TEXT: II Peter 3:18

SUBJECT: Six Rules by Brownlow North #1

Tonight, with the Lord’s blessing, we’ll begin to study a pamphlet called Six Short Rules for Young Christians. The author is Brownlow North, one of the leading men in the Irish Revival of 1859. As the title indicates, he wrote it for new converts, but what he says applies to every believer.

Although we ought to grow, we can never outgrow the basics. No one is too mature to read the Bible; no one ever gets beyond the need to pray or to keep a good conscience or to serve the Lord daily and so on.

If you’ve never become grounded in these things, you need to be. If you used to be, but aren’t anymore, you need to get back to them—and stay there! The Rules, of course, are not a magic formula, but means of grace. They’re God’s way of bringing us to maturity in Christ.

Is it possible to grow in grace without minding the Rules? I’m reluctant to say it is not possible, but I can’t imagine how it’s done! Surely, this is the ordinary way that Christians stay in fellowship with the Lord and become more useful in His Kingdom. I urge you to read the Rules carefully, to take them seriously, and to put them into practice. The best time to start is now.

Let’s get to them.

NEVER NEGLECT DAILY PRAYER; AND WHEN YOU PRAY, REMEMBER THAT GOD IS PRESENT, AND THAT HE HEARS YOUR PRAYERS.

The Bible commands us to "pray without ceasing". At times, I wish Paul had explained that to us in detail. It means five times a day, for example, or one hour in the morning and one hour at night—something like that. But he didn’t do that, and it’s for the best that he didn’t. Unceasing prayer depends somewhat on your circumstances, your constitution, and your level of maturity.

But whatever it means, it must mean at least every day! In the Lord’s Prayer, we’re taught to say, "Give us this day our daily bread" (assuming we pray every day).

Why does God want us to pray that often? It is not busy work! Because kids often go crazy when there’s nothing to do, wise parents and teachers will assign busy work. It doesn’t really need to be done, but the kids have got to have something to keep them occupied. But in commanding us to pray, God is not just keeping us busy!

There is real value in prayer. It keeps us in fellowship with the Lord. It keeps up our feelings of dependence on Him. It keeps us God-centered in our thinking. It keeps the conscience clear. It keeps us focused on doing His will instead of our own.

It is simply impossible to live the Christian life without regular prayer. Have you ever tried it? I have. At times, I’ve been too busy or too cranky or my conscience has been too bad to pray. On those days, I went through the motions of the Christian life, but I sure didn’t live it. The Bible has a word for it,

If you want to know how important prayer is, look to Jesus Christ. He prayed to set an example, of course; He also prayed out of sheer delight in His Father’s company. But the main reason He prayed—it seems to me—is because He felt the need to!

There was no joy in the Garden that night; nor was it an effective teaching device because His students slept through most of it. No, look at the bloody sweat, listen to the desperate words, and you have a Man who has to pray!

If you want to grow in grace, pray every day. Even when you’re tired or busy or out of sorts.

And remember, too:

This is meant to be both an encouragement and a warning.

When I say, "Lord" or "Father", He hears me. And cares about what I’m saying. That’s good news! We’re not praying to the ceiling or into the air or for the ears of men. We’re talking to—and being listened to—

That’s true, but judging by what he says elsewhere, I don’t think that is Brownlow North’s bid idea. I think he reminds us of God’s Presence to keep us from offering insincere prayers. In his little book, The Rich Man and Lazarus, North says,

In short, pray every day. But pray as though you’re talking to a God who not only hears what you say, but knows your heart. Because you do. That’s Rule Number One.

If praying is the first Christian duty, then reading the Bible is number two. After all, apart from physical needs, everything we pray for is found in the Bible. We pray for wisdom or courage or more faith, and we get them all from God through His Word.

The Christian who prays for answers, but won’t read the Bible to find them, is not serious. His prayers are phony because he won’t take the necessary means (study) to the reach the prayed-for end (wisdom). Let a man pray all day long for food, but God says, if he won’t work, "neither let him eat". The same is true of the spiritual things we pray for. We ask God for them, but then we look for them in the Scripture.

You ought to read the Bible every day. How much to read differs from person to person. The single young man, for example, probably ought to read more than the married woman with nine kids. He has more time, more energy, and more quiet! The scholarly man ought to study more than the person who never got past third grade. One can read several chapters a day with understanding, while the other may have to struggle through one short Psalm. In any event, it’s not the number of verses you read each day that matters, but…

That you read every day. The Bible is like food; you need some every day. Snakes gorge themselves one day and go for weeks without another bite. But we’re not snakes! To be healthy, we need to eat every day. To grow in grace, we need to read the Word every day.

This involves the whole person. Many Christians try to sanctify the eyeballs! The never miss a day of Bible-reading, but only their eyes are engaged. They’re not thinking about what they’re reading; they can’t remember what it said one minute after putting down their Bibles. And, obviously, they have no real desire to act on it. They can boast, "I haven’t missed a day of Bible reading in twenty years!" But what good has it done them?

In reading the Bible, Brownslow North says,

If the Bible is God’s Word, we have to read with reverence. The voice of the Lord is awesome; those who heard it shook with fear. At Mount Sinai, it sounded like a trumpet blast! In other places, it is likened to rushing water and even the roaring of a lion. That’s what God’s voice is. And the Bible, without making a sound, is God’s voice! Near the end of Isaiah, the Lord said,

Don’t just read the Bible as another book—or even as the best book. Read it for what it is: The Word of God! Not the words of men about God, but God’s own Word. Written by men? Of course, but God’s Word written by men!

If the Ark of the Covenant were dug up somewhere (or found in that warehouse in Washington D.C.!) how would you feel if you saw The Ten Commandments? The very handwriting of God! When you open your Bible to Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5, that is precisely what you are doing—reading the Word of God. It’s not the Tablets of Stone that makes it awesome; not the original manuscripts; not the papyrus with Paul’s signature! It is the Author of Scripture Who makes it Scripture!

Read the Bible every day—with reverence.

Read it with faith,

If the Bible is the Word of God, then to read it with doubt, is to doubt God. Now, it is perfectly right to doubt our understanding of the Bible, but never the Bible itself!

Children are famous for being gullible. If a kid trusts you, he’ll believe anything you say. And that’s how we’re to read the Bible—not as skeptics or critics or judges, as little children. We may not understand what our Father is saying, but we believe Him.

Do you read the Bible as though it were true? That Gospel stuff as though it really happened? The warnings as though God meant what He said? Read the Bible with faith. Some have contrasted "faith" with "intelligence". They say to believe the Bible is naïve; it’s to think with your feelings and so on. But I say there’s nothing stupid about believing God.

Unbelieving critics laugh at us for taking God’s word for it. But it never occurs to them that they make the same demands on us. We obviously don’t know as much as they do, so they want us to take their word for it. No thanks.

The third thing North urges on us is to

The Bible is not there to be admired as a museum piece, but to be obeyed. We ought to read the Bible with the desire to do what it tells us to do or to quit doing what it tells us to not do!

When you read the commandments of the Bible, do you ever say, "I’ve got to do that! Or quit doing that!" If you don’t, you’re reading the Bible as though it were some read cheap novel—for entertainment, or to help them go to sleep. Is that what the Bible is for? Did men die so you could relax in bed? Did men suffer so you could be amused by the exciting stories?

No! God inspired the Bible and holy men put down His Words so that you would obey.

Read the Bible every day, then, but don’t just read it. Read it with reverence, faith, and obedience.

Finally, North adds an editorial note,

He may have overstated the case, but, if he did, it wasn’t by much. Whether all backsliding is the result of neglecting prayer and Bible reading, I can’t say. But I can say this: Most of it is!

How often have you fallen into sin while reading the Bible and praying well? How often have worldly attitudes come to control you when your devotional life is good? In most case—if not all—big sins are fallen into and long backsliding occurs only when we’re not praying or reading the Bible at all, or when we’re doing them without heart.

I know this is true of me. And, after nearly twenty years in the pastorate, I’ve heard a lot of people say the same thing. Christians rarely backslide (at least very far) while keeping up their devotional life.

If you want to be holy, you’ve got to

Daily prayer and Bible-reading are two ways of staying close to the Lord.

You ought to read the Bible and pray every day. Do you do it? If you don’t, start doing it tonight! If you do, but badly, pray that you’ll do both sincerely and work at them.

If you’ve got no time to do them, re-set your priorities. Some things can be done without. But prayer and Bible reading are not among those things. They should be at the top of your list of "things to do".

Commit yourself to daily devotions. Read and pray even when you’re rushed or tired or don’t feel like it. Do them on principle, not on impulse. And stay with them.

The Love of God be with you all. For Christ’s sake. Amen.