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Five Escapes from Dry Devotions · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, it's a common struggle that all of us face.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you're facing it right now. You sit down with
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  Speaker 1: your Bible trying to read it, which are really just
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  Speaker 1: skimming words on a page, feels routine, feels dry. We
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  Speaker 1: know we're looking there for deep reality, but how do
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  Speaker 1: we get past the mental effort and actually taste the
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  Speaker 1: goodness of God through those words on paper? That's today
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  Speaker 1: on ask Pastor John how to read the Bible like
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  Speaker 1: a Christian heedonist. The question that gets us there comes
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  Speaker 1: from Tyler in Kansas City, Missouri. Pastor John, Hello to
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  Speaker 1: you and Tony. My question comes out of ABJA seventeen thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: John Piper's Ministry in One Bible Text. That's a great episode.
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  Speaker 1: If you haven't listened to episode seventeen thirteen, put that
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  Speaker 1: on your listen list. In that episode, you mentioned habits
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  Speaker 1: of observation and analysis and text querying that were extremely
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  Speaker 1: fruitful and your replacement for you when you studied in Germany.
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  Speaker 1: You said they formed a habit of mind that made
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  Speaker 1: you impatient with the gamesmanship, that stayed at the grammatical, logical,
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  Speaker 1: historical level of the text, but never pushed beyond the
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  Speaker 1: words to the realities behind them. My question centers on
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  Speaker 1: those habits. What are they specifically? Do they differ from
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  Speaker 1: the standard seminary classroom hermeneutics that were taught? And what
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  Speaker 1: do you mean by pushing beyond the grammatical logical historical level.
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  Speaker 1: As an aspiring pastor, I have been taught the grammatical
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  Speaker 1: historical method. Is this method insufficient?
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  Speaker 2: So Tyler is pointing out that my goal in reading,
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  Speaker 2: I think every Christian's goal in reading should be, especially
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  Speaker 2: in reading the Bible, is to no reality in as
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  Speaker 2: many ways as God has designed for it to be known.
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  Speaker 2: So here are my five steps in pursuing this knowledge
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  Speaker 2: through reading. Number one, be aware that knowledge of God
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  Speaker 2: is not God. Be aware that the word love is
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  Speaker 2: not love. Be aware that the doctrine of delight in
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  Speaker 2: God is not delight in God. A shorthand for this
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  Speaker 2: awareness is the phrase reality factor. So step one is
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  Speaker 2: to always be aware of the reality factor that behind
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  Speaker 2: words and phrases and grammar and syntax and doctrine and theology,
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  Speaker 2: there is reality, or we're just playing games. And the
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  Speaker 2: aim is to know the reality in all the ways
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  Speaker 2: that God has designed for it to be known. So
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  Speaker 2: take the phrase in one John four sixteen. God is Love.
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  Speaker 2: So the first step of reading to no reality is
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  Speaker 2: simply to be aware that behind the word God there's
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  Speaker 2: a reality of a person to be known, and behind
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  Speaker 2: the word love there is a reality that is probably
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  Speaker 2: very different from the ordinary human experience of what we
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  Speaker 2: call love, because this is the very nature of God.
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  Speaker 2: And behind the word is God is love is a
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  Speaker 2: reality that probably does not refer simply to equation. God
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  Speaker 2: equals love. So the awareness that we are pushing through
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  Speaker 2: words and grammar to reality is the starting point of
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  Speaker 2: this kind of reading. Number two. The second step of
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  Speaker 2: reading to no reality is to desire. That's the key,
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  Speaker 2: desire the fullest kind of knowledge of reality. If you're
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  Speaker 2: happy just to read the way most people read and
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  Speaker 2: stay on the surface of things, that's where you'll stay.
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  Speaker 2: But if your heart desires to taste and touch and
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  Speaker 2: smell and see as many dimensions of reality as God designs,
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  Speaker 2: then you're halfway there. More than halfway there. I would say,
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  Speaker 2: I'm basing this on the conviction that there are different
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  Speaker 2: kinds of knowing. For example, Paul says that we need
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  Speaker 2: to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened, eyes of
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  Speaker 2: our hearts strange enlightened to know what is the hope
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  Speaker 2: to which we've been called If he's in T one eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: why do we need to have eyes in our hearts
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  Speaker 2: to know this? Because there's a kind of knowing that
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  Speaker 2: goes beyond the awareeness from the eyes of our head
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  Speaker 2: that something exists, or even awareness that is true and
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  Speaker 2: good and beautiful. There is the knowing that comes with
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  Speaker 2: the actual tasting of the goodness and the beauty, so
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  Speaker 2: that the preciousness and the value is spiritually perceived, spiritually sensed,
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  Speaker 2: spiritually apprehended. We grow for words, don't we. It's the
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  Speaker 2: difference between knowing that honey is sweet because we read
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  Speaker 2: it in a book and knowing that honey is sweet
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  Speaker 2: because we tasted it. That's a big difference. And the
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  Speaker 2: Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is good.
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  Speaker 2: Can read that he's good, or you can taste that
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  Speaker 2: he's good. So I'm saying that the second step is
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  Speaker 2: that we desire this kind of knowing or whatever kind
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  Speaker 2: of knowing God has designed the reality behind the words.
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  Speaker 2: The third step in reading to no reality fully is
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  Speaker 2: to pray, to pray and ask God to intensify our
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  Speaker 2: desires and to open the eyes of our heart. We're
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  Speaker 2: talking about supernatural spiritual transactions here, because the natural man
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  Speaker 2: does not receive the things of the spirit. The natural
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  Speaker 2: man will never taste the Cross of Christ as more
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  Speaker 2: precious than life. Though it is. We must have divine help.
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  Speaker 2: So the Psalmist cries out, open my eyes. He's asking God,
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  Speaker 2: open my eyes. That's the way we ought to pray
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  Speaker 2: every day when we read the Bible, open my eyes
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  Speaker 2: that I may behold wonderful things out of your word.
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  Speaker 2: So there are wonderful things beyond the words. There's reality,
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  Speaker 2: and we need God's supernatural help to taste it. The
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  Speaker 2: fourth step is that we not short circuit the natural
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  Speaker 2: process of reading, construing words, phrases, grammar, logic, syntax, context.
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  Speaker 2: We dare not presume to do an n run around
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  Speaker 2: the nitty gritty, hard mental work of reading ordinary words.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus was truly God and truly man. The Bible is
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  Speaker 2: truly divine revelation and truly human language. It's heresy to
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  Speaker 2: deny the humanity of Jesus, and it will lead to
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  Speaker 2: heresy to leap frog over the human grammar and logic
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  Speaker 2: of biblical texts. Paul said to Timothy, think over what
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  Speaker 2: I say, for the Lord will give you understanding. In
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  Speaker 2: everything he did not say, the Lord will give you understanding,
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  Speaker 2: So you don't need to think about words. The only
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  Speaker 2: path to reality is through the inspired grammar and logic
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  Speaker 2: that reveal the reality, Paul said in Ephesis three to
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  Speaker 2: four by reading this letter. By reading this you can
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  Speaker 2: perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. The path
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  Speaker 2: to know the mysteries of Christ with true, deep tasted
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  Speaker 2: knowing is reading no shortcuts. So yes, learn Greek, learn
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  Speaker 2: the grammar, learn the syntext. Get inside the head of
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  Speaker 2: the writer so you can think what he thinks. Following
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  Speaker 2: biblical arguments is the pathway to glory. Finally, the last
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  Speaker 2: step is a gift. It's a gift. You can't make
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  Speaker 2: it happen. You just have to acknowledge this is a gift.
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  Speaker 2: You can only receive it and be amazed and thankful.
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  Speaker 2: It's an answer to your prayer. It's the gift of seeing.
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  Speaker 2: It's that's supernatural, tasting the glory of God in the
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  Speaker 2: reality of the text that is being pointed to. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm thinking here, Second Corinthians four to four. The God
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  Speaker 2: of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to
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  Speaker 2: keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel, of
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  Speaker 2: the glory of Christ. This is a supernatural seeing sight
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  Speaker 2: of the glory in the reality behind the word Gospel.
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  Speaker 2: God wants us to see the glory of Christ in
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  Speaker 2: and through the Gospel. Glory is a combination. I think
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  Speaker 2: of the beauty and the greatness and the worth of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: And what does it mean to no beauty to know
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  Speaker 2: greatness and worth? What kind of knowing is this? It
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  Speaker 2: means at least that in the affections of the heart
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  Speaker 2: we feel some measure of the worth of Christ. We
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  Speaker 2: don't just say He's precious. The devil can say God
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  Speaker 2: is precious. He's a liar and he doesn't believe it.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't taste it, he doesn't care. But he can
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  Speaker 2: say it. We actually treasure his preciousness. That's what it means.
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  Speaker 2: We actually do it. We feel it in our hearts,
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  Speaker 2: we treasure it, we delight in it, we enjoy it,
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  Speaker 2: we value it above all things. Two verses later, Paul
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  Speaker 2: says God causes us to happen. It's a gift. I'm
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  Speaker 2: tempted to call this fifth step, this last step, the
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  Speaker 2: step of Christian hedonism, because the final act of reading,
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  Speaker 2: the final act of no is the act of enjoying.
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  Speaker 2: To know God in all the ways he means to
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  Speaker 2: be known includes enjoying God above all things. That is
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  Speaker 2: a form of knowing value. The devil can say Jesus' value.
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  Speaker 2: Only by your enjoyment of God can you know he
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  Speaker 2: is valuable? So, Tyler, those are the habits of mind
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  Speaker 2: that I was talking about. I hope they will serve
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  Speaker 2: you as you press on towards the high calling of
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  Speaker 2: the ministry of the Word.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, the final act of reading, the final act of knowing,
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  Speaker 1: is the act of enjoying. Reading the Bible isn't just
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  Speaker 1: about gathering data or checking out boxes in our reading plan,
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  Speaker 1: is about fighting to experience the deep spiritual reality of
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  Speaker 1: God revealed to us in his words. Those words take work,
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  Speaker 1: and it requires us to pray for a miracle for
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  Speaker 1: supernatural sight, because only by your enjoyment of God can
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  Speaker 1: you know that He is valuable. That's what we want,
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  Speaker 1: that experience. Amen. Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for
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  Speaker 1: joining us today. If you have a question to ask
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, you can find a link to email us
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  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archieve at the same place.
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  Speaker 1: Ask pastor John dot com, well, are we living in
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  Speaker 1: the End Times? Yes? So should we get our charts
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  Speaker 1: out and read the current events in order to predict
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  Speaker 1: Christ's return date? No, we have other priorities. Our main
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  Speaker 1: calling in the End Times. That's next. I'm Tony Ranky,
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  Speaker 1: will see you on Monday.