The Power of the Word in the Believer's Life, Part 1 B

You talk about thrills, and I've had a lot of thrills in my lifetime. I look back, we're doing my athletic career. You know, all of the honors and all of those things that you get in athletics and all the thrills of participating in a collegiate career and all that stuff. I'll tell you something, the greatest thrill that I've known in my life is when I have cracked open the shell of an incredible truth of the Word of God. It's an exhilarating and joyous experience. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You've probably crammed for tests, and maybe that helped you do better than you would do otherwise. But that's not the same as learning something over time so that it gets beyond your short-term memory and becomes useful throughout your life. Well, if there's anything you need to commit to long-term memory, it's God's Word.

That only comes, though, from a serious commitment to study. And today, John MacArthur shows you the steps he takes to get all he can from Scripture and how you can take those same steps. You might assume a study like this is mainly aimed at Bible teachers, but if you want to know how to find answers from God's Word or even interpret difficult passages, this series is for you.

Follow along. Here's John to show you how to study the Bible. One of the first reasons that I believe the Bible is true is because it gives us the experience that it claims it will give us.

For example, the Bible says that God will forgive your sin. I believed that. I accepted His forgiveness, and you know what?

He did it. You say, how do you know that? I have a sense of freedom from guilt. I have a sense of forgiveness. You know, the Bible says that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away, all things become new. I came to Jesus Christ one day, and you know what happened? Old things passed away, and all things became new, and I experienced it. The Bible really changes lives. Somebody said a Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to somebody who isn't, and I guess that's true because the Bible can put lives together.

Millions of people all over the world are living proof that the Bible is true. They've experienced it. Tough to argue, but you know something? Although that's a great argument in some sense, it's a weak one in another sense because, you know, if you start basing everything on experience, you're going to run into some people who've had some pretty wild experiences.

You know, the drunk who sees the pink elephants but really doesn't? And the Muslim and the Buddhist and the guy in Hare Krishna and the guy who sits under a tree and contemplates his navel and whoever else, they're going to get an experience. And if you base it all on experience, you're in trouble. So I say that that's just one way, and of the five, it's probably the poorest way, but it's still evidence for some. I think a second thing that proves the validity of the Bible is science. People say, well, the Bible, you know, it's not a book of science and it's scientifically incorrect. The Bible doesn't use scientific language.

But, you know, people often say that. They say, what about when the Old Testament says, and the sun stood still? Now, we know the sun didn't stand still. What happened, if anything happened, is that the earth stopped revolving and it appeared that the sun stood still. They say, well, you see, in those old times, they thought the sun was going around the earth instead of vice versa. So that's just a typical biblical faux pas. Yeah, but you see, the problem with that is that those people were not analyzing it scientifically.

They were not doing that. They were looking and seeing what appeared to happen. You do the same thing. You get up in the morning, you look at the east, you don't say, oh, my, what a lovely earth revolving. That's not an earth revolving, that's a sunrise. You understand what you're saying. You look to the west and you say, what a lovely earth revolving.

No, that's a sunset. Somebody said you could say it this way. When somebody asked you if you'd like another helping of dinner, you could say, well, gastronomical satiety admonishes me that I have arrived at a state of deglutition consistent with dietetic integrity.

Or you could say, no thanks, I've had enough. You see, you don't always need a scientific answer for everything. Sometimes just pure observation is sufficient. The Bible says some things that are from the viewpoint of human observation. But on the other hand, whenever the Bible speaks about a scientific principle, it is dead accurate. It is right on.

It is exacting. In the 55th chapter of Isaiah, in the 10th verse, listen to this. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not there, before it watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

Did you hear that? This is Isaiah, centuries before the hydrological cycle was ever discovered, saying that the rain and the snow comes down and doesn't return again until it has watered the earth. You know, it's only in modern times that hydrology has been understood, and what happens is the rain falls down on the land, down to the rivers, into the sea, and from the sea it returns again to the clouds, has taken over the land and dropped again.

The ever constant hydrological cycle. Isaiah 55 verse 10 laid it out. You say a pig could find, a blind pig could find the slop. Once in a while, maybe Isaiah just got a lucky guess. Well, that might be a possibility if it weren't for the fact that the same thing is discussed in several other portions of the Bible. The same, very same hydrological cycle. I was thinking of Jeremiah, pardon me, Job chapter 36 and verse 27. For he maketh small the drops of water, they pour down rain according to their vapor, which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly. Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds or the noise of his tabernacle? Here again, the discussion of the rain. You compare that again with Psalm 135 and we're just looking at some samples of it. Verse 7, he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and brings the wind out of his treasuries.

Here again, a discussion of this wonderful sequence of rain and the ascending vapors from the sea to plant the water again in the clouds. The Bible discusses the fixed orbits of the heavenly body. In Jeremiah chapter 31, it talks about that. In Psalm 19, it talks about that. And I really feel that as you get into the Bible, you find incredible things about science that tell us the Bible is true. You don't ever need to be ashamed of the Bible. You're never going to run into a problem in the Bible that you can't solve one of two ways. By looking through the rest of the Bible, by understanding how to interpret it, or by realizing that maybe you'll never understand it until you meet God because there are some things we don't understand and we don't know.

But the truth is here. You're not going to run into an error in the scripture, not even scientifically. There is within the science of geology, for example, a study called isostasy, which is kind of interesting. It's the study of the balance of the earth. And the idea says that equal weights are necessary to support equal weights so that land mass must be supported equally by water mass.

But they haven't really discovered anything that's too new because if you go back to good old Isaiah again, who was no scientist at all, but simply a prophet of God in the 40th of Isaiah and the 12th verse, it says God has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand. He has measured out heaven with the span. He has measured the dust of the earth in a measure. He has weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. God knows all about isostasy. He knows all about those kinds of things. It's an incredible thing when you get to the Bible and you start to study it, even scientifically.

I think about Herbert Spencer who died in 1903. They said, well, Herbert Spencer discovered the greatest thing about the categorizing of all the things that exist in the environment of the universe. He said everything can fall into these categories. Time, force, action, space, matter. Five classic scientific categories. Time, force, action, space, matter. Herbert Spencer said everything fits into those and the world hailed him as a great scientist, a great man of discovery.

You want to know something? All five of those in the first verse of the Bible. In the beginning, that's time. God, that's force.

Created, that's action. In the heavens, that's space. In the earth, that's matter. The Bible, when it speaks, speaks accurately. So science is a good way to show the authority and the validity of scripture.

There's a third one in our little five. First experience, then science, and then Christ. The very life of Christ is a tremendous evidence of the truth of the Bible. And I say that for a lot of reasons, but just one that I'll suggest to you for now.

And that is this. Jesus believed in the authority of the Bible. Jesus said not one jot and not one tittle shall be removed from this law till every bit of it be fulfilled. There's a fourth area of proof when you look at the Bible, and that's the area of miracles. I say that the Bible is a divine book because it has miracles. And that's the proof that God is involved in it.

It's got to be a supernatural book because of all the supernatural activity. You say, well, how do you know all the miracles are true? Well, they're all evidenced here.

There's all supportive information here. For example, when Jesus rose from the dead, over 500 people saw him risen from the dead. That's enough to convince any jury. The very miraculous nature of the Bible speaks of God. So experience and science and the testimony of Christ and the miracles of the Bible. And then fifthly, prophecy. There is no way to explain the fact that the Bible predicts things that are going to happen historically unless we see God as the author.

I think about Peter Stoner and his little book, Science Speaks. He says that just take a few prophecies, and he selects about three or four prophecies out of the Old Testament. And he says, he's a scientist dealing in the science of mathematical probability. And he says, if I just add up the probabilities that these three or four things could come to pass by accident, it'd be one chance in two quintillion that such an accident could happen.

And yet every detail has come to pass. He said one chance in two quintillion would be like this. It would be like filling the state of Texas 35 feet deep in silver dollars, putting an X on one of them and giving a blind man one pick.

He'd have one chance in two quintillion of picking the one with the X on it. That's how much chance there is, according to the mathematics of probability, of these four prophecies with their specific details ever coming to pass by accident. It's incredible. When the Bible speaks prophetically, it is right. Literally hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. This is God's holy word. Tremendous thing.

And the Christian who never approaches it with an intense commitment to study is forfeiting a tremendous blessing. I have to tell you, as far as my life goes, and I have a lot of happy things in my life. I have a wonderful wife that I love very dearly. I have four super kids who are less than perfect. And that's maybe why I like them so much.

They don't intimidate me a whole lot. And we have a great time and my life is rich. I have a great church where I'm able to minister and precious people that I love very much. And all that stuff is rich and rewarding and fun. But the thing I love most about life is the word of God. You know, it just takes me right into the presence of God. And that's a thrill. And you know, the deeper I study the word of God, the more excited I get.

Now I want to give you some thoughts. I want to give you six areas that appear as major benefits of Bible study. And you've got to understand these to start with, because these are the things that are going to become your motivation. First of all, we should study the Bible because the Bible is the source of truth.

Okay? The Bible is the source of truth. John 17, 17, Jesus said, praying to the Father, Thy word is truth.

A great statement. Thy word is truth. People, do you realize what it is to have the truth? I have people say to me all the time as I confront them about Jesus Christ, as I talk to them, well, you know, I don't know what the truth is. Pilate came to the place in his life. He looked at Jesus and he said, what is truth?

He was a cynic. What is truth? Don't give me that truth nonsense. I've been chasing that stuff too long. What is truth?

And even the Bible even says, men are constantly learning, but the problem is they are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Isn't that terrible? You know what it's like? I remember when I was in algebra class. I was in junior high school and I thought algebra was really hard. And I had a terrible time with algebra.

And you know, I'd go home to work one of those silly algebra problems when I was in the seventh grade and I would work on that thing for hours. And I'd go back the next day without the answer. I'd ask my dad, but he was hopeless.

He didn't know any more about it than I did. So I never could get an answer. That was the most frustrating thing in the world to me. Well, you know, you've had that problem. You've worked on something and it never can solve it. You never get the answer. That's the way it is with people in the world.

They read and they study and they think and they reason and they listen and they talk and they interact and they never get the truth and they never settle on anything and the frustration is overwhelming. I remember talking to a guy who had just kind of left society altogether. He just bailed out and got on drugs. He graduated from Boston University and I said to him, whatever made you do this?

He was living in the woods, sleeping in a pup tent. It was really a sad thing and he was all spaced out on drugs. I said to him, what are you doing? He says, well, you know, I searched for the answer so long. He said, I finally decided to blow my mind on drugs and at least now I don't even have to ask the questions.

Now that's the despair of never knowing the truth. You know, Kafka was writing about education. He had a great illustration. He pictured a bombed out city where it was all rubble, just totally bombed out and in the middle of this bombed out city, of course, everywhere was bleeding people and dying people and smoke and smoldering fire and it was a total rubble. In the middle of the city was an ivory tower piercing the sky, pristine white, not touched by the bomb and this solitary figure is winding his way through the rubble and he gets to this big tall building and he goes in and he goes up to the top story and goes down to the hall and way at the end of the hall is a little light and he follows the darkness till it comes to the light and he makes a right turn and he walks in a bathroom. And he goes in the bathroom and there sitting in the bathroom is a guy with a fishing pole and he's fishing in the bathtub. And the solitary stranger says to him, hey man, what are you doing? He says, I'm fishing.

He looks in the bathtub, he says, there's no fish in the bathtub and there's no water in the bathtub and the guy says, I know and keeps on fishing. And Kafka said, that is higher education. You see, man has lost the truth.

He's lost it. And you know something, it's a fantastic thing to realize and I think we forget it sometimes that every time you pick up this book, you pick up the truth. Boy, what a legacy.

What a legacy. And we can't take it for granted and we certainly can't just let it sit around. The first reason I believe we need to study the word of God is because it is the source of truth. Jesus said, my word is the key. If you continue in my word, John 8 31, you will know the truth and the truth will what? Set you free.

What do you mean by that? Well, just like the guy working on the math problem. As soon as he gets the answer, he's free, he can go.

Just like the scientist in the lab pouring all the stuff into the test tubes. He stays with it until he says, Eureka, I found it and he's free. And man will search and struggle and grope and grapple for the truth until he gets to the place where he finds it and he's free. And I'll tell you, one reason to study the Bible is the truth is there. The truth about God. The truth about man, the truth about life, the truth about death, the truth about you and me, the truth about men, women, children, truth about husbands, wives, dads, mothers, the truth about friends, enemies, the truth about how you ought to be at work, how you ought to be at home, even the truth about how you ought to eat and drink.

How you ought to live, how you ought to think. The truth is all there. What a resource. Cherish it.

Let me give you a second one. A second reason that I think you want to study the Bible is not only is it the source of truth, but it is the source of, can I use this word, happiness? Maybe you like joy better, or maybe you like blessing better, but happiness says it. The truth is there and it brings us joy. Let me show you some things in the scripture. We've got to use the scripture to extol the scripture. In Psalm 19 and verse 8, listen to this. The statutes of the Lord, and it's just talking about the principles of the scripture, are right, listen to this line, rejoicing the heart.

Isn't that a great thought? The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Boy, when you begin to study the Bible and you learn these great truths, you get so excited.

I'll tell you, I study the Bible a lot because I'm constantly teaching and preaching the Word, and I study it on my own because I love it so much and I have never found in my life a diminishing of the exhilaration that comes to me in the discovery of great truth in the Word of God. I'll tell you, you talk about thrills, and I've had a lot of thrills in my lifetime. I look backwards and all the wonderful and exciting things that happened to me as a child, and then through my athletic career, you know, all of the honors and all of those things that you get in athletics and all the thrills of participating in a collegiate career and all that stuff, and you look through all of those kinds of things and all of the thrills you had.

I'll tell you something. The greatest thrill that I've known in my life is the tremendous exhilaration that comes to my heart when I have cracked open the shell of an incredible truth of the Word of God. It's an exhilarating and joyous experience. Psalm 19-8 says that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. In fact, in Proverbs 8-34, it says, Happy is the man who hears me.

Happy is the man who hears me. Listen to Luke 11-28, and these are the words of Jesus. Luke 11-28, blessed or happy are they who hear the Word of God and obey it.

You want to be a happy person and obey it? It's amazing to me how many people know what the Bible teaches. They don't obey it.

They forfeit the happiness. You know, people say to me, well, the book of Revelation is so hard to understand. You know, we really study all the other stuff, but I don't want to get into Revelation.

I don't want to get involved in that. Well, listen to even the book of Revelation, which may seem so difficult. Listen to what it says in verse 3 of chapter 1. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy. And the word blessed means happy. You want to be happy?

Read Revelation. You want to be happy? Read any part of the Word of God and respond to it. 1 John 1-4, I love this verse. These things write I unto you that your joy may be what?

Full. Negri, full joy. There is a wonderful statement by our Lord in that magnificent 15th chapter of John, the chapter where he presents himself as the vine. And in the 15th chapter, in the 11th verse, he says this. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.

Oh, what a tremendous sign. Joy from the scripture. Now, I want to illustrate it and then we'll be done. But let me illustrate it from Luke chapter 24, verse 24. You remember Jesus had risen from the dead and he was on his way to Emmaus with those two disciples who didn't know who he was.

And as they were going along, we find this. Certain of those who were with us went to the sepulcher and found it even as the woman had said, but him they saw not. Then said he unto them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And now Christ is talking to them, but they don't know who he is.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory? Now he brings up the subject of Christ. They don't know who he is because we find that after his resurrection nobody knew who he was until he revealed it to them. So he keeps himself veiled in some way and he starts to talk about Christ, about himself. And he begins at Moses, all the prophets. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And here he is teaching them the scripture, reading through the scripture, giving them the scripture, and they're listening.

Finally they arrive, they have their meal, and all of a sudden the light dawns. Verse 31, their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished out of their sight. And then I love this, and they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us along the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Isn't that great? When he opened to them the scriptures, their heart literally burned within them. You see, there's joy in the word of God. There's joy in the truth of God. Now that is if you obey it. If you don't keep these words, there's no joy.

And I would hasten to add that God is gracious. He doesn't expect that you're going to keep every single principle and never waver. But it's a matter of what your heart attitude is. If your heart is committed to obey the word, it will fill your life with joy. There is no excuse for us not knowing the truth and not living lives literally filled with exhilaration and joy. It's right here available in the word of God. Now, we've learned we're to study the Bible because it is the only source of truth and the greatest source of joy.

We have a little more to say on that and four more principles for next time. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, continuing his series called How to Study the Bible here on Grace to You. John, these bedrock truths about the power of scripture that you're looking at, there is not a person listening now who couldn't benefit from knowing those truths and all of God's word better. This time of year, people have a great opportunity to give someone they care about the tools to do just that, to dig into life-transforming truth.

Yeah, and we're thinking about Christmas gifts, of course, and we have one that is really monumental. The MacArthur Study Bible is now available in the Legacy Standard Bible edition. That's the translation that is the newest and the very best English translation. It's staggering what magnificent work the translators at the Masters University and Seminary did in preparing the Legacy Standard Bible. It's really built on the new American Standard. It's an update and an upgrade of that one, and it's just an incredible tool. It's now available with the MacArthur Study Bible notes.

Available, I might say, for the first time. And as you know, if you've been with us, I always teach from the new American Standard, which up to now has been the best Hebrew and Greek manuscripts put into English. The Legacy Bible builds on that heritage, and it includes some unique things. A consistent rendering of God's name in the Old Testament.

His name is Yahweh. A consistent translation of doulos in Greek as slave, and in most English Bibles it's translated by four or five different words. And gender language that is exactly what is found in the original text, and a whole lot more. Combined with the 25,000 footnotes in the MacArthur Study Bible, this new LSB edition will help you understand Scripture like no other resource will.

And because of all of that, this is an excellent choice for Christmas. It's available in hardcover, leather soft, genuine leather, even premium goat skin. And also, if you're going to hang on to the new King James, it's available in that, as well as the ESV and the new American Standard. But we'd love for you to try the Legacy Standard Bible, MacArthur Study Bible. Place your Christmas order today.

Thanks, John. And friend, keep in mind with our free shipping option, we recommend placing your order within the next three days to ensure delivery before Christmas. So contact us as soon as you can. To order, call 800-55-GRACE during our normal operating hours at 730 to 4 o'clock Pacific Time. Or you can shop online anytime at GTY.org. The Legacy Standard MacArthur Study Bible comes in various bindings from hardcover to premium goat skin. To purchase the Bible that's right for you, dial 800-55-GRACE or visit the website GTY.org. And again, make sure you place your order before December 6th.

That's the last day that we recommend using our free shipping option for Christmas orders. And when you get in touch, be sure to let us know how you're benefiting from John's verse-by-verse teaching. Perhaps these broadcasts have helped you make biblical decisions or overcome a recurring sin or clearly explain the gospel to a co-worker. We'd love to hear about it. You can email your story to letters at GTY.org or write to us at Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. How do you get all you can from God's Word? Find out tomorrow what it takes to be a faithful student of Scripture as John continues his series titled How to Study the Bible. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.