How To Study The Bible

All right. Well, let's see. We've got a lot of territory to cover. So get on your running shoes. You should have a couple of handouts there. And one of them is one that has a picture on the top, looks kind of like this. And on the side there, it says, strongly recommended. Here's what's happening.

Not this week, not next week, but the following week, we're going to be moving into learning how to use word study tools, and I'm looking at a particular one here that I think is extremely valuable. Word study tools in English, there's no learning Greek involved. I think it is, in my opinion, the best tool available for studying in English but giving you as much as you can get out of the meaning of the Greek without having to learn Greek. That's the intent here.

What I am suggesting is that you buy this pamphlet. This little brochure here is strongly recommended. I don't want anybody to go in debt for this. I don't want anybody to look at it and say good heavens and gag. I think it is extremely valuable. Since the day I first got it, I use it continuously.

A friend of mine said a couple of years back, Vern, show me how to study the Bible. He didn't write it, but he even this last week emailed me, you know, thanks for showing me how to use this thing. So he is really excited with it. He has even been doing his own translation of Revelation using this.

It's that good. So at any rate, that's strongly recommended. Another, it's a suggested resource, not as essential, is one that's kind of a companion. What happens is there is a dictionary built into the back of this book, and it's only kind of a partial dictionary of keywords. This is the whole thing. So this can be helpful. Now, the flip side of the paper that you've got is if you're into using computers and have a CD player, This book, and this is the one that says christianbooks.com, that reference there is on CD, and what that does, it has this book on the New Testament, it's got this entire dictionary, plus it has the same thing for the Old Testament, all on one CD-ROM, plus other things. If you have a computer and feel comfortable using it, It is a whale of a bargain. It has a lot in it, and I'd highly recommend it. Again, I don't suggest anybody going to debt over it.

One caution, you may want to check this afterwards. Some of the lettering is small. If you have a tough time reading it, you may want to give second thought to it. And one other caveat, although the study reference is excellent, a few of the notes, I would dissect the notes. that are added to the bottom of the page, I would disagree with strongly. And I'll let you know what those are. But as a study tool, it is excellent. Just those few notes I would disagree with, and I can point out what those are. I want to give you a very, very brief intro to what this does.

This is Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are you saved through faith." What will happen is that there will be... Boy, that's not focused very well, is it? That's a little better. Okay.

What will happen is you'll see these codes above the word, okay? Each of these codes tells you specifically this is the particular word form. that is used, that is in the Greek behind that. And Greek is a very precise, specific language. So these codes are specific.

You can know exactly what it means. For example, for by grace are ye saved, if you look up this code, one of the things that it tells you is that it's completely done. It is permanently done. with continuing results. And you have a number here to look up. It shows up in the dictionary and in the back. And you can look that up and say, what do they mean by saved?

So you're not just doing a study, what is the meaning of the word, but also in the context that that's used, in the particular Greek form, what specifically does that mean? It is very useful and very precise. You don't need to know word one of Greek, but it will give you as much as possible the meaning of the original Greek in completely English word study tools. Isn't that word connected to the strong? That's correct. The number is the same as the strong's number, and so that's really useful too. Yes. So no wonder you study it strongly. Yes, there we go. Yes.

Really an excellent tool. So anyway, for two weeks from now is what I'm looking at going into it. If you decide you shouldn't get it or can't get it, you won't be dropping out of sight. I'm just saying it's recommended. And so anyway, that's one thing.

It is not a small pamphlet, in spite of my joking. And so it is heavy by the time you have all the binders that I typically seem to have people cheering about here in this book, you'll be taking a backpack to church. You'll have a tough time on the final exam, believe me. No, I think you will highly prize it.

Yeah? Why is this book better than a Vines expository edition? I've had that for 30 years. Sure. Vines is excellent, and as a matter of fact, I'd have to check it, but Vines may be included on the CD that comes with this. Here's the deal. Vines is good too.

What Vines does is it will give you word definitions. Where Vines doesn't include anything is what are specific verb forms. So Vines doesn't go there in terms of really spelling out very specifically what is the form of the verb in this particular context. Example, Vines will tell you what does saved mean, but it doesn't look real closely at where does that specific word come in terms of the verb tense and things of that sort.

So that's the difference. Vines is an excellent resource. Don't misunderstand me. And I would recommend that to anybody. But this goes a step further. And so it, I think, does that. Yeah. Any other questions? OK. Now, I would suggest taking a look at these when you're done.

Matter of fact, I'm going to dismiss a little bit earlier to allow time for you to look at it and ask any questions that you have. So anyway, any questions at all, feel free to raise your hand, come to me, call me up, email me, whatever you feel like you ought to do. So anyway, we'll start looking at that. If you don't have it, I'm still going to have materials that you can use and give you resources so you won't be left in the dark. It's just I think it's something you'll find useful for the rest of your days. So anyway. All right, now the next item.

You've got learning to observe. That's the stapled piece there. Remember the three steps in coming to an understanding of the Bible? We've got observe, interpret, apply. So this is just kind of taking a look at specific verses, specific passages, and just doing some observing. It so happens that these passages also talk about Bible study and about the Word of God and things of that sort. two layers at least of learning here.

What we'll do is we'll go as far through this as we can this morning. So I hope you brought your swords. We'll go as far as we can, then you can take the rest of it home to complete if we don't get it done this morning. So take a look at your Ecclesiastes 12, 9, and 10. Why don't you look those up and see if you can come up with the five things said about the preacher.

Anybody need a pen? That was about 3,000 years before this preacher. So anyway, anybody need a pen or everybody covered? Okay. Alright, the first one there is, you know, list at least five things said about the preacher. What sort of things have you come up with? He's wise. Huh? He's wise. Alright. Preacher is wise. Wise. Okay. Alright. He's a teacher. He's a teacher. Okay. What else? He taught knowledge. He taught knowledge. Okay. He doesn't just teach nothing. He teaches knowledge. Okay. Good.

What else? Attentive to detail, good. And what else? Ponders and searches out and arranges proverbs. Ah, okay, you get that? Those verbs, they're important, aren't they? Ponders, searches, okay. Arranges. Okay, what else? Come up with anything else? Practice what he preached. Okay. Study and applied. Okay, study and applied.

What we put here is at least five things. The truth is, if you looked hard, you'd find what? More than five. Yeah, yeah, more than five. And I think that's, you know, one of the things as we look at this here, you know, we want to not only just observe what's in this verse, but think, okay, what are some of the things I could do in terms of, you know, what are the things that could be drawn out of Scripture? And then once I have the truth, what do I do with it? Say?

There's a certain diligence, thought to find. Yes, yes. This isn't a stumbling over, is it? This isn't just a, whoops, I think I found something. It's a matter of continuing to work at it, to look at it, and to be diligent, to persevere. Any others? The truth is you've got at least five in there and then some.

Let's go to Proverbs 12.1. Take a look at that. It says, List three important principles. So what you come up with on that. If you're done earlier than. When I'm ready to talk about it, feel free to move on to the next one or to write more. There's a little bit of space beyond what's minimally required.

What did he come up with in Proverbs 12.1? Three important principles. What have folks come up with on that?

Learn early in your life. Learn early. Ah. Why would that be valuable? You have a sound foundation. Ah, yes. Okay. What happens when someone learns early and they have a sound foundation? What difference does that make? Discernment. Discernment. Instead of stumbling and bumbling and saying, boy, I sure wish I hadn't have done that.

It's going at life, starting early, with a good perspective. I had an uncle who was a missionary down in Bolivia, and when he came back, I remember one of the things he said, and this was when I was still a young man, he said, you know, he said, live a life according to the Lord. Live a good life according to the Lord. And then when you get older, you won't have all kinds of horrible things to remember and things to kick yourself for. Did he speak out of experience? Probably some of that would be my guess. What else? What next?

Teachable. Teachable. Now why is teachable important? It is open-minded to listen intently to the instructions that are given. Okay. This is a character of heart, isn't it? Character of heart and mind. Let's flip this over. What happens when someone is not teachable? What's the consequence? Yeah. Basically, the person is just frozen out. Any way that the Lord will work in their mind, their thinking, their hearing. You're saying, God, You don't have anything to tell me. That's a dangerous place to be, isn't it? Yeah. Okay. How about the next one? What's the third principle there? There is a kind of a fork in the road issue, isn't there?

You hear about people becoming believers late in life And my dad's mother, my grandmother on my dad's side, is an example of that. She became a believer three weeks before she died. But the truth is, she would have been better to have responded earlier. Because she lived a lot of years not knowing the Lord. Anything else you get out of that passage? Rigid and unbendable.

Okay. As far as an attitude or personality. Yeah, yeah. One example is, if you get lost, how soon is it good to get found again? Let's say you get lost and you say, oh, I'm not lost. You keep driving and driving and driving and driving. The longer you wait, more likely the farther you're going to be from where you're supposed to, right? At the very least, you will have covered a lot of miles to get nowhere. So, yes, the sooner the better.

Let's go to the next one, Proverbs 11.14.

Okay? Yeah, really. Okay, and how? In what we're going through as a nation. Ah, okay. As a nation, what we're going through. You're talking about things over the last few months and the events of September 11th, okay? Okay, good. And how do you see it applying? Can you elaborate a little bit?

I think not rushing into unwise decisions. Okay, alright. Taking time to make wise decisions. Taking time to make wise ones, good. Not barging ahead and saying, well we made a decision, oops. At least we decided, oh no! Okay, good. Any other thoughts on that? The second thing is that in the multitude of counselors there is safety. In the people who follow the Lord, that's true. But normally we say many cooks spoil the broth. OK, yeah, this is an interesting thing. On the one hand, we have this proverb, many cooks spoil the broth. The flip side, we get this advice that says, and many counselors is safety. Which one is right, or are we talking about two different aspects of something? What's the truth here? This is the truth. OK. Well, let's ask the question.

What is meant when people say too many cooks spoil the broth? One doesn't know it. What's happening when you get too many cooks is nobody is in charge and so you end up with this mishmash. Each one wants to sort of peddle their ego? Yes. The too many cooks spoil the broth proverb comes from the idea of everybody's got input but nobody's in charge and you can end up, yes, indeed wrecking things because you end up with this, to use the broth analogy, it ends up with way too much salt and way too much parsley. Too much of everything, and nobody's got the final word to say.

But what's the truth that is being presented in this verse? It says, how can this be applied to Bible teaching? What's the intent here? What's the value? Yeah. Well, there is no teaching or truth. Man's going to use his own ideas and strength, which is... Okay, alright. Yeah, the one thing is we've got to make sure we have the truth.

What else can we draw from this? How many people is the talk about getting input from? More than one. One of the things that we have to look at here is one person's opinion or thought or insights is probably not sufficient to make sure you've looked at all the angles here. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm glad you're all sitting down, okay? I don't want you to believe anything I tell you. How about that?

The reason for doing this is so that you can arrive at conclusions on your own. If what comes out of here is, you know, Vern says this and Vern says that and that's all, that's the last word, then we've got a problem. because then it's too focused around what I say and not what God's Word is saying. The church desperately needs people who are moving in the direction we're moving here, people who know how to study God's Word, people who know how to look at it on their own. The great multitude of denominations and heirs that the church at large, Christendom, has been sucked into has resulted in great part from people who don't know how to study God's word. And so they get led in a thousand different directions by somebody who's persuasive. And in reality, I would far rather that you not believe a word I say and check out everything. Remember Acts 1711? The Bereans were more noble because what? They checked out everything. And who were they checking out?

The Apostle Paul. Can you imagine that? Checking out the Apostle Paul. So if the Apostle Paul is to be checked out compared to the Word, certainly I should be, right? So don't believe anything I tell you from here on out. Just check it all out, okay? You get the idea? Alright. So I think, you know, where we come back to this passage here is check people out. Look at the different sources. Make certain of what's being said. Check it out. Look carefully.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, and remember the problem that he was addressing as he wrote to the Thessalonians. Some people had come to the Thessalonians and said, The Lord's already come. And they're going, Oh no! We missed it! The Day of the Lord is already here.

And at the end of the letter, he tells them, he says, test everything. Test everything. Hold on to what's good. Shun what's evil. But test everything. And that's the encouragement here. Check it all out. Go ahead and get the input of multiple counselors, but then assess, okay, what is really the biblical truth here? What's the essential? Get all the inputs, but sort it down to what does God intend to tell us through his word. Yeah, well, that's a good start. Now explain them in your own words. It's not valuable enough to ignore what was said, or the wisdom, or who, what, when, and where, taking all those into consideration, and then understanding and applying them to what's important. Why don't we give folks a chance to digest that? But you're too good. Just slow down a minute here.

Blippi Okay, what did you draw out of Proverbs 4-5 there? What did you glean from that? Well, looking back in the text, this is the instruction of a father. That's a good idea. I'm sorry, what? Looking back into the first part of the text, it's the instructions of a father. Okay. And what we're not to turn away from is the teachings I think that's an important thing. Okay, good insight. What else did you get? To keep my words in their heart and I guess that's it because I forgave them first.

Ultimately though, while certainly intelligence is a nice thing, it isn't an automatic, is it? There are some very intelligent people who are going to go to hell. So intelligence is not at the very top there as a requirement. Notice he says heart. And heart is not something that's totally emotions and totally just mental. This is something, make sure that it's deep-seated. It's well-nested within.

Colossians 3.16. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. The Greek there means, be at home in you. See that? Be at home in you. Alright, what's next? Ah, okay. Yeah, like we said earlier, you're not going to just stumble on it, are you? Yeah. You're not going to just go, whoa, man, what did I just trip over? This is something that requires pursuit.

You ever hear of anybody that just kind of accidentally built a house? I have yet to hear of a tornado going through a junkyard and building a car. It just doesn't happen. Evolution is about the same. Yes, that's right. But that's not very likely either. The reality is that the kind of wisdom and insight and understanding he's talking about is deliberate. It's based on diligence, isn't it? What else did you get from this passage?

Don't forget it. Ah, okay. Don't forget it when? Don't forget it when? When it applies. Ah, okay. At times you may have come across an instance where maybe you've seen it in your own life, maybe you've seen it in another, where somebody knew something and didn't do what they knew.

Have you ever heard yourself say, gee, I should have known better? I knew that. Why didn't I do that? My son Ed had a difficult time in school because he would second guess what he knew and he'd erase it and put some other answer down frequently. Frequently. And so afterwards he'd kick himself and he'd say, I knew the answer and what I'd change it for, you know?

And it's that kind of thing that's trying to point out. It's just, you know, keep this in, you know, remember what you know, you know, keep it in mind. When the time comes to apply it, apply it. Okay? All right? What else? Do you get anything else out of this passage? Don't decline the words of my mouth. Yes, examining his words. That's really what this entire class is about, is we're to be examining his words, looking carefully, diligently, intentionally, at what does the text say.

God revealed these truths, and these are truths that could not be gained by human knowledge and insight. They must be revealed. That's why we have God's Word. It is truth that has to be revealed because we couldn't arrive at it on our own. If somebody were to say, all right, write down what's going to happen in the future, would you come up with a book of Revelation? If somebody were to say, write down how you think the world started, would you come up with the first chapter of Genesis? I don't think so.

This is revealed because God knows it absolutely and completely and we could not know it if it were not revealed. We have to have his revelation. So it's essential that we listen to it. What good does it do if he revealed the absolute truth to us, but we didn't listen, and we didn't look, and we didn't study.

Okay? Vern, is this the thing, this wisdom, and it speaks in previous chapters about wisdom, you know, it personifies it, you know, as wisdom crying in the streets and all that. It's the same thing, isn't it? I mean, it's wisdom that has such a high part of Solomon. Yes, yeah. And Proverbs and Ecclesiastes both refer to this and keep coming back to it.

There are people who are highly intellectual but are not wise. And there is a difference. There is a difference. And we're pursuing wisdom, not just knowing stuff. Some of the best New Testament Greek study tools are written by people who will be in hell, or already are. They know the Greek well, but that's not a guarantee, because they haven't inclined their ear to wisdom.

I want to give you a little time to look at some of these books and ask any questions you've got, so let's go ahead and call it. The rest of it you can finish on your own, and let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that you have indeed revealed absolute truth. What an incredible, astonishing thing. that we can have before us this absolute truth, truth with depth so great that all the years of our lives are not sufficient to mine it all out. Thank you for that, Lord, and we just pray for minds and hearts inclined to the depths of wisdom that you've put in your word. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.