Goals of Bible Study

1. We read and study the Scripture to hear God speak.

ULTIMATE GOAL = KNOWING GOD & HEARING from HIM

a. Begin with prayer—Psalm 119:18

TURN & READ Psalm 119:18 (ESV)

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

THIS SHOULD BE OUR PRAYER @ ONSET

-----------------------------------

1. Scripture wasn’t originally written to us, or about us, but it was in part written for us.

1 Corinthians 10:11 (ESV)

11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Context: referring to WILDERNESS GENERATION’S REBELLION… & WHAT WE LEARN… FOR CORINTHIANS—AVOIDING MIXING W/ IDOLATRY

Specific things to learn:

1. We shouldn’t commit adultery.

2. We shouldn’t put Christ to the test.

3. We shouldn’t grumble.

SCRIPTURE = WRITTEN for OUR BENEFIT, WRITTEN FOR US...

YET OUR GOAL SHOULD ALWAYS BE to HEAR WHAT GOD HAS to SAY:

c. Exegesis: refers to the act of pulling meaning out of the text, what the original author (e.g. Paul) and Author (God) intended. We shouldn’t lose sight of the dual authorship of Scripture.

d. Eisegesis: refers to putting meaning into the text that is foreign to it. The act of inventing one’s own interpretation.

PEOPLE CAN MAKE ANYTHING SAY ANYTHING if THEY REALLY WANT…TWISTING SCRIPTURE...

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

2. We read and study the Scripture to know God—His attributes & His acts.

TRIUNE GOD = MAIN CHARACTER of SCRIPTURE...

i. The Lexham Survey of Theology states, “The reality of God is that he can only be known if he takes the initiative to be known.”[1]

CONSIDER the BLESSING it IS…THAT GOD MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN to US!!

b. The Scripture encompasses what theologians call special revelation.

General revelation (The knowledge of God that is generally revealed to all mankind through the created order) is SUFFICIENT to CONDEMN, but it ISN’T SUFFICIENT to SAVE... (see Rom. 1:18-32).

Special revelation encompasses GOD’S SPECIFIC WORD to INDIVIDUALS or PEOPLES that is found RECORDED WITHIN SCRIPTURE... it’s NOT UNIVERSALLY GIVEN to ALL HUMANKIND...

SPECIAL REVELATION = REQUIRED for SALVATION... (see Rom. 10:17...

TURN & READ

Romans 10:17 (ESV)

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

------------------------------

c. The Scripture reveals God’s attributes:

i. He is love (1 Jn. 4:8).

ii. He is holy (Isaiah 6:3; Rev. 4:8).

iii. He is just (Deut. 32:4; Ezra 9:15).

iv. He is gracious and merciful (Psalm 103:8).

v. He is mighty. (Ps. 93:4)

vi. He is good (James 1:17).[2]

------------------------------

d. Likewise, the SCRIPTURE REVEALS GOD’S ACTS,

BOTH CREATOR & REDEEMER

GOD’S CONTINUAL WORK by HIS DIVINE PROVIDENCE...

MOVING CREATION TOWARDS HIS INTENDED GOAL for IT...

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

3. We read and study the Scripture to know how we are to live before God.

a. Ultimately, the CHRISTIAN LIFE = ABOUT KNOWING GOD… & MAKING HIM KNOWN…OUTLINED in PAGES of SCRIPTURE...

1ST --WE MUST SEE the PROBLEM of SIN & OUR NEED for SALVATION...

GOD’S LAW SPECIFICALLY,, BRINGS ABOUT a KNOWLEDGE of SIN...

Romans 7:7 (ESV)

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

LAW = SCHOOLMASTER,, BRINGING us to CHRIST.

OUR JUST CONDEMNATION BY the LAW & NEED for SALVATION = FOUND WITHIN the PAGES of SCRIPTURE...

iTURN & READ Acts 4:12

Acts 4:12 (ESV)

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

2ND—WE SEE WITHIN SCRIPTURE the RECORD of GOSPEL—GOD’S PROVISION of OUR NEED...

REMEMBER,, WORD of GOD = LIKENED to a SEED...

------------------------------

3RD— UPON SALVATION— WE SEE the NEED to WALK WORTHY—LIVING UNDER CHRIST’S LORDSHIP...

i. 1 Thess. 4:1-8

TURN & READEphesians 4:1–3 (ESV)

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

WE’LL NEVER BE DESERVING of GRACE,, YET WE SHOULD ENDEAVOR to REPRESENT OUR LORD WELL...

-----------------------------

4TH— LEARN of GOD’S STANDARD of GODLINESS...

&& the NEED to PURGE ONESELF FROM SIN...

>>> THIS = the PROCESS of SANCTIFICATION <<<

SOME THEOLOGIANS DESCRIBE THIS BY SAYING: “YOU BECOME WHAT YOU ALREADY ARE”

OUTWARDLY RIGHTEOUS,, NOT JUST POSITIONALLY...

TURN & READ1 Peter 1:14–16 (ESV)

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

TURN & READ1 John 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

JOHN SHARES MULTIPLE PURPOSES in HIS WRITING & THIS = ONE...

BELIEVERS SURELY WRESTLE W/ SIN & AREN’T PERFECT…

YET WE SHOULDN’T CONTINUE in SIN WILLFULLY EITHER

TURN & READPsalm 119:11 (ESV)

11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

iv. Col. 3:1-11

1. **SCRIPTURE = ULTIMATE AUTHORITY on RIGHT & WRONG.

BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS…WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE ABSOLUTE TRUTH...

WORD of GOD = BEDROCK for MORALITY

BY in LARGE…HUMAN BEINGS OFTEN FIND THEIR PET SINS as LESS EGREGIOUS… TRY to JUSTIFY/EXPLAIN AWAY...

THAT’S WHY WE NEED an ABSOLUTE STANDARD...

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

4. We read and study the Scripture to be reminded and to be blessed.

TURN & READ2 Peter 1:12–13 (ESV)

12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,

PASTORAL MINISTRY = LARGELY MINISTRY of REMINDER

GOD BRINGING UP RIGHT THINGS @ RIGHT TIMES… CONVICTING OUR HEARTS & CONFORMING US to CHRIST...

“WORD in SEASON”

EVEN SEEMINGLY LITTLE THINGS—LIKE GRUMBLING/COMPLAINING...

GOD USES HIS WORD to REVEAL to US AREAS WE FALL SHORT & CAN GROW...

TURN & READ 2 John 5–7 (ESV)

5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

SOMETHING THEY SURELY HEARD BEFORE…YET NO ONE GRADUATES to the POINT WHERE WE DON’T NEED REMINDED!

TURN & READ Deuteronomy 11:18–21 (ESV)

18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

DO YOU SEE the IMPORTANCE of the PEOPLE’S DILIGENCE??

O.T. — TASSELS on GARMENTS… BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE a TENDENCY to FORGET...

IF THIS = TRUE THOUSANDS of YEARS AGO....CERTAINLY it = TRUE TODAY...

------------------------------

d. LASTLY—THERE’S BLESSING ASSOCIATED W/ MEDITATION & DEVOTION to GOD’S WORD...

TURN & READPsalm 1:1–6 (ESV)

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

5. We read and study the Scripture to obey it.

a. BIBLE STUDY WITHOUT APPLICATION = WITHOUT BENEFIT...

>>> Greater knowledge without greater obedience is indicting. <<<

FAMOUS SAYING: To whom much is given, much is required.

“PRIVILEGE CREATES RESPONSIBILITY”

TURN & READJames 1:22–27 (ESV)

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

the WORD of GOD MUST PRODUCE a CHANGE in US…WHEREBY WE SEEK to OBEY GOD MORE FULLY

THE ONE WHO MERELY HEARS DECEIVES THEMSELVES!!

TURN & READ John 14:15 (ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

THIS = RED LETTER… & DOESN’T NEED MUCH EXPLAINING...

HE SAYS “YOU WILL”…NOT “YOU MIGHT”

TURN & READ 1 John 2:3–6 (ESV)

3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

??? Luke 6:46-49???

TURN & READ Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

THE MISSION of the CHURCH = MAKING DISCIPLES:

THROUGH BAPTISM

THROUGH TEACHING

SPECIFICALLY… TEACHING PEOPLE to OBSERVE/KEEP/OBEY the COMMANDMENTS of CHRIST...

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

6. Takeaways

ALL SCRIPTURE TEACHES US ABOUT GOD… OR ABOUT OUR NECESSARY RESPONSE to GOD...

LEARNING ABOUT GOD:

EITHER ACTS

or ATTRIBUTES

LEARNING for US:

OUR NEED

HOW WE OUGHT to RESPOND

LIVING in LIGHT of SALVATION...

THE GOAL in BIBLE STUDY SHOULD BE to HEAR WHAT (AUTHOR/author) HAS to SAY…GOD SPEAKING to US,, NOT US INVENTING MEANING...

THE TRIUNE GOD = the MAIN CHARACTER…NOT US.

ALL SCRIPTURE = GOD-BREATHED & PROFITABLE…WRITTEN & KEPT FOR US,, THAT WE MIGHT KNOW GOD & GROW in CONFORMITY to JESUS CHRIST...