clarity, and this is sufficient for all of life and godly living (2 Peter 1:3ff). God’s Word profits us in teaching, reproving or rebuking us, in correcting us, and in giving us right thoughts about God and ourselves.
God has particularly given His God-breathed-out Word to teach us our desperate need for His grace because of our great sin against Him (Eph. 2:1-10). We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). We have all sinned and are deserving of God’s wrath. Yet God in Christ, came to teach us that the God who requires perfect obedience to His Word, has also provided a Substitutionary Substitute to live perfectly for us where we have failed, and to take all of the curses of our disobedience upon Himself! Christ has come to teach the truth, and to listen to the truth, and to live the truth for man’s sin and failures. Christ is the Truth; He is the Word (John 1:1-3; 14:6). God is rich and mercy and gives His own ears to hear and obey His Word.
A prayer: Dear Father, help us to hear and obey your Word. To receive it as it is, the very Word of God. Let us receive it with humility, reverence, and obedience. Let us live for you, and to be thankful that you have privileged us with having your perfect, infallible, inspired Word. Let us memorize it and hide it in our hearts. We often have deaf ears, grant us hearing ears like your Beloved Son (Isaiah 50:4).
In Christ’s Love,
Pastors Biggs and Halley