Hello again and welcome to the program. We're here with a little strength for today. We're going to start today on the subject of how to study the Bible. You have probably heard the story of Vince Lombardi back in July of 1961 when the first day of the training camp for the 38 players on his Green Bay Packers football team began. The previous season had ended in the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles after blowing a lead in the fourth quarter of the championship game. The players were expecting to begin again where they left off and advanced ways in learning how to win next year. When they sat down and began, Vince Lombardi held up a football and said, gentlemen, this is a football. He then had everyone open up their playbooks and start on page one, where they began to learn the fundamentals of blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, and so on. Getting back to the basics resulted in them winning the NFL championship that season 37 to 0 against the New York Giants. Vince Lombardi went on to win five NFL championships in seven years. He never coached a team with a losing season after that and never lost a playoff game again. Getting back to the basics. What we need to do in getting back to the basics concerning the Word of God is to realize that the Bible is the Word of God. I don't know who came up with the term Bible. It's not a bad term. It's just that if we had the title on the front cover that actually said, this is the word of God, we may get more respect for the word of God than we do by just usually calling it a Bible. This is the word of God. When it comes to study, the definition of study is the devotion of time and attention to acquiring knowledge on a subject. Now that is completely different than going to church three times a week and listening to a message. That's important. But studying the Bible and going to church is two different things. The first thing we need to understand is the Bible is a book. that nobody can understand until they meet the author. John 16, 13 says, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. It also says in John 16 and 17, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. We cannot understand the Bible until we meet the author. In 2 Timothy 2, verse number 15, we have these words, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of God. Now, first of all, it says study. What is study? The devotion of time and attention to acquiring knowledge of a subject. Now there's a lot of different subjects in the Bible. We can study a verse, we can study a chapter, we can study a book, we can study a person in the Bible, we can study the different doctrines. There's all kinds of things to study in the Word of God. So, the first thing that we have here in the Word of God about studying is the word study. It goes on to say, study to show thyself approved unto God. Now, what do I have to do to be approved? Do I have to study the Bible five minutes a day or a half an hour a day? What do I have to do to be approved? Well, the Bible says in Luke chapter 12 verse 48, for unto whom much is given of him shall much be required. I've had the privilege on a couple of occasions to be in a little jungle village in South America called Kua. The Indians there, the Anamama Indians, they live in mud hut with dirt floors and they're very, very primitive. Our missionaries told us the problem they had in teaching these people the word of God is that they don't have a comprehension of ordinary words such as righteousness. What's that mean? You might as well say, I'm going to teach you to say about blabbity blue, blue, blue. What is blabbity blue, blue, blue? I don't know what that is. You're trying to teach the Alamama Indian in the jungle what righteousness is. He has no comprehension of that word. And then things in North America are very different than that. For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. And so what we need to do is study to show ourselves approved unto God in our situation. That goes on to say a workman. a workman, that's somebody who works at something, that needeth not to be ashamed. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Now that word dividing is in the Bible seven times. Three of those times are found in the New Testament and they are three different Greek words used when we have the word dividing in the New Testament. Now the way to understand what those words mean is to simply study those words in the context in which they appear. So we read in chapter 1 and verse number 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, that's who's writing. Who's he writing to? Verse 2, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. He is writing to this young pastor of the church. First and second Timothy and Titus and the seven letters at the beginning of the book of Revelation are all written to the pastor. However, Christians in general are also commanded to study. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 2, written to Christians in general, it says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. In 2 Peter 3, 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, 15, grow up into him in all things. Back in Jeremiah we read he said in Jeremiah 15 verse 16 thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. There's a good reason to study. Job 23 and 12 says I esteem the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. In Psalm 119, verse 28, David said, And so we're going to look at how to study the Bible. It's really not that difficult. We're going to look at it in the next programs to come. Be sure to be with us.