How to Study Scripture

Selected Scriptures

All right let's begin by looking at the first little outline there, and it would probably be best if you would just pull it right out of your note book and set it on top so you can take notes right on it, on how to study the scripture. Now we're assuming that you are a Christian and that you know the Lord Jesus Christ and you have received Him as your savior by faith you've opened your heart and invited Christ to come in, take over your life to rule your life to be the Lord of your life. You've confessed your sin you've acknowledged that on your own you can't make it and you've received the Lord Jesus Christ and now after that what do you do, this is kind of like the hut one hut two of boot camp, this is the first few steps of learning the march.

Just some practical things and the first one is how to study the Bible. It is very obvious, I think to every Christian, that the Bible is the revelation of God. That God has written His word for us. It is the only rule we have for life. It is the only standard we have for behavior. It is the only authority. There may be other things that you learn in life that help you through life but they don't have the authority that this does. When the Bible speaks, that is the voice of God. And it is authoritative and it becomes, then, for us, the standard of life.

Now if that's the case then it is very important for us to learn what the Bible says. To be able systematically to approach the scripture and find out what it says. Not only what it says but what it means by what it says. There are a lot of people who read what it says but they don't know what it means by what it says. So it is basically important in the Christian life to acknowledge that the Bible is the authority. There is no other authority equal to the Bible.

There are some Christians who read all kinds of books rather than the Bible. And we say they study about the Bible but they don't study the Bible. The primary thing to do is to study the word of God. Through it God speaks. Now there are other good books that other men speak through with emphasis on scripture and application and interpretation but there is no substitute for the Bible. So in the life of every Christian there must be that daily nourishing in the word of God, it is critical. Now first of all you'll notice in your outline that there is a thought there regarding the necessity of Bible study, that it is necessary. We want to spend just a minute on that.

We've given you some reasons why it is necessary. First of all it is necessary to study the Bible in order to grow. In I Peter chapter two, verse two says, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it."

Throughout the New Testament Christians are spoken of as having been born again. You become a child of God. Repeatedly you're called a child of God, repeatedly you are-called a child or a son of God. You have been born into the family of God, you have been adopted as a son of God, you sometimes are even called babes. Now that implies that there is the capacity of life and growth within a new Christian and that,of course,is obvious. We are to be growing.

Here he says, Peter does, in I Peter two, that we are to grow by the pure milk of the word, like babies grow. If you don't feed a baby the baby dies, obviously. You take a baby out of a hospital like some people do and they want to get rid of it and every once and a while you read about finding a dead baby in a trash can and what happens is you don't feed the baby it dies, it's obvious and the same thing is true with a Christian, we are babies we are to grow and in order to grow the word must be taken because the word is our milk that brings us growth the word is our food the word is our sustenance. In I Corinthians chapter three and verse one, we read in regard to the same thing, "And I,brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food; for to this time you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able." Now, just pulling one thought out of here. The apostle Paul says, "I feed you." Wish I could feed you meat but I can't so I have to feed you milk, but nevertheless I feed you. This just shows us that Paul understood the priority of feeding and we know what he used to feed them he used the scripture. Some times the scripture can be milk and sometimes it can be meat. Now that doesn't mean that some parts of t he Bible are milk and some parts are meat. Really all of it is either milk or meat it depends on how deep you go.

For example I can say to you God so loved the world and if you are a brand new Christian you say yea, I understand that that's kind of milk. But then if I took off and began to develop the character of God, the character of His love, how His love works, what His love is defined at in the scripture, the depths of all that that concept means then that gets deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and gets into the meat aspect of that same simple truth. We say for example, God knows everything and that,s a milk statement, but we could develop that to the place where it becomes very complex and that would be the meat end of it. So the apostle Paul recognized the need to feed, sometimes milk sometimes meat depending upon the situation involved. Depending upon the aptitude and the receptivity of the people.

In Colossians Chapter two it says in verse six, "As you have, therefore, received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith." And here again the idea that Christians are to grow. Rooted and built up and the way that that happens is through the faith, that is through the content of Christianity. The more we understand the Christianity ' the more established we are, the more built up we are. In Jeremiah in an Old Testament passage, Jeremiah fifteen sixteen, Jeremiah said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and the word became within me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." Jeremiah consumed the word of God as it was food to him. In Acts Chapter twenty in verse thirty two where Paul is saying good-by to the Ephesians elders, he says, "I commend you to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up."

So the word is necessary if we are to grow. And growth is basic to usefulness. Babies aren't really that useful, I mean they are nice to have around, they are kind of cuddly and you pet them a lot and kiss them and do that kind of stuff but you can't really do much with them. You can't say all right baby go out and clean up the bed room or whatever. You know they are not really too helpful. And there are a lot of Christians like that that are just in the way, you know you trip over them they are always crawling around the floor messing with stuff and they are really not a whole lot of use to anybody and the longer they stay that way the more tragic it becomes. And so we assume that you want to grow, we assume in Christian life that where there is life there is growth. And so we desire that Christians would grow and the way to grow is from the Bible and so we must study the Bible. Second thing and we'll move ahead.

The second reason that it is necessary to study the Bible is to defeat sin. We will never be able to defeat sin unless we defeat it with the word of God. In Ephesians Chapter six what is the armor that is used to fight again Satan? What is the one weapon the Christian has? The sword of the Spirit which is what? The word of God. The thing that defeats Satan's temptation is the word of God. There are a lot of scriptures that relate to that. It says in Psalm one nineteen, eleven, "Thy word have I hidden in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee." When a Christian takes the Bible in it becomes a preventative to sin.

To give you an illustration just simply from my own life, the more scripture I learn the more difficult it is for me to sin. You know I used to be able to sin and just kind of enjoy it. I could enjoy a good sin just live it us and have a great ol time, now I can't even get into one without thinking of fifteen Bible verses.

Now I get just my foot into the deal... thou shalt not....you know, because I know the truth of God and it's in my mind it comes to my mind, if you don't know the truth of God the Holy Spirit has nothing to bring to your mind. And so the defeating of Satan, the sword of the Spirit is the knowledge of the scripture. The knowledge of the principles of the word of God that become your defense against temptation.

Listen, it says in verse nine of Psalm one nineteen, "Wherewithal or how shall a young man cleanse his way?" How do you clean your life up? People come to me from time to time and they say I wish my life was clean, it's a mess, how do I clean it up? By taking heed according to Thy word. You see the way to clean your life up is to learn the book. So that it becomes the dominating factor in your mind. You are like a computer. You know what they say about computers, GIGO, garbage in garbage out, what every you put into your computer is what's going to come out in your life and if you put in to it the word of God that's what's going to come out, righteousness and godly and holiness that kind of behavior results from the truth of God being planted within you. It says in I John two fourteen, "I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one." The only way to overcome the wicked one is to have the word of God abiding in you and there are other scriptures there that cover basically the same thing.

Ok, 'C' it is necessarily thirdly to study scripture in order to prepare yourself for service. In order to prepare yourself for service. You will find that when you get into the service of the Lord, the knowledge of the word of God becomes your support so that when you get into a tuff situation you have confidence in it, it becomes your information so that when you get into a situation you know the principles to solve the situation, you know how to serve, you know the direction, you know how to operate to please God. It's critical that if you are going to serve the Lord you know the scripture, otherwise you will go blindly into some activity thinking you are serving God while violating His principles. So you must know the principles. It's like a manual you know, if you come in and you've got a very complex job you're supposed to fill and the guy says well have you had any experience, no I never did it before, well go in and take a whack at it. You are going to go in there and make an idiot out of yourself. You need to have some kind of instruction. Some kind of training.

The word of God prepares you for service. Joshua one eight gives us insight into this, "The book of the law (God's word) shall not depart out of they mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night." That's a good way to go to sleep you know, go to sleep reciting Bible verses. Go to sleep reciting the word of God because it tends to hang in your mind. "Meditate day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Success in your life is dependent upon the occupation with the word of God, this brings success. "Have not I commanded thee?" Verse nine says. "Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee wherever you go."

Now here is a young man in this particular book who is going to go out and do a tremendous job, he's got a tremendous task and the Lord says to him, look Joshua, if you'll meditate in my word you can handle the job. It will give you the direction you need in your life, it will show you how I operate, it will give you comfort in times of discouragement stick into the word and you are going to have good success. So it's necessary to know the word in order to be useful in Christian service. Also added to that would be I Timothy chapter four in verse six, "If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, you shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine." What makes a good minister of Christ? And the word minister which means servant, what makes a good servant of Christ, somebody who is nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine. When you know the word of God you make a good servant of God. And you know you see so many people who want to go around serving the Lord but they don't know enough about the Bible to do it right so they do it wrong and then they get into problems.

All right, 'D' in your outline. It is necessary to study the scripture in order to be blessed. I don't know about you but I like to be happy rather than sad. I'd much rather be happy than miserable. And I know that life is made up of miserable times and happy times. I also know this that the more I study the word of God, the happier I am no matter what the circumstances are. The word of God makes me happy. That's really practical. When you see miserable people the first question to ask him is; have you studied the Bible today? Simple question. You say where does it say that? Verse one of Psalm one, "Happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night." That's a happy man. A happy man is somebody who studies the Bible. That's a happy man.

I've talked to a lot of people who have said, "I just kind of floundered around and man all of a sudden I started studying the Bible my whole life has changed, etc., etc., I have great happiness in my life..." And that's exactly right, that's exactly what Psalm one says. Joshua, one, eight and nine, I read you earlier, said the same thing. You will be happy if you meditate day and night in the word of God.

All right, 'E' then, it is necessary also to study scripture to help others. You really can't help anybody else unless you know something. God never put a premium on ignorance. Your ignorance not only makes you unable to help yourself, but it makes you unable to help anybody else, and Christianity is all about helping other people, isn't it? How best can you help a person in trouble? By showing them God's solution to their trouble, right. How best can you solve a persons problem by knowing-what the Bible says about their problem, and how to handle it.

So you help others when you know the word of God. For example II Timothy two,two says. "We are to teach faithful men in order that they may teach others also."

The only way we can teach other people the principles, the only way we can help other people is to learn the principles ourselves. In I Peter three fifteen, also I think you have that one down on your list, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you the reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." You need to know some answers.

You can't help anybody if you don't know any answer. I had a fella come to me the other night, that I've been discipling, and he said he got into a situation and just, this guy was asking him questions and he couldn't think of the answers, and then when he thought of the answers he couldn't think of the verses to support them so the guy thought he was just giving his opinion. And so he said that did more to convict me of my lack of Bible study than any thing that had ever happened to me. So he went right back in, got his Bible and he started studying the Bible like mad because he realized that he couldn't help the guy.

Now those are some of the basics. Roman numeral two in your outline: How is it done? And if you have any questions as we go right them down and we'll talk about them in just a minute. How is it done? How do we study the Bible? Well first of all there has to be some preparation. If you are going to read the Bible, study the Bible there are some basic things you have to do to prepare.

Again we would look at I Peter two verse one. Verse two says we are to study the word to grow, verse one says,"Laying aside all evil, all evil, and all guile, that's deceit, all hypocrisies, or phoniness, all envy and all evil speaking, that's talking about somebody behind their back, put all that aside, then desire the milk." Now what does that tell us? Before you can ever study the Bible with any affect, you gotta get rid of what? Sin. You gotta deal with it. So before you approach the scripture what's a good way to start? With confession, a time of prayer. When you lay those things before the Lord and you confess your sin to the Lord, you purify your mind before God and you become a willing and capable pupil of the word of God. As long as your mind and heart and life is cluttered up with sin you are never going to be able to grow.

So preparation involves purification and that is a good place to start. In James one,twenty one, "Put away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your life." There is a general principle there. Sin being set aside you become able to receive the word of God and so this is important. So that's the preparation. Before you study each day you spend a little time in prayer and confession. And you just acknowledge to the Lord whatever the sin might be and set it right and then you go into the word of God.

All right now 'B'; How do you actually study? First of all it's important that you read. If you don't know how to read you need to get the New Testament on tape. But if you know how to read you read and you know you have to believe that just reading the Bible is an exciting thing because God promises to bless somebody who reads the Bible. I have had people say this to me in different school and say well, a, some parts of the Bible I don't understand.

One guy said to me I always avoid the Book of Revelation, I never read that because that's just too weird. I don't understand it. So I quoted him Revelation one, three, "Happy is he that reads and they that here the words of this prophecy." You want to be happy? Read Revelation. That's a happy thing to read Revelation. You say happy? Who could be happy reading about all that horrible stuff. You got to read all the way to the end then you get happy. You get happy that you weren't in the other part. Revelation can be a very happy experience. John says when I tasted all of this it was sweetness in my mouth even though it was bitterness in my stomach.

And so we are blessed, we are happy if we read, so it is important to read. When Paul was giving instruction to Timothy about how to preach, he says first of all read the Bible, read it. We need to do that, set aside a time every day to read the Bible. Now I'll tell you how to do it and I suggested this in the little book God's Will Is Not Lost.

This is a plan that really helped me. I used to struggle with the reading of the Bible. I'd read it and I'd forget what I read the day before. Every time! And I'd read through a book and I'd get done and would know anything about the book. And then I'd read another book and then I didn't know anything about that one either. And I was just piling up tremendous ignorance and spending a lot of time doing it. You know. I was working real hard to be stupid and I couldn't retain anything. So I thought this isn't the way to go and then I picked up a little book o