John F. MacArthur - The Heart of the Bible: Explore the Power of Key Bible Passages

T his book grew out of a list of 52 key passages I chose to encourage believers to memorizeone per week for a full year. It was not an easy task to cut my list of favorite passages down to 52. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). But these verses are particularly helpful to anyone who wants to get a firm grasp of the truth.

Those who are familiar with my teaching will notice that I have chosen verses that reflect the main themes I have emphasized in my teaching ministry. Those themes encompass the great themes of Scripture. They are the heart of the Bible.

I could have written a very different book. You could make a case that the heart of the Bible is a story. There is indeed a narrative that runs from Genesis to Revelation, and its main character is God. The Bible tells how God made the world and human beings (Adam and Eve), how they fell and were judged and received grace, how their descendants fell and were judged and received grace again. It tells how God redeemed and created for Himself a people (Israel) whom He intended to be holy and to be a light to the world, and how they fell and were judged and received grace. It tells how God became flesh among those people in the person of His Son and gave Himself for our salvationhow He died on a cross for our sins and rose from the dead that we might share His life. It tells how God brought the church into being and called people to a new kind of life, and how Gods reign will one day be complete.

This book presupposes a knowledge of that story. What this book attempts to do is draw from the great truths that are revealed in that story and join them with the great principles for living that Scripture reveals. It seems to me that for a new believeror one who desires to be grounded in Gods truthnothing could be more useful than to focus on the nature of the Bible, the nature of God, the nature of salvation, and the nature of discipleship.

I hope that as you read these 52 sections, you will meditate carefully on the Scripture passages rather than on my comments. It is Gods Word itself that is perfect and sure and right and pure. His words are able to give life, not mine. As you meditate on them, you will find delight and nourishment and discipline as well. Gods promises are a source of comfort, but they are also a sword that cuts into our hearts.

It is my prayer that you will hide Gods Word in your heart, that you might not sin against Himand that you might love Him with all that you are and be transformed into the person He has called you to be. As always, I am thankful to my editors at Thomas Nelson for their help. They suggested that my comments on these passages might be helpful to you in your Christian growth. I hope they are correct about my comments. I know they are right about the usefulness of the heart of the Bible.

T HE B IBLE IS NOT JUST A BOOK you read for information. You read it for transformation. The words of Scripture are the very Word of God, and they change your heart as you meditate on them. This is what the Bible claims for itself: it is a perfect treasure that changes us, enlightens us, judges us, equips us, and makes us grow.

As you read the favorite verses Ive included in this book, dont just pass over them quickly. Savor them. Repeat them to yourself. Ponder their meaning for your life and allow them to penetrate your heart. That is what Scripture itself tells us to do.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1:8

Where does the Word of God belong? In your mouth and in your heart. In Joshua 1:8, this Book of the Law refers to the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. But the same command can be expanded to refer to all the books of Scripture, the whole Word of God. The command is that it should not depart from your mouth. In other words, it should be a part of your vocabulary all the time. You should be speaking about Scripture and the things Scripture is concerned with at all times.

How can that happen? It will happen when you meditate on it day and night. Its a simple principle. If you saturate your mind and your thoughts with the Word of God it will come out in your speech. If you saturate your mind and thoughts with other things, they will come out in your speech as well. The Book of Proverbs tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, so he is (Proverbs 23:7). Jesus said, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). If your heart is full of the Word of God, thats what is going to come out of your mouth. Before that can happen, you have to fill your heart with the Word. Thats why meditation is so important.

When you meditatewhen you read a verse over and over and contemplate its meaningit begins to fill your heart. I believe that is why God gave us a book and not a music video. A music video just goes flying by, jumping from one angle to the next, bombarding you with images, and then its gone. Even the best movie just washes over you like a wave and then recedes. Our experience of it is fleeting. But words on a page are frozen there permanently. You can go back to the same page, the same verse, over and over, and keep meditating on it. You can compare and contrast it to other verses. You can synthesize what several verses say and interpret them carefully. That is meditationnot just a momentary encounter with the truth, but immersion in it. Putting His Word in a book was the best way God could put a tool in our hands that would teach us to meditate.