Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Value of Knowing the Scoop Msg 122 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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The Value of Knowing the Scoop Msg 122 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: In my opinion, the saddest phenomenon of our day is
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Speaker 1: not the level of cultural illiteracy in our society. It's
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Speaker 1: the prevalence of biblical illiteracy. Some remain relatively ignorant about
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Speaker 1: the Bible and its spiritual principles and practices. Folks, let
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Speaker 1: me just lay it on the line. We can't afford
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Speaker 1: to stay that way. Clearly, God wants us to pursue
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Speaker 1: spiritual knowledge with passion and with our whole heart. Paul
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Speaker 1: issued an exhortation to his young son in the faith,
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Speaker 1: a man named Timothy, regarding the extreme importance of sound
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Speaker 1: doctrine in a section of Scripture we'll be looking at today.
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Speaker 1: That section is 1 Timothy 4, the first six verses.
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Speaker 1: Let me read it for you from the Net Bible.
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Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 4, beginning at verse 1. Now the Spirit
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Speaker 1: explicitly says that in the later times some will desert
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Speaker 1: the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings,
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Speaker 1: influenced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.
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Speaker 1: They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that
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Speaker 1: God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who
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Speaker 1: believe and know the truth. For every creation of God
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Speaker 1: is good, and no food is to be rejected if
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Speaker 1: it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by
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Speaker 1: God's word and by prayer. By pointing out such things
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Speaker 1: to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good
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Speaker 1: servant of Christ Jesus, having nourished yourself on the words
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Speaker 1: of the faith and of the good teaching that you
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Speaker 1: have followed. Josh Billings was a humorist in the 19th century.
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Speaker 1: He said on one occasion that it is better not
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Speaker 1: to know so much than to know so many things
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Speaker 1: that ain't so, which I suppose could be paraphrased, whatever
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Speaker 1: you know ought to be so. Jamie O'Neill is a teacher.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he's taught in community colleges and up in
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Speaker 1: the Northwest in the state of Washington. Demi O'Neill became
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Speaker 1: increasingly concerned as an educator about the gross ignorance of
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Speaker 1: so many in his classes. In fact, he was not
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Speaker 1: so concerned that they didn't know technical information or complex facts,
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Speaker 1: but that so many basic things about life that they
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Speaker 1: knew just weren't so. So many of the facts that
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Speaker 1: they thought they had in place were, in fact, misplaced.
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Speaker 1: He decided one day to do something about it. if
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Speaker 1: nothing more than to expose the level of ignorance of
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Speaker 1: those in his class, not to take advantage of them,
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Speaker 1: but to help them see that they could hide it
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Speaker 1: no longer. So he devised an 86-question quiz for his
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Speaker 1: English class in college. There were 26 people in his class,
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Speaker 1: and they ranged in age from 18 to 54. And
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Speaker 1: all of them had had at least one quarter of
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Speaker 1: college work. These 86 questions were not what you would
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Speaker 1: call technical or in any way surprising things. They were
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Speaker 1: simple facts about the world around us. Facts about people,
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Speaker 1: facts about geography, life in general. He not only was
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Speaker 1: startled to discover what he found, but he recorded it
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Speaker 1: and later wrote about it in Newsweek in an article entitled,
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Speaker 1: No illusions in the classroom. And here's a sampling of
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Speaker 1: what he found that just ain't so. Ralph Nader is
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Speaker 1: a baseball player. Charles Darwin invented gravity. Christ was born
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Speaker 1: in the 16th century. J. Edgar Hoover was the 19th
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Speaker 1: century president. The great Gatsby was a magician in the 1930s.
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Speaker 1: Franz Joseph Haydn was a songwriter previously. who lived during
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Speaker 1: the same decade. Sid Caesar was an early Roman emperor.
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Speaker 1: Mark Twain invented the cotton gin. Jefferson Davis played guitar
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Speaker 1: for the Jefferson airplane. Benito Mussolini was a Russian leader
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Speaker 1: in the 18th century. Dwight D. Eisenhower came earlier. He
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Speaker 1: served as president during the 17th century. Socrates was an
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Speaker 1: American Indian chief. He adds, my students were equally creative
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Speaker 1: in their understanding of geography. They knew, for instance, that
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Speaker 1: Managua is the capital of Vietnam, that Cape Town is
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Speaker 1: in the United States, that Beirut is in Germany. Bogota,
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Speaker 1: of course, is in Borneo, unless it's in China. Camp
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Speaker 1: David is in Israel. Stratford-on-Avon is in Grenada, or Grenada,
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Speaker 1: as one wrote. Cologne is in the Virgin Islands, Mazatlan, Switzerland, Belfast,
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Speaker 1: was variously located in Egypt, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. Leningrad
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Speaker 1: was transported to Jamaica, Montreal to Spain, and on and
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Speaker 1: on it went. Most students answered incorrectly far more than
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Speaker 1: they answered correctly. Several of them meticulously wrote, I did.
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Speaker 1: don't know 62 times, 80 times, and one 86 times.
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Speaker 1: I don't know. As I write this, says Professor O'Neill,
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Speaker 1: the radio is broadcasting the news about the Walker family,
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Speaker 1: accused of spying for the Soviets. The Walkers, according to
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Speaker 1: a U.S. attorney, will be the Rosenbergs of the 1980s.
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Speaker 1: One of my students thought Ethel Rosenberg was a singer
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Speaker 1: from the 1930s. The rest of them did not know
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Speaker 1: who she was. As we enter the post-industrial information processing age,
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Speaker 1: he asks, what sort of information will be processed? As
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Speaker 1: I smiled and laughed my way through that article, as
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Speaker 1: you have, I was suddenly seized with the reality that
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Speaker 1: general knowledge is fast slipping from us. That we are
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Speaker 1: a people who are supposed to be educated people. And
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Speaker 1: I became quietly fearful over ignorance that sweeps a television-addicted
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Speaker 1: generation where if someone doesn't do it for me, I'm
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Speaker 1: not interested. And if someone doesn't think for me, I
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Speaker 1: am not desirous of pursuing it. I became aware, for example,
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Speaker 1: once again, that ignorance is not bliss. That ignorance, even
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Speaker 1: in the general secular realm, is the breeding ground for
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Speaker 1: fear and prejudice and superstition and slavery. That an uneducated
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Speaker 1: country is a is a country at the mercy and
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Speaker 1: without defense to an educated country. And I wanted to
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Speaker 1: study harder. I wanted to drink deeper at the fountain
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Speaker 1: of knowledge. I want to say to you who make
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Speaker 1: your living in the educational world, four words. Press on.
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Speaker 1: Never quit. Press on.
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Speaker 2: Never quit.
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Speaker 1: Never quit. You who are in the process of getting
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Speaker 1: an education, press on. Never stop studying. Never stop reading.
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Speaker 1: Never stop learning. Don't believe it because someone says it.
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Speaker 1: Find it out for yourself. Never stop. Press on. I
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Speaker 1: read recently that an education is really nothing more than
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Speaker 1: going from an unconscious to conscious awareness of one's ignorance.
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Speaker 1: It's true. Every time you study in a field, you
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Speaker 1: realize what a vast world there is out there beyond
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Speaker 1: the realm of the little bit that you know. Press on.
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Speaker 1: Never stop. Keep going. Keep learning. What is true in
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Speaker 1: the realm of general knowledge is all the more true
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Speaker 1: in the realm of spiritual knowledge. Talk about knowing things
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Speaker 1: that ain't so. I am constantly amazed at the level
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Speaker 1: of biblical ignorance in these United States. Aren't you? I
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Speaker 1: was watching the presidential elections sometime back and I remember
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Speaker 1: hearing a well-known commentator as he wanted to refer to
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Speaker 1: 2 Chronicles something. There was the Roman numeral 2 and
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Speaker 1: he called it 11 Chronicles. And I thought once again,
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Speaker 1: just a little tipping of the hand, He has no
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Speaker 1: idea how many chronicles there are. He doesn't mean to
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Speaker 1: be ignorant. He is just ignorant of the scriptures. That's
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Speaker 1: bad enough for a person who doesn't claim to be
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Speaker 1: a Christian. But how about you? What if someone gave
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Speaker 1: you a piece of paper with 86 questions on it?
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Speaker 1: Just basic information about your faith. How would you do?
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Speaker 1: Or someone came rapping at your door tomorrow morning and said,
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Speaker 1: I want to talk with you about this wonderful class
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Speaker 1: we have. We're studying the Bible together. and would like
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Speaker 1: you to be interested in it with us. And you
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Speaker 1: began to realize this person is not from your church
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Speaker 1: and doesn't represent your faith. And that individual says to you, oh,
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Speaker 1: I understand where you're coming from. You must really live
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Speaker 1: under the delusion that Jesus is God. Do you realize,
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Speaker 1: and then they give you three or four verses that
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Speaker 1: seem to contradict that thought. Could you stand with them
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Speaker 1: and convince them otherwise? Could you? Or you pick up
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Speaker 1: a very convincing piece of literature that takes an attack
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Speaker 1: against the scriptures and says, really, it's the work of man.
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Speaker 1: And those men were inspired, but that which has been
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Speaker 1: passed on to us really isn't that credible. Could you
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Speaker 1: convince yourself that piece of literature is questionable? In fact, incorrect.
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Speaker 1: 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 13 through 16 contain some
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Speaker 1: words of exhortation about growing and learning and discovering truth
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Speaker 1: for ourselves. Not so much that we know a lot
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Speaker 1: of things, but our problem is we know so many
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Speaker 1: things it just ain't so. And it's a way of
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Speaker 1: masking our ignorance and our inability to handle the word
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Speaker 1: of God accurately. A strong church is not only an
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Speaker 1: encouraging church, it's not only an enduring church, it's not
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Speaker 1: only a worshiping church, it is a learning church. It's
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Speaker 1: a place where the mind is stimulated to think, to discover,
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Speaker 1: to find out, to stand firm in the facts. Peter,
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Speaker 1: 1 Peter 3 verse 13 says this, Who is there
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Speaker 1: to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?
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Speaker 1: But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness,
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Speaker 1: you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation. And
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Speaker 1: do not be troubled. But sanctify Christ as Lord in
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Speaker 1: your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to
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Speaker 1: everyone who asks you to give an account for the
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Speaker 1: hope that is in you, yet with gentleness. and reverence.
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Speaker 1: And keep a good conscience so that in the thing
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Speaker 1: in which you are slandered, those who revile your good
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Speaker 1: behavior in Christ may be put to shame. The recipients
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Speaker 1: of the letter were hurting. They were suffering people. And
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Speaker 1: Peter writes to encourage them lest they become intimidated and fearful.
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Speaker 1: But in the midst of this word of encouragement, he
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Speaker 1: drops a comment about being able to defend our faith.
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Speaker 1: And it isn't just an afterthought or a casual comment
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Speaker 1: met for ancient Christians. It's truth for all times. It's
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Speaker 1: a command. Look again at verse 15. Set apart Christ
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Speaker 1: as Lord in your hearts. Now the command. Always being
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Speaker 1: ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you.
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Speaker 1: Keep looking at that passage. See the words, make a defense?
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Speaker 1: They come from one Greek word, apologia. We get our
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Speaker 1: word apologetic or apology from it. Not in the sense
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Speaker 1: of apologizing or apologizing. saying I'm sorry for something but
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Speaker 1: this word apology carries the idea of a formal justification
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Speaker 1: a defense let's put that in always being ready to
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Speaker 1: make a formal justification or give a defense to anyone
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Speaker 1: who asks not only for our sakes but for those
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Speaker 1: around us who may not be able to defend themselves
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Speaker 1: Let me take you on a brief scriptural safari. May
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Speaker 1: I do that? Listen to this journey through the scriptures.
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Speaker 1: In the ancient days under Moses, God was so concerned
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Speaker 1: that his people know his truth. He, with his finger,
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Speaker 1: as it were, wrote it into stone. The stone tablets
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Speaker 1: came down from a mountain in the arms of Moses
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Speaker 1: and were presented to the people as a guide for
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Speaker 1: their lives. He wanted his people to know his truth.
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Speaker 1: Before Moses took the people, well, he actually didn't take
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Speaker 1: them into the land, but on the edge of the
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Speaker 1: land before they moved into Canaan without him, he pulled
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Speaker 1: them aside for a final review. The book of Deuteronomy
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Speaker 1: contains his sermons. Deutero, second, namas, law, or a repetition
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Speaker 1: of the law. It is a book in which Moses
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Speaker 1: delivers perhaps as many as seven sermons to the people
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Speaker 1: of God. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, he tells
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Speaker 1: the fathers and mothers to take the truth of God
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Speaker 1: and instruct their children in it. Because the children will
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Speaker 1: be exposed to a whole new lifestyle that will be
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Speaker 1: antithetical to a monogamous view of the faith. They will
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Speaker 1: be moving into idolatry and polygamy. They will be discovering
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Speaker 1: a whole new way of thinking. And Moses says ahead
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Speaker 1: of time, these children must know the truth. Teach them.
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Speaker 1: By the days of Samuel, there had been developed, thank God,
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Speaker 1: a school of the prophets. The school of the prophets
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Speaker 1: was made up of a body of men who were
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Speaker 1: interested in honing their skills and becoming spokesmen for God.
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Speaker 1: They trained at the feet of Samuel and other men
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Speaker 1: of God. In the days of captivity, God's continual reproof
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Speaker 1: to his people was, you did not act upon what
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Speaker 1: you knew. You acted in ignorance. In the days of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: how often he looked at the scribes and Pharisees and
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Speaker 1: rebuked them with words, do you not know? Have you
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Speaker 1: not read? He said that to the clergymen of his day.
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Speaker 1: Are you ignorant of what the scrolls say? Jesus left
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Speaker 1: the earth and left the church in the hands of
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Speaker 1: the apostles. They have left for us letters in the
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Speaker 1: New Testament. And frequently we find threaded through those letters
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Speaker 1: words like, know this, and I would not have you
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Speaker 1: to be ignorant about, and such things as that. All
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Speaker 1: the way through the Bible, the word to the people
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Speaker 1: of God is learn, study, grow, so that you can
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Speaker 1: defend your position when asked about it or faced with attack.
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Speaker 1: In fact, I studied just briefly this past week sort
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Speaker 1: of a survey of church history, and I was encouraged
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Speaker 1: and refreshed all over again. by the lives of men
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Speaker 1: who took the book seriously and when necessary laid down
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Speaker 1: their lives for it. Some of them wrote our creeds,
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Speaker 1: which exist today. Some of them gave us the dogma
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Speaker 1: upon which we stand. They systematized our theology. They gave
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Speaker 1: us our hymns so that we could sing our faith.
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Speaker 1: And in fact, they wrote catechisms for the young so
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Speaker 1: that children would be cultivated in a knowledge of the truth.
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Speaker 1: Did you know how long it was that our forefathers
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Speaker 1: stayed on this continent before they established a school of
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Speaker 1: higher learning? Remember that little fact? Sixteen years. They survived
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Speaker 1: those winters. They established their houses. They put together and
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Speaker 1: settled their government. And then they went to work to
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Speaker 1: establish an educational center in a little place called Newtown,
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Speaker 1: which was later changed to Cambridge. And they named that
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Speaker 1: little school, this school of higher learning, after a 31-year-old
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Speaker 1: clergyman who had died prematurely. He had left his library
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Speaker 1: and half his estate to the school. His name was
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Speaker 1: John Harvard. Ever read the cornerstone at Harvard University? When
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Speaker 1: I ministered at Massachusetts, I remember standing neck, not neck deep,
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Speaker 1: but knee deep in snow. And I wiped the ice
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Speaker 1: and the snow off the bronze plate that was just
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Speaker 1: along the gate that opened into the Hobbit Yard. And
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Speaker 1: while standing there, I made note of the cornerstone. It reads,
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Speaker 1: After God had carried us safe to New England, and
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Speaker 1: we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihoods,
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Speaker 1: reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government,
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Speaker 1: one of the next things we longed for and looked
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Speaker 1: after was to advance learning and perpetuate to posterity, dreading
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Speaker 1: to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our
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Speaker 1: present ministries shall lie in the dust. That is the
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Speaker 1: cornerstone inscription at Harvard University. My question is not, did
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Speaker 1: you know that? But I wonder if those people teaching
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Speaker 1: there today know that. The place of higher learning was
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Speaker 1: established to give to the country a literate ministry. A
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Speaker 1: body of clergymen who would stand in the gap, who
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Speaker 1: would have a knowledge of the truth that was strong
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Speaker 1: enough and firm and able to stand against the attack
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Speaker 1: of the enemy for surely it would come. I want
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Speaker 1: you to find a place somewhere in your Bible where
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Speaker 1: there is a blank piece of paper and I want
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Speaker 1: you to write down six things. Will you do that
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Speaker 1: for me? Just locate on the frontispiece or perhaps in
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Speaker 1: the back of your Bible a blank sheet where nothing
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Speaker 1: is written And just put at the top of that sheet,
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Speaker 1: reasons for knowledge. Let me give you five or six
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Speaker 1: benefits that come directly to us when we know what
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Speaker 1: we believe. Why do I want to learn the truth
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Speaker 1: of God? Number one, it gives substance to my faith.
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Speaker 1: It gives substance to my faith. Those who do not
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Speaker 1: know the truth rely on emotion, feelings, or someone else's word,
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Speaker 1: or another book, or some empty hope. And their faith
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Speaker 1: lacks substance that is especially revealing when they are under
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Speaker 1: attack and when testing comes. That brings me to the second.
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Speaker 1: It stabilizes me during times of testing. It stabilizes me
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Speaker 1: during times of testing. When I know what God has
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Speaker 1: said and the bottom virtually drops out of my life,
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Speaker 1: I don't give up the faith. I have been stabilized
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Speaker 1: by my knowledge of the truth when the tests come.
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Speaker 1: Number three. It enables me to handle the Bible correctly.
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Speaker 1: By knowing the general themes of scripture, I am enabled
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Speaker 1: to handle the Bible correctly. Let me interrupt our thoughts
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Speaker 1: here for a moment and give you a quotation from
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Speaker 1: a well-known apologist named Dr. Norman Geisler, whom some of
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Speaker 1: you have read and may even know. A man I respect.
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Speaker 1: He possesses an incredible, penetrating, if not irresistible logic in
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Speaker 1: defending the faith. It hasn't always been so. In his
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Speaker 1: own testimony, he says, When I first started sharing my faith,
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Speaker 1: I ran into people who knew more about the Bible
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Speaker 1: and their own beliefs than I did. I didn't know
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Speaker 1: how to answer them. Drunks and cultists actually quoted scripture
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Speaker 1: to me. Right there, I realized I had two choices.
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Speaker 1: Stop witnessing or start studying. End of quote. And has
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Speaker 1: he ever started to study? I'm not asking you to
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Speaker 1: be a Norm Geisler. Most of us are not so
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Speaker 1: gifted intellectually to stand where he stands. We're grateful that
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Speaker 1: he stands there, however. I'm asking you to think about
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Speaker 1: the value of a knowledge of the truth so that
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Speaker 1: you can simply handle the Bible correctly when it is
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Speaker 1: quoted against the faith, the evangelical faith that you embrace.
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Speaker 1: Number four, it equips me to detect and confront error.
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Speaker 1: It equips me to detect and confront error. When I
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Speaker 1: know what the book says No one has to nudge
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Speaker 1: me and say, did you get that? Listen to that.
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Speaker 1: That's not true. Or, you know, in light of what
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Speaker 1: he just presented, this is out of whack as a
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Speaker 1: passage of scripture is brought before me. I don't have
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Speaker 1: to have someone do that for me. I have developed
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Speaker 1: a knowledge and it's still growing. I still have gaps
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Speaker 1: of ignorance that at times embarrass me. But that knowledge
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Speaker 1: that I have gained, that reservoir of truth, allows me
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Speaker 1: to detect and fine-tune where that person's coming from. I can,
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Speaker 1: if necessary, confront error with the facts of Scripture. And
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Speaker 1: many of you are able to do that, too. Number five,
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Speaker 1: it makes us confident. It makes me confident in my walk.
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Speaker 1: Show me a person who stumbles along in the Christian faith,
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Speaker 1: and I'll show you a person who isn't learning anything.
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Speaker 1: The scriptures. The learning process has somehow been interrupted. It
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Speaker 1: makes me confident in my walk. I am confident in
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Speaker 1: my God. I am confident when I confess, he hears
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Speaker 1: and he forgives. I am confident when I open his book,
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Speaker 1: truth will come. I don't question that. The more I
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Speaker 1: learn of him, the more confidence there is. Number six,
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Speaker 1: it filters. It filters out my fears and superstitions. How
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Speaker 1: important that one is. I think we would all be
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Speaker 1: amazed if we knew how many people operated their lives
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Speaker 1: from superstition and fear. Before going any further, I want
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Speaker 1: you to sit quietly and listen to two passages of
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Speaker 1: scripture without turning to them. One I will read from
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Speaker 1: the modern language Bible, the new Berkeley version, Hosea 4,
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Speaker 1: 1 to 6. The other I will read from the
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Speaker 1: living Bible, Amos 8, 11 to 13, both from minor
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Speaker 1: prophets who had a major message for our times. Hosea,
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Speaker 1: listen to the word of the Lord, sons of Israel.
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Speaker 1: For the Lord has a charge against the dwellers of
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Speaker 1: the land because there is no fidelity, no kindness. no
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Speaker 1: knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, lying, murder, theft, adultery,
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Speaker 1: violent outbreaks, bloodshed after bloodshed. Wherefore the land mourns and
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Speaker 1: everything living in it languishes. Even at that, let no
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Speaker 1: one enter complaint. Let no one bring accusation. For my
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Speaker 1: people are like their priestlings, you priests. You stumble by day.
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Speaker 1: The prophet too stumbles with you by night. My people
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Speaker 1: perish for lack of knowledge. And because you have rejected knowledge,
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Speaker 1: I reject you from being priest to me. Since you
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Speaker 1: have forgotten the law of your God, I too will forget.
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Speaker 1: Amos 8, 11 to 13. The time is surely coming.
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Speaker 1: says the Lord, when I will send a famine on
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Speaker 1: the land. Not a famine of bread or water, but
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Speaker 1: of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will wander
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Speaker 1: everywhere from sea to sea, seeking the word of the Lord, searching,
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Speaker 1: running here and going there, and will not find it.
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Speaker 1: Beautiful girls and fine young men alike will grow faint
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Speaker 1: and weary. thirsting for the word of God. Even though
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Speaker 1: those two prophecies are many centuries old, I ask you,
29:06
Speaker 1: are they not up to date? Is there not a famine?
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Speaker 1: Is there not a thirst for the truth of God?
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Speaker 1: I'll tell you, sound doctrine is invaluable. Not as an
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Speaker 1: end in itself, but as a means to to an
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Speaker 1: end of survival. Turn from 1 Peter 3 over to
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Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 4. We're turning from one of the letters
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Speaker 1: written by an apostle to yet another. 1 Timothy chapter 4.
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Speaker 1: This chapter, written to a minister at a local church
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Speaker 1: whose name was Timothy, at that time pastoring the church
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Speaker 1: at Ephesus. This chapter contains special instructions on various subjects.
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Speaker 1: The first six verses, which interest us for the moment,
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Speaker 1: have to do with that which will occur in later times.
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Speaker 1: Certainly our own times would be included here. But the
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Speaker 1: Spirit explicitly says, I don't want to go any further,
30:23
Speaker 1: I want to wait just a moment and study that
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Speaker 1: word explicitly. Sometimes I like to get a hold of
30:30
Speaker 1: a word and trace it back and find its meaning
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Speaker 1: and see what it really meant. Why would he add explicitly?
30:36
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't he just say, the Spirit says, or thus
30:40
Speaker 1: says the Lord? This adds emphasis to what is to follow.
30:45
Speaker 1: This term explicitly, and it's used only here in all
30:50
Speaker 1: the New Testament, this term means expressly, most assuredly, in
30:57
Speaker 1: stated terms. It is introducing an unequivocal fact. I thought
31:04
Speaker 1: of that when I, this past week, was reading about earthquakes,
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Speaker 1: which have been on my mind for the last couple
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Speaker 1: of weeks, as it has been on yours, having endured
31:16
Speaker 1: that horrible piece of history that we've gone through from
31:21
Speaker 1: our friends in Mexico City. The article read, In this country,
31:26
Speaker 1: geologists say that a major earthquake not only can but
31:32
Speaker 1: will strike somewhere in California with appalling loss of life
31:40
Speaker 1: and enormous property damage, a quake of a magnitude greater
31:45
Speaker 1: than 8.0. Geologists, I suppose we could say, explicitly state
31:57
Speaker 1: it isn't simply a theory. It isn't a haunting idea.
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Speaker 1: It is fact. By the way, when I was reading
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Speaker 1: that magazine, someone on the second floor started the vacuum cleaner.
32:16
Speaker 1: I will never forget that. I almost lost it when
32:21
Speaker 1: I read of this. I thought it was happening now. Now. Now.
32:26
Speaker 1: The Spirit explicitly states. It is a fact. What is?
32:34
Speaker 1: What is, Paul? Why would the Spirit of God reserve
32:38
Speaker 1: this term for this one passage? And no other place
32:44
Speaker 1: in Scripture would something explicitly be stated because of its importance.
32:51
Speaker 1: That in later times, some will Fall away from the faith.
32:59
Speaker 1: The Greek term is the same word we have in English. Apostatize. Abandon.
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Speaker 1: Withdraw from. Leave. In later times, some will leave the faith. Why?
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Speaker 1: Why would anyone want to leave something as marvelous as
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Speaker 1: the Christian faith? Why would they defect? He tells us.
33:26
Speaker 1: Because they will begin to pay attention to deceitful spirits.
33:31
Speaker 1: That's the style of teaching they'll get exposed to. And
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Speaker 1: doctrines of demons. That's the source of the information. We
33:41
Speaker 1: don't like to call it that. We're in a demon
33:44
Speaker 1: denying era. We're in a world of such radical thought
33:49
Speaker 1: that there isn't even a devil in people's minds. And
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Speaker 1: that's the thing that the devil applauds. However the basis
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Speaker 1: of that which will cause people to defect. Will be deception.
34:07
Speaker 1: In style. And satanic in source. There will be doctrines
34:13
Speaker 1: that come from the pit. But they will be displayed
34:17
Speaker 1: as truth. Convincingly so. How? Verse 2. By means of.
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Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of liars who are themselves seared in their
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Speaker 1: own conscience as with a branding iron. They have no
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Speaker 1: qualms about leading you into the realm of error. They're
34:44
Speaker 1: convinced it's truth. And they have charisma. And they have
34:49
Speaker 1: the ability to convince. And they have what they call facts.
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Speaker 1: to pull you away from where you stand. This isn't
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Speaker 1: a scare passage. This is true. This is true. Remember,
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Speaker 1: the Spirit explicitly warns of such. And for example, verse 3,
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Speaker 1: in those days, one of the heresies was Gnosticism. Gnostics
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Speaker 1: taught that matter was evil. And that which was physically
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Speaker 1: pleasing was displeasing to God, which would include things like
35:29
Speaker 1: marriage and eating certain foods. So they had a whole
35:32
Speaker 1: system of thought that taught you're not to marry and
35:36
Speaker 1: you shouldn't eat certain foods. Verse 3 includes those. Men
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Speaker 1: will come who forbid marriage and they will advocate abstaining
35:45
Speaker 1: from certain foods. Now, you don't find the Apostle Paul...
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Speaker 1: biting off his nails and gripping himself and wondering, how
35:54
Speaker 1: am I going to make it through this? He just
35:55
Speaker 1: calmly says, but that's not true. Why isn't it true? Because,
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Speaker 1: keep reading verse 3, God has created those things to
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Speaker 1: be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know
36:13
Speaker 1: the truth. Theologically, God has created marriage. God has given foods. Theologically,
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Speaker 1: we are delivered from a law that keeps us from
36:26
Speaker 1: eating certain foods. So you haven't a thing to be
36:30
Speaker 1: afraid of. The reason he's calm is because he knows
36:34
Speaker 1: his doctrine. He knows his position. And when he writes
36:41
Speaker 1: so calmly, he says, in fact, everything created by God
36:45
Speaker 1: is good and nothing to be rejected. How calm can
36:58
Speaker 1: you be? Calm because he knew where he stood. In fact,
37:05
Speaker 1: he gives me a word as a minister of the gospel.
37:07
Speaker 1: He says to Timothy, verse 6, Timothy, in pointing out
37:11
Speaker 1: these things to your flock, to the brethren, you'll be
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Speaker 1: a good servant of Christ Jesus. Timothy, here's what you're
37:18
Speaker 1: to spend your time doing. Constantly nourishing yourself on the
37:22
Speaker 1: words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which
37:26
Speaker 1: you have been following. Isn't that great? That gives me
37:30
Speaker 1: my job description. I am supposed to constantly nourish myself
37:36
Speaker 1: in the book. And the longer I'm in this work,
37:40
Speaker 1: the more I have to be nourished because the greater
37:42
Speaker 1: the pressure, the more the problems, the more the The
37:47
Speaker 1: calendar gets filled with other things. And the more I
37:50
Speaker 1: have to pour over this book so that my mind
37:53
Speaker 1: stays sharp with the truth and I can deliver it
37:57
Speaker 1: personally as well as publicly. Most importantly, live it. Today,
38:04
Speaker 1: I could not be more thankful for the school where
38:07
Speaker 1: I studied. For mentors who loved the truth and helped
38:12
Speaker 1: me cultivate it. for parents who taught me the way,
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Speaker 1: for a wife who put me through my higher education,
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Speaker 1: for congregations who patiently labored as I forged out my theology.
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Speaker 1: Right up to this present moment, I am grateful for
38:31
Speaker 1: so many who had a hand in my learning and
38:35
Speaker 1: growing experience. My message to you is, where are you
38:39
Speaker 1: in that process? do you really know your way around
38:48
Speaker 1: the book? Let me make it even more practical. Would
38:54
Speaker 1: you ever think of going to a doctor who stopped studying?
39:00
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone would ever say to his wife,
39:02
Speaker 1: who's hurting deeply, just check the Yellow Pages. One of
39:05
Speaker 1: those guys with MD after his name is fine. No,
39:10
Speaker 1: you check them out. You get a second and sometimes
39:13
Speaker 1: third opinion. You check their degrees. You want to know
39:17
Speaker 1: if they're still growing, if they're still learning. You want
39:20
Speaker 1: to get to know that physician well enough to know
39:23
Speaker 1: that he's up on the latest. That's his job. And
39:28
Speaker 1: so is mine. The same. Same could be said for
39:32
Speaker 1: an attorney who takes our case and presents it before
39:35
Speaker 1: a court of law and we are at the mercy
39:38
Speaker 1: of the man's intelligence and style and knowledge of law.
39:47
Speaker 1: Coming up in this series... is a marvelous set of
39:52
Speaker 1: studies just in front of us. In our case at
39:58
Speaker 1: the church, it will begin next Sunday and it will
40:01
Speaker 1: run ten consecutive Sundays. I plan to devote morning and
40:06
Speaker 1: evening pulpit time to the doctrines of our faith. I
40:13
Speaker 1: plan to develop such things as what the Bible teaches
40:17
Speaker 1: about the Scriptures the Trinity, God the Father, the Lord Jesus,
40:22
Speaker 1: God's Son, the Holy Spirit, man and sin, justification by
40:27
Speaker 1: grace through faith apart from works, our whole subject of salvation,
40:32
Speaker 1: the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the
40:35
Speaker 1: universal church, and even the ordinances and what they're all about.
40:41
Speaker 1: We're going to toss in along the way some interesting sidelights.
40:45
Speaker 1: For example, next Sunday evening, evening, Dr. Ron Rietveld, following
40:50
Speaker 1: the worship service in the evening, will meet with many
40:54
Speaker 1: who want to know how we got our Bibles. We'll
40:57
Speaker 1: get into that subject with that scholar to lead us
41:00
Speaker 1: along the way. There'll be panel discussions. There'll be feedback time.
41:05
Speaker 1: There'll be times in which we will put together our
41:11
Speaker 1: thoughts concerning the basics of our faith. I may toss
41:15
Speaker 1: in a few pop quizzes. I've Thought about doing that lately.
41:19
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to do that for some time, and
41:21
Speaker 1: I don't get to very much. My family won't take
41:24
Speaker 1: my quizzes, so maybe you will. Now I want to
41:28
Speaker 1: warn all of us against something very, very dangerous, okay?
41:33
Speaker 1: I want to warn us. Knowledge can be, in fact,
41:37
Speaker 1: I want to talk about this at least at the
41:39
Speaker 1: beginning of my talk tonight. I'm going to share a
41:41
Speaker 1: slice of my testimony today. I've never shared before regarding
41:45
Speaker 1: a time in my life when knowledge became dangerous. Knowledge
41:51
Speaker 1: is dangerous when it lacks scriptural support. Intelligent scriptural support.
41:59
Speaker 1: It becomes dangerous. Knowledge just for knowledge sake is a
42:02
Speaker 1: heady thing and can turn into pride. Knowledge is dangerous
42:07
Speaker 1: when it becomes an end in itself. Knowledge is dangerous
42:12
Speaker 1: when it isn't balanced by love and grace. That turns
42:17
Speaker 1: into an intolerant spirit. Ever been around a group of
42:19
Speaker 1: people who think they've got the corner on truth? They're
42:22
Speaker 1: the Bible club. And you're not in it because you're
42:27
Speaker 1: dumb and they're smart. That's a dangerous kind of knowledge
42:32
Speaker 1: when it leads to an intolerance of other people. Our
42:36
Speaker 1: knowledge should give us a passion to get the word out.
42:40
Speaker 1: An infectious, contagious enthusiasm that says, you've got to get
42:44
Speaker 1: into this with us. But knowledge that isn't balanced with
42:48
Speaker 1: love and grace is dangerous. Knowledge that remains theoretical. It
42:54
Speaker 1: isn't mixed with discernment and action. That's dangerous. Now, I
43:02
Speaker 1: know there are some who say, Chuck, give me a break.
43:07
Speaker 1: I'm 57 years old. Man, I've been down a pike.
43:13
Speaker 1: I've paid my dues. You guys can get all excited
43:16
Speaker 1: about that truth, but, you know, I know I'm saved.
43:21
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hell. I know I'm going to
43:23
Speaker 1: be with Jesus when I die. Just don't make me think.
43:27
Speaker 1: Just tell me, and I'll believe it. You know, the
43:31
Speaker 1: problem with you, my friend, if there would be one
43:34
Speaker 1: or two of you like that, and not all of
43:37
Speaker 1: them are 57, The problem with that is that you've
43:41
Speaker 1: got people around you who rely on you to know.
43:48
Speaker 1: You're their defense. And they expect you to know. I
43:54
Speaker 1: love the way C.S. Lewis put it. If all the
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Speaker 1: world were Christian, it might not matter if all the
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Speaker 1: world were uneducated. But as it is, A cultural life
44:09
Speaker 1: will exist outside the church, whether it exists inside or not.
44:14
Speaker 1: To be ignorant and simple now, not to be able
44:17
Speaker 1: to meet the enemy on their own ground, would be
44:19
Speaker 1: to throw down our weapons and to betray our uneducated
44:23
Speaker 1: brethren who have under God no defense but us against
44:27
Speaker 1: the intellectual attacks of the heathen. he adds, good philosophy
44:33
Speaker 1: must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy
44:38
Speaker 1: needs to be answered. The cool intellect must work not
44:42
Speaker 1: only against cool intellect on the other side, but against
44:46
Speaker 1: the muddy, heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether. Most of all, perhaps,
44:53
Speaker 1: we need intimate knowledge of the past. The learned life, then,
44:59
Speaker 1: is for some A duty. My Christian educator. For you
45:09
Speaker 1: it is a duty. You who are engaged in the
45:14
Speaker 1: shaping of minds. It is a duty. To stay sharp
45:18
Speaker 1: in the truth. Firm in the faith. It is a
45:23
Speaker 1: duty that you help those under your tutelage. To know
45:27
Speaker 1: how to do it too. And Christians all over who
45:31
Speaker 1: hear me. It is as well our duty. If for
45:36
Speaker 1: no other reason. Than to help answer our neighbors questions.
45:41
Speaker 1: And help calm our mates hurts. And help strengthen our
45:46
Speaker 1: friends faith. When the bottom is dropped out of his life.
45:52
Speaker 1: It's a duty. Our problem is that we. Not that
45:58
Speaker 1: we know so many things. It's that we know so
46:00
Speaker 1: much that just ain't so. We want to clear that
46:05
Speaker 1: out of the way and find out what is so.
46:08
Speaker 1: Let's bow together, shall we? We live in a strange world.
46:19
Speaker 1: Strange world. It is so convincing. It's so appealing and attractive.
46:29
Speaker 1: It's able to convince us that we're hearing the truth
46:32
Speaker 1: when in fact it's a lie. And it's so full
46:39
Speaker 1: of charisma that it will stand against the Bible and
46:41
Speaker 1: you won't even know it if you don't know your Bible.
46:48
Speaker 1: If you happen to be one of our friends who
46:51
Speaker 1: has been listening and you just aren't really sure about
46:55
Speaker 1: whether you're even a Christian, You think some of this
46:58
Speaker 1: is starting to sound interesting. Let's take first things first.
47:02
Speaker 1: Let's be sure you're in the family. And then you
47:05
Speaker 1: can handle family truth. Jesus loves me, this I know,
47:12
Speaker 1: for the Bible tells me so. You're loved by God.
47:18
Speaker 1: His son died for you. Yes, he did. There will
47:23
Speaker 1: never be a time when God doesn't love you. But
47:26
Speaker 1: he's got to keep his word. If you reject his
47:32
Speaker 1: son as your savior. God will keep his word. Your
47:37
Speaker 1: destiny is hell. And eternity without hope. And without God.
47:43
Speaker 1: We all have eternal life. It's just some are going
47:46
Speaker 1: to spend it in heaven. And some are going to
47:49
Speaker 1: spend it in hell. Make your choice. For Christ. Thank
48:00
Speaker 1: you Father. For the truth there is. That as many
48:06
Speaker 1: as receive Christ. To them he gives the authority. To
48:09
Speaker 1: become the children of God. Even to them who believe
48:11
Speaker 1: on his name. I have done that. And you have graciously.
48:16
Speaker 1: In spite of my sin. Admitted me into your family.
48:21
Speaker 1: And so have so many. Who hear this message today.
48:26
Speaker 1: May we be all the more convinced as we dig
48:30
Speaker 1: into these truths that what you have said is reliable, foundational,
48:36
Speaker 1: and trustworthy. And may it stabilize us when the tests come.
48:44
Speaker 1: May it strengthen us so that we're able to detect
48:48
Speaker 1: error and, when necessary, confront it. But may it not
48:53
Speaker 1: in any way cause our love to diminish especially our
48:57
Speaker 1: love for the lost. Enlarge it and increase it, our Father,
49:03
Speaker 1: as we learn and walk with you. In Jesus' name
49:09
Speaker 1: we pray.
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Speaker 2: Amen. The preceding message, The Value of Knowing the Scoop,
49:16
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in 1985, 1987, 2005. 2005, and 2011, and the sound
49:22
Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in 2011 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
49:27
Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide.
49:29
Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.