Illiteracy in the United States

1
Illiteracy in the United States

• U.S. population - 290,809,777 (7/1/03)
• 40,000,000 illiterate (1 out of 7)
• Shows the failure of our education system
• Shows personal failure
• Illiteracy brings tremendous challenges to our
  culture

2
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The Problem

• More critical than the inability to read
• National illiteracy is a skill problem
• Biblical illiteracy is a desire, or heart problem

3
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The Problem

• One can read still be Biblically illiterate
  Acts 827-31
• Addressed by the Lord Have you not read?
  Matthew 123 194 2116 2229, 31
• They had failed to understand and apply the
  things they had read

4
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers in the church

• A lack of teaching Hebrews 512
• For though by this time you ought to be
  teachers, you need someone to teach you again the
  first principles of the oracles of God and you
  have come to need milk and not solid food.

5
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers in the church

• A lack of teaching Hebrews 512
• Leading to apostasy Eph 413-14
• Till we all come to the unity of the faith and
  of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
  man, to the measure of the stature of the
  fullness of Christ that we should no longer be
  children, tossed to and fro and carried about
  with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
  men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
  plotting.

6
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers in the home

• Parents must teach their children Deuteronomy
  66-7
• And these words which I command you today shall
  be in your heart. You shall teach them
  diligently to your children, and shall talk of
  them when you sit in your house, when you walk by
  the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

7
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers in the home

• Parents must teach their children Deuteronomy
  66-7 Ephesians 64
• And you, fathers, do not provoke your children
  to wrath, but bring them up in the training and
  admonition of the Lord.

8
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers in the home

• Parents must teach their children Deuteronomy
  66-7 Ephesians 64
• We must lay a solid foundation Proverbs 226
• Train up a child in the way he should go, And
  when he is old he will not depart from it.

9
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We must have faith in Gods word
• God and His word are inseparable 1 Cor 25,
  10-12
• That your faith should not be in the wisdom of
  men but in the power of GodBut God has revealed
  them to us through His SpiritNow we have
  received, not the spirit of the world, but the
  Spirit who is from God, that we might know the
  things that have been freely given to us by God.

10
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We must have faith in Gods word
• God and His word are inseparable 1 Cor 25,
  10-12
• When God is emphasized, His word is also
  emphasized
• We must know Gods word to know His will

11
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have faith Rom 1017
• So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
  the word of God.

12
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have faith Rom 1017
• We cannot even please God Hebrews 116
• But without faith it is impossible to please
  Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He
  is, and that He is a rewarder of those who
  diligently seek Him.

13
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have faith Rom 1017
• We cannot even please God Hebrews 116
• We cant be sanctified from sin John 1717
• Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

14
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have faith Rom 1017
• We cannot even please God Hebrews 116
• We cant be sanctified from sin John 1717
• We cant have apostolic insight Ephesians 33-4

15

• Ephesians 33-4
• How that by revelation He made known to me the
  mystery as I have briefly written already, by
  which, when you read, you may understand my
  knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

16
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on
  him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
  disciples indeed And ye shall know the truth,
  and the truth shall make you free.

17
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Slaves to righteousness Rom. 616
• Do you not know that to whom you present
  yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's
  slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to
  death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

18
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Slaves to righteousness Rom. 617
• But God be thanked that though you were slaves
  of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form
  of doctrine to which you were delivered.

19
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Slaves to righteousness Rom. 616-17
• We cant know God John 644-45
• No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent
  Me draws him and I will raise him up at the last
  day.

20
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Slaves to righteousness Rom. 616-17
• We cant know God John 644-45
• It is written in the prophets, And they shall
  all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has
  heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

21
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY Dangers to ourselves

• We cant have freedom from sin John 831-32
• Slaves to righteousness Rom. 616-17
• We cant know God John 644-45
• We cant avoid eternal destruction 2 Peter 316

22

• 2 Peter 316
• as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
  these things, in which are some things hard to
  understand, which untaught and unstable people
  twist to their own destruction, as they do also
  the rest of the Scriptures.

23
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Personal Responsibilities
• Develop a love, desire to read Psalms 197-10

24
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Personal Responsibilities
• Develop a love, desire to read 1 Peter
  21-3
• 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, if indeed you have
  tasted that the Lord is gracious.

25
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Personal Responsibilities
• Develop a love, desire to read Matthew 56
• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
  righteousness, For they shall be filled.

26
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Personal Responsibilities
• Develop a love, desire to read Psalms 197-10 1
  Peter 21-3 Matthew 56
• Desire the God of this word Psalms 421-2 James
  48 Psalms 11997-98, 102-104

27

• Psalm 421-2
• As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants
  my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God,
  for the living God. When shall I come and appear
  before God?
• James 48
• Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
  Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your
  hearts, you double-minded.

28

• Psalm 11997-98, 102-104
• Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all
  the day. You, through Your commandments, make me
  wiser than my enemies For they are ever with me.
  
• I have not departed from Your judgments, For You
  Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words
  to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
  Through Your precepts I get understanding
  Therefore I hate every false way.

29
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Personal Responsibilities
• Develop a love, desire to read Psalms 197-10 1
  Peter 21-3 Matthew 56
• Desire the God of this word Psalms 421-2 James
  48 Psalms 11997-98, 102-104
• Then we can teach others 2 Tim 22

30

• 2 Timothy 22
• And the things that you have heard from me among
  many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who
  will be able to teach others also.

31
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Collective Responsibilities
• Prepare for and participate in joint assemblies
  where this word is taught, studied Heb 1024-25

32

• Hebrews 1024-25
• And let us consider one another in order to stir
  up love and good works, not forsaking the
  assembling of ourselves together, as is the
  manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so
  much the more as you see the Day approaching.

33
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Collective Responsibilities
• Prepare for and participate in joint assemblies
  where this word is taught, studied Heb 1024-25
• Participate through attendance
• Prepare for classes

34
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Desire to
• Become that person of which God approves 2
  Timothy 215
• Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
  workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
  dividing the word of truth.

35
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Desire to
• Become that person of which God approves 2
  Timothy 215
• Know the will of God John 832
• And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
  make you free.

36
BIBLICAL ILLITERACY The solution

• Desire to
• Become that person of which God approves 2
  Timothy 215
• Know the will of God John 717
• Receive His word James 121
• Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow
  of wickedness, and receive with meekness the
  implanted word, which is able to save your souls.