Knowledge

Read one verse to commence, please, in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11. Luke, Chapter 11, and verse 52. Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge.

Ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. It is the second phrase of that verse that particularly has caught my attention in my reading just this week. Ye have taken away the key of knowledge.

Now we will definitely be reading other portions of the Scriptures, I just want to make a couple of comments to try and introduce what my emphasis, I trust, can be profitably from this verse. In your experience as a believer, if you've been saved for any length of time, I have to assume that you have, as I have, known something of what it means to drift away from what I want to call devoted duty to Christ. I have been made to wonder in the past, and then when looking at this consideration in view of this portion just now, I've been made to wonder at different times, is the line between devoted duty to Christ and dictated duty very fine? That is, is it a line that can be crossed without having recognized it in our experience as a believer in the Lord Jesus? Can we have so easily, as we go on the daily experiences of the Christian life, have moved from a distinct duty that is moved by devotion for Christ to a duty that is just prompted by the sense of dictation? And in this verse that we have read, we have the Lord Jesus confronting, I trust there's no, well, it's okay if you're an attorney that's in the audience today.

You make your living as a lawyer. We recognize, of course, that the term, the people that the Lord Jesus addresses in this and in other portions of the Gospels is not referring to people that practice civil law, but rather those who were particularly responsible for but prided themselves in carefully analyzing, as they thought, and teaching, prescribing the law of God for the people of God. You remember in Matthew chapter 23, in his rebuke, the Lord Jesus there is quoted as saying that they have shut up the entrance to that kingdom.

It is as if then by their manner of handling the word of God, they had closed the door so that people couldn't enter in. But this even seems to take it a step further. They've closed the door and they threw away the key.

And they're making it literally impossible for their audience to ever even get the door open that they might be able to enter in. And then, of course, the Lord very frankly and pointedly condemned them, exhorted them in that they weren't going to enter in themselves and they were hindering others that would have entered in if they had had the liberty. I might just add, it's often been impressed on me that when the Lord Jesus spoke so frankly, so pointedly to his audience at times, if you're anything like me, you could read through the Gospels and I have the lawyers, the scribes, the Pharisees, they're all in this context.

They were written off crowd. He had no time for them and he had no offering of salvation for them. Not a bit.

He spoke to them in that manner. He confronted them. He spoke frankly to them because of the state they were in, the condition where they were.

And he spoke that way to arrest them, that they might have the joy that he had intended to bring them. And that was to be in his kingdom. But it's this expression, you've taken away the key of knowledge.

Now, as I thought a little on it this week, it struck me with these three questions. Is it that the key is knowledge itself? That is, knowledge itself is the key. Or is it that a key that knowledge possesses? Now, there's a subtle difference between that.

Is knowledge the actual key or does having knowledge then provide a key? I may not make real distinction in my comments on that, but that was where my mind was going. The third one, is this the key to gain knowledge that they had thrown away? Now, you can look at it from either one of those three and maybe some of your saints do. I don't even see the difference between them.

Is knowledge the key itself or does having knowledge then provide you a key? Or is it that there is a key that you must have to even gain the knowledge in the first place? Now, let's go back to the book Hosea, just after the prophet Daniel. Turn to Hosea, please, chapter four. Hosea, chapter four, verse one.

I've got to confess the pages around that are a little sticky in my Bible. Still, they don't get turned too many times. Hosea, chapter four and verse one.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Verse six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

And then chapter six, please, verse six. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Just briefly, we would appreciate that Hosea called of God.

We've been hearing today that you can't choose where you're going to do the Lord's work. Well, Hosea finds himself in the northern parts in the land of Israel, that part which moved away from Jerusalem and its particular center as God's place of dwelling amongst the people that he had delivered. He now is amongst those that the people of Judah and Benjamin would look to the north and say those are the rebels of the north.

Hosea is there. But nevertheless, Hosea and his faithfulness to God is confronting the people. And if there's one thing that particularly then has struck me, it is this theme, is that they have, as chapter four, verse six, frankly said, they are cut off, they are removed, they are far from the purposes of God and usefulness for God because of the lack of knowledge.

And then as chapter six, verse six says, he desired mercy, but not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. There was, as we know at times in various places in the north and in the people of Israel, some forms of animal worship. They had some things that they were doing, but those things that were most essential, God recognized they had jettisoned long before.

And because of that, there was a prophet like Hosea sent to them. And the primary thing here he's driving at was the need of the knowledge of God. We've already heard today.

We've been reminded just now by our brother McCullough of the necessity of persistent prayer, confident prayer. But you'll remember, too, that those men that were identified in Acts chapter six were not only then men that were marked by prayer, but they were men that were going to be marked by the teaching of the word of God, that that was going to be their weighty responsibility. We've also been reminded of the need, then, that we would understand not only who we are as individuals, but why we gather as we do together and what it is that's going to keep us in persisting in that gathering in such an effective way.

You can boil it all down, if I could just now, to this business of knowledge. But the question is, how will we handle the knowledge that we have? It's a wonderful thing to have knowledge, but it's another thing how we handle the knowledge that we have. The psalmist says that we have a goodly heritage.

There are tremendous things, truths of God, that have fallen into the hands of some of us that, to use expression, remember how Paul, when he was confronted by the Roman soldier, he spoke about being free-born, whereas the other one had had to buy his way into Roman citizenship. Paul says, I'm free-born. In a sense, some of us were free-born.

We didn't pay a big price to take our place in an assembly and its distinction from man-made church systems about us. Some of us were born into assembly homes and, by the grace of God, eventually saved and then took our place in it. But have we done it? And are we maintained in it with devoted duty to Christ? We were speaking in the car just a little as we were coming along this morning about the concept of the bond slave that Paul so often referred to.

And he did so practically. He gave instruction about how the bond slaves were to behave themselves in their work, to use expression, secular work in relation to their masters. But how often Paul took that concept and introduced it to the Christian life.

We are bound, we are duty-bound to serve Christ. But in what manner will we do it? The lawyers of the days of the Lord Jesus, they had taken away the key of knowledge. And I want to particularly suggest to you today, I will quote first of all, what the final and ultimate objective of knowledge is.

And we all know this, but we can never, never lose sight of it. The hymn that we just sung together reminded us that this is our objective. But dear brother Norman Crawford, in his book, in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, that is part of the What the Bible Teaches series, this is what he said in reference to Luke chapter 2, 11-52.

Them that were entering in, he hindered, he quotes that from the verse, says, it describes the man who deprived others of the key of knowledge, an expression that either means the knowledge of the scriptures that speak of Christ or even of Christ himself. Now, I'm not going to dismiss that because ultimately that's where I want to land with what I'm considering here this afternoon. But I want to back up from it just a step or two, because you remember how the Proverbs remind us.

Proverbs 9-10 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then it adds in the knowledge of the holy and it's actually plural, holies. It may literally mean the holy ones, the fullness of the Godhead, the knowledge of the holies is understanding.

And then you back up into chapter one and you remember there that it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. My mind generally goes to the to the verse, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But first, before we ever get to that point, it says in Proverbs 1-7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of knowledge.

What then does it mean to have the fear of the Lord in us, to motivate us, to encourage us, to have us pursue the things of God in a devoted way? It's a pretty basic element of the Christian life, the fear of God or the fear of the Lord. Because I want to suggest to you when it says, when the Lord Jesus confronted the lawyers of the day and said, you've taken away the key of knowledge, I want to suggest to you that if there was anything else that was involved in that was that they had supplanted the fear of God with the fear of man. You see, they had taken upon themselves to handle the word of God in such a way as it was to their advantage.

Obviously. So in the experience of the Pharisees, the name very Pharisees means a separate ones. They considered themselves distinct from other lowly followers of the Jewish law.

The lawyers were obviously in cohorts with them. They would work together, the scribes as well. They were just three in a group that had this mindset that they handled the word of God to their personal advantage, that ultimately it wasn't God that they wanted the people to follow.

It was themselves, the men that handled the word of God that they wanted to follow. Some of us may be thinking, well, it seems kind of far removed from us today. Can I very frankly say.

But kindly. I believe we are kidding ourselves, we are fooling ourselves if we think that the very spirit of those men, by that I mean the very manner of those men is far removed from us in any generation of Christian testimony. It's the very thing that John confronted in the diatrophies of third John.

It was the spirit of self-promotion at the expense of the truth of God benefiting the people of God. And it is far too easy for us. I think I've lived long enough and moved long enough.

I've had the privilege of making three different assemblies, my home assembly over the years. And some of you know my history, where I've been. Where I'm at.

So I will say nothing specifically that would identify any of those situations. But whether with any of them or other places that I've had the occasion to visit and to be involved in, I'll say it, I think we are trying to fool ourselves if we think that we are done and so far removed from the spirit of dictated duty. Brethren, some of us personally have been guilty of it ourselves.

There may be some that we will immediately think of. Let's not excuse ourselves by thinking about somebody else. There is the awful potential to handle the word of God ultimately to personal advantage, to control the heart and the mind of the people by our impressions rather than to drive them by the fear of God to the person of Christ.

By drive, you know, I'm not meaning to beat them up to get them there, but to motivate them to instill in the hearts of God's people a desire to know Christ. So in Hosea's day, their fault, their lack was knowledge, knowledge of the word of God. And even he says knowledge of God himself.

This exhortation that our brother is reminding us of persistent prayer, I have to ask myself, not just on the behalf of others, but to what extent do I know what it means to personally commune with God? What do I know about prayer in the private place? What do I know about time spent in the word of God in the private place? You'll remember the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 13, as he exhorts those believers, as he's coming to the to the culmination of all the intent that the spirit of God has given him to write that book. He says, remember those that have gone before you, whose faith follow. You know, he could stop right there.

But it's interesting that he immediately says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. What was he getting at? He was trying to remind the people of his day with all the affliction that they were facing, the potential, if not yet realized the persecution for faithfulness to Christ. Remember those that have gone before their faith, their faith, not their demands, not their overbearing expectations, not their inflexible, rigid drivings of you in the things of God, but their faith says, follow it.

Why? Because Jesus Christ has not changed. This is just coming to my mind as I say this. It has been filtered in and out as I've been thinking about this in recent days.

And this does not by any means second guess what our Brother Wells has been reminding us of the assembly. Is it possible and I choose these words as best I can, but to try and make a point. Is it possible that the form and the behavior associated with the assembly and its various meetings can to us even displace the person of Christ? Because I am persuaded in my mind that faithful persuasion, knowledge of the scriptures, knowledge of the intent, we've been reminded of the great practice of headship in its display, understanding these things so that our hearts move with obedient devotion, duty, prompted, stirred.

We do it because we love Christ. Or do we drift? Have we crossed the line at times? Have we wandered to the point where I'm just doing this because this is what's expected of me to do? If it persists, whether personally or to a length in a local assembly, I would have to suggest we can't begin to think we have to look too far to wonder why some people leave. Young generations grew up among us and I fear at times that I am even guilty of this myself.

I assume they know too much or I assume rather they know more than perhaps they know that there are things they need to be taught. But as well, sometimes think that they don't have eyes in their head and don't have discernment in their souls. So they don't realize that what some of us are up to.

And sometimes we wonder then why they second rate the assembly of which we may have been apart. And they're ready to drift away. I make no excuse for their choices, but I have to believe, brother and sisters, at times we need to step back and examine ourselves because young people like children in our homes.

You know, how many times did you wake up and realize, man, my kids know me through and through. They can read me like a book. Well, it's the same case about young believers growing up amongst us at times.

We wonder why they might be prone to wander. It might be because we have already wandered far ourselves. They may be maintaining form.

But in Hosea's day, there was the great cry for mercy, for knowledge. And for lack of it, God said they were cut off. Thank God, as we've already heard, that we'll never be separated from our Savior.

But we have no guarantees that any one assembly of which we may be formed into and a part of will ever persist. Now, just for a few minutes, and I will conclude, turn with me to Colossians. Tremendous book about knowledge.

Colossians chapter one, please. And as we suggested, I want to what I've tried to drive is the key of knowledge is first the fear of God. But fear of God isn't dread.

Rather, it is that heart desire, that reverential respect that moves me to want to please him, to please my God. And from that then comes the ability to pursue. To pursue what? As a brother Crawford has said in his commentary, Christ himself.

Colossians chapter one, just to break in now and come at verse nine. For this cause, we also since the day we heard it immediately in the context he's referring concerning their love. But there is their response to the gospel and all that was preceding.

But he says for the day for this cause, we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. And you could read the rest of what it says there. By the time this sentence progresses, this long, unbroken sentence, you come down to verse 15 and it's bringing us to high considerations of the person of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power. All things were created by him and for him. For him and he is before all things, by him all things consist.

And if I could just conclude that, verse 18, that in all things he might have the preeminence, chapter three, verse 10, chapter three, verse 10, again, breaking into the middle of another sentence, Paul in exhortation says, and have put on, he's reviewing the experience of the Colossian believers, have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, or as the revised would put it, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. Now back to chapter two, verse three, and with this, a couple of thoughts will conclude. Verse three, chapter two, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When we read verse nine of chapter one, there were three things that are brought to our attention, the knowledge, the wisdom and spiritual understanding. If I could just suggest to you, knowledge is the accumulation of the facts, if you would, accumulation of the truth. Wisdom is the application of that truth.

And understanding is the aligning of that truth. But what is it ultimately all about? I know there's all the details, but if nothing else comes from this, just to serve to remind us that we as believers in, whether it's our responsibilities in the assembly or all the tasks in the affairs of life, walk a very fine line. That is a line that can too easily be distracted.

And we lose the real primary vision of our pursuit. And it's Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's in Christ, it's in Christ.

You have both the attitude and the action of Paul's desire in chapter one, verse nine. He says, I do not cease to pray. The word pray there is the one that really expresses the attitude of what he's doing.

It is a desire unto he is making the the longings of his heart known to God. And then he says, I do not cease to pray. And the word desire here is the one that really emphasizes more the idea of the action, actually asking God.

There is the desire from the heart of Paul. There is the the action, the action of asking God. And what is it that they might be filled with the knowledge, the fullness of knowledge of the will.

Of God's will. With wisdom, some have suggested spiritual wisdom and understanding might be a more proper rendering of it. But is it just being filled with knowledge? No.

Verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing. Dear saints, am I right? In your own experience, as I have to suggest, has been in the case of mine too easily that it is a very fine line. And it needs our diligence, it needs our prayerful, prayerful, honest pursuit before our God to discern why am I doing what am I doing? When I teach the word of God, if I could just add this quickly, knowledge, a people that were destroyed for the lack of knowledge, our assemblies in general need men, young men.

Good number them here today. It is going to cost you, it will cost you significantly if you are going to be able to teach the people of God knowledge, knowledge that will move them and motivate them like a Paul whose longing was to get the saints to know Christ and to know why they are doing what they are doing for Christ. It's not good enough to tell the people of God what they ought to do.

We need to know why we are doing what we're doing, and ultimately it is that we will know Christ in all things, in the desk, in your workplace, in the responsibilities of your very home, in the interreaction of our marriage relationships. Don't get me going on that one right now, but that is a great, great swelling need amongst us today in the assemblies of God's people, how we are living our marriages in this present world, how we then behave in the assembly. It's not just about the assembly, it's about our Christian lives at large.

Is the knowledge that we have, is it something that moves us to love Christ and want to do all things that are in keeping with the fullness of his will?