1.
Rom
2:13 (For not the
hearers
of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified .
a. this verse is really setting forth an ideal
condition rather than something that is capable of human attainment
a.
There is
no virtue in possessing the Bible or even in reading it as literature
b.
There must
be a deep desire to hear God speaking to us and an unquestioning willingness to
do whatever He says.
1. The person who only hears and knows the Word
deceives himself. If a person thinks that he can hear and learn the Word of God
and then go out and live like he wants, he deceives himself.
a. Thought 1. There are many who sit under the Word of God week
after week, and they learn and know as much of the Word as anyone. They think
that their listening and learning makes them acceptable to God, that it makes
them safe and secure. When they slip into sin, they feel that they can ask God
for forgiveness and that He will forgive them. They just feel that God would
never reject them. But note something, the most critical fact: God does not
accept us because we hear and know the Word nor because we confess our sins.
Each of these are necessary and very important, but they are not enough.
Þ God
accepts us because we confess and repent.
Repentance means that we turn away from our sins and turn to God. God accepts
us because we turn to Him and live for Him. When we believe God—really believe
Him—then it is that we trust and follow Him and do exactly what He says.
2. The person who only hears and knows the Word soon
forgets what he has heard. If a person does not practice what he learns, it
soon fades from memory. It is just forgotten, and it never becomes a part of the
person's life. He is like the person who looks in a mirror to see if he needs
to do anything to his appearance, then walks away and thinks of something else
and forgets the pimple or rustled hair that needed to be cared for.
a. Thought 1. How much like what happens so often. We hear the
Word and are convicted of some defect, some shortcoming, some failure that we
need to clean up. But as soon as we walk out from under the Word, we are
distracted by the world and its affairs and we soon forget to do what the Word
of God told us to do.
3. The
person who hears and does the Word of God is blessed. Note that the Word of God
is called the perfect law of liberty.
This means that the Word of God will set a person free from the bondages of sin
and death. The Word of God will free a person from all the temptations of this
life and give him the full and victorious life for which his soul longs—a life
that will continue on and on eternally with God.
A
person who does and lives the Word of God will find that he is freed from all
that enslaves his soul upon earth. He will discover love, joy, and peace—a soul
that just soars with a sense of...
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· freedom and liberty
· purpose and meaning
· security and safety
· victory over temptation
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· joy and rejoicing
· assurance and confidence
· life over death
· deliverance from sin
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