Welcome back to our study in this session.

I'm going to talk about things to

remember as we study God's word. Sometimes I hear a lot of people say that we
should do personal Bible study, and what they mean by that is that each of us
should study God's word for ourselves. And it is important for us to study
ourselves. But I think we should remember the value of learning together. One of
my favorite things to do is to study a passage of Scripture, and then I get together
with friends in my church, and we might say, Let's all meet on this day and we'll
talk about Abraham and God's promises to Abraham. Or we might say, Let's all
meet on another day and let's talk about David and God's promises to David. Or we
might meet on a different day and talk about the miracles of Jesus. Whatever the
topic, we talk about the same thing together, and I can share with my friends what
I'm learning and what I think God's word says. But sometimes they might say,
Well, I think that you missed something in this passage and they'll show me a verse
that maybe I didn't look at close enough, and it doesn't change my understanding in
a major way. But it may help me see things better, and God wants us as the body of
Christ to learn together. So, yes, we study on our own. But we also learn together
in the Book of Acts, Chapter two. The Bible says that the church continued daily in
the apostles teaching. This is something they did together. They also had a focus on
God's word. There are some verses that talk about this. Look with me or you could
listen to

Colossians Chapter four, Verse 16 in Colossians. Paul sent his letter to the
church in Colossi, and he said in verse 16 After you have read this letter, pass it on
to the church at Laodicea so that they can read it, too, and you should read the
letter that I wrote to them.

Now, do you have a book in your Bible called Paul's letter to the Laodaecea?
No, you don't. What you have is the book of Ephesians, and probably that's what
Paul is talking about. Colossi and Laodicea and emphasis were very close to each
other. And when Paul sent his letter to emphasis or to colossi, they shared the
letters with each other and someone would go into the church and they would read
Paul's letter. And when they read Paul's letter, they knew that it was not just a letter.
It was God's word because Paul was an apostle teaching God's word to the church.
But what I think is so important for us, as we learn Bible interpretation, is to see
how these Christians valued a focus on God's word. They read God's word in their
churches so they could think about it, talk about it and do what it says. So there's a
value of focus and the reason I'm telling you this is because you're taking classes.
It's good for you to learn together with other people that you're taking classes with,
and sometimes it's hard for you to take classes because you have a family or you
have a job and your life is busy. And when I'm taking classes and I feel busy and I
feel tired, I remind myself that God gives us a great opportunity when we can stop
and focus on his word and learn together, and so there's a value of focus. Also,
those who desire to trust God and obey his word are in the right place. to.
Understand his word? Now I'm telling you this as something to remember. As you
study God's word, I want to read a verse to you in

Deuteronomy, Chapter 29 Verse 29. Moses said this. He said the secret
things belong to God. But the things that God has revealed are for us to obey.

And the reason I'm reading that verse. God has not told us everything that he
could say about himself, but the things that God has said in his word. God said
those things so that we would obey him. And so when I study God's word, I should
have an attitude that I come to God's word with a willingness to obey him and a
desire to know what he wants me to do because I want to live my life based on his
word. Another verse is

John, Chapter 14 Verse 21. Jesus said those who accept my Commandments
and obey them. These are the ones who love me and because they love me and my
father will love them. I will reveal myself, to, each of them.

Do you hear what Jesus said? Jesus said to the people who want to obey his
word. Those air, the ones that will understand his word. God will reveal himself to
us. There's another verse in the psalms that is very helpful.

Psalm 1 19 Verse 34 David said, Give me understanding and I will obey

your instructions.

Did you hear his prayer? He prays for understanding, and the reason he
prays for understanding is because he wants to obey God's word. And so those who
desire to trust God and obey his word are in a right place to. Understand his word?
What about the Holy Spirit? And what does the Holy Spirit do as we interpret
Scripture? A few things that the Holy Spirit does as related to this the spirit of God
convict's people, that the word of God is true. This is in
 John, Chapter 16 Verse nine. Jesus is talking to his disciples about the Holy
Spirit, and Jesus said this in John. Chapter 16 Verse eight. The spirit will convict
the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment.

The idea is, as we study God's word, the spirit convict's us about the truth of
God's word. That's one thing that the spirit does. Another thing that the spirit does
is found in

Ephesians, Chapter one, starting in verse 17. This is Paul's prayer for the
Ephesians church, he says in Verse 17 asking God the glorious father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to give you spiritually wisdom and insight so that you might grow in
your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will understand,

and so another thing that the spirit does is that the spirit gives us
understanding of what God has already revealed. I want you to notice my
statement here. The Holy Spirit does not add new meaning to the word of God,
these air God's words. But the Holy Spirit does give us understanding of what God
has already revealed. Sometimes when I have trouble understanding a passage, I
will stop and pray, and I'll ask God to help me understand his word. But after I
pray, I don't just sit there and wait on God to show me. I study his word, but I trust
God that his spirit will help me understand his word. Also, the Holy Spirit renews
or changes our mind. Changes are thinking as we understand and respond to the
word of God. That idea is found in

Romans 12 versus one and two, where our minds are changed or renewed by
the spirit and the word of God. So as you and I grow in the word, God changes the
way we think and his spirit is at work doing that. We must depend upon God when
we study the Bible because our goal is more than understanding. We want to know
the truth so we can live by the truth. So I pray for understanding. But I also pray
for strength to live according to God's word. After I understand it, I need God to
help me understand it, and I need God to help me live. By the truth of his word,
both are important. Well, let's talk about the Bible as being God's word given
through human beings. This is important. In second Peter, Chapter one, Peter says
that men spoke as they were moved by God, and he says they spoke from God.
Think about that. They spoke So it means that when Paul spoke, it was Paul's
words. But he says, they spoke from God. So the authors of Scripture, they wrote.
But it was God who gave us the words. Now that's important, because it's God's
word. We know that it cannot lie. The Bible is God's word. That means it has
authority over us. God can tell us what to do because he is God and he made us.
And as Christians, he bought us with his blood. So God's word has authority over
us. Even Jesus, who is God in the flesh or the God man lived his life under the
authority of God's word. The Bible has authority over us. Secondly, God's word
will not contradict itself. Sometimes people will say something, and later on they'll
say something different. God is not like that God's word. The Bible is God's word
from Genesis all the way to revelation. And because God gave us the whole thing,
God's word will not contradict itself. Now here's why. That's important when
you're studying the word and you're trying to understand it, and it seems like it's
contradicting something else. In God's word, you'll know that your understanding
has to be wrong because God's word fits together perfectly. It will not contradict.
Another thing about the Bible is that God did not reveal everything to us at one
time. His word was given over a long period of time. Think about Adam. God told
Adam that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The woman
would have a child that would bring judgment on the serpent. Adam didn't know
that the seed of the woman's name would be Jesus. Adam didn't know that Jesus
would be born in Bethlehem. Adam didn't know that Jesus would do miracles. All
that God told Adam is that the savior would be born from a woman. After Adam is
gone, Abraham comes, and God promised to bless the world through Abraham's
seed. Now Abraham knew that the savior would be born of a woman, bring
judgment on the serpent and would be Abraham's descendant. Abraham didn't
know that he would also be a child of David or born in Bethlehem. And so you
understand what I'm saying. God didn't tell everything At the same time, God told
something's to, Adam. Something's to, Abraham some things to Jacob some things
to David. And when you read the Bible, you have to ask yourself, What did they
know when God revealed this to them? And so that keeps us from trying to read
into a passage, something that's not there. God gave us his word, but he gave it
through human beings. And so how does that help us understand God's word?
Well, a couple of things that we could say about this is that since it was written
through human beings to other human beings, we want to try to think about what
each book meant to the first readers, to the first people that that book was given to.
And so there are some questions that we ask. Now I'm just going to say this now,
so you'll remember it as we go to our later sessions. The questions that I'm getting
ready to ask these will be the things that we do in the rest of this course. These air
the questions that Bible study forces us to do or tells us to do We ask questions
about a passage of Scripture. We want to know who wrote the book and when did
he write that book. Why did he write that book? And who did he ride it to? And
what did he say to them? How did he communicate his ideas? What were they
supposed to believe or do? And what are we supposed to believe or do? Let me
give you an example. Who wrote the book of Philippians? Paul did. When did Paul
write the book of Philippians? Paul wrote the book of Philippians when he was in
prison in Rome. Who did he write it to? He wrote it to the church in Philippi. Why
did Paul write the book of Philippians? Okay, if you've read the Gospel of John,
you know why he wrote the Gospel of John? Because when you come to the end of
the Gospel of John in John, Chapter 20 John says this

John Chapter 20 verse 31 says these things are written so that you will
believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that by believing you will have
life in his name.

John was very clear. He wrote his gospel so that people would believe and
because they believe they would have life. That means when I'm reading the
Gospel of John. I know why he wrote it. But what about Philippians? Paul doesn't
say why he wrote Philippians. So when I'm reading the Book of Philippians, I'm
asking myself, Why did he say this? And why did he say that? And when I look at
the letter, I start to understand why he wrote the book. What did he say to them?
What about this one? He says. Or I said in this slide, How did he communicate his
ideas? How did he communicate his ideas? There are different ways to
communicate our ideas. Sometimes God's word was given in poetry like the Book
of Psalms or The Book of Proverbs. Other times God communicated his word in
story, like the Book of Genesis or the Book of Acts. Other times, God
communicated his ideas in letters like the New Testament letters and the way that
Paul communicated, or the way that David communicated helps you understand
what they're communicating. Don't worry about remembering all of this right now.
I'll talk about this in later videos. I'm just introducing you to the questions that we
ask when we study God's word. What were they supposed to believe or do notice
the questions here. What were they supposed to do and what are we supposed to
do? And those questions indicate that the Bible is timeless. It has applications for
everyone in every age that is a believer. But that application will look different
now than it did for Paul back in his day because things have changed in our world.
But because God's word has not changed, God wants us to be able to apply it. So
these air questions that we ask when we study God's word.