Basic Bible Study Techniques

How Should a Christian Study the Word of God?

2 Timothy 2:15

Audio MP3

April 17^th 2011 PM

Pastor Craig Ledbetter

Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland

www.biblebc.com

I. Introduction

A. Threefold Goal of Studying Your Bible:

1. To Know God (Jeremiah 9:24)

a. Our goal in Bible Study is always first and foremost to know God more intimately so that we may worship Him more perfectly.

b. We never study just for the sake of gaining knowledge. After all, "knowledge puffeth up" (1 Cor 8:1).

c. As Christians we have a desire to please our Lord and to obey Him. In order to do that we must know what pleases Him and what He commands us to do. Thus we study the Bible

2. To Obey God (James 1:22)

3. To Be Like Jesus (Rom 12:2) – conformed to His likeness

B. The Attack of Satan on the Bible.

1. Corrupts

2. Replaces God’s word with

a. Busy-ness

b. Boredom

c. Bad Attitudes

d. Buddys

e. Brief Skimming

f. Bad Habits – like staying up late on the TV and Facebook!

C. The Kind of Bible Matters.

1. Authorized Version of 1611 (King James Bible). All other Bibles have problems

2. Don’t use small print Bibles

3. Purchase you a Bible that has:

a. Cross References

b. Simple Study Notes

c. Concordance and Maps in the Back

D. Tools to have on Hand.

1. Full Concordance – Strong’s Concordance

2. Notepad and Pencil or Pen

3. Good Dictionary

4. Time

II. Lesson - The Work of Bible Study (2 Timothy 2:15)

A. Read Through Your Bible (Matthew 19:4) Talked about this last week

1. The Bible is to be read by everyone

a. From the KING down (Dt 17:15,18,19)

b. Including CHILDREN (2Tim 3:14,15)

c. You will never learn your Bible without reading it – all the way through, again and again!

2. It is a SIN to not know the Bible (Mt 22:29)!

3. Jesus asked over and over, “Have ye not read?” (Mt 12:3; 19:4; 21:6; 22:31)

4. Decide How Much to Read – make this a habit

a. At least TWO chapters every day – without exception

b. Strive for four to read through in a year

c. Mighty men and women will read 10 chapters a day

5. Set a Time to Read

a. Read it when you first get up

b. When you are eating your breakfast

c. On break at work

d. During lunch

e. Listen to the Bible on audio or MP3 while taking a walk

f. Read the Bible as a family every evening

g. Read again before going to sleep

B. Pray for Help (John 16:13; Psalm 119:18)

1. The Bible is a hard Book without a teacher

2. The Holy Spirit was given to mankind to help us understand spiritual things (1Cor 2:12-15)

3. If not interested in reading and learning the Bible on your own, be very worried, and ask God to make you hungry for His words (Matthew 4:4)

C. Look for Treasures – this is the fun part (Proverbs 2:1-5; 1Cor 2:9,10)

1. Truths – absolute, unchanging truths

2. Principles – precepts – a right way of thinking and living

3. Prophecies

4. Promises – how many promises are in this Book?

5. Commands – uh oh!

6. Warnings

7. Answers

8. The Will of God – revealed first in the word of God

9. Examples

a. Truths about heaven and hell

b. Principles about right thinking

c. Prophecies about the coming antichrist

d. Promises of long life

e. Principles of behaviour as a Christian (Eph 4:30-31)

f. Commands about the tongue and the eyes

g. Warnings about loving this world

h. Answers to hard questions about struggles like the flesh and temptation

10. Most of all, look for Jesus (John 5:39; Luke 24:27,44)

D. Write Something Down (Isaiah 30:8)

1. Write-out your thoughts as you read your Bible

a. Job yearned that someone would write down all his thoughts and words as he struggled with the Lord’s direction in his life (Job 19:23) – prayer answered!

b. King David only understood what God was teaching him when he wrote out his thoughts (1Chronicles 28:11,12,19 – the book of Psalms)

c. King David loved to write out his worship (Psalm 45:1)

2. Write down…

a. Definitions – new words, Bible words

b. What you understand now that you read the Bible

c. Questions that arose because of what you learned

d. Scriptures that you want to memorize

E. Search for Right Answers – Rightly Dividing (2Tim 2:15)

1. There are so many religions out there. So many theologies. God gave us all the Bible so that we could know the truth, and become free

2. Always TEST what you understand and hear (Acts 17:11).

a. Don’t just go with a feeling

b. Don’t just believe with what everybody else is already believing

c. Don’t even believe just what the preachers preaches!

d. Find out for yourself if it is right, and if it is, then shout!

3. Compare it with what the rest of the Bible says

a. Be careful with Old Testament Scriptures

1) Written for our admonition

2) That we would learn from them

3) But those Scriptures are not always applicable

b. Always discover:

1) Who is talking – Jesus, Moses, God, or even the DEVIL (Gen 3:4)

2) WHO they are talking to

3) And then by the whole context, find out what are they talking about

4. Examples:

a. Matthew 24:13 – go back and notice 24:3,14,15,21

b. John 6:51-56 – notice 6:63

c. Matthew 10:1 – notice 10:2 and also 1Cor 13:8-10

d. Psalm 139:21,22 – compare with Matthew 5:43

F. Do Something With What You learn

1. Like Go Soul-Winning (Proverbs 11:30)

a. It will force you to look for the truths that matter

b. For answers for real issues

2. The same is true teaching a Sunday School class, or helping out in any ministry in the church

a. Music – finding the right kind of music standards to have

b. Preaching – being faithful to the Gospel message instead of just saying what people just want to hear

c. Praying – if you want to get answers to prayer, you will search the Scriptures to find out how to get the most answers!

3. Study the Bible to LEARN so you can DO!

4. Many, many Christians are “dead seas” that have no outlet for what they learn from their Bible, so they stink spiritually, even though they carry a King James Bible, and learn the greatest Bible truths

III. Final Thoughts

A. Contradictions are actually just opportunities to learn deeper truths

B. Not everything is simple

C. There is much “milk” in the Bible

D. But there is also much “meat” – takes a lot of chewing on, and thinking about, and studying to “digest”

IV. Conclusion

A. Read Through Your Bible.

1. Jesus asked over and over, “Have ye not read?”

2. Decide How Much to Read – make this a habit

3. Set a Time to Read

4. And then read, until the Rapture