TEXT: Revelation 1:3

SUBJECT: How to Read the Bible and Why

My sermon today is called How to Read the Bible and Why. Reading the Word of God is not easy for anyone, and for some it is nearly impossible. But read it we must, and by His grace, we can read the Bible and read it well.

There is mental side to reading. Scholarship is helpful, but it is far less important than the spiritual side of reading the Bible. The beginning of wisdom is not New Testament Greek or Systematic Theology, but the fear of the Lord. This is not to criticize learning, which I have always supported, but to put it in its rightful place--which is below piety.

If you can read, you can read the Bible, and if you read it the way I tell you to, it will do you good—good in this life and even better in the life to come.

What do you say? Do you want to be a reader of God’s Word? Do you want to be a good reader? If you do, here’s where to start.

Read the Bible daily. The Bible is like food; you need some every day. Snakes gorge themselves one day and go for weeks without another bite. But we’re not snakes! Our bodies need daily bread and our souls need the bread of life every day.

How much should you read? It all depends on your circumstances and your capacity. A twenty-year old bachelor should read more than a forty-five year old mother of nine. Not because he needs the Word more than she does, but because he has the time, energy and quiet, she doesn’t have. Circumstances matter.

So does capacity. Some people read better than others. Not everyone is as smart as everyone else. And believe me, if all men are created equal, all memories are not! Honestly assess what you can read with profit and then read it. If it’s twenty chapters a day, great; if it’s two verses a day that’s fine too. The important things are: (1) that you get into the habit of reading the Bible every day, and (2) that you get something out of your Bible reading every day.

Do you read the Bible every day? If you don’t, you need to. Some people want to read the Bible every day, but they can’t get through it. They find Genesis really interesting and the first half of Exodus, but then come…the Laws and the Genealogies, and the Numbers. Like the Israelites they’re reading about, they get lost in the desert and their carcasses fall in the wilderness.

If I’m describing you, let me give you some practical advice: If you read two chapters or more a day, read one chapter in a Hard Book and the rest in a Book that is easier to read. For most people, these ‘easier’ books are Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospels, and Acts. If you can read only one chapter a day, quit reading the Book you won’t read and start reading the Book you will read!

For most of us, reading the Bible every day means setting aside a particular time for it. If you intend to read the Bible ‘today’, you’re not likely to do it. But if you say you’re going to read the Bible between 8:30 and 9:00, you likely will. This is not legalism, but good sense. If you don’t plan for some time, you plan for no time. And no time never comes.

One more thing: If you forget to read the Bible one day, read it the next day. If you get several days behind, do not try to catch up! If you cannot read three chapters a day, you won’t read sixty chapters after missing three weeks! Don’t try to do it! Confess your negligence to God, find His mercy in Christ, and start where you left off.

Read the Bible every day. Like brushing your teeth, it is a habit you will not regret.

ATTENTIVELY

Read the Bible attentively. Have you ever talked to someone who wasn’t listening? He might be sitting quietly and making eye-contact, nodding his head now and then, but his mind is somewhere else. I find this very annoying, but most of the time, it is not too harmful because what I’m saying is not too important.

But what if it was? What if the man I was talking to was a passenger on an airliner whose pilot had just died? And what if I was on the ground telling him how to land the plane? And what if his mind was wandering? What would happen? He and a planeload of passengers would crash and burn because, though I told him how to land safely, he wasn’t paying attention.

The Bible tells us how to land safely. But to do it, you’ve got to pay attention. This means, for most people, bedtime is a bad time for reading the Bible. We stay up later than we ought to—sometimes goofing off, but more often, in finishing up the things we didn’t have time for during the day. By the time we go to bed, we’re shot. If we can keep our eyes open to read a chapter or two, our minds wander and if asked five minutes later what we read, we wouldn’t know what to say.

In the hectic world we live in, is it possible to find fifteen or twenty good minutes a day to read the Bible—to read it, I mean, with an alert mind and a heart eager to obey? If you think not, let me ask you: Do you take a shower every day? If you do, I want to know why is there time to wash your body and no time to renew your soul?

Because I have to! If I don’t I’ll be dirty, I’ll feel gross, and I’ll offend other people. Right! You just gave three reasons for reading the Bible every day: (1) you’ll be dirty if you don’t; (2) you’ll feel gross if you don’t, and (3) you’ll offend other people if you don’t.

Find a good time to read the Bible and read it with attention.

Read the Bible reverently. ‘Reverence’ is another word for ‘respect’, and when applied to God and His Word, it is respect taken to a higher level.

If the Bible is God’s Word we have to read it with reverence. The voice of the Lord is awesome; those who heard it shook with fear. At Mount Sinai it sounded like a trumpet blast. In other places it is likened to a waterfall, an earthquake, a hurricane, and the roaring of a lion. That’s what God’s voice sounded like to those who heard it. But the Bible, without making a sound, is God’s voice. Near the end of Isaiah, the Lord said,

Don’t read the Bible as though it were just another book, or even the best of books. Read it for what it is: The Word of God, quieter, but no less awesome than the voice that spoke from heaven!

If the Ark of the Covenant were found and the Ten Commandments put on display, would you go see them? I sure would. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see the words God Himself wrote with His own finger? When you open your Bibles to Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5, that is what you’re doing—reading the very Words of God. It’s not the Tablets of Stone that makes it awesome; not the original manuscripts; not the papyrus with Paul’s signature! It is the Word Itself that demands our reverence.

If we remembered what we were reading, we would open our Bibles with fear and trembling and joy unspeakable and full of glory!

Read the Bible every day, read it carefully, and read it with reverence.

Read the Bible in faith. If the Bible is God’s Word, it is a true Word. Thus to read with doubt is to doubt God. It is good to doubt our interpretations of the Bible, but never the Bible itself.

Young children are gullible. If they trust you, they will believe anything you say. When it comes to reading the Bible, we are to be as little children. We don’t always understand what our Father is telling us, but because we trust Him we believe His Word.

Do you read the Bible as though it were true? If you did, you wouldn’t feel so guilty and afraid all the time. If the Bible is true, Christ has defeated sin and death for Himself and for everyone who believes in Him. The words spoken to the paralytic are meant for you too, Son, your sins are forgiven. Why don’t you believe that? I know why: because you’re still sinful. But whose sins are forgiven—the sins of the sinless or the sins of the sinful? Why are we so eager to believe the Law that condemns us and so slow to believe the Gospel that saves us?

The Bible carries every blessing. But only to those who believe it. Believe the Bible and receive the blessings.

Read the Bible with a mind to do what it says. God did not give us His Word to admire as a museum piece, but to obey. You ought to read the Bible with a desire to do what it tells you to do.

When you read the commandments of the Bible, do you ever say, I’ve got to do that? Or do you read one commandment after another as though they were not meant for you?

Here’s a tip for being a better reader of God’s Word. When you find a duty in the Bible, do it as soon as possible. If you read, In everything give thanks, stop reading for a minute and give thanks. This may slow down your reading to a snail’s pace, but an obedient snail is better than a disobedient cheetah!

Read the Bible with prayer. Pray before you read the Bible; pray after you’ve read the Bible; pray while you’re reading the Bible. The message of the Bible is God’s gift and He often gives it in answer to prayer. If you cannot come up with a prayer of your own, borrow David’s, Psalm 119:73—

Do you want to read the Bible? I know its thousand pages are intimidating to many. But here’s some good news: Millions of believers read the Bible every day with understanding and joy, and very few of them are scholars or otherwise big readers. Ordinary people, without education and with little time, read their Bibles every day and rejoice in it as one who finds great spoil.

If you want to read the Bible start today. The longest journey begins with the first step. If you want to read it well, read the Bible every day, read it with attention, read it with it reverence, read it in faith, read it with a mind to obey it, and always baptize your reading in prayer.

This is how to read the Bible.

Now we come to why. Why should you read the Bible? You should read the Bible because reading it will make you happy. At the start of my sermon I read Revelation 1:3, which promises happiness to anyone who

(Blessed, by the way, means ‘happy).

The Author of the Bible is Happy. When we think of what God is, we often come up with words like, infinite, eternal and unchangeable. Or, perhaps we name holy, wise, good, loving, and just. But the word we rarely come up with is…Happy. We don’t often think of God as happy, but He is happy. The Bible says so. In I Timothy 1:11, Paul says he was entrusted with,

If God made us in His own image, He wants us to be happy too. How can a sullen man reflect God’s happiness? At one time, our happiness was easy to come by. But when we fell into sin, it became harder to get. But God was so bent on making us happy that He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for us on the cross. His appalling unhappiness that day won our happiness forever.

The happiness God has for us, however, is not ours by magic, but comes through His Word. When read well and regularly, the Words of God becomes for us what they were for David—

Are you happy? You will not be as long as you neglect your Bible reading. Or as long as you read it without faith. But what if you are reading it every day and not getting much out of it? What then? Keep reading it. Like the treasures in the earth, the Bible’s treasure is not always on the surface; sometimes you’ve got to dig for it and the digging is hard and discouraging. Don’t focus on the digging, but what you’re digging for. Keep on seeking and you will find.

Thank God for His Word. It is more precious than everything in the world put together.

Confess how little you have loved and read the Word of God and He will forgive you for Christ’s sake.

Commit yourself to reading the Word of God every day, and when you fail to, remember God loves people who fail. Get back to your reading. And may the Lord reveal Himself to you in His Beloved Book.

For Christ’s sake. Amen.