How to Study the Bible | Bible Questions & Answers

that's what I want to do tonight is I want to cover how to study the Bible we looked at this a little bit last week but I want to look at it again and I received a request to actually take a passage and and and show a real-life example of how to apply these principles so I'm going to do that with you and so well Before we jump in I'll just say this the goal of this is to equip you to study the Bible for yourself you don't want to operate on the basis of man's opinion you don't want to believe something because I've said it because I'm just a man and I don't have everything right and my understanding is limited what I want to show you is I want to show you the tools I want to show you the techniques so you can do this for yourself so let's start with the first section I want to cover tonight is this the duty to study applies to all saints not just those who are in preaching capacity in other words everyone has a duty to study so look with me at 2nd Timothy 2:15 the famous verse about rightly dividing the word of truth no one notice what it says study that's a command to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth if you as a believer want to be approved at the judgment seat of Christ you're going to need to study it's not something you can simply have someone else do for you you can't just believe what other people say you're going to need to personally study you need to be one of the Bereans and search whether search the Scriptures daily whether those things be so look with me if you would at Colossians chapter 3 Colossians chapter 3 verse 10 and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge your new man is renewed on the basis of knowledge not on the basis of emotion not on the basis basis of music not on the basis of experience but on the basis of knowledge and of course the source of knowledge is God's Word therefore for your spiritual health to have the Christian life that God intends you to have you have to be renewing the new man in knowledge on a regular basis the final point I'll make them in terms of the duty to study is simply this there are some things in life you can't delegate to others there's a million things I don't know how to do I'm not very good at fixing my own car I can't fix the refrigerator or the washing machine I really can't do my own dental work I mean there's a million things and so what happens is they're specialists that I can hire to do that for me and you probably do the same thing I don't fly my own aircraft but there's some things in life you can't delegate because they're just so important they're so fundamental to your very existence that you can't risk delegate delegating them and you can't delegate responsibility for your spiritual life you have to own that yourself and since you have to own that yourself you're going to have to study so what you've seen in this first section is this as a saint you have a need you have a duty you have an obligation to study God's Word the next section is I want to give you two basic principles as two keys to successful Bible study so two basic principles that are essential to successful Bible study the first principle is this come to the Bible with no preconceptions other than to believe what is written in other words don't come to the Bible deciding what it needs to say don't come to the Bible looking to prove what you've already decided but come to the Bible and let the Bible teach you what God has to say look with me at Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4 and hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 Hebrews 4 verse 12 for the word of God is quick that means it's living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged 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 so the Word of God discerns your heart as you read it the Bible is unlike any other book that's ever written because it is alive the reason people don't read the Bible is because the Bible reads them look with me at verse 13 neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do in other words what the Word of God does is it lays man's soul bare you and I can lie to one another and you know I may not figure out that you're lying and maybe I lie to you and you know human affairs are that way and when people write books books that are written by men are our words but they're not they're not living they're just books they're just written books but the Bible is a book that is alive and it actually discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart it is the only book that reads you as you read it and that's why people don't read the Bible they can read all kinds of other things but they won't read the Bible because on some level they perceive that the Bible is reading them now turn with me if you would to first Kings chapter 22 first Kings chapter 22 now while you're trying to first Kings let me make one further point about the Bible reading mankind have you ever wondered why there is a diverse that says the rapture is pre-tribulational why isn't there that says the believer during the dispensation of grace has eternal security why isn't there a verse that says the rapture of the body of Christ is pre-tribulational I mean wouldn't it be nice if there were verses that were that clear because think about it what happens today is there's all kinds of debates within Christendom there's premillennialism there's postmillennialism there's amillennialism there's pre-tribulation ilysm post tribulation ilysm mid-tribulation ilysm why didn't God put a specific verse that just says the rapture is pre-tribulational the second coming of Jesus Christ is premillennial and I would submit to you the following is true God knew these debates would happen he knew that there would be controversy over these subjects and he decided not to put those verses in he decided not to put those verses in because what the Word of God does is it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart if you dig you can find the truth but if you want to believe otherwise God has enabled you to do that in other words God has allowed whatever ambiguity exists because he wants it to exist to discern the thoughts and intents of people's hearts now we're in 1st Kings 22 I want you to notice something with me first Kings chapter 22 verse 3 and the king of Israel said unto its servants know ye that remov in Gilead is ours and we be still and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria so the king of Israel is thinking look why don't we go take ramoth and Gilead serious holding it right now but I think we could take it and the king that's saying that by the way is King Ahab so clearly what the king is pondering is I want to go I want to go fight against ramoth and conquer it verse 4 and he said on Jehoshaphat that's the king of Judah will Tago with me to battle to ramoth-gilead and Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses and Jehoshaphat said under the king of Israel inquire I pray thee at the word of the Lord today so Jehoshaphat says I'm willing to help but let's go ask the Lord and get his thoughts on it which of course is the right question verse 6 then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about four hundred men so that's a bunch of prophets and said unto them shall I go against ramoth-gilead to battle or shall I forbear and they said go up for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king so what happens is a hab is pondering whether or not to go to ramoth-gilead to battle he summons the four hundred prophets the four hundred prophets they go do it great idea way to go King that's that's awesome but if you'll notice verse seven it'll become very clear to you that the prophets in verse six are false prophets they're not prophets of the Lord how do I know that verse 7 and Jehoshaphat said is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him Jehoshaphat essentially says okay it's nice that you got the opinion of the four hundred false prophets but before we go declare war why don't we at least make sure that a prophet of the Lord can tell us what jehovah really thinks about this in other words not interested in what the four hundred false prophets say let's get one of the real ones verse eight and the king of Israel said on Jehoshaphat there is yet one man Makia the son of imlah by whom we may inquire of the Lord in other words a have knows exactly who the prophet of the Lord is he knows him by name he knows he's a prophet of the Lord but notice what he says but I hate him for he doth not prophesy good concerning me but evil and Jehoshaphat said let not the King say so so now we realized why there were 400 false prophets because a hab as he was making decisions he realized well if I go ask the prophet of the Lord he's probably gonna tell me something I don't like so let me just have my little advising group here that's gonna rubber stamp whatever I want to do verse 9 then the king of Israel called an officer and said hasten hither michaiah the son of imlah and all the prophets prophesied so saying go up to ramoth-gilead and prosper for the lord shall deliver it into the king's hand that's verse 12 by the way I skipped ahead verse 13 and the messenger that was gone to call Makia spake unto him saying behold now the words of the prophets declared good under the king with one mouth let thy word I pray thee be like the word of one of them and speak that which is good so here's what the messenger does the messenger comes to Mike heya and says McHale look 400 prophets already told the king this is a great idea you don't want to be the troublemaker do you you don't want to be the one to cause problems here's what they've all said just play along okay here's what they've said you don't want to stir up trouble just tell them the same thing the messenger is trying to smooth things over and avoid problems obviously the messenger doesn't really care whether the King hears the actual word of the Lord the messenger just wants to avoid difficulties verse 14 and Micah said as the Lord liveth what the Lord saith unto me that will I speak in other words my case says I'm just gonna tell it like it is whatever the Lord tells me to say that's what I'm going to say verse 15 so he came to the king and the king said unto him Mike heya shall we go against ramoth-gilead to battle or shall we forbear and he answered him go and prosper for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king now Mike heya that says there he says go for it the Lord will deliver ramoth-gilead into your hand but it's very from the following verse that makea is being sarcastic and I I'll suggest this to you as to what might be going on my ka realizes that he's a prophet of the Lord and he realizes that what Ahab did is michaiah didn't seek out my Kas counsel he sought out for a hundred other prophets and the four hundred other prophets weren't speaking for the Lord they were speaking for someone else so Makia understands that Ahab is not really interested in hearing the counsel of the Lord so what my k'i says in verse 15 it says go and prosper and he's saying it sarcastically look at verse 16 and the King said unto Him how many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord now what Ahab says there in verse 16 what he says it may not be what he means but what he says is I adjure thee I place you under an obligation only tell me what's true tell me exactly what's true now notice what happens verse 17 and he said I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd and the Lord said these have no master let them return every man to his house and peace in other words what Makia was prophesying there was destruction for Ahab verse 18 and the king of Israel said in Jehoshaphat did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me but evil so notice what's going on in verse 16 what they have says is only tell me what's true so then what happens is michaiah tells them what is true and and they have frankly ought to be appreciative McKay is telling him this action that you're contemplating going to ramoth-gilead it's a bad idea destruction will ensue a hab should say thank you for letting me know I won't do that but what a hab does it says I told you this is why I never go to the prophet of the Lord because he's gonna tell me something I don't want to hear this is just a couple verses after he says to the Prophet I adjure thee only tell me that which is true here's what happens people claim to want to know what the Bible says but they then get upset when it doesn't line up with their opinion that's just a reality of how life works we want the truth as long as the truth is consistent with what I already believe or with what I already teach or with what my church teaches or with what our doctrinal statement is first Kings chapter 22 verse 19 and he said here there thou therefore the word of the Lord I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left and the Lord said who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at ramoth-gilead and one set on this manner and another set on that manner verse 21 and there came forth the spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will persuade him and the Lord said unto Him where with and he said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets so that tells you what those four hundred prophets were there was a lying spirit in their mouths and he said thou shalt persuade him and prevail also go forth and do so verse 23 now therefore behold the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning me get Ezekiel chapter 14 Ezekiel chapter 14 what you see from that extended example we looked at in in first Kings 22 is this people oftentimes come to the word of the Lord and they claim or they purport to be coming to the word of the Lord to get direction to get instruction as to how to proceed but oftentimes they've already decided what they want to do and so what they really want is they want God to line up with them they're not planning on lining up with God see what they have should have done is when my k'i says it's gonna be disaster if you do this what I have should have done it said well I really appreciate you letting me know I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna follow the Lord's instruction that would be the wiser thing to do but what clearly had happened is a have looked at ramoth-gilead and said it's there for the takin I'm taking it and obviously defied the word of the Lord and resulted in disaster you're gonna see a similar context concept in Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 3 son of man these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be inquired of at all by them therefore speak unto them and say unto them thus saith the Lord God every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet notice what this says I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols so in Ezekiel 14 someone comes to inquire of the Lord but they've already set up idols in their heart they're not coming to the Lord sincerely desiring to know god's counsel they've already set up an idol so when they come to the Lord how does he answer them according to Ezekiel 14 he answers them according to the idols that are set up in their heart the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword I don't know if you've ever thought about this have you ever seen people juggle knives or for example I've seen people juggle chainsaws maybe you've seen people do that that scares me like crazy because what I always think to myself is when I've practiced juggling with three beanbags I will drop them all over the place right and sometimes I'll throw them in strange directions well what is a safe way to learn how to juggle chainsaws it feels to me like there's no small accidents right you catch one the wrong way I mean it's just uh I don't like to think about it well the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword so when we come to this book we can harm ourselves greatly because it's sharper than any two-edged sword we need to come to this book in submission to this book believing what it says siding aside our own opinions and instead believing what it says so the first key to successful Bible study I spent a bunch of time on this but it's it's critically important is this you need to come to the Bible with the proper heart attitude you need to come to the Bible with an attitude of faith I'll give you another example before we move on a lot of people come to the Bible looking for errors they desire to find what's wrong with it and there's things all over the place that seemed to be contradictions that may look like they are heirs but upon further study you realize that they're not but if your heart attitude if the reason you came to the word was to find heirs you may find assurance and you may find justification in that I thought there were that there were heirs in it and I looked and I found them and my opinion is vindicated I was right and you realize when that happened what really happened is the word of God doesn't contain heirs but you were answered according to the idols of your heart and so you can go away in smug self-confidence because your heart found what you wanted to find it wasn't the truth it was just the answer that your heart wanted so we need to be careful about that for ourselves we need to come to this book in an attitude of faith get with me Isaiah 28 so the first thing we need to do is to come to the book in an attitude of faith believing it is correct and it is more important than our own opinions the second principle and this is a critical critical principle is this the Bible is organized in a here a little and there a little design here's what I mean by that many of us are familiar with encyclopedias and so let's say I wanted to learn about this Civil War or I wanted to learn about President Eisenhower or I wanted to learn about the Declaration of Independence what I would do is I would pick up the encyclopedia and I could turn to an entry within the encyclopedia that would tell me everything I need to know about that topic in other words everything on that topic is in one place the Bible is the opposite of that because what the Bible is is the Bible has relevant information in different places look at Isaiah chapter 28 verse 9 whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine well that's what we want to be hopefully them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts so this is going beyond a babe this is someone who's growing in maturity for precept must be upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little I'll give you an example in the book of Exodus if you read about the magician's that withstood Moses their names aren't anywhere in the book of Exodus but they are contained in second Timothy see in in in order to study the Bible the Bible is here a little and there a little if you wanted to study the rapture can you just turn to first Corinthians 15 and you're done well you can't you better look at first Corinthians 15 you better look at first Thessalonians chapter 4 you should look at second Corinthians chapter 5 you should look at Romans chapter 8 because there is information about the rapture in multiple places it's here a little and there a little it's not as simple as an encyclopaedia where if you want the Declaration of Independence you take the volume that says D you turn to declaration there it is it's so simple it's in one place Bible doesn't work that way give me first Corinthians chapter 2 first Corinthians chapter 2 first Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 13 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 so how does the Holy Ghost teach you the Word of God it compares spiritual things with spiritual so what you're gonna have to do in your Bible study is you're gonna have to compare verse with verse that I would submit to you is is one of the two basic principles the first is you have to believe what the Word of God says you have to set aside your own opinion the second thing you need to do is you need to compare verse with verse and that's gonna take some effort to do that we'll talk a little bit more about that so now I want to walk you through a couple steps as to how to study the Bible so here's the actual process I would recommend the first thing you do is you read not just the verse but the passage you get the context I can't tell you how many times I've seen things where people will say what does a verse mean and they'll quote the verse and the verse is actually just part of a sentence well you can't make sense of a sentence without understanding the whole sentence you can't just grab a part of it you can't just grab a particular phrase and by the way to understand a sentence you need to know something about the paragraph so my first encouragement to you is that in your studying any passage you need read the verse and you need to read the context you need to read what's after it you need to read what's before it the second technique I'd encourage is to read it again so you read it once read it again you you realize often times that you don't get everything the first time around so you may have to reread it the third principle is sometimes it's helpful to have a good dictionary one of the things I've found is oftentimes I think I know what words mean and then when I look them up I realize they have either sometimes they have different meanings or they have nuances that I was not aware of so it's often good to have a good dictionary to consult my two favorite I like the Webster's 1828 dictionary and I like the Oxford English Dictionary both of them often have dictionary entries where they refer to how words were used in the King James Bible and of course you know that since 1611 the English language has changed so it's helpful to have sometimes a historical understanding of what words meant at the time they were used now here's the fourth principle and this is the one that in my opinion will take the most work the fourth step that you need to follow in studying the Bible is you need to find the relevant cross references you need to find the relevant cross references because of what we just talked about in Isaiah 28 in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 3 it's here a little and there a little you need to compare spiritual things with spiritual things so as you look at any passage what you need to do is you need to figure out what other passages help explain what's going on in this passage so sometimes what you'll need to do is you'll need to run word searches to find out how the Bible uses those terms in other places in the scripture sometimes it will give you clarity as to what the words mean oftentimes you need to find other verses that are on the same subject and I'll talk more about that in a minute sometimes you'll need to run word searches with cinnamon and synonyms I almost said cinnamon but that's actually a dessert it's not a Bible study technique but what I mean by synonyms is this let's say I'm doing a study on faith and I want to understand what the Bible says about faith well I should probably also run a word search on the word belief because I should look at verses that contain the word belief as well you should also use wildcards in your search and I'll explain what that is in a minute now what this is going to entail if you follow this process it's going to involve a lot of searching a lot of effort because you're gonna have to look at verse after verse after verse earlier when I mentioned the Bible is not an encyclopedia how convenient to have an encyclopedia all the information is in one place but if I want to study for example the subject of grace well there's many many verses on Grace and they're in different passages and to have a holistic comprehensive understanding of grace I'm not gonna be able to just turn to Ephesians 2 and be done I'm gonna need to look at Ephesians 2 in Romans 11 and a whole bunch of other places all right the last tip I'll suggest is sometimes and I'll say sometimes there are books with good cross references that you should also consult and so you're ready let's take a real-life example I was having a conversation with a good friend the other day and he had a question that was put to him and he and I were talking about it and I thought it was an interesting question and so I started to study it and as I studied it I thought this might be a good example of something we could work through together so you can see my encouragement how as Tautou study the scriptures so here's the question get with me Matthew chapter 24 Matthew chapter 24 Matthew 24 and let's read verses 1 and verse 2 Matthew 24 verse 1 and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple and Jesus said unto them see ye not all these things verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down so I'm gonna pull up here real quick the chart you know I want to show you one thing so we understand the dispensation of grace and in the dispensation of grace let's just get this up here all right now the dispensation of grace is a mystery you can also tell me in the survey do you like me to use the finger pointer end or this end so we do need your feedback so the dispensation of grace is here and here's the question that someone raised about this Matthew 24 passage when it talks about their snow not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down is it Matthew 24 - talking about the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and if that's the case then the mystery isn't quite right because in Matthew 24 before the cross there's a prophecy about an event that's going to happen when we think the dispensation of grace would be in effect so sort of an interesting question so how do we study that out how do we get an answer as to what Matthew 24 verse 2 really means so I'm gonna walk you through the process that I use to think about that so the first thing is let's read Matthew 24 verse 2 again so we're gonna look at this carefully write Matthew 24 verse 2 and Jesus said unto them see ye not all these things verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down now think here for a minute if you read Matthew 24 verse 2 how do you know with certainty that that verse was not fulfilled in 70 AD I'm gonna pause here actually I'll play the jeopardy music doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo the studio audience is not appreciating how hysterical this is I know that you are so please comment on their I mean I gotta be honest with you a lot of the great comedy here the studio audience does not fully appreciate how fantastic it is so give us your feedback if you want more of it we can give it to you if you don't then the studio audience will be happy but let us know okay now let's get back to reality what matthew 24:2 specifically says is that when the temple is destroyed there shall not be one stone left upon another so now we're gonna go to the video Daily Double are you ready what is that that's funny because it's not doing what I want it to do okay let's try it again what is that notice the convenient headline the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem's Old City this is the Wailing Wall what is the Wailing Wall the Wailing Wall is part of the second Jerusalem temple that was destroyed in 70 AD so I'm gonna read to you the Encyclopedia Britannica description normally you wouldn't have to do this in terms of your study but it just fits so well that I decided to include this the Western Wall also called the Wailing Wall in the old city of Jerusalem it's a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people it is the only remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem so when we were in Matthew 24 verse 2 it said that what would happen to the temple is there would not be one stone left upon another well are there some stones left upon another there are what that tells you is what happened in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple cannot be the fulfillment of Matthew 24 verse 2 because Matthew 24 verse 2 obviously wasn't fulfilled literally you see the point we got all of that all of that clarity just by reading Matthew 24 verse 2 carefully you see that that's why I encourage you to read a verse multiple times read it again and again so you see what it's saying matthew 24:2 there shall not be left here one stone upon another one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen so you can see Matthew 24 verse two was not fulfilled in 70 AD but the question you may have then is okay if AD 70 is not the fulfillment of Matthew 24 verse 2 then what is Matthew 24 verse 2 talking about so let me show you some Bible study techniques as to what I think you should do next so and I'm gonna you would read all of Matthew 24 because you want to get the context and since Matthew 24 1 & 2 is at the beginning of the chapter I would encourage you to read Matthew 23 I'm not gonna sit here and read that to you verbally but what you would do in this process of study is you would look at those chapters to understand the context in Matthew 24 verse 2 you might then think are there any dictionaries I need to consult probably not in this case we know what stone means so it's I'm not thinking we need to but if you were in doubt you would so now what we're going to jump into is what is the most laborious part the part that requires the most effort by the student and we're gonna run some cross references so let me show you what we have here this website is blue letter Bible org you can use other Bible search websites it's fine you can pick your favorite I happen to like this one and I'm gonna just walk you through what you would do so who's here's blue letter Bible org and here is the search box now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna type in here my search term and notice what I'm gonna do what I did there and hopefully you can see this I typed in the word stone and then I put an asterisk and then I typed in the word another and I put an asterisk why did I put in the asterisk I did that for this reason when I put in the asterisk it'll capture stone and stones and stoned in other words it'll capture anything anything after the e with another if there was some formulation that had like another's or something like that I'm running this so I capture all the relevant verses so now I'm gonna click search and let's it's thinking away here so while it's thinking normally it goes fast but of course it's taking its time you can see here that it occurs 20 times in nine verses and you can see there's some here from Genesis Exodus and so on go down with me to Matthew I'm just gonna start there and the husband took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another well those uses of stoned and another is not really what we're talking about right this is someone being put to death with stones Matthew 24 verse 2 we found here the verse that we were looking at previously so that's what you would expect notice mark 12 verse 4 and he again he sent another servant and at him they cast stones that doesn't seem relevant so let's keep going mark 13 verse 2 and Jesus answering said unto Him see us now these great buildings there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down look at that we found an excellent cross reference what we were looking at in Matthew 24 is very similar to what's in mark 13 verse 2 it's not similar to what's in mark 12 verse 4 so I probably wouldn't spend more time on mark 12 verse 4 but I can tell I'm gonna need to study mark 13 verse 2 because it's describing something very similar to what was in Matthew 24 well we're not done let's keep going Luke 19 verse 44 and they shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another well we're gonna need to look at that verse because that's very similar to Matthew 24 Luke 21 verse 6 and as for these things which he behold the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down that's another passage so notice what happened we took some of the the terms that were in the verse we're interested in Matthew 24 verse 2 we ran them through the search filter and then what happened is we found four different passages that we're gonna need to study that are very similar this is gonna allow us to do that here a little there a little comparing spiritual things with spiritual things that we need to do now the search I ran was stone and another you might also run a search for rock you might also run a search for it talked about the stones being thrown down you might run a search for throw and down like th ro W asterisk do WN asterisk what you would do is you would run a number of those searches now what you can do so you can see in here let's just take Luke 21 verse 6 I'm gonna highlight it I'm gonna highlight it right there and click on it and when I click on it it's gonna take me directly to that passage now what I would encourage you to do and I'm just giving you the nuts and bolts of how I I would do this when Luke 26 comes up what you can do is you can look at that passage and you can examine the Conte now when it does that I'm going to show you the next thing I would recommend and so here's Luke 21 verse 6 and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna scroll up a little bit to read above it and then I would scroll down below it and if you see these little boxes right here so as I'm looking at that I may decide you know what I need verse 6 and I need verse 7 and so I'm gonna click those boxes and then you see up here where it says copy right there so in other words I click all of these that I'm interested in and then I click copy and what it's going to do is it's going to copy those to the clipboard then what I can do is I can create a word document and in the word document I can paste the relevant parts of this passage and I can paste the relevant parts of the other passages I've found and if I do that I'll show you what happens next what I'll have is I'll have a word document that has all of those passages in it so now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to have you turn with me to these you ready so we already looked at Matthew 24 verse 1 get mark 13 mark 13 so mark 13 mark chapter 13 verse 1 and as he went out of the temple one of his disciples saith unto Him master see what manner of stones and what buildings are here and Jesus answering said unto Him see us thou these great buildings there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives over against the temple Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled so clearly what we learned from mark 13 is that these events are a prophecy they're prophetic and so what happens when the Lord tells the twelve about them they say what are the signs as to when this is going to happen and so we could read further in mark 13 but I'm going to not do that just for the sake of time get with me Luke 21 Luke 21 and as some Luke 21 verse 5 and as some spake of the temple how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts he said as for these things which he behold the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down and they asked him saying master but when shall these things be and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass now so far what we've seen is when we look at the passage in mark and we looked at the passage in Luke 21 they seemed very similar they didn't tell us a lot of different information but that's fine let's keep going now it would look with me at Luke chapter 19 Luke chapter 19 verse 44 this is the cross-reference we found just a few moments ago and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another because they'll knew us not the time of I visitation this is interesting this is a little bit different from what we were just reading in McMath you 24 and Mark 13 in Luke 21 so in Luke 19 we're gonna go up a couple verses and just read along with me so we're in Luke 19 we're gonna start in verse 41 and when he was come near this is Jesus Christ he beheld the city and wept over it saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes verse 43 for the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep the in on every side notice the comma so verse 43 is not the end of a sentence verse 44 is part of the same sentence and shall lay thee with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in the one stone upon another so we just learned something new in Luke 19 that we didn't see in the other passages and that is this when they don't leave one stone upon another that occurs based on the timing of verse 43 for the days shall come upon thee that I nemi shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round that's the idea of surrounding them and circling them and keep the in on every side so now notice what happens in verse 44 we have this one stone upon another but verse 43 gives us a very helpful timing element that timing element is when there's cast a trench about thee it's when their compass round about so what should we do I'm pausing here cuz I want you to think what should we do well we should go back to our search bar and we should start looking for verses about casting a trench right because maybe there's a casting a trench verse that's gonna tell us what Luke 1943 is about and I'm just gonna for the sake of time if you if you search for trench were verses you're not gonna find very much but in Luke 1943 it says compass thee round what would happen if I ran a search for compass and if I do that one of the things I'm gonna find and I guess I'll just skip ahead to it for the sake of time is if I run a search on compass I'm gonna find a verse just two chapters later in Luke so if you would turn with me to Luke 21 Luke chapter 21 I'll scroll down here so you can see it Luke chapter 21 and we're gonna look at verse 20 now by the way when I Rhian compass here there it occurs 135 times in 127 verses so when I told you before that this may require some effort what'll happen is as you read through those verses you're gonna realize most of those verses are not really relevant they're using compass in a different context but when you run this and you run enough searches you eventually come across something and look at Luke 21 verse 20 and when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed well that was the issue in Luke 19 right because the Lord was coming to Jerusalem and he anticipated he prophesied that it would become pished so this is a really excellent cross reference and when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh interesting well as you think about that verse does that verse remind you of anything now what we should do of course is we read that verse but we should check the context of Luke 21 so I I click on Luke 21 right there and what it's going to do is it's going to pull up the entire chapter of Luke so I can read the context and when I read Luke 21 where it talks about and when you shall see Jerusalem compass with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh what should that remind me of well it should remind me of the abomination of desolation and even if I didn't remember that could I just run a search for desolation and then find desolation versus I could it might be one of those things where in your mind you immediately think wait a minute that's Matthew 24:15 so turn with me to Matthew 24:15 Matthew chapter 24 and we'll look at verse 15 Matthew 24:15 when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the Holy Place whoso readeth let him understand then notice verse 26 then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains I'm gonna go back to Luke 21 because I want you to notice something with me Luke 21 verse 20 and when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies then know that the desolation thereof is nigh verse 21 then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains do you see how excellent that cross reference is Matthew 24 16 talks about them which in Judea fleeing into the mountains Luke 21 21 says then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains those verses are direct as clear cross-references as there could possibly be if you look at the verses right before them Matthew 24:15 talks about the abomination of desolation what Luke 21 verse 20 says is Jerusalem is compass with armies so that tells you those two verses are analogous here's what's happening and I'll pull this together when the man of sin becomes the son of perdition in other words in the midst of the 70th week after three and a half years what the man of sin does is he goes into the temple and he shows himself that He is God he declares himself to be God scripture refers to that as the abomination of desolation when he does that he's going to set up the mark of the beast the reason why Matthew 24 16 and Luke 21 say immediately after that then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains the Great Tribulation is about to start the man of sin is going to become the son of perdition the mark of the beast is going to be enforced and it is time to get out of town right that's exactly what they need to do well the idea of Jerusalem being encompassed is when when Israel signs the Covenant with the man of sin for seven years and they're giving him power and influence what he does is he has these armies surrounds arou Salaam and no doubt he tells them these are here for your protection but as you know how life sometimes is people don't tell the truth and those armies that are there for their protection are really to compass to encircle Jerusalem so that no one can leave so back to the original question about Matthew 24 verse 2 where it says there shall not be one stone upon another was that fulfilled in 70 AD no it wasn't fulfilled in 70 AD because the Western Wall the Wailing Wall is still standing and there's dozens if not hundreds of stones upon another but it will be fulfilled in the future in the 70th week when the man of sin sets up the abomination of desolation and what follows after that is that the temple is destroyed and it's destroyed so severely obviously it's rebuilt before then it's destroyed so severely severely that there's not even one stone upon another I hope this has been helpful to you I hope that what you see is frankly we're very blessed today we have we have tools like blue letter Bible where we can run search after search after search and what I would encourage you to do is to do that and I'll show you one more technique that is just an interesting thing so I'm looking here at Luke 21 verse 20 you'll see that there's a little K here well if I click on the cape what it's going to do is it's going to pull up the Treasury of Scripture knowledge and with the Treasury of scripture knowledge is is it's a secondary source that has all sorts of cross references that are relevant to the verse now it's a man's judgment that those are relevant cross references so I'm not saying you click on that and you just assume that everything in there is true but these are verses that you might want to look at because as I mentioned earlier the goal is to identify the relevant cross references and compare them to compare spiritual things with spiritual so that you can understand the whole counsel of the Word of God you run all of those different searches so you can find relevant cross references this is another way clicking on the little K to find other relevant cross references what I would suggest to you is this God has designed his word so that the simplest of us can understand it we don't need to know Greek we don't need to know Hebrew God has preserved his word for us in a way that it is available to us we just need to spend the time to run the searches to reread the passages and to search and to search until we find the scriptural keys that unlock difficult passages thank you for letting me spend time with you thank you for listening the goal of this is to help you study your Bible for yourself not interested in you echoing my opinions not interested in you believing something because I say it but I would like to give you the tools from God's Word so that you can study these things for yourself we will resume tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and we hope you'll be with us then father God thank you for your word thank you for the Saints and we just give you all the glory god thank you you've given us a Bible that we can believe in a Bible that we can study it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray amen you

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

Views: 1,967

Rating: 4.9130435 out of 5

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Id: Pn_TzqxPBQI

Length: 56min 42sec (3402 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Unique-Childhood]

This is a great video for those who are new to the faith or those looking for more info on the bible study process.

2 Timothy 2:15

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.