Intimacy through knowledge

1) Several years ago a man decided to rob a business located in Washington State.

2) Several facts indicate this was probably the robber’s first attempt at this type of crime.

a) The robber had no previous record of violent crime.

b) He chose, of all places to go and demand cash, a gun store.

c) Other facts about this robbery suggest this man lacked experience.

3) He chose to rob a gun shop when it was full of customers interested in guns.

4) In the state where the robber carried out his plans, adults are permitted to carry concealed handguns.

5) In order to get into this shop, this robber had to walk around a marked police car parked nearby.

6) A police officer was actually in the shop when the robbery took place.

7) The cop was in uniform and the sight of the officer caused the robber to say, “This is a hold up.”

8) If all this were not enough the robber decided to fire off a few gunshots.

9) The officer and the clerk immediately returned fire. Other customers also drew their guns.

10) As you can probably guess, the robber died. No one else was injured.

11) This is a true story in every way and it shows us that in many cases knowledge alone is not enough.

a) For a robber, it was not enough to realize that most who commit this crime are caught and punished.

b) It was not enough to know that robbing a gun shop in a state where people carry guns is a bad idea.

c) It was not enough to see a marked police car as well as a policeman at the robbery location.

d) This man failed to use the information available to him and that failure cost him his life.

12) In past weeks we have explored the idea of being intimate with God.

13) Today’s lesson serves as a type of transition; we want to look at the connection between intimacy and knowledge.

14) Beginning next week we enter into a different phase of this subject.

a) That is, since intimacy with God is possible, how does intimacy with God affect our lives?

b) Paul gave an answer in Gal. 5; he spoke about the “fruit of the spirit.”

c) If we have intimacy with God, it will be reflected in the way we live.

d) Starting next week we will look at Christian qualities from the perspective Peter gave in 2 Pet. 1.

15) Today we want to think about knowledge.

16) We begin with this fact: the Bible teaches that men needs a knowledge of God.

17) God is our creator—our originator—the one who has literally written the book on us.

18) If we want to know ourselves, our purpose, our faults, our hopes and our future, we need to know God

19) The way we get this understanding is by turning to and using the Word of God.

a) Jesus asked this question in Mk. 12:10: “Have ye not read even this Scripture?”

b) Jesus knew man learns about God through the Word of God.

c) Thus, the Lord asked people why they had not done very well in reading their Old Testament Bibles.

d) These people were ignorant in some respects about the Word of God and heaven disapproved.

20) Jesus made a similar point in Lk. 16:29.

a) This is the chapter where He spoke of the rich man and Lazarus.

b) As Jesus came to the completion of this story He said the man who went to torment was stuck.

c) This man had no hope. The man realized this and said, “Send someone back to tell my family.”

d) This man wanted his relatives to know about God so they avoided everlasting pain.

e) What was the response? Lk. 16:29 – READ.

f) People need to know that God has a plan for them in this life and the life after this one.

g) All will eventually go to a state that is either pleasant or unpleasant.

h) Those who wrote the books of the Bible helped create the information we need to know God.

21) God is quite insistent that we come to know Him through His word.

22) A lot of people have the idea that they would believe if God would do something really powerful.

23) In the minds of many, heaven should perform some type of cosmic wonder.

24) If God would show Himself in supernatural way, then many would stop to consider Him.

25) The final verse in Lk. 16 deals with this type of attitude, Lk. 16:31 – READ.

a) Jesus claimed that if people will not listen to the Word of God they will not be persuaded by anything else.

b) Having the dead come back to life is impressive; Jesus said the Bible is just as powerful.

c) People need a knowledge of God and that understanding comes through the Word of God.

d) It is not going to come by dreams, visions, God whispering to us, or a special insight from the Holy Spirit.

e) This knowledge did not come this way in the first century and it does not come that way now.

26) Most of us remember a story from the 8^th chapter of Acts.

27) There was a man who knew about God; he definitely had some knowledge.

28) This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. He also realized he could learn more about God with the Bible.

29) He took a Bible book (Isaiah) and opened it up to a passage about the Lord and began to read.

30) According to Luke, this man did not understand what he was reading.

a) God did not him a special message; the Holy Spirit did nothing strange.

b) There was a Christian capable of explaining what this passage meant and this Christian joined the man.

c) Together the two of them had a Bible study.

d) God helped arrange this study because heaven knew this man needed a right knowledge of God.

e) That right knowledge came in just the way we have described: a study of God’s word.

f) Other people (Acts 17:11) studied the Word of God daily.

g) These people did not study the Scriptures because they didn’t have any other type of reading material.

h) They understood the need to know God so they turned to the right source.

i) In Rom. 3:2 we read about the “oracles of God.”

j) Oracle meant a “saying or revelation from deity.”

k) If deity (God) has issued oracles (saying or revelations), it would seem that we need to know what those are.

31) Our knowledge about God that comes through the Scriptures is to be broad and deep.

32) In Col. 3:16 Paul said, “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

a) In generations past members of the church were known as people of the book.

b) Person after person in the pew who was a member of the church really knew the Word of God.

c) This level of knowledge was not just a fad; it was God’s will. Such is still true today.

d) We need a good working knowledge of the Bible and that allows us to have a knowledge of God.

WHILE HAVING A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS ESSENTIAL, KNOWLEDGE BY ITSELF IS NOT ENOUGH.

a) James reminds us (2:19) that even “demons believe.”

b) What do demons believe? They believe in God and they believe in His word.

c) Demons understand many things but their knowledge and belief cannot save them.

d) In Mt. 8:29 demons asked the Lord if the were to be “tormented before the time.”

e) Demons know full well what is going to happen to them, but that knowledge does not help them.

f) Just knowing God and His word puts us in the same position as Satan and his helpers.

2) Towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 7:26) Jesus spoke about “hearing His words.”

a) Some may hear and not believe. Others, such as demons, hear and they also believe.

b) Although they believe (they have all the right knowledge), understanding is not enough.

c) Jesus Himself said it is not enough.

d) At the middle of this verse He spoke of “doing not” what He has said.

e) A person who knows and believes but does not act is like a “foolish builder.”

f) Jesus compared such a man to someone who builds a house on a bad foundation.

g) We may know how to build a house, but if we do nothing with our knowledge, no house gets built.

3) In Jn. 13:17 Jesus said to His followers, “ye know these things.”

4) That head knowledge was great. The belief on the part of the disciples was wonderful.

5) What is in the rest of the verse is really key: “blessed are Ye if Ye do them.”

6) We may know what is right and we can cite book chapter and verse for what is right.

7) If all we have is understanding and no action, we fail.

8) Think back to how this lesson opened; there was a man who surely had all the right facts.

a) He knew it was wrong to rob. He saw all kinds of red flags regarding his plan.

b) In spite of the knowledge he had, he refused to act on it and he died. He paid with his life.

c) In eternity people will pay a price that never ends if they also have not acted on what they knew.

9) In the past some people have tried to do what I just described.

10) Paul described this very problem in Rom. 2. He spoke about Jews.

11) In Rom. 2:1 he said the Hebrews were “without excuse.”

12) Jews had all the right knowledge but they did not act on it. Here is Rom. 2:1 – READ.

13) Jews knew what was right (they had a proper understanding of the law), but they did not practice it.

IF WE DO NOT WANT TO FAIL IN THE SPIRITUAL PART OF LIFE (AND FAILURE MEANS ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM GOD), WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES AND THEN PUT THAT INFORMATION INTO PRACTICE EVERY SINGLE DAY OF OUR LIVES.

a) This process is right, and it is one more means to achieving and maintaining intimacy with God.

b) James spoke of being “doers of the word and not hearers only” (Jas. 1:22).

c) James said if we have knowledge but do not apply it we “deceive our own selves” (same verse).

d) Jesus asked in Lk. 6:46, “why call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say?”

2) Jesus realized and publicly taught that knowledge is not enough.

3) We may know full well who the Lord is. We may be able to prove His deity beyond any doubt.

4) If we do not act on and apply that knowledge it means absolutely nothing in the end.

5) Jesus once spoke about a servant who “knew the Lord’s will” (Lk. 12:47).

a) Then Jesus says this: the servant “made not ready, nor did the Lord’s will.”

b) The Lord spoke of those who had all the head knowledge they needed.

c) Although they knew what was right they did not act on it.

d) Because they did not act on their understanding Jesus said they would be “beaten.”

e) How many people like to be beaten? Not many.

f) Jesus went on to say beaten with “many stripes.”

g) Modern media has been good at portraying beatings.

h) Various sources show people being beaten with a pipe, stick, whip, wrench, or something else.

i) Just one blow is more than we want to face.

j) Jesus promised many blows for those who will not act on what they know is right.

6) Rom. 2:13 says, “not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law are justified.”

7) Do we have in our minds the knowledge God wants us to have?

8) Are we applying that understanding each single day of our life so we can be close to God?

9) We cannot have intimacy with God without a knowledge of God.

10) Neither can we have intimacy with God by knowledge alone.

11) We must know what is right and do what is right.

12) If we know the Father and live as the Father wills, intimacy will be a natural consequence.

13) Are these two things true in our lives?

a) Do we have the knowledge we need to love and serve God?

b) Are we putting that information into practice every single day of our lives?