# Study Bibles and software

Key Passage: 2 Timothy 2:14
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if we would, to 2 Timothy chapter number 2, Second Timothy chapter number 2. I’m going to make some change. It’s going to be a different service tonight. I’m going to bring these down here, and I’m going to bring me a little podium over here and use it at the beginning a touch.

I don’t know that you’ll be able to see my Bible, but I’m going to try to get you to see it. You might even want to move up a little bit, some of you in the back, and I’m going to try to.

They’re like, “I ain’t moving.” I see. I was, oh, Miss Joyce, what’s it going to say up there? You know, we, in that new auditor, we’re going to have that button you push in the back row that goes to the front row, you know. Miss Joyce says we’re going to have the button and the pulpit’s going to go down too. I can read her mind, you know. She hadn’t said it, but I can read her mind. It’ll be her rotating all the time, you know.

But I do. It will be a little different tonight and not the typical for sure. And I hope our guests come back. Maybe if we ever have a normal service, a more normal service, if you will. But we’ve been doing a series on how to study the Bible, and just trying to be real practical in that. And by the way, good to see some folks up in the back over there. And that’s good right there. Good to see you. But we’re going to talk about study tools tonight a little bit.

First Wednesday night, we’re talking about who’s the author of the Bible? Help me out, who’s the author of the Bible? The Holy Spirit. He’s the one that will teach you all things. And you can have all these tools. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit working, you may get some facts and some statistics, but you won’t get any life-changing truths in your heart. And that’s the key. Really, that’s the key. That’s the main message of all of it: the Holy Spirit in the Bible. That’s so key.

Last Wednesday we did talk about studying God’s word and how to do a word study on the different words of the Bible. And if you miss that, I would encourage you go back and maybe look that up and help me out. What’s the best commentary on the Bible? The Bible. That’s the best way to define the words of the Bible. Man-made tools are helpful, but the Bible—that’s the best thing. That’s the one thing you can just put your hat on and you can rest in it. And then tonight for just a little bit, we’re just talking about some study tools, and these are not everything, but they can be a help. The Holy Spirit can use them to grow you.

And so just a little bit tonight about some study tools when you’re studying your Bible. 2 Timothy chapter number 2 of God’s Word, 2 Timothy chapter number 2. And we’ll start in verse number 14 right there. Would you please stand if you’re able to just to show the Word of God respect? By the way, good to see Brother Richard, Miss Donna over there. That’s awesome. 2 Timothy chapter number 2 in verse number 14 in God’s Word. If you’re there, would you say amen? Amen. Good. Here we go, verse number 14: “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but the subverting of the hearers.”

You’re saying, once you put them in remembrance, don’t get caught up in these no-win arguments. You know you’re not going to win; you know they’re going to win. They’re going to be harder in their stance when it’s all over. You’re going to be harder in your stance when it’s all over. And the truth doesn’t win. And actually, it kind of turns people away. “Well, man, those religious, those Christians, all they do is fuss and fight.” And he said, don’t get caught up on that. Don’t let that. That’s going to turn people away. Now, we’re to stand. We’re to earnestly contend. We’re not going to change; we’re going to stand. And there’s times that I need to argue, not because that fellow is going to change. He’s not going to change. There’s times—what does the Bible say? Smite the scorner. Does the scorner change? No. Smite the scorner, and the simple will beware. There’s times I’ll argue, not necessarily because that fellow’s not going to change, but because someone’s simple-minded. They need that.

But for the most part, don’t get caught up in these no-win arguments. Remember years ago, my dad was soul winning with a man in another church. And the man, I don’t know if it was Jehovah’s Witness or what it was, but he wanted to argue for, and he stayed there for about an hour and a half, literally. And Dad was hot. Dad was mad. He, you know, and Dad had been a soul winner for years. Graduate attention to Temple, worked for Lee Robertson. Lee Robertson used to hire guys, go to soul winning 40 hours a week, get them saved, try to bring them down the aisle. Dad did that, so on and so on. Dad had been around. And Dad was just, “Let’s get out of here. Let’s go down the street and try to win somebody to the Lord.” And the guy, no one said to argue. And my dad and the other soul winner had a few words after it was over, you know. I’m not sure if my dad did everything right or not. I don’t know. We’ll find out when we get to heaven, maybe, a little while later.

A couple weeks later, that other man came back and he said, “You know, you’re right. It was foolish for me to spend an hour and a half just arguing with a guy. If there’s some hope of them changing and they want to know, they want to listen, all right, but don’t get caught up just fussing and fighting. They’re not going to listen. Go find somebody who wants to listen. Don’t get caught up in that stuff.” So important. We’re going to start our soul-winning campaign on Saturday for the fall, and we’re not going to argue with anybody. We try to train our soldiers; we’re not there to argue.

We’re going to share a Bible verse, and if they just want to argue… I never forget years ago, I had a young man with me in Alabama as a youth pastor down there. And a fellow just—he found out he was saved, but he thought you could lose your salvation. And he shared a verse or two. I shared a verse or two. He wasn’t going to listen. It was very clear. Wasn’t going to listen. And I said, “Hey, sir, we’re going to go on down, and we want to talk to somebody that’s not saved about getting saved.” He wanted to argue; he followed me. We left his trailer, walked outside. He followed me outside. And around the front of the trailer, I said, “Sir, hey, we want to go tell somebody about Jesus.” You know, “Just go read your Bible some more. You’ll figure it out,” you know. And I get caught up in that stuff sometimes, too. I’m for sure not always innocent. But it’s saying don’t get caught up in that. It turns people away.

Now, look in verse number 15. Verse number 15, he says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” By the way, I mentioned this a week or two ago, but almost every new version takes “study” out. They don’t tell you to study the Bible. The Old King James does, though. It was a wonderful thing. I used to have that verse on the wall of my office. It was a wonderful day. I walked into my office one day, and I looked at that little plaque, that Bible verse on it. Never noticed it before. I had had it memorized for years. I looked at that plaque, and I noticed it said, “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” It doesn’t matter if everybody’s happy with my study or not. It doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to—not argument anymore. That’s not what it’s all about. Study to show thyself approved unto God, whether they like it or not, whether they’re thinking of a good preacher, all that stuff. Study to show thyself approved unto God. That was a blessing for me that day. And as we’re saying, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

And for just a bit, we’re going to try to be very practical tonight, not really preaching, if you will, just real practical about some study helps that might help you a little bit in your study. And I pray that it will. But would you pray with me that God would just give us a vision of being better students of His word? Would you do that? Father, Lord, we come. We sure need you tonight. Father, would you give us a desire? Would you kind of just create that desire in us, Lord, like only you can? Lord, not just to learn facts, but to live in Your word and to get strength from Your word. And Lord, as You say, to study Your word, show us how to do so, Lord, please. Help us to grow in that. And Lord, we’ll thank You. We’ll brag on You for what You do. We ask for these things in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

For just a bit, I’m going to talk about study Bibles. Now, when I say study Bibles, I hope you understand all of the ones I’m talking about are King James Bibles. The text is King James, but there are many different types of study Bibles that are King James Bibles. Okay? This is an older one. I got it used, so don’t think, “Well, Pastor wore that Bible out.” I got it used. I don’t want you to think that. But this is the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. It’s a good study Bible. I’d recommend it. It’s got many, many notes in the back of it. If I’m studying on the subject of Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah, I like to use a reference. This is a great study Bible on that right there. A lot of good maps, a lot of helps in there.

This is a chronological Bible. I’m reading through the Bible chronologically this year, and this is the Bible I’m doing that from. I don’t think they print these anymore. It’s a Reese’s Chronological Bible. Was he teaching up? How’s Ennis when you’re there? Sure enough. He used to teach at the Bible College there, but Reese’s Chronological. And I’ll use this ever—I kind of change up sometimes, you know—but I’m reading that. I think it’s Ms. Patterson. She’s not here tonight, but I think she’s got it, what’s it called? The King James Defined Bible, is that what it’s called? Or the Defined Bible? Defined Bible. I’ve heard good things about that. Oh, there’s all kind of different stuff. Brother Steve Page, he’s not here tonight, but he’s got a Patriot Bible. That’s a King James text. He showed me another night. But it’s a Patriot Bible, and as you read through it, it’ll talk about different founding fathers and Bible verses they liked and quotes they made. And those are awesome. Everybody’s got their kind of their study Bible they like.

Maybe the most popular, I would say in the independent fundamental Baptist Church, is the Scofield Bible. The classic note Scofield Bible, the old Scofield Bible, that’s what this is right here. I’m going to try to talk about for a minute here. There are other good study Bibles out there. There are couple’s study Bibles. There’s one for ladies. There’s one for men’s. And, you know, get you a King James Bible. And there are all kinds of different study Bibles out there. Those can be very, very helpful. How many got a Scofield Bible? You use the Scofield Bible most of the time? That’s the majority of the church. Anybody using Thompson Chain Reference Bible? Anybody? But the Paterson—he uses that. Oh, a couple of us do. Those are great, great. And you showed that one there. Somebody can’t—as long as it’s a King James Bible. Somebody raise your hand, tell me what your study Bible you like. Anybody, Miss Stoner? Application Study Bible? Life Application Study Bible. Good, good, good, good. Now, we didn’t want to use the NIV ones. No, I’m teasing, Mr. Stoner. I’m teasing. I’m teasing. I know it’s not. I’m teasing with you. I know it’s King James. Anybody else? Was that the one you were going to say, Mr. George? Okay, good, good deal. Yes, ma’am, Miss Bart. From one. Okay. Good, good. A lot of different good study Bibles out there, and King James ones. Yes, sir, Brother Kevin. Key Words Study Bible. Amen. Amen. Yes, ma’am. The Defender Study Bible. Amen. Okay, for creation. Good, good, good, good.

And here’s the thing: instead of reading through this every year, sometimes I’ll change. And sometimes—no, no, we’re not changing the text, the King James Bible—but just changing study Bibles sometimes is a good thing to kind of maybe get you out of a rut if you’re getting in a rut. Okay. Well, let’s just talk a little bit about the King James Bible. By the way, someone just asked me, there’s a paragraph Bible out now. It really goes by paragraphs. All kind of different study Bibles out there nowadays.

But just a couple of things. All right. You’re in 2 Timothy chapter number two there. If you look there at—oh, let’s see—we just read verse number 15. If you have a Scofield Bible, and if you don’t, that’s fine, but I’m just trying to give you some things. Right there by studying in the Scofield Bible, it’s got a little bitty ‘x,’ all right? And then if you go to the very center of it right there, the very center of the two columns, and that’s your center reference, you go to the ‘x,’ and it gives your verse over in Peter. That’s a similar verse to that. That’s your cross-reference. Dale Stover, used to be in our church for years. He moved away. He loved—he would just cross-reference all the time. That’s what he did when he read his Bible. He’d get a verse, and he would cross-reference it every way he can. The King James Bible, in their cross-reference there, sometimes it’ll just give you another verse. Sometimes it’ll give you a subject.

Look down, if you would please, there in… Oh, let’s see here, if I can find it. There’s a verse here that talks about the resurrection. In verse number 18, verse number 18 there, he says, “Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection…” Well, it’s got a little ‘b’ by it. And if you look down, actually to the second ‘b’ of the center column there, the center reference, it’ll say “resurrection.” Now, when it has a word there typically, there’s a little study on resurrection. It’ll give—oh, it’ll give the very beginning verse of that subject. And here it says Job 19:25. Well, that’s the first main time that doctrine of resurrection is mentioned, according to Scofield. Then a little bit after that, it’ll give you 1 Corinthians 15:52, and often that’s the last time that doctrine is mentioned in the Bible. And he even says in his notes the main time it’s mentioned. He’s not saying you can’t pull it out here; they’re different, but the main times it’s mentioned. So those are just helpful using these references here. Sometimes you just get a little different wording to help you understand what the Bible’s saying there in that center reference. So there’s cross-referencing as you’re studying the Bible. And these little references can help you. That’s what that center column is all about there, all right?

Something else about the Scofield—whatever one you use, some of these do this, some of them don’t—but at the top there, at the top of that center reference, it says A.D. 66. Now that’ll give you the date of when this is going on, okay? Scofield uses Usher’s dates. They’re dating different—different professors have different dating systems. That’s Usher’s dating system that Scofield uses. And for him, this was A.D. 66. It’ll give you a good idea what year it was. And so that’s very, very helpful, by the way, because we know that was kind of towards the end. Actually, this is the last book of the Bible that God used Paul to pen. And if I start looking at these dates, my mind starts—you’re kind of getting some correlation. You’re okay, this is towards the end of Paul’s life and many of the apostles. See, John was later on, John the Revelator, but a lot of these guys, this is towards the end there. So the dates are there in that.

Then in Scofield, and I’m not pushing Scofield—you use the study Bible you want to use, King James—but there are little headers at the beginning of the chapters, the beginning of paragraphs. Chapter number two, it says “Part Two: The Path of a Good Soldier in the Time of Apostasy.” And it explains a little bit what you’re going to read. I like that. That’s very helpful for me. I get a little idea what’s about to come as I’m reading that. See? And many of the study Bibles will have little headers over the chapter, over the paragraphs. It kind of gives you an idea what’s coming up there. And some of this you may know, but there may be bits or pieces you don’t know that might help. But many of you probably know all these things, but I’m just trying to go over it to maybe help us study the Bible a little bit.

But at the beginning of the book, if you go over to the beginning of 2 Timothy there, there are a couple paragraphs about this book. Scofield there, he’ll tell you the writer; it says, the Apostle Paul. I like to call him the penman, you know. God, the Holy Spirit, is the author of it. He was the penman of it. It will give you the date: “This touching letter was written by Paul to his dearly beloved son shortly before his martyrdom.” And it helps you out, okay? That’s what makes Second Timothy special to me. I realize Paul’s in prison, he’s about to get killed, and then God’s using him to write this book. It makes it so come alive to me, so helpful. But those are very, very helpful at the beginning of the book—the introduction to the book.

Then there are footnotes. Footnotes to these. If you have a King James Bible in verse number 12 of chapter number one there, verse number 12, he says, “For the which cause I also suffer.” And it’s got a number one right there by “suffer.” And I can look down there at the bottom and check up the notes there about suffering. The book of First Peter is all about suffering; 16 times in some form the word suffer, suffering, sufferings—all these are found in this. It is a book about suffering. And it’ll talk a little bit about that, but the footnotes can be very, very helpful.

And italicized—where the King James is, you’ll find some words that are italicized. Brother Patterson mentioned that last Wednesday. And I’ve known that, but I started looking, man, in the Scofield Bible, it’s very hard to tell if it’s italicized or not. It’s just a slight difference, but it’s there. Italicized is when the King James translators, they had to—they’re trying to translate word for word—but sometimes the English doesn’t always just match up, so they had to add a word, but they wanted you to know. They weren’t trying to sneak something in on you, so they italicized it. And it lets you know when they added a word in.

Look over there in chapter number one, 2 Timothy 1, and just look at verse number one and read down. Help me out. What’s the first word that is italicized as you read down? Just starting in verse number one. Help me. What’s the first word? It might be in verse number two. “My.” Yeah, that’s the first word that’s italicized. In the Scofield Bible, it’s just got a little bit of a slant to it. It’s hard to tell. Well, those are italicized, italics, and let you know they added those words. It wouldn’t fit if it just said, “To Timothy, dearly beloved son.” It says, “O to Timothy, my dearly beloved son.” What’s the next italicized word? “And,” yeah. I want you to see, there’s not changing the Word of God. It needed—it needed some things to kind of translate it into the English language. “Grace and mercy.” Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from… “My.” That’s italicized also. So you understand, that’s what those words are. They’re added, and the King James translators wanted you to know; they’re not trying to sneak something in on you. They wanted you to know what’s been added to change it over to the English.

Now, for just a minute here, we all know maps are in the back of our Bible. All right. And sometimes we just say, well, you never use them. But maps can be very, very helpful, okay? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like Scofield’s maps. They’re a little dated. They’re a little bit hard to understand or get, but they’re still helpful. Now, I’ll use them from time to time. Nowadays, you can do so much just searching something online. But I want to just briefly—we’re just trying to study the Bible, whatever one you have—show how you can use it. But let’s just say you want to look up where Jesus grew up at. He grew up in Nazareth, all right? Well, how do I find that in the maps? In the Scofield Bible, in the back there, there is the index to the maps, okay? And in that, it’s alphabetized, and you want to look up—you want to find Nazareth there, all right? And you look that up. Let’s see here. I tried to highlight it. Oh, I’m going to lose all my notes here. Oh, I’m losing them all over. Thank you, Brother Gregory, here. These are old notes about the King James Bible, amen. But if you look there—and anybody got their Scofield? What does it say after Nazareth? What does it say after that? What does it say after that? Got your Scofield Bible? 9, B3. All right, so nine, you go over to map 9, or we call it plate 9, and you go to B3, and it shows you here.

Now, here’s what helps me as I start looking at these maps and start getting familiar with Bible land: Once I’ve looked at these maps long enough and I start figuring something out, well, down south here of the Bible land, the area that Jesus traveled in, you start to realize down south is where Jerusalem, the capital is, Judea, and that’s where the more wealthy people lived. That’s where the capital was, the king was. That’s typically the more wealthy and highfalutin, if you will. But as you start reading and you start looking at these towns, you’ll notice that Jesus spent most of His ministry up the northern part where it’s called Galilee. It’s where Nazareth is up there. Galilee was very much where the common people lived—middle to lower class. That’s why so many of the apostles were fishermen in that area up around the Sea of Galilee. And I say that just kind of helps me to realize, “Hey, Jesus grew up there. He could have grown up in the rich part down in Jerusalem. He could have grown up in the capital. He deserved much more than that.” But He grew up there in Galilee around Nazareth, and that’s where His ministry was. Now, He came down to Jerusalem for the Triumphal Entry, we call it—He really wasn’t triumphant—but He just came to present Himself to the capital. That’s where He died and all those things. But for the vast majority, His ministry was up around the Sea of Galilee, and you find all those cities He was at so often up around there. And that’s where Jesus ministered. So as I use the maps, I’ll start to gain some understanding about the Bible land a little bit, and I’ll get a little bit more out of the Bible as I do that. So the maps.

Now, one other thing I mentioned just on the study Bibles, and we’ll go to a different thing here: the concordance. Somebody—I can’t remember who it was recently—they were saying, “What’s this thing in the back of the Bible?” And they couldn’t pronounce “concordance.” That would be me. Amen. You know, my pronunciation isn’t worth a hill of beans most of the time, you know. But what was this concordance in the back of the Bible? Well, any word—I say any word. It’s not an exhaustive concordance. Last Wednesday we talked about the Strong’s Concordance. It’s any word.

But typically your concordance in the back of your study Bibles, they’re going to have maybe some major words. And someone not too long ago asked me, “Pastor, what about these Jehovah’s Witnesses? They take you over here to this passage, you know, and it talks about the animals and the people—everybody just goes to the dust, you know—and they say there’s no hell. What’s the answer to that?” And I said, “Well, the verse or two below that, it talks about the spirit. It’ll answer that if you keep reading down.” But I knew it was in Ecclesiastes, but I thought, okay, where’s that passage at? Well, if you go to your concordance and look up “spirit”—if you have your Bible, go to your concordance here. We’re going to get a little practice in here—and find the word “spirit” in your concordance. I know it was in Ecclesiastes. I knew that’s where they pull that from, you know, and I knew it talked about spirit, but I couldn’t remember the exact reference. I can remember the neighborhood, but I didn’t know the street address, amen, you know. And so you go to your concordance, and you look at “spirit.” And I can look down at Ecclesiastes there. Anybody got “spirit” in your concordance there? Good, good, good. Is there a reference for Ecclesiastes regarding the spirit? A couple of them, aren’t there? What’s the first one there? What’s the first one? Ecclesiastes 3:21. That’s exactly right. Look over there, if you would, Ecclesiastes 3:21. And actually, the verse that Jehovah’s Witnesses use is verse number 19, right there. We’ll read it. This is one of their favorite verses when they say there’s no hell; you’re just going to be annihilated. It’s all over when you die and so on, unless you’re part of the 144,000, so on. No help.

In verse number 19: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befall the beast; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All going to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to the dust again.” Now, that’s what they like to look at. The next verse, the verse we just looked up in our concordance: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” See, the Bible explains itself, actually over in chapter number 12, but it tells a little bit more about it too. But see, if I knew the word “spirit,” and maybe I didn’t have my Bible software or whatever, but if I had a study Bible, I can look it up in the concordance. Okay, so just trying to show you some helpful things from this.

Now, I’m going to do this. We’re going to change gears just a second here. I told you it’s an unusual night. We’re going to talk about Bible software for just a minute here. And I’m going to get my computer out here for a second. And just for a minute here. And it’s going to take me just a second. Bear with me here. Let me see if I can get all this going here. I’m not a tech person, so you may have to bear with me here. We’re going to see what we can do, all right?

Brother Patterson likes what is called E-Sword. It is a great study Bible resource. I think it’s a great one. I would probably use it because it’s free. When I like free things, somebody say, amen right there. My name is Jimmy. I’ll take what you give me, you know. But I just bless you, by the way. Years ago, someone—I don’t know how I got started on Power Bible—but I got it or somebody gave it to me, and I just kind of used to that. That’s the one I use. It’s $7 on the internet. I’m not trying to sell it to you. If you want to get it downloaded, you can download it for $7. If you order CDs, the more you order, the more it goes; it can go down like $2 each. But I’m just trying to—most Bible software is going to have pretty much the same. They make a little difference. Brother Patrick has Logos. It’s a package. They’ve got smaller packages. It starts around $200 now. He got it years ago; it can go up into the thousands. I wouldn’t recommend something in the thousands, but that’s a great program. All of them, sadly, have other versions in there, and I just don’t use them. I take them out. I just use the King James Version. But I want you to see a little bit, just kind of show you what’s available on some of these Bible softwares here. That’s my Power Bible there. I’m going to turn this other one off for just a minute here and just kind of give you a glimpse of what… Now, I’m wrong on this one sometimes, but the older crowd out here, you might like to study the Bible. You’re not going to get into computers, you know, but maybe you will some. But the younger crowd, you might get into Bible software a little bit more. Great helps both ways. I just want you to see what’s out there.

All right. So if I want to search a word, I’m going to go up here to my search. Can y’all see that? Can you see that? Is it clear as mud or what? Here’s my little search thing, so I’m going to click on that search. And we had just looked up 2 Timothy 2:15, “study,” all right? So I just put the word “study” in there, and it shows me every time “study” is used in the Bible. It’s used three different times in the Bible. The one that tells us to study the Bible is 2:15. So I’m going to go over there to that, and you see how quickly I can kind of find some things on there if you want to use those study helps for that.

Let’s see here. If I want to do some cross-referencing, all right. Well, for verse number 15, there are really no cross-references there. We talked about verse number 14: “Don’t get caught up in these useless arguments,” you know. So it’s got these different cross-reference verses that I can just put my cursor over there, and it’ll pull up these verses. If I want to click on that verse, I can go over to that verse. That’s a great verse, 1 Timothy 1:4: “Neither giving heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.” It goes very similar with the other verse we just read. You understand? So just cross-references. You have that available, and in some of these—I think pretty much all the Bible software—you have that. So you have cross-references there.

Then these here are commentaries. There’s Geneva Bible notes. Oh, I can’t remember this guy. There’s Barnes. Barnes’s notes are very informative. James Foxe. Brown. John Wesley, and I like to look up John Wesley’s notes on it. I think it’s got about 20 different commentaries in this Bible program. E-Sword, they have the same thing, pretty much all these. I mention this a lot when we’re talking about studying the Bible: Hey, those commentaries, they are not the Bible for you. Go with the Bible; don’t go with them. But they can be great tools. But don’t fall for everything they say. Spurgeon—he’s not in a lot of these—but here’s Spurgeon. And I always like to check what Spurgeon says about a verse. I like to take what John Wesley says about verses, and you kind of learn these different commentaries and who’s… There’s nothing wrong with those. Those are all helpful. I like what—let me go back. I want you to see what Barnes says about this verse number 14, about don’t argue and all that. He says this down at the bottom. He says about the part that it says, “But to the subverting of the hearers,” turning them away from the simplicity of the faith: “It is rare indeed that a religious controversy does not produce this effect. This is commonly the case where, as often happens, the matter of dispute is of little importance.” I just shed a light on that. And there are a lot of good Bible commentaries out there. Matthew Henry’s is probably the most familiar, most popular one. I sometimes will use—oh, what’s the Bible bus guy? What’s the guy? The Bible bus? Help me out. J. Vernon McGee? Yeah, I like his. It’s not on the computer program, but I like to look at his from time to time. And so these commentaries will help you as you’re studying your Bible.

Now, this often comes in. You know, we talk about the original language. We talked a lot about that. I think last week, in the Old Testament for the vast majority, that’s Hebrew; the New Testament, that’s Greek. And how would that work? How would you study about that? This is a word that’s often used: love. And there are about four Greek words that can be translated love—really only two mainly in the Bible that are translated love. There are other words; there are different ones, but you won’t find them translated love in the King James Bible. But people talk about it, and there are Greek words. But let’s just look at this for a minute here. Help me out. Where’s that passage where it says, “Husbands, love your wives”? Ephesians 5, right, right? Good, good. Let’s look that up. I tell you what, maybe you can’t remember the reference. So I’m just going to put in here “husbands love.” And we could use a combination of words that help us narrow down, and it gives us the three verses. It uses two words, and we’re over to Ephesians 5:25, okay? Well, this love—remember, maybe a year or so ago, I preached on agape, philo? Remember that? Remember you were sleeping through that one? Remember that? You got a good night’s sleep? No. Remember that.

And so let’s find out, what is this? What love is this? What’s the Greek word? So I can push this interlinear, and it’ll pull up the Greek words besides the English words. And so I go over by love, and it’s agapao or agape, we’ll call it. And it’ll tell you a little bit about it. Now, the definitions they use, we talked about this last week, is Strong’s Concordance. It’ll give you the number that Strong has for that word. Remember I said, be careful. Very, very helpful, but Strong’s was actually on the New American Standard Committee. He died before it got published, so I wouldn’t hang everything on it, but it’s very helpful. But it can help me get into the Greek a little bit. You understand? And they’ll use Strong’s—pretty much all these Bible softwares will use Strong’s and the definitions for it. Now, here’s the interesting thing: In Strong’s Concordance, agape—that form of agape—is number 25. Okay? So if I want to find out how often or where that agape is used elsewhere in the Bible, see, then I can just click on that and I can search for number 25 in the King James Version Bible, and it’ll show me every time that that form of agape is used in the Bible, and that sometimes can be very helpful. And maybe you’ll never get into this, but I thought we’d just kind of show it to you and show some of the things that are out there.

Now let’s go. What’s another time? The Bible never really tells—never just says—commands the wife to love her husband. It doesn’t just say, “Wives, love your husbands.” Remember that? Wives, you’re free. Amen, and a good thing? Come on now, guys. But remember, it does say for the aged women to teach the younger women to love their husbands. Remember that? Anybody remember where that’s found? Let’s find out. We can come over here and search this thing. And let’s see here. We’re just going to say, “teach and love.” And it is in Titus 2 in verse number 4. And we’ll go over there: “And that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.” Well, let’s find out, is that agape or not? So let’s go to interlinear. And “love their husbands”—it’s philandros, or it comes from the word philadelphia or phileo. It has to do with being fond of, being kind, being friendly. We preached about it a year ago. Typically, a wife, man, once she loves something, she’s in there. I mean, from head to toe, I mean, she doesn’t really have a problem with Agape typically. But Philo—she can get a little aggravated when you sometimes, you know, are not real kind and friendly to her, you understand. But as guys, man, we don’t want to—I mean, we can turn it on and turn it off. We’ve got to work at the agape, you understand? See? And so you can kind of understand the difference here in the Greek words. Just trying to show you what’s available; these things can be helpful in your Bible study.

Let’s see here. Bible dictionaries—this one here, and they all typically will have… This one doesn’t have—it has about four. I think there are more Bible dictionaries on there. I take some of them off, and I don’t trust the guy at all, you know. But you can pull up different words and search them through the Bible dictionaries there. Bible dictionaries can be very, very helpful. But I wanted you to just see, there are many other programs out there, and I’m not trying to sell Power Bible. E-Sword is free, and it’s very similar to this one. It really is. But those can be great tools in studying your Bible.

Now, we’re going to turn this thing off for now. Would you go over—and let me see what time we have here. Oh, my goodness. Would you go over? Let’s just see where we go. We’re about out of time here. Go over to Psalm 63. Go over to Psalm 63. I tell you what, would you put a marker in Psalm 63? I’ve got to get one other thought in here. I think it would be good to get one more thought in here. I try to get out about 8:15 on Wednesday night because I know many of you work early in the morning. We’re going to give me five minutes tonight. It’s not you that does what I do; I do it myself because I want to be aware of your time.

Look over in Proverbs 1, and then we’ll go over to Psalms in just a second. I want you to see this in Proverbs 1. Just talking about studying and knowing the Bible. The first thing: desire the Bible. If you’re thirsty, He’ll fill you. “Desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” You get a desire for the Bible. You don’t have to have education. You don’t have to have Bible software. If you have a desire for the Bible, you ask the Holy Spirit; He can teach you that book. He’s the best teacher in all the world. These are helps, but He can teach you the book.

And then let me say this from Proverbs 1 real quickly here. Proverbs 1:22, if you would, please. He says, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?” Can I say sometimes people, they just don’t want to get involved in the fight; they enjoy the sidelines too much. They don’t want to learn. They don’t want to grow. “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning.” They’re always criticizing, nitpicking, especially authority. You ever see chickens? Get one little sick chicken, sometimes, and they’ll just peck, peck, peck, peck, and they’ll kill that chicken. That’s what scorners do. That’s what scorners. And he said, “How long, ye scorners, will ye delight in your scorning?” And then he said, “Fools hate knowledge.” Fools—they’re just all about fun. They want to joke 24/7, laugh for all the time, and it’s fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. They’ll do anything. They’ll get drunk; they’ll wreck their body. Their life is just fun and party. He says, “How long, ye fools, will ye hate knowledge?”

Look at this next verse. He says, “Turn you at my reproof.” What does He say? “Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you.” Well, He’s the author of the Bible. He’s the teacher of the Bible. He’ll teach you all things. He said, “Turn.” Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you. When the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, speaks to you, oh, my goodness, I want to change. I’m not right; I want to get right. He says, “I’ll pour out my Spirit unto you,” and my words, they’ll come alive to you. Man, you’ll get so much. You’ll be able to digest the Word of God when you turn.

By the way, all of us, I think, tend to go to one of those categories: simple—man, I’m just tired; I don’t want to get in the fight; I just like to stay simple. No, I’ll get in the fight for You, Lord. Scorners—we just see everything wrong with everybody. We tend to pick on it all the time. And fools—I just want to laugh and have fun all the time. All right, Lord, I’ll change. He’ll pour out. He’ll make known His words unto you.

Then back over to Psalm 63. We’re done. Psalm 63. Just almost a little change, a little bit. I want you to think a little bit towards Sunday on this one here. It’s been a different message tonight, I know, a different Wednesday night message. But look over here in Psalm 63 very quickly here. Psalm 63. And God used David to pen this. Look in Psalm 63, verse number one. I want you to catch the heart of this. He says, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.”

David had so many flaws. David was such a poor father. You want to just shake him. Can’t you be a better father than that? I mean, just a little bit dumb as a father. And then he fell into lust and then the sin with Bathsheba and then having Uriah murdered, and his lack of faith—he numbered the people—just the sins of David. But David, his strong point, he just desired God. Amen. “I want to know You, Lord. You’re my God. I’m going to be after You early. I’ve got to know. I want to see Your power and Your glory. I’ve seen it in the sanctuary before. I want to know You.” God’s the head man right there. He’s after my heart. I want Him to be my King. He has all kind of flaws, but I want Him to be my King because He’s after me. Friend, you get in that book and you say, “Lord, I want to know You. I’m not the best scholar in the world. I don’t know all that stuff. I don’t have Bible software or anything, but You want to know God.” God is pleased with that. And God said, “I’ll pour out my Spirit.” You’re beginning to turn, and I’ll—I’ll just show you my work. I have the hunger. I’m willing to change for the Lord. He’ll teach you the Bible.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes tonight? I’m just going to ask us tonight in an invitation just to pray. Maybe there’s something in the message. “I’d like to be a better student of Your word,” like You told me to study. Maybe just pray for Sunday. I think about some relatives of some of our people that might come Sunday morning, Sunday night. Maybe you want to pray for some of them to come get saved. God, just to work in hearts and lives. Would you just pray to see His power and His glory? I’m not going to have you raise your hands, but I’m going to ask us to stand. We won’t be long during the invitation, but would you just come and spend some time with the Lord? Would you please stand right now? We’re going to have a word of prayer. And I’m going to ask you just come and spend some time asking God’s blessing, and I would like to see you and know you in your Bible studies Sunday and the special day. Just, “Lord, we want to see You, want to know You.” Father, thank You for Your goodness. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You, You revealed it to babes. Lord, You’re so good. We don’t have to be all that, but we take what You give us. We use it. You give us more. Thank You for that, Lord. Bless our people in these few minutes. Thank You, Lord, for what You do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Would you just spend some time while our instruments play? Just spend some time seeking the Lord. “Lord, we’d like to see Your power and Your glory. I’d like to see Your work.” It’ll be wonderful if the Lord just showed up in a powerful way on Sunday. And the Lord, show up tomorrow morning in your devotion. Tomorrow afternoon, your devotions. He makes known His words unto you. Say, “I want to know it. I want to get more out of it. I want to study it. I want to digest it.” “O God, my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee.” He’s in a dry and thirsty land. Let Him know that. “I need something from You, God. I’ve got to have You. I need You.” Let Him know that. He’ll be found. He wants to be found of you.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - How to Study the Bible Study Bibles & Software - Wednesday 08312022