Ron Dunn Podcast - How To Read Your Bible

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

Ron Dunn completes his series on Interpreting The Bible For Yourself

And I trust that you will be saved from whatever it is you need to be saved from. It's good to see you today. And I've enjoyed these noon sessions and I always enjoy the noon sessions. I guess having food with us has something to do with that. Maybe we'd serve food at night, you know, it might have better services there. But anyway, thank you for being so faithful to these noon sessions. And I trust that the Lord will continue to bless.

I want you to open your Bibles today to 1 Peter chapter 1. First Peter chapter 1. And we're talking about interpreting the Bible for yourself. And we've already looked at the six basic principles of interpretation. And today I want us to look at simply the study of the Bible, reading the Bible, and what the Bible means to us and how we ought to read it. And in 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning with verse 23, and I'll read through the second chapter, verses 2 and 3. 1 Peter, chapter 1,

verse 23, and reading through the third verse of chapter 2. For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flowers fall off, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. Therefore, putting aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy envy and all slander, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the Word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. To me, the greatest evidence that the Bible is the inspired Word of God is the fact that it simply does what it professes to do. The effect it has when it is preached, when it is read, when it is heard. The Word of God promises and gives to us the way of salvation. And when the Word of God is preached and shared, people are saved. And. And when the Word of God is preached and shared, people are saved. And when you preach the Word of God, people are brought under conviction,

and they are converted, and their lives are changed. That doesn't happen when you read Shakespeare. It happens when you read the Word of God. And so one of the greatest evidences, as far as I'm concerned, the greatest evidence of the inspiration of the Word of God is that it simply does what it professes to do.

It converts the soul. It changes lives. And here Peter is saying it does that because he pictures the Word of God as a seed. And he says, you and I have been born again, not of a corruptible seed but of an incorruptible seed which is the Word of God when the Word of God is planted in the hearts of men and women it brings about a new birth in the lives of those people now the interesting thing that I want to share with you today is that the same seed that gives us life is also the milk that gives us growth. You notice in the first

chapter, verses 23 and following, he talks about the Word of God as the seed which has given us a new birth. And following that expression of a new birth, he says in the second chapter, verse 1, Therefore, therefore, always you look at that when he says, Therefore, knowing that he's about to make a practical application of a truth that he's just enunciated. The truth is this, the word of God is the incorruptible seed that brings life. Therefore, if this is so, and it is, then you and I need to lay aside all malice and all guile and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander, and like newborn babes,

we are to long desire, crave for the sincere or the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. So the seed that gives us life is also the milk that gives us growth. Now I want you to notice how he adds in verse 3. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. The Berkeley translation does a great job here. It says, presuming Peter is saying is this, that if you have been born again,

you ought to have an appetite to grow. You ought to have an appetite for the pure milk of the Word. You don't have to teach a baby to eat. You don't have to try to cultivate a craving in the baby for milk. That comes with life. That comes with birth. And so he says, if you have been born again of that seed, then like a newborn babe, you will crave the sincere milk of the Word

if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. The implication is, if you have no appetite for the Word of God, you must not have ever tasted the goodness of the Lord. Now, we were talking, Kay and I were talking the other day, and we talked about this, that we talk a lot about food. Have you ever noticed that we talk an awful lot about food? Her mother came down and visited us for a week. And any time the three of us sat down, what the ladies, I don't do this, of course, but they begin, everything on their plate,

say, oh, I know not to eat this. And then they go, you know, they eat it, you know. Always talking about food, always talking about food. And so, you know, we go on diets and such as this. Now, I'm not a very good dieter. I can fast pretty good. I really can. I can fast pretty good. If I don't eat anything, I can go without eating anything, and I can make it pretty good. But I want to tell you something. When I take a bite of food, I mean, it's Katie bar the door. I've sunk, you know.

If I just won't taste it, I'll be all right. But once you taste it, you're done for. Now, Peter says, if you have tasted, had a taste of the goodness of the Lord, man, you're going to have an appetite to have more and more and more of it. And so, when you and I get a taste of the Word of God, and when we get a taste of the goodness of the Lord, there is created within us this desire, this longing, of course, to drink, to nourish the sincere milk of the Word. Now, what I want to talk to you today about is how we are to read the Word of God, how it is to be applied into our lives. And I want to just say this, that there is, before we get started, there is a moral qualification for reading the Bible.

There's an intellectual qualification, of course, I mean you have to be able to read, or you have to be able to understand when it's preached. You have to have an intellectual belief that it is the Word of God as well as the heart. There is an intellectual qualification, of course, for reading the Word of God, and most of the time the emphasis is placed on that. But did you realize the Bible really never places the emphasis on that? It always places it on the moral qualification for reading the Word. Notice what he says, if you and I are to long for the Word, there are some things that must be laid aside. Verse 1, chapter 2, therefore, putting aside, laying aside,

he uses a word there that was used of casting aside old clothes, clothes that were no longer clean or no longer wearable, you laid them aside. He says, therefore, like old dirty garments, you need to lay aside, and he gives us three categories, and each one of them prefaced by that word all. Lay aside all malice, all guile, which includes hypocrisy and envy, and all slander. Before you can desire the sincere milk of the Word, before you can have that appetite and have that appetite intensified, there's a moral qualification for reading the Word of God. There are certain things in your life you have to lay aside, and most of these

indicate our relationship with other people. You can't read the Word of God and benefit from it if there's malice in your heart, if there's slander in your heart, if there is hypocrisy, if there is envy. When you come to the Word of God, my dear friends, you have to come clean. There is a moral qualification. I said a moment ago that you don't get converted by reading Shakespeare. I also say that whether or not you're living in sin doesn't affect your reading of Shakespeare at all. I mean, you can sit down and read Shakespeare and get just as much out of Shakespeare

no matter what kind of moral situation you're in. But you cannot do that with the Word of God. When you and I come to the Word of God, there is a moral qualification. And if the Word of God is going to bless me at all, first of all, I need to make certain that my sins are confessed up to date, and as far as I can tell, everything is right between myself and God, if God is going to speak to me out of this Word. So, with with that I want us to share. I'd like to share with you about six or seven things.

On how to read the Bible. And yes there's seven of them. I often forget. There's seven ideas that I want us to share with you. In reading the Bible. Number one. You need to read the Bible regularly. Now some of these things you're going to say.

Well that's obvious and that's old hat. But we need to read the Bible regularly. Now some of these things you're going to say, well that's obvious and that's old hat. But we need to emphasize them anyway. First of all, you and I need to read the Bible regularly. What I mean by that is, we need to sit down at the table of the Word and read it and eat it every day. Every day. Every day. You and I ought to look upon reading the the Bible studying the Bible letting the Bible study us just as necessary as taking in physical food and physical drink you and I cannot live this way

you know what I'm hoping for I wish that one of these days I could get to the place spiritually where I would miss a meal of the Word of God as much as I miss a meal of spaghetti and meatballs. If I go without a meal or two, I'm ravenous. I mean, if you get hungry enough, you'll eat bread out of a garbage can. But do you ever get that hungry for the Word of God? Reading the Bible regularly. Now, it doesn't matter what time of the day you read it it doesn't matter where you read it you just make certain that every day there's going to

be a systematic reading of the Word of God first of all we need to read the Bible regularly second we need to read the Bible alertly alertly now a fresh mind is essential don't give God the drowsy dregs of your day read the Bible when you are alert now I may have made reference to this the other night I think I did a lot of people feel like you need to get up about 530 in the morning and read to have your quiet time and for those that can do that that's wonderful. But I'm going to tell you something. I need to read the Bible alertly. And I am not an early morning person. I'm not. Through the years, doing what I do, preaching, you're

in meetings like we are this week. You get out about 9 o'clock or 9.30. You go out and eat. By the time you get home, it's midnight. Then you can't sleep because your mind is still revved up from the service or revved up from what you've eaten. And I hardly ever get to sleep before 2 o'clock in the morning. And then I wake up about every hour on the hour, you know. And I'll just be frank with you, folks. I'm not a morning person.

I think getting up is a terrible way to start the day. Of course, I do this because I'm humble. Only proud people get up at 5 a.m. I mean, don't they brag about it? Oh, boy, I want you to know, boy, I've been up since dawn. Man, I got up at 5 o'clock. They are so filled with arrogance and pride and haughtiness. You never hear anybody brag about getting up late, do you? Boy, man, I got up at the break of noon today. See, I'm humble. That's the way I am. Find a time when you are most alert.

And I'll be honest with you, when I first get up in the morning, that's not my most alert time. And if I try to do my study then and my reading, my quiet time, if I get that quiet that early, I'm going to go back to sleep. Actually, I'm more alert at midnight, usually. And I do my best reading at night, late at night. So you read the Bible alertly, however it fits into your lifestyle. However it fits into your lifestyle.

Read the Bible alertly. Number three, you and I need to read the Bible systematically. Systematically. Now, I'm happy that they have changed the way they do this to a certain extent. But growing up in church, we were given our daily Bible readings. happy that they have changed the way they do this to a certain extent. But growing up in church, we were given our daily Bible readings. You remember those? They were in the Sunday school quarterly or the BYPU quarterly.

I'm showing my age now. And they were the daily Bible readings. And here's the way they would be. For Wednesday, read Leviticus chapter 17, verse 8. Matthew chapter 7 verse 15, Revelation chapter 10 verses 3 through 8. And I couldn't understand a thing that I was reading. It was all, I mean, jumble and I never did enjoy it and so I never did it much. Why do we read the Bible like we read no other book? If you go down the bookstore and buy a novel and you open it to page 150 and start reading

and after a while say, well I don't understand a thing I'm reading. Well of course not. You start at the first. Chapter 1, page 1, paragraph 1, word 1. Read the Bible systematically. Take a book of the Bible and read it from beginning to end and you read it like Philippians or Colossians or Genesis start at the verse 1 chapter 1 paragraph 1 word 1 read the Bible systematically I am highly in favor of these ideas whereby we read the Bible once every year and those plans are very good. You start at the beginning. Now, I know, I know when you get to those begets,

it's going to be a little bit much of a drag. But you can sort of just keep on reading until God begets something in your own life. Eventually, eventually you'll come to some good stuff. So read the Bible systematically. Number three, we need to read the Bible with variety. Now what do I mean by that? I mean we need to use different translations.

Now, there are some places I go, and this may be one of them, I don't know, where there's always somebody in the church, if I get up and read from anything but the King James Version, I'm consigned to the outer limits of hell now I grew up on the King James Version of the Bible and I still preach from it a great deal but let's be honest folks they used to burn men at the stake who tried to translate the Bible hundreds of years ago to put it into the language of the people. The Catholic Church in those days wanted to keep it in

a language that only the priests could read. The common person, the average person didn't have a copy of the Bible and if he did he couldn't read it because it was not in the language that he spoke. And there were men like Tyndale and some of the others and Jerome who they paid their lives flying because they

translated the Bible into a language that the average man could understand. That's always been God's plan. The New Testament is written in Greek. There's a little bit of Aramaic in it but it's primarily written in Greek. And it's written in what they call Cornea Greek which is vulgar Greek which means everyday Greek, marketplace Greek. There is classical Greek, and then there is everyday marketplace Greek. And when God sat down to inspire the Word of God, He didn't use the classical Greek that only the intellectuals could understand.

He used the marketplace Greek that every normal, average, common person could understand. I want to tell you something. We must always have the Bible in the language that you and I can understand. And language changes. The meanings of words change. For instance, in the King James, it says in 1 Thessalonians, though talking about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ coming, he says, those who are asleep shall not prevent those who are, those who are alive shall not prevent those who are asleep. Now the word prevent today means to hinder. The word is they will not precede them.

I mean those of us who are alive will not precede those who are dead. They will be raised first. They're going to come first and then we're going to be caught up in the air. In II Thessalonians Paul talks about the Holy Spirit and the man of sin coming. He said, He that let us will let until he be taken out of the way. Now, in the King James time, let, L-E-T, meant to hinder. That doesn't mean that today. It means to permit, you see.

And so the language changes. And if you and I are to read the Bible with understanding, we must use various translations that keep the language into the people that I understand. Now, the King James Version is a very excellent translation. It actually is. A lot of people knock it today, but it is a very good translation.

The main thing that's wrong with it for us today is it's written in that old- style English that we don't use and that we don't feel familiar with and sometimes that keeps us from reading the Bible as regularly as we would if it were written in more modern English so I think there are always places for different translations and I carry about six translations with me I got three here this morning and I carry about six translations with me. I got three here this morning and I carry about six with me because I found out something. I found out that one translation may read in a certain way. Another translation just as accurate in its translation of the Greek words may read a

slightly different way and all of a sudden it throws light on it that I didn't see before you see for instance has somebody got a King James with them this morning if you have a King James with you I want you to turn to chat Colossians chapter 1 and I want you to read that verse 23 I believe it's the last verse Colossians chapter no it's verse. Colossians chapter, no it's chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 23. Who has King James? Can you read that? Tell you what, let me have it and I'll read it up here at the microphone. It is kind of small.

It is small. Alright, here's verse 23. it is small. Alright. Here's verse 23. Which things, talking about the taste not, touch not, handle not, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body,

not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. Would somebody like to stand up and explain that to me? Folks, that's a jawbreaker, isn't it? All right. Now listen to it in the, what is this, NIV. Verse 23. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body,

but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Now let me ask you a question. Which one do you understand? Say this one, all right? Well, I mean, it's going on. You're really supposed to say this one. Now that is just one example of what I'm getting at when we need to read the Bible with variety use different translations the Greek

language is so rich that sometimes one Greek word can be translated two or three different ways and each way has a different shade of meaning and it throws different light on it so read the Bible with variety I have here the new international version now personally this just my humble and accurate opinion personally I don't think the NIV is the best translation around it's the most popular right now and it's a good translation but I don't think it's the best translation around but I use it preach from it a lot I think the best translation probably today is the New American Standard Version. That is the most accurate translation.

Actually, the most accurate translation is the Old American Standard Version, but you can't find that anywhere much. But the New American Standard Version is, I believe, about the most accurate translation that we have the New English Bible the Revised English Bible is a good translation the new revised version is a good translation I read a lot from the Williams translation I at Charles B Williams translation it's the only New Testament they were translated by Baptist by the way and I made reference to it the other night it It is an excellent translation.

It's published by Holman, and you can get copies of it. It brings out the nuances and the shades of meaning of the Greek text. And when you read that translation, it throws so much more light onto it than other translations. The Amplified Bible is a very good translation,

and it does exactly what it says it does. It amplifies the meanings of the Word. People read the Living Bible, which is not a translation, but more of a paraphrase. Now, the Living Bible is the most readable, but not the most reliable. I read the Living Bible just for the pleasure of reading, but when I get down to study, I don't use that because that's not a translation it is a paraphrase there is the New King James Version which is a very good translation the only thing I don't like about it is where Jesus says verily verily they translated most assuredly and I don't I don't like that word I don't know why it is that looks it sounds like those sounds kind of stuffy do you do you ever say that most assuredly you don't say that word. I don't know why. It sounds like kind of stuffy. Do you ever

say that? Most assuredly? You don't say that. But anyway, it's a good translation. So read the Bible. My wife, you do? She does. Most Here's what she said. She said, I don't say verily, verily

either. Behave yourself or I'm going to trade you for those pictures I've got. So you read the Bible prayerfully. Number five. Read the Bible prayerfully number five read the Bible prayerfully read the Bible prayerfully approach this book as you would approach no other book it is a living word and when you open this Bible you need to open it prayerfully praying like this perhaps father give me something today to live by out of this word everyone I when I start to read my Bible just casually or study that's always a prayer on my heart. Lord, as I read this, give me something to live by today.

And as you come to the Bible prayerfully, the Spirit of God who inspired the Bible will illuminate your mind so that you can understand it. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says that the natural man, the unsaved man, does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. A lost person, an unregenerated person, cannot understand the Word of God. Now, he has a certain intellectual and scholarly understanding of the Word of God, but he doesn't understand the message of the Word of God,

and he cannot read the Bible with faith that you and I can read it from. Do you realize that most of the liberalism and modernism, they don't call it modernism anymore, but it's liberalism now. Do you know that most of the liberalism that we have in our schools and seminaries over here came from Germany and France. Do you know why it came from there? Because in Europe, especially in Germany, you take up theology

just like you might take up medicine as a profession. Some of the highly respected theologians, some of them probably have never been saved. Because they took up a profession. Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer, his dad became a preacher simply so he'd have time to read a lot. He liked to read a lot. He wasn't even a Christian. He was a Unitarian. But he became a preacher simply because he liked to have a lot

of time to read. And some of these theologians that came in the early years from Germany and some of the other European countries, they chose theology just like you might choose law or insurance or anything else. They weren't even converted. That's why, that's why they can't handle the miracles, you see. They read the Bible only as an ancient document. Now, the Bible is an ancient document, and you need to keep that in mind. I need to keep that in mind. And it is good for us to come to the Bible with scholarship. Don't get the idea that I'm against scholarship or education. No, sir. I believe that a preacher ought to know the Bible as well as a doctor knows the human body. I think if I am committing my life to preach this book,

I ought to know it as best as I can. I ought to be able to understand as much as I know how to understand of that Word. I think some preachers, if they were doctors, they would get sued for malpractice because they don't really know the Word. You have to have that. But these men who simply are theologians as profession, they view the Bible only as an ancient document.

And so they say, Isaiah had to be written by two different people. Because the first 40 chapters, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are written in a certain style and the next are written in a different style, you see. Because in the first section it deals with judgment, in the second section it deals with comfort and salvation and these fellows can't believe that one man could have two messages.

For instance, some deny that the epistle of James is not inspired because there's no personal references in it. And some of them don't believe that Peter wrote I Peter because there are too many personal references in it. Does that make sense to anybody? There are those who don't believe that the Red Sea parted and drowned the Egyptian army. They said it was the Reed Sea, which was just about this high, about knee deep maybe. And the wind would blow over there constantly. And so what really happened is the wind was blowing so hard that it just blew that, you know, few feet of water and the people were able to cross. The first time I heard somebody say that, teach that, I said, praise God, it's a greater miracle than I thought.

A whole army drowned in knee-deep water. And that's why, that's why there are some who can read the Bible and study the Bible. It never changes their lives.

And they can't handle the miracles. They can't handle the resurrection. They can't handle the resurrection. They can't handle the blood covenant. They cannot handle the second coming. Read the Bible prayerfully. Read the Bible prayerfully. Number, what is this? Number six? Number six, we are to read the Bible expectantly. Read the Bible expectantly. a good way to read your Bible is to sort of read it aloud and sort of make it your prayer if I

if I'm sitting in a chair and I'm reading the Bible does your mind ever wonder I'll find out that I've read ten verses and don't reading the Bible, does your mind ever wonder? I'll find out that I've read ten verses and don't have the slightest idea of what I've read because my mind has wondered. And I go back and read it again, and my mind wonders again. But I've discovered something. I've discovered that if I will read that Bible,

moving my lips while I read it, reading it out loud or just reading with moving my lips. It holds my attention and I'm concentrating on it. And if I read it, always like to read it with a pen and piece of paper in my hand. And as I read it and I come across something good, I make a note of that. All this is doing, of course, it's keeping my attention stayed on the Word of God. A third thing that I do in reading the Bible that helps me more than anything else is I pray it. I pray it.

For instance, the January Bible study for next year is going to be the Sermon on the Mount. And if you really want to have God do a work in your heart, I suggest you take the Sermon on the Mount and pray through it. I mean, make it your prayer. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit. And you say, dear Lord, am I poor in spirit? What does it mean? Lord, help me to be poor in spirit. And he says, blessed are the merciful.

And you say, dear Lord, I want to be merciful and I see areas in which I'm not merciful. And as you read through the Bible and pray through it, turning it into prayer, it does something. Not only does it keep your attention, but it does something. It works in your heart. It works in your life. You come to the Bible expectantly. I expect God to speak to me through the Word of God.

I expect God to say something to me every time I read this Word. And you know, while I'm thinking about it, let me just mention this. I have observed a peculiar thing. The colder my heart gets, the less anxious I am to read the Word. Have you ever noticed that? But every time God does a new work in my heart, revives me, puts a new spark in my heart, you know what my first

intention is, my first thought? I want to get into the Word. I want to read the Word of God because I know it's going to say something to me. I know it's going to do something for me. Now number seven is probably the most important. we are to read the Bible obediently read the Bible obediently now what I mean by that of course is that we ought to obey whatever the Bible says to us unless the Bible is obeyed it becomes a closed book to us, unless the Bible is obeyed, it becomes a closed book to us. I come to this Bible, and I don't have any intention of letting it change my life.

Suddenly, the book becomes closed to me. Because, you see, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the ability to understand what we're reading. He illuminates the Scripture. And by that, He simply gives to us divine enablement so that what we read

speaks to our hearts and makes sense to us. But, if I'm reading and suddenly it condemns me or convicts me, says something to me, and I don't do anything about it, suddenly that grieves the Holy Spirit, the illumination is gone. The illumination is gone. It's like reading the Bible in a dark room. When I'm sitting under the light I can read it and I and it's easy to read because I'm right there in the light but the moment

I don't obey something that the Bible says to me the light goes off and I can no longer see there's no longer any illumination so when you come to the Bible you come with this attitude Lord whatever you're going to say to me in this word, I commit myself to obey even before I know what it is. Now, I stress obedience. Because the condition or the prerequisite for additional revelation is obedience to present revelation. Now, Bill has mentioned this a couple of times this week.

And we always laugh about it because, you know, it is. We already know more than we're living up to. We already know more than we're living up to. And that's true. And sometimes we wonder why it is God is not saying something to us. Well, it's because we haven't done anything about the last time He spoke to us. It's useless for me to say, God bless me more, if I haven't lived up to the blessings that God has given me. It's useless for me to say, God give me

more light when I haven't even walked in the light that He's given me. But here is the way I found it in my own life. Maybe you find it differently, but here's the way I find it in my own life. God just gives me enough light to see my next step most of the time. I'll be honest with you. I don't have the slightest idea what God is going to do with me in the next few weeks or in the next years. You know, sometimes you say, Lord, if you could just kind of give me the month in review ahead of me and kind of let me see what's going on.

It doesn't happen. I usually have just enough light, have just enough light to see the next step. I take that step, and the light moves out just another step, brother. I take that next step, and it moves out just enough for this. That's the way God works. If you want additional revelation the condition is obedience to present revelation which is important to understand because I believe this is how God deals with the, even though they've never heard the gospel, then I believe they'll be saved.

I always say, show me that heathen. Show me any person who has ever lived up to the light of his conscience. Show me anybody who has never violated their conscience. Have you ever done anything against your conscience? Of course you have. So if you say, well, a man can be saved without hearing the gospel if he just lives up to the light of his conscience, he's still condemned. Because no person ever lives

up to all the light of their conscience. Well then how does God deal with the heathen? If a man won't live up to the little light that he has, he's not going to live up to the big light. But if a man lives up to the light that he has, God gives him more light. And if he walks in that light, God gives him more light.

And sooner or later, if that man has walked in the light and has lived up to the light that God's given him, then God works in his heart and brings about the work of salvation. Somebody comes along and preaches the gospel to him. But you see, the Bible says in Romans chapter 1 that no one is without excuse. No one is without excuse because even the pagans, even the pagans, even the pagans, know

God because God has made Himself known to them. But if a person, even a pagan, rejects the knowledge of God that he already has, then he's certainly going to reject the knowledge of Jesus that he receives. That's just the way God works with people. Obedience

is the condition for additional revelation. This is why Jesus said, it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for Capernaum. Do you know why He said that? He goes on to say, For if the things done here in your presence had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah,

they would have repented a long time ago. God does not judge us on how much sin we commit. He judges us on how much light we reject and disobey. So you read the Bible obediently and as we obey it God extends that light just a little further read it and reap the more you read the Word of God the more you will reap the things of God in your heart and your life all right pastor do you have a word? Let's pray together. Father, today we are

grateful that you've given us your word. And I guess one of our greatest sins is the way we neglect it. The way we disobey it. Father, give us a hunger, a thirst for your word I pray that it

would become to us like milk to newborn babes that we would have an unquenchable thirst for your word thank you for giving it to us but thank you most of all for the living word the Lord Jesus Christ who is with us today even more than is this book with us.

We thank you for it in his name. Amen. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church.

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