Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Don’t be afraid to borrow and lend Bibles. Some time ago, a man wanted to take my Bible home to get a few things out of it, and when he returned it, I found this noted in it:
Justification: a change of state, a new standing before God.
Repentance: a change of mind, a new mind about God.
Regeneration: a change of nature, a new heart from God.
Conversion: a change of life, a new life for God.
Adoption: a change of family, a new relationship towards God.
Sanctification: a change of service, separation unto God.
Glorification: a new state, a new condition with God.
In the same handwriting I found these lines:
Jesus only:
The light of heaven is the face of Jesus.
The joy of heaven is the presence of Jesus.
The melody of heaven is the name of Jesus.
The theme of heaven is the work of Jesus.
The employment of heaven is the service of Jesus.
The fullness of heaven is Jesus Himself.
The duration of heaven is the eternity of Jesus.
Sir Francis Bacon said that some books are to be tasted, some to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested. The Bible is one that you can never exhaust. It is like a bottomless well. You can always find fresh truths gushing forth from its pages. That is the great fascination of constant and earnest Bible study. This is also the reason for marking your Bible. Unless you have an uncommon memory, you cannot remember for long the good things you hear. If you trust your ears alone, those good things you hear will escape you in a day or two; but if you mark your Bible and enlist the aid of your eyes, you will never lose them. The same applies to what you read.
Bible marking should be made the servant of the memory. If properly done, it sharpens the memory rather than dulls it, because it gives prominence to certain things that catch the eye, which by constant reading you get to learn of by heart. It helps you to locate texts. It saves you the trouble of writing out notes for your lessons or discussions. Once in the margin, it is always ready.
I have carried one Bible with me a great many years. It is worth a good deal to me, because I have so many passages marked in it, that if I am called upon to speak at any time, I am ready. I have little words marked in the margins, and they are a sermon to me. Whether I speak about faith, hope, charity, assurance, or any subject whatsoever, it all comes back to me; and however unexpectedly I am called upon to preach, I am always ready.
Every child of God ought to be like a soldier and always hold himself in readiness. If the Queen of England’s army was ordered to India tomorrow, her soldiers would be ready for the journey; but soldiers in God’s army cannot be ready if they do not study the Bible. Whenever you hear a good thing, just write it down, because if it is good for you, it will be good for somebody else, and we should pass the coin of heaven around just as we do with money in this life. A single dollar can travel all over this land, and the good we get out of God’s Word can do the same. Don’t keep it to yourself.
People tell me they have nothing to say. For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart (Matthew 12:34). Get full of Scripture, and then you can’t help but say it. It says itself. Keep the world out of your heart by getting full of something else. Some people have no problem talking about sports, but they cannot talk much about the Scriptures. That tells you what is in their hearts. A man once tried to build a flying machine. He made some wings and filled them with gas. He said he couldn’t quite fly, but the gas was lighter than the air and it helped him over lots of obstructions. When you get these heavenly truths, they are lighter than the air down here and they help you over trouble.
Bible marking makes the Bible a new book to you. If there was a white birch tree within a quarter of a mile of your childhood home, you would remember it all your life. Mark your Bible, and instead of it being dry and uninteresting, it will become a beautiful book to you. What you see makes a more lasting impression on your memory than what you hear.
There are many methods of marking. Some people use six or eight colored inks or pencils. They use black to mark texts that refer to sin, red for all references to the cross, blue for all references to heaven, and so on. Others invent symbols. When there is any reference to the cross, they put a little cross in the margin. Some write G, meaning the gospel.
There is the danger of overdoing this and making your marks more prominent than the Bible itself. If the system is complicated, it becomes a burden and you are likely to get confused; it is then easier to remember the text than the meaning of your marks.
Black ink is good enough for most purposes. I use no other, except I sometimes use red ink to draw attention to “the blood.”
The simplest way to mark is to underline the words or to make a stroke alongside the verse. Another good way is to go over the printed letters with your pen, making the letters thicker. The word will then stand out like heavier type. Mark the word only in Psalm 62 in this way.
My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will you assail a man, that you may murder him, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position; They delight in falsehood; They bless with their mouth, But inwardly they curse. Selah. My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. (Psalm 62:1-6)
When any word or phrase is often repeated in a chapter or book, put consecutive numbers in the margin beside the text. Thus, in the second chapter of Habakkuk, we find five woes against five common sins: (1) verse 6, (2) verse 9, (3) verse 12, (4) verse 15, and (5) verse 19. Number the ten plagues in this way.
When there is a succession of promises or commands in a verse, it is better to write small numbers at the beginning of each separate promise. Thus, there is a sevenfold promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3: (1) I will make you a great nation, (2) and I will bless you (3) and make your name great; (4) and you shall be a blessing. (5) And I will bless those who bless you (6) and the one who curses you I will curse, (7) and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
In Proverbs 1:22, we have (1) simple ones, (2) scorners, and (3) fools.
I also find it helpful to mark the following:
1. Cross-references. Next to Genesis 1:1, write: “Through faith, Hebrews 11:3,” because there we read: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God. Next to Genesis 28:12 write: “An answer to prayer, Genesis 35:3.” Next to Matthew 6:33 write: “1 Kings 3:13 and Luke 10:42,” which give illustrations of seeking the kingdom of God first. Beside Genesis 37:7 write: “Genesis 50:18,” which is the fulfillment of the dream.
2. Railroad connections. These are connections made by fine lines running across the page. In Daniel 6, connect may he deliver (v. 16), able to deliver (v. 20), and delivered (v. 27). In Psalm 66, connect come and see (v. 5) with come and hear (v. 16).
3. Words that have changed their meaning, or where you can explain a difficulty, or where the English does not bring out the full meaning of the original, as happens sometimes with the names of God.
4. Unfortunate divisions of chapters. The last verse of John 7 reads: Everyone went to his home. Chapter 8 begins: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. The chapter should not be divided here.
5. Make a note of any text that marks a religious crisis in your life. I once heard the Rev. F. B. Meyer preach on 1 Corinthians 1:9, and he asked his hearers to write in their Bibles that they were that day called into the fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
When a preacher gives out a text and preaches a sermon that affects you, mark the text in your Bible; put a few words in the margin, such as keywords that will bring back the whole sermon again. By that plan of making a few marginal notes, I can remember sermons I heard years and years ago. Every man ought to take down some of the preacher’s words and ideas, and then go and preach them again to others. We ought to have four ears: two for ourselves and two for other people. Then, if you are in a new town and have nothing else to say, jump up and say, “I heard someone say such and such.” People should always be glad to hear you if you give them heavenly food. The world is perishing for lack of it.
Some years ago, I heard an Englishman in Chicago preach from a curious text: Four things are small on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise (Proverbs 30:24). “Well,” I said to myself, “what will you make of these little things? I have seen them many times.”
Then he went on speaking: The ants are not a strong people, but they prepare their food in the summer. He said God’s people are like the ants.
“Well,” I thought, “I have seen many of them, but I never saw one like me.”
“They are like the ants,” he said, “because they are laying up treasure in heaven, and preparing for the future; but the world rushes madly on and forgets all about God’s command to lay up for ourselves incorruptible treasures.”
The shephanim are not mighty people, yet they make their houses in the rocks. He said, “The shephanim are very weak things; if you were to throw a stick at one of them, you could kill it; but they are very wise, for they build their houses in rocks, where they are out of harm’s way. God’s people are very wise, although very feeble; for they build on the Rock of Ages, and that Rock is Christ.”
“Well,” I said, “I am certainly like the shephanim.”
Then came the next verse: The locusts have no king, yet all of them go out in ranks. I wondered what he was going to make of that.
“God’s people,” he said, “have no king down here. The world said, ‘Caesar is our king,’ but he is not our king; our king is the Lord of Hosts. The locusts went out in ranks, or groups; so do God’s people. Here is a Presbyterian group, here an Episcopalian group, here a Methodist group, and so on; but in His time, the great King will come and catch up all these separate groups, and they will all be one: one fold and one Shepherd.”
And when I heard that explanation, I said; “I would like to be like the locusts.” I have become so sick, my friends, of this miserable sectarianism, that I wish it could all be swept away. We have enough denominations and division.
The preacher continued: The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces (KJV).
When he got to the spider, I said, “I don’t like that at all; I don’t like the idea of being compared to a spider.”
“But,” he said, “if you go into a king’s palace, there is the spider hanging on his delicate web, looking down with scorn and contempt on the gold-filled elaborate room; he is laying hold of things above. And so every child of God ought to be like the spider and lay hold of the unseen things of God. You see then, my brethren, we who are God’s people are like the ants, the conies, the locusts, and the spiders: little things, but exceedingly wise.” I put that down in the margin of my Bible, and the recollection of it does me as much good now as when I first heard it.
A friend of mine was in Edinburgh, and he heard one of the leading Scotch Presbyterian ministers. He had been preaching from Revelation 1:7: Every eye shall see him, and he closed by saying, “Yes, every eye. Adam will see Him, and when he does, he will say, ‘This is He who was promised to me in that dark day when I fell’; Abraham will see Him and will say, ‘This is He whom I saw afar off, but now face to face’; Mary will see Him, and she will sing her song with new interest. And I too will see Him, and when I do, I will sing, ‘Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.’”
Here are some more examples that might be helpful to you.
Turn to Exodus 6:6-8. In these verses, we find seven I wills.
Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.
Look now at Isaiah 41:10. Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Notice what God says:
Turn to Psalm 103:2: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits. If you cannot remember all of these benefits, remember what you can. In the next three verses, there are five things to be sure to notice and remember:
Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. (Psalm 103:3-5)
Let’s look at Psalm 23. I suppose I have heard as many good sermons on the twenty-third psalm as on any other six verses in the Bible. I wish I had begun to take notes upon them years ago when I heard the first one. Things slip away from you when you get to be fifty years of age. Young people had better go into training at once.
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23)
What we can write down about this psalm:
“Blessed is the day,” says an old preacher, “when Psalm twenty-three was born!” It has been more used than almost any other passage in the Bible.
Here is another way to look at Psalm 23:
Verse 1: A happy life
Verse 4: A happy death
Verse 6: A happy eternity
Take Psalm 102:6-7: I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake, I have become like a lonely bird on a housetop.
This seems strange until you reflect that a pelican carries its food with it, the owl keeps its eyes open at night, and the sparrow watches alone. So, the Christian must carry his food, the Bible, with him, and he must keep his eyes open and watch alone.
Turn to Isaiah 32 and mark four things that God promises in verse 2: Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.
Here we have:
In the third and fourth verses of the same chapter we read: Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the hasty will discern the truth, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
We have eyes, ears, heart, and tongue, all ready to pay homage to the King of Righteousness.
Now turn to John 4:47-53 in the New Testament:
When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. The royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go; your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives; and he himself believed and his whole household.
Look at Matthew 11:28-30:
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Someone has said these verses contain the only description we have of Christ’s heart.
Let’s look at one more – John 14:6: I AM the way, and the truth, and the life.
Here are some suggestions that might be beneficial to you: