Knowledge Shall Increase

The title for the sermon today is, Knowledge Shall Increase. Knowledge shall increase. And I've taken that from Daniel 12. You can actually begin turning there. We'll look at it in just a moment. But knowledge shall increase. It's a prophetic term. It's a prophecy of what lies yet ahead. But in the midst of that, brethren, I have a question for us to consider. As you're turning over there, consider this question, how highly do we value the knowledge that has been revealed to us through the Word of God? Knowledge will increase in terms of on a global scale, but our question to consider as well is, how highly do we value the knowledge that has been revealed to us through the Word of God? You and I live in a world where knowledge is ever-expanding, ever-increasing, and it's not just a little trickle. Knowledge is exploding, frankly, at a dramatic rate all around us. With the dawn of the industrial age and the advancements in communication, as well as the ability to accumulate knowledge, to hang on to it, and to pass it from generation to generation, the expansion of knowledge has accelerated dramatically over the last century of human history. You go back just to the beginning of the 1900s, the advancements that have taken place and the ability to accumulate and store knowledge to pass it on has led to a rapid rise in the development, the exploration, the preservation, and the building upon of knowledge. God told Daniel in Daniel 12, verse 4, if you turn there, we'll look at it, Daniel chapter 12, verse 4, God said, but you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. There's prophecies contained here that, you know, really aren't going to be understood until the time of the fulfillment, the time of the end, begins to come around and these things are rolled out. I believe we're in the midst of that time as it's coming upon us. But God said, but you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase. Now this prophecy here in the book of Daniel doesn't exactly comment on whether this phenomenon will be good or bad. People running to and fro, knowledge increasing. It doesn't necessarily follow it by saying, but this is a bad thing, that only that it would be the condition of things at the end of the age prior to the return of Jesus Christ. But knowing mankind, knowing human nature and how those things tend to progress, what man uses his abilities for on a whole, we can we can certainly infer from this as well as the context of the rest of the book that knowledge and movement at the end of the age is not going to be used towards the promotion of God. In fact, just the opposite. Personally, I've just returned from running to and fro across the face of the earth literally. You know, at the time that Daniel wrote this, you know, stating the fact that many shall run to and fro, it probably never even imagined what it was that I was simply able to do here myself a short time ago. Just over a month ago, I boarded a plane. I flew 7,152 miles. You know, I say my pastoral circuit is 7,152 miles one way.

Out to the end, right? But literally going to and fro. Spent three weeks traveling through Ghana and Nigeria by car and by plane. Dari and I took hopper flights within Lagos to go out and see the Brethren in Benin City in Owari, in one case out and back in the same day. And so the ability to just simply cover the earth, go place to place, is so much more dramatic than could even have really been imagined in the time of Daniel.

So I would say from that perspective, perspective of my travels, running to and fro is not necessarily all bad. It is something we have the ability to do in the modern age, and it is something that at times can be done in service to God. But again, what we understand, the time of the end before the return of Jesus Christ. The use of most of these things are not in God's service. In the midst of my travels, as I'm out and about, and any of you that have traveled to really anywhere outside of Spokane, every airport is bigger than Spokane.

Every time I fly in from some international destination and land in Spokane, I think, wow, what a rinky-dink airport we have. And yet, you know what? It's an international airport that connects to the world 20 minutes from my house, and so I rejoice in that. But as I'm out and traveling, I'm walking through these massive international airports in Amsterdam or Paris or JFK, and it's just clogged with people. And I literally feel like a single ant, you know, kind of, I've got a mission, I'm heading a particular way, but everybody else as well, they're going where they're going, and they're doing what they're doing, but I literally feel like a single ant swallowed up in a swarming colony of ants, okay, most of who don't have a clue what it is that God is doing, and the purpose even for their existence.

And so for me, it's kind of interesting as I travel and I consider those things. God told Daniel that at the time of the end, people will be running to and fro. They'll be focusing on their own lives, their own activities. They'll be doing their own things. They'll be focused on the things that are important and relevant to them. Now God also said that knowledge will increase as well. As we step back and take a look at that and consider it, what we'll find is that truly it's mind-boggling at the level in which knowledge is increasing. And frankly, it's going to increase all the more from here.

It's gathering speed. It's sort of like the snowball rolling down the hill that gets just larger and larger and gains momentum as it goes. In 1982, Buckminster Fuller created what was known as the knowledge doubling curve. You may have heard of Buckminster Fuller. He may have heard of the knowledge doubling curve. And it's in essence is a curve that he went back and looked at the rate of knowledge expansion through the ages and how quickly knowledge would double. And then at what point was that knowledge doubling accelerating?

And he put together the knowledge doubling curve. In that curve, he noticed that at AD 1900, so you know, 119 years ago, right? AD 1900, human knowledge was set at a rate to double once every hundred years. So you take a snapshot of 1900, and at the technology that exists in that day, communication and how things were gathered and explored and held on to, knowledge would double at that rate every hundred years. Now, there were some figures I went back and saw that I didn't put my notes, but if memory serves, it was like 250 years before that that knowledge had doubled again.

So that the rate was increasing. Now it's every hundred years. And if you went back to like, it was like 1600, it was before the time of Christ. I mean, it was over 1600 years since knowledge had doubled in that interim of time.

So it doubled after 1600 years, doubled again after 250 years, and at 1900, it would double again once every hundred years, and it increased from there. By the end of World War II, the doubling rate had accelerated to once every 25 years. As in, all the knowledge accumulated in the history of man would double once every 25 years at that rate at the time of World War II.

Today, different types of knowledge and different types of, let's say, discoveries double the rate of knowledge at different rates, depending on what it is. Medical knowledge, there's scientific knowledge, there's cutting-edge knowledge like nanotechnology that may be started with very little knowledge, but you make rapid advancements, so it doubles very quickly. A Red Run article that said in our modern-day age, medicine and healthcare knowledge is doubling once every six months.

It's a very rapid increase in that. On average, human knowledge, which is the accumulation of knowledge across all spectrums, is now doubling at a rate of once every 12 months. Mind-boggling, really, if you think about it, all the knowledge in the history of man doubling currently at the rate of once every 12 months. Not doubling from maybe what had been all along, but doubling from what it doubled at last year. The next year it doubles of what it is this year, which doubled over last year.

And so it's an effect that's just expanding exponentially. If you were to take a graph, you can go online, you can look at different projections and charts, but essentially you can look going back through the history of man, and they've taken a line and they've graphed it out. Knowledge expansion rises very, very slowly. It's almost the level line. And then you come up to 1600s, 1800s, it starts to take a bit of an upswing.

You come into the 1900s and up to our modern age, and literally the line goes vertical. An explosion in knowledge exponentially right now, year upon year upon year, doubling history of mankind, all the knowledge that's been learned. Now, from the modern development and the Internet of Things, if you go back and say, why is knowledge exploding? Why is it expanding at such a rate? Well, they pin... there's basically four causes, but the first number one reason they pin it on is the Internet of Things.

And I was saying, in its most basic form, the Internet of Things is just the interconnectivity of everything that can be connected. Your cell phone, your computer, your car oftentimes, if you have a new car interconnected, your television, your refrigerator, your dishwasher, your washing machine. Anything that has an on-off switch is not currently at that level, but that is the intent. Anything you can turn on that can be fitted with smart technology then would be interconnected through the Internet of Things. Darlan, I just recently bought a new dishwasher for our house, and I would label it... it wasn't a high-end dishwasher, but it wasn't the lowest either.

I would label it as kind of the low end of the medium range of dishwashers, but it's a decent dishwasher, does a decent job. Brought it home, took it out of the packaging, hooked it up, looked at the book, and it says, connect to Wi-Fi. Well, that's interesting. So, you know, you connect the dishwasher to the Wi-Fi, and what does it do? Well, it's downloading updated wash cycles. You know, the dishwasher is updating.

You've got to give it time. And when I looked at some of the more high-end dishwashers, I mean, they have sensors built into it. It knows how dirty your dishes are, you know, at what level, what temperatures, the water coming in at, and how it should apply which cycle to wash the type of dishes that you have.

There's certain smart ovens now. You just throw the roast in the oven, and it says, oh, this is a roast. This many ounces, this much density. I'm going to cook it at this temperature for this long. And all of these things are becoming interconnected now through the internet, and data is being gathered. It's being processed. You know, how much hot water did your dishwasher use? How often do you do dishes? How much soap did you use? Again, data is just being gathered and assimilated. Estimates run as high as 50 billion, with a B, 50 billion interconnected devices will be active by the year 2020.

Well, that used to seem like a long ways away, didn't it? 2020, six, seven months from now. The estimate is 50 billion. I've seen some running even double that. And it's anticipated that the amount of information generated by interconnected devices will likely outstrip the amount of information generated by people in a very short period of time. Now, again, largely due to the effect of the internet of things, the ability then to take that information in the process, it is blowing past really what mankind has the time to invest the resource for.

So now you have artificial technology, which is being developed for the analyzing of all the raw data that comes in, it analyzes it, processes it, and then spits out results of gathered information from this data. So, you know, my dishwasher is just a narrow piece of that. Again, 50 billion interconnected devices. You can imagine how much raw data comes pouring in. Coming down here today, I've mentioned before our mileage reports that we submit for miles I put on my car in service to the ministry.

Used to be just a handwritten log, but now we've gone to a smartphone app. The location is on and it's tracking and it's reporting, and every time I stop and leave somewhere, it asks me, well, how did you like the post office you stopped at? Or rate the holiday in express. Once I leave here, it'll, it knows where I was. All these things are gathering data. So, all this put together, IBM actually predicted, while back, a doubling curve of every 12 hours will be possible in the not too distant future.

So, just try to wrap your mind around that for a second. All the accumulation of knowledge in the history of mankind going back to the beginning, doubling at every 12 hours. Kind of puts a new perspective to the prophecy of Daniel. Again, at the time the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. I can hardly wrap my brain around the concept of doubling knowledge every 12 hours.

So, maybe just think about that for a moment. And while we're thinking about it, I would say it's probably likely that in this period of time, somebody within the sound of my voice is probably already googled Buckminster Fuller, or the knowledge curve, or knowledge doubling, because we're in interconnected age, aren't we? And oftentimes, if I get up and I speak and I reference a Greek word, somebody's looked that up before I've even hardly finished the sentence.

I've mentioned other things in sermons before, where someone came up and said, oh yeah, you mentioned that, and I googled it just like right when you said it. So, we're an instant information age. It's what we've come to expect where we live today. We want knowledge. We want information. We want understanding just now. We want it now. We want it now. Knowledge is increasing, and the pace is expanding exponentially.

Let's turn back to Genesis, chapter 11, because this isn't the first time that a knowledge explosion has happened in the history of man. Let's look at one that we have recorded right here in the Bible record for us. Genesis, chapter 11, and verse 1, it says, now the whole earth had one language and one speech. Just imagine what that would allow in terms of opening up communication and allowing knowledge to be accumulated and stored. The whole earth had one language and one speech, and it came to pass that as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, come, let us make bricks. Let's bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. And so what we find is that there was a certain explosion of knowledge that was taking place at this point in human history following the flood. Again, everybody spoke in one language, their ability to communicate was without barriers. They could communicate these things, they could gather knowledge and information, they could preserve it, and the result of that was, they said, come, let us make a name for ourselves. Not just, you know, you know, we want to do our own thing. That was at the core of it, but it's let us make a name for ourselves in opposition to God. That's the point of this. Verse 5, it says, But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, Indeed, the people are one, and they have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing that they purpose to do will be withheld from them.

In other words, their combined knowledge, their ability to interact, their ability to gather that information will explode exponentially from this point forward if God just simply left them to their own devices. Verse 7 says, Come now, let us go down there, confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased from building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth. And so what we see here is God stepping in directly to stop the progression that which mankind was doing in opposition to him. Again, one language, the ability to function as one, and God confounded their language, scattered them across the face of the earth, and that brought a halt, or at least dramatically slowed down this knowledge explosion in this gathering together to make a name for yourself that mankind had stepped into.

I'm going to express a personal opinion here, but I think it has merit, and you will likely agree, I think. And it's this. I would submit to you that mankind has reached this point again.

Mankind's reached the point where we're able to be bound together by one universal language, so that all which we purposed to do would be on the drawing board. To where God could look down again and say all that they purposed to do would not be withheld from them. I would submit that mankind has reached this point again. And you might say, well, you know, they had a universal language. What are you talking about? Well, mankind today has a universal language. It's not English, you know, it's not Mandarin, or whatever other language you might want to label on it. Mankind's universal language today is computer code. It's computer code, and it binds the world together, and it reaches across cultural barriers. I'm going to read to you just an excerpt from an article. I pulled this off the internet. It's from the website share.america.gov, and it's dated from January 23, 2017. And the title is, Students Gather in U.S. and Abroad to Learn Coding.

Again, we're talking about coding, computer code, computer language. Let's read you a couple of the opening paragraphs. It says, quote, two sets of students gathered recently to learn a new language.

One met at the Microsoft Store in New York City, while a different set gathered a world away in Lagos, Nigeria. It says the language they are learning in both cases is coding, and Microsoft executives are making it a global cause. Coding is a universal language, said Dona Sarkar, a program manager at Microsoft. She says it's the language of solving problems. Every online website, every mobile application is coded using various programming languages such as Java or C++, the basic principles of which can be taught to someone as young as four years old. End quote.

So here this Microsoft manager says that coding is a universal language. It's the language of problem solving, which means you can bring someone together from this culture and that culture, and through what actually is computer code and computer language, you can bind them together, again, in a common basis. We're living in an age where computer code has breached the language barrier between cultures, and it's done so to the point that the technology that it powers is the driving force now behind the explosion of knowledge. You and I, again, we look at Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4, you and I are living in an age where people are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing in a way it never has before in the history of man, and it will continue all the way up until the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible is true.

Now in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon observed that an increase of knowledge is not just, you know, all bliss. To know is good, and, you know, all your problems are solved, because maybe you could think that would be the case, but knowledge actually can have hang-ups to it as well. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 16. Solomon was a astute observer of life and wisdom and consequences. Unfortunately, he didn't always listen to the outcomes that he observed for himself. But Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 16, Solomon says, I communed with my heart, saying, Look, I have attained greatness, and I have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. Verse 17, and I set my heart to no wisdom, and to no madness, and to no folly. I perceive that this is also grasping for the wind.

For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Interesting, you should say, he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. How could that be?

I mean, isn't knowledge a good thing? Isn't understanding more and more and more a good thing? Well, Solomon says, he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

I think in my life, a case in point, might be the fact that I really had no knowledge of West Africa and life there until I started traveling there. And once I went there, suddenly I saw how a good majority of this world lives. I saw, frankly, the desperate conditions under which many people live. I could see people simply walking around with the formities and difficulties that would be easily fixed in a moment. Did they live here in the United States?

You can drive down the streets of Accra or Legos and you come to a stop and if the traffic is stopped, out come the people who are pushing themselves around. They're on these skateboards, pushing themselves around between traffic. Their legs are withered up and tucked under them from the results of polio. So, in my case, that's just a glimpse of knowledge and understanding that I've come to by seeing how the rest of the world lives. And you know what? It saddens me. Agrees me.

You know, we're in this country. We have so much opportunity and abundance and, in some ways, the urgency for the return of Jesus Christ maybe isn't there in our mind because we get up in the morning. There's food in the refrigerator and a job to go to and all is well. But, to return to Africa, I'm accustomed to seeing what I see. But, frankly, it is sad to me because it's the way it was last year and the year before and the year before. So, Solomon said, he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Probably all of us would say, well, there's some things I wish I'd never heard. You know, some things in this life I wish I had never seen. Something I wish that somebody had never told me about somebody else. Knowledge increases, in some cases, sorrow.

But, you know, brethren, you can't unsee those things. You can't unhear those things. You simply must carry on. I was recently looking at some statistics that showed dramatic increases in other ways as well. Again, knowledge is skyrocketing. What else do you think is skyrocketing alongside of that?

Well, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicides across every age group is dramatically going up. Again, why the explosion of knowledge shouldn't those things be going down?

Well, there's a reason, in part, I'm not saying in every case, but I think there is a reason, in part, in some of these things, and it's because he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

You have to understand the core basis of this, brethren. We have to understand the basis of the knowledge and the focus behind it that is coming about here at the end of the age, because knowledge of and by itself, apart from God, does not bring fulfillment to one's life. Knowledge is knowledge, but apart from an understanding of God and his purpose, that knowledge has no real context to it.

You know, mankind asks questions related to their existence, related to God, whether there even is one, and we search knowledge. You and I see knowledge, right? You can turn on a nature show.

You can see them put things under a microscope, and from our perspective and our understanding of God, we see God's hand in the creation. We see the majesty of God, the infinite knowledge and understanding and wisdom of God, but apart from a proper perspective of God and a secular viewpoint, what do you come up with? Well, you come up with evolution. So does evolution answer the great questions of life? Do you look at that knowledge and say, well, this just evolved out of the primordial goo, and now you're satisfied with the knowledge you've discovered? I would say we are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing exponentially, but that knowledge is not according to the wisdom of God. So it is knowledge, all right, and even in the Church of God, we can see that knowledge, and we can see value in the knowledge, and it reinforces to us who God is, but apart from God, the context in which that knowledge should be evaluated is missing.

It's largely simply secular. In the face of an ever-increasing human knowledge and what mankind discovers, in the eyes of some, the word of God can almost seem stagnant.

You know, the word of God might seem outdated, irrelevant. You know, you got this book here written to people thousands of years ago, a culture that doesn't exactly exist around us today. You know, maybe these seem like outdated laws and traditions to some.

This book isn't expanding. Knowledge is expanding, right? Knowledge is exploding! How many books could you write of the knowledge that is being discovered in today's day and age? So we might look at this book and say, where's the extra pages? This book is the same number of pages as it had 200, 300, however many hundred years ago it was translated into English, right? New King James version, you know, depending how big your print is, you know, but it's the same pages.

Bible's not expanding in terms of new word being written to it. People can look and say, this is outdated. What does it have to do with today? I live for cutting edge, for knowledge and understanding of what we discover today, and so in many ways the word of God can seem to become irrelevant. And in fact, in today's society is becoming increasingly challenged, right? The validity of God's word, because with the accumulation of knowledge, mankind is becoming very much as they were at the time of the Tower of Babel. Let us make a name for ourselves, our knowledge, our understanding. Let us build for ourselves a tower of knowledge and understanding in opposition to God. Again, it brings me back to the question I began with earlier. How do we value the knowledge that's been revealed to us through the word of God? Because this is true knowledge, not that the knowledge that can be discovered and learned by mankind isn't, but the context for it, brethren, is here. The lens through which we're to view it is here in the word of God. Because as exciting as the modern explosion of knowledge may be, and good things do come from it, you know, modern technology is great. We're hooked up to our other congregations via the webcast because of this explosion of knowledge just in the last, you know, 10-15 years. And that's a blessing for us in the Church, all right? So it can be a good thing, but again it's lacking greatly in comparison to the word of God. The knowledge to drive the technology to do the webcast is nothing compared to the knowledge of the word of God. And that is where we must look for true knowledge and true perspective. And then we evaluate the increase that is happening in the world around us today.

Again, the greatest weakness and the increase in knowledge today is that it is primarily secular knowledge. I mean, we may look at it and see the hand of God, so in that sense it is not all secular, but the lens through which is being perceived largely is secular. It is knowledge that is largely separate from the acknowledgement of a creator and his relevance. People will run to and fro. Knowledge will increase. We'll learn a lot of good things. We'll do a lot of good things with it. But apart from God, again, it's simply building a name unto ourselves. And from that perspective, it has many great limitations. Let's go to Book of Proverbs now, chapter 1.

Let's discover the source of ultimate knowledge.

Again, I'm not trying to knock knowledge or condemn knowledge or condemn scientific discovery. I think those things are very valuable. And for those of us who have the eyes to see, they reinforce the existence of God and the purpose of God. But we have to understand it from the right perspective. Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Fear of the Lord. That is where knowledge starts. It is the beginning of knowledge. That is where the understanding and how do we take this knowledge and what do we do with it starts with the fear of the Lord in a right and proper reverence of God. Because you see the true knowledge that God would have us to assimilate leads to life, leads to eternal life in his kingdom. But again, it must be tempered with the proper reverence and fear of God. After all, everything that man could discover up to this point and continues to discover going forward is not new to God. All knowledge that is right and true and good in the way that the universe works in order and balance, that we are just really beginning to scratch the surface on discovering, is no surprise to God. Why not? Because God is the originator. He is the creator of all knowledge in these things. And to fail to acknowledge God in this would lead to an incomplete understanding of the fullness of what he would reveal. Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 6. Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 6, For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

Again, the knowledge, the wisdom, the understanding, God is the source. We're not just talking scientific knowledge here. We're talking about the knowledge, the answers, the great questions of life. That is something mankind cannot discover under a microscope.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? Is there a creator? Is there a God? If so, what does he require of me? You can see there's an existence of God under a microscope if you're willing to look. But again, knowledge of and by itself, as man would discover, it doesn't answer the great questions of life. Not apart from God. And what we see, though, is with this knowledge and its explosion at the end of the age, mankind is seeking answers really in all the wrong places.

They have a knowledge but not a perspective from which to balance it properly.

I hope you and I truly value the truths of life that have been revealed to us through the Word of God because this is true knowledge. It answers the questions of life, and God has revealed the answers to us through his Word. Most of us aren't on the cutting edge of what's being discovered and how it functions and why it is, but in many ways we are light years ahead of anyone else. And the understanding of those things, because we understand the Word of God.

We understand the purpose behind why we were created and who God is and what it is that he is doing. And it is a knowledge that is unique in this world today. I hope we don't ever forget that.

You know, I might have, you know, a cell phone that's four generations, five generations behind the newest cell phone, but you know what? I'm not lagging behind in terms of, you know, my ability to function because the Word of God gives us the ability. We have a message, we have an understanding that despite all the knowledge, this world is lacking because it refuses to look to the source of true knowledge. And for us, brethren, that should be an encouragement. Not the fact that the world doesn't have it, but the fact that this time God has revealed to us through his Word who he is. Why are we here? What is the point to our existence? You know, do we truly value true knowledge and the source of true knowledge? Again, that is God. James chapter 4, verse 8 says, Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. You know, I said this book is, it is what it is, right? No new pages have been added to it, no new books, no new chapters, but it is not limited in the scope of the knowledge and understanding that we can have because the beauty of God's Word and his Spirit is that as we allow him to work with us, knowledge increases exponentially. There's never an end to the knowledge, brethren, that we can learn that comes from God and that comes from his Word. The depth of our understanding is ever increasing. And as the world goes to and fro and knowledge is abounding around us, I would hope that knowledge abounds within the Church. But again, knowledge of the true perspective of who we are, who God is, of what the plan of God is, of why we're here, because those are indeed the words to life.

Humanity, by and large, is entering into an age of darkness, even though they are awash in a tsunami of knowledge. The running to and fro knowledge is increasing, but we are entering into an age of darkness because more and more people refuse to acknowledge God and bring God into relationship with the knowledge of discovery. Understanding God gives us through his Word is something that is very personal to each and every one of us. And yet, as Mr. Oliver talked about, we're to be a light.

You know, we're to be an example to the world. We don't just, you know, light a lamp and put it under a basket, but you put it on the table, right, so that it gives light to all. So God has called us to be a light and example for this way of life, to give an answer for the hope that lies within us whenever there's opportunity. Are we willing to share the knowledge that God has revealed to us?

I think sometimes because we don't go door to door, that's not our practice. We understand that's not to be our practice. Sometimes we think that that just means we maybe keep it bottled up.

But God gives us opportunities at work, you know, at school, if you're children. God gives us opportunities everywhere to be able to express the understanding that He gives us and to give hope to others just as we have hope. I read from John chapter 6 before I left for the Passover. We won't turn there today, but you'll recall that many disciples were following Christ, and yet they couldn't bear what it was He was telling them, so many departed.

And He turned to the 12, and He said, you want to leave also? And they said, well, where else would we go, Lord? You have the words to eternal life. You and I, brethren, have the words to eternal life as God has given us through His words. Let us live it, but let us also be willing to share those things as we have opportunity. I was on a plane returning from Nigeria. JFK was my destination, so it was about an 11-hour flight, and a woman sat down next to me, actually, on the plane. A 71-year-old woman was a black lady. She was born in Kenya, but she lives in Missoula, Montana, and she's a volunteer nurse.

And she volunteers her time through this religious organization, and she travels the world, serving in various places where nursing is needed. And so she was just returning from Joss, Nigeria. I said, well, Joss, that's pretty amazing. That's, you know, I was there in 2010. Joss is kind of in the central region of Nigeria. It's where Boko Haram got their start. You would not want to go to Joss today. That's where much of the persecution of Christians happening and much of the deaths that are taking place from that region and north. But she just spent three months in a hospital in Joss.

Her job was helping to teach them sanitation, because, you see, the hospital in Joss has the highest infection rate of any hospital in Nigeria. You know, they take bloody bedsheets and just kind of wash them in a bucket and put them back on. They have industrial washers and dryers downstairs, but nobody wanted to go through that effort. So she spent three months there helping to teach them sanitation and those effects.

Three to four years ago, she worked as a volunteer nurse in a military compound in Mosul, Iraq. Mosul, Iraq, as in ISIS, as in, again, somewhere you really wouldn't want to be if you were, had your choice of a vacation destination. She was called up to go and serve a number of the other nurses that were to go there as well did not go. So as sort of the most experienced, she was put in charge of the operating room of this compound.

I believe it was some type of military compound that they were in. And again, served there, I think she said, for six months, Mosul, Iraq. One night she said there was an IED that went off right outside, because usually you have the sirens that go off warn them to get to some kind of shelter, but there was an IED that detonated just outside the compound. Helicopters were flying over within a matter of moments, and she said she just kind of, you know, pulled the covers up over her head and was praying for God's protection.

But through the course of the conversation, she asked what I was doing in Africa. I said, well, I'm a church pastor visiting a number of congregations over there. And she says, oh, well, that's me. I grew up a Messianic Jew. I said, well, I thought, well, that's interesting. You know, the conversation went on, but I didn't want to let that go. I came back a little later. I said, so you say you're a Messianic Jew.

He says, well, I grew up. I grew up as a Messianic Jew, she says, you know, born in Kenya. And so that sort of sparked my interest. We started talking about the Sabbath. I asked her about the Holy Days. I said, interestingly enough, we keep the Holy Days.

I was just here for Passover, days on 11 bread. I said, do you acknowledge the Holy Days? Do you keep the Holy Days? And she says, yes, we acknowledge the Holy Days, her husband and I, and that just simply led to a discussion of the purpose of God's Holy Days, the fact that the plan of salvation for all of mankind outlined during those days. And, you know, it's the longest conversation I've ever had with somebody on the plane.

And to me, it was fascinating, but it was an open door, right? It was an opportunity not to hide from what it is that we believe and do, but to express it, to share it with somebody else, to discuss those things. And I believe as we're given opportunity, brethren, we should not hold inside the knowledge or the lens of the knowledge of why we do these things. We must be willing to, as the door of opportunity, exposes itself, be willing to share this way of life and hope that's in us. One of Mr. Kubik's presentations at the GCEU this year, he reminded us all that we've been given the great and precious truths by the mercy of God.

The fact that by God's calling, by his Spirit, by the understanding of this Word, we do have the answers to the big questions of life that this world is seeking after. This world is yearning for answers, and it doesn't exactly know where to look.

It's gathering knowledge. It's gathering maybe a certain degree of understanding and a number of things, but again, apart from God, the answers that are truly fulfilling will not be there.

You and I have the answers, brethren. By God's mercy, he's opened the door in our life. 1 Peter chapter 2. I want to go there next. 1 Peter chapter 2. Again, we're not going door to door. We're not putting loudspeakers on the outside of our church halls, booming our message out, as some churches do in Africa, but we are to be a light. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who were once not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. God has personally called us to be his chosen people by his mercy.

Again, that we would proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. The world is a wash and a tsunami of knowledge. There's not according to the light and the truth, not in terms of how they would understand it and process those things, but you and I can be an example that God would have us to be right up to the end of the age.

Let us never, brethren, grow complacent. Deuteronomy chapter 4, again, is sort of a parallel scripture here. This is for Israel, God's chosen people as he brought out, but they were to be an example to the world around them as well. Deuteronomy chapter 4, here God is educating a people who were not a people. The tribes of Israel went into Egypt. They became slaves. They grew as tribes, but as an assembled people of God, they were not a people in that sense until God brought them out, led them as their God, and began to educate them. So 40 years now, in the wilderness, God has taken a people who were not a people and is making them his people. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 5, surely I've taught you, this is Moses, statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

So there's laws, there's statutes, there's judgments. This is knowledge that they were to learn from God.

Verse 6, therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and an understanding people. For what great nation is there who has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him? Verse 8, and what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I have set before you this day? You know, what other people of the world have the knowledge and the understanding that you have as the people of God? That's what Moses is saying to Israel. He says, they're going to see you and how you live and say, God is with them. That is true knowledge.

This is true understanding. Verse 9, only take heed to yourselves and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach them to your children and to your grandchildren. There was a knowledge and an instruction that was given to the children of Israel by God. Again, it set them apart from the other nations around them. And as it said in verse 6, this knowledge would be their wisdom.

This knowledge would be their understanding in the sight of the nations. Again, the Word of God.

It didn't mean the other nations didn't have knowledge or understanding, but when it's through the perspective and the lens of the understanding that God gives by His Word and by His Spirit, then that knowledge has meaning and purpose. Brethren, you and I today are that nation.

Right? We're the spiritual nation of God. We're spiritual Israel. Those have been, we're not a people, but now are the people of God.

Then we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

No matter what is named David's word, Psalm 111, verse 10.

Because you see, there is knowledge, right? But there is wisdom.

And there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Psalm 111, verse 10.

David says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Earlier we read the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Both are true. It starts with knowledge, but if you want wisdom, that's a step above.

This still begins with the fear of the Lord. It's the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

And so what you'll notice is that a good understanding and wisdom that comes in addition to knowledge does not come from simply knowing the commandments of God.

Again, knowing His knowledge, but wisdom and understanding come in the doing.

Good understanding have all those who do His commandments by fearing God and by doing His ways.

In an age where people are running to and fro on the earth and knowledge is increasing, you and I have been given the understanding and wisdom which comes from the true knowledge of God in His ways. And brethren, we must never take that for granted.

In fact, we should be inspired. We should be encouraged. We should be fired up about the fact that we hold in our hands the knowledge and the understanding and the wisdom of God that gives the answers to life. That helps us to understand who we are. What is my purpose?

Why did God create me? And who is He anyway? That knowledge, that understanding, gives us the lens by which we can assess all the other knowledge in the world around us. But apart from that, knowledge simply increases. People run to and fro, but it is to build a name up to themselves as opposed to God. And the day is coming when God says, My name will reign, not yours.

Brethren, the Bible shows that there's coming one final knowledge explosion, and God intends that it would be the true knowledge that would answer all of mankind's questions. And it's a knowledge explosion that's going to take place not at the end of this age, but following the return of Jesus Christ. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 11 as we begin to wrap this up. Isaiah chapter 11. This will be true knowledge.

This will be knowledge with a purpose. Isaiah chapter 11. This is knowledge again. Wisdom and understanding will accompany this knowledge. Verse 1, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. We're talking about here Jesus Christ, and God would sin. Verse 3. And his delight is in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meekness of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. Verse 6. This is now the consequence, the result of what this knowledge and wisdom in this king will bring. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, the young one shall lie down together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall neither hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, and notice why, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

As the waters cover the sea.

Brethren, just as there is not a dry place in the midst of the whole ocean, likewise there not be a dry place on the face of the earth that does not have the knowledge of God, does not have the understanding of God revealed to them. And this is a knowledge and a wisdom that leads to eternal life. It has the answers for all of life's difficult questions. The answers you're not going to find under the microscope, but it does have the answers that will help you to reconcile the findings that come from under the microscope, right? All those who would receive it and respond, this is the wisdom and the knowledge unto life.

Brethren, this time of deliverance for the whole world lies ahead. It is a promise of God. Between now and then, humanity will run to and fro, and the knowledge of mankind and what we can discover on our own limited basis will increase.

With the ability to have the right perspective for which to put it into practice in our life in a way that is meaningful lies yet ahead at the return of Jesus Christ. It is a promise, and it will come to pass surely. Let us take heart in the knowledge and the understanding of what God has in store for us. I'd like to conclude by borrowing the words of the Apostle Peter as he stated them in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in knowledge of God and Jesus, our Lord.