Institutes of Theology | Session 11 - Bible Study for Every Christian - Part 2

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I want to take you back to, before we begin, back to my early days as a Christian. I was saved as a biblical words in high school, went off to college, and had an appetite for the Scripture. But to be honest with you, at the time, it was all over the place. It was pretty much helter skelter. There was no design, no real intentionality. I wasn't really good at the daily discipline of being in the Scriptures. And I remember talking to an older, wiser Christian, and I told him, I said, you know, I just feel guilty about that. And he said something really profound that stuck with me all through the years, and I'd share it with you. And that is, if that's true of you, if your life doesn't reflect a measured, regular, consistent time in the Scripture, and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you shouldn't feel guilty. You should feel hungry. Because the Word of God is what the Lord has given us. We're going to be looking at our Lord's quotation, even Sunday, from Deuteronomy, where he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What your soul is hungry for, if you know the Lord, is his word. And that's what's attracted you to this church. That's what's attracted you to this Institutes of Theology. And it's my belief and desire that as you learn how to study the Scriptures, you learn kind of how to build that daily time, which we're going to talk about in coming weeks, then you will satisfy that hunger. It'll begin to be satisfied. But like Luther said, the wonderful thing about the Scriptures is it's like drinking salt water. The more you drink, the thirstier you get. The difference is it also satisfies your thirst at the same time. So that's my desire tonight is to really excite in you a new and fresh desire wherever you are in your sort of spiritual journey and your study of the Scriptures to be more diligent, more regular, and to learn how to feed your soul. It's really what we're talking about when we're talking about Bible study. It's learning how to personally feed your soul. It's great to sit under others and have them feed us. And that's what the Lord designed. That's why the Lord gave gifted men to the church to teach. That's his purpose. But that's not enough. In addition to that, you know, what if you only ate your food for your body once a week? Wouldn't be quite enough. You need that regular intake. And the same thing is true with the study of Scripture. 

Now, let me remind you that we're talking about how to study the Bible. And I know from last time as we began, some of you may be thinking, wow, I may never really learn this. Let me just remind you that any new habit that you are trying to learn is going to feel overwhelming at first. I mean, when you were trying to learn how to ride a bike, or if you, like I did, learned to drive a car by driving a stick shift, you know, trying to get all that stuff straight at the same time, you thought there's just no way this is going to happen. But it did, and now you can do it without even thinking. You can talk on the phone and drink your coffee while you do it. That's how it is with habit. That's how it is with skills. And that's what we're talking about here, is a skill. So don't be frustrated by that reality. 

Start by setting aside a small amount of time to study. You don't have to dedicate two hours a day to this process, but dedicate some time, intend to do it, and begin to use the skills that I'm trying to teach you in these sessions. Now, let me just reiterate that the process of carefully studying the Bible is not for super Christians. This is the same basic path. What I'm talking with you tonight about is the same basic path that believers have followed since Old Testament times. So with those caveats, let's continue to learning how to study the Bible.

Just to remind you, the process of inductive Bible study includes several steps. I've decided to approach it as six distinct steps. This assumes you're not planning to teach it. You're doing this to feed your own soul. First of all, there is preparation. Getting your tools and your heart right for study. Secondly, there's observation. This is the heart of exegesis. It's where we find ourselves picking up again tonight. Meditation. That's thinking deeply about what you have studied and pulled out of the text in order to better understand it and to plan how to do it. And then there's interpretation. Eventually, as you study, as you do what we're talking about, you have to land. What does this passage say? And what does it mean by what it says? That's interpretation. Evaluation. This is when you have some tools and resources that help you evaluate the conclusions you've reached from your Bible study. These resources are like guard rails to keep you from swerving off the highway of orthodoxy, keep you within the boundaries of what the church has historically taught the Scriptures mean. And then there's application. This is where you then apply the truth to yourself. How am I supposed to respond to this? 

Now, we have, last time we looked at preparation and we began the process of observation. Let me just remind you that observation is at its heart this. It's exegesis, and exegesis is using careful reading, thought, and analysis along with all the available tools to systematically study the details of the text in order to arrive at its meaning. Your goal is a detective. You're trying to discover what the original author meant. That's what you're trying to do in Bible study. That original author is the human author, as well as the Holy Spirit who inspired that human author. It answers the question, what does this really say? That's our goal in observation or in exegesis. 

Now, just to remind you, last time we looked at the process, and let me just remind you of that process. Couple of these really happen sort of before you even start your study. You just have to keep the big picture in mind. How does that passage you're about to study fit into the overarching theme of Scripture? Think of the Scripture like a giant oak tree. The foundation, the root of that tree, is the theme of the Bible. God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory. The trunk, kind of dual trunks, is the Old Testament and the New Testament. And off of those trunks are these books. Thirty-nine books in the Old, twenty-seven in the New, and those books each have a theme that relates back to the larger theme of God is redeeming a people by His Son, for His Son, to His own glory. So how does that book that you're studying fit into that larger theme? How does it fit into the theme of the Old Testament, which is the fact that the redeemer needs to come, and is promised to come, and here's why he needs to come. The New Testament Gospels. He came, Acts and the Epistles. Here's what his coming meant, and Revelation, he's coming again. So how does the book you're studying fit into all of that? Keep the big picture in mind.

Choose a biblical book to study. Read up in a couple of good study Bibles on the introduction of that book. Know what the background of that book is, to whom it was written, why it was written, when it was written, and who wrote it. All of those things help you understand the book. Read through the book multiple times. I told you John MacArthur suggests 30 times, and the minimum I've ever seen is five times. Read through the book. It's a long book. I wouldn't urge you to start studying a long book, but if that's where you are, break it up into sections. If you're reading Matthew, read the first 10 chapters over and over again, then read the next chapters and so forth. Or you can read through the entire book but read through it with a first-time attitude. Identify the paragraphs and prose or the sections in poetry because that's where the basic meaning is found. Paragraphs have one central idea, so you're looking for paragraphs and you're looking for stanzas in poetry. 

And then, this is where we left off last time, you're going to make observations and ask questions of the text. You're going to make observations and ask questions of the text. My father-in-law, who taught theology for 50 years, he ended his career at Masters the last 15 years there, and he gave his students a project in theology class. He asked them to read two verses in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 9 and 10. And then he said, here's your assignment. I want you to write 25 facts that one may legitimately draw from those two verses. Of course, you know what college students did. They all groaned, like, that's not even possible. Two verses, how can you get 25? But they did, and they came back in the next week, and he said, that was great, great start. I want you to find 25 more from those same two verses. Deeper groans, can't be done. Third assignment, 25 more. They then added together at the end of this project all their distinct observations possible from those verses, and they tallied 175 different thoughts that they agreed could be drawn legitimately from those two verses. So this is what you need to do, not 175, but you need to ask questions of the text as if you had no idea what the text teaches. 

What's happening in this passage? Gordon Thie writes, “The key to good exegesis is the ability to ask the right questions of the text in order to get at the author's intended meaning. Good exegetical questions fall into two basic categories, questions of content, what is said, and of context, why is it said?” What is said and why is it said? Now, the questions to ask, as you can see here, are who, what, where, when, why, and how. The five W's and an H. So, how do you ask these questions? Well, here's some examples. 

Who? Who wrote this? Who said this? Who's the main character? Who's in this account? To whom is it written? About whom is it written? So, you're asking intentional questions of the text.

What? What are the major ideas in this text? What's the main theme? What are the main events? What are the important lessons that the author draws? 

Where? Where did it happen? Where will it happen? Where was it said? Where is the author? Where are his recipients? 

When? When did all this happen? When was it written? 

Why? Why is this important? Why did he include that detail? Why is so much written about this event or this teaching? Why should we do what's commanded? 

How? How can it be done? How should it be done? How is the truth illustrated in this passage? 

You see what you're doing is, again, you're a detective, and you're asking questions. These questions simply help you think about the text a different way. Because if all you do is read it like you've always read it, you're going to come up with the same observations you've always come up with. So the questions force you to really reconsider that text in a major way. This is really important and crucial to the process of exegesis. You can also then, by the way, let me just say, you don't answer the questions, you let the text answer the questions. You're not trying to force something into that text, you're trying to figure out what's there already. Make personal observations about what's going on in the text. What do I see in this passage? What are the key words? What are the key topics? Key people? Commands? Are there repeated words? Repeated concepts? Repeated phrases? 

Let me give you an example. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Ephesians chapter 2 and look at verse 7. I just want you to see how making observations and asking questions gets you to the heart of the meaning. Alright, verse 7 begins, “So that.” So, what is, what's going on here? This is a purpose, right? “So that” means this is the purpose. So, what, it's the purpose of what? Well, the verb goes back to verse 5. “When we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive, so that.” Okay, so God regenerated us, so that. “In the ages to come.” What does that mean? What are the ages to come? And why is ages plural? I mean, does that mean eternity is broken up into ages? What, what is it that he's going to do? He gave us life, so that he might show the surpassing riches of his grace. What, what is that? What are the riches of his grace?  And why is surpassing? What is grace? Why does he say not just show his grace, but the surpassing riches of his grace? And how does he show his grace in kindness toward us and in Christ Jesus? 

You see what I'm saying there, when you start asking those questions, you start getting to the bottom of what the text is saying, what it's meaning. I spend my life doing this. You know, I get up, I'll get up tomorrow morning, Wednesday morning, and I will wrestle with the text just like I'm teaching you. This is not foreign to me. This is what I do in my personal study. It's what I do in my study to prepare to teach. So it's so important that you are coming to the Scriptures because it is the inspired Word of God, because every word matters. They are God-breathed. They are the product of the breath of God. There are no throwaway words here. And so I want to understand everything God had said. And I want to wrestle with everything He said. So you're making observations of the text.

A student of Agassiz, the famous naturalist, had a student who came to study with him, and Agassiz gave him a heamulon and said, I want you to study this fish. It's a kind of fish. He said, I want you to study this fish, and here's how I want you to do it. I want you to do this using nothing but your eyes and your other human senses and a pencil and paper. The student, the first few hours were painfully slow. I mean, how many things can you see and observe about a dead fish? Four days of this. At the end of that assignment, the student went on to become a specialist and an expert in the field, and he considered the greatest lesson he ever learned about the importance of hard work, the hard work of careful observation. And that's what's the key to understanding the Bible. The Bible's riches don't unlock to the lazy person. They don't unlock to the person who just sort of lets his eyes run over the page and goes, yeah, yeah, I've read that before. Now, the riches of Scripture unlock to the person who is a careful, diligent student, who cares about every word, who wants to understand what God has said. 

Now, what I'm going through with you tonight, let me just say, is out of sync with our culture. We live in a fast food, microwave culture. And so when we come to study the Scripture, you have to ask yourself, men, what do I want? We want a gourmet meal, but sadly, we're only willing to invest the time and effort to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm serious. That's a great analogy to how a lot of guys approach the Scripture. I want a steak, but you know, I'm just going to invest a peanut butter and jelly sandwich amount of effort. Now, I hope you will see the importance of that.

Now, let me go from there to number seven. Back in our list of observation, we've looked at six of them. Number seven is look up all the proper nouns. Look up all the proper nouns. Identify all the people, places, and things in your paragraph. Remember, a noun is a person, place, or thing. Identify all of them. Sometimes understanding a place can affect the meaning of a passage. For example, Elijah running before the chariot of Ahab in 1 Kings 18:46. If you look up the places, guess what you find? He ran somewhere between 15 and 25 miles ahead of Ahab's chariot and beat him to Jezreel. He ran a marathon. So, not only was there a spiritual reason for his depression in the next chapter, but guess what? There was a physical reason for his depression as well. So, understanding places can do that. Or 1 Samuel 28, when you examine the place names, you discover that Saul's visit to the witch at Endor took him into enemy territory to find this witch. It was both a desperate and a rebellious act. So, the understanding places and people can sometimes open up the text. 

John 11:54 says, Jesus, after the raising of Lazarus and the decision of the council to kill him, he traveled north to Ephraim, a city just north of Jerusalem, about seven miles. And then the feast comes, and he doesn't just go seven miles south to Jerusalem. The text says, he goes up all the way to Galilee, joins the pilgrims, and comes down the Jordan Rift Valley with the Galilee pilgrims coming to Passover. Why? I mean, it would be one thing if you had a nice car, you wanted to enjoy the ride. We're talking about walking on foot. So, look these things up in a Bible dictionary. Here are a couple of suggestions, or a suggestion, rather, for you to follow [He displays on the screen “The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary”]. There's some bigger ones. If you want the four-volume variety, we can talk about that. Zondervan Pictorial or the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Four and five volumes, but this one would be a good start for you if you've not done this before. 

Number eight, analyze the grammar. Analyze the grammar. Now, I know, I get it, I taught college English. When I say the word grammar, some of you begin to shake and you start drooling out of one side of your mouth. It's like, not grammar. But grammar isn't as foreign to you as you may think it is. You analyze grammar every time you read a road sign. You see that sign that says, slow children ahead. Your mind goes to grammar, and you come to one of two conclusions based on your understanding of grammar. So, you do this all the time. And frankly, you do it every time you read anything, anywhere. You use grammar. That's how meaning is discovered. You do it every time you read the Bible. What I want to help you do is do it better. I want to help you use grammar better. Grammar is nothing more than the rules by which language communicates meaning. In some languages, you discern the meaning from the ending that's attached to each word. Spanish, for example, or Greek. In Greek, you can place the subject of the sentence anywhere you want in the sentence. The way you know it's the subject is by the ending that you attach to it. But in English, and therefore in our English translations, the meaning is determined by word order, specifically the word order arranged in phrases and clauses. 

Now, why is it important to understand the grammar? Because that, men, is where the fundamental meaning is found. Not even in words. Why do I say that? Because words change senses depending on context. I'll show you an illustration in a moment. What matters is the relationship of the parts of the sentence to each other. That's what determines meaning. That's grammar. Luther wrote in Bible Study, he said, First, I shake the whole tree that the ripest fruit may fall. Then I climb the tree and shake each limb, and then each branch, and then each twig, and then I look under each leaf. In our study so far, we've looked at the whole tree, the passage, but now we need to look under each branch and at each twig, the phrases and clauses, and how they're connected to each other.

Now, I'm going to give you a brief grammar lesson. I promise it won't hurt. Stay with me, because it will become important to help you understand the text. Here's a brief grammar lesson. You just need to know, really, about two parts of English to really understand your Bible. First of all, you need to understand clauses. Clauses. A part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb. You know what a subject is. You know what a verb is. An independent clause is a clause that expresses a complete thought. It stands alone. It's a complete sentence. For example, “Charlie ate supper.” That's a complete thought. A dependent clause is a clause that does not express a complete thought, can't stand alone. It's not a complete sentence. “While Charlie ate supper.” You don't walk up to somebody and say, “While Charlie ate supper.” That's not a sentence. Unless you're answering a question. But you don't just volunteer that. “When Charlie ate supper,” “as Charlie ate supper,” those are dependent clauses, because they cannot stand alone. See, that wasn't too painful, was it?

All right. The other word you need to know, the other part of speech that's important are phrases. Phrases are groups of words in a sentence without a subject and a verb. Now, the most common kind of phrase is prepositional phrases. That's simply a group of words without a verb introduced by a preposition. So, what are prepositions? Well, the most common ones you just need to know in English are of, with, and about. Those are prepositions. And prepositions are anything that a squirrel can be to a stump, or an airplane can be to a cloud. This is how I taught my students in college, all right? Anything a squirrel can be to a stump, or an airplane can be to a cloud. In, on, at, by, against, between, through, above, below, etc. Those are prepositions. Anything a squirrel can be to a stump, or an airplane can be to a cloud, plus of, with, about, and to, I would add as well. So those are prepositions.

The other kind of phrase is a verbal phrase. This is a group of words without a main verb, but it has something that looks like a verb in it. A verb plus “ed” or “ing,” those are participles or gerunds. Something like this. “Hearing the phone ring, I answered it.” “Hearing the phone ring” is obviously not able to stand alone. It's not an independent clause. It's a phrase. “Waiting for a text message kept me glued to my cell phone.” There's a gerund. The other kind of verbal phrase is to plus a verb. It's called an infinitive. “They cannot be made to listen.” So you have “to” plus a verb. Now, you can forget most of that, but you need to remember there are clauses and phrases, and those relationship of those clauses and phrases determine the meaning of God's Word, of anything, but of God's Word as we study it. So, the key to analyzing grammar, then, is to break the text down into smaller units. This is how you're going to get your Bible study done. This is how you're going to understand what God is saying in His Word. 

First of all, identify the main clause. What's the sentences’ subject and verb? What's the main clause of the sentence? That independent clause in that sentence. Then, identify all the other phrases and clauses, and then simply understand their relationship to each other. That's how meaning is determined. 

Now, what's the best tool to do this? Well, some teachers would argue, and maybe you were trained, just out of curiosity, how many of you were trained in school to do sentence diagramming? Yeah. I was as well, and in Greek class. But I will tell you, while I think that can be helpful, there's another tool that I believe is far more helpful. The sentence diagram can kind of atomize the text, and you miss the big meaning, you miss the relationship of phrases and clauses. But block diagramming is a better tool, and I would encourage you to seriously consider it. I'll show you what it is in just a minute. I'll give you examples.

Block diagramming. It doesn't diagram each sentence, but rather the paragraph as a whole. And each phrase or clause is kept in the natural order of the passage, but supporting phrases and clauses are indented under what they modify. So it arranges all the material in the passage you're studying so that the relationship of whole sentences, clauses, and phrases are visually apparent at a glance. Now, this is fully developed in a book that changed my life as a seminary student many years ago, a book by Walt Kaiser called Toward an Exegetical Theology. If you're a brave man, you can read it. It's actually a good read. It's a bit dated, and you'll see that as you read it. Some of his examples are dated, but the theory, the approach to Scripture is mind-blowing and really, really helpful. In fact, I'll just tell you guys, I never study a passage of Scripture without doing this, ever. This is how I begin. Tomorrow morning, when I open the next part of the passage, we're studying in Matthew 4, I will do a block diagram in Greek. Works in English as well. You have a good translation, like the NAS. You can do it there as well.

So let me show you what I mean, what this looks like. The quickest way to use this tool, by the way, is if you have a computer. Just cut and paste either from your Bible software, or you don't have Bible software, somewhere on the Internet you find a Bible, and you cut and paste the portion you're studying into a Word document or Pages or whatever you use in terms of word processor. And when you do a block diagram, you're going to know how to identify the phrases and clauses. I'm going to show you how to block diagram them, and how to determine their relationships. So let me give you two favorite examples of mine.

These are ones from the Old Testament, ones from the New. They're both an easy start, so you can see what I'm talking about, and you'll see it unfold. So let's start with Ezra 7:10. Let's say you're studying Ezra 7:10. “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Now you'll notice that I've underlined some words. I've underlined words that introduce phrases or clauses. That's all I've done. For, and then to, of, and, as a conjunction, to, and, a conjunction, to, and, a conjunction, and in, a preposition. All I've done is underlined the words that introduce either prepositional phrases or a new clause. 

Now, all we're going to do with that is then arrange that verse in phrases and clauses showing what modifies what. So, here is a block diagram. You'll notice the word “For” begins, and then “Ezra had set his heart.” There's the main subject and verb of the sentence with its direct object.  “He had set his heart.” Then under that, I put, “to study the law.” Why? Because he set what? He set his heart to what? “To study the law.” And then, “of the Lord” modifies law. So, it's indented under law. He's talking about the law of the Lord. “And to practice it.” He set his heart not only to study, but to practice. “And to teach.” And then to teach what? Under modifying teach, “His statutes and ordinances,” and to teach “in Israel.” Now, you look at that block diagram, and you know what the main idea is, and you know what's modifying what. You understand, you have a picture of that passage.

Then, you come back in to understand the relationship of those phrases and clauses. I've done it here for you on the slide. “For,” that is the reason for the previous verse. Go back to Ezra. Go back in your Bible to Ezra. Let me just show you the context. Ezra 7:10. “For,” that's, I'm getting an explanation. Here's because, here's the reason. Well, the reason for what? The end of verse nine. “The good hand of his God was upon him.” Why? For, Because. So there is the reason of the previous verse. Ezra had set his heart. There's the main proposition. And you can look into what that means. What does it mean, he set his heart? You can study that. We'll talk about other ways to study those words in a moment. “To study the law” is the goal. He set his heart for the goal of studying the law. “And to practice it,” another goal. “And to teach,” there's his third goal. “His statutes” is the content of the law. “Ordinances,” the content of the law. Those are nuances. You look up those words and you find out more of what they mean specifically. We'll deal with that in a minute. And “in Israel,” to whom or where? Now guys, that opens up the meaning of the text to you. Having done that, you have a pretty good idea of what's going on in that verse.

Now you say, well, I kind of got that from just reading the verse. Well, yeah, I chose a simple example. But it doesn't work quite so simply in every text. Doing this, doing it this way, opens up even the complex text where you're going. “Oh, I didn't see that relationship before. I didn't see that connection.” Like even the word “for” that begins this, I doubt if you memorize this verse, I doubt you knew what it connected to. “The good hand of his God was upon him for [because] he had set his heart.” So you can see how understanding the relationship of phrases and clauses just opens up the meaning of the text. 

Let's take another example. Let's take a New Testament example. You'll love this one because it's about wives being submissive to their husbands, though you're married, your wives aren't here, so here we go. Ephesians 5 22 to 24. “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he Himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands and everything.” Again, all I've done is gone through and underline the words that introduce either phrases or clauses. “Being” is one of those we talked about. It's a verbal clause or verbal phrase. Where you have a verb that's not a verb, not functioning like a verb. And so that's introducing a phrase. So that's all I've done. 

Now let's do the same thing. Let's indent, let's start at the beginning and indent the phrases and clauses under what they modify. Here it is. “Wives be subject.” Wives be subject “to your own husbands.” You see they're being subject to their own husbands. They're being subject as to the Lord, and they're being subject “for the husband is the head.” And he's the head of what? Of the wife. “As Christ also is the head,” and then “of the church,” he's the head of the church, he's the head of the church. “And here's just another way to say it, “He Himself being the Savior of the body.” And so you see all I've done is indent the phrases and clauses under what they modify. And then you come back and do the same thing we did in a moment ago. You identify the relationship of those phrases and clauses.

“Wives be subject,” there's the main subject and verb. “To your own husbands.” To whom? “As to the Lord.” How? “For the husband is the head” Here's the reason. “For,” because. Because “the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head.” There's a comparison. “But as the church is subject.” Comparison. “To Christ.” To whom? “So also the wives ought to be, to their own husbands.” To whom? “In everything.” To what extent? When you really grasp those relationships, you really understand this sentence, this passage. 

And so this is absolutely crucial. And this works, men, regardless of the kind of literature. The same process works in the epistles. It's what I do when I'm studying Romans, what I did when we were studying Romans for seven years, what I did when we were studying First John. It's what I did when I was studying the Book of Ruth and teaching through Ruth. What I did when I was studying the Book of Daniel and teaching through Daniel. It's what I'm doing in Matthew. This process works regardless of the kind of literature. Now, once you've completed a block diagram, what do you have? You have a visual display of the flow of the author's original thought and argument. Really helpful to understand the text and how it relates to each other. The passages, the phrases and clauses relate to each other. 

Now, let's move on then. So, talking about the process, we talked about looking up all the proper nouns, analyzing the grammar. Number nine, identify a preliminary theme. Now that you've done all that, you're saying, okay, what is the point of this passage? You see, the biblical text, men, has one unchangeable meaning, and that's not ever determined by you. It's determined by what the original author intended to communicate. A text or a passage may have many implications, may have many applications, but it has only one meaning, one overriding thrust. And that is clearly expressed in the text by means of words and grammar.

So what is the basic message of the paragraph reduced to one simple sentence? Let me tell you again my process. Tomorrow morning, when I get up to study the First Temptation of Christ in Matthew 4, I will first of all pray, prepare my own heart, remind the Lord that I am ignorant and in need of a teacher, remind Him that I am totally dependent on the Holy Spirit, ask for his help as I seek to understand his Word to feed my own soul, and hopefully to ultimately feed his people. So start there, after a cup of coffee. Okay, then the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to copy, in my case, I'm going to copy the Greek text into my Word document for the sermon for that week, and at the end of that document, I'm going to put the block of text that I'm going to be preaching on, and then I'm going to do this one. I'm going to do a block diagram, what we just did. I'll do it in Greek. It works very well in English. 

The next thing I do is I break out a legal pad, and on that legal pad, I like doing kind of a combination. I'm kind of a computer fountain pen guy, so I've got it all going. And so I'll write on that legal pad, okay, here is the—now that I've done the block diagramming, and now that I understand something of the passage, what is the way in a simple sentence to capture the meaning of this passage? What is it about? What is it saying? And I just write it down. As simple, as direct as I can. And I call it exegetical theme. Here's my first attempt at saying, this is what this paragraph is about. In my own words. Of course, it involves some of the words of the author at times as well. When you hear me preach, you'll hear me say something like, “This passage reduced to a sentence is.” That's a variation of the exegetical theme I wrote at the top of that page. So this is crucial, identifying your preliminary theme. It is foundational. But understand you're just starting to study, so it's tentative. You haven't done your interpretation yet. You haven't finalized; this is what I'm confident it means. You're just saying, I think this is what it means, based on the work I've done so far. 

Now, it only has one. Every passage has one theme. If it's a paragraph, it has one theme. It may be developed different ways, but it has one theme. That's the nature of a paragraph. That's the nature of a stanza. So you're trying to discover what that is. You say, how do you identify the theme? Well, there are three ways. Sometimes, thank the Lord, it is directly stated. We don't even have to wonder. The author tells us, I love it when that happens. For example, look at 1st Timothy. First Timothy, chapter 4, and the paragraph really begins in verse 6. There's a minor paragraph break in verse 11, but the overall paragraph runs down through verse 16. So, verses 6 through 16, you have a unit. So, what is this unit about? Well, look at verse 16. “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.” Well, guess what? If you go back and study this paragraph, if you lay it out in the block diagram, you're going to see that verses 6 through 12 have to do with your teaching. I'm sorry, verses 13 to 16 have to do with your teaching, and verses 6 to 12 have to do with yourself. So, yourself, your teaching. And then, he says it in verse 16. This is about taking care of yourself, paying attention to yourself and to your teaching. And he's just giving it to you. I love it when that happens. 

Another example is in 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul's talking about leadership in the church and how leaders ought to be very careful. And he says that. He says, “Be careful how you build.” It's the theme of the passage. When you look at it, you look at it break down, it's like, okay, he's telling leaders, you better be careful how you build on the foundation that's already been laid. That's Christ and the Scripture. And so it's directly stated.

Another way you learn a theme is it's contained in words or concepts that are repeated often. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 1. If you were to count, from Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, running down through verse 14, which is one sentence in the Greek text, if you were to count the number of words in that passage that have to do with the will or purpose of God, I have done that, there are ten of them. So what do you think the theme of that passage is? It's the eternal purpose of God. It's the eternal plan of God. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to the adoption of sons. He sent Christ to accomplish our redemption, our forgiveness, to purchase our sins, to make Christ then ultimately the center of everything, and then he sent the Spirit to perfect that work in us. So what you have in verses 3 through 14 is the eternal plan of God. You want to know the mind of God? There it is. And then that makes a lot more sense when you get to chapter 2 and he starts personalizing it. And he says, let me tell you how God's plan intersects with your life. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God found you and made you alive. And here's why he did so. Verse 7, “So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward you in Christ Jesus.” “So that no man could boast.” (8b) And so that, verse 10, you would walk in good works. Boom. The eternal plan of God, big picture, chapter one. The eternal plan of God, individual, your biography, chapter two. So it just is there in the words and concepts repeated as you begin to look at it. 

Also, it often is discerned from the context. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. After he introduces the second half of the letter, verse one, you know, walk worthy of your calling, he starts telling us how to walk worthy. And the first thing he gets to is verse 3, “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit.” He says the only way to do that, verse 2, is “with humility and gentleness, patience, showing tolerance.” But you need to be diligent to preserve the unity that the Spirit has created. How do you do that? Well, verses 4 through 6 says, focus on the things we share in common. There's one faith, one Lord, one baptism. Don't dwell on the things that separate us, dwell on the things that unite us. And then he says, beginning in verse 7, down through verse 16, here's another way to preserve unity. Follow Christ's plan for the church. Get engaged in the church. Use the gift Christ has given you. Learn from the men he's given the church to teach you the Scriptures. And use your gift. All the parts working together, verse 16. That's how unity is built. So you see, the context often gives you the theme of the passage.

So you want to identify a preliminary theme. And then, you want to look up the cross references. You want to look up parallel passages, or cross references that use the same words in the original language. Really helpful for this is the New American Standard Bible. If you have one that has notes, just look at those cross references. They're really very helpful. If you have a computer software program, it's really handy, because you just hover over the little number there, and it gives you, pops up the verses, and you can click on them and read them. You don't have to even turn. They're right there.

If you're doing the Gospels, and I use this every time I'm studying personally or to teach the Gospels, Harmony of the Gospels, Thomas and Gundry's Harmony of the Gospels is excellent, because you'll see what's in each of the Gospels about that same event. So, for example, there's even this Sunday I've already looked in and read ahead, there is a nuance in Luke about the first temptation that isn't in Matthew. But I need to bring that in because you need to understand that to understand the big picture. So the same thing as you're studying. 

Passages that contain the same or similar ideas and concepts. So they're not true cross references, but a topical kind of Bible will get you there. The Treasury of Scripture knowledge is an old resource, but a really helpful one. I heard John MacArthur many times ask, or maybe he wasn't asked, maybe he said this, he volunteered this. He said, if I was stranded on a desert island and I could only have two books, I'd have the Bible and the Treasury of Scripture knowledge because it takes you to all of these potentially related passages all over the Bible. And again, on computer, it's a wonder. The old hard print version you probably don't want. That's a hard thing to use. But it was helpful. But now it's brilliantly helpful in the computer age. Really something for you to consider. The MacArthur Topical Bible, which is really just Torrey's topical textbook. When I was at Grace to You, we took Torrey's topical textbook, added about 10% more entries, and that's the MacArthur Topical Bible. A really helpful resource. I have a copy here in my office and a copy at home. So, these give you exposure to other passages dealing with either the same ideas or related ideas. It helps you understand the Scriptures better.

Then you want to study the key words. Study the key words. Why is this important? Because words are the building blocks of all communication. But words are also very complicated, guys. If a language has been around any period of time, and those words have been in the language any period of time, they've accumulated a lot of different senses. For example, take the word cool. Think about the senses, the different senses of the word cool. It can mean cool temperature. It can mean relaxed, cool, half-hearted. It can mean distant and uninterested. And it can mean unfriendly. That's cool. All those senses. Take the word board, B-O-A-R-D, like a piece of lumber. It can mean wood. It can mean your housing expense, room and board. It can mean the controlling leaders of an organization, the board that runs the business. Or take the word run. Run is amazing. It's all over the map. Think about it. Your nose runs, your feet run. Women don't wear these anymore, but the hose runs, an engine runs. All those things run. To understand a paragraph with those words in it, you have to know the various senses, and you have to be able to determine which one best fits the context. Context, guys, is always king when it comes to the meaning of words.

Let me give you an example. “The leaders of the company were cool with how the board ran its affairs.” Now if I just went to the dictionary, and I chose any sense of those words that I wanted to, I could interpret that sentence this way. “The leaders of the company lost body temperature because of how the piece of lumber dripped its affairs.” You see what I'm saying? You can't do that in English, and you can't do that in the Bible. You can't do that with the language of the Scripture. So words matter. Your goal in this part of the study is to decide what are the key words. You know I've studied the word in, but what are the key words in this passage? And what do they mean? What meaning did the author intend? Because usually words have only have a single sense in any particular passage. For example, when you use the word cool in a sentence, you're not meaning every sense of the word cool. You're meaning one sense of the word cool. And so you're trying to discern that.

How do you recognize key words in a passage? Well, words that play a key role in that particular passage, like Hebrews 11:1, faith is the substance and evidence. Those are key words for you to understand what faith is. Words that occur frequently in a given book or author, for example, in 1 John, the word light, the word love. Words that are major biblical words, words like justified, propitiation, redemption. In James, the words lust, sin, and death. In Romans 4, faith and justified. So you're looking for words that have a significant impact on the meaning of that text that are not apparently obvious. 

Now how do you study key words? Well, look them up in a good Bible dictionary. I just referred you to one. If you are able, you have a computer resource. Look them up in Greek or Hebrew in the dictionaries that are there in your software. Do a concordant search. That's so much easier again with a computer today. Just trace that word through the Scripture. How do you do that? Well, start in the same book. How's that word used in other places? I do that in Matthew all the time, studying Matthew. Okay, how else does Matthew use that word? Then, in other books, the same author wrote. Doesn't that just make sense, right? You want to see how, if you're studying Paul and you're looking at the word justified, you want to see how he's used that word. Then in other books written about the same time, why is that important? Because over time, words slightly change in their significance. When I was growing up, the word gay meant something entirely different than it means today. Words change in their meaning. Then in the entire Scripture. You're tracing down these words. 

Now you say, what am I looking for? When I do a concordant search, what is it I'm looking for? Well, first of all, you're looking for the various senses of the word. In other words, like cool, what does it have in common? What do all these uses have in common? Like the word run, motion, right? If my nose runs, an engine runs, has something to do with motion. Well, what is this word? What is the commonality? On the other hand, what's the connotation of this word? In other words, sometimes words have implied emotional baggage with them. To say someone is incorrigible doesn't have the same connotation as to say that he has the courage of his convictions. Those are two different things, but they kind of mean the same thing. One has a negative emotional baggage, the other is positive. Or he's stubborn. Stubborn is not the same thing as persistent. One has a negative emotion attached to it, the other has a positive. Is it used only literally or also figuratively? For example, in English, green can refer to the color, that's its literal meaning, but green can also be used to describe someone who is new and lacks experience in a particular job. So, you're looking at all of that.

The synonyms, the words that are used with it. For example, you want an interesting study. Go to Deuteronomy and look up the word love, and then look at all the words around, the synonyms around the word love. Things like fear, obey, etc. All clumped together. The antonyms, the opposites. What's opposite of it? The word justified. Guess what the opposite of the word justified is throughout the Scripture. Condemned. What does that tell you? It tells you that justified does not mean to make a person righteous. No more than condemned means to make a person guilty. Justified means to declare a person righteous, just as condemned means to declare a person guilty. So the antonym, the opposite of the word, can help you understand its meaning.

Based on the context of your paragraph, then you decide the sense of the word the author intended. Again, don't be overwhelmed by this. You may start studying a passage, and you may do one word or two words to try to get to the heart of what it's saying. But this will help you fill out your knowledge of the Scripture. 

What dangers should you avoid in word study? Well, the root fallacy. You've heard it. Enthusiasm originally meant possessed by the gods. Well, enthusiasm doesn't mean possessed by the gods today. So don't go back and bring the root up and say, this is what it means, because it doesn't mean that. Nobody thinks enthusiasm means possessed by the gods. Now, you might use it as an illustration. So that's what it originally meant. And so here's how it got to where it is today. But don't insert the root into the meaning today. The Latin word from which nice comes, guess what the root of the Latin word nice is? Ignorant. Don't go to the root fallacy.

Reading all the senses of the word into that one passage, that's a temptation for people who are just starting to study. It's like they find a dictionary on their Logos or whatever their Bible software is, and it's like, look at all those great meanings, and they just kind of insert them all in the passage. It means all those. No, we don't do that in English, it doesn't mean that in the Bible. 

Choosing the sense you like best, regardless of the context. There's a real temptation, and I hate to admit this to you, but when I was a young teacher in seminary, I sometimes did that. It's like, ooh, that sounds good, that'll preach. No. What did the author mean? That's the question.

Reading the English word back into the Greek or Hebrew word. Okay, it's legitimate, guys, to acknowledge that the Greek word for power, dunamis, is so powerful that when the inventors of dynamite chose a name, they chose that name. Okay, fine. But it's not legitimate to say that Paul was describing the power of dynamite. Didn't exist when Paul wrote. So beware of reading the English word back into the original. 

And then giving the word the exact same sense every time it occurs. The word law, for example, means a lot of different things. Sometimes it's principle, just principle. Sometimes it's the mosaic law. Sometimes it's the law of sin, the law of death. So there are lots of different ways that it's used. 

So just to review then, in observation, when you're really trying to get to the heart of the passage, just keep in mind the big picture. Choose a book you're going to study, read up on that book's background. All of that happens before you start your study week, day in and day out, or week in and week out. Then, and read through the book multiple times does as well. Here's where your study starts. Identify the paragraphs or the sections, make observations, ask questions, look up the proper nouns, analyze the grammar by doing the block diagram we talked about, identify a preliminary theme of the passage, look up the cross references and study the keywords. That's what is involved in exegesis, in the study of a passage. When you finish those steps, you will have a good understanding of what the passage says.

This is maybe the most important, well, I hate to say that. It is equally important to the part we just studied, if you're really going to come to grips with the Scripture. So, just again to remind you of the process, preparation, preparing your heart and your tools for study. Observation, you're now looking through the passage. You're looking to discover what it says and what it means. And that brings us to meditation.

Meditation is really crucial to this process. You know, can we admit, guys, that there is a lot we know about the Bible that we don't do? Anybody here want to argue with that? Yeah, no, I don't think I'll get any dissenters on that one. So what exactly is the bridge between knowing and doing? Turn to Joshua chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8. God says to Joshua, “This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth.” Now this book of the Law, it's Joshua. So how many books of the Bible does Joshua have at this moment? He has five, the books that Moses wrote before Moses' death, Genesis through Deuteronomy. So that's what he's got. And God says, “This book of the Law [the only revelation he had] shall not depart from your mouth.” Now there are three possibilities for that. It could be, let the Scriptures influence your speech. That's pretty unlikely. It could be saying, you need to teach the Bible. Don't let it depart from your mouth. Be teaching the Bible to others. That's not likely either in context. It's more likely a reference to reading. In the ancient world, people read out loud. You remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. You know, he's reading the Bible out loud. And that's how people did. It was a little difficult in the library, but that's what happened. So notice what he says. “This book of the Law, [these five books you have] shall not depart from your mouth.” That is, you shall continually read it “so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” Now, in Hebrew, “for this reason” is the idea. So that is for this reason, in order of that, it speaks of purpose, intent. So you have reading on one side, and you have doing on the other. How can we move from knowing the Bible to doing it? What's the bridge between knowing and doing? Do you see it in verse 8? The key is meditation. Read it, meditate on it day and night, so that you will do it. So meditation is the Biblical bridge between merely knowing the content of Scripture and actually living it out. 

Now, let's just admit that when we hear the word meditation in the 21st century, what's the first thing that normally comes our minds? Someone sitting, legs crossed, wrapped, you know, maybe the legs wrapped around his head, if he's really flexible, eyes closed, palms raised, repeating some kind of mantra like “om.” Religions, cults, Hinduism, Buddhism have meditation. But truly Biblical meditation is the complete antithesis of Eastern mysticism. In the pagan understanding, meditation is emptying your mind. In the Christian understanding, meditation is filling your mind. Emptying your mind versus filling your mind. In the pagan view of meditation, the goal is not thinking. In fact, it's trying to empty your mind of all things and not think. Well, in Christian meditation, it's intentionally thinking deeply about something. They're total opposites. As we're going to see in the rest of our time together tonight, the Biblical practice of meditation is absolutely crucial in the issue of Bible study, if it's ever going to change you. If you're not going to just be a theological junkie who accumulates facts and knowledge, but somebody who really begins to look like Jesus Christ, the only way that happens is in the process of meditation.

So, it is the responsibility of every Christian to study the Bible individually. There are the steps. And now we come to meditation. 

Now in this time, as we examine meditation, I want to consider three issues related to meditation. First of all, why, then what, and then how, all right? So, let's look first of all at why is meditation important? What's the value of this skill? Well, as we just saw, according to Joshua 1:8, meditation is the tool that helps us move from reading and studying the Bible to actually putting God's Word into practice in our lives. And the result, Joshua 1:8 says, is spiritual prosperity, so that you will make your way prosperous. For then, having read and meditated and done, you shall make your way prosperous, spiritually. To live wisely, it's the ability to live in a way that pleases God. This is the path. Read the Bible, think deeply about the Bible, and do the Bible, and you will make your way prosperous. 

Psalm 1, turn there with me. I love this psalm. It stands as the gateway to the Psalter. Anyone who would worship God must come to God through this gate. There are two paths. There's the path of the righteous and there's the path of the wicked. Notice the psalmist defines the spiritual prosperity that Joshua referred to. Verse 1 begins, “blessed.” It's a Hebrew word that pictures a third party carefully examining a man and his relationship with his God. It could be translated like this. It's not God blessing. That's a different Hebrew word. This word describes me looking at somebody else's life and coming to the conclusion, how blessed is that guy? We could put it this way, owed to be envied is that man. That's the idea here. 

Psalm 1 begins by describing this enviable man with three negatives. What the righteous doesn't do. Taken together, those first three negatives, I wish I had time to develop them. Let me just summarize them. It means this blessed man rejects all human ways. And verse 2, here's the description of what the righteous do. And notice verse 2, the psalmist reduces the description of the righteous to the response to Scripture. To one attitude and one activity related to God’s Word. Notice verse 2. It says, “His delight is in the law of the Lord.” The word delight means to take pleasure in. Ten times in the Old Testament, it's translated as desire. The law of the Lord is a reference to all of the Scripture. As I said, the law changes its meaning. Here the idea is all of Scripture, all of the revelation of God. He delights in it; he takes pleasure in it. He desires it. He loves it. To use the word that's used often in Psalm 119. So let me just ask you, man. Before the Lord, do you love, do you delight in God’s Word? If you don't, and you're truly a believer, then you need to do two things. One, you need to pray and repent and ask the Lord to forgive you for not loving and delighting in his word, that man shall not live apart from. And then you need to say, I'm going to develop an appetite for it. How? By eating it, by tasting it, by being in it. Notice the rest of verse 2. It says, “And in his law, he meditates day and night.” The psalmist is content to develop this one theme about the righteous. What would you have done? What if I said, okay, I want you to come up here and not thinking about someone just off the top of your head. I want you to describe a righteous person. How would you describe them? The psalmist says, let me tell you, here's how you recognize a righteous person. He rejects all human ways, verse 1, and he embraces only God's way in the Scripture, verse 2. That's it. 

Meditates. The call to think deeply about God's revealed Word isn't merely for pastors or seminary professors, it's foundational for every Christian spiritual health and growth. In fact, that word blessed describes, as Lance mentioned the other night, an objective state of well-being in every area of life. Look at verse 3. You want to see what this state of well-being looks like? This guy finds himself in? Verse 3, “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf doesn't wither, and whatever he does, he prospers.” Here's the point. The enviable man in Psalm 1 enjoys a remarkable state of well-being accompanied by joy and satisfaction. If you look at verse 3, you find out that he's filled with strong spiritual life. He's carefully cared for by God. He fulfills the purpose for which God made Him and brings lasting benefit to all those around Him. That's the fruit. He has permanence and endurance and stability. And whatever external circumstances he faces, his soul prospers and thrives, even in drought. That's what meditation promises, guys. And if that doesn't get your interest, then you better check your spiritual pulse. Meditation is crucial. So, that's why meditation is important.

But let's look secondly at what meditation is. What exactly is the skill that promises so much? Now, we're going to come to a definition, but before I get to the definition, we're going to put some pieces together. Let's start with the three Biblical words and the primary results. So, let's begin then with the Biblical words. Now, I want you to turn to Psalm 143:5. And the reason for that is, it's an unusual verse in this. We're not going to look, I know you're going to think I'm out to lunch, but we're not going to look at the context. This is just a place to remind you of the three Biblical words for meditate in the Old Testament. They're all here in Psalm 143, verse 5. They all appear in this one verse. Here they are: “Remember.” Now, usually this word doesn't refer almost never in fact to suddenly recalling something. We say, oh yeah, I remember where I left my keys. That's not the idea. The word remember in Hebrew is deliberately thinking about something. It implies choosing what you think about. This word is not like our word remember. I remember where I put my keys. It's more like when we're sitting around the table with family and we say something like, you remember what we did on vacation last summer? It's the intentional calling to mind. It's the deliberate reminiscing and thinking about something. That's one word for “meditate.” The second word is translated meditate in this verse. This word can mean to mutter, to whisper, talk. But it often means to reflect or to think. It's kind of like an internal discussion. So at times, this was like a low murmur. But often, it was more about what was going on in the heart. But the meditation of my heart, the psalmist says, be acceptable in your sight, versus the words of my mouth. So the emphasis in this word is on a kind of internal discussion. So you get the idea here. Deliberately reminiscing, thinking about something, having a kind of internal discussion, and the word “muse” is the other word. It's usually translated talk or meditate. It means to go over something in your mind. It can be expressed out loud, even talking to yourself, but it can also only happen in the mind. So what I want you to see is that meditation involves a determined choice to recall something to mind, a kind of internal discussion about something, deep reflection.

But what exactly is all this concentrated thinking trying to accomplish? Well, we get another clue into what meditation is by looking at the primary results of meditation. There are two primary results. The Bible tells us from meditation. First of all, insight. Turn to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, this great psalm about the Scripture. And notice Psalm 119 and verse 99. “I have more insight than all my teachers, for [because, here's the reason I have more insight] your testimonies are my meditation.” Now, look at the second half of that, or the first half, rather. “I have more insight than all my teachers.” The word “insight” refers not to the accumulation of knowledge. The Hebrew word is more about how to use the knowledge you've accumulated. The Hebrew word for insight means shrewdness. It's not referring to the gathering of data. It describes a person who knows the ropes. They know how things work.

Now, you probably, when you read the first half of verse 99, I have more insight than all my teachers, you probably remember some people in some of your classes in high school or college who really thought that. You know, they were the ones always raising their hand and not to ask a question, but to make a point or to correct a teacher. They thought they had more insight than their teachers. That's not the idea here of what's going on. How did the Psalmist get this insight? Well, the second half of the verse explains, “for [because] thy statutes [or your] statutes are my meditation.” How does meditation bring that kind of insight? In other words, why does meditation produce insight? And the answer is the Holy Spirit. Through something theologians call illumination.

J.I. Packer gives what I think is the best explanation of illumination. Listen to what he writes. “It is not a giving of new revelation, but a work within us that enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the biblical text. Illumination is thus the applying of God's revealed truth to our hearts so that we grasp as reality for ourselves what the sacred text sets forth.” That's illumination. You have had this experience. If you are a Christian, you have had this experience. You are reading a text you have read many times before, and your eyes just passed over and you move on. Yeah, yeah, I get it. And you move on. But then you read it and it's like boom! It explodes. It's like, I never saw that, I never understood that. That's illumination. That's the work of the Spirit. And that happens most frequently when we are thinking deeply about the Scripture.

What's illumination like? The fruit of meditation. Illumination is like, imagine walking into a great European cathedral at night. You know, one of those with all the stained-glass windows, with all of the stories told in the stained glass. If you walk in there at night, when there's only darkness behind the stained glass, you can make out the basic story. You can see the colors. It's all there. You see it. But then you walk back into that same cathedral the next morning, when the sun, the blazing morning sun is streaming through that window, and all of those colors are like alive, and the story comes to life, that's illumination. That's the idea. Suddenly, in the light of the morning sun, it looks real and beautiful and attractive. That's what the Spirit does in illumination. He turns on the light behind the page. In God's Word, we suddenly understand it at a deeper, more spiritual level. The truth that we may have seen in the darkness now grips our souls, becomes real and beautiful and attractive and desirable. It matters. Not only do we get it, but we love it. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings that illumination, that insight.

Here's Psalm 119 verse 18. The psalmist prays, “Open my eyes [not my physical eyes, my spiritual eyes] that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.” Or there's Ephesians 1:18, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” I want the eyes of your heart to be illumined. I want you to see the truth in a new and fresh way. Robert Raymond defines illumination as the Holy Spirit's enabling of Christians generally to understand, to recall to mind, and to apply the Scriptures they've studied. And through the work of the Spirit, meditation brings insight into the meaning of the Scripture. 

One other primary result before we define meditation, one other primary result of meditation is application. Joshua 1:8, we saw it a moment ago. “Meditate so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” It's interesting when you look at Psalm 1, Psalm 1 verse 2 uses the word meditate. The same Hebrew word for meditate in Psalm 1, 2 appears in Psalm 2 verse 1, but there it's translated devising. Devising. It's creating a plan in order to carry it out. So meditation not only brings understanding, but it also creates a plan of action to do what we've come to understand. And that happens, men, in the process of meditation. True biblical meditation is done for the purpose of and with the results in the application of truth to life. 

So with that background, let's put together a definition of meditation. Here it is. Biblical meditation is deliberately choosing to think deeply about something in the Scripture in order to better understand it and to plan how to do it. Deliberately choosing to think deeply about something you've studied and learned in the Scripture in order to better understand it and to plan how to do it. My favorite illustration of meditation is a cup of tea, assuming there are a few civilized people left in the world. I like coffee too, by the way, but imagine for a moment that you are the hot water. And the tea is the hot water that you drink. And the teabag is God's word. When you read the Scripture, it's like you take that teabag and you dip it in the water, and you pull it out. A little bit of tint of the water, you put it in again, pull it out, a little more tint of the water. You study it a little bit, you leave it in a little longer, you pull it back out. Meditation is when you put the teabag in and you leave it, and it steeps in your mind. You're mulling over the truth; you're thinking about it.

When we meditate on Scripture, we talk to ourselves about it. We turn over in our minds its meaning, its implications, its application to our lives. Now, I've spent my time in the Old Testament so far on meditation, but it's not confined to the Old Testament. Meditation is also in the New Testament. The New Testament is full of the language of thinking deeply about God and His word. John 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words remain in you.” I love that. My words remain in you. “Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” Ephesians, a lot of passages talk about this idea of thinking about the Scriptures. Colossians 3:16. “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you.” This is the concept. John talks about it both in his Gospels, but particularly in his Epistles. 

Now, what are supposed to be the objects of our meditation? When you look at Scripture, and you'll have this slide. I'm not going to go through all this, but here are the objects of our meditation. God's Word, that's the obvious one. Secondly, God's works of creation, providence, redemption. “On your wonderful works, I will meditate.” Psalm 145:5 says. Now, we find those works in the Scripture, so it's kind of one and the same, but I'm just giving you categories. God's character. Psalm 63:6. “I will meditate on you.” Psalm 145:5, “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, I will meditate.” So, we think deeply about things revealed in the Scripture, about the Scripture itself, about the works of God in creation, providence, and redemption, about God's very character, who he is. Those are the objects of our meditation. It ultimately all traces back to the Scripture, because the only way we really know any of that is through the Scripture. 

Now, let's move on then. We know why meditation is important, and exactly what it is, but how do you actually do it? Okay. Let's do rubber meets the road stuff. How do you do meditation? Let me describe how meditation works. Now, first, you have to discover what the passage says. You have to study it, like we've already dealt with, and observation. You have to read and study the passage. As Thomas Watson, the English Puritan, pointed out, meditation without study is dangerous, because you're thinking about what you don't know. On the other hand, study without meditation, he said, will be fruitless. In other words, it's not going to produce any fruit in your life. If you study and you got all the facts, and you put it in the drawer and walk away, and you're not letting it live in your mind, you're not letting the Word of Christ dwell richly within you, it's not going to change you. It's like you dipped your tea bag in the water and pulled it out. So, it's crucial.

Now, I'm going to give you some specific methods for meditation. This is not an exhaustive list. There are other methods. These are not inspired. I have adapted some of them from spiritual disciplines by Don Whitney, so they're not all original with me. They're not even all original with him. This is just a short list of what the saints have done through the centuries to meditate on the Scripture. And you need to factor this into your time. Maybe it's during your study time. Maybe you study and then you go on a walk. I love to do that. And think about what I've learned. Think about it to understand it and think about it to say, what does God want me to do with this? Remember meditation, choosing to think deeply in order to better understand it and to plan how to do it. So maybe you do it on your commute if you have a commute that lets you do that. Whenever. You need to make time in your life to think about what you study. Now, you deliberately choose to think about the passage you're studying with two goals in mind, deeper understanding, personal application. Here are the methods. 

Now, I'm going to show you how to meditate using a simple proverb. I just chose Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” We could do this with any passage. So I just chose one to illustrate it. So how do you meditate? What are some methods? Method number one, ask important questions of the passage. How does this passage fit into the great theme of the Bible and the Gospel? God is redeeming a people for His Son by His Son for His own glory. Well, Proverbs 15:1 shows our need of the Gospel, and how far we've strayed from the divine pattern of relationships. We were made for relationships because we're made in the image of God, who has eternally enjoyed relationship within the Trinity. And yet, we find a way to mess up our relationships. It shows us our need for the Gospel. It shows us how we can live with the new hearts that have been given us by grace. We now can do this. If you're in Christ, you can do this. 

The second question is, what is the relationship of this passage to Christ? Does it show us our sin in need of Christ? Does it show us His work for us? Does it reveal something about His person? Does it describe the way He lived as our example? So when you look at Proverbs 15:1, guess what? Nobody did this better than Jesus. He's the model. Read through the Gospels, you get a model of this. You're meditating on it. You're thinking about it. What does this passage tell me explicitly or implicitly about God? How does the author expect the original readers to respond? Are there commands to obey? Are there sins to confess and forsake? Are there errors to avoid? Emotions to be felt? Promises to believe? 

So what about Proverbs 15:1? What's the scenario in Proverbs 15:1? Look at it again on the screen. Notice “an answer turns away wrath.” So what's going on in this proverb? Something's happened. I probably caused it. And it's made someone very angry. That angry person is now confronting me. Don't you love it the way the Scripture never describes real life situations? The command. I must choose to respond in that situation in this way. Secondly, make general observations about the text. I'm going to go through this list but let me give you illustrations of each one.

Make general observations about the text. If you look at that proverb again, it's at the top of the screen. What I say deeply affects others. Right? I am able to reach inside a person with my words and my response and either turn away or stir up their anger. You ever thought about that? It's an amazing power. You better not misuse it. 

Secondly, another observation we can make about that proverb is there is both good and bad communication. Clearly that's the point he's making. 

A third observation we can make about this text is how I say what I say is important. Notice the word gentle has to do with manner as much as it does the content of what I say. Gentle. 

Another observation we can make is that particular words I choose can hurt others. A harsh word, it literally means a word that causes pain. I can choose words intentionally to cause pain in another person. And I'm commanded here not to do it. Disagreements can be resolved. Notice anger can be turned away. In fact, I would say there's another point, and that is disagreement should be resolved. Let me tell you something. Guys are not good at resolving conflict. Most guys, their idea of resolving conflict is I'll just stay away for a little bit and hopefully the air will clear and then I'll never bring it up again and hopefully she never will bring it up again. Guys, that's not resolving conflict. In fact, what you just did, if I can start preaching for a moment, is you just put a brick between you and your wife. That unresolved conflict is a brick. Boom! It's there, it's between the two of you, and it's not going away. And if you don't talk about it, resolve it, it's there. And what happens is a lot of guys live their marriages where they just keep stacking up bricks.  They just keep leaving unresolved conflicts, so they never come to one mind with their wife, where they really understand each other. And in the end, you got a wall. You got two different people living in the same house at odds with each other. And a lot of it stems from a failure to resolve conflict. A commitment to make things right. 

Another observation we can make is that disagreements improperly handled can escalate into settled conflict. Stirs up. That has the idea of escalating conflict. So you see, just making general observations about the text, number two there, gives you so many insights. If you force your mind to think about that passage, if you pour into it as if you were, you know, reading the stats from your favorite team, really think about it, meditate on it, pour over it. 

Number three, repeat it in different ways. Now, don't misunderstand, this isn't mindless repetition. Think of this as, in meditation, as sort of turning a jewel to see its different facets. So take this proverb, “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” And in each case, you're stopping to think about how that word, that expression, fits into the sentence. “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” So you're working your way through the sentence, really thinking about that next word and how it fits into the meaning of that passage. Turning a jewel to see its different facets.

Rewrite it in your own words. This is really helpful. Just sit down and say, okay, I'm going to say what I think this proverb is saying with my own words. Here's mine. “A meek and gracious response to someone who is angry calms them. But responding in kind with anger and attacks is going to make them even madder.” That's what it's saying. 

Number five, pray through the text. This is really, really helpful. Pray the text back to God. Once you understand the basic idea of the text, turn it into a prayer. Here's mine. I just wrote out a prayer in response to this proverb. 

“Oh, Lord, you have commanded me to love others as I love myself. But I confess that much too often, my tongue becomes an instrument of pain, hurt, and discouragement for my family, my friends, and sometimes even people I don't know. Lord, forgive me and help me to pursue your way in how I speak to others. Help me to be gentle and gracious in what I say and how I say it. Give me the self-control your spirit brings to respond in love even when someone is angry and strikes out at me. 

“Let my gentle response bring peace and calm and ultimately resolution to all such conflicts. Lord, don't let me give in to my flesh and strike out in anger, purposefully choosing words intended to bring pain to the other person. Instead, let me bring healing and comfort and encouragement in what I say to others. Because Lord, I want most of all to be a peacemaker, for then, according to the Lord Jesus, I will not only be blessed, but I will rightly be called a son of God.” 

Now, obviously, I took time to write that out. You don't have to write it out. Just take what you've learned about the text and pray it to God. Just like that, talk to Him about what you learned. There's real meditation in that, as you're reflecting on how that text fits into the rest of Scripture, and you're addressing that back to God. There's a lot of understanding, a lot of illumination that happens in that process. 

Number six, think through specific ways to apply these truths to your circumstances. So, here's a quiz. What do you think might be, if you're married, the first place to apply Proverbs 15:1? I know it's late, but you probably got that answer. Your spouse. Start with your spouse. When, and again, I'm just hypothetically speaking here, this probably doesn't happen in your life, but when they are angry at you for something that you have either done, or they at least think you've done, then how should you respond? You shouldn't respond in kind. You shouldn't respond with anger. Or what's going to happen? Escalating conflict. No, you respond the way the Bible says for you to respond. A gentle answer that turns away wrath. You must choose words not intended to hurt, but words intended to bring reconciliation. Words intended to say, “Okay, I obviously did something. Sometimes you don't get it. I get it. I'm a guy, and sometimes I don't get it. So help me understand what's just happened, because I missed it.” And listen and respond to that in a gracious way, treating them as a person made in the image of God, who deserves infinite respect because they're made in the image of God. This is what the proverb is teaching. 

And you see, you see how we got there, guys? We got there. In this case, we didn't even fully study this text. I didn't take you through, and maybe I should have. Maybe I should have used this Proverb as part of exegesis, so you could see that unfold. But we just took it at a basic English level and meditated on it, thought our way through it. And it's amazing what's there. It's amazing what you can learn. It's amazing the insight the Holy Spirit brings as you meditate on Scripture, the illumination that He brings. 

So guys, in your study, let me plead with you not to do what a lot of guys do. And that is, they love books, they love theology, and so they break out all their resources, they break out their John MacArthur resources, and their biblical doctrines, and their systematics, and they go to the websites they like, and they do all their study, and weave it all together, and go, man, that's great stuff. I need to teach that to somebody. And then they put it in the drawer and walk away. If that's your approach to studying the Bible, I can promise you this. You will be knowledgeable, but you will not be spiritual. You will be like a theologian, but you will not be like Jesus Christ. The only way that happens is if your study is translated into your life. And the way your study is translated into your life is meditation. It's by choosing. Let me define it for you again. It's choosing. This doesn't happen automatically. Choosing to think deeply about some portion of Scripture in order to better understand it and to plan how to do it.

Using these methods that we just walked through after you've done your study, and you have your arms around the phrases and the clauses and the meaning of the words and the cross references. Now, for me, Wednesday afternoon, usually, I finish my exegesis Wednesday morning, I've done all that work, I have lunch with my wife, and then I go for a walk. And I think. And I think, force my mind to focus on the passage I studied. Not for you. This is not about you. When I meditate, it's not like, what should I say to them? No, it's about, “Lord, I want to understand your word. I want to understand how this relates to this. And why did he put that word there? And what does this mean? And why this temptation? And what's the significance of that? And how does that relate to me?” So I'm thinking about everything I've studied, and I'm forcing my mind through it, saying, “Okay, what does it mean? I want to understand it. And I'm praying all the time, Lord, help me to understand Your word. I am ignorant.” 

You know, the Catechism says that. Why do I need Jesus as a prophet? Because I am ignorant and in need of a teacher. That ought to be your prayer every morning. I am ignorant in need of a teacher. Help me understand. Open my eyes that I may be whole wonderful things from Your law. And then you're thinking about, what am I supposed to do with this? Again, when I'm meditating, I'm not thinking about you. I'm not saying, how should I apply this to the people that attend Countryside? I'm saying, Lord, what am I supposed to do with this? How am I supposed to respond to what I've just learned, to what I've just studied? And that's what you ought to be doing in meditation. Whatever works for you, wherever it works and whatever part of your day, but do it on purpose. Think about what you know in the Scripture. Why? Don't let the law of God, this book of the law, depart from your mouth. Read it. And meditate in it day and night. Why? So that you may be careful to observe all that is written in it. The bridge, men, between knowing the Bible and doing the Bible is meditation. Let's pray together.

Father, we love you. And because we love you, we love Your Word. Lord, we love that our Lord quoted to Satan that man shall not live by bread alone, but rather we live by every word that comes out of your mouth, that's written on the pages of Scripture. 

Father, may that be our hearts. Lord, for those of us who have that hunger, that appetite, help us to be diligent to pursue satisfying our hunger on Your Word every day. Help us not to slack in that as we grow in Christ, as we have been Christians for many years. Help us to be just as eager to learn as we were when we first came to Christ. 

And Father, I pray for those who have to admit that they don't have that appetite the way they should. They haven't been diligent in the study of Your Word. Lord, help them tonight not to be guilty, not to feel guilty, but to feel hungry, to desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. Father, may their understanding be changed as a result of our study tonight, so that they develop a new love for, commitment to, devotion to, reading, and meditating, and studying, and doing Your Word, so that they may be spiritually prosperous in all seasons of life, whatever comes. Lord, help the men in this room, the men in our church, to grow from spiritual infancy to spiritual young adults, to young men who are strong because the Word dwells within them.

And then eventually, Father, help all of us to grow into spiritual fathers, where we not only know the truth of Your Word in a soul-gripping, life-changing way, but Father, where we know you, the Father, where we have a deepening relationship with you, because we know about you through Your Word. 

So, Father, sink these truths deep into our souls. Change us as a result of our study tonight. I pray that tonight would bear fruit for many years to come in the life of some of the men gathered here, as these truths have produced fruit in my own life through the years. Lord, I pray that in Jesus' name, Amen.