How to Study the Bible B

You know, we live in a culture where you drive up and down the street and what do you see? I mean, your eyes are literally assaulted with garbage, aren't they? Whiskey ads and beer ads and girly shows and rotten movies and garbage stuff just pouring into your head. And God says, take my word and let it be a billboard in front of your eyes. Let it be all over your arms, filling your mind, your voice, wherever you go. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. If you've ever lived outside your home country, you know, there are language and culture gaps. And of course, it's not your new country's job to adapt to you. You have to bridge those gaps of understanding. Well, in a similar way, there are gaps in understanding when you read the Bible.

You can't impose your thinking on the text. It has one meaning and your job is to get that meaning right. That's exactly what John MacArthur helps you do today on Grace to You as he continues his series, How to Study the Bible.

And now with today's lesson, here's John. In accurately handling the word and interpreting the word, there are three errors to be avoided. Three errors to be avoided. Number one, don't make a point at the price of a proper interpretation. Don't make a point at the price of a proper interpretation. In other words, don't make the Bible say what you want it to say. Like the preacher who preached on the fact that women shouldn't have hair on top of their head.

And his text was, top not come down. From Matthew 24 where it says, let those on the housetop not come down. That is not what the passage is teaching. And that's a bizarre illustration, of course, comical, but you can approach the Bible like the guy who said, I've already got a sermon, I just have to find a verse for it. You cannot make the Bible illustrate your sermon or your thoughts. So the thing you want to be careful of is that you do not interpret the Bible at the price of its true meaning.

Let it say what it means to say. Second thing to avoid, avoid superficial interpretation. Superficial interpretation. As you study the Bible to learn what it says, don't be superficial. People will always say, well let's see, I think this verse means this. Well what does this verse mean to you? And you know, a lot of times you have a Bible study which is nothing but a pooling of ignorance.

A whole lot of people sitting around telling what they don't know about the verse. Now I'm for Bible study, but somebody's got to study to find out what it really means and then you can discuss the application. But don't be superficial.

1 Timothy 5 17 talks about elders who work hard at the Word of God. It's really important not to be superficial. Thirdly, another error to avoid. The first error that we mentioned is don't make a point at the price of the right interpretation. Secondly, avoid superficial interpretation. Thirdly, don't spiritualize.

Don't spiritualize. The first sermon I ever preached was a horrible sermon. My text was, and the angel rolled the stone away. My sermon was rolling away stones in your life. I talked about the stone of doubt and the stone of fear and the stone of anger. That is not what that verse is talking about. It is talking about a real stone. I made it a terrific allegory. I heard a sermon on, they cast out four anchors and wished for the day, the anchor of hope, the anchor of faith.

Those are not anchors of anything but metal. So just three things to avoid. Don't misinterpret it for your own ends, making a point at the price of a proper interpretation.

Avoid a superficial one and don't spiritualize and allegorize. Now, in order to properly interpret the Bible, and we're going to run by this real quick, in order to properly interpret the Bible, what do you have to do? Well, you have to bridge some gaps, okay? This is not a new book, right? This book's been around for a few years, parts of it for as many as 4,000 years.

So it's been around a while. Now, how do we understand what they were saying and what was going on in the scene? We have to bridge four gaps. First is the language gap. We speak English, the Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek. A few parts in Aramaic, which is very similar to Hebrew.

But we have a language gap that we have to cross. And so you hear me very often use a Greek word and explain that word or you wouldn't understand it. For example, in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1, Paul the Apostle says, let a man sow account of us as ministers of Christ. And we say, oh boy, Paul, you are a minister of Christ. And that English word, minister, we think of prime minister, the minister of defense, you know, the minister is an elevated thing, a dignified term. But the Greek word is huper etes. It means a third level galley slave on a ship. He says, when the record goes in for me, let it be said that I was nothing more than a third level galley slave for Jesus Christ. You see, you never get that out of the English terms.

Why? You've got to bridge the language gap. You've got to cover a lot of ground. And that's a very, very needful thing. For example, you'll study in the book of Hebrews the word perfection, and you can get completely confused in comprehending the book of Hebrews unless you understand that perfection has to do with salvation, not spiritual maturity. But that's what you have to find out as you study the words, the terms, and their relationships in the text.

Very important to do this. And by the way, if you want to study the words in the Bible, the New Testament particularly, get one of Vine's dictionaries. It's a very helpful thing. For someone who doesn't know Greek, you can look up every English word and it will tell you the Greek meanings and so forth, and it will really help you as a Bible student. Also, good concordance will help you that way.

Strong's and Young's concordance, particularly Strong's is helpful. Secondly, you have to bridge a culture gap, all right? Cultures are different.

I mean, very, very different. If we don't understand the culture of the time in which the Bible was written, we'll never understand its meaning. For example, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. What does that mean? Why didn't He just say before Jesus was born He was already in the beginning?

Why did...that would have solved a lot of problems for us. But you see, He used the Word because that was what was the vernacular at that time. And He was saying to the Greeks, that thing which caused everything, that cosmic power is none other than that Word which became flesh. And to the Jew, the term Word was always the manifestation of God, for the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord was always God emanating His personality. And so when He said the Word became flesh, or the Word dwelled among us, or the Word was in the world, or the Word created, He is identifying Jesus Christ, the incarnate Christ as God. So in the text there, you see, He meets the Greek mind and the Hebrew mind with the right word that grabs both right at the vital point, and that's why He uses those terms. And so I say, this goes on all through the Bible. We have to bridge a culture gap and a language gap.

So very, very important. If you don't understand the Gnosticism existent in the time of the writing of Colossians, you'll not understand the book. If you don't understand the culture that was going on with the Judaizers moving in to the Gentile churches, you can't understand the book of Galatians. If you don't understand the Jewish culture, you can't understand the book of Matthew. There must be a cultural comprehension, and it's good if you read the books that help you with that.

Edersheim and some of Berkeley, though his theology is askew, some of his insights into culture are very good. Thirdly, you have to bridge a geography gap. You read about them, they went down to Jericho. What do you mean down to Jericho?

Well, if you ever go there, you know what it means to go down. They went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is definitely up.

It's up from every place, up on a high plateau. The first Thessalonians, it says it from you, sounded out the word of the Lord throughout all Macedonia and Achaia. What's amazing is it sounded out so fast. Since the time Paul had been there and gone away and written the letter, very little time has passed. And you say, how in the world could the Thessalonians have only had Paul in their midst for two weeks and their testimony has reached all their known world?

How could that happen? And then you study a little geography, you find out running right through the middle of the city of Thessalonica was a thing known as the Ignatian Highway, which was the main concourse from east to west. Everybody going both directions came through Thessalonica. Whatever happened there got passed all the way down the line.

And so a little bit of understanding of geography enriches the comprehension. You understand the Lord Jesus Christ crossing the Kidron Valley to go up to the Mount of Olives to pray, and you understand that during the time of the Passover, they were slaughtering literally thousands of lambs. They estimate as many as a quarter of a million within that one week could have been slaughtered. They were slaughtering those lambs. The blood ran down the back of the temple, down the backside of Mount Zion and right into the Kidron Brook so that it was red with blood. And as Jesus walked out of the city, crossed that little brook, He would have stepped over the blood of all those sacrificial lambs, a tremendous reminder of His own blood about to be shed which would take away the sins of the world. You see, a little bit of understanding of the geography, the brook and what it was doing makes it rich. I think about the fact that when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the word hit Jerusalem so fast.

Do you know why? Because Bethany is butted up against the east side of Jerusalem so close. What happened in Bethany is only about a mile and a half to two miles from the temple ground and the word would have gone like wildfire over that fast and so people began to look at this one who had raised a man from the dead. We have to close some of those gaps, language, culture, geography. One more is history. If you know a little history, it really helps. I'll never forget when I was teaching the Gospel of John how the whole key to understanding the interplay between Pilate and Jesus was based on knowledge of history. If you understand the Roman situation, if you understand what stupid things Pilate did when he came into the land, how that he came in waving big banners with the image of Caesar on them, and of course since they worshiped Caesar and emperor worship was a religion, that constituted an idol and it literally infuriated the Jews, infuriated their priests, so Pilate was off to a bad start from the very beginning. Pilate then tried to pull something on the Jews and they caught him in it, reported him to Rome and he almost lost his job. So he had blown a big deal with the Jewish people, at least twice. Later on there was a third faux pas that he made. Now when it came down to Christ and Pilate was afraid of the Jews and that's why he let Christ be crucified. Why was he afraid?

Because he already had a rotten track record that had been sent back to Rome and he knew his job was on the line. Now that's the kind of history that we have to understand to open the meaning of the Bible. You can get that from something like Zondervan's pictorial dictionary or a Bible dictionary of your choice and that will enrich you. You've got to interpret the Bible and that means closing these gaps. You always hear people say, well, I just read no books, I go right to the Bible.

That's not pious, that's just dumb. Because you've got to study the sources and the background material to understand. I mean, I'd like to hear somebody give a clear exposition on Cher, Moab, Maher, Shilal, Hashbaaz, Calano, Carchemish and Michmash without a commentary or a Bible dictionary.

You're going to have a tough time doing it. So we want to use good sources. Now as you interpret using the sources you have to close a language gap, a culture gap, a geography gap and a history gap. What are the principles you use? Listen carefully as I run these by. First the literal principle. You want to use a literal principle.

I'll just give you five of them quickly. That means you understand Scripture in its literal, normal, natural sense. Now there will be figures of speech, but that's normal language too.

There will be symbols, that's normal language too. When you get to apocalyptic passages like Zechariah and Daniel and Ezekiel and Isaiah and Revelation and you see beasts and images, you know those are figures and you know those are symbols, but they convey, watch this, literal truth. You take the Bible in its normal, natural sense.

Take the literal, normal, natural sense. You know, you always have to be worried when somebody comes and says, there's a secret meaning here. And they use the verse, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. And so they want this allegorical method. Don't just take what it says, go behind to the hidden, secretive meaning. You know who knows what that is?

Nobody knows. They're making it up. Take it in its literal sense. Secondly, we must follow a historical principle. The Bible must be studied in its historical context and we've already mentioned this. What did it mean to the people to whom it was spoken or written? A text without a context historically is a pretext.

If you read Philippians 1 and you read about Paul's great statements there, you have to know when he's talking about some preaching Christ of contention and so forth, nevertheless I rejoice that He's preached, you have to understand the historical setting or you never really understand what's in His heart, the historical principle. Thirdly, the grammatical principle, grammatical. What we mean there is look at the sentence, prepositions, pronouns, verbs and nouns.

We used to learn how to diagram a sentence so we could find out what it's saying. For example, in Matthew 28, great commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded unto you. At first you read, go, that sounds like a verb, into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, baptize, teach, all sound like verbs but as you get into the sentence you find there's only one verb and the one verb is make disciples. Going is nothing more than a participle. Baptizing is a participle. Teaching is a participle, which means they modify the main verb. What the great commission says is make disciples and in making disciples you'll have to go, baptize and teach and if you understand that, then the fullness of that concept comes out of that text.

And that's studying the grammar just for an illustration. Let me give you another illustration, Matthew 18, I think this is a good one. How many times have you heard somebody say this in a prayer meeting, where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them. Friends, two or three of us are here, the Lord is here.

Listen, do you want to know something? If I'm there alone, the Lord is there. That's right. That verse has nothing to do with a prayer meeting. And if you study the context, you find that out. If you study the grammar around it, you find that out.

What it's saying is that when you go to do your disciplining, to put somebody out of the church, there am I in the midst when you've confirmed their sin in the mouth of two or three witnesses. And you'll learn that if you study the text. And so, you have to examine the grammar very carefully so that you really comprehend it. Fourth, the synthesis principle.

We have a literal principle, historical principle, grammatical principle, and a synthesis principle. And this is what the Reformists called the analogia scripturis, the scripture all comes together. In other words, now watch this, one part of the Bible doesn't teach something that the other part contradicts.

So that as you study the scripture, it must all fit together. You can't, for example, you're reading through 1 Corinthians where he talks about the baptism for the dead. Oh, you say, well, there's a new doctrine. If you get baptized, you can get baptized for some dead person and that'll save them. There it is, the baptism for the dead. Now, wait a minute, does the Bible allow for the fact that somebody could get baptized for a dead person? Is that anywhere in the scripture at all? Does that contradict the doctrine of salvation as we know it? Then that can't be the interpretation of that passage because no passage in and of itself will contradict the teaching of scripture. And that's the synthesis principle.

J.I. Packer says wonderfully, the Bible appears like a symphony orchestra with the Holy Spirit as its Toscanini. Each instrument has been brought willingly, spontaneously, creatively to play his notes just as the great conductor desired. Though none of them could ever hear the music as a whole, the point of each part only becomes fully clear when seen in relation to all the rest. You know what that tells me, the synthesis principle? There are really no contradictions.

What appear as contradictions can be resolved if we have the information because the Bible comes together as a whole. Fifth, the practical principle. The practical principle. You say, John, I mean, this is also foggy up in the air, literal principle and all of these other things.

When does it ever get down to where I'm living? This is the practical principle. The final question is, so what? As I try to interpret the Bible, how do I find out what it means for me?

And this is great. Make sure in your Bible study that you find the practical principle. Learn to principle-ize the Scripture. Read it and find out what is the spiritual principle there that applies to me. But you can't do that until you've gone through the other principles first.

The literal, historical, grammatical and synthesis. And you know what it means by what it says. And now you come to how it applies to you.

Now, that's how you interpret the Bible. And while you're reading through the Bible and you're reading through the Old Testament, now and then, work on some of those problem passages. Or maybe take a book and just slowly work through it.

You might not have too much time to do it. By the time you're doing this reading, you may only have 15 minutes left a day. But just that little bit, read a little in a dictionary or a commentary and begin to put some things together and work through what is the literal meaning?

What is the historical setting? What is the grammatical structure? How does it fit in with the rest of Scripture and how does it apply to me? So read the Bible and interpret the Bible. Thirdly, meditate on the Bible. Meditate on the Bible.

Don't be in a hurry. And I don't even need to say much about this, except to remind you the Scripture says, the words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, Deuteronomy 6. Thou shall teach them diligently to thy children, shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. In other words, boy, you ought to have these things running around in your mind all the time. Now you want to know something?

Let me tell you a secret. If you're reading through the Old Testament and you're reading the book of the New Testament thirty times in a row all the time, you're going to have this stuff running around in your mind. And meditation is what takes all of those parts and begins to mold them together into a cohesive comprehension of biblical truth. God even said in Deuteronomy 6, bind them for a sign on thy hand and put them between thine eyes and write them on the posts of thy house and on thy gates. God says, I want my word everywhere. I want it in your mouth when you stand up, lie down, walk and sit. I want it in front of your house, on your gates, I want it on your arms, hanging between your eyes.

I want it everywhere. And, you know, we live in a culture where you drive up and down the street and what do you see? I mean, your eyes are literally assaulted with garbage, aren't they? Whiskey ads and beer ads and girly shows and rotten movies and garbage stuff just pouring into your head. And God says, take my word and let it be a billboard in front of your eyes, let it be all over your arms, filling your mind, your voice, wherever you go.

That's the way it ought to be. The man was asked one time, when you can't sleep, do you count sheep? He said, no, I talk to the shepherd. That's what God wants His people to do is talk to the shepherd, meditate. Psalm 1, 1 and 2, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he...what?...meditate day and night. Like the cow who chews the cud, the proverbial illustration just going over it and over it and over it and over it.

Cows have several stomachs and they just keep passing it from one to the other while it goes through the process of digestion. So we are to read the Bible, study the Bible, meditate on the Bible, forth finally, teach the Bible. You want to know what I discovered? The best way to learn it is to give it away. Did you know that? The things that I learn well enough to teach you are the things I retain. And I'll tell you another thing. Do you want to know it's very easy to be difficult to understand?

Do you know that? If you go to hear somebody speak and you don't understand anything they said, they probably don't understand their subject. If a guy is not clear, he doesn't understand his subject, it's very easy to be difficult to understand. It's very hard to be clear because in order to be clear, you have to master your subject. And so as a teacher, you see, you are forced to mastering your subject or you'll never be clear. A lot of times people say, well, you know, I don't understand, nothing's happening in my church, I teach the Bible.

People are going out saying, he teaches the Bible, but I don't know what he's talking about. It's got to be clear. And if you teach, you'll retain it. Just feed somebody else and see how it feeds your own heart. I believe that personal motivation for study comes from responsibility.

If I didn't have somebody to teach, I wouldn't produce. Well, I hope that just helps to get you started. Read the Bible, interpret the Bible, meditate on the Bible and teach it. And when you're all done, you know, somebody is liable to get a big head and say, well, I've arrived, I've mastered it all. Just remember Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord. When you've said it all and done it all and learned it all, you haven't scratched the surface of the infinite mind of God. But you know what the purpose is? Let me tell you this, and I've got to say this. Your purpose in learning the Word of God is not to have knowledge because as Paul said, knowledge does what?

Puffs up. Your purpose is to know God and to know God is to learn humility. See, to know God is to learn true humility. You're listening to Grace To You with John MacArthur. Along with being the teacher on this broadcast, John is a pastor and author.

He's chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. And today's lesson is part of the foundational study he calls How to Study the Bible. Now to sort of tie everything together, John, for the average man or woman who applies the principles you've been looking at, what is the end game?

What's the goal or the measure of success when it comes to studying the Bible? It's summed up in an understanding that comes out of the New Testament. The Apostle John says there are three stages of spiritual growth. This is in 1 John. There's the spiritual child who knows the father. There's the spiritual young man who knows doctrine and overcomes Satan and his false teaching. And then there's the spiritual father.

And John says he knows him who is from the beginning. What that means is spiritual growth starts with you knowing who the Lord is, knowing the Lord personally, and then knowing theology and doctrine and scripture. But that leads to a deep knowledge of God himself. And that's where every believer would desire to end up, not just knowing what the Lord has done, not just knowing the basics, not just knowing theology. You want to know God, and the way to know Him is through His Word.

You can't know Him any other way. Paul said to the Ephesians, if you stay at that infant level of being a spiritual child who only knows the basics about God, you will be tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. You'll be blown all over the place, confused, easily led astray. In order to be strong, you have to have the Word in you. And as the Word dominates your thinking and your living, you will find yourself moving from just knowing the truth to loving the truth and loving the Lord who is the source of that truth. So in order to help you with your spiritual growth to maturity, I want to remind you that this study will be an excellent tool. No more important skill can be developed in handling scripture with understanding and accuracy, nothing like the joy of digging in, discovering biblical truth, loving it, living it, and proclaiming it. So this study has given you the basics you need to know to study on your own.

It's available in MP3 downloads and transcripts, and they're free at gty.org. Of course, an excellent tool to which you can apply these principles, we've been looking at it in the series, is the latest edition of the MacArthur Study Bible featuring the Legacy Standard Translation. Make a wonderful gift for those you love. And just a reminder, with delivery companies busy these days, you don't want to wait long to place your Christmas order. Contact us by phone during normal work hours, or go to our website and place your order right away. Thanks, John. And friend, to review the series John wrapped up today at your own pace, just go to our website gty.org. There you can download the MP3s and transcripts for all four sermons from this series, How to Study the Bible. And to order the Legacy Standard edition of the MacArthur Study Bible, contact us today. You can call us at 855-GRACE during regular business hours.

That's Monday through Friday, 730 to 4 o'clock Pacific Time. The number again, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. Remember, with the extra busyness that delivery companies are facing these days, we recommend ordering your MacArthur Study Bible using our second day shipping option.

So order by calling 800-55-GRACE, or you can shop online at gty.org. While you're at that website, gty.org, check out the thousands of free Bible study tools there. You can read practical articles from John and the staff on the Grace To You blog. You can follow the reading plan of the MacArthur Daily Bible. And you can download more than 3,600 of John's sermons free of charge in MP3 and transcript format.

All of that and more is free at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace To You television Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, and then be back tomorrow as John launches a study that will help you cut through the distractions that surround Christmas time that can keep you from seeing the true significance of Christmas. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.