Do we realize the importance of embracing and acting upon the knowledge that we have been given as God's people? Do we always act upon what we know?
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Good morning, everyone. It is good to be here. I thank Mr. Pinelli for the opportunity to speak to you this morning and I so appreciated the earlier message and would like to just re-iterate your prayers for God's people who are serving in some of these areas, and as we've heard already that are sometimes in travail. I've had an opportunity to travel to Nigeria and our brethren there also face various and sundry battles to the point where, at night when the sun sets, not many people go out. One of the first things I've learned: "Mr. Carey, it is time to go home." — When it is time to go home fellowship stops. You get into the car and you go — it is getting dark. So, be thankful brethren, you have the ability to go out on your back porch at night and look at the stars in peace. It is very special. Not all of God's people are able to do such things because of where they live and the battles and things that they face in many cases on a very daily basis.
I bring you greetings from your family in Delmar, Delaware; and Williamsburg, Virginia; the areas that I pastor. I spoke to my wife this morning on the way to the services: she said today in Williamsburg it is going to be 52 degrees and I said: Why are you telling me this? It is snow-flurrying outside here but actually I do love cool weather. I love cold and when I lived in Pasadena for a couple of years I struggled around January, February.
My wife was walking around: Oh, isn't this great! Isn't this wonderful! And I will go: I guess; I guess. Well, I wish I could wear my sweater but, I guess?
But again it is good to be here brethren and to have the opportunity to speak and you know, by way of introduction — I love sports. I played college football; played baseball; coached everything about that you can think of and in putting this message together, I had the body, I had the SPS, and I thought: What can I use to kind of break into and immediately — Ah, I wonder if there is something sports-worthy I could bring into it and actually this is something that happened here in Cincinnati last year.
Some of you will remember that there was a contest that went on here in Cincinnati between your Cincinnati Bengals and the Philadelphia Eagles and that game was hotly contested. How many of you remember what happened at the conclusion of that game? It ended in a tie. If you do all of that work and you fight; you struggle; you score here; they score; but what came out of that contest is something that a lot of you didn't know — and that was that the quarter-back for the Philadelphia Eagles did not know that a professional football game could end in a tie. As the game was in the extra quarter and he is there, just kind of non-chalantly going about things, knowing that well — we are going to continue to play until somebody wins - and in a lot of over-time games it happens so quickly you never get to play the entire quarter.
The big story after that contest was: Wow, how did this guy, making all this money, not know — playing football since he was a child — that a game could end in a tie? — And that became the big story of that contest. Wow, you are the quarterback and you didn't know? — You make all this money? I thought to myself: being a quarterback is a busy job. You have to know the plays; you have to call the different formations and maybe the rulebook just never got into his head about that tie.
Then I thought about us brethren, in the church. We have been given a lot of information in our Rulebook. There is a lot of information at your hands, at your fingertips, at any time and you can draw from that. If you like titles — and it is the longest title I've ever given a sermon — Are you too busy to learn what you think you know?
We've been given a lot as God's people brethren, but we live in a busy society. We live in a world where Satan is constantly bombarding us and although we might say well, you know, I know some things; I know a lot of things; have we truly learnt the lesson of those things that we say we know?
If you are in a conversation with someone and somewhere along the lines of the conversation — well, I know, I know, I know — especially if they had not completed an assignment and you say I needed that and they say: "I know, I know, I know." What are they saying with that "I know, I know, I know"? "I don't want you to talk about this anymore; I don't want to hear this anymore. I know, I know, I know!"
When it comes to responsibility and accountability, brethren, I would like to talk to you this morning about the importance of embracing and acting upon the knowledge that we have been given as God's people. Embracing the knowledge that we have been given as God's people because you know we are required to do so. We know a lot of things, don't we brethren? We know when the Sabbath is. Oh, I know when the Sabbath is. You know what time church begins — in a.m. it is 11 o'clock. Do we always act upon what we know? I would like to talk to you about that today.
Turn over to Hebrews 5 by way of our continuing introduction here. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created along with the Father, the first human being — let Us make man in our image, after our likeness — gave man his ability to think and to understand and rationalize. There is something very interesting about Jesus Christ. Again, we have heard these scriptures many times. I'd like to take this today and present it to you perhaps a little bit differently when it comes to Jesus Christ and all that He is.
Hebrews 5:8 though He was a son, — He was the God of the Old TestamentThose books that make up the Hebrew Bible generally accepted by Christians, Jews and to some extent Muslims. It contains a threefold division: the Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets and the Writings.; we are told He learned — He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
Our older brother learned. Let's face it brethren, up until that time, after that three-and-a-half year period, nobody spat in His face; nobody punched Him; nobody had stabbed Him with a sword; Oh, He was called names to be sure, but He suffered, He learned through the things He suffered. That's why He is seated at the right hand of Power. He
says: "Father, I know." When we go before Him on our knees and we pray, He says: "I know", and He uses your name and He uses my name. When we are in the midst of a trial, He says: "I know about suffering. I know." When you are hanging and looking down you can see as you breathe your bones, you say: That is different.
He says: "I know what they are going through." He wants us to understand that as God calls us and as He gives us His Spirit, He says: now I am giving this to you. I want you to do something with it.
Sometimes we would ask if someone was having difficulties — they maybe left the church — and we will say: Were they baptized? But more important than that: what were they doing? What were they doing? Were they acting upon the things which they had learnt? Again, there is a lot of knowledge; a lot of people know a lot of things. That is how those tracts land up on your cars last weekend. People have knowledge. What are they doing with that knowledge? How are we working with that knowledge?
The apostle Peter, before he was the apostle Peter - remember what happened that first encounter as Christ is beginning to call His disciples - and He is in the boat and He tells them to pull up fish; and he pulled up the fish and it is full; and Peter is just astonished and he fell down before Christ and what did he say? "Depart from me. I am vulgar. I am a nasty man. You don't want to be around me. I am vulgar."
Christ said: "You are going to be fishers of men. I am going to teach you. I am going to work with you." He did; for three-and-a-half years; and there were a lot of things that Peter knew. He knew, to the point where when Christ said: Look, it is about time for Me to suffer greatly and you're all going to leave Me, including you, Peter.
Well, oh, no! No! I know. I know. I am not running away. I know I am going to stick right there with you.
How many of us perhaps would have said the same thing?
No, no! — see look what you've given me for three-and-a-half years; I am right there.
And yet brethren, as He is being interrogated and the young girl came up and said: Hey! You are one of them. Your speech betrays you. We know!
That was the time brethren for Peter to act upon what he thought he knew. But things got kind of busy around there; soldiers come up; he whacks off Malchus's ear; a lot of things are happening, you know; everybody is very emotional; and now it was time for him to stand and to follow through what he said. He said: I know. I am not going to leave you.
And as he was blaspheming, reverting back to the way he was in the boat, what happened to everything he knew? Well, he hadn't quite learnt yet brethren, what he thought he knew. He thought he was going to stand up; he thought he was going to be an example; he thought he was going to rescue Jesus Christ, and he didn't. He was too busy to learn what he thought he knew and he hadn't totally learnt the lesson.
In Titus 1:16 we are told that there would be some who would profess to know God. Brethren, there are a lot of people today who profess they know God; they know Jesus; they love Jesus; they wear it on their cars with bumper-stickers; have placards with: "Know the Lord" "We love Jesus" — but do they really know who He is?
Paul said to Titus: Titus, you are going to run into people like this — hey, we know God; I know when the Holy Days are; I know when the Sabbath is.
But he said: You know what? The things they do will deny what they think they know. The things they will do, and you will see it, and it will manifest itself in the way they treat one another; in the things they say; how they harm people in the congregations. People, brethren, one day are going to go into the lake of fire and they are going to know, they are going to know, that is in part why they are going.
They are going to: I know! I know!
But what did they do with their knowledge? They were too busy to learn what they thought they knew and they will make their way into the lake of fire. All that knowledge, all that information, all that was given to them, when it came time to act upon it, they did not and so that knowledge meant absolutely nothing — absolutely nothing.
We have the examples of Matthew 25:24 about the parable of the talents.
The man said: I know you! I know you can be an austere man.
He didn't know. He thought he knew and was judged accordingly.
Let's take a turn to Luke 6 and let's personalize this a little bit this morning.
Luke 6:45 Jesus Christ speaking a parable: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; he is acting upon what he knows.
We talk about the fruit of the Spirit and that we are supposed to not only possess those [fruits] brethren, they should exude from us. So you can say: Well, that person is obviously deeply converted because you can tell in the way they carry themselves; How they approach spiritual things in their lives, so that is going to be noticeable because there is something happening.
V.45 —...and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
And then he asks the question:
V.46 — "But why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord', — Why do you say My name? Why do you use my title? Why do you sing songs about Me?
Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and there He will teach us His way and we will walk in His paths. He says: Why do you do that and you don't even do anything? You say it but you don't do. You don't act upon the things you say.
V.46 — "But why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord', and do not do the things which I say? — Yet you profess: I know you!
V.47 — Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings — hear it — and does them — does them — not only during the good times when things are on the upswing but also when you hear the Word and it is like: You know, part of me really doesn't even want to attempt this but I know what it is I must do. So, I must act and ask God to give me a heart to act upon what I know to do. He doesn't stop there. He says:
V.48 — He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, — difficult times — the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. They were doing something. They went around, assessed it and said: You know, look at this trial, look how it is coming against us. What are we to do about this? You must have a plan of action against this.
V.49 — But he who heard — He who says: I know, I know, I know. I know how to be more polite; I know I shouldn't be so — but they don't do anything about it. Well, it is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."
I can remember as a young single sitting around a lunch table — a group of singles, about eleven of us — and we began talking about how God began to work with us and trials that came upon us that, you know, whatever it was that hit you, that said: This is the way. I've got to act upon this. It got to my turn and I told a little story about the Sabbath.
I was doing a lot of research before I came into the church and I researched the Sabbath. I knew the Sabbath; knew it - Remember the Sabbath; keep it holy - I could tell you, until that time my boss asked me to work Friday night. There were only four supervisors. I was one — the other three had worked there — the time is Friday, midnight to eight a.m. Now mind you, I prayed before I went in. I wanted to let God know that see, you know, there was no other way. I asked that, you know, the phone doesn't ring very much because I don't want to do a whole lot of work this night. See, I wanted to kind of break it gently.
That's all. Just break it gently. I knew what the commandment was. I just hadn't learnt to act upon what I thought I knew. So when the next morning came and I was walking out to my car, I said: It's done! Never again; never again.
I went to my supervisor and said: That's it. I have to be fired.
Why? Because I cannot work Friday sunset to Saturday sunset — and then the powers that be began to work some things out and then suddenly I got all my Fridays and Saturdays off. I learnt, and from then on I acted upon what I knew.
The stories went around the table and the people had similar stories like mine. When they — I know, I know, I know — but you see of course the whole time I was working I had think about my excuse if the minister asks me, you know, I have to have my story together. It is sin. Sin is sin. There is no gentle sin. There is no gentle breaking of the Sabbath. You broke it. I was too busy to learn at that time but I have learnt and I have embraced and now I act upon that which I know, brethren.
I have two points that I want to bring to you this morning. Hopefully we will make the point of what we have been given brethren, how we must embrace and act upon that which we had been given and not be too busy to learn.
The first is: Reach for the right yoke. Reach for the right yoke with boldness. There are times brethren, in every congregation - you know we can sometimes burden each other with yokes — have you ever had a yoke laid upon you? Maybe somebody is a little gruff with you or perhaps somebody offends you. It is like over to the shelf and you get a yoke and (sound of putting it on), I have a yoke! We walk that yoke and sometimes we put yokes on people and we can walk around like a bunch of yolkers. We're sitting there and somebody comes and talks to you: You doing O.K.? Oh my, he's got a yoke.
Sometimes we put yokes on ourselves. Sometimes if we are struggling with some type of Christian living or spiritually — I am not good enough; God doesn't want me; He doesn't hear — That is a self-yoke, and sometimes we don't want people to take our yokes from us. We want to keep our yoke and sometimes we think because that person offended me I can wear my yoke and I can walk around the congregation and when I see him I will turn away.
We can use the old adage: Oh well, I know that person. They will never change. I know them. Here is my dear friend, Mr. Pinelli. Mr. Pinelli — he offended me and so when someone comes up and asks: how is Mr. Pinelli? Oh, I don't want to talk about Mr. Pinelli. What's wrong with Mr. Pinelli? Let me tell you about Mr. Pinelli. Let me tell you about what I know. If I know how Mr. Pinelli is then I don't need to go out and ever reconcile with Mr. Pinelli, because I know who he is!
Now did you ask and see if Mr. Pinelli was having a hard day or inquiring what was happening? No, No! — He spoke to me and he hurt my feelings.
Here is Mr. Pinelli — do you know what we do sometimes, brethren? Have you ever played paper football? Man, Mr. Pinelli — kicked to the curb! Which means what? I don't have to deal with Mr. Pinelli anymore because see, I know him. So he doesn't get a chance. He is going to walk through my personal fires of perdition and when I feel he might have done enough then I will go over offer him a cracker with some peanut butter on it. I am just too busy too learn about my dear friend over there because obviously he doesn't like me. So I can justify my yoke.
Is that the yoke we are to reach for brethren? Is that the yoke God wants you and I to wear? Sometimes, you know, we place yokes on people that God would never place on anybody.
Yet, you look at what Jesus Christ said, brethren. Turn to Matthew 11 — what is the yoke that we are to wear? What is the yoke we are to reach for in good times and in difficult times? Jesus Christ tells us. After He unbridled these cities earlier on, braking into the thought there in verse 20:
Matthew 11: 20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because — what? They didn't act upon what He had taught them. He gave them vital information. They said: We know, we know, we know. They didn't act on it.
V.21 — "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed a long time ago. They didn't repent and say: Wow, we came this close to being destroyed. I am changing; I am there; I know I must change and alter my life.
V.22 — But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
V.23 — And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
V.24 — But I say to you — and what does God say? You and I have been given so much, so much. What are we doing with it? Is life so busy, flying at a rapid pace that we don't take the time — of course we say: I don't have the time; I really would like to pray; I wish I had time to study; you know, I know Church is on the Sabbath and I know what time Church begins; I know; I know a lot of things. It is just that I don't have time to get to it.
V. 27 — Jesus Christ says: All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
So He says: You guys out there with your yokes on, including Todd Carey — I get yokes every now and then; I have given a few; received a few. He says:
V.28 — Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, - with whatever trial is just weighing you down; with whatever incident that is causing you sleepless nights. He says: Why don't you come to Me? Why don't you learn what it is you think you know? He says: I will give you something — it is called rest. He says: I am willing to give that to you. I will give you rest.
Then He says:
V.29 - You take mine — You take My yoke and after you have taken it upon you, learn from Me. He says: Because I have been there. I understand what struggles are. I understand having to suffer.
James and John — Christ said: Are you able to drink from My cup?
Oh, yeah! We know we can!
You will. - but at that moment in time, they hadn't truly learnt what it was to drink from that cup. It sounded really good when they said: "Oh, we can drink it." They still had lessons to learn from their Master. He said:
V.29 ...for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. You will find it. It is there. It is going to take your yoke off and take on His and learn, and put it into practice those that Jesus Christ, brethren, wants to teach us. That's what He said: I wish you will learn from Me.
It is not always going to be easy. Sometimes it is difficult to learn lessons when you are going through the trials of life but how many of us always say, as I am going through the trial: What is God trying to teach Me? -and I hope I learn the lesson — don't we? - I hope I learn. That's the attitude to have. For whatever reason, I hope I learn the lesson.
Paul sought that yoke. He sought the yoke of Jesus Christ and he passed along what he had learnt. Look at Philippians 4, brethren. He too, gives a little formula. He too talks about that peace. Mr. Hernandes said: We live in a world that is pressing against us; pushing against us; wants your time; wants to just clog your veins with all sorts of things so that you don't have opportunity to remember that you need some peace. Not the world's peace — we are talking about something else. He conveys this message to the Church in Philippi.
Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
V.8 — Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.
V.9 — Here is the formula: The things which you learned in the Lord. The things which you learned — that is part one; and received — you learn and say: I want that; I embrace that; I receive it; I bring it in; what you heard and what you saw — heard, saw, receive, learn. If you saw them in me, he says, you do them. You do them, and if you do them, brethren, the God of peace will be with you. He will be with you. He will give you, He will grant you, that peace. So what we have learnt, he exhorts us to do.
And finally, number two: Act upon what you know. Once you have taken on the yoke of Christ — you say: O.K., I am going to learn and I am going to act upon this.
Let's turn over to 1 Thessalonians 4. Again, there are so many scriptures that go along these lines, are there not brethren? It is not the hearers, it is not the knowers, it is the doers. It is the doers.
1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk - You've got to do something with the knowledge that you have been blessed to have. You must walk — and to please God;
V.2 — for you know — here it is: You know what you ought to be doing; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
V.3 — For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
V.4 — that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
V.5 — not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
V.6 — that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter,
Let's go to Ephesians 2 as we are beginning to close now brethren. You can bet that Donovan McNabb, the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, would do all he can to never get caught in a tie ever again. If the game is close coming down to the line, he is
going to run and — Guys, come on, because I don't want another tie! He is going to make sure and do all he can to never be placed in a position where his team will end in a tie with another.
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, at one time we were dead and perhaps early on we were babes and we were getting knowledge. We didn't always do it correctly. We had to mature so that we could act upon the information that we have been given. That is why he would tell those congregations who had to get it: You know, you are not there and some of you need to be retold. You ought to be teachers by now. He says:
V.2 — in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
V.3 — among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, and we have our lives busy and all out of sorts.
We are too busy to learn what we thought we knew. I admonished my congregations after the Feast and said: Why don't — some of the things you want to do this year prior to the Passover, maybe there is something you want to work with. Maybe if you have a difficult time getting to Church on time. You can tell: Yeah, Church starts at 11 o'clock, but if I am always habitually late, am I acting upon what I know?
You say: "I know it is 11 o'clock Mr. Carey, you don't have to tell me."
O.K. What are you going to do?
V.4 — But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
V.5 — even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and we took that yoke,
V.19 —Now, therefore, — with that knowledge, with that understanding, now that you are equipped, now that you not only know, but also practice — and that is the difference brethren between being religious and practicing your religion; A lot of religious people throughout the land; how many truly practice their religion? - with fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
V.20 — having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
He says: Come to Me. This is where it all happens. This is where you learn to act upon what it is.
So brethren, let us not be too busy to learn what we think that we know. Let us show forth, through our actions, let us act on the things we truly know, and if we are not sure, that is when you go to God and say: Father, I need wisdom in this area so that I can act accordingly because I want to do right before you. Request that wisdom in such matters.
May this spiritual race that we are running, brethren, not end in a tie. That is not what you have been called to do — to end in a tie. You and I brethren, have been called to run this race in such a way, having read the Rulebook, it says: Look, you've got to finish. You've got to finish.
So run in a way that you may finish. Let's do all we can brethren to run that race. Let's do all we can to obtain that victory. Let us continue as God's people to, not only know, but to act and embrace those things we've come to know.
