Lesson 13

How To Study The Bible

May 27, 2007

Mike Larsen

Adult Sunday School

1 Corinthians 2:12-16

Open your Bible to 1 Cor 2:12-16, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.   Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Introduction:  This morning we will end our discipleship series with, “How To Study The Bible”.   I hope you have found this series to be helpful in some way to your growth in the faith.  As I put this series together I had to determine what topics to include in a 13 lesson series in about 45 minutes per lesson.  Well it became very obvious that there are more than 13 topics in the Christian life!  In fact it is very obvious that our relationship with God affects all aspects of life which is why God established the church for the ongoing teaching of the flock.  Discipleship of the believer is really done over years of practical teaching from the pulpit, in Sunday School, in special meetings, in personal devotions in God’s word, in seeing God work, and on and on.  The mature believer gets that way over time as they exercise their faith and grow in the Grace and knowledge of Christ.  It is a journey.

Today we will end with a look at how to study the Bible.  When a person becomes a new believer they are hungry for the Word of God and want to know more about God who saved them.  1 Pet 2:2-3 says, “As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”.

The new believer needs to get into the Word of God and feed themselves just like a new born baby has a big time appetite.  Ever notice how newborns grow amazingly fast?  That is the same for the “Born Again” believer.  They grow like crazy if they get fed.

Today we will look a little at how to approach and study the Bible and I hope it will be a help to you.

I. Having the right attitude.  It is important to approach the Word of God with the right attitude and understand that there are technical requirements to understanding the Bible. 

A. It is God’s very Word  -  First thing we need to understand is that the Bible is God’s communication to you.  We must have our hearts humbled by the importance of what we are reading.  It is not a story book, it is the 100% absolute truth about the world and you in it.  We need to come to it in that fashion.

B. In devotion to Him  -  Christians do best when they read the Word of God as devotion to Christ and with the mind that they are reading God’s love letter to them.

C. Unbiased mind  -  We must come to the Word of God with a sensitive heart and unbiased mind.    The Bible is there for us and not us for it.  We need to have the attitude that says teach me oh Lord…  AMEN.  Don’t come to the Bible looking for God to justify your position.  Come open minded asking God to teach you.

D. Systematically  -  We must come to the Bible ready to study it systematically and logically.  We can not come to it haphazardly or carelessly and expect to follow what it is saying to us.

With that in mind now we will look at a passage in Psalms that instructs us how to study the Bible rightly and effectively.

II. Mark my words (Psalm 119:9) – Taking heed to the Word of God.  You have heard people say, “You mark my words”.  That means you listen to me and listen good or you better take what I am saying serious.  We must “mark” God’s words or take heed because what He says is very serious.  When God says something he means it!

We need to “mark” the word of God physically as well.  When you are spending time reading the Bible, underline or highlight passages that speak to you.  When you are in service and the preacher makes a point about a passage, mark it or write in the margins.  That will help you solidify in your mind the point and when you are reading at a later time it will draw your mind back to that meaning of the passage.  The Bible is to be used and not enshrined.  It is OK to mark it up!

III. Memorize the Word of God – (Psalm 119:11)  If you want to have a good grasp on life you have to have a good grasp on scriptures.  Excellent knowledge of the scriptures is more valuable than a PHD for practical living.  Maybe not in terms of holding a particular technical job but in terms of navigating the challenges of life itself there is no substitute for a good grasp of the scripture.  A great deal of the pressure on the everyday Christian in the area of sin and temptation could be overcome with a good knowledge of the Word.  We need to “hide” God’s word in our hearts.  That takes memorizing the scriptures.  We need to see it and hear it enough to memorize it so it becomes part of us.  Then at the point of need that scripture comes to the front of our minds and allows us to respond to situations properly.  Automatically!

People say to us, “What a messed up day”.  We immediately respond with, “What are you talking about,  It’s a great day!  We have air to breath, I woke up this morning and God gave me another day!  This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!  Psalm 118:24”

A person says, “You don’t know how tough it is on me.”  You say, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.  But God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted above that ye are able and with the temptation always makes you a way of escape”. 1 Cor 10:13

A person says to you, “Can you believe we have to do this work.  This is ridiculous!  You say, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Ecl 9:10. Do all things without murmurings and disputings  Phil 2:14.   Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31  In everything give thanks 1 Thes 5:18

The scripture affects your attitude and allows you to respond, not in word necessarily but in your actual behavior.  You don’t just say those words but you live that attitude!  That is what happens with you hide God’s word in your heart.  If we desire to be what God wants us to be then we must have God’s mind etched in our hearts so it becomes our nature.  For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Heb 4:12

IV. Meditate – (Psalm 119:15)  When reading the Bible we need to stop and think through what the Word is telling us.  In our fast paced world it is easy to read the Bible like the newspaper but we can not hear God that way.  We need to meditate on a verse or passage and consider the real meaning.  We need to back up and make sure we understand the context of the passage.  Who is it written to, what are the circumstances surrounding the passage.  If we do not do that we can mis-interpret the meaning.  And yes you have to interpret the scripture.  It is not all perfectly clear and plain. 

There is a story of a woman who came to her Pastor and told him that God told her to divorce her husband and marry another man.  She had been having an affair with this other man for a while.  She used Eph 4:24 as her proof text which says, “…put on the new man.”   Of course that is ridiculous but you can see how important it is to get the whole story.

Meditation takes time.  It takes effort to study the Bible.  Sometimes you can casually read scripture but sometimes you need to slow down and meditate through a passage.  This is where Satan tries to distract me.  My mind begins to wander into the goofiest stuff you can imagine.  This is when I read the bible out loud to myself.  May sound crazy but it helps me stay focused?  I have to speak louder than the voices in my head in a sense.

If you are a brand new believer (or you consider yourself less mature spiritually) you should start ingesting the following:
Genesis Chapter 1 through 11 – This is foundational.  Read this over once to get the story then read it back over slowly and carefully taking in the details and technical information.  This is the true history of the Earth and Mankind.  The Origin of the species is found here.  The age of the earth is established here.  Why we struggle with sin is found here.  Why we need a savior is found here.  The fossil record is found here.  Why we have seasons is found here.  Mans purpose in life is found here.  Woman’s purpose in life is found here.  The establishment of marriage and the family is found here.  All major doctrines of the scripture are established in Genesis chapters 1 through 11.

The Gospel of John – This will show you Who Jesus is and what Jesus did for mankind and you personally.  His love and life on this earth.  Why he came.  Awesome!

Read Proverbs every month.  There are 31 proverbs so read one per day.  Do this for the rest of your life.

Read that first and start right away.  Do not watch TV evangelists as most are teaching a false gospel to become wealthy.  They are showmen and entertainers.  Be in every service you possibly can.  Cut off worldly influences such as TV shows creating gossip and arguing against the truth of God and promoting a humanistic and atheistic world view.  You need to do this until you get grounded firmly in the faith and truth of God.  A new believer is under attack of Satan because he wants to prevent your spiritual growth.  Satan does this so God will not use you and so that you will not influence others for the kingdom of God. 

For the rest of you here are some tools I use to assist in my study:

a. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance – This has every English translated word in the Bible referenced to its Hebrew word in the Old Testament or Greek word in the New Testament.  Then it gives the definition of the original Hebrew or Greek word.  This gives you insight into the meaning of the word.  It also allows you to see all the other verses in the Bible where that same word was used so you can glean understanding of the use of the word.  Online versions exist which make it easy to search.

b. Webster’s 1828 dictionary.  I could care less what modern dictionaries say words mean.  The Bible was translated into English a long time ago so I want to know the proper definition of English words in a closer context to what it meant when it was translated.   The 1828 is refreshing to me since it actually uses Bible versus to explain their definitions. Oh how America has changed for the worse.

c. Nave’s Topical Bible – Either Nave’s or another Topical study tool can help you understand particular topics.  There may be other topical study helps online but I reference my Nave’s topical to point me to the passages quickly that discuss certain topics.  Then I study those passages in context to make sure I understand what God is saying about a subject.

d. Study Bibles – I have a Life Application Bible which I have found to be very helpful over the years.  Better known now as my Blue Bound Bible because it is held together by blue tape now.  This type of study Bible has lots of notes on passages and verses as well as setting the context stage.  It will give timelines of events and have a nice outline of each book in the Bible telling when written, by whom, the theme of the book and events happening around that time.  Lots of maps and commentary.  All this can be quite helpful to get the whole picture.  Of course any commentary notes are not scripture so we never want to allow notes or commentaries to dictate our thinking if we see a different story coming from the scripture itself. I tend to treat commentaries with a little caution since a commentator may have an agenda he is trying to promote. 

I also do not reference other English versions.  I used to do that to help me understand a passage because the KJV can be more difficult to understand.  This is mainly because of the sentence structure and some older English words that we do not use today.  But what I found was that the versus were sometimes completely different changing the meaning to what I clearly could see it did not say.  I also found myself using the other version as the authority out of laziness.  As I said earlier, it takes effort to study the Word of God.  Some verses are not there at all in the other versions.  The most damage is done in the footnotes however.  They literally say that the Bible is not trustworthy when they say “This passage was not in the original manuscripts” (of course they say that because they are written from different manuscripts).  My faith was not strengthened when I used other versions but actually it created doubt in the authority of Gods Word.  I began to believe I could take biblical passages with a grain of salt!  That is why I say without hesitation that the other versions are greatly used of Satan to create confusion and division in the Church of God.  That doubt in the literal Word of God has allowed people to fully justify in their minds clearly forbidden practices in the church such as Women pastors and even homosexual pastors and now acceptance of same sex marriages.  It also causes the masses to not believe God in the creation account.  If man does not take God literally then he can make his own way which is what is happening now.  No absolute truth or standard which leads to self destruction.

The intellect of the modern Believer is less than it used to be that is for sure.  Our new technology and methods of educating has dumbed down the populace.  We make everything easy thereby making us lazy.  That is why the sentence structure of the King James is difficult for us, but it is better for us to study it as is and learn to understand it than to easily understand a wrong message.  AMEN!

e. Commentaries – For those of you who want to get deeper into a theological subject there are very large comprehensive commentaries on every book of the Bible.  This is why a pastor’s office contains hundreds of books all talking about the one Book!  The Bible is an amazing book that on the one hand is plain and simple in its message but on the other is incredibly complex that a person can study his whole life and never come to grips with it all.  All that testifies to just how awesome God is.  No matter what your intellect, the Word of God will challenge you.

V. Master it - (Psalms 119:16)  The Word of God is void of power for you if it does not bring about real change in your everyday life.  Responding to the Word, or applying it to your heart and life, will mean we will look, act, think, and believe a different way after we encounter the scriptures.  Simply said it is to live the truth.  Put into action what you know to be true.  Let what you believe and what you do be equal.  James 1:22 says it this way, “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”  When you read your Bible and come across an area where you see you need to change then act upon that.  Put off the old thinking and put on God’s way of thinking.  Let him that stole, steel no more!  Put off the old conversation.  Put away lying.  Let each esteem the other better than himself.  Love your enemies. 

Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.  Luke 6:28

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.  Prov 3:5,6

God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of Love, and a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7

Yes, master the word of God.  Allow it to permeate you through and through and make you a different person.  You will have a new outlook.  You will be able to make sense of the world around you and be able to have joy and peace when others have despair. 

Conclusion:  “As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”

Thank you for your attention during this series.  I have enjoyed teaching you this quarter and I hope you are a little better equipped to live victorious for Christ.  Never forget Phil 4:13.  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  As Paul can, so can you.