How to Study the Bible
Key Passage: 1 Corinthians 2:12-14
Date: June 7, 2024
First Corinthians chapter number two, if you would please. First Corinthians chapter number two. We have been taking a couple of Wednesdays—I’m not sure how many so far—about how to study the Bible. I think we’ll get tonight, and the next Wednesday, and I think that will end the subject then and go to something else.
I want to talk to you tonight about how to get God to open His Word to you. He wants to, and He wants to. That’s why I gave it to you. And you’ll never exhaust it.
I was reading today just a touch about Spurgeon. He’s most, maybe the most read preacher of all time. They see all together, even with a smaller booklet or pamphlet. He had over 200 books that he wrote, all about the Bible in some form or fashion. And yet Spurgeon, towards the end, he would say, man, I haven’t really—and I’m wording it a little different—but he hadn’t even touched the tip of the iceberg. He said, man, there’s just so much, I really haven’t gotten much of it, you know, and written over 200 books. You’re not going to exhaust it.
It’s an endless book, and it’s got everything you need for your soul in the Bible. But God must open; He must open your eyes to His Word. And I want to just kind of go up that angle just for a bit at the beginning. We’re going to start over here in 1 Corinthians 2. And we’re going to start in verse number 12, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse number 12 of God’s Word.
Let’s want God to just challenge our hearts on this matter of how to get God to open His Word to us. First Corinthians 2, verse number 12. He says, “Now we have received not the Spirit of the world.” You know the world’s got a spirit about it. God talking to His people, He said, “We’ve not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” Amen for that. By the way, help me out: that first Wednesday we talked on the subject, who’s the author of the Bible? Holy Spirit. Yeah. But the Spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Amen. Wow. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve got the Spirit of God, so we know the things. He teaches us. We talked about that a lot, that first Wednesday about how to study the Bible. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we’ve got no hope. You didn’t have all the Bible. Last week we talked about the study of Bibles and the commentaries and dictionaries. You can have all that in the Bible software. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you’re not going to get anywhere, not as far as things that’s going to speak to your heart and your soul and feed you. It can be facts. You can know a lot of facts. By the way, the devil knows the Bible. You know that? You know he used the Bible against Jesus? Or tried to. Yeah. Of course, Jesus wouldn’t let him twist it. But it’s more than just knowing facts. It’s feeding your soul. It’s leaving where you’re not so needy of everything the world’s got. You’re full. God’s fed you. You’re fine. You’re not drifting back to the old sins because you’re just so desperately needy. You’ve been fed. And if you’re going to get that, the Holy Spirit must be involved in that.
Verse number 13, “Which things also we speak,” notice how you speak, “words, words of God,” not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We covered that one of these Wednesday nights. The best commentary or best dictionary on the Bible is what? Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That’s the best way to really get things out of the Bible.
But look at verse number 14. We haven’t covered this verse yet. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” Your intellect, my intellect, our IQ, however high it is, all that—you know, the natural man—toss it out the window. It’s not going to get it in the soul. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. Isn’t that pretty strong? Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The Holy Spirit must be involved. God must open our eyes and open His Word to us, and He wants to.
I worked in machine shops and metal fabrication shops for years and years, and sometimes you’ll have certain metals that are so hard that in order for you to maybe drill a hole in it, you sometimes have to have diamond-tipped blades or bits. Because the metal is, if you just take a regular old drill bit, that metal is harder, and it’s going to dull that blade like that, and it’s just not going to work. And the Word of God, with our natural ability, we don’t have the ability to drill and to tap into the richness of the Bible. It’s much greater than you and I. It’s more powerful than you. We don’t have the ability to digest it.
Now we can learn the facts, and we can learn the facts and kind of quote them off and look good to everybody, but to get them in our soul, our heart—that’s beyond our natural ability. You must have God.
You’ll know the verse. You’ll know the verse. You’re going to look it up. Romans 10:17. Many of you probably will know it. But Romans 10:17 is a great illustration really of this truth. Romans 10:17, you want to look it up or you can quote it either way. It’s not a long one. Once we start quoting, you’ll probably know it. But Romans 10:17. And he says they were there. He says, “So then, read out loud or say it like loud. Here we go: ‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’” Now we’ve talked about it before. Notice it did not say faith comes by the Word of God. Didn’t say that. Now, it could have said the Word of God’s the basis of faith, but that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says faith comes by hearing. Is that what it says? And hearing—we’re not trying to toss the Bible out—hearing by the Word of God, but you can’t bypass this thing of hearing.
Now, why did God word it that way? What’s significant about that? Well, it’s, it’s… Oh, maybe we’ve talked sometimes about a professor at a university. He’ll know facts about the Bible, but he’s not heard. But when Brother Ted—he talked about his prayer request saying there about he’s building his business and God is sustaining him in the meantime—I don’t know, I’m just going to make this part up, but maybe Brother Ted, maybe Brother Ted, he read over there, maybe he read Matthew 6:33 where it says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things.” And God spoke to him out of that verse. Man, that verse, one morning he was reading it, and it just seemed like, man, that verse was alive and speaking. It was like God telling him, talking to you, you know. And he heard. And he can go for months or years off that one verse because he heard. Faith cometh by hearing.
It’s interesting if you get to the Greek and all that we talked about a bit. But the Greek word there is not Logos for the word. It’s a little different. It’s kind of like you hear a word from the Word. Faith comes back here. So I say that to say you see how the Holy Spirit must be involved. He gets, man, you say, man, this is my verse, you know. How many of you got a verse right now that last month or so God’s been… He’s going to give it? Yeah, that’s wonderful. You heard. And they’ll give you verses. She’ll give you verses as you go throughout life and different circumstances and situations. But I’m saying that there’s a part of God teaching you and God giving you verses that’s very necessary if I’m going to get out of it.
I mentioned this so many times before, but my seventh-grade year, I maybe started backsliding a little bit. And then my eighth-grade year, God really did a work in my heart. I think it was that year that I was invited to a party that I knew I should not go to. I knew they’d be drinking and the wrong kind of music and all that there, Christian school, but those things happened even there. And there’s some pressure to go, you know, and all that. And I said, “No, I’m not going.” And, boy, my goodness, I mean, they had a field day with me, you know, and they called me, man, just the eighth-grade boy, you know. Those names would get to you anytime, but especially when you’re an eighth-grade boy, you know. And I went home, man, those things, I, you know, looked like a machine gun, da-da-da-da-da-da, you know. I had all those holes in there, part of the truth, you know, especially for an eighth-grade boy. And I didn’t read my Bible consistently like I ought to. But I’ll never forget that night for some reason. Praise the Lord, I got my Bible out and I read it. And I’d never had the Bible be so real to me all my life. I still have a vivid memory of that. How the Bible just spoke to me that night. I think it was the first time I ever felt like God came down and just said, “Paul, let me talk to you out of my Word right here.” That’s a sweet thing. But God did that. God did that. And God can do that to you and for you often.
God, He must open your eyes. The Word of God can bring life to you. Remember that verse over there in Proverbs? “Death and life are in what? Power of the tongue.” Words. And the words of God can just bring life to you. Remember there is Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones. How many ever heard that old song, you know? Yeah? I can’t say a line of it. I can’t remember all the different bones start connecting, you know, and they connect all the… Finally, them dead bones walked up and woke up and walked, whatever it is. I can’t remember all the… You can look it up on YouTube, you know. Not now, not now, all right, later on, folks, you know. But it’s just a valley. God’s shown us to think of this big old valley that represents Israel. They’re just dead. I want to say, Ezekiel prophesied to them. What’s that? Telling God’s truth. Man, I want you to prophesy to them. They can live. And what those bones did—start connecting together, and then the sinews and all that. And pretty soon those… Why? Because the Word was bringing life to them. And the Word can bring life to you. God wants to use His Word to bring life to you. There’s a difference in just reading facts or when the Bible is just bringing life. And it can. And it’s one wonderful thing. It can sustain you through the roughest of times. It can fill your need when you’re not so vulnerable to sins because you’re full. You’ve had your needs met. The Bible can do that for you.
I never forget, I told about when I was a teenager, a little before—I don’t know, I was pretty young here, maybe sixth grade, maybe fifth grade. We went to a little bit of church in Lake City, Florida. And we had a little bit of school, probably less than 20 in there. Mr. Steele taught the school. Brother Heston was a pastor. He’s still pastoring there now today, praise the Lord. But then Mr. Steele, he worked at GE. And he paid the bills, and his wife kept that school going, you know, that’s kind of how it worked. It’s just a little bitty thing. And Mr. Steele was our youth director. He was a song leader and youth director, but he worked full-time at GE. But Mr. Steele took all of us young people, this little bit of church, up to youth conference in Indiana. I was fifth or sixth grade, I don’t know. And I’ll never forget. I wasn’t planning on telling this part, but I never forget we had like a… I don’t know if it wasn’t a full-sized bus, but it was some kind of a bus that had the windows that came down. Mr. Steele, he didn’t have much up here. You know what I’m saying? Now, he had brains, but he didn’t have much, you know, covering the brains, you know what I’m saying? I’ll never forget, he went to sleep. Somebody was driving at one point, and he went to sleep in a chair back there, and somebody—they weren’t trying to do it—but you get a bus going down the road about 67 miles an hour, and they spit out the window up here, and it went outside the window, and it came inside the window, right? And boy, right there, sure enough, Mr. Steele, oh my goodness, you know. If there weren’t cell phones in that day and time, but if there was, there would have been a whole lot of pictures about that right there, you know. But anyway, Mr. Steele, so we’re coming back and he stopped. They stopped somewhere we go swimming. It was like some kind of a reserve or lake there, you know. And I remember swimming in there, and I was fifth or sixth grade, dumb and energetic. And I learned a lot; I got a lot of wisdom at this experience right here. So Mr. Steele, he wasn’t very tall. He was, I don’t know, I was a boy, so it’s hard to say, but he may have been five-five, six, I don’t know. But however tall he was, he was that wide also. I mean, he was just one of those ox kind of guys, you know what I’m talking about? I mean, those kind of guys you don’t mess with, you know. I hadn’t learned that yet. And I was fifth or sixth grade, you know, we’re out there swimming in this lake, you know, and this fella—I’m not talking about here per se—I mean, he’s just wide and stocky, you know. I’m talking about, I mean, and so, but I was young and dumb, you know, and so I thought, “I’m going to get Mr. Steele.” Man, I jumped on his back, trying to get him under the water. Here’s the problem: he got a hold of me. Oh, once he got a hold of me, it was all over for it. I mean, I should have darted out of there quick enough. Once he got a hold of me, man, he put me under water. I mean, when I went underwater, I kicked and fought and scratched. I’d bite him if I could. I mean, he was about to kill me. But I couldn’t. I mean, he held me under. I see my life flashing in front of me. I mean, you know, man, I’m only 12 years old and about to die right here, you know. And at that time he pulled me up. He just pulled me up, you know, and I’m getting over the air. Man, it was the best thing in all the world at that moment. I got a little bit of air, but about that time, he pushed me back down. Can you believe that? Man! Well, I’m a dirty, rotten crook. I mean, I only jumped on you one time, but man, he held me under. I don’t know how many times I jumped on before he called me. But anyway, he held me under. And he did that about three or four times. I guarantee you, I didn’t mess with that guy again. I left him alone, amen. One time, you know, but two times, that’s just dumb. You know, I left him alone, you know. But man, that air was like, I’m getting what I need, bringing life to me. And the Bible can be like that to you. It really can. And God can just sustain you. It can give you what your soul needs—the Bible.
Now, let me give you just very briefly here three steps or three keys to getting God to open His word to you. Look, if you will, over in Matthew chapter number five. This is one of the Beatitudes. I mention it periodically in church on purpose. Matthew 5, and I want you to see it, verse number six. Matthew 5 and verse number six. Notice what Jesus says over there, Matthew 5 and verse number 6. He says, “Blessed are they which do what? Watch the next three words: hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” If you’re going to have the Word of God just feed your soul and it’s going to be like air when you’re about to drown, you’re going to come hungry.
If you’re all full of yourself and what the world has, you’re just probably not going to feed you like that, but you become hungry. Isaiah 44:3, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.” By the way, if you feel like you’re just—sometimes I’m never giving out. I can be like Garfield, a little old fat cat that’s just getting fed, fed, fed, and never giving out. But if you’re giving out to others, perhaps being hungry, it’s so important. Here’s the mistake we often make in our day and time. We’re hungry, and we go everywhere else for a fix.
Some people you can tell, and they’re just needy in their soul or in the heart. And sometimes something’s bothering them. Sometimes you know what you’ll catch them doing? More than usual, they’re just always on that little thing right there, that gadget. And they’ll be on that thing, whether it be social networks or whatever, you know, games or whatever, they’ll be on there for hours. They need something. They’re hungry. They need something. And I’m not saying it’s wrong to be on your phone ever, but if you’re not careful, you’ll go, “Man, I got to find the right music on that doll.” I’ve got to get a fix almost. If you—and I’m not saying good music’s not wrong—but even good music can be a substitute for God. And I’m for good music, and it can chase away the evil spirit. But I’m just saying if we’re not careful, we’ll go everywhere else in the world. What are they called? And I’m guilty of pretty much all these things, but I mean, sometimes you just need something. You know what you do? Instead of feeding your soul, you go to feed your thing right there, that hole in your mouth and your face, you know, and you get a fix that way. And I’m not saying that eating’s wrong when you’re down, but I’m just saying it’s so easy to go to all these comfort things and everything else. I never go to the Word. And it is good when I come hungry. “Lord, I need something.” See, yeah, you know, even the Bible talks about sin is fun for a season. I get a fix, but it’s not as satisfying. It’s not fulfilling. It’s not long-term. Oh, Jesus, everybody was kind of leaving Him. Remember that? He had thousands coming back. As it got close to the cross, they began to leave and leave and leave. And finally what happened? He said, “Hey,” talking to the apostles, “you’re going to leave also.” And Peter said, “Where are we going to go to? You’re the one who’s got the words of life.” There was something about that. And friend, just, ma’am, come to church hungry. I heard—I think it was David Gibbs talking—and David Gibbs was saying, when he and his wife go to church anywhere, he said, “My wife always says, before we go in there, let’s stop, and they pray in the parking lot. Now, Lord, give us something when we’re in church today.” Just come hungry. Hungry for God to do work in your heart wherever it may be: church, in your devotions in the morning time, or maybe you’re just maybe you’re trying to pull up some preaching off the internet or something, but, Lord, I’m hungry, I need something.
When our kids were little, we were just old school. They ate. It was time to eat, you eat, you know. But we were having a tough time on Sunday. And I was just thinking of a bottle all the time. Then it didn’t take us too long to figure out: well, they just got a bunch of candy in Sunday school, and they got a bunch of candy in junior church. And then they got, you know, a lot of times back in they were driving a bus route, they got candy on the bus route. Well, no wonder they’re not hungry. They’re full of junk food, you know. And sometimes we’re like that. Come hungry. Come hungry.
If you’re going to have your soul fed, how do you get God? Come hungry. Number two, number two. Proverbs 1, if you will, quickly. Proverbs 1. I think we briefly hit this last Wednesday at the end, but I want you to see it again. Proverbs 1, and look in verse number 22. He says, “How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity?” They don’t want to grow. They don’t want to get some knowledge. They don’t want to get involved in the fight. They don’t want to learn so they have to stand on something. They just want to stay simple. “How long, ye simple ones, do you love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning.” They’re always sitting around criticizing, looking for any flaw in anybody, especially leadership. They’re just a… they’re scorning. Severe critics, and just always criticizing and criticize, pick it apart everybody and everything. And they delight in their scorning. “And fools hate knowledge.” They don’t want to get any knowledge because it gets in the way of their fun. It’s all about laughing and having a good time. They don’t care if anybody else is getting hurt about it all. They’re just… it’s all about fun, and they don’t want to gain knowledge. Watch what he says in the next verse here: “Turn you at my reproof.” This is it. Behold—that’s like, whew! Something big has happened—Behold! “I will pour out my Spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you.” Hey, come hungry and come willing to change. I don’t want to just gain knowledge. I want to grow. I want to change. I don’t want to just be able to spout all facts. Lord, if anything about me needs to change, I’ll change it. Lord, I’m coming, I’m reading, I’m studying, I want to learn something. I’ll make changes. I’ll make adjustments. Tell me what I need to do. I’ll do it.
Look over in John 7:17, another wonderful promise kind of along the same line. John 7:17, Jesus there, He’s speaking, and they were saying, “Well, is he really from the Father? Is he really the Messiah?” All these things, and He’s arguing a little bit with them. He’s standing. And look what Jesus says in John 7:17. John is a wonderful promise. John’s saying, once you find that, would you say, “Amen?” John 7:17: “If any man”—it doesn’t matter how intelligent he is or all that—if any man, “If any man will do His will,” that’s the key right there. If they’re willing to change. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.” It doesn’t matter the man, but he’s willing to do it. God says, “I will show you what the truth is.” That’s what it’s saying. You’ve got to be willing to do it.
You know, it’s amazing. Last Wednesday, I think it was, we were talking about, don’t argue, don’t get caught up with endless arguments. It’s not going to go anywhere. Not always, but sometimes a witness—I’ll try to say a verse or two, and if I realize you’re just not listening, you know, and I’ll try to get some Bible in there. And I’ll say, “Look, I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell them about John 7:17.” And I’ll say, “Look, I am willing”—and I mean it when I say this—“I say, I’m willing to go to God, and I’ll pray to God: God, if I’m wrong, I’ll change.” And I mean that if you’ll just show me what the truth is. If you’ll do the same thing. I have yet to have one developed or hardened Jehovah’s Witness say they’ll do it. It’s what they always say: “Well, I’ve got the truth.” Well, if you got the truth, it’ll stand up the test. Why are you afraid to do that? “Well, I don’t need to do it. I got the truth.” If you got the truth, why not do it? Because it’ll stand up the test. Would you do it? And they won’t do it. But if they’re willing to do the truth, God will show them what the truth is. And when I go to the Bible, and if I’m willing to do what God tells me to do, He says, “All right, I’ll speak to you. I’ll show you what truth is.” I must, if I want God to speak to me and give me food to my soul and strengthen me and give me a life, I must be willing to change. Amen. And it’s going humbly to Him: “Lord, I don’t have it all together. I don’t know everything about it all. Lord, I want you to speak to me. I’m willing to make a change for you.” God says, “Lord, I’ll talk to you now.” It’s key. Come hungry. Come willing to change.
There’s so much, so much knowledge out there today. Someone said, “Well, this is the age of knowledge,” and they’re right in many ways. I mean, you won’t know about anything; all you do is what? Google it? I mean, that’s just the way it is nowadays. And here’s a little bit of the danger. This is such a subject that’s been going on forever; it’ll be going on forever, too. But take it—I just decided to Google this. I think this is what I put in my search engine: “Should I spank my child?” Boy, isn’t that always an argument/debate, you know? So I just Googled it. And I think Startpage is the search engine I used. And take out the advertisements; I didn’t even look at them because you get all that, whatever it is, you know. But there’s 10 websites on the front page. Seven of them were psychologists and professors. Boy, they would strike fear in you: the long-lasting negative effect on your child if you spank. And 10 symptoms that will stick with your children for life if you spank them. And all this bad, fearful things, if you spank your child, it’s going to long-term, it’s going to be horrible for your child.
Now if I go to the Word of God and I’m pretty sad on what the world has to say, I’m probably not going to get anything. But if I say, “Lord, I’m not going to go about what the world says. I want to know what You say,” man, the Bible comes alive. If I come to Him proud, “I got it all together. I know what the world says. The world’s got it together.” God kind of laughs. “Okay, how’s the world doing?” That professor, by the way, who was the guy that came out with that, Dr. Spock years ago? Witness his son that committed suicide years later? Yeah? How’s the world really doing with all that junk? Oh, friend, when you just go, “I don’t have the answer. The world doesn’t have the answers. I’m willing to change,” and God will speak to you. Same thing with marriage.
My dad, when he was a young Christian, his job that he worked at Continental Canyons in Tampa, Florida there. And there was a group of—I can’t remember what they were. I don’t know if they were… there were a group of men that worked with him. And they found out that many, as a young Christian—man, they somewhat helped him as a young Christian—but they really pushed, “You can lose your salvation.” And he didn’t know. He was a young Christian. And just got saved. And he didn’t know. But I heard my dad say so many times, he said, “Man, when I really got hungry, I wanted to know the truth. And I went to the Bible, even though I had these much more educated Christians all around me. But I went to the Bible and I was hungry. I want to know the truth.” He said, “Man, those verses started popping out left and right: ‘Hey, I can’t lose it. I’m His child. It’s a gift of God. I’ll never perish.’” Just verse after verse. And boy, the Bible came alive. Come just willing to change.
Come hungry. Come willing to change. And then look over in Hebrews 11:6. If I want to just get life from the Bible, God, He’ll open it up to you. He can do that. How do we do that? Come hungry. Come willing to change. And this right here, this right here. Hebrews 11, very familiar verse, but I want you to see all of it. We usually use a phrase out of it. Look at it all. Hebrews 11, verse number 6: “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” Now, we use that, but let’s keep going. “For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that…” What’s the next three words? Diligently seek Him. Diligently. He’s a rewarder. What are you doing? Seeking Him. He rewards that. He lets you find Him.
You ever run a race or you play tag or whatever, you’re young and all that stuff? Been a couple years for some of us, right? Amen, since you’ve done those things. But anyway, you’ve done those things and you want somebody to catch you, and you kind of… God runs slow so you can catch Him. He likes me to catch Him. But He is a rewarder of them that diligently… You know, I sometimes try to encourage you to read through your Bible. I say this often, I believe there’s really on my heart, but I think every Christian at least once in their life ought to read. And I encourage this: read your Bible through every year. We’ll give out awards, and we’ll do all those things. And I don’t know if we’re going to do it in public this year, just make sure we’re keeping our motives right, but we’ll give those awards away. And it’s a good plan. But can I be honest with you? I don’t know that that’s the best plan in the world. There may be better plans for you personally. But, you know, just the diligence it takes to read your Bible through in a year, I believe God blesses that. Amen. Just, if your motives are right, just, man, you’re trying, you want to get through it. You think it’s the right thing to do, and it’s not for going all that, but you… I think sometimes God just says, “You know what? I see that old boy, that old lady in there. They’re struggling. They’re diligent. They’re just in the Word every day.” God says, “I’ll reward them for that.” It’s going to take you rolling up your sleeves and saying, “Lord, I want to learn Your Word. I want to get something out of it. I need something.” You can’t just put the Bible underneath your pillow and say, “Well, I’ll get it from osmosis,” you know. It’ll work. You got to work a little bit. You’re going to be diligent about it. You’re going to be hungry and willing to change, but then you’re going to have to just be in the Word and I like to get something out of it. And you’ve got to work at it. It does take diligence. And you don’t have to have a certain IQ and all that. No, no, no. But you’ve got to work at it.
It’s so important. Pour out your heart to the Lord: “Lord, I’m not the best student. Not trying to act like I’m the best student in all the world, but I do want to get something out of it, and I’m going to be in it. And you’re going to find me in the morning time or the afternoon or wherever. I’m going to be in Your Word, Lord.” God will bless you for that. He’s a rewarder of them that diligently… Isn’t it crazy what the world goes after? I mean, some people work 70, 80 hours. I’ve heard of people working 120 hours. Like, man, when do they sleep? I mean, they’re just… they’ll work themselves into the grave just to make an extra buck, and they’re diligent about it. We were at the UT game. Sweet lady over talking to my wife over here, and she’s from Murfreesboro. Now, that’s over in Knoxville. That’s three and a half hours away, according to who’s driving, how fast you’re going, amen, you know? How many police are on the roads. But, I mean, it’s well over there. And she said, “Oh, yes, we live in Murfreesboro, but she said, we come to every home game of the year.” And it sounds like she’s involved in their church, too. I mean, I’m just talking about how people are their own… they’re diligent about some things. I mean, so imagine some people will get up at 4 or 3 a.m. to go to some store and wait in line with a bunch of other fussy people waiting in line just to get a little deal with them. You know, the craziest thing in the world. I stay home and sleep. Amen. Go on eBay or something, get it down. I mean, people are just diligent. They’re just working. You know, some people go to the gym. They’re faithful at the gym. Now they’re going to be at the gym. You can just mark it down. They’re going to be at the gym. Okay, none of us… We got one back there, you know, but Trey. And I’m not saying any of these things are wrong, but I’m just saying they’re so diligent. And sometimes we’re just not so diligent at all about the Word. And then, you know, if anybody just really gets into the Word, people criticize them and talk about them. By the way, you’ve been so awesome about quoting Bible verses here like now. I love it. It’s awesome. But there’s part of this: we’ve got to be diligent about seeking Him. He’ll reward you. He promises that. He’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
I sometimes we have this little album, family album, and they’ll put videos on there, you know, of our grandson and our granddaughter, you know. And I think I told it here in Sunday school, but I finally beat my wife to see those before she did one time. It alerts us all, you know. She always beats me to those things, you know. But sometimes on there, there’s been a video or two of John, our son, and he’ll have Ryan in his lap. And you know how a little boy, a little girl, little child, they like for you to read books to them. And then you get those animal books, and what does the lion say? “Roar,” you know? And what does the cow say? “Moo,” and all these things, you know. And the little kids, they just love it. A lot of times… School gets out at three. Sometimes it’s according to where she’s out and all the lessons, sometimes. And I’ll help dismissing all that. Parents are lining up and all those good things. And sometimes I’ll come over there in school, and, you know, it’s time your parents lined up, you know. And a lot of times I’ll be reading them a book. You know, kids just love it. And that’s why it can be in the Bible. You can sit in God’s lap and He can teach you His Word. I’m hungry, be willing to change, and you’ve got to do it diligently. It’s going to take some work diligently.
They say there was a poor blind girl in France. True story, they say. A poor blind girl. And somehow, the story I read did not tell exactly how—someone gave it to her, she earned the money, I don’t know—years ago, but she got the book of Mark. You know, Matthew, Mark. Look at Mark in Braille. And they say, man, she just… this poor blind girl, she just was so happy she could with her fingers read the Bible. And man, she was just excited about it. And they say she read… she just absorbed it so much because she finally, years ago, finally got the Bible she could read. That she read the book of Mark so much that her fingers, they say, actually her fingers got calluses on them. It was before modern, you know, just raised letters back then and a little bit sharper. And they say she just got calluses to the point she really couldn’t read anymore. It bothered her. And so she took something like a knife and she actually tried to cut off the calluses of her fingers, and it didn’t work, bleeding and all that. So she felt like, well, I’m just going to have to give up. And they say that she took that Braille Bible of Mark, and she knew, “Well, I can’t read it anymore.” And they say she put it to her lips to kiss it, so they’re just going to have to put you down. And they say when she put the book of Mark up to her lips, she realized how delicate and tender and sensitive her lips were. And she said, “I think I can read the Bible with my lips.” And they say she was so excited, and she read that Braille Bible that night, late into the night hours and hours with her lips. Friend, you come hungry, willing to change, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - How to Study the Bible Faith Cometh by Hearing - Wednesday PM 0972022