Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. This morning, I have been asked to speak on the topic, How to Study Your Bible. Now, when I got the email from Dr. Benson and Dr. Pettit's office inviting me to speak in chapel, I was pretty excited about that. I kind of opened it up, and then I saw the topic.
I thought, really? That's what you want me to speak on? I was thinking maybe you might want me to speak on the Superlative Syrianism's connection to the Trinity of the Trinity, or something like that.
Or the linguistic analysis of the Mark of the Beast on its Slavic connections in terms of the identity of who that might be. But I got asked to speak on How to Study Your Bible. And I started thinking to myself, you know, it's not always good when you say everything that you're thinking, and you guys know that. But here's what I thought when I looked at that. I thought, yeah. You've got to be kidding me. This is Bob Jones University.
Everybody knows how to study their Bible. I mean, for crying out loud, we have classes on this. And so what am I going to say that hasn't already been said? So as I kind of thought through this, here's what I thought I would do. I want to tell you a story this morning, and then I have a few very simple questions I want to ask and attempt to answer in the time that we have together.
And the goal of all of this for me and for you is that as we come to this amazing book that the Lord would use this book in our lives to transform us to be more like his son. So I'm going to ask that the picture of a particular castle be put before you. How many of you know what this castle is? Right? How many of you have watched Downton Abbey?
Anybody here watch Downton Abbey? All right. I remember when this came out. Many years ago, I was here at the time. There was this sort of excitement about this program that was coming out, and so I thought, you know what? I'm going to at least watch one episode of it. So I did. I started in, and about 20 minutes into this thing, I was so bored out of my gourd that I turned it off. And people would talk about all the stuff that was going on, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't watched an episode.
I love it. And so years passed. And last year, I was bored out of my gourd, and I decided to give the show another chance. And I got hooked. I watched all six seasons, probably in the space of a month. Then I went back with my wife. I'm like, honey, you've got to watch this.
I watched all six seasons a second time. Then I found out there was a movie. Excuse me, a film.
We're Baptists. We don't go to movies. I found out there was a movie. So I watched the movie. And then I found out there was a second movie.
I was so excited about this. My favorite character on this show is the Dowager Countess. I mean, she's this grumpy, frumpy, incredibly brilliant person who happens to think like most college students think. I mean, she's got these amazing little pearls of wisdom.
Like, here's one of them. What, my dear, is a weekend? Can you relate to that as a student?
You haven't had a weekend since you arrived here. Or the telephone. Here's what you had to say about the telephone. Is this an instrument of communication, or is it an instrument of torture?
Many of you girls would absolutely benefit from this little gem. She said, I don't dislike him. I just don't like him. Which is quite different. Now, you may know the Dowager Countess by her appearance in another set of movies where she was the Professor McGonagall at Hogwarts. Her grandson teaches here. Carrie McGonagall teaches here. That's a dumb comment I made.
So don't actually believe that. But my kids got me a book because I got so into this show that's sort of like a coffee table book that had all these little interesting things about the show. And one of the things that captured my attention was that the original castle you're looking at is a castle in England called High Clare Castle. And in the show there are all these little Egyptian connections. The dogs, for example, in the show are all named in terms of something that was in Egypt. And so this Egyptian connection was brought forth in this book.
And there is actually an amazing story that connects this castle to something that's going to lead us into our message this morning about how to study the Bible. A famous archeologist and a very well-known Egyptologist at the day purchased a concession to dig in a particular part of Egypt. The concession belonged to an American businessman named Theodore Davis. He had been digging around in this place, had grown discouraged because he hadn't found anything. And so he decided to kind of pull up his stakes and go home. And so the concession that he had to dig in this valley was for sale in these days.
These two men purchased the concession and they had the right now to dig in this particular valley. The valley you're looking at is in Luxor, Egypt. Luxor used to be the old city of Thebes. For many centuries, Thebes was the capital city of Egypt.
So when you go to your Bible and you read about Abraham going down to Egypt or you read about Joseph going down to Egypt or you read about the Pharaoh during Moses' time, that's where they operated from. The city of Thebes. Right outside the city of Thebes was this valley. It's called the Valley of the Kings. And it's called the Valley of the Kings because that's where all the royal tombs were located.
I've actually been to this place. I've actually been in some of those tombs. By 1900, more than 60 of the royal tombs had been uncovered and excavated. Most of them were empty due to grave robbing that had happened many, many centuries earlier. And by 1904, most Egyptologists believed that all of the tombs that were in that valley had been discovered.
But Howard Carter believed differently. He had come across a royal cartouche. That little thing there, the front and the back of that, is actually a pharaonic name. The name of a pharaoh. And he had come across this cartouche on the wall paintings of another tomb. And he recognized that it was the name of a royal king, a pharaoh, who had been relatively unknown, a relatively minor pharaoh, and he believed that his tomb was in that valley. He spent seven long years looking for this tomb.
Most people believed he was on a fool's errand, wasting the money and the resources of Lord Carnavon, his patron. But he had carefully studied something. He took in a topographical map of the valley and he began looking at how the water ran off after rain.
And he began to study how all of this worked with the topography. And he was convinced that the tomb he was looking for lay in an area that was covered by 150,000 tons of gravel and debris. And there actually had been another tomb on top of all of that gravel and debris. And so everybody had just sort of bypassed that area.
There isn't anything there. But he actually thought this is where he was. In June of 1922, his patron alerted him that his support would cease by the end of that year after seven years of fruitless labor.
His support was done. So Carter went back to Egypt, arrived in Luxor on October 28, 1922, and seven days later, a young water bearer who was carrying water to the workers stumbled on a rocky outcrop. A long-lost stairway that led down to a door that led into the long-lost tomb for which he had been searching. On November 26, Carter cut a hole in the doorway of the tomb and he peered inside. And Lord Carnavon next to him said, can you see anything?
And Carter responded, wonderful things. The tomb they discovered, and you by now know who this is, was the tomb of a young pharaoh that you have come to know as King Tut. The value of the more than 5,000 objects they found inside that tomb that are now housed in the Cairo Museum are insured for more than one billion US dollars. All of this immense treasure was discovered because one man set himself to study something. To carefully examine something that everybody had been looking at for decades.
He set himself to study the topography and the geography and the way that water ran after rain on the ground that hundreds of others had searched and missed. The reason I wanted to tell you that story today is because to me it tells me two things. It reminds me of two important truths. One is that our familiarity with the Bible we hold in our hand or have on our screen can actually blind us to the immense treasure that it contains. And then secondly, this story encourages me to go back to the familiar grand of my Bible and look at it with new eyes and with a passionate desire to do what the psalmist in Psalm 119 verse 18 said, open my eyes so that I may behold wonderful things out of your law.
There are wonderful things that God has put into this book that you've been reading your entire life. When somebody says to you what is the Pentateuch, you know exactly what that is. When somebody talks to you about the minor prophets, you know exactly where that is in your Bible. When somebody talks to you about the Pauline understanding of salvation in Romans, you know exactly where to go for that in your Bible. When you want to know about how come we have a new high priest and how come we don't offer the same kind of sacrifices that we offered in the Old Testament, you know instinctively to go to the book of Hebrews. When you want a list of people who have lived faithfully for God in prior generations, you know exactly where to go in your Bible. You know exactly to turn to Hebrews 11.
If you want information on how to use your tongue so that it brings life and not damage and death, you go to James. If you want to know how it's all going to end, you go to the book of Revelation. You have been reading this book most of your life. And so when we come to a study like this, it's almost like we are Howard Carter looking at a topographical map wondering if there is any more treasure to be found. And the psalmist says, Lord, I want you to open my eyes because I don't think I've even scratched the surface. And so this morning what I want to do is just ask and answer a few very simple questions that are designed to get us to think about how to study our Bible. And the first of those questions is this.
It's a very simple one. It's almost self-evident. It's the question, what does it actually mean to study the Bible? Most of us know what it means to read the Bible.
We do that. Reading places focus and emphasis on gaining information and becoming familiar with a part of my Bible. But study places the focus and emphasis on understanding what God has actually said. Reading gives me familiarity. It sort of gives me the contours. It's like taking that topographical map that Carter looked at and kind of getting the lay of the land.
And oh, I can see this set of hills and I see where the valley curves around. Reading gives us familiarity with what's there. Study takes reading to another level. Study actually is trying to figure out what we're reading actually means. What did God mean when he said this?
And why did he say it? And how does it fit my life? This is what the man in Psalm 1 verse 2 is doing when we read that this man delights in the law of the Lord. The word law there is not the word that we normally think of when we think of the word law.
We think about rules and regulations. But that word law there actually means instruction. This man delights in the teaching that God has given. He delights in the instruction that God has provided. And in this instruction, in this teaching, he meditates day and night. And so I want to suggest to you if we're going to answer the question, what does it mean to study my Bible?
It actually means this. It actually means to meditate. And so let me give you a simple definition for meditation.
Here it is. Meditation, studying my Bible, involves the active examination and thoughtful contemplation of a portion of God's word. You see those two ideas? Active examination, thoughtful contemplation of a portion of God's word for the purpose of seeing God's excellence and savoring God's goodness.
Those last two are not original to me, but I thought they were so powerful they're worth repeating. Why do I want to actively examine and thoughtfully contemplate God's word? And the answer is so I can have a better life.
The answer is so I can figure out where to go or what to do or so I can avoid a certain thing. And all of those things are wonderful aspects of what happens when we study the word of God. But the real reason I want to study the word of God is I want to see God's excellence and I want to savor His goodness. That's the only reason strong enough to keep me in this book every day. So why should I invest the kind of effort that it takes to do this?
That's the second very basic, simple question. What does it mean to study my Bible? It means meditation. It involves the active examination and thoughtful contemplation of a portion of God's word for the purpose of seeing God's excellence and savoring God's goodness. So that, and here are three things, so that my life will be transformed into the image of God's Son. Listen to what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 18, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory. He's talking about what happens when you give thoughtful contemplation and careful examination to parts of your Bible on a regular basis. What you see there is Jesus, and as you see Jesus, what you are seeing begins to change you. Not only will my life be transformed into the image of His Son, my walk will be conformed to the will of the Father.
Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 119, blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek after Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in His ways. It's not just that my inner man is becoming more and more like Christ, it's that my outer walk is being conformed to the will of God that's being expressed in the word of God. And then my mind will be enlightened and my heart enabled by the power of the Spirit. Ephesians chapter 1, Paul says in verse 18, having the eyes of your heart enlightened so that you may know what is the hope to which you have been called and what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. And as he talks about this, he reminds the readers of the majestic truth that the Spirit of God is the one who's going to give this revelation. And then later on in Ephesians 3, he prays that God would grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner man.
Why? So that you will be enabled to do what you read in the Word. Well, what will be the result of this kind of Spirit-enabled study? If I make this kind of investment, what's the ROI?
What's the return on investment? And Paul's answer to that is a transformed life. In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, by the immense mercies of God that we read about in the scripture that we appropriate by faith because we learn our true condition as sinners. We learn about the majestic, immeasurable love of God and the grace of God that's been extended to us, the incredible work of God that was done on our behalf by keeping the law. The amazing sacrifice that was made on our behalf when Jesus took our penalty and we turned to Him in repentance and faith.
Paul says when you realize the immensity of this mercy, here's what you do. You take your body and you present it to God. Romans chapter 6 talks about presenting your body to God. Romans chapter 12 picks up that same idea. You present your body to God as an acceptable sacrifice and this is part of your reasonable worship. And how does that happen?
It happens because your mind is renewed. When you spend time thoughtfully contemplating and actively examining God's word on a regular basis, it will change your life. John chapter 17 explains why. Jesus said, sanctify them by thy word. The same word that saves us is now the word that cleanses us and shapes us and strengthens us and sets us apart to every good work and as recipients of every good blessing that God has for us. And Jesus explained it this way, it's all because of your word. Do all of this, sanctify them, strengthen them, supply them, cleanse them, direct them, guide them, bless them. All of this is wrapped up in the idea of sanctification. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth.
And then we have a profitable life. 2 Timothy chapter 3 tells us that when we continue in the scriptures that we have learned and faithfully believed, these scriptures have a power because they are literally breathed out by God. These are God's word breathed out on a page. And these words are unlike any other words.
These words can do things that no other words can do. They can complete you and equip you for every good work that God is preparing you to do. I would just say it this way, at this stage in your life, as you think about the next 50 years of your life should the Lord tarry, God has a work for you to do and He is preparing you for that work right now. He's giving you desires that you didn't know you had. He's giving you interests that maybe even six months ago you didn't even have that interest. You have aptitudes that you're discovering. You're finding out you're good at things that maybe four years ago you would not even have considered. There are certain classes that you take that, man, you can't explain it to everybody else, but when you go in that class it's like you come alive. And everybody else is looking around you going, huh?
But for you it's amazing. And God is at work in your life and He is getting you ready for a vocation where you are going to spend the rest of your life doing great things for Him. And the very best investment you could make at this point in your life is to do what Howard Carter did with that topographical map and bury yourself in God's Word as much as you bury yourself in any other book that you're studying and let this Word equip you and prepare you to live the kind of life that is going to be profitable for eternity. And when you do that you will find that you will have an approved life. This is what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show yourself what?
Approved. Open up this book and let it do its work. Well that brings us to the final thing and that is this, how can I get started? How can I get started? Can I just give you some practical thoughts as we close this morning?
Here's some things you can do to get started. Number one, set a time. Just pick a time. Maybe it's in the morning, maybe you have a free hour between a class. Pick a time because that speaks to intentionality, regularity, and focus. Nobody studies by accident. There has to be some intentionality about it. Nobody studies by accident and nobody gets it all in one sitting.
Nobody studies by accident and nobody gets it done all at once and nobody studies well with distracted focus. I got like a big project and I sit down and all of a sudden it's like there are 49 things that come to mind. I got this thing I got to get done and I got to write and got all my little books out here and you know what? Beth needs me to go and I forgot to get milk so I got to go get milk. So I go get milk and oh man, now that I have milk and I'm looking in the fridge as a piece of cheesecake, I think this might be the will of God for my life at this moment. And then I go back and sit down and I'm exhausted from getting milk and probably need to just take a little walk to let the cheesecake settle. And before long, the hour that I dedicated to study got frittered away because I was not focused.
So set a time. Number two, get some tools to help you dig. You need a good study Bible. Find a good study Bible. You need a good journal to write down what you're learning.
You need some highlighters to mark up what you find as you dig. And then you need some theological helps. You might want to get the two-volume work called the Expositor's Bible Commentary. It's just two simple volumes, one on the Old Testament, one on the New, and it answers important questions that will come up.
You might want to pick up Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem because it might direct you along the way. So pick up some valuable tools to help you dig. And then finally, choose a method that works.
You know what? Pick a book to study for a month. Maybe you want to just study James for a month. Or pick a section of the Bible to study for six months. Maybe you want to pick the four wisdom books by Solomon. Or you might want to pick a topic that you want to look at for a month. Maybe you want to pick a topic like hope.
What does the Bible really say about hope? Or pick a Bible character. You might want to pick Rahab. I did a study recently on Rahab and it absolutely blew me away when I found out who her son was. Rahab had a son named Boaz who married a woman named Ruth. Rahab's son, Boaz, and Ruth had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse.
Jesse had a son named David and David had another son named Jesus. I was blown away when I studied the life of Rahab. The Bible is full of this. You might want to pick the idea of reading the proverb of the day. If you read the proverb of the date of the day, you will have read the book of Proverbs at least 11 times in a year. In 10 years, you will have read that book over 100 times. Think of another book that you can read with greater wisdom 100 times.
So, read your Bible. Read it regularly. Read it repeatedly. Read it reflectively.
Read it responsibly. And pray with the psalmist, With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. Lord, we thank you for the wonderful things that you put in your word. We ask as we read it and we give it thoughtful contemplation and active engaging examination that you would help us to discover treasures that you have put there that will bring us far more eternal wealth than what Howard Carter found in the tomb that he discovered in 1922. Lord, we're so thankful for this book. We ask that you would use it to reveal yourself so that we would see your glory and we would savor your goodness. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Sam Horn, pastor of Palmetto Baptist Church in Piedmont, South Carolina, which was part of the study series called Truth for Life. Listen again next week as we continue the series here on The Daily Platform.
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