Intro
Sydney trainer Harry Telford was a keen student of thoroughbred bloodlines and spent countless hours poring over pedigree charts. He believed he had found a future champion in a colt that was shortly due to sell in New Zealand. The colt was listed for the Trentham Sales in 1927.
Harry Telford, however, was in a financial mess. He talked an American businessman living in Sydney, David J. Davis, into buying the horse. Harry’s brother, Hugh, a resident of New Zealand, was telegraphed to bid up to 190 guineas (US $154).
Lot Number 41 sold for 160 guineas (US $130). Back in Sydney, Telford thought the purchase price was great news. That was until he clapped eyes on the ’bargain’ being crated from ship to shore in Sydney Harbour. The big, gangly beast looked anything but a champion. Warts covered its face and there was an awkwardness to it that did not inspire confidence.
Real problems came when Davis saw his purchase. He was furious and wanted nothing to do with it. Telford and Davis struck a deal: if Telford covered the cost of training the horse, he could keep two–thirds of the winnings—if there were any.
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- Here you have a man who didn’t realise what he had
- He had, arguably, the greatest racehorse in living memory – the horse’s name was Phar Lap
- His heart was 6.2 kilograms, about ½ as big again as that of a typical horse
- Phar Lap won so many races in Australia that they handicapped him out of contention
- He was taken overseas & he won the richest horse-race in America
- He was such a threat that he was poisoned soon after
- I guess David Davis was thinking: “If I only knew what I had”
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- In this passage today, the apostle Paul expresses his desire for the church to be filled with an understanding of what we have in Christ
- He sees this as so important that he does not cease to pray that the Holy Spirit would fill God’s people with wisdom & revelation in their knowledge of God
Q. Why is this so important?
- Would David Davis had offered the trainer 2/3rds of the winnings if he knew what he had?
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- The important aspect here is that sound knowledge plays a vital role when it comes to the choices we make
Eph 2:10 ..... we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (walk in what? - good works).
- There is a link between what we know of God & how we live our lives now, in the present
- We are created to perform good works
- If you are not into good works, then what are you missing
1. True Knowledge of God leads to Right Choices
- This is an interesting topic & one I could spend a long time on
- Not only have I experienced a lack of knowledge in the past (& know how misinformed I was), but I also see a general disdain toward knowledge in the modern church
- Lidie Edmunds in the 19th C. wrote the hymn called “No Other Plea”
The chorus goes like this...
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.
- That is a good starting point for our faith, but if that’s still the extent of our knowledge after many years of being a believer, it certainly falls short of what God wants for us.
Q. If we don’t have knowledge of God, how will we make right choices?
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- Paul prays for the church at Ephesus to receive the Spirit of wisdom & revelation in the knowledge of Him (God)
- He is not praying that they will receive the Holy Spirit (they already have the Holy Spirit – just talked about the Spirit being a deposit), but that they will be enlightened by the Spirit in wisdom & revelation
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- There are many voices calling for you to believe either this or that
- Here are some example questions for you...
Q. Is obeying God, legalism?
Q. Can I be saved though living continually in a sinful relationship?
Q. Can people put curses on me?
Q. Can the devil take control of me?
Q. Should I discriminate against false teachers by not accepting them as Christians
- The answers all call for knowledge & wisdom
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- Wisdom is not the same as knowledge, although, it is not far from it
Pr 1:1-4 ..... 1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion,
- Wisdom is needed for skilful living – to avoid the pitfalls of foolishness (folly) & how to be successful in life
- Wisdom is an essential for good, right & proper behaviour
Jas 3:13 ..... 13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.
-J.I. Packer in his book, “Knowing God”, says that “Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it”
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“Horatio Spafford was a businessman in Chicago. He was a dedicated Christian. [There were times in his life when the wisdom he followed was earthly, unspiritual, and subject to the enemy’s schemes]. He had some serious financial reversals, and during the time of readjustment, he lost his home.”
He realized his family needed to get away for a vacation. Spafford decided to take his entire family to England. He sent his wife and four daughters ahead . . . In midocean the French steamer carrying his loved ones collided with another and sank within twelve minutes; 230 people lost their lives. The four daughters were drowned, but Mrs. Spafford was rescued. She wired her husband, “Saved alone.”
“Mr. Spafford was [understandably] almost overcome with grief. He had lost his property, his four precious daughters were lost in the depths of the sea, and his wife was crushed with grief on the other side of the world. [Spafford could have relied on earthly wisdom and turned his grief into bitterness. He could have tried to get his pound of flesh from the French steamer company by filing lawsuits. He could have justified in his own mind being angry with God and the world, and shaking his fist at the One who allowed his earthly life to seemingly be ruined]. Instead, he put all his trust in God and wrote a song that has comforted thousands since that time”:
“When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot, You have taught me to say,
‘It is well, it is well with my soul’”
- The right response came from the wisdom of God
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- The other aspect the apostle mentions is revelation
Q. How are we to understand this?
- The word revelation can mean a number of things
1. We can talk about the book of Revelation (last book of the Bible)
2. There is the prophetic gift of revelation given to the apostles and prophets of the early church
3. The word revelation has the general sense, meaning, “to uncover”, “to take out of hiding”
- It is the 3rd sense that Paul desires for us to experience
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- It is a matter of knowing all that can be known of God
- Knowing what He thinks, what He approves, what He disapproves
- Knowing what He has done in the OT & NT, but not just what He has done, but why He did what He did
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- I think it is very sad that some people still think that enough is enough
- That they have enough knowledge & don’t need to go any further
- Let me suggest some possible reasons for this...
1. We may find that some things we do are not acceptable to God & we will have to change
- All cherished sins will then have to go
2. We will be called to greater accountability
- The more knowledge we have of God makes us more responsible to Him
- To whom much is given, much is required
- Good works, then, become not an option, but an obligation
3. We like to be in Control
- We fear that if we learn much more about God, we become more His servant
- We don’t want to lose our self-determination
- Human autonomy diminishes with our greater understanding of God
- In other words, our freedom to do as we please diminishes as we learn more of God
- The more we know, the more we realise that we exist for His glory
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Q. Do any of these points refer to you?
- We are constantly encouraged throughout the NT to grow in wisdom & our knowledge of God
- And in Colossians, Paul says...
Col 1:9-10 ..... 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
- Secondly, this knowledge of Him...
2. Is Only Revealed by the Spirit
- We could not understand, or know an iota, about God without God revealing Himself to us
- This is also found throughout Scripture
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- Nearing the end of His time on earth, Jesus asked His disciples who they believed Him to be
- Peter gave the correct response: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” - well done Peter!
- You might think that Peter was very insightful & had great abilities of discernment
- But before we go to far, let us hear what Jesus said in response...
Mt 16:17 ..... Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
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- On another occasion, in Macedonia, Paul was urging Jews & Greeks to believe in Jesus as God’s Messiah
- A woman by the name of Lydia believed the message was baptised & added to the Church
- You might think that Lydia was a clever woman, being a business woman (a trader in purple fabrics)
- But before we go too far, let us hear what Luke said in his description
Ac 16:14 ..... 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
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- We may think that we have wisdom & intelligence
- But the revealer of our knowledge of God (which by the way implies our acceptance of that knowledge) is the Holy Spirit
- Only God can reveal Himself to you
- Which is why Paul never ceases praying that God’s Spirit will give the church wisdom & the revelation of God
- I think we too should be praying the same thing, not only for ourselves but for our fellow churches
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Q. What is the end result of this wisdom & revelation of God?
- “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”
When I was in high school, our science teacher conducted a very simple experiment – he burnt a piece of magnesium. Now I don’t know if you have ever seen magnesium burn, but it is like the sun – as bright as bright can be (from this tiny strip of material burning)
- When the eyes of your heart are enlightened, it is like, as if, someone turned the lights on
- I remember when I became a Christian – all of a sudden, someone switched the lights on
- I could perceive the truth of God, whereas before I turned to Christ, I was blind as a bat – I couldn’t see it
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- You know that the devil blinds the eyes of the heart
2 Co 4:3-4 ..... 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
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- Now I want you to know that the knowledge of God has nothing to do with the power of suggestion
- It has everything to do with reality – who God is & what He has done & what He wills
- As a Christian perceives that, they will live fruitful lives filled with good works – they will not be idle, but contributors
3. The Needed Knowledge:
- Here are some specifics that Paul says we need to know
1. The Hope of His Calling
- One of the most stifling states to be in is in a state of despair
A skeptic wrote in his autobiography: “What else is there to make life tolerable? We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night, and in the emptiness sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is the voice of one drowning, and in a moment the silence returns and the world seems to be quite dreadful. The unhappiness of many people is very great, and I often wonder how they endure it.”
H. G. Wells once wrote grimly: “Man, who began in a cave behind a windbreak, will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum.”
Q. What does the Christian have that makes him so optimistic about the future?
- It is that word, hope!
- It is the hope to which Christians are called
- We are called to participate in this hope
Q. What is this hope?
- It is to share in the triumph (the victory) of Jesus
- As He conquered death & rose to life, we will share in that resurrection to new life
“If we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified with Him” (Rom. 8:17)
- In Col. 1:27 Paul says that Christ in us is our hope of glory
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- There is no place for pessimism in the Christian life
- Whatever struggles we face, God will heal us & will make all wrongs, right
1 Co 13:13 ..... 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
- The reason why love remains as the greatest is because love is eternal & has to do with relationships
- But faith & hope have a termination point
- We hold on to faith like Tarzan holds onto the vine, don’t we? But it won’t always be – one day, faith will be replaced with sight & hope will be replaced with everlasting life (the end of dying & death)!
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- I want to deal with only one more today, as the last point (The greatness of His Power) deserves better treatment than we could give it in 5 mins
2. The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance
- God redeemed Israel from their slavery in Egypt & led them to their inheritance or possession – which was the land of Israel – the promised land
- Later Jewish literature regarded the “world to come” as Israel’s ultimate inheritance
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- But God’s inheritance comes not through Israel (plural), but through Jesus, (singular)
- Jesus is the true seed of Abraham through whom the promised inheritance comes
- It is not a matter of having to become a Jew & obey the law of God to have a part in God’s inheritance, it is a matter of belonging to Christ
Q.Do you belong to Christ? Can you say I have an inheritance from God?
Ga 3:16-18 ..... 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many (i.e. Israel), but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
- So to the Gentile Christians he says...
Ga 3:26-29 ..... 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ (Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female), then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
- All that God has – is ours! We are heirs of God, we are Abraham’s descendants
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- When Jesus lays down the Be-attitudes, He says “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth”
- And unlike motor vehicles & homes, our inheritance does not devalue with time
1 Pe 1:3-4 ..... 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
Conclusion
- You cannot know this glorious inheritance from looking at it from the outside – you must belong to Christ
- For my family, looking at pictures of skiers skiing down a mountain is nothing compared to the experience of skiing down the mountain
- Pictures are no substitute for the real thing
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- Human philosophy reaching back to ancient Greeks says “know thyself”
Jn 17:3 ..... 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
- It may be important to know yourself, but the Scriptures & our passage today encourages us to know God
- The greatest thing in all the world is to know God & Jesus personally and to know that one shall live with Him forever. God and what He has done for us in Christ are the summits of knowledge
