The Heart of the Bible

Explore the Power of Key Bible Passages for 52-Weeks

John F. MacArthur

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9780310142171
• Print ISBN:
  9780310142164
• Subtopic: Biblical Reference

A Devotional, Verse-Memorization Journey Through 52 Key Passages of Scripture.

*This 52-week guide through the heart of Scripture is designed so that you can start it at any point in the year.

All of Scripture is important and meaningful, but there are certain passages throughout the 66 books that make up our Bible which are especially helpful for understanding and becoming grounded in God's truth.

In The Heart of the Bible, Pastor John MacArthur shares a selection of verses that he believes are most significant as he helps you unpack their meaning and encourages you to memorize them—one per week for a full year.

Written in a devotional style, each verse—taken from both the Old and New Testaments—is followed by John MacArthur’s thoughts and comments, giving you a deeper understanding of the passages and their importance to Christians. The verses focus on the nature of the Bible, God, salvation, and discipleship, and are categorized topically.

Some of the topics covered are:

• Knowing and trusting our great God.
• What happened at the cross.
• Accepting God’s salvation.
• Living worthy of our calling.
• What it means to follow Jesus.

These treasured pieces of Scripture are not just meant to be read—they’re meant to be savored, repeated, meditated on, and memorized. Open your heart to God’s Word and you will be transformed.

CHAPTER 1
THE BIBLE in YOUR HEART

THE BIBLE 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 I’ve included in this book, don’t 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.

MEDITATING on the WORD of GOD

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. It’s 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, that’s what is going to come out of your mouth. Before that can happen, you have to fill your heart with the Word. That’s why meditation is so important.

When you meditate—when you read a verse over and over and contemplate its meaning—it 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 it’s 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 meditation—not 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.

If you meditate on the Bible day and night, it will start to come out of your mouth. Your speech will be “gracious and seasoned with salt,” as Paul says (Colossians 4:6). It will be the kind of talk that edifies, building others up rather than tearing them down (1 Corinthians 14:26; 1 Thessalonians 5:11).

The purpose of meditating on God’s commands is “that you may observe to do according to all that is written.” The purpose is not just knowledge but obedience. The promise here is that meditation will ultimately produce changed behavior because our hearts will be saturated with the Word of God. David asks in Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” He is asking, “O LORD, please govern and guard the meditation of my heart.” Why? Because that is what is going to show up in my behavior.

As the Bible shapes you as a Christian, it brings blessing. It promises that if you meditate on the Word, speak the Word, and live the Word, your way will be prosperous and you will have good success. This is the real “prosperity gospel”—not the false message that God wants everyone to get rich quick. God does not promise to make you prosperous just because you want things. God promises to bless your spiritual life and your spiritual endeavors with success through the deep understanding and application of Scripture.

DELIGHTING in the LAW

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

—Psalm 1:1–2

How can you be blessed? How can you find deep-seated contentment and spiritual well-being below the surface of life’s circumstances? These verses are a promise of blessing. They tell us what to avoid and what to focus on.

If you want to be blessed, the psalmist says, don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. What does that mean? Don’t listen to what ungodly people have to say. Don’t follow their advice. Don’t be influenced by their spin on things, their assessment of the situation, or their solution to a problem.

A three-stage process is pictured here, moving from walking to standing to sitting. It starts with the image of walking alongside ungodly people, engaged in casual conversation. Don’t even get started with that, the psalmist says. Don’t expose yourself to the lies of people who evaluate the world apart from God’s Word.

The next image is standing with the sinners. If you find yourself walking with them, don’t allow yourself to stand and talk with them. Don’t let the conversation become deeper and more penetrating.

The final image is actually sitting with the scornful—sharing the seat so that you become one of them. Don’t get that close to those who mock God. Certainly don’t take your seat in their classroom while they scoff at divine truth. Too many young people sit in classrooms where a scornful teacher seeks to destroy their faith.

If you want to be blessed, stay away from all that. Instead, find your delight in the law of the Lord. To most of us today, the idea of delighting in the law is a strange concept. We might fear the law or respect it, but to find pleasure in it is not something that crosses our minds. But the psalmist is thinking of the whole Torah as God’s gracious gift of guidance for how to live in a covenant relationship with Him. God’s revelation of the right way to live and worship and know Him is something to delight in. Psalm 119 uses the word “delight” eight times to describe our attitude toward God’s Word. It is a source of joy and satisfaction.

Rather than delighting in the latest sophisticated way of mocking what is good, find your pleasure in knowing and doing the will of God. Meditate day and night on the Scriptures which reveal His will for your life. Then when you walk, you will walk with the godly; when you stand, you will stand with the righteous; when you sit, you will sit in the place of the holy. This is the path to blessing.

THE DIVERSITY and PERFECTION of SCRIPTURE

The law of the LORD is perfect,
converting the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
The statutes of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true and
righteous altogether.

—Psalm 19:7–9

The Bible has more than one function in our lives. The psalmist gives the Scriptures six different titles, reflecting six different facets of a jewel. As “the Law of the Lord,” it is God’s standard for human conduct. As “the Testimony of the Lord,” it is God’s self-disclosure, God giving testimony about who He is. As “the Statutes of the Lord,” it is the doctrines and principles the Lord wants us to know. As “the Commandment of the Lord,” it is the binding and authoritative mandate God gives to us. As “the Fear of the Lord,” it is a manual on worship, teaching how to fear and worship God appropriately. As “the Judgments of the Lord,” the Scriptures provide for us the verdicts of the divine judge, God Himself. The Bible is all of that.

This psalm also tells us about the character of Scripture. It is perfect. The Hebrew word means complete, comprehensive, covering everything. It is also sure—something reliable, something you can trust to support you. It is also right, directing you down the right path rather than steering you wrong. It is pure. The word actually means clear, translucent, letting light through. It is clean, without stain, without blemish or flaw. Finally, it is true, absolutely true. What a testimony to Scripture: it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true.

Then the psalmist tells us what the Bible does. It converts the soul, transforming the whole inner person. These are life-changing words. It makes the simple wise. The Hebrew word for “simple” referred to an open door, because simple-minded people were viewed as people who had the doors of their minds wide open. They let everything in—with no discernment—but nothing stayed in. Sometimes I want to say to a person who brags about having an open mind, “Shut it, please. You’re letting everything get in and come out. You need to be more discerning than that.” The Bible takes the simple-minded, who do not know the difference between what they should value and what is junk, and makes them wise.

The Bible not only brings wisdom; it also brings joy. The Lord’s principles for living are the real source of joy for the human heart. It brings light to our eyes, enabling us to see what we could not see, making dark things understandable. It endures forever. We can trust that it doesn’t need to be updated for every culture. It is permanently relevant. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). His Word is altogether righteous, producing in us a comprehensive righteousness we could never achieve on our own. What an amazing book! What a reason to praise our God!

DESIRING PURE MILK

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.

—1 Peter 2:1–2

How do we grow spiritually? The apostle Paul says that we are to grow into maturity, into the full stature of Christ Himself (Ephesians 4:13). How does that happen? It happens, Peter says, when we desire the pure milk of the Word of God the way a newborn baby desires mother’s milk.

We have always had babies around the MacArthur house; we have four children and thirteen grandchildren. One thing is very clear about babies—babies want milk. I once held one of my grandsons as a newborn and he had a serious desire for m...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. The Bible In Your Heart
• 2. Knowing and Trusting Our Great God
• 3. Understanding God’s Reign
• 4. What Happened On the Cross
• 5. Accepting God’s Salvation
• 6. More Than We Deserve
• 7. Living Worthy of Our Calling
• 8. What It Means to Follow Jesus
• 9. Bringing Light to the World
• 10. Our Eternal Destiny
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index