Father, I just pray that you would use these great truths, that they would help us to study
the Bible better and learn the Bible in a greater way.
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now my text verse tonight is the verse there in 2 Timothy 2.15 where the Bible says,
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.
Now I want to preach to you tonight on the subject of how to study the Bible, how to
study the Bible.
It's going to be a very practical message about how to read the Bible, how to study
the Bible.
I'm going to give you 10 points on how to study the Bible.
Now first of all, in way of introduction, look at 2 Timothy 2.15.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
Look, God does not approve of a Christian who does not study the Bible.
You see that?
God does not put his approval on somebody who doesn't know the Bible.
If a person does not know the Bible, God disapproves of that, and he says, study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
He's saying, look, if you don't know the Bible, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you're
going to be put to shame.
Boy, have you ever talked to somebody about something?
You know you're trying to win somebody the Lord, or you're trying to talk to somebody
and straighten them out and get them in church or what have you, and then they'll say something
to you, and you just don't have an answer for them because you just don't know the Bible,
and you just don't know where to go, or you don't know what to show them.
And sometimes people can put you to shame.
I mean, a new believer, maybe somebody who doesn't know the Bible very well, and then
they get to talking to somebody who's one of these cults or what have you, a Mormon
to his witness, they might put you to shame if you don't know the Bible.
And so God says, look, you need to study the Bible, number one, to get my approval.
He says, I want you to know the Bible, and number two, so that you're not put to shame
before those that you're dealing with, before those that you're trying to win to Christ,
before those that you're trying to preach the gospel and the truth to.
And so studying the Bible is vitally important.
It's important to know the Bible.
We live in a day where knowledge of the Bible is minimized.
The idea of knowing a lot of Bible is put on the back burner.
It's just the heart that matters, what people will teach, or, well, it's just important
that you love God and that you obey God, but look, God says, my people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge.
He said that the Jews, they have a zeal for God, man, they're excited about serving God.
He said they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
And so without the knowledge in this book, imagine, if I were to tell you, you know what,
God wants you to just sell out for God and live for God all the time, every day, all
your energy, everything that you have towards serving God, and then think about this.
What if you did that and you said, I'm just going to give it everything I've got?
But what if you were doing the wrong thing, you know, that wasn't what God wanted you
to spend your life?
There are people who spend their lives in a, I don't know what it's called, where these,
a convent, where these nuns go, you know, or they spend their whole life serving God
in their mind.
They spend their whole life depriving themselves of things that they could have had, and they
spend their life and their zeal on something that's wrong.
Why?
Because they didn't take the time to see what the Bible says, to study and learn what the
Bible says.
And so I don't want to give my life to something and be spinning my wheels, because I don't
know what's true, I don't even know if what I'm doing is right.
And so studying the Bible is the most important thing that there is in the world, knowing
what the Bible says.
Now, let me give you ten things on studying the Bible.
Now, number one, and I'm just going to briefly touch on this, because we all know this, but
number one, when you're studying the Bible, make sure that you have the right Bible.
That's the first thing that you have to do, because if you're going to spend your life
studying something, good night.
You don't want to study something that's the wrong thing and spend all that time just spinning
your wheels.
Let me just give you a few scriptures on that, I'll just read these for you.
Let me read it correctly, it's 2.17, for we are not as many, catch that word, many, there's
a lot of people doing this, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but
as of sincerity, but as of God, and the sight of God speak we in Christ.
He said, look, there's many people out there who corrupt the word of God, who change God's
word, who defile it, and alter it, that's what corruption is, it alters its form.
And then Ezekiel 13, the Bible says, they have seen vanity and lying divination, saying,
the Lord saith, and the Lord hath not sent them, and they have made others to hope that
they would confirm the word.
Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, where as ye
say, the Lord saith it, albeit I have not spoken.
See, God is saying, look, there are people out there who are preaching what they claim
is God's word, and it's not God's word at all, it's not what God has said at all.
So number one, of course, make sure that you have the right Bible.
Number two, the best thing that you could do, the next thing, make sure you have the
right Bible, the King James Bible, but number two, get a Bible that's only the Bible.
You know what I'm saying?
Just get a Bible that's just the Bible.
I mean, not all the texts and all the notes, you get some of these Bibles and literally,
the first third of the page will be the Bible text, and then the whole bottom is just notes
and commentaries, and then they'll stick a thing in the column with all the notes and
commentaries, and switch out, it'll say in the column, you know, switch out this word
for this word, and this word for this word, and go here and read this, and look, the best
thing that you could do, and I'm not telling you it's wrong to have a Bible like that,
but I'm telling you this, I'm giving you ten tips on how to say the Bible, and how to learn
the Bible better, and if you get a Bible that just has the Bible, you will learn more with
a Bible like that.
I remember when I was a kid, I had the Bibles with just everything, I mean, all the notes,
all the commentaries, and I would just get off on a tangent.
I'd start reading the Bible, I'd read about three or four verses, and I'd see a little
three next to a word, and I'd say, oh, what's that mean?
I'd go down to the bottom, I'd find the three, and it would start talking about other things,
and I'd read the whole thing, and it would tell me, go over here and read this, and I'd
go over there and read that, and boy, I'd spend an hour on that one thing, and I didn't
get anywhere in reading the Bible, and so number one, make sure you've got the right
Bible, the King James Bible.
Number two, get a Bible, the best Bible that I would recommend is a Bible that just has
the text of the Bible, nothing else, as little else as you can, the most stripped down, just
the text of the King James Bible.
Now number three, before you get too involved with studying the Bible, and this sermon's
about studying the Bible, it's also just about reading the Bible, read the Bible cover to
cover at least five times before you think about studying the Bible.
I mean, think about it.
Before you're going to take a microscope and take one little part of the Bible and dissect
it and study it and learn it and get it down, see the big picture.
You see, you're not going to be able to understand the small parts of the Bible and really get
into it until you see the big picture.
I remember when I was a teenager, I was 17 years old, and that's what my pastor said.
He said, read the Bible five times cover to cover before you even think about studying
the Bible.
That's what I did when I was 17, was the first time I ever read the Bible cover to cover.
When I was 18 years old, I divided the year up into four parts, I said, this year I'm
going to read the Bible four times so that I'll be qualified to even study the Bible,
even learn the Bible, so I can see the big picture.
And boy, when I was 18 years old, each of those three month periods, I read through
the Bible cover to cover, and boy, I'll tell you what, I learned the Bible, started to
see the big picture.
And I didn't know, obviously I was 18, I didn't know a whole lot after just five times of
reading it, but after those five times, God kind of just opened up the big picture to
me.
And I could see a little more of the big picture.
And then after that, if I would study the Bible, I would learn so much more.
You see, Paul said in Acts 20, 27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God.
He said, I preached this whole book.
That's what Paul said.
I preach all of it.
I declare all the counsel of God.
And he said, furthermore, in Matthew 4, Jesus said, but he answered and said, it is written,
man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.
God says, I expect you to live by every word in this book.
It's impossible to live by every word in this book if you don't know every word in this
book.
You're not going to know every word in this book unless you read it cover to cover.
Now, you may not necessarily like to read it in order.
I've never read it cover to cover in order.
I've never started in Genesis and read the Revelation in order.
I skip around.
I check off which books I've read, but I always make sure that I'm going to read every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that I'm going to get the whole counsel of God.
And so those are the three very rudimentary things.
And that's just kind of an introduction to the story.
It's probably something that you already know.
But number four, this is very important part of the message.
Number four, you go with the statement above the story, okay?
Always put the statement above the story.
Now what is the Bible filled with?
Well, it's filled with stories, but it's also filled with statements from God.
Now sometimes the statements and the stories contradict each other.
I'll be honest with you.
Very often you're going to find a statement and a story that contradicts it.
Which one are you going to trust?
What are you going to go with?
What the story says or what the statement says?
See, you have to understand that this book is not all just what God is telling you.
This is also God telling you about what people did that might have been right and might have
been wrong.
This is also God telling you about what people said that may be right or may be wrong.
Let me give you some examples.
Turn in your Bible to Luke chapter two.
I'm going to show you what I mean by this statement versus story.
Look at Luke chapter two verse number 33.
Luke chapter two verse number 33, the Bible reads here, and Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were spoken of him.
Now look, the King James Bible, God's word, when God wrote this he's very careful to call
Joseph Joseph and not Jesus's father, he says, and Joseph and his mother marveled at those
things which were spoken of him.
Of course, the NIV changes it to his father and his mother marveled at those things which
were spoken of him.
Calling Joseph Jesus's father, that is Joseph Jesus's father.
Now you have to understand when you're reading the Bible, remember this sermon is about how
to study the Bible, how to interpret what the Bible is saying.
Look, if you're reading the Bible, in the book of Luke, it says here, and Joseph and
his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him, that statement is being
spoken by the narrator.
Do you understand what I mean by that?
The author of the book, Luke, is saying that.
Now is the book of Luke God's word?
Absolutely.
So when you're reading the narrator speaking, everything you're reading must be true because
the Bible is saying it, because the Bible is telling you Joseph and his mother marveled.
I showed that to one of these preachers, one of these NIV type preachers, I said, hey look,
here's a mistake in your Bible, your Bible's phony.
And that's what they said, they said okay, look down at verse 48.
Go with me to verse 48 and I'll show you what he showed me.
It says, and when they saw him they were amazed, it's talking about Joseph and Mary, and his
mother said unto him, son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?
Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Now does that call Joseph Jesus's father?
It does, doesn't it?
Mary says thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
But see here's what you have to understand, the narrator is not speaking.
The Bible is not speaking right now.
The Bible is telling us what Mary said, you understand that?
So the difference is, the narrator is not speaking, the narrator is telling us this
is what Mary said.
So is Luke 2 48 true?
Yes, it's true because Mary did say that.
Is what she said true?
No.
Mary said in verse 48 is wrong because she referred to Joseph as Jesus's father which
is wrong.
Look if you would, there's one great example of how when the narrator is speaking, that's
true but when it's a quote of another person, he's just telling you what they said.
And they may or may not be telling the truth.
I'll show you a better example.
Look at the book of Job, verse number 42 of the book of Job right before Psalms, right
at the center of your Bible, Job 42.
And this will help you to understand the Bible because I've seen people get hung up
about this or I've seen people base what they believe on what a person in the Bible says
but it's not necessarily what the Bible is saying.
It's just what a person says.
Look at Job 42 and look at verse number 7.
And this will really help you in your understanding of the book of Job especially.
But look at Job 42 verse 7, and it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words
unto Job, the Lord said Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against thee and against
thy two friends.
Now watch this next phrase, for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my
servant Job hath.
Now here's God speaking saying listen Eliphas and listen your two friends, you three have
spoken wrong things about me.
That's what he's saying, he's saying you've spoken wrong things about me.
He says for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath.
So he's saying what Job has said about me was right.
What you and your two friends have said about me was wrong.
Look at the latter part of verse number 8.
And my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept lest I deal with you after
your folly and that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right like my servant
Job.
He says the same thing, he says the three friends have spoken wrong things about me,
about Job, whereas Job spoke right.
He was speaking God's word.
Now look at the book of Job with me, look at chapter number, turn to chapter number
4 of the book of Job and I'm going to show you something.
Chapter number 4 verse 1, everybody there Job 4, 1, then Eliphaz the Temanite answered
and said.
Now the entire chapter 4 and the entire chapter 5 is spoken by Eliphaz the Temanite, which
God says at the end of the book he spoke wrong.
Do you see what I'm saying?
So here you have two chapters of somebody speaking things that are wrong in the Bible.
Two chapters of the Bible that are somebody saying something that's wrong.
Then look at chapter 6 verse 1, but Job answered and said, and then you have chapters 6 and
7, which are what Job is saying, which is what God has said, this is right, this is
God's word.
Then in chapter number 8 it says, then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said, and the whole
chapter 8 is somebody speaking that's wrong.
Then in chapter 9 it says, then Job answered and said, and you got right in chapter 9,
right in chapter 10.
Chapter 11, then answered Zophar the Neamathite and said, Job chapter 11 is just wrong.
You can't base what you believe on, what's in Job chapter 11, because it's a man speaking
who God said this man is speaking wrong.
Now is Job chapter 11 true?
Yes it is true because that is what he said.
But is what he said true?
No.
What he said is not true because God said it's not true.
And then in chapter 12 we're back to Job, 13 is Job, 14 is Job, chapter number 15 we're
back to the friends that are wrong, and on and on and on and on.
You see throughout this whole book you'll find that about half of the book is spoken
by people that are not necessarily telling the truth.
Now some of the things that they say are right, but a lot of things that they say are wrong.
I mean they're telling Job that he's a wicked sinner and that he deserves everything and
that he brought it upon himself, that's just not true.
And God said at the end that they spoke fallacy concerning the nature of God.
And so you have to understand when you're reading the Bible you have to be able to differentiate
between something that God is saying in the Bible, something that the narrator is saying
in the Bible, you know it's true because the narrator is saying it.
Whereas something that a person says in the Bible, it could be true, it could be not true.
Just like if I say something to you, maybe it's true, maybe it's not true.
But it's not authoritative when I speak like when God speaks.
And it's not authoritative when people in the Bible speak as opposed to God speaking,
the narrator in the Bible.
Think about this, so that's the difference between a quotation in the Bible and the narrator
speaking, you have to be able to differentiate.
But how about this, just a story versus a statement.
Here's a story, Jesus turned the water into wine.
Now of course if you study the Bible you'll learn that the word juice does not occur in
the Bible and that the word wine is just meaning juice.
The Bible talks about in Isaiah chapter 66, wine being inside of a grape that's still
on the vine before it's even been picked.
So don't tell me that's alcoholic beverage inside of a grape that's on the vine.
And on and on you can find all kinds of examples like that.
But people will say, see look, didn't Jesus make the water into wine, didn't Jesus drink
wine at the last supper, see it's okay to drink.
And they're taking a story of what happened and basing what they believe on the story
and they're bypassing the clear statement.
Here's the clear statement, look at Proverbs, if you're in Job just flip forward two books,
look at Proverbs chapter 23 and we'll see the clear statement that God makes about alcohol.
Here in Proverbs chapter 23 if you look at verse number 32, God differentiates between
two kinds of wine here.
In chapter 23 verse 32 he says, 31 I'm sorry, look not thou upon the wine when it is red.
This is in verse number 31 of chapter 23.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when
it moveth itself aright.
He's saying look, there's a certain beverage that you're never supposed to even look at
it so wicked.
And he says at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, thine eyes shall
behold strange women and thine heart shall other perverse things.
That's the description of being under the influence of alcohol.
You say ungodly things, you see strange women and you get into trouble.
Look God is saying there's a certain beverage that you're not supposed to even look at.
And if you took and looked at every time the word wine occurs in the Bible it's either
a very positive description, talking about just a fruit juice, something that God made,
or it's an extremely negative description saying that it's wicked, it's ungodly, it's
sinful, it'll cause you to do wrong.
And the Bible talks a lot about it, if you look it up in the concourse you'll see many
different references to wine in the Bible.
And so am I just going to take some story about, well I found a guy in the Old Testament
that drank wine one time, so God must be condoning it.
No look, God has a clear statement here that says don't even look at alcoholic beverage.
And so if he says don't even look at it here, no story is going to change my mind about
that where somebody did it or somebody said it or I think somebody did it.
I mean you expect me to believe Jesus is creating something out of nothing.
He's taking water and turning it into wine.
If you know what alcohol is, it's a decayed process.
Look when God creates something, Jesus himself in the book of Revelation said, behold I make
all things new.
Okay, why would he make some old, decayed, wicked beverage that makes people drunk and
create that out of water?
But that's what happens when you just take a story and run with it instead of going with
what the Bible clearly states.
Think about this, people will say well women preachers, you know you talk about what Joyce
Meyer or one of these women preachers or I think Billy Graham's daughter is some preacher
and these different women preachers and they say well look, in the Bible what about Deborah?
She was a prophetess.
And this is what they'll say, Deborah in Judges chapter 4 and 5 was a prophetess and so it
must be okay.
Well look, that's a story, here's a statement.
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp
authority over the man but to be in silence, for Adam was first formed then Eve and then
of course the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 14, let the women keep silence in your churches
for it is not permitted under them to speak.
And so that's the clear statement of the Bible, God's clear teaching and you just take some
story and say well this woman was a preacher in the Old Testament so it must be okay.
Now look, you start with the statement and you just nail that down, I know that women
preachers are wrong because the Bible says it clearly in a statement.
Then you go back and interpret the story, it never gives any reference to her preaching
publicly in the whole story.
She talks to one man, she prophesies to one man to Barak.
She never gets up in front of some crowd and preaches.
She prophesies to one man, in the New Testament, Stephen's seven daughters that were prophetesses,
they prophesied to one man, the apostle Paul.
They weren't upholding preaching services and crusades with Christian rock bands and
getting up and preaching on a stage.
It was totally different.
But see that's what happens when you just interpret the Bible based on the story.
Think about multiple wives, David had two or three wives, Jacob had four wives and they'll
go through all this, why can't I have more than one wife, Abraham had more than one wife.
Look, go with the statement where God said, therefore shall a man leave father and mother
and cleave unto his wife singular and they too shall be one flesh.
It says, from the beginning it was not so, God made them male and female.
That's God's original intent, that was God's plan, was one man and one woman to be married.
And so to sit there and say, well this guy had two wives, look, just because he did it
doesn't mean that it's right.
A lot of people in the Old Testament did a lot of things that were very wrong.
And so just because somebody did something doesn't make it right.
You have to go by the clear statement of God's word.
And on and on, I have a couple other examples, there's a story in Judges 17 that's just completely
an off-the-wall story.
And these people are saying, God is pleased with me because I've made this idol and I've
got this Levi and they have this big elaborate thing where they build this idol and they
say, man, God is really blessing us.
And if you read that, and they call, they have this priest that they hire, they hire
a priest for money to be their personal priest and preach to him, as in Judges 17.
And they set up an idolatrous image to Jehovah God, which is obviously totally wrong, and
they say, boy, God is blessing us.
God loves us because look how we've got this priest, we've got our idol, and they call
the priest's father.
He says, I'm going to call you father.
Look, it's a wrong story because we have the clear commands of God and we'll see how the
story ends up.
If you read Judges 17 and 18, it ends up in disaster, but you can't take a story and base
your doctrine on a story.
First get the statements down.
First get all the commands meant to God nailed down.
First get all the clear commands nailed down, then use the statement to interpret the story.
Don't use the story to interpret the statement.
Don't put the story up here in the statement down here.
Put the statement number one, because that's just what God says.
And then compare that with what God tells you about people's lives and use the statement
to interpret the story, but don't use the story and throw out the statement.
So put the statement above the story, that's number four.
Number five, when you're reading that, when you're studying the Bible, you must compare
spiritual things with spiritual.
The Bible says, and you know, I didn't even write that verse down for some reason.
I wrote down every other verse, but I think I know where it is.
It's in first Corinthians chapter two, if you want to turn that.
First Corinthians chapter two, let's see if I can find it.
Here we go.
First Corinthians chapter two, the Bible says in verse number 10, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things
of God.
It's talking about the deep things in the Bible.
For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
See in that verse, number 13, he's saying two things, he's saying number one, the words
that we use when we speak are not the words of man's wisdom.
We use the terminology that God uses in the Bible.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying we don't speak using terms that the world came up with when it comes to the
things of God.
We use God's terminology.
What do I mean by that?
I'm talking about using God's terminology like this is called a church, not faithful
word Baptist ministries.
Okay, no, this is faithful word Baptist church.
We use words like getting saved, not making a commitment to Christ, not turning over your
life to Christ, or coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
These are not terms that are used by the Bible.
The word relationship is not found in the Bible.
The word commitment is not found in the Bible.
The word ministries is not found in the Bible.
We use the words that the Holy Ghost teacheth, not the words that man's wisdom teacheth.
Because we use terms like believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We use words like salvation.
We use words like the blood of Jesus Christ.
We don't use terms coined by the world like we need to get plugged in.
You need to connect with the message.
We want to get connected.
Look, I don't use those kind of terms.
I use the terms that the Holy Ghost teaches.
I use Bible words.
And so when I talk about the things of God, I use a Bible word.
I don't use words like Christophany, theophany, protoevangelium.
I don't use those words.
Those are theological terms made up by Dr. Fatbottom and some university somewhere.
I want to use the words taught by the Holy Ghost.
This Bible is a sufficient spiritual vocabulary for me.
And so I don't need to borrow words from some theologian.
I want to use the words that God's wisdom teacheth.
And see, he says, use the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth and compare spiritual
things to spiritual.
Now let me ask you something.
If you've got your Bible in your one hand and you've got Webster's dictionary in the
other hand, are you comparing spiritual things with spiritual?
No, you're comparing carnal or fleshly.
Carnal means fleshly or just natural.
So you've got the carnal dictionary on this hand, the King James Bible on this hand.
That's not spiritual to spiritual.
You're holding a commentary in this hand, written by a man, and you've got the Holy
Bible in this hand.
You're not comparing spiritual with spiritual.
But if you've got 1 Corinthians in this finger and then you flip over here to Ecclesiastes,
now you're comparing spiritual with spiritual.
And that's how you study the Bible.
You compare, when it says compare spiritual with spiritual, it's saying compare scripture
with scripture.
I mean, take one verse here and then say, you know, there's a verse over here, okay,
and I put those two together and I can get some truth.
It can make sense.
I can see what God's trying to say, the big picture, when I compare this verse with this
verse.
Not this verse with this dictionary, not this verse with this Greek lexicon, not this verse
with this commentary, but comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Why?
Because we want to use the words that the Holy Ghost teaches, not the words of man's
wisdom that man teaches.
You see, God said, and I realize this is talking about changing the Bible, but God said in
Revelation 22 18, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of this prophecy
in this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book.
And so God says, don't add to my word.
Now I realize that that's talking about, you know, adding to it and saying that it's scripture,
you know, putting in a new book of the Bible or adding on to the book of Matthew, adding
a few things in here and there like modern Bible versions do.
But in the same token, I don't need to add some kind of a truth besides the truth that's
been revealed in the Bible and say, I have a new truth.
You need to read my book and my commentary so I can teach you things that are not in
the Bible, but you need to know these things.
Don't add to the Bible.
The Bible is sufficient.
If it wasn't enough, then God wouldn't swear to us and say, do not add to it because it's
enough.
First John 2 27, this is a great verse, but the anointing which you have received of him
abideth in you.
It's talking about the Holy Spirit living inside of you and you need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no
lie.
And even as it had taught you, you shall abide in him.
He says, look, you don't need anybody to teach you the Bible.
He says, if you have the Holy Spirit living inside you, he will teach you all things.
I mean, he, anything you need to know about the Bible, you can learn from the Holy Spirit
reading the Bible.
And so that's why you don't need extra biblical books.
That's why you don't need a commentary.
That's why you don't need a dictionary.
You need to just study the Bible and yes, compare Scripture with Scripture.
And if you know the whole Bible, then you can compare things in the Old Testament to
the New Testament and so forth.
You can compare things in Matthew with things in Luke and God will give you the same account
of the same story, but in a slightly different way.
You can compare those two scriptures, the Matthew account and the Luke account, and
you can learn great truth by putting those side by side and looking at them.
You'll see things that you would not see otherwise.
So quick review.
Number one, make sure you have the right Bible.
Number two, get a Bible that's just only the Bible.
Number three, read the Bible five times cover to cover is vital.
That's the first goal to work on.
Number four, you go with the statement above the story.
Number five, you compare spiritual things with spiritual.
Number six, and this is very important, pray for God to teach you the Bible.
Pray to God.
When you go to read the Bible, open the Bible and pray to God that he will teach you the
Bible, that he will show you something in the Bible.
Psalm 119 18 says, open now mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
I prayed that to God hundreds of times.
I just said, God, open now mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Now God's going to answer that prayer.
If you ask God to show you something in the Bible, he will answer that prayer.
Number seven, go soul winning or preach sermons.
Sometimes you're a man, you preach sermons, but see, going soul winning or preaching a
sermon, you're teaching someone else the Bible.
Look at Romans chapter two, verse 21, turn in your Bible to Romans two 21, I'll show
you this.
Romans chapter two, verse 21, Romans two 21, the Bible reads, thou therefore, which teaches
another, teaches thou not thyself, thou that preacheth, the man shall not steal, does
thou steal.
He's saying, look, isn't it true that when you teach someone else, you're also teaching
yourself at the same time?
That's what he's saying there.
He's saying, thou that teaches another, teaches thou not thyself.
Look, when I go out soul winning and I give somebody the Gospel, things will come into
my mind.
I will think of illustrations, I'll think of verses in the Bible that I didn't really
think about before, that I didn't really know before.
Because God will lead me to certain verses and teach me the Bible as I'm teaching someone
else how to be saved, I'll learn things.
When I'm up preaching a sermon, I will learn things.
Things will come into my mind that I never would have learned otherwise.
Because when you teach someone else, you usually end up teaching yourself a lot.
And so when you show someone else things in the Bible, when you show a friend something
that you learned in the Bible, when you show someone how to be saved, when you show somebody
what the right Bible is, when you show somebody about eternal security, when you show somebody
these things, you will learn a lot in the process.
So using the Word of God that you've learned is going to cause you to learn more by teaching
it to somebody else.
You learn the most.
I mean, good night.
My kids have the Romans Road memorized, they have the Salvation Verses memorized.
When they were tiny, just because they just heard it being taught to someone else so much,
they picked it up in the process.
I mean, the one verse that I never had to work on memorizing are the verses that I use
for soul winning.
Just from opening my Bible so many times, you say, man, I have a hard time memorizing
scripture.
Look, if you open your Bible like 500 times and show somebody, okay, Romans 3.23, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, you're going to know that verse after
a while.
I mean, for the 527th time you open it, good night, you're going to know that verse.
And so by soul winning, if you go soul winning enough, you will have all the Salvation Verses
memorized.
And so sometimes I'll try to just use different verses that I'm not used to using just so
I can memorize them.
Because I figure, hey, if I go, I'll go soul winning with this for the next couple of months,
these verses, and I know I'll have these down.
And so it's a great way to learn the Bible, soul winning, preaching, teaching someone
else the Bible.
So number five was comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Number six, pray for God to teach you the Bible.
Number seven, go soul winning, preach, teach the Bible, and you'll learn a lot that way.
Number eight, memorize the Bible.
Memorize the Bible.
Now I started memorizing the Bible a lot when I was 17 again, when I started reading through
the Bible.
And here's what I did.
I said, you know what?
I'm going to pick just the most complicated, hardest to understand, weirdest thing in the
Bible that I just don't have a clue what it's talking about.
And that's what I'm going to memorize.
Because then I'll understand, I mean, I've got to understand it by the time I quote it
three or four, 500 times.
And so that's what I did.
This is what I learned.
The book of Habakkuk.
I said, hey, I'm going to memorize the book of Habakkuk.
This is when I was 17.
And I'm going to memorize the book of Joel.
Because I read those books, and I just could not understand what they were talking about.
They just went right over my head.
And I memorized those books when I was 17 years old.
I was working at a theme park called Thunderland.
And my whole job, this is my job, I open the little gate, and all the little kids come
and get on the ride.
I shut the gate, and I push the green button.
And I stand there for about three minutes.
And three minutes go by, I push the red button.
The ride stops.
I open the gate again.
The kids leave.
That was my whole job.
Just open the gate, shut the gate.
Push the green button, push the red button.
Open the gate, shut the gate.
So all day long, I had my three or five crowds, I was just learning the Bible.
I worked at that job for two months, and in two months I learned the book of Habakkuk,
just three chapters.
I learned the book of Joel, three chapters.
And I learned about maybe four or five other chapters in there.
And so I'll tell you what, I knew the book of Habakkuk after that.
I mean, I could explain to you everything about the book of Habakkuk.
I could tell you what it was about, I could tell you what chapter one's about, I could
tell you what chapter two's about, what chapter three's about.
I could tell you why it's so important.
I could tell you, I mean, I could preach a whole series of sermons right now.
I could preach for hours on the book of Habakkuk right now.
Wouldn't that be great?
But anyway, I literally could, because when you memorize something in the Bible, God will
teach you that in a special way.
So if there's something in the Bible that you like, that you really want to learn about,
or something that you just don't understand at all, like I did, if you memorize it, boy,
God will just open it up to you.
Another book that I wanted to memorize was 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, because those are
books written from a preacher, Paul, to a young pastor.
Timothy was a pastor, Titus was a pastor, I memorized those books, 1 and 2 Timothy,
Titus and Philemon, because then I want to know what God is saying to a pastor, how to
be a pastor, what you should preach like, what you should be like.
And so I wanted to memorize those so that God could teach me those.
And the books that I have memorized right now are the books that I understand the best.
There are parts of the Bible, I'll admit to you, there are parts of the Bible that are
a little bit of an enigma to me that I don't really understand, or maybe if you ask me
exactly where something is in a certain book, I wouldn't be able to tell you.
But the stuff that I've memorized, of course I can tell you, because God will teach you
the Bible in a special way when you memorize the Bible.
You say, well, I just have such a hard time memorizing.
I'll be honest with you, I have a difficult time memorizing too, my wife literally can
memorize stuff at least 4 or 5 times faster than me.
Is that true?
I mean, it is the truth, it irritates me, because one time we both started this little
program for memorizing, and she just blew my doors off.
She had a whole chapter done in like 2 hours or something, I'm on like verse 4, and she
will blow my doors off, I mean she can memorize stuff just like that.
It's nothing to her.
But see, to me, I literally, I have to work at it hard.
I mean I have to just say it over and over, I have literally been stuck on like one verse
for like an hour, just quoting the same verse.
I mean seriously, I just have like a mental block, and I just cannot get one verse down
for an hour, literally.
And other times, obviously, I move faster than that, but I get stuck.
But I'll tell you something, the more that you do it, your mind is like a muscle, and
you'll start to get better at it, you'll start to get a mind.
And now I'm to the point for memorizing a lot of the Bible, where I'll just memorize
stupid stuff.
I mean, I'll see a billboard and just memorize it, and I'll find my, I mean, the other day
I was walking around, and I found myself just chanting a billboard that I saw, just chanting
it like 20 or 30 times.
And I'm like, what am I doing?
Because I'm so used to just quoting, you know, verses and learning, and so it's something
that if you practice at it, if you work at it, you can get good at memorizing.
Here's another thing, your diet has a lot to do with it too.
What I preached about several weeks ago, about what you eat, has a lot to do with how your
mind functions.
And so you can work on memorizing the Bible.
How do I memorize the Bible?
A lot of people have little tricks, and I went on the internet and looked for all the
memorization tricks, and none of them worked for me at all.
I mean, I tried all of them, but none of them worked.
I don't know if she's using them, maybe, you don't use them either?
None of them worked for me, so here's what I do, I just chant stuff over and over 300
times.
That's literally what I do.
I mean, if I'm going to memorize a verse, and I'm just trying to make this practical,
but let's say I was going to memorize the verse, let's see, Romans chapter 12, verse
1.
And I said, okay, I'm going to memorize Romans 12, 1, this is how I would literally memorize
it.
And I do this every day.
This is the verse, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
Now, if I wanted to memorize that verse, this is how I would do it.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, I beseech you therefore, brethren, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, I beseech you therefore, brethren, I beseech you therefore, brethren, I beseech
you therefore, brethren.
Just that little part, literally.
And this is how I do it every day.
And I'll chant that for 10 minutes, just in my mind, not out loud, or else I'll use my
voice.
I beseech you therefore, brethren...
It's not boring to me, because I love the Bible, and I love God's Word.
And I just am meditating on God's Word, and thinking about it, and then I'll just do that
by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God,
and this is how I have to do it.
I have to break down the little parts or I'll be able to do it.
I'm serious.
And so then I'll put them together.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
I beseech you therefore, brethren...
by the mercies of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." And yeah,
it takes work. It takes a long time. It takes over and over and over again. And I'll tell
you something, yes, it's not always the funnest thing in the world to memorize the Bible one
little piece at a time, five words at a time. Memorizing the entire Bible is a lot of work,
okay? But I'll tell you something. It's great once you've got it memorized, then you like
the fact that you haven't memorized. See, it's a lot of hard work to memorize it, but
boy, when you can just walk down the street and just quote to yourself an entire chapter
of the Bible, boy, God will speak to you. God will teach you the Bible when you can
do that. When you can quote to yourself an entire chapter of the Bible, boy, it's power.
I love it. And so, yes, it's work, and I bet you're to guess that anybody can do it the
way that I do it, because I do it a dumb way. Anybody can do it like that. And so, hey,
instead of just letting your mind just wander, have you ever heard the phrase, an idle mind
is the devil's workshop? You ever heard somebody say that before? You know, you're at work,
and your mind starts wandering. What does it think about? It goes into all the filth.
I mean, when my mind just wanders off into la-la land, I might start thinking about some
filthy movie that I watched when I was a teenager. I might start thinking about when I was a
teenager, I used to watch like four or five hours of just Comedy Central on cable television,
and that's garbage. Let me tell you that right now. It'll just go back to all the rock music
that I listened to as a teenager. All the songs will start coming into my head. I don't
want my mind to just float around. I'm going to take control of my mind. I'm going to grab
my mind and shake it and say, you're going to think about the Bible. And I'm going to
say, quote this over and over 500 times. And I get my mind into subjection. I get my mind
under control, because I don't want my mind full of trash. And so I say, I'm just going
to meditate on the Bible. Now look, all of us have stuff in our mind that we wish wasn't
there from the past, from sin, from maybe before we had certain standards of convictions
or when we did things that were wrong, when we shouldn't have done them. And we looked
at something we shouldn't have looked at. We listened to something we shouldn't have
looked at. We did something we shouldn't have done. But we all have filthy things in our
mind. Let's face it. I'm not going to lie to you. I have garbage in my mind. But I'm
not just going to let that stuff just float around in my mind and float around in my mind.
I'm going to take control of my mind. And the Bible says that we should bring every
thought into subjection. That's what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Bring every
thought into subjection. I control what I think about. I don't just let my flesh control
what I think about. I decide that I'm going to quote this Bible 100 times in a row, this
one little phrase. And it will keep me out of trouble. And it fills my mind with the
Word of God. So memorizing the Word of God is probably the greatest tool that I've discovered
for learning the Bible. Because I'll learn more. I mean, good night. On Wednesday nights
when I teach through those Bible studies, I'm constantly just having to decide where
am I going to spend my time? Because there's so much to teach. Because there's so much
in each of these chapters. Why? Because I've memorized it. And that's why it's so vitally
important to memorize the Bible. And it's for, I think it's for everybody. Because he
says, Thy word if I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. This book of
the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate during day and night.
That's a command of God. And so God commands you to memorize the Bible. Look, start out
small. Start out just memorizing a few verses that you like. Pick a really, a psalm. Pick
a psalm that you like, just something short. And say, it's going to be my first chapter
that I memorize, just this psalm. Psalm 23, good night. I mean, that's pretty short. And
that's famous. You've heard it a lot. It'd be easy to memorize. Psalm chapter 1, same
thing. Very commonly heard. It's short. Learn those verses. And start out small. Start out
with John 3.16. But get God's word in your heart. Can you imagine one day, and you say,
well this is goofy. This is like off the deep end. But hey, can you imagine one day somebody
taking the Bible away from you? Because that could happen, couldn't it? I mean, could it
happen that somebody would take the Bible away from you? Has it ever happened before
in history? The Bible's been taken away out of people's hands? Yes, it has. And could
it happen that somebody could go to jail and not have a Bible? Or just the Bible could
be made illegal? I mean, look at Adolf Hitler. He's burning Bibles. He's burning books. And
so, yes. You know, the first thing I'd do if I was in jail and I didn't have my Bible,
I'd start quoting the Bible. I'd start just carving it into the wall of the jail cell.
The Bible. I'd just start out and just write down every chapter that I knew. I'd just start
shouting at the top of my lungs every chapter that I knew. I would quote it over and over
and over again because nobody can take my Bible away from me. The only way that somebody
can take my Bible away from me is to put a bullet through my head. Because I've got a
lot of them memorized. And so, get the Word of God in your heart. You'll never be without
your Bible. You want to win somebody the Lord? That lost loved one? You have the perfect
opportunity? Oh, I don't have my Bible. If you know the verses, you can win them the
Lord. If you don't know the verses, you can't win them the Lord. Because your wisdom that
man's wisdom teacheth is not what's going to get him saved. It's the words that the
Holy Ghost teaches that's going to get him saved. Learn the Bible. Learn the verses.
Number nine. When you're reading the Bible, this is the next study tip, number nine. Look
for similar phrases and similar wording. Things that are worded similar. Now, this comes into
play a lot when you memorize the Bible. Because when you memorize the Bible, you see every
little nuance. Because you've quoted it so many times. And so you'll notice similar phraseology.
Look if you would. Are you in Romans? Get in Romans chapter ten. I think you should
be in maybe like Romans chapter twelve. Put, get your finger in Romans chapter ten and
then get your other finger in Genesis chapter four. And I could give you a million examples
on this one because there's so many things in the Bible that are just similar wording
that you pick up and you can kind of see things and learn truth from things that are worded
in a similar way. But look at Genesis four, chapter number twenty-six. Here's just a random
example that I thought of. Genesis four twenty-six says, and to Seth, to him also there was born
a son and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Now
that phrase right there probably jumps out at you. Call upon the name of the Lord. You
say to yourself, huh, I wonder where have I heard that before? Where have I heard that
phrase call upon the name of the Lord? Well, in Acts chapter two verse twenty-one it says
and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That's close. Call on the name of the Lord. This here says to call upon the name
of the Lord, but look at Romans ten where your finger is. Romans ten thirteen. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now it can't be a coincidence that
those phrases are exactly the same. Call upon the name of the Lord. The Bible says in the
very earliest part of history, Seth is Adam's son. His son's name is Enos. It says then
began men to call upon the name of the Lord. It's talking about people getting saved as
a result of this man Enos. And then in Romans ten thirteen, for whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Joel chapter two twenty-eight says and it shall
come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And
so on and on you'll see that phrase. Call upon the name of the Lord. You can learn something
about the Bible. You can understand what does it mean in Genesis four when it says
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. When you study the rest of the Bible
you find out people are getting saved. That's what it means because you see it in Romans
ten thirteen. Because you see it in Acts two twenty-one. Watch for just similar phrases,
similar wording. And then number ten, and I saved one of the most important ones for
last, not the longest part of the sermon because I know the air conditioner is broken, but
not the longest part of the sermon, but one of the most important ones that you must know
when you're studying the Bible. And this will revolutionize the way you study the Bible.
Number ten, realize that the Bible has everything you need to know about every subject. And
I know I've said that before, but I repeat that because it's so important. That will
change your interpretation of the Bible dramatically if you say the Bible has everything I need
to know about every subject. I mean think about it. There are people who say, well you
know the Bible's not really clear on this and so here's what I think about it. And they'll
say, yeah I know the Bible says that there, but you know that may not be everything that
there is to it. I mean come on, the Bible was written two thousand years ago, they didn't
have thus and so back then, and they didn't have this back then, and so it was a whole
different world. Look, Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. There is no new
thing under the sun. Is there anything more of it maybe said, see this is new. It had
been already a whole time which was before us. That's why he said there's nothing new
under the sun. Nobody can say, behold this is new. Hey, it's already old. We've had it.
And so here's the thing. It goes back to what I was saying this morning about birth control.
It's mentioned one time in the Bible. That's all I need to know. You see what I mean? See
how you'd interpret it? Other people might just say, oh that's just an individual story.
That's just an isolated incident. But see, with my philosophy that says, look the Bible
is all I need to know. You know, homosexuality. I preached a sermon about the Sodomites. Hey,
the Bible has everything I need to know about homosexuality. I look at homosexuality in the
Bible. Three times there's a story. All three times the homo is trying to force somebody
else to do something they don't want to do. All three times. So I deduce from that that's
what they're about. That's what all of them are about. Because that's all the ones in
the Bible are about. And I can, on and on. What is, you know, alcohol. The Bible has
everything I need to know about alcohol. The first time alcohol is mentioned? Genesis chapter
9. Noah is being violated by his son. Second time alcohol is mentioned in the Bible? Lot
is being violated by his two daughters. Habakkuk 2.15. Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor
to drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest
look on their nakedness. See, throughout the Bible, God is saying alcohol is a tool used
by one person to take advantage of another person. All throughout the Bible. That's the
first time it's mentioned. The second time it's mentioned. It's associated in the Bible
with nudity. It's associated with fornication. It's associated with cursing. It's associated
with false religion. On and on throughout the Bible. It's associated with the devil.
On and on. And so you say, well, I just think social drinking is okay. Look, the Bible has
everything I need to know about alcohol. And so I'm just going to look at every verse on
alcohol and then that's all I need to know about it. I don't need anything else. And
if you understand the Bible that way, that will change the way that you study the Bible.
So number one, let's go back through these quickly so that we can review and you can
remember these. Number one, make sure you have the right Bible. Don't waste your time
studying things, but it's easier to understand. It's so much easier for me to understand the
New King James Version. Look, it's easy to understand the cat in the hat. It's easy to
understand hop on pop. It's easy to understand red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish. It's
easy to understand green eggs and ham. But my friend, what's the point of understanding
it? What's the point? What's the point of understanding something that God didn't write
that's not perfect? What's the point of understanding something that's wrong? You get to understand
it all you want, you're understanding the wrong things. But if you understand the King
James Bible, I'd rather understand one-tenth of what God said than nine-tenths of something
that God did not say. You're wasting your time. So number one, make sure you have the
right Bible. Number two, get a Bible that's only the Bible. That's what I recommend. Maybe
you're not like this, but I get extremely distracted by all the notes and things. I
find myself using them a lot. And so I just try to find, I go to the bookstore and I just
search and seek out where is the Bible that has the least superfluous things in it. It's
just the text of the Bible. That's my criteria. Number three, read the Bible five times cover
to cover before you begin to study the Bible. That's important to read the whole thing.
Now memorize the Bible while you're reading it five times, but don't dissect it with a
microscope until you get the big picture. That's all I'm saying with that. And by the
way, the word read, read reading is used 76 times in the Bible. The word study is only
used three times in the Bible. So God placed an emphasis on reading. It's more important
that you read the Bible than as you study the Bible. 76 times he's telling you to read.
Three times he says study, one of them is negative, two of them are positive. So two
positive references to studying the Bible in the entire Bible. Reading is all throughout
the Bible 76 times. That's where the emphasis is. Number four, go with the statement above
the story. Number five, compare spiritual things with spiritual. Compare the Bible with
the Bible to find out what things mean. Number six, pray for God to teach you the Bible.
Number seven, go soul winning, preach sermons, teach people the Bible, talk about the Bible
with your friends or loved ones, and you will learn the Bible by doing that. Number eight,
memorize the Bible. Number nine, look for the similar phrases, look for similar words.
Find a word here, find the same word here, find the same phrase here and here, look for
the pattern. And number ten, realize that the Bible has everything that you need to
know, and I mean this, everything that you need to know about every subject. Everything.
This is it right here. This has all the answers. There's no answer that's on this book. Maybe
I don't know the answer from this book, but it's in there, and I'm going to keep looking
until I find it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, I thank you so much
for the Bible. Well, I don't know what I would do without the Bible. I would hate to live
life without the Bible. What would I think about all day? A bunch of trash, a bunch of
garbage that I have in my mind, dear God. Thank you so much for the Word of God that
I could just clean up my mind and just fill me with the Spirit of God by reading the Bible,
by meditating on the Bible. Thank you so much that I live in 2006. What a treasure to have
the Bible, the Word of God in my hand. This is my most prized possession, dear God. And
Father, I just pray that you would please just use this message in some way. I don't
know.