if you will, to turn in your
Bibles to Proverbs. Book of Proverbs, chapter 19.
I've been praying this past week for a
message, a message that might somehow connect to the graduation
of these seniors. They have attained certain knowledge,
met certain requirements, and therefore they are receiving
a diploma. I was thinking about the knowledge
that they have acquired And I thought about the knowledge that we find
in the Word of God, spiritual knowledge. I looked at a verse in the New
Testament verse which tells us, knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. But I settled on this verse in
Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 2. These words, also that the soul
be without knowledge, it is not good. The word also connects
these words with what goes before in verse 1, better is the poor
that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his
lips and is a fool. Words of our text also that the
soul be without knowledge it is not good. Trace the fool's
perverse ways to the source and that is his soul is without knowledge. You may be here today I'm sure
that there are many who are. And your soul is without knowledge. You have knowledge. You've learned
a great deal, no doubt, in the schools that you have attended
and in life itself. But the knowledge that I want
to speak to us about is not learned by experience nor from books.
It's a knowledge that comes by revelation. The Holy Spirit of
God reveals this knowledge in the hearts of His people. That the soul be without knowledge,
it is not good. When a soul is without knowledge,
that soul is in darkness. Darkness. And the psalmist said
in Psalm 119 and 130, the entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding to the
simple. God's Word. God's Word entering
into the heart. The Holy Spirit, He doing this
work. This is His office work. The
preacher can't do it. The churches can't do it. We'd
love to be able to. I guess maybe I shouldn't even
make that statement. I'm not wiser than God. This
is God's way. This is God's method. God uses
His Word. He uses the preaching of the
Word of God, and this is one reason. We emphasize the fact
how important it is that you attend, that you sit under the
ministry of a man who's called of God, who has the Word of God. and proclaims the word, God's
word, to you faithfully week after week, service after service. Some people come, hit and miss,
you know. That's better than nothing, I
guess. What an advantage you have, those
of you who are faithful, who are faithful to attend and hear
the word that God gives us from this pulpit. that the soul be without knowledge,
it's not good. The entrance of God's word, not
my word, not some other man's word, but God's word. When God's
word, when God's word enters into the heart, into the soul,
and only the Holy Spirit can cause his word to enter, it giveth light. It giveth light,
gives knowledge. In 2nd Corinthians, the apostle
Paul said this, for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, he refers to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1
and 2. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void. And God said, light be. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. God's creation was all dark until
God spoke, until God commanded. And the mind, the soul, the heart
of man is dark until God commands the light to shine into the heart
of His people. And when He shines in the heart,
He gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, the
person of Jesus Christ. And we never tire of hearing
of Christ. It never becomes old hat to those
who have had the light shine in their hearts by God, more
of Him, more about Christ. That's our continual cry. That's
our continual song and our prayer. Tell us more. Tell us more about
Him, about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, on the mercy seat in
the tabernacle, there were two cherubim, one on either end of
the mercy seat, and they both looked, they were both the same
dimensions, they were both hammered out of the plate of gold that
the mercy seat was made of, and they both looked at the mercy
seat. God has given us two testaments,
the Old Testament and the New Testament in our Bible, and they,
like the cherubim on the mercy seat, both point to Christ. When you read the Word of God,
I don't care where you read, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, Mark, 1 Corinthians,
wherever, look for Christ. How does this reveal Christ? Because the Bible is a message
of Christ. It's not good. It's not good
for the soul to be without knowledge. The Apostle Paul stood before
King Agrippa. This is recorded in Acts chapter
26. He had appeared before other civil authorities before King
Agrippa. But he related his experience
of how he had thought to do many things contrary to the name of
Christ until Christ met him and revealed himself unto Saul of
Tarsus on the road to Damascus. And he called him to be a preacher
of the gospel. And Paul told King Agrippa this,
he said, To open their eyes. This is what God called him to
do in preaching the gospel. To open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light. From darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God. That's the ministry. That's the
purpose of preaching the gospel. To open their eyes. To turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. Now I have four points I want
to make this morning. First of all, that the soul be
without knowledge is not good because he is in darkness as
to who God is. Everyone has a God. Everybody
in this room has a God. Everyone that you meet, all men
have a God of some kind. The problem is that the God that
most people know, the God that most people worship, is not the
God of the Bible. That's the big problem. It is
a God that has been imagined or manufactured in the minds
of each individual. It's not good for the soul to
be without knowledge because to be without knowledge is to
not know Who God is. To be in darkness as to who God
is. I want you to turn with me this
morning first to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 17. In this chapter we have the Apostle
Paul who had been brought to the city of Athens. Remember
Athens, Greece, at that time it was the seat of learning.
I suppose it would have been considered like Oxford or one
of those, Harvard, one of those universities in the world that
are just so well known for their knowledge. Athens, Greece, the
seat of learning in that time. the home of the great philosophers
that this world has known. And yet they were in darkness
concerning God. Now they had a God, in fact they
had several. If you look down to verse 29 We read, for as much then as
we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art
and man's devices. There were many images of various
gods, and Paul, he introduced himself in preaching here because
to one of those gods, they had made this inscription to the
unknown God. And from what I've read, just
in case, they had many gods that they acknowledged, and some worshiped
this one, some that one, some another, and just in case they
had overlooked one, they made one altar to the unknown. And Paul used that as a springboard
to preach the gospel, didn't he? To tell them who God is. He said, I want to preach to
you. I want to speak to you about this God that you don't know.
He's the unknown God to you. And notice some of the things
that he declares about God, beginning, if you will, in verse 24. God
that made the world and all things therein." The God of the Bible, He is the one who made the world
and all things in it. He created you. You didn't just
evolve out of some one-celled amoeba or anything like that. God created this world and everything
in it. It's all His creation. It's His
world. We sing that hymn sometimes.
This is my Father's world. When you're reading through the
Word of God, notice how many times that the authors speak
of His Son. It's not our son. It's His Son. It's His moon. It's His earth. It's His creation. He made all
things. That's the God we're talking
about. That's the God that we want to
know. That's the God that apart from
the knowledge, the soul without knowledge will never come to
know this God. Not only is He the God that made
the world and all things in it, He is the sovereign ruler over
all. Notice the next word, saying
that he is Lord of heaven and earth. He's Lord. Don't listen to those people
who say, make him your Lord. He is your Lord. He's not only
your Lord, he's the Lord of all men and women. He's the Lord
of heaven and earth. He rules, and He's not inactive. He's not sitting on the sidelines
to see what's going to take place and how He's going to adjust
His purpose. No, no. He's the Lord. He rules in heaven and in earth
over all things and over all persons. For of Him and to Him
are all things. To God be the glory. And then
he says next that he dwelleth not in temples made with hands. You know Solomon, he got it right
when he prayed at the dedication of that beautiful, beautiful
temple. I mean it was so adorned with
gold, gold on the ceilings, gold on the walls, gold on the floor. There was so much gold and silver
and it was such a beautiful place. But even Solomon acknowledged
when he dedicated the temple He prayed and he said this, ìBehold,
the heaven and heavens of heaven cannot contain thee, how much
less this house that I have built.î He cannot be contained in a house. He is everywhere. Heís everywhere
present. I know He is especially among
His saints. I understand that. And I'm thankful,
aren't you? He said, where two or three gather
in my name, there am I in their midst. You look in Revelation
1, and you see the Lord Jesus Christ in that vision that John
recorded. And where was he? He was in the
midst of the golden candlesticks. And what are the golden candlesticks?
The churches. He's in our midst. But he's everywhere. He's everywhere. And then notice the next thing
that Paul said. Think about this opportunity
that Paul was given. Now Paul was not an uneducated
man. According to everything we've
read and know about the Apostle Paul, he was very well educated
in the learning of that day. He could hold his own with any
of the philosophers and the learned men of that day. and the opportunity
he was given. I know he was thankful and grateful
that they asked him to speak because he was testifying, testifying
in the market about Christ. And these people, they spent
all their time wanting to hear something new, something different.
So they asked Paul, why don't you come and speak to us? And
they said, he seems to be setting forth strange gods, plural. He wasn't preaching He was preaching
God, but they seem to think that this subject of the resurrection,
that's some kind of a God. We've never heard of that God
before. But the next thing that the Apostle
Paul tells them, these people, these learned people, what an
opportunity he was given. God is not dependent upon men. Notice that. Neither is worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. How could he need you? How could he need me? How could
he need any of his creatures, seeing he gives life and breath
to all of his creatures? We don't have anything other
than what he gives us. You know, I've said this before,
I'm sure, but if I had a megaphone that I could preach to this whole
city, one thing I would like to say is, God doesn't need you. Because men and women are being
lied to all over this city, and yay, all over the nation, all
over the world, as though God needed man. He's not dependent
upon us. Now, we need him. But he doesn't
need us. And the fifth thing, he says,
God made of one blood all nations. You know, we read about the various
races. There's only one race, my friends. There's only one race. Mankind. We're all of the same race. And
if DNA could be checked, we all have the same DNA that Adam had. We all have a common head. And that's very important. Very important. You say, well, why bring that
out? Because we must know something
about the fact of Adam's headship. to learn something about Christ
as our head. And then notice the sixth thing. He said, God has determined the
times and the habitations of all men. Verse 26, he said, and
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitation. God appointed the very time that
you would come into this world. The time on your birth certificate
maybe was written by a nurse or a doctor, but my friends,
God had it written in eternity from everlasting. And the same
thing is true about your death certificate. You're not going
to go over. God's determined the bounds When
we would be born, when we will leave this world, where we would
live, who our parents would be, everything, everything, God determined. And then the seventh thing, He
has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness,
verse 31. because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. All men shall
stand before him and shall be judged in righteousness. God's righteousness. It's not
good that the soul be without knowledge because he will be
in darkness concerning who God is. Number two, second, that
the soul be without knowledge is not good because he is in
darkness concerning his condition. Now I've already said this, you
and I are members of the race of mankind and we were all represented
by the first man, that is Adam. Look over in Hebrews with me
just a moment. This is a different subject but the principle
is the same in Hebrews chapter 7. In this chapter, the apostle
is showing how that the priesthood of Aaron, the tribe of Levi,
could never accomplish salvation. And he's going about to show
that it would need a greater priest. And this greater priest
is made a priest after the order of Melchizedek. But to do this,
he shows that Melchizedek, who was Melchizedek? What kind of
a priest was he? Well, he was a king of king priests. That's the first thing about
it. He was a king priest. King of Salem. King of peace. But the point I'm wanting to
make here in verse 9 and 10, and as I may say so, Levi also,
who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. Now, Levi was four
generations removed from Abraham. We have Abraham, then Isaac,
then Jacob, then Levi. But when Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, showing how great a man this priest Melchizedek
was, That even Abraham, the father of the faithful, he paid tithes
to Melchizedek. But when Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, so did Levi. Though he was four generations
removed. How is that possible? Because
he was in the loins of Abraham. And you and I and all men, we
too were all in the loins of our father Adam. And when he
disobeyed God, so did you and so did I. And when he suffered
the penalty of his disobedience, which was death, so did we. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sin. Sometimes you'll hear some of
these false prophets. They'll say, well, our life is
like a piece of paper, and they'll hold up a piece of paper, and
when we come into the world, the paper's clean and white,
there's no marks on it, and then whatever we write on it, that's
what we'll be. No, my friends, that's just not
so. That's a lie. We come into this
world with a depraved nature. That doesn't mean that everyone
who is born in this world is as bad as he could be, but it
does mean that our condition is as bad as it could be. Why? Because we are dead towards God. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And unless God does something
for us, we'll die in our sins. Don't believe that lie that man's
will is free. Adam had a free will, and you
see where it got him. Since Adam, all of us have come
into this world with a will that is depraved, like our mind and
like our affections, depraved, biased toward evil. In servitude
and slavery, the will of man is. I heard a preacher say this
one time a long time ago, and I thought it was funny. He said, you've got a free will
if you want to jump over the moon. You've got a free will, but you
don't have the ability. Amen? That's what I mean by man's
free will, being in bondage, and the only way Man's going
to be delivered is by a greater coming upon the one who has man
in bondage. The third point I want to make,
that the soul be without knowledge is not good because he is in
darkness as to God's purpose of grace. Look with me in Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning with verse 3 through
verse 7. Everything that God does in this
context, we are told, is to the praise of the glory of His grace. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's the reason He created
man, to His glory. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. The first thing that we recognize
is that God made a covenant. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made a covenant, a covenant
which is an everlasting covenant and it is to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And in this covenant The Lord
Jesus Christ is set forth to be the surety, the messenger,
the mediator of this covenant. And God chose, that's the next
thing we see. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. There's a teaching that is called
prevenient grace. And prevenient grace simply tells
us that grace, the grace of God, always goes before grace. No man ever seeks the Lord unless
the Lord has first sought him. No man, our Lord said, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. No
man ever loves God, apart from the fact that God first loved
him. God chose His people. That's
what the scripture here tells, and He did so to the praise of
the glory of His grace. If God chose His people based
on something in them, in us, then it would not be to the praise
of the glory of His grace. It would be to the praise of
the glory of whatever it was that he saw in man. God chose his people. I chose my wife. You men here
today, you chose out your wife, didn't you? And you would be highly offended
if someone told you, you don't have that right. No. And yet men want to deny
God the right to choose a bride for His Son. That's what He did,
whether men believe it or not, whether men bow to it or not.
That's the truth. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. Not because we were holy, just the opposite. That
we should be holy and without blame before Him. To stand before
God Almighty without fault, without wrinkle, without any blemish. How is that possible? chosen
in Christ, redeemed in Christ, in love, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. I don't know why, well I do too.
But isn't it strange that religious men hate the truth of predestination? I challenge you, get your concordance
and look at the few scriptures that speak of predestinated,
predestinate. And if you don't like the end
of predestination, something wrong with you. Something bad
wrong with you. He's predestinated in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. To the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He, He, He, salvation is of the Lord. It's what He does. It's not what we do for Him.
It's not our joint effort. It's what He does. He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. And that's the only reason any
of us will ever be accepted. That is in Christ, for Christ's
sake. Wherein He hath abounded in whom
we have redemption through His blood. the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and in all prudence. As we were in Adam,
the first man, so all of God's elect are in Christ, the last
man, the last Adam, and in him, in Christ, If you are in Christ today, you
were chosen in Christ, you were redeemed in Christ, you are accepted
in Christ, there's no condemnation for you in Christ. And in Christ,
you kept God's perfect holy law perfectly. And when Christ died on the tree,
suffering the penalty of the broken law, you died in Christ. And when He came out of that
grave in Christ, you came out of the grave. And when He ascended
on high, you ascended with Him. And notice in chapter 2 of Ephesians,
verse 6, He says, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All of God's elect,
all of those who are accepted in the beloved, we were raised
with Christ, we've ascended with Christ, and we're seated with
Christ today in the heavenly places. One day we'll change
locations will leave this world and go to our eternal home. But today, all of those who are
in Christ are seated in the heavenless. Now one last thing, John 17. Fourth, that the soul be without
knowledge is not good because he is in darkness without eternal
life. In John chapter 17 and verse
3, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in this prayer are, This
is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Do you know God? I'm not
asking if you know that there is a God. Do you know God? More importantly, does he know
you? Do you know God? This is eternal
life. It's not good that the soul be
without knowledge, because without knowledge of God, without the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, we're dead in trespasses and sins. There is no eternal life. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless his word to all of us here today. My hope is that even during this
time, God commanded the light in someone's heart here today
to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if
he did, you'll long to see more and more
of him. Now let's stand. We're going to let the ladies
who want to go to the