(upbeat music) - We have been talking a lot in the last two weeks about Bible study, and we have a question today about how to read scripture on a specific theme. Rosemary in Kentucky asks this, "Hi, Pastor John, lately, a friend and I "have been discussing a specific topic "that is prevalent throughout the New Testament.

"I have not done much personal study on the topic, "and my first thought was, "I'll just search for some articles about the topic "on desiringgod.org or the Gospel Coalition "and find out what the Bible says about it that way. "Though I have tremendous respect for both organizations," thank you, "and many others that teach sound doctrine, "I feel like I am taking the easy way out "in reading the conclusions other people have come to "after studying the scriptures themselves.

"So my question is this, "how should I go about studying a topic in scripture "in a comprehensive way that would allow me "to have a firm grasp on what the Bible has to say "about a topic without relying solely on the study "and teaching of others to establish my own understanding?

"But to do this, where do I begin?" - I love this question, because I think many people sell themselves short when it comes to what they are able to glean from the scriptures for their own spiritual enrichment and depth and for their life in a complicated, morally complex world.

I think most of us doubt our capacities to find answers for ourselves, and others of us are lazy, let's be honest, and we want somebody else to do the work for us, and so we try to get a quick answer from somebody else rather than do it ourselves with rigorous study.

I mean, it is remarkable, I think, that the Bible, by and large, says it's not gonna give its riches to people who don't dig. Listen to Proverbs 2, three to six. "Yes, if you call out for insight "and raise your voice for understanding, "if you seek it like silver "and search for it as for hidden treasures, "then you will understand the fear of the Lord "and find the knowledge of God, "for the Lord gives wisdom.

"From his mouth come knowledge and understanding." That doesn't sound like a lazy pursuit. It sounds like an old prospector in the gold rush desperately wanting to find his fortune by working morning till night panning for gold, and that's the picture that we're supposed to see here, search for it as for hidden treasure.

The flag waving over the Scriptures is the word from Jeremiah 29, 13. "You will seek me and find me "when you seek me with all your heart." So I'm excited that we're talking about the possibilities for just ordinary lay people doing that. So I love the question because of the hopefulness that's in it, and the advice I have to give for studying a topic on your own from Scripture is painfully simple.

There may be complex aspects of the application of this principle, but in my life, this simple counsel and practice has made all the difference. So here it is. Once you know the topic that you want to investigate, money maybe, or marriage, or pick your topic, politics, pick out a few key words that relate to that topic, and use a concordance, that's a book that lists all the uses of all the words in the Bible, or better, have a simple Bible program.

You can get them inexpensively or even free that enables you to do word searches, have a Bible program, and either with a concordance or with a word-searching function of a Bible program, look up all those words in the Bible, or in some part of the Bible. You might want to restrict your study to Romans, or Matthew, or everything Paul wrote, or everything Peter wrote, or the New Testament, or indeed the whole Bible.

Just don't bite off more than you can chew at any one time. So now you have clicked your button or you've looked up the word in the concordance and you have 10 or 50 key words in verses, so 50 verses or so that you've got to read. Now, what do you do with that list?

But that's the key thing. What do you do with it? I'm going to give you seven things to do with it real quick. One, make discoveries as you read them and jot them down. You will make discoveries. Number two, make connections between the discoveries as you keep reading and jot those connections down.

This is where insight begins to really snowball. Regularly, when I do this, I see this use of the word here in Romans. I see this use of the word in another part of Romans. I see this use of the word over in 1 Corinthians. I see this use of the word over in 1 Timothy.

And by that time, I've got five fresh insights about the reality I'm looking for. So first, discoveries, second, connections, make connections, here's third. Take time to think about these connections and jot down your ideas. Many people have the notion that simply reading and observing the Bible causes insight and wisdom.

It doesn't, it doesn't. You've got to think, you've got to think over. Paul said to Timothy, "Think over what I say to you "and God will give you understanding." So first, discoveries, second, connections, third, think, here's number four. Trace out the leads that you find. Trace it out into other scriptures that shed lots of light on the verses.

Now, what I mean here is there are things about your topic in other passages of scripture that you can't find by simply the word connections that you just looked up. You have to spot connections. The way you see them is, oh, in this verse, it says this, and now you've got a new word to look up, and you click on that word and you find five other verses that didn't have your original word in it and yet have lots of insights.

Or you might see in a little footnote, a little A, B, C, or D attached, a footnote that says, "Look at these verses about this issue." So trace out the leads that you find. So number one, discoveries, number two, connections, number three, think, number four, trace, and here's number five, write these things down.

Be writing, writing, writing, either in a file on your computer or like I do often with a folded half sheet of paper that I'm doodling on, I'm constantly writing because when I write, I'm able to hold more things in my head. Without writing, everything tends to be a muddle.

It's just so complex, and so people that aren't writing really aren't gonna go very far in bringing a coherent picture of some reality. So if you're really serious, that you want to discover what the writers at Desiring God and the writers at Gospel Coalition are saying, you gotta do your own writing.

You can't just hold it in your head. Only Einstein could do that. Einstein, they said, could look at the same thing from 118 different angles in a few weeks. Well, no way could I ever do that. I've got to write down those 118 things on paper if I'm ever going to do it.

So that's the number five, writing. Number six, consult now, now, some commentaries or Bible dictionaries or books written on the topic because now, because of all that you've seen, you will be a much more competent dialogue partner with this author, and you will have a lot more confidence. You'll know the kind of questions to ask.

And the last thing I would say is preserve. Preserve what you've seen, either in the document and the file that you're creating online or a piece of paper you're gonna file somewhere because how sad to do an hour or two or three of study on something, have lots of wonderful insights, and a week later or a year later, you don't remember anything that you saw.

That's really, really sad. That's bad stewardship, so preserve it. But underneath those seven pointers is a main point, namely use the word search feature of a Bible program or use a concordance. Nothing yields more fruit in a coherent understanding of a topic across the Scriptures than looking at all the different ways the Bible speaks about it, and you find those with word searches.

- Yeah, painfully simple, as you said at the beginning. Thank you, Pastor John. And if you don't have an electronic Bible that you use or if you don't have an electronic Bible that you like to use, please check out esv.org, esv.org. It's a beautifully designed and free online resource for you to use.

Well, we have run up against the weekend again, and I encourage you all to subscribe to our podcast to keep up with us, and you can find our audio feeds and search our past episodes, and you can even reach us via email with a question that you might be facing in your life.

You can do all these things through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I am not sure what's next on the docket, but we plan to return on Monday, Lord willing, always Lord willing. And until then, I'm your host Tony Renke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We'll see you on Monday, Lord willing.

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