Sermon Transcript — November 2, 2002
Well, good noontime, everybody; it’s nice to be with you. I guess I can say good afternoon now. It’s nice that you give up your lunch hour to come to have services in this special ABC Sampler. This is the seventh sampler we have done that’s a mini sampler. We call them mini samplers; we do them over the weekends. We call them samplers when we do them for the whole week, but they’re all a sample of the ABC classes that we actually take sections from actual classes that we teach at ABC, and bring them to you. We obviously will make some refinements based on the time allocations, and also to try to give you a particular segment. But we try to bring it out to you, as one person was telling me, and I think I put both of these on - let’s make sure this one is on - yes; they’re both on. I guess I can’t see too well out there with all the lights on me, but anyway, we are appreciative of coming out. So far we’ve reached almost a thousand. After this year we will have over a thousand brethren, which means about one out of ten in the United States have had an opportunity to attend a sampler. I know there are some, I’ve met one of the ladies here who’s been to not only the sampler in Cincinnati, she went to Minneapolis for the mini sampler, and then this is her third time. We have people who really are anxious to come to them; Phoenix is going to be hosting the December mini sampler this year. They were so enthusiastic for it, they wanted me to come back right away.
And we said, "Well, no we can’t do that. We went there in 2000. We said, but send it in, if you want to." And they sent back again. Randy Schreiber said the people out here keep hounding him to have another one of these mini samplers in this area, would you please do it. And since we had no other enthusiastic person on the west coast asking for one this year, we went ahead and decided to go back for a second time. I think they had anywhere close to about a hundred and eighty to two hundred who came to the mini sampler out there as well. So we’re very grateful for the brethren’s enthusiasm for the word of God, and as one person said to me out in Phoenix, he said, "You know, Ambassador College never took Ambassador College instruction out to the brethren. You either had to go there, or you got none."
And so we are working at trying to give you - there we go - programs by which we can actually video tape classes and have them available on the website, as well as send them out into the church areas. This year we hope to do two classes, one from the Old Testament, one from the New, I’ll probably do general epistles, and Dr. Levy is thinking about doing the law. So, he goes through the law; I go through the general epistles; we’ll have those two classes recorded so that they can be available on video tapes and sent out to all of you.
Last year they did doctrines, and as far as I know, that has not been sent out yet. But it is being edited, so it may be sent out and prepared. The reason they have to edit it is sometimes in class, you have class comments or interaction, so you have to make sure you don’t, especially if it’s not pertinent to the general church area, it might be something about ABC, or whatever that comes up, so you have to edit some of that out where it’s not pertinent to the topic. Other than that, they should be ready to get those out, with Jim Franks and Leon Walker having presented that this past year.
ABC is looking fine this year. We have somewhere around thirty-five. We have thirty-three accepted already. We just got like three or four more guys who have applied, which is very encouraging. We have, looks like about thirty-seven, and I believe they are going to bring a person in - ministerial services is going to be bringing an elder to attend ABC as well - I won’t say who yet. Let that be their issue, but they’re going to be bringing an elder in for ABC training because he has not had Ambassador training so that he may be able to be better used in the work. So, hopefully that will transpire this coming year as well.
That puts us up to thirty-seven.
We don’t anticipate as many as we had last year. We had fifty. We probably are looking at forty to forty-five, and you will get these ebbs and flows, and then you get the rising and falling in the attendance figures. We started off with twenty-four, then we had thirty-nine, last year, we had fifty. So I am thinking right around forty to forty-five this year, which is fine for us. Happy to have that; we don’t look upon that as a setback. We look upon that as trying to educate those who can take the time to come seven months. And so when you sit today for a few hours, and then when you sit tomorrow for more hours, you’ll get a sense of what those who attended - I think Dale and Sandy Puerner are the only two that I know who are here who actually sat through the program for the full seven months. You’ll get an idea, just a little idea, a mini idea, of what it’s like to sit and have classes day in and day out. And so that’s part of the plan is to give you a sense of what it was like, but also to convey to you information. And we do try to change the information around, especially if they are in adjacent areas to bring different material as we are able and try to give people an education in God’s word, a smattering here and a smattering there.
So, that’s about all I wanted to say about it. I bring you greetings from the home office. Roy Holladay stopped in yesterday, it was a surprise, not yesterday, but the day before. He was surprised to see me in the office. He thought I had already left on Thursday, and I had not yet, and so he said please to be sure to give his greetings to all of you, as he is in the area doing a good job, a hard act to follow Mr. McCullough, but he’s doing a very fine job of coming in, has new ideas, fresh ideas, fresh approach, and so on; it is going very well.
We’re working on a Christ centered servant leadership approach in the home office. The staff is going over it. The management is discussing it, and we regularly discuss that in the staff meetings which are held every other week. We also have been opening every week with prayer, on Mondays, when we begin the week, the whole staff comes together in the conference room. We sit around and talk for maybe five or ten minutes about anything that’s happening that we should be aware of, you need us to pray about especially, and then someone, one of the members of the staff is asked to lead in prayer, and just ask God’s blessing on us so that we may serve with a right attitude, a right heart, and that we will do the job that God has called us to do. So, I think it really has been having a good effect on the office staff in welding us together
Okay, enough on that. I want to get into the message, which I have a split sermon; I’ll give the first part, and then Mr. Rhodes will continue whatever I don’t give. So, I’ll try to not take his time.
Did you know that every sixty seconds more than two thousand typed pages of information are added to man’s knowledge? In just twenty-four hours of material produced, just twenty-four hours of that material, would take a single person five years to read.
Did you know that today more than eighty percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive today? More than eighty percent. Knowledge is sky-rocketing. I’ll share with you some knowledge information in a moment. Yet, it’s been said that the person who knows everything has a lot to learn. And also, Winston Churchill said, "Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."
So, knowledge, there’s lots of knowledge out there; there’s lots of information that needs to be learned. Sometimes, I’ll get into studying; you get into studying deeply on one particular topic, and you think, "Why did I never know all this? How come?" And you see a wealth of information, and one thing leads to another, leads to another and you realize how little you know on various and sundry topics. It is amazing how much knowledge is out there.
Hosea 4:6 - We read a startling prophecy from the pen of Hosea.
Hosea 4:6 - We read this: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." God says His "people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Confucius, who was a far-eastern Chinese philosopher, who established a religion called Confucianism. Confucius believed the biggest problem of society was people were not educated. He believed if you educated people and taught them the right way that those people would be able to not go the way of crime and become criminals, but that they would be good, appropriate members of our society.
You also think about today, the knowledge that’s being spread among the Muslims, where people are being taught to hate, being taught that killing is okay, being taught from the Koran, which does indicate some things like that, that it’s okay to kill people, kill infidels, kill those who don’t accept your religion, kill those who are not "people of the Book," and even kill some of those who are "people of the Book," which Christians and Jews are considered, because of mis-education. What do they say, something like eighty to ninety percent of kids interviewed in the Middle East and Palestine said they would be happy to be a suicide bomber. Where are they learning that? Education. Knowledge.
Hosea decries:
Hosea 4:6 - "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge," as he brings this message from God. "I will also reject you, seeing that you shall be no priest to me: seeing that you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children." So, people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and yet, 2 Peter 3:18, we are exhorted to grow in knowledge as Christians. We’re told we should be studying. We should study God’s word. We should study truth. We should want to know and have knowledge.
2 Peter 3:18 - "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever." So Peter urges us to grow in knowledge, but he also urges us to couple that, to connect that, with grace. So we’re to grow in knowledge, but we must also grow in grace if we truly want to be effective in the learning process. Let’s see these two components from God’s eyes.
First of all I wanted to share with you knowledge. This is just knowledge that’s out there. Did you know, you may not care to know this, but did you know that Panama hats did not come from Panama? They came from Ecuador. Did you know the Irish potato didn’t come from Ireland? It came from Peru. Did you know that bananas grow pointing upwards? And did you know there are more people of Irish descent in the United States than in Ireland? And did you know that it would take you nine thousand years to count to one billion? That means it would take you nine years to count to a million.
Now when people throw around figures like there are so many millions, you think, how long would it take, just counting, one, two, three, four, five, six, according to this, nine thousand years it would take you to count one billion. Isn’t that phenomenal? Saying those figures, one, two, three, four. . . yourself. That’s information. Who cares? Information.
This is another quote I have: Halfway mark of knowledge - Studies have shown that the halfway point of all human knowledge is located less than ten years ago. That is, man’s knowledge has doubled within the past decade. Every sixty seconds, this is the one that talks about two thousand type-written pages are added to man’s knowledge, so the amount of knowledge, the amount of information being generated, man’s knowledge, the halfway point of all the knowledge that’s been out there was reached ten years ago.
A boom in knowledge. For thirty-five hundred years, man fought with swords and bows until gun powder was invented. Then it took several centuries to advance from crude hand guns to sophisticated weaponry like rockets and missiles and cannons and so on, bombs. In the last fifty years all the armies have gone from field artillery to multi-warhead intercontinental missiles and space war gadgets, you know, that we have out there for the laser beams.
Suppose a chemist or a physicist sits down and does nothing for twenty-four hours but simply reads the scientific journals in his own area of expertise. At the end of a year, he would still be three months behind.
I know, I get overloaded. I get lots of journals and things for marriage and family therapy, and I mean, they just pile up; I can’t keep up with them. I can’t find enough time to read them; I skim.them; I can’t find enough time to read them. And that’s just in my field. It’s prolific; the knowledge that’s out there.
Let’s talk about knowledge first, and then let’s talk about grace. There are two components in God’s eyes we’ll look at.
Knowledge means to have information or facts. That’s what it means. You’re getting the facts, Ma’am, you know, the Joe Friday, just the facts, just the facts. Knowledge has to do with the accumulation of facts. Hopefully, you understand that knowledge when it’s just raw information. Looks at little kids, I have a seven-year-old, very precocious granddaughter. She knows a lot of words. She has a great vocabulary. She knows the words; sometimes she doesn’t know what they mean, but she knows the words, and she can say them sometimes. You say, what does that mean? Well, she doesn’t know, but she can read them, and she can pronounce them; she knows them. Now, again, a lot of us have knowledge, but how much knowledge is understood. We hope the knowledge we have, we can understand as well how it fits.
Proverbs 23:12 - Just some quotes from the Proverbs about knowledge because we’ll see knowledge is important to gather, but it’s also important to link it with grace.
Proverbs 23:12 - We read this: "Apply your heart to instruction." So I take it a lot of you came today for Sabbath services; a number of you will stay for the program tomorrow to get the full dose. You’ll get part of it tonight. The rest of you will stay; you’ll get the rest of the hours tomorrow, six hours of lecturing tomorrow as well as the four today that you will have from Mr. Rhodes and myself. But in Proverbs 23:12, He says, "Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge." So, God wants us to get knowledge. But, what type of knowledge? Again, we’ll see that in a moment.
Proverbs 1:5 - The Proverbs were written to give wisdom. The Proverbs were written so that a person could hear and could understand. Proverbs 1:5 "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning." I mean, there is so much out there that we don’t know. Every time I teach a class, I go through okay, I get more information. My only question is, what do I do with all this information. Because sometimes I have information overload. How much do I dump on the brethren? How much don’t I? How much do I give? How much don’t I? That’s where you have to kind of filter, maybe add this in occasionally, and that with every year, you gain more knowledge; you grow more; you understand more.
Proverbs 1:5 - "A wise man will hear, and increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:" So, the person who understands what he’s learned; who sees how those facts fit together; see how they apply in various circumstances, that’s the person that’s going to attain to wise counsels.
Proverbs 8:33 - We read this: "Hear instruction." So, we have to be willing; we have to have that desire to learn. And when will you stop learning; when will any of us stop learning? When you die. You are always learning, always learning. My dad’s ninety-three, almost going to be ninety-four in December, and he and my mom, who is eighty-nine, they like to sit and watch Jeopardy. Now, it’s amazing, because Jeopardy has some pretty hard questions. They sit there, and they try to answer the questions, too. My dad loves to work crossword puzzles, and works them better than I do. I have a master’s degree; he’s got a seventh grade education, and he works crossword puzzles better than I do. He keeps it as his routine. He sits down, but he keeps his mind active, learning, applying it, putting into action what he can. But Proverbs 8:33 says, "Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not." So, there has to be a desire in us.
I know when I went to school, as I went through school. I liked school, I mean, I didn’t like the tests. I didn’t like preparing for exams and all that, but I liked school overall. But I am thinking, "You know what? After twelfth grade, I’m finished!" No. You’re just beginning! Then I went to college, okay, will I just finish? No. Now you have to go get a master’s degree if you’re going to teach at Ambassador. Okay, so I went at forty-eight to get a master’s degree.
Okay, now I’m finished. I came back from finishing my master’s degree, and they said, "No. If you’re going to teach theology, you need eighteen upper division units at graduate school on the graduate level." So, I had to take eighteen more units. All of those were work and effort, but they all had to do with learning. And you know what? Learning never stops. Learning never stops. We need to have that craving: I want to know how; I want to know why; I want to know where; I want to know when. So, that we can learn and put that knowledge to use.
Now, sure you can learn a bunch of knowledge that’s not good for anything. I used to know how to do chemistry. I used to know how to tell you how chemical compounds went together. I used to be able to put them together in a chemical engineering program. I used to know how to tell you just by the curve on a particular chart what the mathematical formula was for that, because I took calculus. Differential calculus. Analytic geometry. I almost had a minor in math. What can I do now? Well, I think I can add and subtract and multiply and divide. But I never used those, so they are basically obsolete to me. Once in a while, I’ll find an old college manual that I did, and college workbook, and I’ll say, "Wow, I can’t believe I did that? It’s got my name on it. I did those formulas? I wrote that all up?" Because it was knowledge, but, see, it’s not knowledge that I use. There’s lots of knowledge out there, but we must be careful that we don’t get trapped into just searching out knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and every one of us has some area that we’re experts at. You know, some of you are experts at how to rebuild a car. I couldn’t rebuild a car engine. Some of you are experts at how to fix the dents in the cars. I don’t do that. Some of you are experts on various assembly lines; some of you are various experts on production, various production lines. Many of us are not experts in that area. Some are expert dancers; some are expert singers; some are experts in music. We all have an expertise, but we all must have a basic knowledge of the truth. We’ll see that in a moment. Look at Proverbs 10:14.
Proverbs 10:14 - "Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction." So, wise men look to accumulate. What can I learn from this? What can I learn from this situation? What can I learn from that situation? How can I better relate to others with the knowledge of this?
When we went to Ambassador, that was back in 1959, I went to Ambassador, we all were required to take a music appreciation course. A music appreciation course was a very dull course, and I can name names of ministers, including Les McCullough and others who did not like music appreciation. But we had to sit through it, okay? We learned about music through the ages, and it was not country western; let’s put it that way. And it was not rock and roll; it was not popular. It was more of the heavier stuff that some people may love; I don’t. I’ll listen to it. Sometimes there is good melody to it, and good harmony, and we sat through concerts and all the rest.
You know, at that time, I said, "What good does this do?" But, you know, when I relate to people who are in the music field, I have a sense of that music because I was forced to take it. And I learned some things about it. But that’s not where I’m going to be; it not where I’m going to dwell in that particular area either. But it’s important to lay up knowledge.
As I was told when I was taking the counseling course, they said, "Now you’re going to hear some things in this counseling that you’re going to think is really far out. You see, all I ask you to do is, I don’t say you have to adopt it; all I ask you to do is just file it away if your mind will accept it. Just file it away.
Someday you may pull it out from that shelf and use it." And I did find at time, "Oh, this will never work." And later on, "Yeah, well, maybe this will work." Pulled it out, tried it, and it did work. So knowledge, we accumulate knowledge that we can use.
Proverbs 14:15-16 - You know, when you’re taking in knowledge, it’s important for you to think. The early years of Ambassador, what Mr. Armstrong tried to show was the typical learning where you take this funnel, you drill a hole into the person’s head, you put a funnel there, and it showed the teacher with knowledge in a pitcher just dumping knowledge into this person’s head. So, they’re just receiving it, okay? I tell you, and I urge you, to study the word of God. I urge you to check things out.
Proverbs 14:15 - We read this. "The simple believes every word: but the prudent man looked well to his going." And notice verse 16:
Verse 16: "A wise man fears, and departs from evil: but the fool rages and is confident." The key point being, don’t accept everything thrown at you. Think about it. Think it through. How does this apply? Does it fit? Does it fit there; does it fit there? Many times, I would say, "Okay, this person said this; I don’t know if that’s true. That’s the first time I’ve heard that. I’m going to check it out. I’ll make a little note. I’m going to go check it out." Anyway, even talk to the person. Often times what people will do, they’ll come to me about a sermon that Mr. Rhodes gave; I’m just teasing. They’ll come to me about a sermon somebody else gave, and they’ll say, "What did he mean by that?"
And I’ll say, "Why don’t you ask him?" What? Are you asking me to interpret what he meant by that? I don’t know. I’m not him.
But often times, if somebody says something that you don’t understand, to go up to them politely and kindly and just say, you know, "Sir, you brought this issue up. Can you explain that further? I’m having a difficult time quite understanding that. Can you enlighten me further?" It gives them a chance to help you, and maybe you still won’t understand it.
I know of one case, somebody brought up an issue, and I checked it out, and he was wrong. He was wrong on it. He assumed something that was not there. But I checked it out. I wanted to make sure. I just made a note of it; I wasn’t able to ask him about it at that time. I went and I checked it out with my commentaries in Greek, and so on, and what he said was not accurate. He didn’t say it maliciously, but what he said was not accurate. It’s important for you, what goes into your head, and to think about it, not to just receive it, "Okay." And I think part of the problem with many people before was they forgot that God wants us all to study, like the Bereans, daily, whether these things are so. You have to be thinking, too. Proverbs 19:27 - we read along those same lines.
Proverbs 19:27 - "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causes one to err from the words of knowledge." Now people are very broad minded, you know; I’m going to read anybody and everybody’s thing. That isn’t what John told the church. He said you’d better be careful if somebody brings you a doctrine that is not so. And often times there are hooks out there; you have to say where are they hooking me to? Where do they want to take me with this knowledge? Where do they want to take me with this information? Not, is that information tantalizing; it might be. Where do they want to take me with it? Where are they going with this? What’s the end result? What do they want? It’s important to think, to think things through. All knowledge, and knowledge of God’s word particularly. Proverbs 24:4 & 5 tell us what are the benefits and the blessings. Proverbs 24:4 & 5 tell us the blessings and benefits of knowledge.
Notice:
Proverbs 24:4 - "For by knowledge shall the chambers
be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Verse 5 - "A wise man is strong: yea, a man of knowledge increases strength." If you want to be successful, you have to have knowledge. That’s why we have never encourage anybody to drop out of school. That’s why we have never encourage anybody to just quit with a high school education, if at all possible, go on to college. Add knowledge. Get knowledge, because knowledge is a key to success.
Verses 13 - "My son, eat honey, because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste:
Verse 14 - "So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul:" It is satisfying when you understand something. Dr. Hoeh, when he first went to Ambassador, and he was resisting the Passover on the fourteenth day. He thought it should be on the fifteenth. And he was holding out, holding out, holding out, trying to understand, talked to Mr. Armstrong many times, and so on; he tells the story. And all of a sudden, he went off and he was studying, and it was Passover, and he was studying. And he finally saw it, and he came running all the way; he lived off campus, there were no campus dormitories, and he came running to Pasadena, back in the early fifties, late forties, and he came running to Mr. Armstrong, came running in, knocked on his door, "I see it! I see it! I see it!" But he had to think it through. He had to come to that knowledge, and then there was "delight in his soul, " in his life, because he saw it. There was truth, and it was sweet.
Okay, that’s knowledge.
Let’s take a look at grace. Let’s take a look as we transition into grace. There is a missing component if you just have knowledge and do not couple that with grace. II Timothy 3:7, here’s what Paul prophesied about knowledge. We know Daniel prophesied knowledge would be increased at the time of the end, people running to and fro and being able to share their finds and their information.
II Timothy 3:7 - "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." And of course, God defines what truth is; He says Thy word is truth. So what we all need to really know is God’s word. And I know as time went on, I began to say, "Oh well, I don’t need to check that out."
See, before I became a Christian, before I gave up a wonderful family in Pennsylvania, before I left a full tuition scholarship and a girl friend two houses away, before I gave up my 53 Pontiac, before I decided to go to Ambassador College, I checked every scripture in every article I read with the Bible on my lap. Because I said, "I’m not joining Herbert Armstrong’s religion. I’m joining the Bible, God’s way of life. That’s what I’m going to be a part of, if it’s right. If it’s not right, I don’t want to be a part of it."
As time went on, I began to see, you know, the church is the pillar and ground of truth. You should expect your church to give you the truth. They should always be giving you the truth. Well, since they’re giving me truth, why do I need to check it anymore? Well, they say this, okay; I’ll accept that. They’re saying this; well, I’ll accept that. Well, they’re saying this; I’ll accept that. Wait a minute. Where’s the truth? Where’s the Bible there? It’s important for us to know our Bibles. It’s important for us to study, to not just ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The knowledge of God’s way begins with the fear of the Lord, and knowledge alone without the grace that God has only puffs us up. Notice I Corinthians 8:1. See you can gather all types of knowledge, and you can use that knowledge to argue with. Ah, I know the truth now. Let me argue. Oh, boy, what we put forth. I sure am glad I read Armstrong’s literature. Now I can really argue with those Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now I can really put down those Mormons the next time they come. Oh, I’ve got my religious fanatic work mate there, or coworker job there, I can really give him a good argument now that I know. See studying, knowing the truth, even the knowledge of God’s way is not good enough if it’s not applied with grace. Knowledge can be argued; knowledge can be used for self-righteous, "I know it and you don’t;" "I’m better than you," for vanity, for self-righteousness. It can be used to argue. What is important is that we know how to apply it.
I Corinthians 8:1 - "As touching things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge." We know an idol’s nothing. "Knowledge puffs up. . ." I know. I know. Of course you have the Gnostics who were called the "know-it-alls." We know; we know; we’re better than you because we know in John’s day. Knowledge puffs up, but love, that’s the application of knowledge with grace, edifies, builds.
So, what does grace mean? Because Peter said, remember we quoted it, II Peter 3:18, "grow in grace and knowledge." Don’t just grow in knowledge alone, because knowledge must be applied correctly. Knowledge must be handled with grace. Now, what does that mean? Forgiveness all the time? No, it really doesn’t just mean that.
I want to read you a quote. What is grace? "The Bible mentions grace some one hundred and seventy time, and a hundred and fifty-nine different references. While the word is often found in the Old Testament, it was the writers of the New Testament who gave the word it’s meaning. The Greek word used in the New Testament, Charis, means favor, grace, gracious care, or help, an act which one grants to another. If there is a single word which is distinctively Christian, it is the word, "grace." The whole concept is framed with an undeserved quality, something that we believers have received which we could never merit, something which God chose to do simply because He loved us. Nothing could be more rewarding personally than to take the time to strive to understand even in a small measure what the grace of God means. Look up as many references to the word as you can, especially in the New Testament, and you will discover that whatever it means at least five thoughts or concepts evolve. The graciousness of God, the willingness to reach out to you, the favor that He shows, and it does have to do with favor, care, concern, a means of being gracious, thankful, all those are part of an attitude."
I’ll read you another quote. This comes from a Greek dictionary on it: "What is grace? That which gives pleasure and delight." It’s translated beauty, attractiveness, gracefulness, gracious, loving kindness, goodwill, gratitude, giving, faithful and favor, a bountiful sorry and favored.
See, to apply the truth correctly, knowledge must be applied with graciousness. Knowledge must be applied to circumstance and situations. Now was Jesus Christ gracious when He had to deal with the Pharisees and rebuke them? Yes, He was, because He was dealing with them, what was best for them. And that took a pretty straight-forward answer.
But, in most cases, you will find that Jesus Christ dealt as a person full of grace and truth; He dealt in a kindly way with the knowledge He had. So we need to learn to apply the truth with graciousness. Notice Proverbs 17:27 talks about an excellent spirit. It’s the attitude and the approach we have as we bring this message across.
Proverbs 17:27 - "He that has knowledge spares his words:" He knows when to use that knowledge; he knows when to keep quiet, "and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit." You see the spirit and the attitude involved. A person who understands; a person who understands how to use knowledge is one who is of an excellent spirit. He uses grace in those circumstances.
Notice Proverbs 15. In this section, several of them, notice, the aspect of grace being employed here.
Proverbs 15:2-"The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness." So, here we see grace. Grace knows how to use the knowledge; it uses it correctly.
Verse 21 - "Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding. . ." He has knowledge, which he understands; what’s he do with it? He "walks uprightly." See, that knowledge effects how he lives. It effects what he does. It effects his approach to man and God, both.
Let’s notice Ephesians, in the New Testament. Ephesians 4:15, what Paul taught.
Ephesians 4:15 We read this: "But speaking the truth
. . " You always want to speak the truth, but how does it say? Hurtfully?
Bluntly? Maliciously? "Speaking the truth in love." One of
my mom’s favorite expressions, which is redundant, she says, "Now,
this is the honest truth."
And I always say to her, "Mom, is there such a thing as dishonest truth?"
But she always says, she wants me to know she’s telling me what’s
correct - this is the honest truth. Well, is there a dishonest truth? Or is
there honest truth? Truth is always honest. Truth is always . . . the integrity
is there, but it is how do we use it and when.
Verse 15 - ". . .speaking the truth in love," we, "may grow up to Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ."
Notice Verses 29 to 32.
Verse 29 - "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth . . ." You see with the knowledge we have, we don’t have to use that to hurt people. ". . .but that which is good to the use of building up that it may minister grace to the hearers." See again, adding the grace in with the knowledge we have tempers how we say and what we say.
Verse 30 - "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, where by you are sealed to the day of redemption." Don’t grieve the Spirit of God.
Verse 31 - "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger and clamour and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:"
Verse 32 - "Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you." That’s the grace aspect. See, you can have the knowledge, but if you don’t know how to use that knowledge, what good is it? If we don’t know how to apply it in our own lives? If we don’t know how to bring it to others? You’ll be given knowledge at this program. What will you do with it? Will you use it to pump yourself? Will you use it to be self-righteous? Will you use it to argue with others about, or to show off? Or will you use it for good? That’s the grace dimension.
Now, I’m going to turn to the grace aspect of it, because it is important to realize that the grace of God comes to us. John 8:31. Jesus Christ taught this. If we really wanted to be His disciples, was it enough for us just to believe the knowledge? Or did we have to act on the knowledge? Must we use that knowledge in an appropriate way?
John 8:31 - "Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on Him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed." See, you can’t just have the knowledge; you’ve got to use it. ". . .continue in my word."
Verse 32 - "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We’ll give you that grace. We’ll help you have that graciousness, that freedom to do what is right and proper.
Jesus Christ came into the world, and this is my final scripture, by the way; Jesus Christ came into the world to bring not only truth, but grace and truth. Notice it in John 1:14
John 1:14 - "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.)" Notice what Jesus Christ became, and if we are going to be Christians, we want to follow Jesus Christ in His example. Notice, He " was full of grace and truth." Full of grace and truth. A lot of times, we see Him bringing truth into the world; we forget that He brought grace into the world. He wants us to be full of grace and truth as well. As we study what’s important, no other thing. . . it’s great and interesting facts, you know, fine, but know the truth, the facts that effect your life, that effect other people’s lives, that effect relationships that we all have and need to have.
And verse 17 is interesting, for we read this:
John 1:17 - "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ wants us to do more than merely accumulate knowledge. He wants us to use that knowledge. He wants us to use that knowledge in an appropriate way for ourselves, that we may grow in Godliness, and so we may help others to reach their full potential as well.
So, we need both. We need to grow in knowledge, but we also need to grow with grace, and both of them need to be present in our lives. True knowledge with grace. God and truth we need, so that we may lead a fulfilling life of Christian growth as Christians in God’s church, and may we all grow in knowledge as a result of this coming ABC presentation.