How to Study the Bible

The title of my message today, friends, is How to Study the Bible, and if you think this is going to be an intellectual exercise, it is not. There are plenty of people out there who are seminary trained, who are well-read in the Bible. They know their Greek and Hebrew, and they're familiar with the Word of God, but they are not familiar with the God of the Word.

Stephen Olford once told me that if I wanted to master the Word of God, then first I must be mastered by the God of the Word, and it's true, friends, but the trouble today is we live in a generation that is practically illiterate when it comes to Bible knowledge. Very few read their Bibles at all. Very few read their Bibles diligently, but worse than that, very few today know God, and very few in our churches today know God, and it's a crying shame.

The purpose of this message, friends, is to light a fire under someone somewhere on this planet to immerse themselves in the Word of God, to shut themselves up to God in prayer to such degree that they get intoxicated with Christ, hungry for the reality of God, and thirsty to see God come in revival, to save the lost, and to usher in the lost into the kingdom of God through the new birth so they won't end up in the devil's hell. Well, that's the introduction of my message today, friends, but let's go ahead and begin with the premise that many of us just don't know our Bibles as well as we should. We are spoon-fed at church each week with some teaching, but rarely during the week do we dig into the Word of God.

What is our highest priority we must ask ourselves? We must examine ourselves and see how we spend our free time. Is it on our knees and in our Bibles, or are we sitting in front of the TV set with a blank-blank look on our face until our eyes grow as big as saucers and our brain the size of a pea? George Whitefield read through his Bible on his knees, and alongside his Bible he had Matthew Henry's commentary. Well, I have a Matthew Henry Bible, and about 15 years ago I determined to read through my Bible each day on my knees.

I gave up after about three months as my knees gave out, and as I realized Whitefield was a much younger man than me when he did that, but still I had the determination nonetheless. We must ask ourselves how serious are we about our walk with God? How hungry are we for a deeper experience of God? In Jeremiah 29 13 we read, And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart, and I will be found to you, saith the Lord. But are we taking the time, making the time, to seek God in prayer and going deeper in his Word? Every time I read John Sung's diary, I feel ashamed for my lack.

When John Sung was in America in the 1920s as a student at a liberal seminary in New York, he got saved one night in his dorm room, and his salvation experience so changed him that it shocked his unconverted seminary professors to such degree that they had him institutionalized in an insane asylum. He was a patient there for 193 days, and during that time he read through his Bible 40 times, each time getting a key word for each chapter. When he finally was released and returned to China, he was a walking Bible, and he shook China for God and powerful revival.

His friend and colleague, William Schubert, who was an American missionary to China, said that when Sung stayed with him for a week at his house, he would notice a light under his door at odd hours in the morning. One night, out of curiosity, at 3 a.m., he gently knocked on the door to ask Sung if he was all right, and he found the evangelist on his knees, studying his Bible, his shirt full of sweat, and making copious notes as God spoke to him through his written Word. Our trouble today, friends, is we have no passion for the Word of God because we have lost our sweetheart love for Jesus.

But if we have any hope of seeing revival, we must get back to our Bible and get in touch with God. How do we study the Bible? Well, let me give you some suggestions, which I have found helpful myself. First, choose a book of the Bible and stay with it until you master it, until you are deeply familiar with it, whether it's the Gospel of John or a Pauline epistle or a book from the Old Testament like Genesis.

But read it faithfully each day, read it diligently, and ask God to speak to your heart as you study His Word. And if you find a verse that stands out to you, then memorize it. Hide God's Word in your heart.

Ask God to make that verse a living reality in your life. Ask yourself as you're reading the text, is this truth real to me? Your goal in reading your Bible is to linger over the Word of God until the Word of God goes right through you. The Bible is a rich treasure found and opened.

In Psalm 119, 162 we read, I rejoice at that word as one that findeth great spoil. I'll never forget the story which my homiletical mentor Stephen Olford shared with me about the roar of the lion in the jungle. Stephen Olford grew up in the African bush as the son of missionary parents, and he related that you could hear lions roar different roars in the jungle.

He said the female lions were the ones that would go out and hunt and gather meat, and they had a certain roar as they stalked their prey. But Dr. Olford said that the most distinguishing roar he heard was that of the male lion. As the female brought his dinner to him, she would throw down the fresh kale before him, and as he sniffed it and pawed at it, he would relish it with a roar that said, You're mine! You're mine! And that should be our passion and heart cry as we approach the Word of God, and as we thirst after God like a heart pants after the water brooks.

God gets serious with those who get serious with Him. His Word declares in Malachi, Return to me, and I will return to you. Well, I hope this little study on studying our Bibles has been helpful to you friends, and let us make a fresh determination to get serious with God by getting serious about reading His Word, and as we ask Him for the daily grace to make His kingdom and His righteousness first and foremost in our lives, this is the only way we can have a fresh encounter with Him and prayerfully align ourselves back to Him to see revival in our day.

Let us pray.