The Discipline of Bible Study

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in 2 Timothy this morning, 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. You know, I don’t have a whole lot in my life to brag about.

I’m not rich. I’m not especially handsome. I’m not athletic.

As a matter of fact, I could count, actually I could not count on both hands, the number of times this week that my wife has laughed at me Trying to get my son ready for soccer and not knowing the way that the shin guards go on. Sitting there at practice the other night hoping, I hope the coach shows up. Said, because I’m not equipped to coach.

And she agreed. I’d be yelling at the kids, kick the round thing into the rectangle. So, you know, there’s a lot in my life that, there’s not a lot in my life that I can brag about.

But one thing that I can brag about is that I’m pretty good with directions. I can find my way just about, well, to just about any town. I can’t guarantee that I know my way around a particular town.

But I can find my way to just about any place in Oklahoma. And my wife will sit in the car with me and say, how do you know where we are going? We have never been here before.

Not even with the GPS. So say, how do you know where we’re going? And I said, well, we’re on county roads, such and such, and it comes out on Highway 18 between Granola and Scheidler, and we’ll take that down to Highway 60.

In fact, it’s when we were up at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve last time. He said, Highway 18 will take us down through Pawnee and into Shawnee if we want to go that way and get back home. She just looks at me and says, how do you know?

How do you know this? Because I’ll admit, it’s not normal. There’s no reason that I should know this, not living in that area. But whether we go there or whether we go up to Fairview, the Glass Mountains, or we go down to southeast Oklahoma, I don’t really have to consult the map.

And it took her a while to learn not to question this, just to go with it. Because I may not know a lot in life, but I know the layout of Oklahoma. And that’s because my grandparents, when I was a kid, they used to bring me maps and atlases.

And I have always since then loved maps. And as a kid, I know this is weird. This is why I don’t know anything about athletics, because I was sitting at home looking at the maps.

And even today, I’ll sit there, and if I’m bored, if there’s nothing, end of the day, there’s nothing on TV, I’ll sit there with a map, and I’ll just study the map. And part of it for me is because I look at all the places there are to go and visit and explore. But I told the kids at VBS I like to explore.

Look at all the places there are. And I have spent so much time over the years, and even still, just Google Maps or pull out the state map. I will just sit there and stare at the maps.

I’ve spent so many hours over the years staring at the map that a lot of it’s in here. And now I can drive, like I said, can’t necessarily find my way around in a town, but I can find my way to that town usually because the map is so ingrained up here. But if you’re not familiar with the map, if you’re not familiar with the map and you’re going to a place that you’ve never been, say if I go to Texas, yeah, I do have to have GPS.

I can get to Texas, but I can’t necessarily get to the town that, just go south, but I can’t necessarily get to the town I’m looking for without GPS because I’m not familiar with that map. See, we’re not like birds that they know, okay, I go this way in the winter and this way in the summer. We’re not born with this sort of innate sense of direction where we know this is how I get to Pawhuska.

This is how I get to Fairview. This is how I get to Lawton. We’re not born with that.

And if we’re going to a place that we’ve never been to before and nobody’s given us any kind of direction and we don’t have a map or a GPS or something, we’re not going to find it just by accident. We don’t typically find our way to things like that by accident. If I told you right now with no further direction, said get in your car and go to my grandmother’s house, how many of you are confident that you’d find my grandmother’s house?

Okay, stop. You’ve been there before. Oh, which grandmother?

I guess the one that’s still living. Okay. Go find my grandmother’s house.

Yes, Charlie could find it. She’s been there before. The rest of you probably are not going to find it.

If I said go to my parents’ house, hand down. If I said go to my parents’ house, you’re probably not going to find it. If I told you to go to Greenland, Arkansas, where I used to live, and didn’t let you look at the map, you’re probably not going to find it by accident.

I can barely find it with the map. You’re not going to find it by accident. We don’t just accidentally fall into the right destination.

We have to know and we have to follow the map. The same thing is true with our spiritual life. as we’re talking about these spiritual disciplines that help us to grow as Christians, whether we’re new believers or whether we’ve been Christians long enough we should know better, these are disciplines that we need to follow in order to help us grow in Christ. You know, last week we talked about prayer.

This week I want to talk to you about Bible study and really getting into God’s Word and looking at it as a map that shows us where we want to go. I know many of you probably heard the song Growing Up as I did, read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow. And we like to laugh at that as being simplistic.

Okay, surely it’s got to be more complicated than that. There is a little more to it than that. Otherwise, this would be a two-week series and not an eight-week series.

There is a little more to it than that. But seriously, if we’re slacking on the prayer and we’re slacking on the time in God’s Word, we’re not going to grow, grow, grow. There’s a lot of truth to that song.

And so we need to get to a point where we see the Bible as our map. because in life there are places that we want to go as believers. I think there’s something in us where we all want to glorify God.

We all want to do what God expects from us. We all want to please him. Now, there may be times where we know what God wants us to do and we know what would please God.

We say, that sounds really hard. I don’t want to do that. But in general, we want to please God.

We want to get to that place of glorifying God, sort of like with my kids. Now, what would please me is for you to eat your vegetables up your room. They don’t always want to do that.

But in general, I do feel like they want to make daddy happy. They want daddy to be proud of them. And I tell them all the time, I’m proud of you regardless.

But, you know, reinforce that pride. Do the right thing. We want to please God.

We want to glorify God. We’re not going to do that by accident because, see, our human nature is to rebel against him and to ignore him and to disobey him. It’s been going on since the Garden of Eden.

I mean, left to our own devices, left just to run amok, we’re going to run amok. Left to do whatever seems right in our own eyes, it’s not going to match up with what pleases God, is it? You look back at the book of Judges where it says repeatedly that the people did what was right in their own eyes, and there wasn’t anything right about it.

And God kept sending in country after country to invade them and take them over so they would get the idea, hey, you need me. And so it’s pretty clear. It’s pretty clear to me at least that just left to ourselves and just trying to go by what feels right, what seems right, what I think is right at the moment, just going by that, we’re going to go further away from glorifying and pleasing God rather than closer to it.

We need a map in order to get there. Otherwise, we are going to get lost. We are going to get lost. And the map that God has provided, the map that God has provided is right here. this is the map I know that that sounds old fashioned in this day and age to say we need to live by this right here we need to first of all know what’s in it and then we need to do it I know that sounds old fashioned in this day and age oh this book is at least 2,000 years old so why would I want to live my life by that when I can go see what what Oprah or the Huffington Post says about it I can go see what they say why would I want to live by a 2,000 year old book because this wasn’t somebody’s opinion.

This is God’s word. And I know a lot of people in our society say that it’s circular reasoning to believe that it’s God’s word because it says so. But there are all sorts of proofs.

And toward the end of this year, we’re going to get into some of the reasons, seven reasons why I think we can be absolutely convinced that the Bible is God’s word. We’ll get into that later. But this is God’s word.

It testified, all the fulfilled prophecies, all the details that weren’t known until modern science and modern archaeology confirmed them, but there they were 2,000 years ago in the Bible, speaks to the idea that there’s somebody above us. There’s somebody who sees the world as we do not. There’s somebody who sees what’s hidden from our eyes.

There’s somebody who sees from above and sees the whole picture. I remember in the days before there was GPS in the cars, and my dad would occasionally have to go to areas around Purcell and Maysville and down there to work, and he’d have to come back up I-35 to get back to the city because there’s only a couple bridges that go across the Canadian River into the city. And on at least one occasion, there was a massive pileup on I-35 that had traffic blocked in both directions for miles, and he’s calling me saying, is there another way to go around it?

Well, they did have Google Maps in those days just on your desktop. And he’s calling me, and I’m sitting at home on the computer looking at the satellite image of Google saying, okay, now there should be something that looks like a big barn, and I need you to turn left there. And he got through because he can only see a little bit on the ground, and I was looking at the whole picture.

There’s so much in here that testifies to the fact that it was put here by somebody who sees far more than we do. And so when Paul said to Timothy, as he did in the passage we’re going to look at today, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, there’s plenty of reason to believe it. And if this is given by the inspiration of God, if it is God’s word, then we should be able to look at it with confidence, hear me on this, with confidence that if we want to please God, then this is the way to do it.

Doing what he says to do is the way to do it. And so we look here at what he says in 2 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse 14. This is Paul writing to Timothy, who was a young pastor at the time.

This was his final letter to him shortly before Paul was executed. But he tells Timothy, Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

And he says here, 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, throughly furnished unto all good works. That’s what Paul said to Timothy about the scriptures. Now, keeping in mind that in the time that Paul wrote this in the 60s AD, they didn’t have the Bible in its form that we have it today.

and the reason we know this is because it was still being written. This was part of the writing of it. But they had parts of the Scriptures.

They had the Old Testament. They might have had some of the earlier letters that the churches knew were inspired by them. And he said when you hold the Scriptures, you’re not just holding man’s opinion.

You are holding the actual Word of God in your hands. You’re holding the Word of God that tells you what He wants and where He expects you to go. And we see this all throughout these four verses that we’ve just read, how Paul holds this out as the roadmap for Timothy for a life that glorifies God.

He tells him to continue in the things that he’s learned. The Bible here stands the test of time. He’s saying the things that you’ve already learned and heard, because we know from other places in Paul’s letters, we know that Timothy was raised as a believer.

He was raised by a mother and a grandmother who were both Christian believers and raised him up in the faith. And he says, continue in the things that you’ve been taught. Continue to stand in the scriptures as they’ve been explained to you, as you’ve understood them.

In other words, Paul’s saying they haven’t changed. God’s truth has not changed. Say, well, what about all the stuff in the Old Testament we don’t do anymore?

Yeah, there is a lot of stuff in the Old Testament that we don’t do anymore. And it’s not because God changed his mind, but it’s because the reason for those rules is no longer there. They were superseded by Jesus Christ. The righteousness and the demands of the law were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. And so why would we go sacrifice bulls and goats now?

There’s no reason for it anymore. The perfect sacrifice, the complete sacrifice, was made on the cross. Why would we have to wear garments made all of one kind of fabric?

Those were the priestly rules for the priest. We have a high priest in heaven who intercedes for us and we don’t need a priest anymore. We don’t need all those priestly rules. So there are some things that it’s not that God has changed and it’s not that his principles have changed.

It’s just that what we needed at the time changed. But the principles as far as the holiness of God, where God said even in the Old Testament sin was sin and said it again in the New Testament, describing the things that were not pleasing to him. God’s principles haven’t changed.

God’s expectations for us to live a holy life separated to him, to live a life dedicated to him, to love him above everybody else, to love our neighbor as ourself. These things have not changed. The things that God expects from us and for us have not changed.

And so Paul points out to him, keep going in the things that you’ve heard and understood and learned, the things that you’ve been taught. They haven’t changed. You know, I was taught the Bible as a child.

I grew up in Sunday school, Christian parents, the whole nine yards. you know what the world has changed around me since the 80s the world has changed around y’all since the 80s but I look in here and God’s word has not changed it stands the test of time it may not be the roadmap to how we please the world around us but it is still the roadmap to how we bring God glory the Bible is still your roadmap to a life that glorifies God so he tells us that it stands the test of time. He tells us that it’s clear and understandable.

He says that even as a child, even as a child, you looked in the scriptures and they made you wise unto salvation, which is by faith in Christ Jesus. Even a child can look in there and understand the simple truths of God’s Word. Are there things that are hard to understand?

I won’t dispute that. Because you may be sitting out there thinking, that preacher’s crazy. He’s I will admit to you, there are things that I still struggle with.

How many times do I preach a message and say, there are a couple of interpretations here that are put out as possibilities, and this is the one that makes the most sense to me, but I’m not completely sure. There are some things that are hard to understand. There are also some things that are very clear and simple in Scripture.

There are some things that God just lays out there abundantly clear, And he says, this is what you’re supposed to do. One of those things was the way of salvation. God made salvation so clear and understandable.

If we’ll look, if we’ll actually look and not just come into it with our preconceived ideas, but if we’ll look at what he says, he has made salvation so clear and so understandable that even a child can get it. And salvation is through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. That goes along with everything else taught in Scripture, that we are not saved by good works, by doing the right thing.

We’re not saved by following all the things that he commanded us to do. We are saved by realizing that we can’t follow all those things perfectly. We’re saved by realizing that we have sinned against God and need a Savior, and putting our entire trust in Jesus Christ because of what he did on the cross.

We’re not saved by good works. We’re not saved by being good people, doing good things, going to church, giving money. We are saved by believing that Jesus Christ died for us on the cross and paid for our sins.

And taking our entire faith and putting it in Jesus Christ. And I’ll tell you what, at 30, there’s still a lot I don’t understand about the Bible. And at 60 or 70 or 80 or 90, should God let me live that long, there will still be a lot that I don’t understand about the Bible. At 5, there was definitely a lot of stuff I didn’t understand about the Bible.

But I was able to understand that one simple truth. But I sinned against God and I needed forgiveness and Jesus Christ paid the price for that forgiveness. So he says you want to live a life that’s pleasing to God.

He says here it is. Some things are so clear including where this journey starts with salvation. The scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation because the world has a totally different idea about how we have peace with God.

If I could just be good enough. And yet the Bible can peel that back and run some wisdom in here and say, it’s not by my good works, it’s by what Jesus accomplished on the cross. And he says here that it’s the word of God.

It’s the word of God. He says it was breathed out by God. That word inspiration.

That word inspiration is the Greek word theonoustos, which means theos meaning God in Greek and noustos meaning breathed. Breathed out. Talking about the wind.

that God poured out of himself into the scriptures. That as I speak something, I’m breathing it out. Well, that’s how God inspired holy men, as the Bible says, holy men of old, who wrote down what they were inspired by God.

And it’s still a mystery how that worked because God used their personalities and their writing styles, and those things are all in there, and yet it’s exactly what God led them to write. He said it’s given by inspiration of God. It was breathed out by God.

It is His literal word. It’s not some man’s interpretation of what God’s word is. It is God’s word that He put there on the page through these men who wrote it down.

And it was given to us. The map was just.. .

We didn’t have to go find the treasure map. The map was just given to us. And He says it’s profitable.

It’s beneficial. It’s good for us. For all these things, It’s able to teach us about God and His will. It says that in verse 16, that it’s given to us to be profitable, to be beneficial, to help us.

It’s given to help us. And with a few things that He says it’s to help us. It’s to teach us about God and His will when it says profitable for doctrine.

We can only really know who God is and what He wants through what He’s revealed here. Now, we can look at nature around us. We can see the rocks and the trees and the birds.

We can listen to the birds singing. We can watch the glory of the stars. And we can know that there’s a God.

But as far as knowing who he is and what he wants. It’s a mystery to us other than what he’s revealed here. We can’t know him without him telling us what he wants us to know.

And so when it says profitable for doctrine. To help us to understand who God is and what he wants. He’s given us this map.

He says for reproof. can show us when we’re out of God’s will. You know, we want to learn what God’s will is, and even when we know it, sometimes we get out of step with it, don’t we?

I know I do. And then, somehow or another, a scripture will come and just nail me in the conscience. This has happened a lot this week.

I have had some ugly thoughts this week, I don’t mind to tell you. As I’m going to drop Benjamin off at school and pick him up, I don’t understand. And if you’re one of the people who does this, Just keep in mind, I do still love you, even if I don’t understand why people can’t read the sign that says, right turn only, out of the school.

And I’m trying to get back and forth across the street over to First Missionary Baptist, and people are turning left. I’ve had some ugly thoughts this week. And then there’s a, I’ll get back in my car, and I’m just fuming, and there’s a scripture of it.

There are a number of scriptures that come back to mind, And God says, hey, buddy, you’re wrong. But God, so are they. Yeah, but you’re wrong.

Okay. And it’s like God and I had the same conversation twice a day. We’ve had this ten times this week.

Five days times two, you do the math. Okay. His word is profitable for reproof.

What good would I be, not just as a pastor, but as a Christian, walking around with an ugly attitude toward the other people here in town, Just because they can’t read a sign, apparently. Or don’t read a sign, whichever. And God points out to me, that attitude is just wrong.

And I say, okay, God, I’m wrong. See, God’s word has a way of pointing out to us when you’re out of God’s will. And I know that’s a little example.

I could give you some big examples where I’ve been out of God’s will and he’s nailed me on it, but I’m not going to today. But if we’re wanting to live a life that’s pleasing to God, it’s not enough that we just know what God’s will is. We also need for him to call us on it when we’re not doing it.

And so his word has a great way of pointing out where we’re not doing what we’re supposed to. When we do get out of God’s will, what help, what benefit is there if he just points it out and says, you’re wrong without giving us an answer to get back on track? and sit and nitpick all day and say, you’re wrong, you’re doing this wrong, I don’t like the way you’re doing that.

It’s something else entirely to give you a helpful suggestion. I used to do this with kids in class. Mark all the grammar mistakes.

And when I went to work at the school, they were just circling the grammar mistakes or the spelling mistakes, just circling them. And the kids were having to come to me all the time, well, what did I do wrong here? And if I was really in a bad mood, I’d say, just figure it out.

Then I realized my students need to learn the proofreading marks that I was taught in school. And I got where I’d circle their mistakes, yes, but then I’d write SP next to it if it was a spelling mistake. Or you underline three times if they were supposed to capitalize something and didn’t.

Or if they transpose two letters, you do a little squiggly line, where you’re helping them not only understand what they’ve done wrong, but how to get that on track, how to fix it. Not necessarily holding their hand and saying, you need to do this. But here’s the problem and here’s how you fix it.

Now go find your solution. Well, God does the same thing with us. He doesn’t just point out where we’re wrong.

His word doesn’t just point out where we’re wrong. It’s not just reproof, but it’s also correction. He corrects us.

He says, the map is showing you how to get back on the right road. It’s not enough just to realize, oh, I took a wrong turn somewhere. I need to know how to get back to the right highway.

and God’s word does that. It gives us correction. It says, this is what you should have done.

Let’s go back and do this. Let’s go back and fix this and go back the right way. And it’s helpful for that.

And it’s helpful to help us stay in God’s will the next time. One of the things that I love about the Google Maps app on my phone, I don’t know if Siri does this. She kind of irritated me in St.

Louis when we went for the SBC meeting. There’s a lot of lanes and a lot of highways in St. Louis.

the Google Maps app would show you when you’re coming up on an interchange one of the spaghetti bowl interchanges like they have in Dallas and you’ve got noodles going everywhere the Google Maps thing would show you how many lanes there were and there would be little arrows for each lane and there might be 8 lanes and it shows you arrows like this and then it highlights which one you need to be in this is my favorite thing ever it’s showing me not just where I am and where I need to be but it’s showing me how to stay on the right road These things, one’s going to Illinois, one’s going to Mars, I don’t know. They’re all going different directions. This one’s showing me how to stay on the right track so I don’t get lost next time.

God’s Word will do that for you too. It’s not just, okay, now you’ve messed up. Now we deal with it and get you back on the right track.

It’s an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. God’s Word will help you know how to stay on the right track. God’s word, this map, will show you what to do better next time.

How do I stay pleasing to God? How do I stay in God’s will? And it equips us fully to serve God.

Okay, verse 17. Verse 16 is one that I’ve heard quoted for years and one that I have memorized. Verse 17 is way too often overlooked that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

God’s word is not just profitable helpful for these things it doesn’t just add a little bit of something to our attempts to live a godly life it makes it possible for us to be thoroughly furnished to be fully equipped with everything that we need to live a godly life are we still going to sin?

yeah, unfortunately because we can’t follow perfectly what we’re reading we just don’t have it in us but we’re thoroughly equipped God gives us everything we need to live a godly life so that we will be perfect that word perfect don’t misunderstand it doesn’t mean flawless we think oh he’s so perfect he never does anything wrong you ever see people like that I don’t trust people like that he never messes up he’s always got she’s got it all together that’s not what I’m talking about that’s not what the Bible’s talking about when it says perfect that word perfect in the Greek means complete not that we’re never not that hey if you just follow these three steps you’ll never sin again that’s not what he’s saying you read God’s word and you take it to heart and you study it and you live by it and there’s nothing you’re going to lack to serve God I’m not saying nothing you’re going to lack this is not a name it claim it message and you just do everything he says he’s going to make you rich beyond your wildest beliefs but you’ll lack nothing you need spiritually when it comes to serving him God I don’t have the wisdom I need to do this.

There you go. You got it. In God’s word.

God, I just don’t, I just don’t feel I have the strength to do this. There you go. He’s going to give it to you.

When it comes to serving him, he’s going to make sure that there is nothing you lack. He’s going to make sure you get to where you’re going and that you hit all the stops you need along the way. Folks, if you take nothing else from this message this morning, the Bible, the Bible is your roadmap to living a life that glorifies God.

you want to know how do I glorify God with my life? How do I do the right thing? How do I please Him?

What does He expect from me? It’s right here. It’s right here.

Sometimes it’s right here in plain sight. You know, what’s God’s will for my life? I can’t tell you specifically, you know, in the sense that, well, God wants you to work here for this many years, and then God wants you to go do that ministry.

I can’t tell you that. I’m not your Holy Spirit. There are some things that you’ll have to read through here and study and see how God speaks to you, But there are some things that are there very plainly.

What is God’s will for my life? God’s will is for us to be saved. God’s will is for us to trust Christ as our Savior and find forgiveness in Him.

God’s will is for us to be more like Jesus Christ. He says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Sanctification means that process by which we grow to be more like Jesus Christ, where He forms us into what He wants us to be. There are several things in there where God says, this is my will for you.

In everything give thanks. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you.

It’s God’s will that we be thankful. There are some things that are going to be in there very plainly for you. There are some things that are going to be right there in black and white and they’re just going to slap you in the face.

There are other things you’re going to have to dig for. But God’s put it in here. This is your map.

This is your map to a life that glorifies God. and we need to use the map we need to use the map we need to take advantage of the map that he’s given us we need a regular routine if you don’t already have one you need a regular routine of studying God’s word just like I talked to you about last week with a regular prayer time that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve got written on your daily calendar every day from 8. 30 to 9 I’m having but you need a routine where I know I’m spending this time with God every day I know that tomorrow I’m going to spend time with God in prayer with this.

You need a regular, routine time in God’s Word. You need a time where it’s just you and God, and you can even combine that with your prayer time. You need a time to go to the road map before you start the day.

As much as I understand and have memorized parts of the state highway map, when we get ready to leave on a road trip, I’ll go back for a refresher and say, okay, have they moved things? because they sometimes do that. I’ve been on a highway outside of Stillwater and been on a bridge over, what is it, Similon River, going into Stillwater, and the GPS showed that we were out in the woods about a half mile off of it because they had moved the bridge.

Well, you want to know. You want to make sure you know where the road is. You want to make sure you know what the right road is.

I want to make sure I don’t get Highway 3 East confused with Highway 3 West or Highway