CAN WE KNOW IT ALL?
1 PT 1:5-9
Faith is putting your trust in Jesus Christ and what He has done.
Goodness is the real meaning of who God is.
I am sure that many of you have read the book of Job which is the book that comes just before the books of Psalms. Whether you have read it or not I would like for us to consider what it has to do with knowledge which is what we are going to talk about in adding to our faith. As the book opens we find man of God named Job. In the first two chapters of the book we find that he losses his source of income for all his animals are destroyed. He loses his children as they are killed at once. He loses his health as he is plagued with boils all over his body. His wife tells him to give up and curse God. Three of his well known friends come to visit him Eliphaz the Terminate, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. They are so stunned by what they see they just sit and stare for a week. Then they take up a discourse in which they use powerful, blunt and outspoken words. They talk with knowledge that is with fearless confidence. They think their words are unbendable weight. They talk as if they know what is going on with God and how Job should respond. Their voices come as I imagine with thundering sound of a lightening storm. Then a younger man named Elihu speaks some more condemning words about Job. When Chapter 38 begins God lights up the sky with a thunderstorm that quiets the men who have been speaking. Job 38:2 "Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?” God then throws out some questions that man cannot answer such as "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” "Who defined the boundaries of the sea as it burst from the womb?” "Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?” "Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you walked about and explored their depths?” Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know! "Where does the light come from, and where does the darkness go?” "Have you visited the treasuries of the snow? Have you seen where the hail is made and stored?”
“Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives?” "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Have you watched as the wild deer are born?” The question He gives what do you know?
Bill Bryson wrote, “About 4 or 5 years ago I was on a long flight across the Pacific, staring idly out the window at a moonlight ocean, when it occurred to me with a certain uncomfortable forcefulness that I didn’t know the first things about the only planet I was ever going to live upon. I had no idea, for example, why the oceans were salty but the Great Lakes weren’t. I didn’t have the faintest idea. I didn’t know if the oceans were growing more salty with time or less, and whether ocean saltiness levels were something I should be concerned about or not. And ocean saltiness of course represented only the merest sliver of my ignorance. I didn’t know what a proton was, or a protein, didn’t know quark from a quasar, didn’t understand how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was, didn’t know anything really. We live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances we don’t know altogether know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don’t truly understand.”
My question to you is, “What do you know?” We find it is not much.
1. We all need knowledge. 2 Peter 1:3, 5 “As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! Add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge;” Would you not agree that we need knowledge? What knowledge do we need to know? We need to know what we need to know before we can know it. Consider the order in which Peter gives us this add-on to. Everything has to be built on faith. Goodness which we learned is not doing Good but it being good. We have no goodness apart from Christ in us. Next we are to ad knowledge but did you know that by itself knowledge is fatal. It makes one a know-it-all or a show off. When we think we know it all we want everyone else to believe we know it all. When we get to this place in our lives it makes us think we are better than others. 1 COR 8:1 “While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church.” “We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people conceited, but love builds them up.” Knowledge is desirable but by itself it is very dangerous. We are tempted in using it as weapon or a prize instead of a characteristic from God. Without goodness our knowledge is used to put down, intimidate, and distance others. God wants us to use it to build others up, to bless others and even to serve others. Without goodness we become very self-important and detached from others. It is goodness that takes the poison out of knowledge. It is goodness the knowledge that helps one to be a benefit for others and not just to impress others.
2. Notice the use of the word knowledge in this short passage.
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
It is by knowing God that we have grace and peace.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us. Knowledge passes on grace and peace and makes available life and godliness by his own glory and goodness.”
We are able to live a life that is full because we are committed to God who is the source of life. Like a star shining through the dark sky, or water running down a riverbed or electricity coming through a wire with power knowledge comes when it has goodness in it. Knowledge is a medium more than a substance. Knowledge is of little value by itself and is a means to help us find treasures to make our lives better.
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
To add on takes an effort and work for us. It does not just as a natural happening.
“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We have already said we have grace, peace, life and godliness comes from knowledge in Christ
3. What is it I need to know? It is not what we need to know but someone we need to know. Just to know about some one is not enough. We can do a search from many sources and find out about a person but that is different from knowing the person. I have been married to this wonderful woman for 39 years but there are a few things I do not know about her. I do know that there are some subjects I just do not bring up for it brings conflict in our relationship and if she is not happy I cannot have a peaceful time with her. The knowledge that Peter speaks about is a personal knowing Jesus not just knowing about Him. Jesus said He would reveal everything we need to know of Jesus. Truth is what Jesus Christ is all about. He said, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life.” What you know about Jesus is either true or not. If it is true it becomes the pathway to knowing Him. If it is false it becomes a path leading away from Him. There is a good example of this from MT 25:24-25 "Then the one who received two thousand dollars came and said, ’Sir, I knew that you are a hard person to please. You harvest where you haven’t planted and gather where you haven’t scattered any seeds. I was afraid. So I hid your two thousand dollars in the ground. Here’s your money!’ This servant acted on what he believed which was false. His ignorance made it so he could not know the Master. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven” and wanted us to know the truth about God. He also told us we are love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. It is hard to love someone we do not know about. In maps of old time they marked some areas as UNKNOWN EARTH.” Then was added a warning, “Here be dragons.” The first was a truth the other was hearsay and as you know many thought the earth was flat and did not want to go out into unknown territory. 2 PT 2:1-3 “False prophets were among God’s people {in the past}, as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction. Many people will follow them in their sexual freedom and will cause others to dishonor the way of truth. In their greed they will use good-sounding arguments to abuse you. The verdict against them from long ago is still in force, and their destruction is not asleep.” We need to know the truth. God gave us a book. . 1 COR 8: 2, 3 “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” The goal of knowing God is loving God. I like to say that loving God gives us the assurance that God knows us. I think the worst message one will hear when they face God is, “I never knew you.”
4. WHAT EFFORT DO WE NEED TO MAKE TO ADD KNOWLEDGE TO OUR FAITH?
A. Our first source is Scripture. We do not need a new revelation from God as some are seeking today. Without the Bible we can only try to get a truth about God. That is why I encourage you to read the Bible every day for that is God’s word. That is why I encourage you to let the Holy Spirit be alive in your life for it is through Him that we know Jesus. I would ask you to make sure the Bible you are reading is one that is the truth. We cannot know the Word unless we read the Word.
B. Second to know we must take time to pray and see God in our life. This is where we meet God in spirit and truth. He is the living God and speaks to us, moves in our pathway and will surprise us at times with Himself. Some one sent me an email this week that said angels are all around us and had a prayer included. I have sent these things on before as they promise something will happen from God. This one said before 9:42 AM the next day I would be encouraged by an angel in the form of a person. I believe God sent me a message through a man as I watched a short time on TV. He was the leader of our country and as he spoke he had a smile on his face. In that short time God spoke to me that if this man with much on his mind and many more problems than I have could smile I need to smile and show joy. We need to look for how God shows up in surprises if we pay attention. Can you think of some things that have happened in your life this week where it was a God surprise? The Bible tells us that the heavens cannot contain Him and the whole earth is filled with His glory. He inhabits the people who praise Him.
C. A third source of knowledge is Creation. We meet God in what He has created. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. Each season brings us things that tell us that God is in control. On his deathbed, British preacher Charles Simeon smiled brightly and asked the people gathered in his room, ’What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time?" When they all remained silent, he exclaimed, ’The creation! I ask myself, ’Did Jehovah create the world or did I?’ He did! Now if He made the world and all the rolling spheres of the universe, He certainly can take care of me. Into Jesus’ hands I can safely commit my spirit!" When we hold a baby it shows us a creation of God. Views that govern how we will live: 1. The origin of man. 2. The nature of man. 3. The redemption of man. 4. The responsibility of man.
D. A fourth source for knowledge comes through community. It is around others that we work out our love and knowledge of God in a basic and concrete way. John said it this way how can we love God if we do not love our brother?
When Peter had denied His Lord three times he was very sorrowful. A week later Jesus met Peter on the lakeside and three times asked him, “Do you love me?” Peter was really touched by this time with Jesus and said, “You know all things. You know that I love you.” What a marvelous truth about knowledge. Knowing that the One I love, the One that knows all about me knows me and loves me. Peter knew Jesus loved him. It is true knowledge that makes us to know Jesus loves me. Do you have this knowledge?
