A tent maker made a tent out of a lot of different animal skins. And he took every one of those animal skins and he cut each piece properly so that he could put the whole thing together. If you don't cut every piece right, the whole thing doesn't fit together. And what he's saying is you can't have theology without exegesis. You can't have a total theology of Christianity unless you have all the verses rightly interpreted.
Cut it straight and that takes study. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm Phil Johnson, your host. What a pity it would be to learn of an adult who couldn't feed himself and not because of a medical condition or physical impairment, but just because he never learned how to feed himself or chose not to learn. Well, the Word of God is your soul's greatest source of nourishment. But how well can you feed yourself on its life changing truth, its encouragement, its correction, its challenge and comfort? If you're a Christian, nothing is holding you back from getting all you can from God's Word except maybe not learning the steps for studying it. So today, John MacArthur is going to show you how he approaches studying scripture. Practical stuff he calls his current series.
What else? How to study the Bible. And here's John with the lesson. Why should I study the Bible? What should motivate me to Bible study? Number one, the Bible is the source of truth. Number two, the Bible is the source of joy. Third thing, a third motivating force, a third reason to study the Bible is that the Word is the source of victory. It's the source of truth. It's the source of joy. It's the source of victory.
Let me give you a fourth one. The Word of God is also the source of growth. Everybody wants to grow.
But you know something that's sad? See, Christians that don't grow, retarded, stunted, stultified, never grow. And the reason they don't grow is because they don't get in the Word. They may go to church and sit there, you know, and they just take a thimble to church, you know, and it gets filled up and they spill it on the steps leaving.
Nothing ever happens. That's sad. Peter says this, and this is a great text. 1 Peter 2, 2, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may what? Grow by it. In other words, the Word is the source of growth.
You know, everybody wants to grow. You know, I'll tell you, when I was younger as a Christian, I remember when I was in seminary. In college, you know, you just kind of, I was just involved in all kinds of stuff and goofing around and I didn't grow much at all. I got the seminary, man, and I got a taste of the Word of God and I just wanted so, I wanted so much of the Word that I could hardly stand in. I wanted to grow and grow and grow and I got this tremendous desire to grow and I realized there was only one way that was going to happen and that was if I got into the study of the Word of God. And so during my seminary days, I determined to really systematically begin to study the Word of God and that's when I began to grow. My growth, and I'll tell you frankly, my growth is directly proportionate to the amount of time and effort I spend in the study of the Word of God. When I have a time period, when I may not study the Word of God, I flatten out and when I begin to study, I accelerate.
I guess maybe the worst times in my life in terms of growth are my vacation times when I just kind of flake out and don't do much and I kind of flatten out. That's good though because I get to meditate a little bit but the growth pattern isn't nearly what it is when I'm really into the Word. Interestingly enough, verse 1 kind of lays the groundwork. It says that first of all, we have to lay aside all malice. That's a Greek word, kakia, which means general evil. You've got to set aside sin, guile, guile means deceit.
It's a Greek word for fishhook. Hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. In other words, you set aside all the evil things. Confess your sin, get your life straightened out, get your act cleaned up, then you hit the Word with a tremendous desire and then you really begin to grow. That's what the Word can do in your life, make you grow. And you know, the more you grow, the more exciting it becomes.
The Word is a source of life. You mature, you're enriched, you grow stronger. And as you grow stronger, you're able to defeat Satan. As you grow stronger, you know more about God and his character.
You're enriched in every possible way. In John 663, Jesus said this, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Jeremiah said, Thy words were found and I did eat them, feeding on the Word of God.
And again in James chapter 1, in verse 18, it says, Of his own will begot he us with the Word of truth. The Word is a life giver. The Word is a life sustainer.
The Word is a life builder. It is tremendous nourishment. I think it's 1 Timothy 4 that adds to our understanding of this. In verse 6, he says, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
Listen to this great line. Nourished up in the words of faith. The Word nourishes us. It feeds us. It builds us. It causes us to grow.
The end of 2 Peter, after he's given the tremendous statements about the collapse of the universe, and he's talked about the elements melding with fervent heat and all those other things, and how it's all going to come down in a crash, he says, What should we do? We should grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. To grow, to grow, and we grow as we feed on the Word of God. God wants us mature. He wants us built up.
He wants us strong. And in fact, you know, if you examine 1 John chapter 2, you find the pattern of growth right there. One of the most important scriptures in all the Bible.
Listen to what it says. I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children because you've known the father. Now you see three categories, fathers, young men, and little children.
And you'll notice three differences. I write unto you little children, you've known the father. I write unto you young men, you've overcome the wicked one. I write unto you fathers, you know him who is from the beginning.
Now do you know what those three things are? Those are categories of spiritual growth. Those are not literally little children, young men, and fathers. It wouldn't do any good to write the verse to little children.
They couldn't read it anyway. It's talking about levels of spiritual growth. Now we all start out as little children. We all start out and we know the father, that spiritual dada. You don't know much when you're a new Christian, but you know Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. God is my father and it's great and so forth. Spiritual goo goo, see. But you don't want to stay there.
That's really sad. You go to the second level, young men. What is the characteristic of a young man? He has overcome the wicked one past tense. Who's the wicked one? Satan. You say you mean to tell me that I could reach the place in my life where I actually overcome Satan? Absolutely right. You mean I can say I have overcome the wicked one. That's right.
How? Verse 14. I have written unto you fathers because you've known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men because you're strong and the word of God abides in you and you've overcome the wicked one.
Now listen to this. To overcome the wicked one, Satan, you'd have to be strong. There's only one way to be strong and that's to have the word abiding in you.
Now listen. You know what a spiritual young man is? A spiritual young man is somebody who really knows the word.
Somebody who really knows the word. Here's why I say that. Satan, according to 2 Corinthians 11, comes disguised as an angel of light. I believe that Satan, according to the Bible, spends 99.9% of his time in false religious systems. I think the bars and the prostitution problems and the crime and the lust and the world and the materialism and all the rest of that crud, I think all that stuff is pretty well taken care of by the flesh. You read Galatians chapter 5.
The works of the flesh are these and they list them all. I don't think Satan's running around poking you in the ribs about some little sin. I think Satan is developing worldwide systems of evil. Satan is appearing as an angel of light.
His ministers are angels of light. He works in false religions. And a spiritual young man, listen, is somebody who overcomes Satan in the sense that he knows enough of the word of God that he is not enticed by false religion.
He rather is angered by it. For example, the characteristic of a spiritual child is, according to Ephesians 4.14, he is tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Spiritual babies have trouble with false doctrine. Spiritual young men are people who know their Bible.
They know their doctrine so that false doctrine from Satan doesn't appeal to them at all. But there's a third level. He says, I write unto you, fathers, because you've known him who is from the beginning. Now, listen to this. You know who the father is?
That's the person who's gone beyond the page. He doesn't just know doctrine. He knows the God behind the doctrine.
See? Now, in these three steps, you have the progress of spiritual growth. We start out as babies. And as we feed on the word, we become strong. We never overcome the flesh. Oh, we can overcome the world. Our faith does that. 1 John 5 says. We can overcome the Satan's efforts at false religion. Doctrine does that. We'll never overcome the flesh. That'll always be a problem. But we can't have the joy of overcoming Satan's false systems of religion.
I've never seen it happen. I can tell you every time when a guy or a gal gets to the place of being a spiritual young man, they invariably get to the place where false religion makes them angry. And they want to go out and fight the cults. And then as they mature past that, they're not so concerned with fighting the cults. They begin to get a taste of who God is. They begin to plumb the depths of the mind of the eternal God. And they begin to stretch toward being a spiritual father and walking in the presence of the Holy One.
That's where we ought to go in our growth. Listen, you cheat yourself if you stay a baby. You cheat yourself if you stay a spiritual young man. And all you know is doctrine. You've got to get to the place where you've begun to walk in the very presence of the God of the universe.
Where you really begin to touch the person himself. And that's the ultimate end of growth. So, when you study the Word, it becomes the source of growth. Just like it is the source of truth, the source of joy, and the source of victory.
Let me give you just two more. I believe also that the Word of God is to be studied because it is the source of power. You know, it is the Word of God that infuses us with power.
And there's nothing worse than feeling like an impotent Christian. You know, you read Acts 1-8, You shall receive power. And some guy gets up and says, and that word power is due to miss. You shall be dynamite. You know, and you hear him say, man, you ought to be exploding all over the world. And you say to yourself, exploding?
I don't even fizzle. I think I'm a dud. Nothing? I don't have the power. Somebody says to you, you ought to go out there and win people to Jesus Christ. And you say, are you kidding?
Not me. You know, I'm like Moses, I have a fist, but I can't talk. You see, we really fight around with our impotence. We don't know what the power is. Listen, the Word of God infuses you with power. Listen, from my own life, I can tell you, the more I know of the Word of God, the less I fear any situation.
Because I know what is the resource for that situation. The Word of God becomes a source of power. In fact, it's a source of power every way you look at it. In the book of Hebrews, it says in chapter 4 verse 12 that the Word of God is quick and powerful. Quick and powerful. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This is a powerful book.
Let me tell you. You pick this thing up and read it and it'll cut you up. It's powerful stuff. It's a powerful book. The apostle Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. And you know, sometimes you go up to some guy and you just start opening up the gospel and you can see the power of the gospel of God just crumble every bit of philosophy that guy spent 20 years building up. In Ephesians 4, 23, it says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. In Romans 12, it says that we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind. In 2 Corinthians 3, 18, it says that we can literally be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the very glory of Jesus Christ. As you focus on the word of God, it has a power in your life that's incredible. As you meditate on it, it empowers you. You know, it's kind of like the computer deal.
You know, the old computer thing, G-I-G-O, garbage in, garbage out. Whatever you pump into your computer, just what's going to come regurgitating out in your life. And as you feed in the word of God, as you pump in the word of God, it's going to come right back out when your buttons get pushed.
It's the source of energy, the source of power. In fact, in Ephesians, there's a third chapter just tremendously rich. The first three chapters of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is saying, now I want you to learn this, and learn this, and learn this. And it's just nothing but theology, theology, theology, right through verse 13. More theology, theology, theology.
Great truths, incredible truths. We've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly. We've been forgiven, we've been redeemed, we've been accepted in the beloved. We've been given wisdom and prudence.
We have been given the information of the knowledge of the ages to know the eternal plan of God. We've been granted the Holy Spirit. We've been sealed with the Spirit. We have the guarantee of the Spirit. All these incredible things are ours.
And he goes on and on and on. We've been made one new man. We are the habitation of the Spirit. We are the household of God. We are the family of God.
The middle wall has been broken down between Jew and Gentile, and we've come together in one body, the body of Jesus Christ. We have the unsearchable riches of Christ that are ours. To us has been dispensed the mysteries of God.
Incredible riches are ours. And he goes on and on and on, and he prays in chapter 1, I pray God that you will understand that the eyes of your understanding would be opened, that you would understand and comprehend these incredible truths. And after having said all of that, if you'll just take a grip on these truths, if you'll just learn these truths, he says this in verse 20 of chapter 3, listen to it, Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all, you can ask or think according to the power that works in us. See?
Man, the resources. You ever think about the fact that you can do everything you can think? Did you ever think about the fact that you can do above everything you can think? Did you ever think about the fact that you can do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think? That's a lot of power, isn't it?
No sense in flopping around on one cylinder, frankly, with those kind of resources. As you feed in the Word of God, it has a powerful effect. It makes your life an energy source in confrontation with anybody, anytime. So we are to study the Word of God because it is the source of truth, the source of happiness, the source of victory, the source of growth, the source of power, and one more. We are to study the Bible because it is the source of guidance.
Guidance. You know, whenever I want to know what God wants me to do, I go to the Word. People say, oh, I'm searching for the will of God.
Hear them say that all the time. I wrote a book about that called Found God's Will, just to let people know it wasn't lost. Everybody wants to find out where God's Will is.
They think God is the universal Easter Bunny who stashes it in the bushes and sits in heaven and says you're getting warmer. See, that isn't true. God's Will is easy to find. It's right in his book. If you study the Bible, you'll find over and over again the phrase, this is the will of God. This is the will of God. This is the will of God. And you can know the will of God by studying the Word of God. What does Psalm 119, 105 say? It says simply that the Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Pretty simple. The Word is a guide. As I open the Word of God, it guides me. It's amazing how God speaks to me through his Word.
I have a decision to make. I find a place in the Bible, maybe where somebody in the Old Testament or New Testament grappled with a similar decision. I try to see how God led there or I go to a text in the Bible that gives me a direct answer. He guides us out of his book. He directs us out of his book.
You know, there's a subjective element to this, too. As a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit. First John 2.20 says that the Spirit dwells within us. First John 2.27 says we have anointing from God.
We don't need human wisdom. The Holy Spirit will teach us. And what happens is this. When you study the Bible, the Holy Spirit in you takes the Word of God and makes a personal application that will give you guidance. It's an incredible combination to have the truth and the resident truth teacher.
And in combination, they guide the believer. What have we said then? Great things.
The benefits of studying the Bible is the source of truth, happiness, victory, growth, power and guidance. Now let me say this, and we'll close for this time. What should be your response? You say, boy, I ought to act on that. If this is really true, if the Bible is going to do all these things, what should I do? Let me just give you some quick ones.
Are you ready? Now what? Number one, believe it. Believe it. And by that, I mean if it says it, believe it deep down. Jesus said to Peter one time, will you also go away? And he said, Lord, where am I going to go? You've got the words of eternal life.
You couldn't get rid of me if you wanted. I found the source. I'm sticking here. If it's true, then hang in there.
Believe it. Secondly, honor it. If this is the word of God, then honor it. In Job 23, 12, you have that magnificent statement of Job where he says, I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Listen, if this is the word of God and it'll do everything we just said, believe it and honor it. In fact, in Psalm 138, too, the psalmist said, God has magnified his word.
Get this one, above all his name. Is that incredible? God honors the word. It's worthy of honor. So believe it and honor it.
Thirdly, I'd suggest to you to love it. If this is all true, you better love it. The psalmist cried out and said, oh, how I love thy law. Oh, how I love thy law. Psalm 119, he said that. And I love the 19th Psalm, he said, the law is sweeter to me than honey from the honeycomb and more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Read Psalm 19 verses 7 to 10, one of the most beautiful portions. If this is what it says, then believe it and honor it and love it.
And let me give you a fourth thing just to remind you what we said earlier. Obey it. If it's really true, obey it. Respond to it. Say yes to it when it speaks.
Continue in it. Follow the admonition of 1 John chapter 2 verse 5, whosoever keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. If it's really what it claims, then believe it and honor it and love it and obey it at any price. In fact, in Romans 6 to 16, it says, to whom you yield yourselves as servants, you obey. If you yield yourselves as servants to God, you obey God. This is part of the bargain. Obey it.
Fifth, I like this one. Fight for it. If it's really true, fight for it. In fact, in Jude 3, it says, earnestly contend for the faith. And the faith there means the body of revealed truth.
It's epagonizo, epagonizo, we get the word agonize, agonize for it. Engage yourself in a battle to defend the word of God. If it's really true, if it really can do the things we said, believe it, honor it, love it, obey it and fight for it.
Let me give you another one. Preach it. 2 Timothy 4, 2, Paul simply said this, Timothy, preach what?
The word. Preach the word. If it's really true, preach it. Lastly, believe it, honor it, love it, obey it, fight for it, preach it.
Are you ready for this one? Study it, study it. In fact, to Timothy, he said in 2 Timothy 2, 15, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And the word rightly dividing means cutting it straight. Cut it straight, man.
Study it so you can straight out interpret it properly. Cut it straight. And Paul was using the language of a tent maker and a tent maker made a tent out of a lot of different animal skins and he took every one of those animal skins and he cut each piece properly so that he could put the whole thing together.
If you don't cut every piece right, the whole thing doesn't fit together. And what he's saying is you can't have theology without exegesis. You can't have a total theology of Christianity unless you have all the verses rightly interpreted.
Cut it straight and that takes study. Spurgeon said every Christian should study the Bible till his blood is bibbling. You know what they said about Apollos? They commended Apollos in the New Testament and said he was mighty in the scriptures. So my prayer for you to start with then is that you study the word of God. That you proclaim it, that you fight for it, that you obey it, that you love it, that you honor it, that you believe it. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. The title of his series on Grace to You is How to Study the Bible.
Now you could say that this series is aimed at the do-it-yourselfer. By that, I mean John's goal is for you to become confident in handling God's truth on your own. And really, John, from the beginning of your teaching ministry, you've wanted to equip people to study the Bible and even be able to teach it on their own. It's important for people to understand that, right?
Yeah. And I think that takes me back to St. Timothy 2 to the things you've heard from me among many faithful witnesses, the same commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. There are four generations in one verse, Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others also.
So the assumption is Paul is teaching Timothy so Timothy can teach somebody else and they can teach the next generation. So when you are effective in handling the Word of God, you keep the chain alive. You're a faithful link in the chain of passing on understanding of the Word of God to the next generation.
And to help you with that, and this is our flagship instrument, our flagship tool, has been for years. I want to remind you of the MacArthur Study Bible. It's an all-in-one resource to help you know the Word of God.
Not only know it, believe it, be convicted by it, trust in it, love it, and declare it. But now for the first time, and I mean the first time ever, the MacArthur Study Bible is available with the Legacy Standard Text of Scripture. The Legacy Standard Bible is a fresh new upgrade of the New American Standard which I've used to preach for decades and decades. The LSB is the best English translation ever.
I love everything about it. It's faithful to the original Greek and Hebrew in an unwavering sense and yet it's prosaic and readable. So the MacArthur Study Bible now available in the LSB translation.
You'll find 25,000 footnotes that cover the interpretation of the text, theology, historical context, cross-references, cultural background, just everything to make the Bible come alive. And obviously this would be a great gift for Christmas 2024 and it's available now in the hardcover leather soft, genuine leather, and premium goatskin. But keep in mind that tomorrow, December 6, is the last day that we can recommend placing Christmas orders using our free standard shipping. That's available on U.S. orders. So if you're interested in giving a loved one the MacArthur Study Bible this Christmas or any other resources, contact us right away and place your order.
Thanks John. Friend, the new MacArthur Study Bible featuring the Legacy Standard Text of Scripture will benefit your loved ones long into the new year and beyond. To place your Christmas order, contact us today. You can order by phone when you call 855-GRACE or you can order from our website, GTY.org. And as John said, tomorrow, December 6, is the last day that we recommend placing an order using our free shipping option and you can still receive your order before Christmas. So order today when you call 855-GRACE or when you visit GTY.org. Also when you contact us, keep in mind that a substantial percentage of our annual budget comes from the tax-deductible donations that we receive in the last few weeks of the year. You can help us start 2025 on firm footing, express your support when writing to Grace to You, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, or call us at 800-55-GRACE. There are also other ways to support Grace to You through your retirement program or estate planning.
For details on that, go to GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Be here at the same time tomorrow when John shows you how to dig deep into God's Word and uncover the incredible treasures available to you as John continues his series, How to Study the Bible. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
