How to Study the Bible

good evening it is so good to have you with us on this Wednesday night glad you were able to take time out of your schedule whatever that is during this point in time to be able to come and and be with us and join us tonight tonight's topic is how to study the Bible so hopefully we'll all learn something for those that may be new at studying the Bible or have been studying it for years you'll all pick up something new tonight and the Lord can can work through that and I hope you learn to know him better through his word I always like to in studying the Bible look at the love of Christ and how that helps sustain us in difficult times as well and you think about all that his love has done for us and the fact that even go to the verse many of us learned in Bible school with John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whosoever believeth King James right believeth in him will not perish but have everlasting life or eternal life what a great promise that talks about the love of Christ let's stand together and let's sing about that tonight and how that love lifts us each and every day so let's sing love lifted me this evening [Music] I was sinking deep and sin far from the peaceful Shore very deeply stained with in seeking to rise no more but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters lifted me now see lifted me love lifted me where nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me nothing else could help me souls in danger look above Jesus completely saves he will lift you by his love out of the angry waves he's the master of the sea below his will obey he your save you wants to be be saved today love lifted me love lifted me where nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me love lifted me when being else could help left [Music] let's pray together father thank you so much for this day we thank you so much for your love that is found and very evidence throughout your Scripture father from the day sin entered this world you had a plan to redeem us a plan to show your love for us and that was done through your son Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made for us on the cross the sacrifice that he made by shedding his innocent blood for our blood that is sinful father for our lives that are sinful and father he sent not only just Christ but he sent his one and only Son as scripture says and so Lord tonight we are so grateful for your love for us we're so grateful that we can look at that and look at that picture of love that you sent your one and only Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us father so that we could be forgiven of our sins tonight father I pray that as we learn more about how to study the Bible that you would use that in a way so that we could also learn how to draw closer to you and share that love with others we come in contact with we ask these things in your holy and precious name Thank You dick and good evening to you welcome to house the Lord tonight North Lake Baptist Church and also for you who are joining us online so glad y'all are with us as well if you have your Bibles please open to Hebrews chapter 10 and that's where we will start tonight again we're going to be having a Bible study about Bible study tonight doesn't that sound exciting as we've said before we see not we try to answer people's questions I tried to preach through the Bible on Sunday mornings but on Wednesday evenings we try to answer questions that people may happen I was asking a question by a couple of folks about how do I prepare sermons and I don't know whether that means that they were wondering the way I preached where did you get all that or or if they just sincerely wanted to know my method and also how long does it take to prepare sermons and of course the way I always try to begin is to remember that we need the Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures to be the one who illuminates that scripture for us and so I always try to begin in prayerful attitude asking the Lord to illuminate the Scriptures that he's already inspired for example a good prayer to pray a psalm 119 18 opened my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law or some 1914 let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer so as I begin to read the scriptures I ask the following questions is what does it say what does it mean and so what I started that back when I was a Sunday school teacher before I went in the ministry and of course that's still how prepare sermons for today what does it say we're talking about translation read the Bible what does it actually say and read it several times so you can understand that and then what does it mean that's where you get into interpretation what is the message that's being conveyed from this particular passage scripture and the so what it's not trying to be cute but here you don't about the application so what does it mean to me so what does it mean to my life how's it going to change my life based on what I just read so that was the setup for our question of the week and so I'm going to begin by asking you how much time you spend each week in Bible study and that was the question that was out on the blog and the winner is one to five hours we had 27 percent said they read an hour or less for during a week 54% and one to five hours per week 16% five to ten hours per week and more than ten hours a week who said that was that Corbyn yeah okay he's working on working on seminary degree so yeah obviously he's reading more I guess anyhow the winner is 1 to 5 hours per week which sounds pretty good until you look at some other statistics according to Nielsen TV rating the average American spends 4.5 hours per day on TV and then they say it's more than that for senior adults now the senior adults really watch that much TV or is that just mean FoxNews is on all day I don't I don't know but anyway and then you go into another stat and it is in addition to that TV time of four and a half hours another three and a half hours per day is on internet social media email that sort of thing and they say if you're younger then that is more so the younger you are the more you're on the internet the older you are the more you're on TV so anyhow when you compare that to Bible study then it's not too well so how long does it take me to prepare sermon and answer that is all week I remember hearing a furniture maker who made furniture by hand and they were asking him how long does it take to make a piece of furniture and he said well I never really get done he said every now and then they just come and say look it's time to put it on the truck and that's kind of the way it is in sermon prep - it's time to preach it at some point so you have to stop sometime on Sunday morning but now I pretty much do it all the time I begin each week by reading the word as we're studying through particularly for Sunday mornings we're studying through the Word of God together I read ahead for the next week I do most of my Bible study early in the morning now I know everybody has their own way of doing things I'm an early morning person you may be a late night person so whatever works for you you need to try to find your time when there's least distractions and then get into the Word of God and then after I think about it pray about it pray about it and think about it all the time one things I've done ever since I've been in the Army I got used to carrying a three by five card in my pocket when I was in the army because you never knew when your commander was gonna give you an order and you need to sit and write it down so I still carry a three by five card in my pocket all the time and so as I'm driving along some people you know fool with their cell phones while they're driving me I pull out my three by five no no actually when when I get an idea I pull off the side of the road so I'm wearing right down y'all we're hoping I would say that right not right while I'm driving but I'll do that I also keep a notepad near the bed because sometimes I'll wake in the middle of the night where the Lord will give me an answer put something in I learned a long time ago get up then and write it down because what happens if you go back to sleep you'll never remember it again so again all that's pretty much the way I studied the Bible what methods do I use in Bible study I use of course I had to go to seminary for I found out technically what it's called but it's inductive Bible study you've all heard of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes he saw mysteries they say using the science of deduction actually Holmes did more inductive method then it was deductive try to explain the difference between the two deductive reasoning is where you begin with a general principle or a universal truth and you apply it to a specific situation a simple example of this is there's a general principle called all squirrels climb trees how many of you know have you ever seen a squirrel that didn't climb a tree see that's a universal principle applying it to a specific situation means that you look out in the backyard and there's a squirrel well what do you know about that squirrel he climbs trees so again that's deduction inductive reasoning is the other way around it's where you start by observing specific situations and then from there you take that particular observation and turn it into a universal or a general principle and the way this works is you're looking out in your yard and you see 12 squirrels and all of them climb trees so what do you induce from that all squirrels climb trees so it's backwards to deductive reasoning so let's look at how that works in a Sherlock Holmes type mystery let's say Holmes goes to a crime scene and finds a woman who's been murdered well generally speaking the first suspect will be the woman's boyfriend or husband yeah I mean that's a high percentage call pretty much that's the way it happens all the time so and the Sherlock Holmes movies in comes the local police and what do they do they start deductive reasoning they start looking for evidence that proves that the husband did it well what does Sherlock do he comes in and he's very observant he begins to look around at every little detail details it to the police doesn't really even seem to be important but he takes all these details at the crime scene and then he begins to connect the dots and and then as he puts them in his mind then he figures out who actually did it and that's what you call inductive reasoning you observe all the things that's going on and from there you put together the principles now let's move from Sherlock to Bible study and in deductive Bible study I don't recommend that but in deductive Bible study you begin with general principles or truths and then from there you start to prove things that for example for centuries the church had taught that new Christians including babies should be baptized by sprinkling water on their heads that was a generally understood truth for hundreds of years that's kind of the way the church operated so how do you prove by the Bible that's what you should do well you go to the Bible and you find scriptures that support your practice so you open your concordance or you turn on your computer and do a word search on sprinkle well look at what happens turn to Hebrews chapter 10 now in verse 22 and we see a verse was sprinkle in it let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled well there it is while a beam you're supposed to be sprinkled we found a verse in the Bible that says you you know that he should be sprinkled well that's what you call deductive reasoning that's also what you call proof texting in other words you believe something is true and then you go the Bible and try to find a verse to prove it I don't recommend you do that matter of fact that's how most cults operate they have come up with a set of beliefs and then they go the Bible and they try to find a verse and they say oh there it is so my position is correct what I do or try to do and what I encourage you to do is inductive Bible study it's the opposite of that you begin by reading verses and you go to a passage of scripture you read the verses and carefully observe every word and then you relate the verses to the context of the book that you're in and to the chapter that you're in and to the paragraph that that verses in and then you compare that with other scripture on the same topic and from all those particulars that's where you grow your general principle or your general truth concerning the doctrine of God and by the way that's why we call it systematic theology it's where you take the particulars and as you go through the Bible and you put all this together you figure out the general principle or the great truth that the Lord has for us in his word the reason we do this careful Bible study is because the Bible says and we believe that the Bible is inspired infallible and inerrant Word of God we believe every word of is true and we believe in the plenary verbal inspiration which means every word in the Bible was inspired by God and is therefore truth and so how do we take that and apply that to inductive Bible study well you read a passage of Scripture and you try to answer three questions and that's the ones I started off with what does it say and what does it mean and then the so what the application doesn't do you much good I mean we're not studying the Bible to win a Trivial Pursuit game what we're doing whenever we study the Bible is to strive to be more christ-like more godly what God has called us to do so that's that's what now theologians I use fancier words for it they call it observation or translation interpretation and application in translation you go and do a textual study that's where you actually read the verse and make sure that you know each word in their interpretation is where you begin to do theology where you begin to take those words and do word searches and see what they mean not just in this verse but what do they mean other places in the Bible and then application is where you're actually doing ethics the way the prophet Ezekiel put it is how then shall we live we've just stayed this passage of Scripture here and I've read what it means I read what it says read what it means now how does that apply to my life how then shall I live based on what the Word of God has just spoken to me also I was talking with Corbin a little bit about what I was going to be sharing tonight and he pointed out that in our Sunday School literature from life way a number of our classes uses the exploring the Bible series and how do they tell you to go in well first is understand second explore third apply again you use different words for it but you need to do those three steps in order to do your own Bible study and also some people say well I'd lift a litre Bible study but I don't know what to do three things translation interpretation and application and if you do that and you do it in a thorough way guess what you'll find out that your hour went by pretty quickly and not only that it would be very productive for you and whoever you're trying to lead so whatever you call it study the Bible in those three steps for example of inductive Bible study let's go back to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22 again and let's take another look at that verse and listen us just stop whenever we find the word we're looking for let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled it goes on from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water you'll notice that that this verse here is not lie saluted by itself but it's also located in a paragraph that has been marked off bus by the Greek scholars who translated this Bible so let's look at that whole paragraph and see how it sheds light on that particular verse therefore brethren having bonus to enter the holiest of the holy her holiest of the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and having a high priests over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as a manner of some but exhort one another and so much more as you see the day which day Judgment Day the day of the Lord as it's approaching are getting nearer to us so if you look at the paragraph that enclosed that verse that we started with first word you see is therefore and now here's a good interpretational principle whenever you see therefore find out what it is therefore so go back and look at what what happened in the previous paragraph is about how Jesus Christ came to this earth and of course he had three functions to be prophet priest and King well what it's talking about in this particular one is to be our high priest and so we come to Jesus by faith we see that in verse 22 so Jesus is our high priest who takes care of that Old Testament priestly function sprinkling sanctifying things with the blood of the altar so that's what the picture that we got here not sprinkling somebody with water on the head that makes him a Christian but it's a picture of Jesus Christ sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice whose sacrifice is it was his own blood that he that he offered so he sprinkles his own blood over our hearts like the Old Testament priests which sanctifies us and sets us apart from the kingdom of heaven and that's what happens on the inside of us what happens on the outside of us continues on in verse 22 our bodies are washed pure water and so here we have the picture of baptism of course the great word for baptism means to immerse or submerge not sprinkle so baptism is a picture of us dying to ourself and rising to walk in a new life once we've trusted Christ they're saving of course that's all comes to us again comparing spiritual things with spiritual things that comes to us from Romans chapter 6 verse 4 and that's where you get in systematic theology we don't isolate verses in the Bible we look at other verses in the Bible that pertain to that one and that's how we take all these separate things and that's how we come up together with a universal principle so in Baptism we're showing on the outside what Jesus Christ has done for us on the inside so verse 22 does not justify the sprinkling of babies instead it justifies the baptism of believers so you see here how inductive Bible study is more in depth than deductive Bible study where you simply think that something's right and you run to the Bible see if you can find a verse that matches up to it now what we do is inductive Bible study whatever you choose to - whatever Bible reading plan you choose just go through there and read those scriptures you just do those three things as you work through there step 1 as we've said in an inductive Bible study is the observation or the translation and that is what does the Bible say read the passage several times I find out sometimes especially at me with some anything how many of you have a lot of things going on in your mind right now yeah we got a lot of a lot of things going on in their mind so a lot of times if you just breeze through doing your daily Bible reading you'll buzz right past some very important things so it's helpful to slow down and read the passage two or three times and then as we talked about last time read the passage in several translations just to make sure that you know what all the words are and if there's any different shades of meaning because of some translation that puts a slightly different word in there and then be very observant with each verse that you read answer those journalistic questions what are the journalistic questions who what when where why and how and then understand once you reach the point of understanding the best way to know whether you understand things or not is to put the passage in your own words I used to do that when I was in management I would explain something to a person and I would say do you understand this yes but I could tell them her mind they didn't understand it so I say well just tell me what you think that I just said no words put it in your own words and if they couldn't put in their own words guess what they probably didn't get it and you know what they're probably gonna go do it so we're kind of the same way is once you read through that passage then just take it and put it in your own words because sometimes we do get in a hurry to finish our daily Bible reading and we're not very observant an example of not being very observant goes back to Sherlock Holmes the story goes for Sherlock and Watson that they were on a well-earned vacation from the detective business and they went on a camping and hiking trip and been a long day so they bit it down and we're lying there looking up at the sky and Holmes said to Watson Watson look up what do you see and Watson said well I I see a thousand stars and home said and what does that mean to you and so Watson taught a few minutes said well I suppose it means that of all the planets and Suns and moons in the universe that we are truly the most blessed with a reason to deduce theorems and to make our way in this world of criminal enterprises and blind greed I think it means that we are truly smiling eyes of God but we struggle each day to be worthy of the senses and spirit with which we have been blessed and I suppose it - very least in a meteorological sense it means that it's most likely that we will have another nice day tomorrow what does it mean to you Holmes Holmes says Watson to me it means someone has stolen our tent so that's being observant sometimes you have to observe what is there sometimes when you're stating the Bible you observe what is not there what did God not say and that's part of it is well for an example when you study Galatians we and of course it's a letter of Paul to the church at Galatia and we see Paolini's letter answering some questions what's missing the questions he's putting the answers there we know what the answers are we don't know what the questions are so we have to deduce those so you know some were questioning powell about how he got his theology some of them apparently thought he'd been brainwashed by gentile christians but then Paul explains I got it from the Lord after conversion I didn't get from anybody else after I was converted I went out into the desert didn't communicate with anybody for three years so I've got my theology from the Word of God I took my Bible with me went out in the wilderness for three years and so I got it straight from the Lord some were obviously questioning his intelligence so he was thinking that he was ignorant of biblical theology but if you're looking to book the Galatians he says that he was top of his class at the University of Jerusalem well it doesn't say that but he says I was above my peers you know in the teachings of Judaism so it's not that I don't understand things I understand it very well also some were questioning his faith did Paul really have the same beliefs as Jesus and the Apostles and so he goes on in Galatians to tell us the Apostles Jesus gave him the right hand of church fellowship so apparently what he told them he believed was in full compliance with what the Apostles believed as well so again when you're just reading through and Corinthians is same way - he's going through Corinthians giving answers to questions well what were the questions well he didn't write those down so you figure out what they are by what is not in the text there so being observant as you go through read and observe the text as you're doing it carefully observe these scriptures what it says and also what it doesn't say so the first step in inductive Bible study is this observation or the translation phase where you actually read and make sure that you've got a good reading of what what those verses are saying the second step is interpretation that's what does it mean and there's where you get into word study define words that you don't understand and be sure and use a Bible dictionary do not use a Webster's do not use a wiki dictionary because again words change their meaning over time and when we're studying the Word of God we all know what the word meant but back then whenever they were talking about it so words do changing their definition over time so always use a Bible Dictionary also I recommend Strong's Concordance because in the back of Strong's Concordance you have a lexicon both Greek and Hebrew and you don't have to know Greek and Hebrew to use those a they're English translations and also thanks to computers now you don't have to use that big anybody ever anybody got a copy of Strong's Concordance about a thick I mean a big doorstop you're better off to use a computer in must time by just swiping it across the verse there you actually see Strong's numbers and Strong's definitions coming up that way you're sure you know what those words mean and then you begin to ask yourself well what's the subject what is this particular verse all about what is the central truth here what is the main point that the Lord is trying to teach us in this study and then you start doing what I call theology you ask yourself the question what does this teach me about God and you may look at that verse and say well it doesn't say much about God okay well don't answer it then if it doesn't move on to the niche what does it say about man why does it say about sin now what does it say about salvation was it say about judgment was it say about holy living Christian living godly living was it say about prophecy the future what does it say about eternity so answer those questions as you're working through your study look for Biblical principles also known as timeless truths is there a command to keep is there an example to follow is there a warning to heed is there a sin to avoid is there a promise for me to hold on to so answer those questions as you're going through your study there and then conclude it with a summary sentence again in your own words you've already read through the scripture and put it in your own words now go through your interpretation and say if I'm interpreting this passage of Scripture how would I put that into a sentence okay and then you're starting to get the understanding now evaluate once you get that figured out what you think it means then that's when you go to your commentaries how many of you go commentaries first that's the easiest way to do it but I don't recommend you do it that way but let the Lord reveal the scripture to you and then you go the commentaries say the theologians agree with me or disagree with me they may disagree with me but depending on which theologian it is it may not matter but nevertheless wait because what what tends to happen if you hear somebody else's opinion first you can't help but slant of what your interpretation is gonna be so do the hard work first and then go to your commentaries and by the way which is the best commentary yeah the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible so again are y'all for me or will cross references there used to be in your Bible it'd be a down the center margin here would tell you other places in the Bible where you can find that doctrine or that word the one I have now mine's pretty much all at the bottom so you look down your verse 21 it has all their verses related to verse 21 at the bottom and most people have study Bibles now and they have some kind of cross reference and that's a great way for you to go compare it to similar passages in the Bible and read those and see if they add any insight to what you're trying to do there and again don't be afraid to go to the Old Testament well someone has said the New Testament is the old concealed the Old Testament is in the new revealed so again they're working together sometimes it's really hard to understand a verse in the New Testament without knowing the background from the Old Testament so be sure and check those out as well let me caution you about allegorical interpretation be careful about allegorical I remember reading a sermon from the David and Goliath story in 1st Samuel 1740 and this is what the verse itself says then he that is David took his staff in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and he put them in a shepherd's bag in a pouch which he had and his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine and the preacher said these five stones represent courage strength perseverance power and patience well Z thing wrong with those words no but the question is where do you get that I mean you could think of five other words in the Bible that you could put in there so again don't make the Bible say more than it actually says here I mean God made a great sermon out of it but the question is left me saying well where did you get that I'm looking at the scripture I don't see anything there about courage strength perseverance power all that so again be careful with that generally speaking only use the allegorical method when the Bible says it's an allegory there are a few places in the Bible that do say this is an allegory okay well you can use allegorical method then but as far as just putting your own spin on a verse I don't recommend you do that and I think that's wrongly dividing the word of truth for example here's one where it does use the word allegory at least in King James Galatians 4 22 for as it is written that Abraham had two sons the one by a bond woman the other by a freewoman but he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh and he of the freewoman through the promise which things are an allegory which things are symbolic and of course then Paul goes on to say the symbolism between the child that was born of a bond woman child born of a free woman was an allegory between being under law and under grace and so he's the one that makes the allegory so we can go with that one why because he's an apostle but as far as just randomly going through and picking up your own allegories and running with him you have to be very careful about that all right so you've done your word study you've crossed reference to other scriptures and now you can go to human commentaries remember the commentaries are not inspired they may be inspiring they may be very helpful for you but the writers of commentaries are human beings just like you and I and it's the opinions of scholars so be careful I encourage you to choose conservative scholars who have a high view of scripture that believe that Bible is the true Word of God one of the old dated ones that I still refer to quite regularly is Matthew Henry anybody know his publishing date 1710 yeah I like the old guys Jay Vernon McGee Warren where's be from moody church one of my favorite small commentaries this compacts only two volumes is the Bible knowledge commentary from the folks at Dallas Theological Seminary it's new enough dating they also include a lot of modern archaeology in there where they've had archaeology evidence that also the Dead Sea Scrolls and things like that's been discovered in recent times and so it's very helpful a John MacArthur commentary again conservative folks that's that's what I encourage you to do particularly if your Sunday School teachers here we want to make sure that we conserve that we use conservative biblical interpretation but even then even then even though it may come highly recommended does the most conservative guy that there is look at their interpretations and you have to ask yourself was their interpretation and opinion or do they back it up with the scripture what makes it a good commentary is becomes long says this is what I think about that because it's also the psalm says this or it says this and marker that says this in Hebrews or something like that in other words he builds a biblical foundation for while he is interpreting that scripture the way that you did and that's very helpful and then ask yourself is my interpretation in harmony with other scriptures because this is important because lots of theology particularly theology that you pick up off the internet these days requires the Bible the main things that it's never meant before if you got something where you got some interpretation where a verse in the Bible doesn't mean what it's ever meant before then it probably needs you need to go back to step one read the verse and start over again so I remember and again not only is it helpful to do this but it also keeps you from being embarrassed I remember before I went in the seminary I heard a preacher I was at a revival meeting one time and he was preaching from Isaiah chapter 9 and if you read that passage before there for passage scripture there the end with a phrase and his hand is stretched out still and then you get another paragraph and his hand is stretched out still it goes through that four times and so the preacher preached a message from that that God is reaching out his hand of love to us to help us to hold us to hug us you know he had it all alliterated and all this kind of stuff the only problem is it's wrong that's not what that passage of Scripture men if you actually get into isaiah 9 and read it and study it you'll find the context of passages judgment and what God's saying here is I've called these people to repent several times but they stubbornly refused so for all this my anger is not turned away but my hand in vengeance what are you doing some using my hand to spank you guys and so it was not God's one hand of love reaching out to help you during their difficult times he was actually saying my hand is still stretched out to spank you because you still won't mind me and so again even though sermon was good it was wrong so you know you you want to be able to rightly divide the word of truth if you're going to lead somebody in a sermon or Bible study or Sunday school or whatever it is so translation what does it say interpretation what does it mean third step is application or the so what so what am I going to do with this how is it going to change my life Ezekiel 33 10 how then shall I live when I was in seminary a book that had a big impact on me was John starts book on preaching called between two worlds he said in a sermon the sermons should build a bridge between the ancient world of the Bible in the 21st century Main Street Gainesville this should bring the principles - now I've also heard some great sermons where they never got it - now they gave you a lot of history and they gave you a lot of the background gave y'all and it was all wonderful stuff but they never got to the how then shall we live you got to build that bridge from yes this is what it meant 2,000 years ago or 3,000 years ago whenever that particular passage is coming from but how do you get it to now how do you get it to how it's going to affect our our lives now I remember like I said Billy Graham was one of my heroes when I was a little boy growing up and I remember him talking about how he did sermon prep and he said I'd do sermon prep with a Bible in one hand and use paper in the other well that's what he's talking about he's making the bridge between back then and those biblical principles how do they apply to the life that we're living now to the mess how many you remember the messes that Billy Graham was preaching back in the 1960's and 1970's we're talking about how messed up the world isn't there I remember how messed up it was in the 60s and 70s and he was applying God's Word to what was going on there so again that's what we're supposed to be doing with Bible study in the application the application is the obedience step remember what James what James said in James chapter 1 verse 22 be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he's like a man observing his natural face in the mirror for he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was he looked in the mirror this morning he realizes wasn't shaved your will I was a hand comb his hair done anything else but you know what didn't do nothing about it so he went to work looking like he just fell out of bed no he said you know do something about it you look at yourself you say I'm not where I need to be I'm not the way I should be so do something about it but he looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work notice that went from word to work now I'm going to apply this thing in the life that I'm living and this one will be blessed as what James says the person who is the doer will be blessed in all that he does so application is more though than just doing what God says do it's also learning to think like God thinks in Philippians 2 we call that the mind of Christ what we ought to get is after we've been in the Word of God for awhile we ought to start to pick up a Christian worldview the way we look at the problems the world the way we view the news it flows into our house at night it should be through a Christian prism it should not be we shouldn't be becoming more conformed to the world but whenever you listen to TV more than we're doing Bible study which one do you think we're going to become like we tend to have more of a worldly world view instead of a Christian worldview and that's what this is this is all about let's look at a couple of examples before we finished not turn to Matthew chapter 7 Matthew chapter 7 should be familiar to you if you watched any of our Vacation Bible School and again I don't I don't have the time to actually go through it in the detail that you would want to before you get ready to preach from it but this is just a to show you the steps that we go through the Vacation Bible School theme if you remember was what concrete and cranes we talked about construction and setting a good foundation 7:24 therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine Jesus says and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock the rain descended the floods came the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended floods came winds blew beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall again if that's your passage of Scripture for the day you read it several times to make sure that you understand it read it in a couple of translations to make sure that you've got the a good understanding of the words then you move into what does it mean any of the words you don't understand you look them up in a good Bible dictionary or a word search online basically what we have here is Jesus using construction principles strong foundation as a sermon illustration to encourage his followers to build their life on the Word of God and again most people may not be in construction but at least somebody has seen a house being built and you know you don't just go out there and start driving nails you have to build a foundation so it's a it's a thing that he knows will relate to the majority of his audience on how this apprently well you need to do the same thing with the Word of God before we start off to build a life then read the Word of God and it'll tell you had the right decisions to make and so that's the point that it's trying to mend so how do you go about applying that well I put my faith in Christ I'll make him the foundation of my life we see that verse 25 I'm gonna believe trust and obey the sayings of Jesus see that in verse 24 and 26 so that my life will stand the test of time that's the application right there even though I'm tempted by the world to go their way and build my life the way they're building it which looks a whole lot faster a whole lot easier and a whole lot more fun well what happens when the rains come it's a it's a life built on the sin and it falls down so I'm going to build my life based on something that will last for time and eternity all right let's do one more as the New Testament let's do Old Testament Deuteronomy chapter not teams it's going to be a very familiar phrase yes if we know what to do with it do you run me 19 mmm-hmm verse 21 you're I shall not pity life shall be for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot what we do with that well first of all read it several times read it two or three translations what do you think maybe we need a little context on that one the paragraph I think begins in verse 15 one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established if a false witness rises against the man to testify against him for wrongdoing then both the men and the controversy shall stand before the Lord before the priest and the judges who serve in those days the judge shall make careful inquiry and indeed if a witness is a false witness he show who has testified falsely against his brother then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother so you shall put away the evil from among you and those who remain so here in fear and Hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you your eyes shall not pity them life shall be for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot so again what does that mean what that simply means as the punishment should fit the crime if the perpetrator injured the victims eye then the perpetrator should have his eye injured but you don't kill him for injuring another person's eye a lot of people look at the Old Testament law here as being cruel but you gotta remember what the law was before then before then is if somebody either insulted you or injured you no matter how bad it was you were had every right to kill him matter of fact we read about that that was the wild wild west in Genesis 4:23 talks about Lamech he was there bragging to his wives how he had killed a man for injuring me and that was kind of the way things were so actually we were calming down we said the punishment must fit the crimes you should not punish anything about God worse than what he has already done to somebody else so again it was a matter of adding justice to another wise unjust situation so what does this means that mean if somebody pokes you in eye that you have a god-given right to poke them in the eye nobody's answering in persons anybody out there answering anybody out there in TV land now I think you could go back and read that context again 15 through 21 you'll notice some words like witnesses and judges which means that's what this is a court case this is not where you go out and take things out on your neighbor this is where something's happened and you go before the judges verse 18 old testament time criminal law was there for judges to be able to keep the peace again you study through Deuteronomy in Exodus you'll see the Leviticus three types of law in the Old Testament moral law ceremonial law and judicial or civil law obviously Deuteronomy 19 through 21 these are judicial verses verses for judges and for law enforcement to be using well how do we go about applying a verse like this well I thought about it and I think the way we interpret this is I need to learn to love my neighbor's myself so I will not have to go to court and be punished for punching my neighbor in the eye well you may say well Danny how do we know that you've got that right well again what you compare it with other scriptures so I compared it with the teachings of Jesus listen to what he says about eye for eye tooth for tooth and Matthew 538 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth but I tell you not to resist an evil person whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn the other cheek to him also if anyone wants to sue you take away your tunic let him have your cloak also whoever compels you to go a mile with him go to give to him who asked you and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away you heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies but I say love your enemies so I think my interpretation is right these laws here was not for the way were to treat each other because if we you know poked each other's eye out every time somebody poked ours or knocked a tooth out we'd have a toothless blind congregation no this year's a judicial decided for judges who are supposed to rule on this thing but as far as you and me we're do what love one another try to get along with one another and I try to take care of these things with forgiveness instead of having to take it to the courts and do all this eye and tooth and foot things well I hope this helps you tonight I hope it helps you understand that a wanna verse that we have what study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needs not to be ashamed what rightly dividing rightly interpreting the word of truth and so that's what we want to do is we take time each day in order to open the Word of God is instead of just reading through it and to in order to be able to check the box to say I'm a daily Bible reader or slow it down and we ask ourselves what does it say what does it mean and what does it mean to me how's it gonna change my life because I studied God's Word let's go the Lord in prayer father I thank you for your word Lord what will we do without it we do live in a culture of shifting sand where what was wrong yesterday seems to be right today and what was right yesterday seems to be wrong today seems like there's no standards seemed like there's no truth everybody has their own truth but Jesus told us that thy Word is truth and I thank you Lord that you not only inspired the prophets and apostles to write it but by the power of your Holy Spirit you've preserved it through the years through people who've tried to destroy your word but you were always one step ahead of them I think your Lord for allowing your word to make it all the way to our generation so that we know how to build a strong foundation for life by trusting and obeying you lord help us as we do that help us to be committed to that we'll pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

Views: 2,324

Rating: 4.909091 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: OvWSoSzvbJQ

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020