Dr. Perry Greene
I want to piggy back a little bit on Willis’ communion thoughts this morning. As he was speaking, I thought of a story about a priest who was serving a group of lepers on the island of Molowki, years ago. While he was there, he would address the lepers at Molowki, and he would say, “Dear lepers, ” and he would begin his lessons. As he went on to serve the lepers for a number of years, one day he stood before the lepers and he said, “My fellow lepers, ” and he began to teach them. From that moment on, his perspective in his working with the lepers changed, because he went from someone who was ministering to lepers to being a fellow leper, and serving fellow lepers.
My name is Perry, and I’m a sinner. And so are you. And the things that we say and do here today, we do as we minister to one another as fellow lepers. We are not above one another. Sometimes an occupational hazard for ministers is to think that we’re different. The reality is, I’m as sinful, as in need of Christ and his grace as anybody else in this room. And I really appreciate what Willis had to say this morning as we think about what God has done for us in the shedding of the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.
As we’ve been approaching these lessons in our study of basic things, I hope that they have been beneficial to you, as we have looked at some very simple things in God’s Word, and some heavy kinds of things, but they’re basic things that we need to understand and do in relationship to God’s Word. The things that I’ve been preaching are things that I’ve aimed at me also. Things that I’m needing to hear, things I’m needing to be reminded of, things I’m needing to put into my life, and I hope they’re helpful to you.
This morning we’re going to be looking at the value of God’s Word. Why we study God’s Word, why we learn and read God’s Word, and what we put it into our lives. I want to read to you from Psalm 19, beginning in verse 7, some of the things that the psalmist has said for us to consider about God’s Word. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward.”
LeRoy Eims tells a story in his book, “The Lost Art of Disciple-Making.” In the story, he describes driving through south Florida and seeing the rows and rows and rows of oranges. And as they’re driving, they come to a restaurant one morning, and Eims decides, he and his family decide they’re going to stop for breakfast. They pull into the restaurant and Eims says that he wants some freshly-squeezed orange juice that Florida is famous for. So he makes his order: his eggs, his bacon, his toast, and freshly squeezed orange juice. The waitress says, “I’m sorry, but our only orange juice machine is broken. We can’t give you orange juice this morning.” Eims looks out the window and he sees millions of oranges. And he thinks to himself, “It’s not because there’s a lack of oranges, the problem is, this restaurant has become dependent on the machine and has forgotten how to squeeze orange juice out of the oranges.”
Then he went on to write: “Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles at home, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls. The problem is not a lack of spiritual food, but that many Christians have not grown enough to know how to get it for themselves.” We are admonished throughout the Bible to study the Word of God. To get the milk and the meat from the Bible for our spiritual nourishment. We look to the Bible for God’s guidance and God’s directions, and as adults, generally most of us in here today are adults; we are self-motivated to study and to learn and to do the things that God’s Word lays out for us. You do, as an adult, you do basically what you want to do. You’re not coerced to be here this morning. You came because you wanted to, and there are other applications to your life as well, that we do basically what we decide we’re going to do.
Trouble is, most of us don’t study the Bible regularly. And that’s not an insult, that’s a fact. And we may have many reasons that we will give for that fact. “I don’t have enough time.” “I don’t understand the Bible enough to read it.” Various other things, but the reality is, we need to take the time. We need to develop the understanding to get the most out of God’s Word.
We’re going to look at several things this morning, first of all, why do we read and study our Bibles? And one answer to that is to gain an understanding of God and his will in our lives. We seek to be like Timothy was told, people who rightly handle the word of truth, who rightly use God’s Word. And the truth of the matter is, unless we are in love with the author of the Book, the study of the Book becomes tedious to us. John said, “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.”
Years ago, Linda and I were dating, met at Freed-Hardeman, break comes and we go home. She goes to Nashville, I go back to Kentucky to my parents’ home. One day, I came back from wherever it was I was going, and on my front porch, under our mailbox, was a three-foot envelope. Linda had gone to the store, bought poster board, wrote a large letter, even quoted Paul in the letter, large letter, and made this makeshift postcard, or envelope out of poster board. And here was sitting a three-foot letter at my front door. And one of my uncles was a postal carrier, so it kind of hit the postal news in the post office there, and he kind of spread it among our extended family. So in a little while everybody knew I had this three-foot letter from my girlfriend at Freed-Hardeman.
But you know the interesting thing about that? My parents didn’t come to me and say, “You know what? You ought to go read that letter.” As soon as I saw that letter and saw the address on it and the handwriting on it, I knew who it was from and I quickly went into my room and read my letter, and got every word, and understood and appreciated everything about it. Love makes a whole lot of difference in how we approach the Book. If we love the One who’s written the book to us, it makes a whole lot of difference how we approach the book. If we understand the love of the One that has written to us, it makes a whole lot of difference how we approach the book.
We want to gain understanding and insight into who God is, but we also want to develop our faith as we study and read the Bible. Some time ago, D.L. Moody said, “I prayed for faith, and thought that someday it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I had up to this time closed my Bible and prayed for faith; now I opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.”
The Bible provides the nourishment for our faith, and helps put our faith into action. Some time ago when they were building the Golden Gate Bridge, you can imagine how difficult and how dangerous that was. But in the first half of the construction of the bridge, 23 men fell from the heights of the bridge into the waters of the Golden Gate. 23 men died in the first half of the building of the bridge. They stopped construction after the 23rd death. And they put a large net under the bridge. And when the net was completed, they went back to work.
On the second half of the building of the bridge, only eight men fell. And none of them died. Some of them hurt themselves in hitting the net, but nobody died. And an interesting thing that they determined, or discovered, was that the efficiency of the workers increased by 25% with the addition of the net. What somebody would normally do in eight hours they were now doing in six. Because they had the net. The net did not cause the men to become more careless; it caused them to have more confidence.
You and I look at the grace and the goodness of God, and we look at the faith that we develop in Christ, and those things are there for our nets. It is no longer that we have to depend on ourselves to get through, and have to be so cautious and careful that we never slip. But now, through faith, we have a net. We understand that there’s a God there who’s ready to pick us up and carry us home. There’s a God there that looks out for our best and our best interest, he’s not out there trying to slap us down every time we turn around. But faith says we go on and we go up. We become more effective and more efficient when we rely on God through the teachings of his Word. Martin Luther said, “Pray, and let God work.” That’s faith. That’s faith in action.
God’s Word also helps to prepare us for the declaration of the gospel. We are ambassadors for Jesus. Paul said, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors” as though God were making his appeal through us. You declare the gospel to people around you. You make the message clear and plain, and you and I need to study and know God’s Word in order to be prepared to do that. Philip comes to the eunuch, and the eunuch is reading in the Scriptures about this man. Who is this? And Philip starts at the same passage and begins to preach Jesus to him because Philip was prepared.
Paul is converted and goes into the wilderness, and he gets some preparation time, and he comes back out declaring the Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ. God speaks through us. And in this world, and even in this country, we need to realize and expect the fact that Christians are becoming the objects of more and more contempt. And more and more attacks.
Ted Turner, some time ago, told the Dallas Morning News these words: “Christianity is a religion for losers. Jesus died on the cross, but he shouldn’t have bothered. I don’t want anyone to die for me. I’ve had a few drinks, and a few girlfriends, and if that’s going to put me into hell, then so be it.”
Do you hear the animosity? Do you hear the anger at you? Do you hear the anger at God? Those things are coming and you and I need to be ready for those times.
Also, the Bible in our reading and study is there to enrich our lives. Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Where there are standards in our lives, we are better people. The Bible is there to raise us up, to make us better, to make us more like Christ.
College professor was giving an exam one day. And he told his students, “I want an empty seat between you and the next person.” He said, “Just like the Good Book says, we’re going to abstain from every appearance of evil.” One of the students raises his hand and said, “Teacher? What if you don’t believe the Good Book?” The teacher said, “Then I want TWO empty seats between you and the next person.”.
Having the standards of Christ makes us better people, and seeing things through God’s eyes helps us immensely. Do you realize there are only two things that are going to last forever? The words of God, and you. Everything else is going to be burned up. And when we see those things through God’s eyes, it changes our perspective a little bit.
Zondervan Publishing did a survey a while back in which they found that the divorce rate since 1960 has tripled. In every category except one. In families where they read the Bible and pray, there’s one divorce out of a thousand. What would you give, what would you have given, to have had an insurance policy that said “Your marriage is 99.9% successful.” It’s based on the Book. It’s based on God’s perspective, not ours. It’s based on what God says and what God wants for us.
Secondly, how do we become more effective in our Bible study? I want to quickly give some ideas on a practical level on how we can be more effective in studying and learning the Bible.
First of all, be consistent. When you and I study the Bible, we need to be consistent in what we’re doing and when we do it. We need a daily time for Bible study and preferably a particular place where we can sit down and study the Bible. We do that with physical food. Isn’t it interesting that we rarely miss a meal? Sometimes we do. And you know what’s funny about it when I miss a meal? I got to tell somebody. You know? I was so busy today, I didn’t have time for lunch! So? But that’s the way we do. But when it comes to studying the Bible, how consistent am I? We don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. How important is that daily Bible study time? We need to be consistent in it, and it involves a commitment to a priority in our life.
When David Livingstone was going across the continent of Africa on one of his missionary journeys, he carried with him three packs of books, about 73 books, weighing about 180 pounds. Along the journey, the men who were carrying the books began to tire, and they said to Livingstone, “You’ve got to get rid of some of your books.” So he discarded a few books and they went on their way, and a little bit later they had to discard more, and then a little more, and finally they got down to one book, and you know that it was his Bible. That was the value that he placed on that book. All those others that he thought were so important didn’t matter that much, but he needed his Bible. He needed that consistent part of his life. He needed the Book.
Not only do we want to be consistent, we need to keep current. We need to use, I would say, readable versions of the Bible. Most of us here broke into Bible study by reading the King James version of the Bible. When I was 19 years old and began reading the Bible on my own, I found an old pew Bible that one of my parents had stashed in a closet. It was King James. The first taste of Bible that I have is the King James version, and I like the King James. I love the poetic sound of the King James, I love the reverence of the King James. But you know what? The King James is outdated now. There are words in the King James from 1611 that have changed their meaning to today. In 1611 the word “prevent” didn’t mean what it does today. When Paul talks about the second coming of Christ, and how we’re not going to prevent those who are asleep, as you read that, you’re thinking, “Well we’re not going to stand on the graves when they come out of the resurrection and keep them down!” Well, that’s not what he meant. That word meant “precede.” They’re coming up first, and then we’re going. We’re not going to precede them.
The word “nephew.” When Paul tells Timothy that “nephews” ought to take care of widows. I’m thinking, “Why would a nephew be required to take care of a widow?” The word meant “grandson.”
“Conversation.” We think of words. King James time, that meant your manner of life. So words have changed, and rather than just upholding a version of the Bible, it’s important for us to try to read the Bible to understand what God is trying to say to us. So I would encourage you to be more contemporary with your version of the Bible. If you’re content with the King James or another version, then use that. But if you can be a little more cutting-edge, that’s probably helpful to understand God’s Word.
Also, we need to be clear as we study the Bible. Really start where we are. Start where we are and go where we need to be as we read the Bible, in our understanding, in our grasp of God’s Word.
A four-year-old boy was sitting in the back seat of the car as he and his dad were driving. Little boy is eating an apple. And he says to his dad, “Hey Dad, why does the apple turn brown?” And the dad says, “Well, son, when you eat the skin of the apple, it exposes the meat to the oxygen in the air. When the oxygenation process changes the molecular structure, it turns it brown.” There’s a long pause in the back seat, and the little boy says, “Dad? Are you talking to me?”
[Laughter.]
We don’t go to the public library and pick a book off the shelf and begin reading. We find a book based on our interest and our level of reading and our level of comprehension and so on that we begin to read. The Bible is a book of 66 books; it’s a collection of 66 books. Generally speaking, we don’t just hop into the Bible, just open it, and here’s a passage and we’re going to read it and understand it. Depending on where we are. If you’re new to studying the Bible, you might want to start at a different place than someone today who’s been studying the Bible for 50 years.
If you’re new to the Bible you might want to look at the gospels as a beginning place. Look at Mark, or John, or one of the other gospels. These tell you about Jesus. When you read the book of Acts, it tells you about how the gospel about Jesus spread through the world, and about things that the church did. When you read the letters of Paul and Peter and John, you read about how Christians are supposed to live in the world today. You can read the Old Testament and gain some other kinds of insights about God. But be consistent, be current, be clear.
And then focus on content, not on time. It is more important that we don’t rush our reading, than it is to rush through and miss things. It’s better to read a little bit and get it than to read a lot and miss it. Take your time reading the Bible. Reading and understanding is very important.
J. Russell Moore was a missionary in Burma some years ago. When the communists took over the government, Moore and others were put in prison. Moore was stripped of everything that he had, including his Bible, and placed into solitary confinement. After he was released, he told people that the way he got through his solitary confinement was to remember the Scriptures and to keep reciting those words to himself over and over and over again, and that encouragement kept him going.
Know what troubles me? I wonder how much of God’s word is in me. I wonder, if I was placed in solitary confinement without my Bible, I wonder how much would be there that I could draw on, that I could rely on, that would carry me through a difficult time. How much is there? How much of God’s word is in my life, and mind?
Last, be accountable. Find a group of people that will help you stay on track as you read and study the Bible. It’s one thing to promise ourselves that we’re going to read God’s Word, it’s another to promise others. The Bible’s not an end in itself. The Bible is an action book for us. Somebody said, “Read the Bible until you find a command. Go do it, come back and repeat the process.” That’s kind of good. The Bible is not just for us to display in our homes, in our church. It’s not just for reading, even every day. It’s not even just for memorization. The Bible introduces us to Jesus. And it helps us to fill our minds and our hearts with him.
And the reality is, if that doesn’t happen, if Christ is not in the center of our hearts and minds, what good has it done us? Read and study to see Christ and to see him alive and to see how much of an impact he can have in us.
I heard about a church that decided to honor its retiring preacher. He worked with them for 30 years, so they had a big party for him. They came and they had all the festivities, they had a roast where they made fun of him, and all those kinds of things that happen, but one of the things that they did to honor the preacher was they hired an actor, a professional actor, to come in and recite Psalm 23 to the audience. That was the preacher’s favorite passage of Scripture. So the actor came in and began to speak. He spoke the words with perfect diction and inflection, and all those kinds of things that actors do, and when he finished reciting Psalm 23, the room erupted in applause.
Later in the ceremony time, the preacher got up to thank everybody. Thanked the actor for giving everyone the benefit of that wonderful psalm, the psalm that had carried him through so many difficult times over the years. And then the preacher began to recite the psalm. He didn’t have the diction of the actor. His voice would quiver from time to time and maybe even break with emotion. But when he finished the psalm, there was not a dry eye. There was a reverent hush in the room. And finally the actor said, “I know the psalm, but he knows the shepherd.” The Word of God is there for us to know him. For us to see him, and develop in us his character in our lives.
One day, we’re going to be judged. All of us are going to gather before the judgment seat of Christ and we will be judged according to the words of Christ. How did we live according to Jesus? According to what he said? I think in light of that we can say, “I need to take the time. I need to develop the understanding, and I need to put Jesus in the very center of my life.”
At the end of our service this morning, if you have a need that you want taken care of. Either if you want to become a Christian or if you need prayer for some reason, you can go through this door here, and right to the right is the Twickenham room, and somebody will be there to assist you. One of our elders will be there to help you in anything you may need.
Think about the value of Christ, think about how important he is, not only in getting to heaven, but in having an abundant life in this world. Let’s pray and we’ll turn the service over to Lincoln.
Our Father in heaven, as we conclude our time in study this morning, we are grateful to you for the ways that you have blessed us in the giving of your word. We remember that there are people who have died just because they wanted to read your book. People have given their lives so that the Bible could be here today, and we are grateful for the sacrifices of others. But we’re especially grateful for your sacrifice for us, in giving us Jesus.
Thank you for the revelation of Jesus in your Word. Help us to see him, to know him, and to put his words and will into practice in our lives. Father, we pray that people will see us, and see your Son in this world. Help us devote ourselves to him, and help us to use your Word as a way to know better how to serve you. Thank you for each and every one who’s here, bless us now this day, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
How to Get the Most Our of Your Bible [28:07m]:
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