How to Respond to the Scriptures

A sermon citing St. Irenaeus and Psalm 119

As promised, here is the sermon I preached last Sunday.  I thought about altering or even scrapping it after the assassination attempt against President Trump the evening before. But I decided to keep it the same while adding a prayer to the service.

I intend to lead further studies of Psalm 119 in the Corpus Christi area.  Contact me if you are interested.

(And apologies that the paragraph and line spacing is not the best. I haven’t figured out how to control that in substack. Lord knows I’ve tried.)

——

Trinity VII July 14th, 2024

Providence Reformed Episcopal Church, Corpus Christi

Morning Prayer

Psalm 138

2 Kings 22

John 15:10-27

How to Respond to the Scriptures

Open my eyes, that I may behold
Wonderful things from Thy law.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The past two meetings of the Sunday afternoon study group, we’ve examined the counsel of St. Irenaeus on how to approach the Scriptures, especially difficult parts.  And we’ve had some excellent discussion.  We have some good young minds among us.

To quickly summarize, St. Irenaeus was the Bishop of Lyons in what is now France.  He knew St. Polycarp who in turn was taught by St. John; so Irenaeus was close to and familiar with the teachings of the Apostles.

His most famous work has become known as Against Heresies.  As the title suggests, he describes and debunks any number of heresies of his day. It therefore is not a short work. Most of these heresies were Gnostic or related to Gnosticism.  As one reads Against Heresies, one can easily detect Irenaeus’ mocking contempt and exasperation with these heresies and heretics.

It will not surprise that I have a warm place in my heart for St. Irenaeus.

Eventually Irenaeus decides to show how to — and how not to — study the Scriptures so that one can avoid going astray as the Gnostics did.  This morning we will briefly look on his positive counsel on how to approach the Scriptures, and then we will look at a particularly relevant Psalm.

In Book 2, chapter XXVII, he writes that “a sound mind . . . devoted to piety and the love of truth will eagerly meditate upon those things which God . . . has subjected to our knowledge and will make advancement in them, rendering the knowledge of them easy to him by means of daily study.” Let’s unpack that packed statement.

First, we should come to Scripture with a right attitude of “a sound mind”, not silly or inflated as the many heretics he debunked, but having a mind that seeks and loves the truth. Of course, to him and to all Christians, loving truth means loving the Truth, Jesus Christ.

Second, we spend persistent time studying Scripture. We are in Scripture daily, and we meditate on it, we think on it. The Book of Common Prayer so guides us to be in prayer and Bible reading every day.  And Scripture itself so guides us.  Deut. 6:4 is familar to us:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Note what are the very next verses.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. [ESV]

A very important part of loving God is loving His word.  And His word should be constantly on our heart and mind, not only for our benefit but for the benefit of others as we live out His word and teach it.  That goes double if you have kids.  You need to learn and to know the word so you can teach it to others, especially to your children.  And that teaching should not be just a once a week thing, or even just once a day, but at every good opportunity that everyday life provides.

I know that may seem a big task — and it is.  But when you are faithful in studying the Scriptures, God renders “the knowledge of them easy”, as Irenaeus writes, both by our minds taking in more and more of His truth and by His Spirit assisting us as Jesus taught in our 2nd Lesson this morning.  The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the Paraclete who bears witness about Jesus.  The Holy Spirit bears witness about His Truth and helps us to understand.

Still, Irenaeus might seem optimistic when he writes that God renders the knowledge of the Scriptures easy.  But Scripture is not esoteric. Its key teachings “are clearly and unambiguously in express terms set forth.” Most of what Scripture teaches is quite clear. And the most important teachings of Scripture are especially clear.  God has condescended to speak to children, us children. He speaks to the humble pious, not so much to the gnostic pompous.

Part of our pious humility is recognizing the Bible for what it is, the reliable, authoritative word of God.  As Irenaeus wrote, we are “most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.”  As St. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. [NASB 95]

And if we see the Bible as God’s word, it is only logical that we read and dig and think upon the Scriptures every day.  It is only logical that we are eager to do so.

Psalm 119 is a wonderful big picture of what our attitude toward Scripture should be.  I say “big picture” in part because it’s the longest psalm in the Bible, consisting of 176 verses.  So let’s get started . . . by looking at a few verses.   No, I’m not going to preach a two hour sermon although that once was fashionable in the history of the English church.  I do encourage you to take the time to read all of Psalm 119 at home.

But what are some of the good attitudes and examples we see in Psalm 119?  First is a passion for God’s word.  Verse 14:

I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies,
As much as in all riches.

Verse 16:
I shall delight in Thy statutes;

I shall not forget Thy word.

Verse 20:

My soul is crushed with longing

After Thine ordinances at all times.

That is convicting! I don’t think I’ve ever been quite that passionate about the Bible!  But I remember when I first committed to the Faith at 14 and was beginning to read the whole Bible.  It was like an adventure, and it was easy to be excited about it.  I was eager to find out what comes next.  But later on, it might be necessary to ask God to give you a passion for His word and it might be necessary to cultivate passion for His word.  So do pray for that, but don’t wait for God to zap you with zeal before you get into the word.  Read the Bible regularly, and be alert for what God might show you.  You might find as I have that there is much more to Scripture than you thought.  Here’s two ways God might show you that.

First, Scripture is so deep that it might be the upteenth time you read a passage that you notice something you have not noticed before.  And it can be amazing.  For example, last week, my Morning Prayer reading had me in the 2nd chapter of Ruth.  Now I’ve read that before several times but this time I noticed an amazing picture of the Holy Communion.  Boaz even feeds Ruth with bread and wine.

Now the author of Ruth probably had no idea of the Holy Communion centuries before Jesus instituted it.  But God knew, and we see that in Ruth 2.  It’s amazing.

The second thing that can also be amazing is that God knows where you are going to be reading in the Bible; and He knows what you are going through in life; and He can bring the two together to speak right to you in a very personal way.  But first you need to be reading the Bible.  And even then we should not expect God to so act strikingly in our life everyday.  But when He does so act, it can be amazing and very encouraging as I know well.

But above all know and remember that the Bible really is God’s written word. It is wonderful and “perfect,” as Irenaeus said.  As the Psalmist says in verse 140:

Thy word is very pure,

Therefore Thy servant loves it.

So with God’s help, cultivate that love, that passion for His word.  Pray that God grant you increased love for Him and His word.  And, again, love of God and love of His word do go together.  As Psalm 119:2 says:

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,

who seek Him with their whole heart.

Do you love someone?  You listen to them, and you talk to them.  Do you love God?  You listen to Him by diligently reading His word and you talk to Him in prayer.

Which leads to the second good example we see in Psalm 119 — prayer.  Psalm 119 is a prayer, a series of prayers to be exact.  And we should combine our Bible study with prayer as Psalm 119 does and as our Book of Common Prayer does.  This morning we hear the Scriptures; we hear them preached, hopefully without major heresies from this preacher; and then we respond in prayer.

We pray for passion for God and for His word.  And we pray that we would understand more and more of word.  As the Psalmist prays in verse 18:

Open my eyes that I may behold

Wonderful things from Thy law.

And in verse 27:
Make me understand the way of Thy precepts,

So I will meditate on Thy wonders.

We also pray for God’s help in putting His word into practice.  For as the first verse says:

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,

Who walk in the law of the Lord.

Then verses 4 and 5:

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

Later in verse 112:
I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes
Forever, even to the end.

And note how he trusts God to help him in so doing in verse 32:

I shall run the way of Thy commandments,

For Thou wilt enlarge my heart.

This is a big reason that the Psalmist asks for understanding, not only to increase his knowledge but so he can live out God’s word.  Verses 33 and 34:

Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;

and I will keep it to the end.

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law

and observe it with my whole heart.

And indeed we should strive with God’s help to practice His word, to live it out.  St. James exhorts us to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” (James 1:22)  Jesus tells us that he chose us to bear fruit in our lives.  As we read earlier:

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain…

We do not study the Bible merely to inflate our brains, nor to inflate our egos and our self-righteousness.  We seek to live out His word to the glory of God and to the benefit of others.

All this is not easy.  It takes persistence.  And the Psalmist demonstrates persistence — and not just by writing a psalm thats 176 verses long!  He combines his passion with persistence.  Verse 97:

Oh how I love Thy law!

It is my meditation all the day.

Verses 147 and 148:

I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I wait for Thy words.

My eyes anticipate the night watches,

That I may meditate on Thy word.

And maybe with your schedule you might need to get up a little earlier or go to sleep a little later to find time to read the Bible.  We should all persist in studying God’s word and in striving to live it out every day, and not just for ten minutes a day.  As the verses we read from Deut. say, God’s word should always be “on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”  Scripture and living it out and teaching it to the next generation should be a vital part of our whole day.

Yes, that is not easy.  Yes, that takes persistence.

And sometimes we need to persist not only against our own weakness and failings but against the opposition of others.  You might have noticed in the news that there are actually people who hate God; they hate His word; and they don’t particularly like it when Christians seek to live out God’s word.  That shouldn’t surprise us; Jesus told us so as we read earlier:

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

We love these people, even when they persecute us, but we do not give in to them.  We persist.

Verse 157:

Many are my persecutors and my adversaries.
Yet I do not turn aside from Thy testimonies.

Verse 161:

Princes persecute me without cause,

But my heart stands in awe of Thy words.

We persist in being faithful to God.  And if some people don’t like it, then too bad.  We pray for them, but we do not give in to them.  And we especially don’t give in to our greatest adversary, the adversary, the devil.  One way Satan opposes us is to provide us with excuses not to read and do God’s word, oh-so convenient excuses.

Any of you remember the Church Lady, played by Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live decades ago? She was rather obsessed with the workings of Satan. One of her catch phrases was “Isn’t that convenient.” And it was funny, but true.  We like convenience a bit too much, and Satan and our own laziness works that against us.

Well, to the excuses and opposition Satan and his allies may give us, verse 115 is a good answer:

Depart from me ye evildoers!
For I will keep the commandments of my God! (KJV)

Can you tell I love Psalm 119?

Now, you may have noticed what I’ve done here.  I’ve summarized the good examples of this epic psalm in five P’s.

Perfect

Remember that the Bible really is God’s word.  It is perfect and wonderful.  Because of that we should have . . .

Passon.

We have a passion for God’s word.  And if we don’t have that passion, we seek to gain it and cultivate it, and we pray for it.  And that’s the next P.

Prayer.

We combine prayer with Bible study as Psalm 119 does and as the Book of Common Prayer does.  We pray for greater passion for God’s word.  We pray that we would understand God’s word.  And we pray that we would live out the word in our everyday life.  Which leads to the next P.

Practice.

We are not merely hearers of the word inflating our heads and our egos with Bible knowledge; we strive with God’s help to live out His word.  And we do all this with . . .

Persistence.

Yes, it’s not easy.  Yes, we fail — I fail — to prioritize Bible study as we should.  We fail to live out His word as we should.

But then we get on our knees.  And we confess our sinful failings to God like good King Josiah did in our first lesson.  Then we trust in God’s forgiveness that Jesus won for us on the cross.  Then we get up off our knees and stand up and persist, also like King Josiah.  We persist in learning how to think and live from God and His word.  We persist in living out His holy word.

With God’s help let us indeed so persist to the glory of God. Amen.