How to Study the Bible

About 20 years ago or so, I taught a Sunday school class, and from that experience of teaching that class, and as I got to know the people in that class, I realized that about 90% of them are waiting to tell Sunday to get fed by the Word of God, that during the week, very few of those people ever opened up their Bible and spent any time in it. And I think even in today's time, friend, there are fewer Christians that spend time in God's Word as they should, especially with all the distractions we have around us today. But in 2 Timothy, we have the Apostle Paul's admonition to his disciple Timothy concerning the Word of God.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. I think one of the reasons why God used John Song so much, the famous Chinese evangelist, was because he was thoroughly immersed in his Bible while he was a student at a liberal seminary in New York City. He underwent a sound conversion to Christ and his new behavior as a vital Christian, so alarmed as unconverted professors that they had him committed to a mental institution.

And it was there, while Song was institutionalized, he read through the Bible 44 times in 193 days. And from that experience, God gave John Song a key word for every chapter of the Bible. And he ended up being a walking Bible as he went back to China and shook that entire country for Christ.

I don't know how many of us have even read through the Bible once, let alone read it 44 times. But I want to share with you this evening, friends, how to study your Bible. And I think if you take my advice, you'll benefit greatly from it.

This program of study will be more beneficial than the occasional lucky dip approach, or even a topical study. I'm afraid very few believers today, very few pastors today, know their Bible as they should. And if persecution comes to this country, like I think it's going to, and they start throwing Christians in jail, you won't have a Bible in there, friends.

You want to have as much of your Bible memorized as you can. That's the only way we'll get through. You have to memorize it.

And the best way to memorize your Bible is to read and study God's Word. Listen to me, friend. You want this book to go right through you with the express purpose of transformation.

You want to have an encounter with God and experience change from that encounter. I've worn out many Bibles over the course of several decades. They are dog-eared and tear-stained.

They are written in just about on every page as God spoke to me, and a new verse came to light like I never saw it before. I have J. Sidlow Baxter's Bible in my possession, and his handwritten comments are all throughout. I highly recommend writing and marking in your Bible, friends.

It's a good way to have the book go through you, and to have a written Bible is a wonderful legacy to leave for your children and your grandchildren after you go on to glory. The saddest commentary about the church in our day, I feel, is the number of pastors who are ignorant of God. Oh, they know the Word of God.

They've got several letters after their names in seminary, but they don't know the God of the Word. Being a Christian is not head knowledge, friends, but heart knowledge. Knowing both God's heart and your own wicked, deceitful one in light of God's Holy Word.

Perhaps there's someone here who has a hunger for God and the Word of God. Then I hope this little message on how to study the Bible will help you, friend. George Whitfield, had such a hunger for the Word of God, and such a thirst for Christ, that he read his Bible on his knees.

I tried doing that one year, and I must confess I gave up halfway through it. I had to finish reading it sitting down, but it doesn't matter what physical position you're in when you study your Bible, as long as your heart is in the right position, and as long as you study it. It was said of A. Z. L. Nettleton, the great evangelist of the Second Great Awakening, that he was a man of one book.

Do you, friend, want to be a person of one book? I wanted to go deep with God several years ago, and I already had a busy schedule, so I examined my life on how I could add more time for Bible study and prayer. I became thoroughly convicted to give up two things that were very dear to me, television and the game of golf. Both of them were time wasters, and I had to cut them out of my life completely for several years now.

I've taken that time I spent wasted, and I've spent it reading God's Word and getting to know my God better. Yes, it's been a sacrifice, but it's been a wonderful, rewarding experience. How about you, friend? Do you want to go deeper with God? Do you want to have a marvelous, life-changing encounter with Him? Then dust off the old book and get to know it more and more.

As you linger in its rich depths, you'll have a clearer picture of the author. Well, let's get down to cases as to how I studied the Bible, and if you do what I suggest, I believe you'll benefit from it. How I studied my Bible is through Bible characters.

About two years ago, I felt God was leading me to study the life of Abraham in a deep way, and over the course of time, as I immersed myself in Abraham's life and Matthew Henry's commentary on it, I saw God in ways I never had seen Him before, and I saw my own heart in ways I'd not seen it before. It was a rich experience, as I saw how God dealt with His servant Abraham, how He tried him and tested him and built him into that man of faith, and as I studied the movements and revelations of God to Abraham, my own faith was challenged and developed. I had a similar experience years ago, as I studied the life of Jacob.

Stephen Oldford used to say that Jacob was so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew and his true friends, and when I studied that crooked man's life and saw how God dealt with him, I saw how God purposes to straighten out a man's life, and in the process of that study, my own life began to be straightened out. I fear too many pastors today waste too much of their valuable time with the world's entertainments, and it shows in their stagnant and lifeless preaching. My suggestion, friend, is to get out a piece of paper or jot it in the notes of your computer and make a list of Bible characters that you want to study, both in the Old Testament and in the New.

You may want to peer into Hannah's prayer life and see how she moved the Almighty with her moving lips in prayer, where Eli thought she was drunk, and he was right, for she was drunk with God in prayer. She had an intoxicating prayer life, friends, and you may want to study the life of Joseph and see how God dealt with that young Jewish boy who had to be providentially thrown into a pit in a prison before he could be elevated to the Prince of Egypt. You may wish to study the emptying of Moses, as God in his sovereignty placed Moses on the backside of Midian for 40 years, until Egypt was out of Moses, before he could return to thunder and Pharaoh's court.

Thus saith the Lord. You may wish to do a character study on the Apostle Paul and see the fulfillment of the Lord's prophecy of the many things he must suffer. Then read that laundry list of sufferings more abundant found in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and as you immerse yourself in that list, friends, perhaps God will be pleased to allow you the great privilege of suffering for Him in the coming days.

Take a stroll through the corridors of that great hall of faith found in Hebrews chapter 11, and marvel at those worthies whom the world was not worthy, and as you commit to your newfound way of Bible study, ask the Holy Spirit to open up your understanding. Look how God built the servants to bring Him glory, and learn through their example of how God wants to build you, friend. Well, I hope this little lesson has been of some value to you, and it is my prayer that Almighty God will so get a hold of you in an encounter with Him, that your own life will be a wonder and a testimony of grace and supernatural power, as you influence your generation for God and the spread of the gospel of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.