The Christian Handbook - How to Read the Bible

So we have been in a series called the Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the Faith.

Our goal in this message is to answer basically a couple of questions,

what do Christians believe? And in light of those beliefs, what do Christians

do? It's pretty simple, but we believe that it's foundational for us as

believers, not just to be like, this is what Christians do, but

to look at the why. Why is that what Christians do? And it's

all rooted and stemmed from our beliefs. And so it's important that we know

what our beliefs are. And not only do we just know what our beliefs

are because some guy on the stage told us what our beliefs are, but

we know what our beliefs are because when we open our Bibles and we read

and we see them too, all right, And that's really what we're getting

into today. So now, last week we talked about what we believed about

the Bible, or really what the Bible had to say about itself, answering

the question what is the Bible? Do you guys remember the answer? Okay,

it's all right, I know, yeah, I know. I'm putting

you all on the spot, putting it's okay. The Bible is God breathed,

Jesus believed, and the Christian's greatest needs. So we talked about we

landed on the necessity for believers to know God's word right, And so last

week it was very doctrine and theological and what it what our belief about the

Bible is and where that comes from and why we believe those things. And

I promise and said that this week we're going to now talk about what do

we do with that? Okay, you said it's it's the most important needs,

So what do we do about that? But we saw last week just

to kind of recap just a little bit, that the Bible is inspired and

errant, authoritative, has clarity, is sufficient, and it is a necessity.

So if you miss that message, like I said, are there,

go check it out because it really it's a foundation of the why behind we

would ever consider reading this. We're going to it. So today we're answering

the question in light of what we believe, what do we do with that?

What does that mean for our lives? So today's title is just going

to be simply Today's message is simply titled how to be or how to read

the Bible. How to read right, The first step is reading. All

right, we're gonna get to that unspoiling hardcore. But that's why you can't

just go autopilot. You got to actually read it. How to read the

Bible today, we want to keep it simple. Today. We want to

help equip you the believer, to know how to handle God's word with confidence

and with accuracy. All right, because I think that's a lot of times

the things that we that are hard as believers, on top of a lot

of other reasons that we don't ever read our Bible, like laziness and rebelliousness

and not wanting to be confronted. There's lots of different reasons why we don't

ever pick up our Bible. But another one is it could just be daunting.

It's like, well, what am I supposed to do with this?

Every time open, I just have no context, I have no ideal what

we're talking about at all, and so it just it kind of makes it

unpleasant in a sense when that's our starting point. So today, the hope

is to be the starting point to be able to read our Bibles and go

understand our Bibles with confidence and accuracy. Those things are very important. So

last week we had a Bible memory verse, or so I said, it

should take the second the second slot right after John three sixteen, and that's

second Timothy three sixteen through seventeen. All scripture is God breathed and is useful

for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness, so that the

servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We see the

scripture, and that's really what we dug into is right here that all scripture

is God breathed. That was last week. That's what we spent our time

time on and that's why we got amped. Right, it's God's word.

We're talking about that. That's that's good reason to get excited. So with

that, that's what we talked about last week. But this week we kind

of want to really break down the second part of this verse or these verses,

which is not only is it God breathed, but it's useful and useful.

We're going to break that down. Depending on what Bible translation you're reading,

it might say useful or profitable. It produces something right, it's something

of worth. There's something in there that it does. It's not just blank

words on a page. So the question really for us is that when we're

trying to get out a little bit last week, but ultimately, do you

believe that do you believe that it's useful? And the reason I ask that

is because if we don't believe that it's useful, well, that is going

to be our biggest stumbling block to ever going to the Bible or reading the

Bible or caring what it has to say. If we don't believe that it's

profitable or useful, it's not going to be It's not going to produce anything

in our life. And that's not because we, when we believe it,

are the ones who now grant its power to change our lives. That's not

how it works because obviously it's God's word, right we saw last week when

he speaks, it accomplishes what he desires and that it doesn't return to him

empty. So God's going to speak and he has a plan of doing what

he's going to do with his word. It's alive and active. But for

us as believers, if we don't engage with it, we're going to miss

out on all that it does have for us, this blessing that God has

given us. We're going to miss out on that, So where are we?

I don't believe that's us. Just to be clear, I don't believe

that. A lot of us here in this room don't believe that. We

believe that it's useful, all right, That's why we're here. That's why

we're here on a Sunday evening. I mean, the weather's bad, right,

so I'll give you that, okay, But that was just God's providence

and making sure that you were here. That's that's what it was. So

with that, we are here because we want to worship our Lord and our

God, and we want to hear his word and all grow together with one

another and how to understand it. That's what we do week after week.

We read God's word and we try our best to explain it and understand it

as He would have us understand it. So today is not the only day

that we have access to God's word, right, But I think sometimes we

live like it is. We go like, well, I'll wait till Sunday.

Someone's gonna open it up for me, and then they're gonna read it

to me, and then they're gonna explain it to me, and I'm gonna

go home and I'm gonna do that next week. But by God's great mercy

and kindness and grace on our lives, he has made it available to us

at any second. You could wake up in the middle of the night.

You're gonna have it in multiple different ways. I don't have my phone on

me, but in that too, right, like, you have a Bible

at your fingertips, and that has not always been the case. Do a

little bit of his history, and it's going to take about five seconds for

you to see us having the Bible in our hands. What we call God's

Word or the Scriptures, is a blessing that people literally laid down their lives

because there was people who didn't want this in everyone's hands. They had their

concerns about it. But ultimately we had brothers and sisters who went before us,

who who when they started reading it, we're like, man, this

guy that has to get out because what is the people who would control it,

or the people who would say, well, we're the ones who were

smart enough to understand it and explain it. We're going to We're gonna we're

gonna make sure that no one else twists it or gets it wrong. But

then the problem is is who holds them accountable? How are they held accountable?

And so it's important because all of us are held accountable. I'm held

accountable to you guys, You're held accountable to me. So I'm asking why

when the last time you read your Bible was? But we are all held

accountable to each other, and that makes it even greater. That's why we

have to know our word. So we really, I think hopefully last week

and then today even a little bit, as you talk about its usefulness,

we'll see that it's more useful than we give it credit for. I think

all of us believe that the Bible is useful, but we may not think

it's as useful as the Bible thinks it is. Okay, I think the

Bible thinks it's a little bit more useful than we give it credit for.

We go like, yeah, I'm sure it's great for telling me about God

and that, you know, maybe there's a couple of other things when someone

else is doing something wrong and I don't like and I remember that one Bible

verse, right, right, We kind of use it when it's useful to

us, but the Bible tells us that it's useful for so much more than

that. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna break down in this verse

and then we're gonna get to some practical tools a little bit. But here

we're gonna talk about why it's useful, so we can see, like,

okay, we talked about what it was. Now let's talk about how it's

used and what it's useful for. So the first one that is useful,

we're teaching. What this means is that we can learn from it and that

there's something of value. There's something there, there's something to learn and be

understood, and to be able to grow from that is within God's word.

Psalm one nineteen is the longest chapter in the Bible. It's the longest psalm

in the Bible. I considered reading the whole thing today, but that had

been about fifteen minutes of my time, okay, and last week I was

already going fast. Okay, but do you guys know what this psalm is

about? Have you read that before? Psalm one nineteen. If you haven't

read it, you should go read it this week. Put that on the

lysts. You can break it up in chunks because it is that long.

But it's all about God's word. It's all about God's word. The longest

chapter, the longest Psalm is about God's word, and it has a lot

to say about God's word. And so we'll touch on a couple of places

here, but one of the things that it says, Psalm one nineteen,

verse one hundred and thirty. Okay, verse one hundred and thirty, the

unfolding of your words gives light, It gives understanding to the simple. So,

like I said, the Bible is not just for smart people. The

Bible is not just for the educated people or the people who know what to

do with it. So we should push off. It's like no, no,

no, no, it's actually in God's word that we can grow and

the simple can become wise, right, and that's something of value. Now,

last week we talked about the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture. We talked

about how the Bible has everything the Christian needs to live, to grow,

and to glorify God. So we need to look to scripture to teach us

these things. That's where these things are found Titus two one. You,

however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine?

Sound doctrine is what is written in the scriptures. Okay, so it's

also our standard of teaching. So when we go to teach something, it's

our standard to which we should be teaching from and it should be in accordance

with And with that being said, scripture is also useful for rebuking or reproof,

which is like testing. And so we have this rebuking aspect. But

if you don't have a standard, how can you rebuke? Right, So

what we teach from, what is our standard of teaching, is also what

we use to rebuke, and what are we rebuking? Well, the big

things that we see in scripture that are rebuked are and we would use scripture

for rebuking is the first one that's rebuking false doctrine. Let's read here in

second Timothy four two through three. This is actually just a little bit farther

than our memory. Verse preach the word be prepared in season and out of

season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience, careful and careful

instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound

doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a

great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. And

these people who are tickling ears are not saying things that are in accordance with

sound doctrine. Right. So when we are rebuking people who are teaching things

contrary to scripture, this means that also we might be rebuking people not just

from saying like nope, scriptures not right, or rebuking just false beliefs,

but we might also be rebuking people who are twisting scripture to arrive at these

false conclusions. And we see an example of that Matthew four five through seven.

Then the devil took him, that's Jesus, to the Holy City and

had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you were the

son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written

he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in

their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

And Jesus answered him, it is also written, do not put the Lord

your God to the test. So we here we see Satan twisting scripture and

Jesus is rebuking with scripture Luke seventeen three. So watch yourselves if your brother

or sister sends against you rebuke them, and if they repent, forgive them.

Let's go to the next verse Galatians six, Brothers and sisters. If

someone is caught innocent, you who live by the spirit, should restore that

person gently. But watch yourselves or you also may be tempted. Okay,

there's a reason I use two versus here is because I liked this part where

it also mentioned being gentle right, because we go, ha, rebuke the

person and sin, let's go, and that is not There's we can look

at more scripture and get a more well rounded look at how we are to

rebuke. But when rebuke, according to what we're what are we rebuking by?

Well, if someone's sinning, well what defined sin? What are we

going to our brother and sister to call out? And the reason we're calling

out in the first place is because we love and care for them, And

so we go, Hey, brother, sister, you have made this claim

to walk or follow a way of life, this way of life, and

your actions are not lining up with that, or you're blatantly doing something,

or maybe you don't know what's written. And so I'm here and I want

to help you because I see you're about to fall into sin, and sin

is defined by what scripture says which kind of leads to the next one's sure

Scripture is also used for or useful for correcting. Meanwhile, a Jew named

Apolos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned

man with the thorough knowledge of the scriptures. He had been inst instructed in

the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about

Jesus accurately. Though he knew only the baptism of John, he began to

speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited

him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

When Apollos wanted to go to Achaea, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and

wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was

a great help to those who, by God, who by grace had believed,

for he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents and public debate, proving from the

scriptures that Jesus was the Siah. So here we actually see quite a lot

going on. We see great examples of correcting. So so Apollos is preaching,

but it's it's it's missing a little bit of some key factors. Right.

He's preaching about Jesus accurately, but he only knows the baptism with John.

He doesn't know the baptism of Jesus or of the Holy Spirit. And

so we see correcting here. We see rebuking because he's he's rebuking these this

false doctrine. He's debating publicly, and he's teaching because he's teaching about who

Jesus was accurately or adequately. And one last thing to know here is that

in this passage there's this idea of proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the

Messiah and the apostles and also a lot of the believers in the New Testament.

This is how this was the standard. And I think this is also

a really good example to follow, is that when they proved who Jesus was,

or we're going to prove whatever they're saying, they did it according to

the scriptures. And we see in another example of this Act seventeen ten through

eleven, as soon it was as soon as it was nights, the believers

sent Paul and Silas away to Bria. On arriving there, they went to

the Jewish synagogue. Now the Brian Jews were of more noble character than those

in Thessalonika, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures

every day to see if what Paul said was true. The brillons here when

they received a new teaching or this fulfillment that Paul is bringing to them about

who Jesus is, we see them receive it. But they don't just go

like, oh, that's that's a cool new word. And I'm like,

now let's get everyone amped because we heard something new and exciting. But they

said, well, hold on, let me let me check is what you're

saying true? And then what did they do? They were what did they

do? They went to the scriptures to see if what he was teaching was

according to the scriptures. I actually saw something kind of funny reson. I

didn't remember where I saw it, just on the internet, but it was

actually talking about this interaction a little bit where it's kind of funny because Paul

calls the people who fact check him noble. He's like those people who actually

made sure that what I was saying was true like that is a good character

trait rather than just like no no, no, no no, don't don't

go, don't go look at what I said. Just accept what I'm saying.

So for us we should be better Borean. So we hear something new,

someone says, thus says the Lord order, whatever it could be,

we need to fact check it. And when we do that, we do

it according to scripture. Finally, scripture is useful for training and righteousness.

And righteousness in and of itself is this idea of rights standing with God or

right in God's eyes. And so for us as believers, we know that

in and of ourselves, no one's righteous, no, not one. And

so the way that we are righteous as believers, as God's children is by

being in Christ, or being of Christ, being saved by Christ, putting

our faith in Christ, because He is our righteousness. It's never about our

righteousness, but it's He who is our righteousness. Second Corinthians five twenty one.

God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. In him we

might become the righteousness of God. One more verse Romans one seventeen, For

in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is

by faith from first to last, just as is just as it is written,

the righteous will live by faith. So I think it's fair as we

see that scripture is training us to live righteously, to live to training us

in righteousness. Another way that we can look at this is that a scripture

is useful for training us in righteousness, and it's also training us to live

by faith, to live by faith, to live out our faith, to

live in our faith. Scripture is profitable and useful for all of these things

for a purpose. It's not just blindly or with no direction making you better,

or being useful just towards no end. But there's an end. Let's

go back to our verses Second Timothy three sixteen through seventeen. All scripture is

God breathe and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in

righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good

work see that verse seventeen. So that these are important, important words,

so that right as we're reading our Bibles, these are very important, because

it's about to make a point. The servant of God may be thoroughly equipped

for every good work. And for me this sounded familiar, and hopefully it

sounds a little bit familiar to you as well. When we were going through

our series to the Letter to the Ephesians, let's read a chunk Ephesians for

eleventh through sixteen says, so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets,

the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers to equip. Now, if

we talked about it last time, I think I actually got to preach through

this. But which is why I remember it. But when it comes to

all of these people that are listed here, are all these positions, or

all these roles that are being listed here, what are they all have in

common? They all have in common delivering teaching, preaching God's word to what

end, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body

of Christ may be built up. Until we all reach unity in the faith

and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining

to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, then we will no longer

be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there

by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their

deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in

every respect the mature body of Him who is the head that is Christ.

From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,

growths and builds itself up and love as each part does its work.

Okay, so let's summarize. Jesus has given to his church these gifts of

people to deliver God's word and to preach God's word, and to teach God's

word to what ends, so that we would grow in unity and our belief

about who He is and our knowledge about who he is, so that we

would know what that means for our lives and can live that out in a

way where now as someone comes to try and give us a new teaching,

we go, no, we don't need that, because we know our word,

and we know that's false. We know that's just a new teaching.

We just know that's a wind trying to blow us over. We recognize that

at this point, and now we have ourselves as brothers and sisters to come

together to recognize these things protect each other as we all grow in our knowledge

the Lord, and then with that we're actually being able to be built up

and doing our part and looking like what the body should look like. So

last week, another way we could summarize us in a shorter sentence would be

that God has not left us by ourselves to figure it out. Okay,

he he didn't say figured out, go do my mission, but I got

nothing else for you. But no, He's actually given us his words.

He's given us instruction, he's given us people to help us in those areas,

and he's also made it available to all of us. So I think

that's there's a responsibility on each believer to know our bibles and to know what

is being taught and to know what God has said. Okay, So,

like we said last week, as followers Jesus of Jesus, as Christians,

we can't afford to not know our Bibles. So now you may be thinking,

Okay, great, I get it. This is what we talked about

last week. We talk about the importance, We talked about what God's word

was, we talked about why it was important and now today what it's used

for. But how do I actually read it? See, now I'm getting

more excited guys. Right, but that was more of a recap and now

the duncan's gonna come out. Okay, so prepare yourselves. I've been trying

how do I actually engage with it? Really excited to get into this stuff,

so to try and keep it simple, to keep it straightforward. We're

going to go through, well, we're gonna go through what I'm going to

call our Bible study tool belt. All right, so you put on your

tool belts with me, you know what I mean. We're gonna go through

our Bible study tool belt, exactly right, Greg said he I don't remember.

I don't know if there was money on the table, but he's like,

if you wear a hard hat and a belt, yeah, we'd almost

made that happen. We didn't. So our Bible Study tool belt. We're

gonna look at six essential tools that really are just helpful. They're not This

isn't catch all. You're gonna be like you forgot this. I'll be like,

you're right, Go tell everyone else that they should do that too.

Okay, all right, you can help me in this because there's a lot

and I'm doing okay for a time. All right, So our six essential

tools for learning to read and understand and know God's word. And so now

regardless of how long you've been a believer, whether it's been fifty years or

a week, I genuinely hope that these are helpful. And I also want

us to remember that these this is going to be something that we're growing at

and getting better at for the rest of our life. Okay, So I'm

gonna give you these tools and you're like, oh, I remember, thank

you for reminding me, or yeah, I know that, or I had

no idea, Thank you that was helpful. Regardless of where you're at,

we need to start today, and so I'm hoping that these are just helpful

things. Put them in your tool belt so that when you go to read

God's word as you've now understood it and now go like, okay, yes,

I get it's important, but every time I do it's hard. Every

time it's difficult, and for one reason or another. So I really hope

that these are helpful. So let's get our notepads ready, let's get into

it. So our first tool in our Bible study tool belt number one prayer.

Now, this might sound simple, and that's because it is. It's

and it's almost probably too simple. That, and because it's so simple that

we just forget about it, which is really really unfortunate. We go back

to Psalm one nineteen. It says, open my eyes that I may see

wonderful things in your law. All right, so we're gonna look at a

couple more. But he's in this psalm and this song, in this prayer

about God's where he's saying, God, help me understand what's in here.

Help help me internalize it, help me become familiar with it, help me

obey it. Help me understand what you have written. Let's look at another

one one nineteen twenty seven. Cause me to understand the way of your precepts,

that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds. One more thirty four.

Give me understanding so that I may keep your law and obey it with all

my heart. So as we approach scripture, we should pray. We should

pray, God, help me understand this. That's what I do when I

opened my Bible. This was on I had our when I was like mapping

out the numbers of which one I was going to start with, which tool

I had prayers the last one. And then I sat down to do my

daily Bible reading, and I prayed first, and I was like, Okay,

well, well, let's just let's just kind of do this more sequential.

Let's let's help this make sense as we're going through it. So we

should pray that He would make it come alive, that we can understand it.

And there's another really big reason for why that is, let's look at

first Corinthians two twelve through fourteen. What we have received is not the spirit

of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we

may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak,

not in words. Yeah, this is what we speak, not in words

taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining

spiritual realities with spirit taught words. The person without the spirit does not accept

the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and

cannot understand them because they discerned only through the Spirit. I'd say that's a

really big reason that we should pray that we go, God, help me

understand this. And this isn't just an understanding in the sense of like I

can read and I see what's on the page, but there's an like God,

help as I'm reading this me accept these things. Help me understand these

things in an internal sense, where now this starts to shape and mold who

I am, and also that this would produce something in my life and be

profitable in a sense. So we need to pray. We need God's spirit

to help us understand God's word. The same spirit that we received when we

believed. This is kind of what's being said here. The same spirit that

we were given when we believed is and we saw last week that it's the

same spirit. It's God's holy spirit that inspired God's word. And now we're

seeing here again he's saying, and it's understood through that same spirit. Okay,

So to summarize that, when we believed we received God's spirit, God's

word was inspired by that same spirit that dwells within us. And it's that

same spirit that's within us that helps us understand the word that we have been

given. So we're dependent on God through and through right He saved us.

We recognize that. And now he says, here is something, Here is

help, Here is something to live your life. Here is a direction,

here is guidance. That's why God spoke. And then here we are going

God once again, we know that we needed you to save us, and

we thank you for your word to guide us. And now I need you

to help me understand it and obey it. So we need to pray.

We're gonna move on to our next tool. Our next tool for reading the

Bible is this. You have to read it. Very funny, right,

but it's true. It is true. You have to read it. And

this may sound simple because it is, but unfortunately it's one of the biggest

problems. It's one of the biggest obstacles and barriers from us ever knowing God's

word, let alone understanding God's word. If you don't ever read it,

and you don't ever read it more, how are you ever going to come

to understand it? And how are you going to come to know it?

So I'm going to give you, guys a practical tip for reading it and

trying to understand it. And this practical tip was shared with Greg and I

when we went to the Expository Preaching Workshop last year, which was just incredible.

It was literally it was so incredible When Greg like gloats on it,

He's not kidding, It was incredible. It was so helpful in like it's

it's in depth like the things we're just touching on today or surface level.

And I will nerd out and geek out with you about these things, about

some of the things we're gonna talk about. No spoilers, but like the

things we're going to talk about, you could go so deep with them,

and there's so much to that, and it makes the Bible come alive even

more. And these things do as well. But these are the starting point.

Is if we don't even do these, we have no hope of reaping

any kind of blessing or joy from understanding and knowing God's word. So they

said, if you want to know or find the meaning of a passage,

or if there's something that you don't understand, the main thing that you need

to do is this. This is what they said. Or read it,

read it again, then read Oh yeah, reread it and then read it

again. Okay, read it, reread it, then read it again.

If I'm reading something in the Bible and I don't know what is being said

or I'm confused, I need to read it, read it again. Oh

no, reread it, read it again. See you guys, then tell

you this is the autopilot. I here's the deal. I think that's how

I remember it. Okay, that's because that's how I say it. But

this is it's just saying the same thing. Okay, all right, it's

fine, it's okay, messed up. So we have to read it.

And another little helpful tip is that even when when you are reading something and

you like read and you're like, I don't know what I just read,

or I don't know what he's saying or where he's going with this, or

how any of this makes any sense, and so you stop and then you

start googling it and then the Google answer or you're good trustworthy Christian sites that

you find on Google. There's other things on Google too. It's not good.

We it will usually say, we'll read the next verse. Okay,

it doesn't actually say that, but what happens is it will encourage us or

will say, hey, a couple of down. It then explains what he

was talking about, all right. So that's why it's important that we read

it. Not just the verse, but we got to read all of it.

It helps us to understand. So these things are fundamentals, right.

Obviously you're like, okay, yeah, prayer, and I'm supposed to pray

before we read it the like, Okay, but these really are the fundamentals,

and this is are the starting points for us learning to read the Bible.

And these are fundamentals, they just are. And like any one knows

in any kind of regard of like any discipline or like if you're an athlete,

if you're working out, usually it's not the magic diet or the new

secret workout plan that's going to fix all your issues. It's just the fundamentals.

Right, move more, try and not snack at nighttime, you know,

like those simple things, and they're hard, they're really hard. That's

why, by God's grace we pray to him and say, don't they get

more hard? Like help my desires become your desires. But it's a consistency

with the fundamentals that are going to give you the most success in the long

run. Just like anything, if you stick with the fundamentals, with even

those alone, things will start to change. For instance, a lot of

great reformers of the church helped the church not because they got a new message

from the Lord, but because they were reading God's word and then calling people

back to it. Okay, do you hear that? It was throughout church

history, it was never the guy going like I got a new message,

because usually that guy was saying something whack. It was never that. But

throughout church history they would read God's word and go like, no one's reading

this, obviously, because look at the state of things, think, look

at how things have gotten out of hand. When you start to read God's

word, something amazing will happen too. No longer the knowledge that you have

of the Bible is just what someone else told you. The Bible says,

Okay, we get that. It's it's no longer just why I heard a

preacher say this about the Bible, or while I heard some guy on the

radio say this about the Bible. Well, no, it's no I've read

it. I know what he's talking about, and not in an arrogant sense,

but it's kind of like when someone uses something weird and you're like,

I don't know about that because I've read that. I've read that before.

It's no longer why I heard another guy say about this, you know,

because that's just people telling you stuff. But when you've read it, it

really does change everything. And personally this has really changed my own life.

I in my teen years, I was away. Okay, that's kind of

how we can put it. And it wasn't a good way. It just

was a way. And um, I had a little bit of a potty

mouth, and I had people telling me, you know who the bubble,

you're not supposed to crease you know, I supposed to use bad language and

stuff like that. And I was like, well, well, you know,

it's not really that clear, because I mean, there could have been

anything right like that could have been bad words to them. Blo blah blah

blah blah blah blah. That was me. Okay, so that's okay that

I do that, that's me. But then things changed when I started reading

God's Word prayerfully, obediently, independently, and I'm reading and stumble across the

verse that says, let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. That

sticks with me today because I read it and was like, oh, shoot

right, oh man, well that's pretty clear. That's pretty clear. And

I was thinking about it this morning because there are people who like to say

scripture really isn't that clear, And obviously there's parts of the scripture they're like,

we're all gonna read and be like, hey, we're gonna have to

talk about this because I don't know. But there are people who say the

scripture isn't clear, and a lot of times ab if someone says that the

scripture is clear, mark and avoid him red flags. But here's the deal.

I'm thinking about this this morning. I believe I was doing dishes.

This is what I do in my free time, clean dishes and think about

the Bible. But if someone says that the scripture isn't clear, usually there's

two things that I found. One is they've just never read it. They

just never read it. Someone says the Bible is not clear, it's like,

well, have you read it? Because he's you start to read it

and you go, gang, that's pretty clear. Honestly, it's kind of

it's kind of ridiculous how clear it is. Then the second, people who

say that scripture isn't clear usually just hate that the Bible is so clear?

Does that make sense? Usually it's well, I've never read it, but

I heard someone else say, or no, I've read it, and it

just it doesn't mean what it's clearly saying. You can't just take it like

that. Okay, I'm going to ask you guys, it's great today.

Okay, just time wise, okay, but we're here, we're gonna take

these notes and we're gonna learn more about how to read our Bibles. This

will be fruitful. Okay, I'll take a little bit more every time,

but it will give you blessings for the rest of your life, all right

if you just use them. So promise me you'll do that and give me

grace, all right, please and thank you. Let's move on to our

next tool, number three of six is get a study Bible. This is

just a practical tool, get a study Bible. That's why I brought this

stuff up here. But we're not gonna talk about a study Bible yet.

What we're gonna talk about really quickly is Bible translation. Okay, Bible translation.

You're saying, duncan, you're telling me to read your Bible. I

am. You're saying, which one? Which one am I supposed to read?

Well, that's funny, I heard the whisper it. When it comes

to our Bibles, there are really a lot of really good English translations.

As we talked about last week, the Bible was written in coin a Greek,

which is the common ton of the day, all right, and it's

been translated from the original language into our language, which is English, which

means there's lots of people who've done that, Okay. And there's kind of

a sliding scale between the different types of translations that are out there. Okay,

there are really a lot of really good Bible translations. I just want

to make that clear, Okay. I'm not going to harp on a bunch

of other ones. There are bad ones. There just are Okay. There

are Bible translations that are like put out by all like cults and things like

that that have obviously changed it. And then there are other ones that just

they we'll talk about it in a second, that they just get a little

wonky. Okay. So there's a scale, a sliding scale between Bible translations.

There's one where it's on one side of the scale is word for word

translations, and on the other side of the scale is thought for thought.

Okay, word for word and thought for thought. Ultimately, the goal of

these translations is to help us, all right. They're not to try and

change it or do anything crazy, but they are to help us understand what

the original writers of the Bible. We're trying to get across when they wrote

what they wrote, all right, So here the pros and the cons of

the scale word for word. The pro is that you're getting more word for

word direct translation from the original language, so you're actually getting what was actually

said, or what exactly what was said more word for word. The con

is a Bible translation that is more word for word, though being word for

word might read different from just how you and I say something. Right,

so maybe it's the same words, but it reads like yoda, okay,

Right, you're gonna be like, well, that's a little weird. So

the con is really it's just like, well, it's gonna take a little

bit more of me going like, well, this isn't how I talk to

understand what's being read here. And then there's a thought for thought. The

pro is that a thought for thought translation can be helpful to try and better

understand or summarize the point that is being made in the text. Okay.

The con is that being that it's not necessarily word for words, a lot

of times there's mixes, that's a scale, but being that it's not word

for word. Though some translators actually or accurately get the thought correctly, some

take a little bit too much liberty and the decisions that they make to say

this sentence means this. This is basically what's being said, right, and

on the pitfall of that sliding scale is paraphrasing. Okay, okay, So

a couple of examples of those different ones word for word Bibles. Like I

said, it's more of a scale, so they kind of you can go

just type that into Google. You'll find them real quick. This like literally

Bible translation scale and it will show you the scale. Some of them are

a little biased, which is kind of funny. A lot of them were

like I'm the one that's in the middle, you know. But word for

word translations NSP KJV, n KJV, ESV and CSP are more word for

word translations, more thought for thought translations are the NIV or the NLT.

Like I said, this is a scale, all right, so there's kind

of a direction. I name the ones that I'm familiar with. Okay,

Personally, I like the ESV. It's a little bit more word for word.

It's not one percent like on the other side of the word for word,

but it's I really enjoy it personally. That's what I read personally,

that's what I study out of that's this one. I got this one from

the Simeon Trust, who's superde But then also I read the NIV because sometimes

I'm like, I don't know the ESB is saying here, not just because

of how the words are used and being literally translated. I'm like, I

don't know. And then the NIV it's just a little bit. It's smoother

reading, and it helps use the original words and mix with the thought for

thoughts. So it's a little bit more in the middle. That's actually why

we use it primarily when we preach on Sunday. It reads easier and helps

the thought while also being more word for word. Okay, so that half

of the time is not spent explaining why it's reading like yodo. Okay,

so quick note personally mark and avoid translations things like the message Bible like you

can read it, but just recognize that that is on the pitfall of paraphrase.

All right. So what it is is a guy going like, well,

I want to write a Bible that helps people understand that, okay,

sure, or understand what's being said. So what they start to do is

just summarize, summarized, summarise, summarize, put it in their own language.

What is being said, which becomes way too much of a paraphrase and

more of a commentary. And if I want to read a commentary, I'll

go read a commentary. One of the books I brought it was a commentary,

and commentaries are this one is Ephesians, all right, and this commentary

when I go to read the Book of Ephesians and I want to have a

pastor just say, here is cultural and historical and narrative and biblical context or

information for all of these things. This is how we can know what's being

said here. Well, I can just go consult a commentary, which is

a man's opinion. It's a pastors who who's grown in knowledge and gone to

school and done all these things and has more information to me trying to help

give me more information. So the commentary is just a tool, but it

is very helpful too. Okay, talked about Bible translations, but a study

Bible. What is a study Bible? A study Bible is this is this

thing down here, and you can see it's just a little it's a bit

heavier, right to carry around with you in your bag or anything like that.

It's gonna add some weight. But in here there is so much that

is helpful, especially if you're first learning to read your Bible, or like

you're just unfamiliar, or you're maybe one of those people who just has a

million questions. It can just kind of help smooth that out a little bit

as you're reading, because you're like, I don't know what this means,

and then there'll be a little footnote. It maybe gives you a verse reference

that's more clear, maybe gives you historical context and makes it okay, Well,

that's why he would say it like that, you know what I mean.

It just has so much information. It has maps about where things are

at all, right, so there's all kinds of stuff in a study Bible

that just makes it easier to read, especially if it's your first time through

as you're starting to just trying to get more understanding for what you're reading.

Pros of study Bibles is that they're super helpful, especially when you're first reading

through. A con is that the study Bible is just a tool. Everything

that's in there is extra okay, They are not the words of God.

All the pastor's notes not the words of God. Just trying to be helpful,

and we have to make sure that we don't complain it and be like,

well I read in the study Bible that it said, because it could

be wrong, the note could be wrong. All right, let's get into

it some more of the how to's a Bible reading. This is a big

one. Exegesis, not isogesus. You guys, anyone ever heard these words

before? Exegesis isogesus? What are we talking about? Well, here's the

deal. You need to know these words because they make all the difference in

understanding and categories of learning how we understand our Bible and knowing what the Bible

has to say. So here's really the big difference between these two exegesis now

isogesus. Exegesis is extracting the meaning out of the text, and isogesus is

importing a foreign meaning into the text. All right, It's exegesis is me

going what does it say? And let me let it tell me what it's

saying, and Isogesus is reading the text and going, I think this is

what it's saying or this is what I wanted to say? All right.

Very dangerous, very dangerous, because those are two different things. So some

important things to note is that if we're trying to exegete the text or be

exegetical and our understanding of the text and extract the meaning of the text.

Well, that has to mean something. Is there a meaning? Well,

there is. And a good rule to remember is that scripture only has one

meaning, and it has many applications. So every verse has one meaning.

It's trying to say some thing. And how we take that Bible verse and

now apply it can have there's so many applications, but it really was only

ever saying one thing. Okay, we don't get to make it say a

million different things. That's really important. And the way that we do this

to find the meaning is most of the time we're gonna let the scripture speak

for itself. Okay. To a couple examples John fourteen six, Jesus answered,

I'm the way and the truth in the life. No one comes to

the Father except through me. If I were to use Isogesus on this text,

I would say something when I'm translating it or trying to teach this Isogesus

teaching would be. What's being said here is that the way of Jesus is

one of truth and of life, and that is the way to God.

And hopefully you'd all pick up stones and look at me and be like,

try that again, try something different. That's not what is being said here.

Well what is being said, Well, let's let it speak for herself.

Jesus is answering that he's the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. So if we take it

face value, that seems to be what it's saying, that he is the

way the truth in life, and that except through Jesus, no one goes

to the Father. Obviously, there's a lot more to that that we could

unpack. That's ex of Jesus. Another one and this hopefully this doesn't hurt

anyone's feelings. That's not my intention here. Philippians four thirteen. I'm using

the ESV version because it's a little bit more familiar to all of us,

and read similarly, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

We all love this verse, and I think we should because that's great.

But what does this verse mean? What is the meaning of this text?

All the straightforward meaning seems to imply that I could do all things through Him

who strengthens me, all right, but what does that mean? Does that

mean that I'm getting that job promotion. Is that what it means? Is

that what it's saying. Well, no, that's not what it's saying,

because this verse is actually about contentment, and you go, how do you

know, how can you say that? Well, that moves us on to

our next and probably one of the biggest tools context. What is context?

Context? Are the verses before the verse and the verses that come after the

verse. Pretty profound, right, that's crazy. It's the verses that come

before and the verses that come after. Let's look at that verse. Are

those verses in Philippians four ten or yeah through thirteen. I rejoice, I

rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for

me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

Not that I am speaking of being a need for I have learned in whatever

situation I am, to be content next. I know how to be brought

low, and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I

have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I

can do all things through Him who strengthens me. More contexts, a little

bit more helpful to know. Oh that's it's not about the baseball game,

Okay, it's about it's about learning to be content. Well, oh my

gosh, that's so much bigger then, And no matter what situation I'm in,

we can be content because He provides for us. That's a big deal.

And that's so much more than just the coffee cup, right like that,

just to start my day, unless we have the proper context, in

which case that cup of coffee tastes even better because I'm happy about it.

I'm content about it. Quick note, I use the ESV here we always

use NIV. But the reason I did that is because when it says I

can do all things through Him who strengthens me, that sounds a little bit

more close to what we normally hear, which is I can do all things

through Christ who strengthens me, which is the King James or New King James

version. Okay, that's how they translate it. But in the NIV,

the reason I didn't use that one is because it uses it. It's more

on the thought for thought side, So it says I can do all this

through Him who strengthens me. And if you go look at the word in

Greek. There the ESV. It is things, that's what that's what the

word is. It's things. But for the thought for him to help understand

what's being said, he says, I can do all this, all right.

So that's kind of the difference between the NIV and the ESV. And

it's why it's good to go back and forth between those two for example.

All right, so with context, a lot of times we should be asking

the question what am I reading? Okay, what am I reading? And

why is that? Well, there's a book. You should read it if

you can. It's called Knowing Scripture. It's by RC. Sprowl, and

it's very very helpful because what it does is it takes you from very basic

stuff to reading the Bible to like you're trudging a little bit by the time

you get to the end, but it's so helpful in learning how to read

your Bible. And one of the things that he talks about in this book

to kind of call him is he basically says, one of the rules to

reading the Bible is to read it like any other book. Read it like

any other book. Just read it, read through it. What that means

is that if you're coming, if you're going to read a different genre,

you need to read that genre how you're supposed to read that genre, all

right. If you're reading history or a teaching you take it more literally.

If you're reading poetry, or if you're reading songs, you're going to recognize

that there are more metaphors being implemented and used. All right, So that

can kind of change, and you don't want to get those things slipped around

because now all of a sudden, I'm Jesus being the way the truth in

life is just a metaphor he isn't. I mean, he's the truth in

a sense, but like, no, he's actually the truth or it's just

a metaphor or a picture that he's the only way to get to the Father.

Well, that's not what he's saying. That was history. That's Jesus

what he was saying. So it's really important that we get those things.

And sometimes at the beginning of your study Bible, it will say you know

this, this literary form is poetry, or this literary form is like this,

or it's a mix of these two, and it's just very very helpful.

Our goal today is to learn how to read our Bible. One more

example, Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. We all love this verse, and unfortunately

it gets just so abused. It just gets so abused. For I know

the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans to prosper you and

not to harm you, plans to give you hope and the future. That's

a great verse, that's fantastic. But unfortunately it's not about you. It's

not about you. And how do we know the context. Let's literally go

to the first verse of this chapter. This is the text of the letter

that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and

the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebkaannezzar had carried from

exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It's clear he told us, this is who

it's for, this is what it's for. Now, here's the deal.

You go like, well, does that mean we just throw it out the

window? No, of course not. There is something to be learned.

But we don't get to just take those words and go like he met him

for me. No, God had an intention, he said to his people

who had been carried off and exile. He's reminding them that I have not

left you alone, and we can learn from that. That's something we can

learn from to go like, oh, God does not leave us alone.

That's who our God is. We talked about it last week. When he

speaks, he is revealing who he is and that's amazing. So we gotta

read. We gotta keep reading. We gotta read it again and again and

again. And that's going to help us understand the context better and better and

better, which brings me to the last tool, and I need the band

to come up. Scripture interprets scripture. What do I mean by this?

It means we use scripture to help us understand other parts of scripture, which

is very hard to do if we don't know our scriptures all right, it's

very difficult. And that's why once again, the study Bible is very helpful

because a lot of times it will have references and say, oh, this

verse is very similar to this verse, this verse, this verse, this

verse, and then you're going to look and go like okay, and then

it starts to open up a little bit more. Most false teachers or peddlers

of false doctrine do so by Isa Jesus twisting scripture or using the unclear portions

of scripture to now strong arm the clear parts of scripture. Does that make

sense? So they will make their own meaning of a text, or they'll

go to the most unclear spots to go like, no, here's this unclear

text that it takes some digging and some work on, and I'm going to

use that to try and reject this your teaching of scripture. And that is

not right. So we have to be able to be ready when those things

come up and know how to interact with them and know how to be prepared

so that we can recognize them and not be duped or blown about by every

wind of doctrine. So are you ready to stay on scripture accurately with confidence?

Do you know your Bible? And if you don't, that's okay,

because it's only going to get better from here. We're gonna put these things

into practice. We're gonna start to utilize what He's given us. And there's

a purpose in doing all of this stuff. There's a purpose in knowing how

to read our Bible, and that's so that we would know God, that

we would know him better, know what he wants for our life. Right

and at the end, of the day. This isn't just something that's about

me, right, we talked about it our well. I mentioned it here

at the roots. It's all about Jesus, and the Bible is all about

Jesus. I read an incredible quote, and hopefully this is even helpful for

just kind of going like as you're reading through the Bible, summarizing a little

bit of an idea of like, Okay, this is the general context of

what I could be looking for while I'm reading this. A great, great

quote from a pastor. He said, we find Christ in all the scriptures.

In the Old Testament, he is predicted in the Gospels, he is

revealed, in Acts, he is preached, in the epistles, he is

explained, and in Revelation he is expected. All right, and now for

you guys, it's going to be taking that time to familiarize yourself with the

different portions of scripture, to go like, okay, well, which ones

which well? Which part is what is the Old Testament? Which parts the

Gospel, which part is Acts? Which part of the epistles? Okay,

bonus tool is we have each other. We're not doing this alone. This

isn't like good luck. Hope you figure out how to read the Bible.

But we have each other. We have people who have read their Bibles for

a long time. We have people who are who are just ready and excited

to start reading their Bible and knowing God's word, and they want someone to

do that with. Right, So we shouldn't be doing this alone. We

should not be doing this alone. We're not going to be as successful as

if we have other people to come alongside with us and make sure also we're

not being a little weird with scripture, especially as we're learning to handle it

and understand it, because there's gonna be places where you read it, you're

gonna go it says that, well what does that mean? Or I'm wrestling

with that, or I don't not get that, or maybe I don't like

that? Is that okay? And having people in our lives to help us

with that, it's just it's unbelievable. And that's not just the pastors on

Sunday who preach it from God's word to try and help you understand it,

but that's also our friends, our community groups are the people that we do

life with to try and help us understand together what God's Word is. Right,

we can grow with one another. But at the end of the day,

all of these tools are no good if we don't use them. Okay,

they are not going to do it for you. They are not going

to do the work. They're not going to be used for you, and

you will not reap any kind of reward in the sense of fruitfulness and it

producing good in your life if you don't use it. We can't afford to

not know God's word and when we read it, this is really what we're

trying to do. This is really what we do when we approach God's word.

Really what we're trying to do is we're just trying to find the meaning,

know what God has said, and then take that and apply it to

our lives and go, God, you've I know you've revealed yourself. I

know you have a word for me. You've given it to me, You've

placed it here. Help me understand what that meaning is so that I can

turn in turn apply it to my life accurately produce whatever you have of me,

so that I can now be a part and be built up and be

a part of your church and your body and be who You've called me to

be in that space, and we need God's word to transform us and mold

us and do that for us. We're all dependent on God and He's given

us so many tools, and once again, our goal is just to come

back to God and say, help us do that, Help us do what

you want us to do. Help us know what you've said, help us

live it out, help us know what we believe, help us put us

put it into practice. Right, that's what whole our whole series is about.

We believe these things and that means something for our life, okay.

And all of these things are things that are found in scripture. So we

got to know our scripture and what it means accurately so that we can be

confident as believers. And when someone says something weird, it's not like,

oh man, I got to give up on this Christian thing, but it's

like, no, I know God. I've read what he said and I

believe him, and I've seen the fruit that it's put in my life.

And it's not just going to be discredited by some false teaching of someone claiming

to have a word from God, because you go, no, no,

no, I know what he said unless you can show me from this book,

unless you can show me from God's word. What you're saying is true,

subbit myself to what He has said. Did you guys please stand today

we kind of get the opportunity to put this into practice. Like we talked

about, we have baptisms coming up here in a minute. And when those

who put their faith in Jesus repent of their sin and turn to Christ.

One of the things that we see the freaking response in the New Testament and

acts as the good news is being spread throughout the world. It's always repent

and be baptized. Repent you've put your faith in Jesus. You're repenting from

your sins. You don't want this life anymore. You recognize him as Lord,

and you know you need a savior who died for your sins and has

given you hope by raising three days later. There's good news there. So

they repent of their sins and they turn to Christ and then as a as

a proclamation of that faith, as an examples, as a picture, as

a a message to the world to say that I follow Christ. He is

my Lord. People get baptized. That's why we celebrate it. That's why

it's such an amazing, amazing thing that we get to celebrate with one another

because someone has put their faith in Jesus and they're professing it in front of

us as witnesses and in front of Heaven, and they're rejoicing. So we

get to do that too, all right. So that's what we're doing today,

which is amazing. It's to show that people they're saying that they have

died with Christ, their old self, their flesh has been buried with Christ

and is now being raised and has the future hope of being raised with Christ,

a new creation, no longer the same, that that sin has been

washed away in the death of Christ, and there's now hope because of what

He's done. So this is what we're gonna do. If today you've put

your faith in Christ and you want to know God, and you've repented and

you've looked at Him, you can get baptized. You can't do that.

We have a couple of people already did that. They're getting baptized. But

if you want to is well, today we'll baptize you in your clothes.

We also have shirts and shorts and a towel if you need it. But

we're gonna celebrate together. But what we're gonna do is I'm gonna pray.

You guys are gonna go get your kids, bring them back in here,

and then then we'll come back up, do baptisms, celebrate together, and

then go home. Okay, let's pray. Father God. We thank you,

we need you, we love you. We're so grateful for your mercy

and kindness on our life. And we just asked that we would put these

things into practice so that you would produce in us all the good things that

you have for us to do and to live out on mission for you.

So just help us be clear, help us be focus, help us have

the excitement in the drive or God. And then as we start to put

our hands to the plow, don't let us look back. Help us move

forward, knowing the joy that's on the other side of knowing your word.

Forgead and help put people in our lives to help encourage us to know your

word. So we thank you, we love you. We give this time

to you in Jesus name. We pray Amen.