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Young Disciple Ministries

How to Study the Bible

Eugene Prewitt

How to Study the Bible: Part 1

Turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 28.

This morning ladies, when you were headed to breakfast or to line call, did any of you notice that the little path up from where we have campfire up that way was littered with pine shells, I mean little pieces of pine shell.

This morning when I was walking down that same little path, I saw that all over the ground were the little green pieces like this, but from a fresh pine cone that was still green.

While I was looking at that wondering how did they all get in the ground, someone would like me to use 1 of these things wouldn't they?

While I was looking at the ground, watching those little green things, wondering why they were there, I saw another 1 fall.

And I looked up and it was almost like being in an airport.

Have you ever been in an airport and as you were landing you could see plane after plane after plane in the sky coming in to land.

How many of you have ever seen that, like planes in a row in the sky?

I could see in this huge pine tree, 1 after another coming down to land, falling through the branches, these little things.

Some of you know, what's going on up there in the top of the tree?

I don't know if raccoons do that or not, but I know 1 animal that does.

The squirrel was eating 1 of these things.

I'll talk to you about that in just a minute.

Isaiah chapter 28, we're looking at verse 8.

It says, whom shall he teach, what's the word?

Knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?

That's the question we're discussing this morning.

Does that seem pretty clear to you just looking at the verse that God doesn't teach everyone?

That if there's a question, who does God teach, that there must be qualifications to being taught by God.

And can you see in the verse, if God teaches you, what does he teach you?

God as a teacher wants us to understand what is truth, and he teaches a certain class of people.

The end of verse 9, it says, them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.

How many of you have brothers and sisters that are under the age of 5?

Anyone here have brothers and sisters under the age of 5?

Then you might be able to remember 2 or 3 years ago when your brother was a toddler.

Can you remember when your brother was a toddler?

Who would tell me what's 1 of the most dangerous things that happens in the life, or excuse me, that could happen in the life of a toddler?

They try to do everything they do and a lot of the time it's like jumping out of chairs and stuff like that.

Okay, so she mentioned that they try to copy their older brothers and sisters, and sometimes they can't do the things and they could get hurt.

Do you know, babies, according to this verse, are babies dependent on their mothers for milk?

But do babies sometimes try to feed themselves?

And what kind of things do they put in their mouth?

It would be hard to think of something they don't put in their mouth, wouldn't it?

They put in their mouth whatever fits and is light enough to go in there.

1 of the greatest dangers to babies is feeding themselves.

They could feed themselves a balloon or a piece of plastic or a marble that's too large.

A baby needs its mother or its father to feed it.

Jesus, when he asked the question, who is he going to teach knowledge?

It's not that class that are as dependent as babies are for their food.

I want to expand on that a little bit because you could misunderstand it.

Is the verse saying that we shouldn't be dependent on God to feed us.

Isn't it very obvious that the question is, who is God going to feed?

And the answer is those that are not dependent on, it must be others.

If I could say that thought simply, If God is going to teach me, it's gonna be because I'm not dependent on some other man to be teaching me.

There's nothing wrong with being a baby, but it's very dangerous.

There's nothing wrong with being a baby Bible student, but it's very dangerous.

What's dangerous about being a baby Bible student?

What's dangerous is what if the person who's feeding you isn't as good as a loving mother.

Are there Bible people out there, Bible teachers that don't feed the right stuff?

There are Bible teachers out there that feed the wrong stuff.

And if you're a baby, do babies just know whether or not the bottle is full of milk or full of beer.

I mean, they know once they taste it that it's not milk, right?

But babies are oblivious to some extent of what they're taking in.

They're dependent on someone else to give them the right stuff.

Do you want to be dependent on someone else to give you the right stuff?

I hope in 1 of the first things that we're learning today that you will develop a desire to not be dependent on your teachers, on your counselors, on your parents to give you the right stuff.

I hope they will give you the right stuff.

I expect they will, but if God is going to teach you doctrine, this verse says it's going to be those who are weaned from the milk.

It says, for precept must be upon precept.

Now we hardly use the word precept anymore.

And maybe if I could soften it just a little bit, it's like a law that's not written down that if you disobey it you get spanked.

It's more like a law about just the way things work.

Like if you're nice to your mother, she's happy.

And if you said that different, you could say you should be nice to your mother and that would be a precept.

Is there a law written somewhere that if you're not nice to your mother, you do 10 pushups?

How to Study the Bible: Part 2

Our Father in heaven, as we study your holy Bible, I ask that you would teach us what it means, that you'd give us of your Holy Spirit that we could comprehend correctly.

Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy, chapter 2, and we're looking at verse 23.

2 Timothy, chapter 2, and looking at verse 23.

Have you ever heard anyone say something like this, that there's no such thing as a foolish question or no such thing as a stupid question?

You should just know that it is not true.

And I don't like to use the word stupid, so I won't.

2 Timothy Chapter 2 and looking at verse 23.

It says, "...but foolish and unlearned questions..." What's it say?

It's going to be hard for us to make progress, isn't it?

It says, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.

If you've ever wondered why people argue so much about religion, does this verse give you an idea?

Why do people argue so much about religion?

Can I give you an example of a foolish and unlearned question?

The number 144, 000 Is it a literal or a symbolic number?

Can I just talk to you about that question for a minute?

It is the least useful question anyone could ever ask about the 144, 000.

Questions about how do you become 1 of them, what is their character like, what is their purpose on this earth, Inspiration is full of information on that.

But if you come to the question, is it literal or symbolic?

It's 1 of those things that isn't revealed plainly in any part of inspiration.

So you'll find people that will wax eloquent telling you that it's literal, and those who will wax eloquent telling you that it's symbolic.

And if they make an issue of it, the 1 thing they have in common is they have failed to avoid an unlearned and foolish question.

And what Do unlearned and foolish questions do according to this verse?

You can just watch that in your life and you'll see it.

So I guess we're talking about in your outline, we are on point number 3.8.

1 is to entertain foolish questions that require speculative answers.

Outline number 3.9, it says, do not search the Bible for evidence to support your position.

There is a way, in fact, I'll tell you a story that happened when I began teaching.

Matter of fact, I suppose it was just about the time that the oldest of you here were being born and about the time that for the rest of you, your older siblings were being born.

It was the first time I'd ever taught a high school Bible class.

I noticed that the students in my class were from families that some of them thought that it was okay to pay tithes to self-supporting institutions, and some of them thought that tithes should only be paid to the church organization.

Are you familiar with that kind of question?

And so I thought you know my students the opinion they have about this it really isn't their own opinion they have the same opinion that their parents had.

If their parent thought it's okay to pay it to a self-sufficient institution, then what did the children think?

If the parents thought it must be paid to the conference, what did the children think?

So I assigned them, first of all I took a survey to find out what my students thought.

I took a survey and I wrote down the names, 1 side and the other side, and then I assigned them to write a research paper.

I told them I would not grade them on their conclusion.

I would only grade them on the quality of their evidence and information.

How much they had, I required them to write, it was something like 4 or 5 pages.

You know, some of my students wrote, 1 of them wrote over 20 pages.

They really went into this research project, they studied it for themselves.

And when they were all done, I Compared Their conclusions to the conclusion they had before their study Now I'll tell you the shocking result Every person that thought that I should be paid to the conference before he did his research thought the same thing after he finished his research.

Every person who thought it's okay to pay Tye to a self-employed institution before he did his research thought the same thing after he did his research.

0 of my students changed their opinion by doing their own study.

Can you see in that story that it's not necessarily so that just because you study for yourself that you end up finding what is true?

That certainly a bunch of my students studied for themselves, went after it earnestly, and still ended up with the same false opinion they had before they started?

This point number 9 has to do with why that kind of thing can happen.

Line number 9, it says, Do not search the Bible for evidence to support your position.

Rather, seek for evidence regarding your position.

If you come to the Bible and you have an idea, like my students did, and then you begin searching the Bible, your mind will be attracted to verses that seem to support your idea.

Imagine, for example, that you believe that Sunday keeping is the right thing and you begin to study the Bible to see if it's okay to keep Sunday.

Turn in your Bibles for a minute to 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 2.

Now, I told you to turn there, but I didn't turn there.

First Corinthians 16 and verse 2, it says, upon which day of the week?

Upon the first day of the week, let every 1 of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings or offerings when I come.

On what day were they to give their offerings?

If you believe that Sunday keeping was right, would this verse make you think, wow, it's the truth?

You would look at it and think, wow, I should pay my offerings on Sunday.

Sunday keeping must be what the Christians were doing.

Does the verse say that we should be gathered together on Sunday?

In other words, you're not at church yet.

When do you begin laying aside your offerings?

First day of the week, because you lay them aside.

Nowadays, your parents probably get paid every 2 weeks.

Some might get paid every week, some every month.

When did people get paid back in the days of Jesus?

That's right, they got paid every day, right?

You remember that from the story of the workers?

How to Study the Bible: Part 3

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful day, Lord.

Lord, thank you that we're able to come here and learn more about you.

Lord, help us to understand and give us wisdom.

Help our hearts to be open to your message that you want to share with each individual 1 of your people in this building here today in Jesus name Amen We have several orders of business we want to accomplish this morning in learning how to study our Bibles.

But before we get to those, I want to address a question from Sunday, no, Monday, about hiding out, what does it say, hiding out thyself from thine own flesh.

I found when I was looking 3 passages of Scripture that seem like they might help us know whether it means Don't hide yourself from your own skin showing, or don't hide yourself from the needs of your kin.

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 3 and we're looking at verse 17.

What we're doing is looking at passages that seem to be on the same topic as not hiding yourself from your flesh to try to see if Another prophet said the same idea in a different way that would be more clear, whether it means from your own flesh showing or whether it means from your kin.

But whoever has this world's good and sees his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him.

In that verse, which does it lean closer to?

Hiding yourself from your own skin showing or hiding yourself from the needs of your brother?

That you really aren't helping someone if you see their need and then don't pay any attention to it.

We're not going to read the whole passage, but we will read enough to remind us of the story.

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side." Now we know the story.

Which now of these 3 thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?

Does this story seem like a similar idea to not hiding yourself from the need of your neighbor, or similar to not hiding yourself from the appearance of your own flesh?

It looks like to me that the flesh that shows here Isn't the flesh of the kind Samaritan.

It's the flesh of the Needy man, isn't that the flesh that shows?

Look at Nehemiah Chapter 5 in verse 5 Look at Nehemiah 5, Ezra, Esther, Job, and Psalm.

It's Ezra and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalm.

So if you find Psalms, just go back a ways and you'll be there.

Nehemiah said, Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children, and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants.

And some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already, neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards." In this verse, the word flesh there, you see how it's used.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh, what does it say?

So that when Isaiah says, don't hide yourself from your own flesh, Nehemiah 5, 5, does it help us see maybe that it might be referring to someone's else flesh, even though it says your own flesh?

I don't have proof that Isaiah 58 means what I think it does, but I found 3 other passages that seem to have the same idea as Isaiah 58 would have if it means don't hide yourself from the needs of others.

In other words, be aware and open to helping them in their need.

Then that's what I think it means because I found other prophets that said the same idea in different ways.

Do you see how I came to that conclusion?

You find some other prophet talking about a similar idea, says it a different way, and then you have an idea of really probably what the other 1 means because God shares his same thoughts with several other people.

Yesterday I had you read the book of Jonah.

I haven't forgotten that, but before we get to that there's something else.

It's starting to wilt because I picked it 2 hours ago.

And then angles, how we usually make our Ys.

I'm very impressed with this mullein plant.

I don't know, you probably can't see, but someone or some animal or some car hit it and broke it right here.

It looked like someone came along and just went like that.

But instead of it falling off, it just bent over.

I'm sure when it happened it was pointing straight down, but did it kill it?

And it didn't have enough strength in its weak spot here to stand it back up because it really, the fibers here were broken, they really were.

It did its best to curve as fast as it could.

It grew and it turned and right now it's kind of pointing up this way but when I found it this morning before I killed it, I'm sorry, anyway I brought it I sacrificed its life for you.

It was pointing up to the sunshine very courageously.

So, I think you heard in some talk somewhere, I heard someone mention it.

Brother Sligar shared about how a just man falls 7 times and what does he do?

Sometimes where we have fallen in the past we have a real weak area.

I'm curious, I'm not going to ask anybody to tell me what it is, but how many of you, young people and older, know what a really weak area in your life is?

A place where Satan is trying to get you.

It looks like it's just a little more than half.

Listen, every 1 of you that didn't raise your hand, you ought to try to figure that out.

There is some place in your life where the devil has had some success in getting you to trip up there, and you know the devil really doesn't care if he can get you to trip up every time.

In fact, if you end up walking most of the time, but he can trip you up every time he brings you to that certain temptation, he has you like with a hook through your lip.

He can just pull you down any time he feels like it.

What I like about this plant is that though it had a very great weakness and it couldn't change that weakness, it didn't give up going the right direction.

I know this plant did not break under its own weight.

That is, this plant did not, it wasn't growing up like this and just thought, I can't hold my head up any longer, I can't do it, I can't, oh.

Plants are quite courageous in that respect.

I'm going to say this so gently and so right.

If the devil sees 1 of you young ladies prospering in your spiritual life, or 1 of you young men prospering in your spiritual life, he has a little bag of tricks that he will try to use.

He'll try to use someone else to point you when you're trying to aim higher and grow to distract you to looking down to something down here.

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How to Study the Bible

How to Study the Bible: Part 4

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