Good to see you. If you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and get it out and go with me to Romans chapter six, and we’ll get there in just a moment. Let me give you a little bit of a pre statement. By the way, Happy Mother’s Day. Mothers, all of you. Mothers, good job. Way to have kids. We’re glad. Raise your hand if you’re a mother. Raise your hand if you have a mother. Okay, that’s everybody. Good. Just a little bit of a pre statement here. I don’t know that this qualifies as a sermon. This was the introduction to the message that I was going to teach there in Romans chapter six. But it became so obvious that we really need to lay this piece of the foundation related to knowledge that we basically just, you know, we, meaning me and God, I guess, said, you know, “Let’s just do this” and cover a very important point. Let me give you the title of the message. It is this: “The Crucial Importance Of Knowledge In Sanctification” (Romans 6:1-3). Knowledge in sanctification. I don’t know about you but I have been aware in the last probably 20-25, years, within the body of Christ at large, you could say, especially in America, there’s almost been an anti-intellectualism movement that tends to look at knowledge and learning and intellect as something that’s antithetical or opposite, opposing to faith. Nothing could be further from the truth biblically though. Ours is an intellectual faith, it’s not only an intellectual faith, but it does involve the intellect. And if you’re not willing to learn things and grow in knowledge, what I’m going to show you in the scripture is this, your sanctification will be stunted. In some cases, it can be stopped. Probably this is going to be a breakthrough for many people. This weekend. We’re in three services. It’s guaranteed there’s going to be people that the light goes on and they finally go, “That’s what’s holding me up.” And oftentimes, counseling sessions, pastoral counseling, we find this is the case. When we start talking to somebody, they say, “I’m stuck. I can’t quit doing this. I can’t seem to start doing that.” And they’re trying and they’re trying and they’re trying, it isn’t working. And oftentimes what’s missing is knowledge. It’s the learning of God’s Word and the growing in knowledge that’s actually missing. And so, we’re going to cover that to help you through your sanctification. It’s an ever-increasing knowledge that you need. You need to be growing in, I’m going to prove it to you.
But when we talk about sanctification, let me give you a working definition. This is not inspired. I wrote this myself. You may write a better one. That’s great. Don’t email me. Email Jeff. Here it is: Sanctification: “The lifelong process by which a Christian becomes conformed to the image/character of Jesus Christ.”
And that is what sanctification is. It begins at salvation, and it lasts all the way until either the Lord comes back or you go to be with the Lord at death. That is the process we’re in. No one will ever be able to say they arrived while they’re on this earth. Paul said he couldn’t. He hadn’t arrived yet. So, I believe that we’re not gonna be able to say that either. If you think you have arrived, man, come and meet me afterwards. I’d love to kind of get your autograph and talk to your spouse. Yes, okay, let’s do this thing then.
Romans chapter six, again. I don’t know if I can call it a Bible study or a sermon. I think I would probably call it a Bible study. There’s my disclaimer. It’s an introduction into the concept Romans chapter six, I’m going to read you Romans 6:1-3. Remember verse one? “What shall we say then? (Right? Why is that there? Well, because he just talked about the reign of grace, how amazing grace is and how free it is and how wonderful it is) What shall we say then? (If grace supersedes or superbounds over sin, then what should we say then? Well) are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Well, that’s a scoffing question, right? We saw that last week. So, he answers it, “By no means! (He says, and then he makes this statement. He says) how? (Here comes the question. Like, I don’t like that look, I’m going to underline it. How?) How can we who died to sin still live in it?” How? So, there’s a good question I’m not even going to answer that. We’re not going to cover that today. I want you to see the connection to knowledge here. It’s vitally important throughout Romans, six, seven and eight especially. And then he says this. “Do you not know (there’s that word, it’s a derivative of ginosko it simply means to learn or have knowledge) Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” This connection right here, the “how” is going to be dependent upon the knowledge. You’re not going to know something that you’ve not learned and you’re not going to know the “how” without really kind of we could say the “what” you need, the information. Christianity is not something that just floats into your head. Have you noticed that? The gospel has to be proclaimed by people? It has to go into ears of a language that you understand. Therefore, the Holy Spirit can use that gospel and the taught Word of God to get to your heart, and the Holy Spirit does the miracle. But after the regeneration, after somebody’s saved, you are part of your sanctification. Now you’re not alone in it. It’s the Holy Spirit using the Word of God to make you more and more like Jesus, but you have a role in it. You can’t just sit back.
Now, I’ve got some friends that are in some kooky churches, and I still consider them friends. I do. I love them, and what they believe is absolutely errant and aberrant. They believe that they could just kind of what they call “soak”. I got a friend who says she’s just soaks. This friend of mine’s wife, and she says, “I don’t really study the Bible. I just soak.” I’m like, “What do you mean you soak?” She’s like, “Well, I just sit and I let the Spirit just soak me, and then these things happen.” And I’m like, I’m afraid to try that. I’m really scared to try that. Sitting there with a passive mind just letting anything flow in, that’s how you end up with Cyndi Lauper stuck in your head all week. That’s bad. And if you don’t know who Cyndi Lauper is, go with that. Don’t Google it. We’re not supposed to be passive. We’re supposed to learn things. We’re supposed to know things. In fact, it’s one of the ongoing themes, the words used in chapter six and chapter seven and chapter eight of Romans. It’s on repeat in these three chapters, where the peak of sanctification is really being explained.
In fact, let’s see some other verses. Again, Romans 6:3, “Do you not know?” And look down to verse six, same chapter. Romans 6:6, “We know that.” You see the knowledge there? “We know that our old self was crucified with him.” You’re going to be able to say you know that. But I just want you to see the importance of knowledge in this. Keep going. Look at verse nine as well, Romans 6:9, “We know.” See, there’s the knowledge again. “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.” Right? What about verse 16 as well, Romans 6:16? He repeats it. “Do you not know?” You’re to know that “If you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey.” It’s always a question of, “Do you know this?” You cannot operate in something that you don’t know. You have to have that. And for there’s going to be people, I guarantee I’ll say it again this weekend, and you’re going to find that this was the piece that’s been missing in your discipleship. You have not been a learner. You’ve not been somebody that’s growing in knowledge. Look at chapter seven. The same thing goes on verse one. Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know?” There it is again. It’s going to talk about the law and its application to grace. “Do you not know?” Go down to verse 14. Same thing. Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.” To understand, right? You have to know these things. Same thing continues in chapter eight. Look at verse 22, Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in pains of childbirth until now.” Chapter eight still. Look at verse 28, right? Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God, God works all things together for their good.” The knowledge is required. In fact, when you get to the very end of the book of Romans, what you see is that knowledge comes up as pivotal and driving the point home in chapters 15 and chapter 16. I’ll show you one. Here’s chapter 15. Look at verse 14. Near the end of Romans, he says, Romans 15:14, “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” You see how vital it is? It plays a pivotal role.
In fact, if you look through the Old Testament, what you find is, well, you see a bunch of people doing a bunch of sin, and they end up either going into exile, being punished, or they end up being destroyed, depending on how God’s dealing with them. Now, if you’ve read your Old Testament, you know this is true, and if you read it a lot, if you’re like me, sometimes I’m reading and I get to around Numbers, and I’m like, maybe this time they won’t do it right? Maybe this time, and I’ll sometimes think this, maybe this time they won’t do something that stupid, right? And then they do it. And then I’m like, okay, they’re still stupid. Then I’m like, okay, that’s me. That’s a picture of me. You’re always seeing a reflection. It’s either Jesus in the Old Testament or our need for Him. I needed a Savior. I’m not going to measure up. I have to have Christ and Him crucified to have any righteousness. But you wish they would get it, don’t you? Old Testament prophets talked about knowledge a lot. Let me just give you two instances, Isaiah 5:13a, is God saying this through Isaiah, he says, “Therefore, my people go into exile (what is that? That’s when you’re taking where you belong, in blessing, and you’re put in a place of discipline for your disobedience) they go into exile for lack of (what?) knowledge;…” Knowledge. You say, “Wait a minute. They were ignorant of things?” Yeah, they wouldn’t listen to the true prophets. They wouldn’t listen to the true teachers. They wouldn’t listen to the true scribes. They wanted false prophets to tickle their ears tell them everything was fine and not bother them with so called learning. They didn’t want to apply to themselves. They were lazy and they were disobedient. The two tend to go together indeed in your Old Testament. Here’s another instance in the book of Hosea. Hosea 4:6a, “My people are (what? not just exiled) destroyed (destroyed) for lack of knowledge;…” You tell me how important is knowledge in the Bible? Well, it’s very important if you don’t want to be in exile. It’s very important if you don’t want to be destroyed. You go, “Well, Christ took care of all that.” He did. You’re right. But He is not going to sovereignly by Himself, sanctify you. You and I have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. You and I have to refrain from grieving the Spirit, quenching the Spirit, stiff-arming the Spirit, rebelling against God, being lazy and forbidding ourselves to grow in knowledge. And when you do that, you stunt your own growth. You really do. And so, here’s the thing, we could go through this peak of sanctification, and we could literally spend 10 years, and it’d be easy. At the end of 10 years, it would be possible that you haven’t grown in your sanctification. How sad would that be? You’d be like, “Wait a minute. Well, your sermons must not be very good, man.” Hey, man, hang on a second, I said you’re part of it, not me. Now, I can play a role in your life as one of the teachers of the gospel, but ultimately you’re going to stand before God and give an account of what you did or didn’t do with your life as a believer. And so ultimately, you get to go to the High Priest. You don’t need another person between you, not a man at this church nor any man in Rome. You feel me? You don’t need to go between. You can go directly to the Father by the Son, Jesus Christ, and be taught by the Holy Spirit. But we still have teachers in church, right? Because we’re all learning and we’re all in different places of growth. Knowledge is required if we’re gonna have growth.
Here’s Proverbs 7:1. I’m just trying to give you an overview of what the Bible says about this. It says, “The fear of the Lord (it’s what?) is the beginning of knowledge…” The very beginning. Well, when you say, “the fear of the Lord”, Old Testament terms, that’s talking about salvation. Nobody fears the Lord who’s not been born again. You don’t fear the Lord until you actually see Him for who He is, and you don’t see Him for who He is, until you hear the gospel and you’re raised from the dead spiritually. And then what happens? You see your sin for what it is, and you repent, and you see your Savior for who He is, and you love Him, and you believe in Him as the atonement for your sin and your Savior and your Lord. That’s the fear of the Lord. That is the very beginning of knowledge. But what? But “fools…”? Ooh, don’t want to be the fool, right? Fools, what do they do? They “…despise wisdom and instruction.” They hate it. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t need to learn that. I just want to come to a church. Just want to sit back, you know, man, yell at me about the Bible. Man, tell some jokes. Make it happy. Make fresher bagels. Can y’all get some good coffee, right? Why is the parking lot so crowded?” See, that’s a consumer mentality. That’s not a discipleship mentality. A discipleship mentality is this, I need to learn. I want to grow in knowledge, and so we’ve got to have that, and that’s our responsibility as individuals.
In fact, look at the end of the book of Romans. This is the end of the book of Romans. These two verses, Romans 16:17-18, Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers, (he gives them a warning, he says) to watch out for those who cause division and create obstacles that are (what? look) contrary to the doctrine (that’s the teaching) that you’ve been taught; and avoid them.” So, he’s warning them about false teaching, right? Look at his explanation. He says, “For such persons, do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive (who? they deceive) the hearts of the naive.” Now I looked up in Webster’s Dictionary, just I wanted to know what it meant in the English, because it does mean the same thing as it means in the Greek. It really does that perfect translation. It’s the hearts of the naive or the unsuspecting. Here’s the definition of it, “lacking information, experience and judgment.” Now you see where learning plays into that. You see where knowledge plays into that. If you want to be unstable, you want to be easily trapped, you want to be swayed, then, yeah, don’t grow in knowledge. But if you want to grow in Christ, and you want to grow in your sanctification, which is what growing up into love. You’re gonna need to have knowledge. You’re just gonna have to have it. It’s a requirement.
Peter says it this way. 2 Peter 3:15-16. Now I’m kind of taking this out of context, in the sense I’m not explaining the context, but he’s talking about the writings of Paul, as Paul was writing Scriptures, the epistles that we read. And he says this about the writings of Paul, he says, “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother, Paul also wrote to you according to wisdom given to him.” So, he’s talking about Paul’s letters, in fact, probably referring somewhat to something like Romans 1:16. He goes on. He says, “As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them, of these matters, (watch closely). There are some things in them that are (what?) they’re hard to understand…” Yeah, I guarantee it. Read Romans for what it’s worth. There are some things that are hard to understand. It takes a lot of learning. It takes a lot of study. It really does. He says this, they’re “…Hard to understand, (watch) which the ignorant, and (as a result), the unstable twist to their own destruction, (sound familiar?) as they do the other Scriptures.” There’s no upside to ignorance, family. There’s just none you. Staying in the dark is not what Christ wants for you. It’s not God’s will for you.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen I was I grew up in the Catholic Church. I’ve told you this probably before, and I’m not mad at Catholic people, by the way, I want you to understand that I love Catholic people. I want them to know the real Christ. I want them to realize they don’t need Mary. And by the way, if you pray to her, she’s not listening. She’s not listening. She’s with Jesus, and she’s glad to be there. You don’t need to go through His mother. You can go directly to Him. He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. But I remember, in the Catholic Church, growing up, I didn’t learn anything, and I was an altar boy. That’s a big deal. I carried incense. I didn’t know my pastor was that deceived. I was seven years old, but, you know, I didn’t know what they were talking about because the mass was in Latin, and they didn’t want to talk to us in a language that we would understand. Now, they did a homily in English, but then I found out what they were teaching. I found out it was all wrong anyway. But the Catholic Church was forbidding people from even having Bibles in their own language. That’s what, you know, some of the Reformers took up upon themselves to have the Bible in the vernacular so that you could have knowledge so that I could have knowledge. And once you get knowledge of your own, you realize I don’t need another priest. I have the high priest. And we start to grow. That’s God’s will for you still. That’s why what we do here, we exalt Jesus Christ, we glorify God, making disciples of Jesus Christ, because we expose you to the Word of God. That’s how we’re to grow mature Christians.
So, people often raise this argument. Maybe you’ve heard this before. I tell people this in counseling. People say, “I’m not growing, Pastor. I’m just not growing. And I feel like I’m stuck. I’m stuck in this sin.” I always ask, when we do as a pastoral staff, we ask the same question. It’s always this, “How much are you in the Word?” And no question about it, you always get the same response. It’s like this. “You uh, no, not really,” but that’s what it feels like when it’s that cringy. You felt cringy for me? Don’t be embarrassed for me. I’m not embarrassed but you feel that. And then they’re like, “Oh”, and then it’s always something like this, “Not as much as I should be.” Okay. That’s code for I haven’t read my Bible in eight months. That’s what that is. That’s what that means. It means I’m not growing in knowledge. And then sometimes, when you tell people what you need to do is you need to study, you need to learn, you need to grow in knowledge. Sometimes you’ll hear this, “Well, knowledge puffs up.” Y’all heard that? That’s in the Bible. “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” Well, that’s in the Bible, but that’s a misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians eight. I want to show you those verses. There’s just two of them. This is 1 Corinthians 8:1-2, in case, that’s your argument. In case you hear being like, “Oh, this guy’s into knowledge. Well, he’s just going to get a big fat head.” Well, that’s possible, but not if you’re learning it the way God wants to. He’ll humble you through the truth. Here’s the context of that verse, 1 Corinthians 8:1-2. Watch what Paul says he’s writing to the Corinthians, who, by the way, they thought they knew everything they were know-it-alls, guys, they really were. That’s why they got such harsh correction. It says,” Now concerning (now here’s the topic), concerning food offered to idols (he’s taken them to school. He says: we know that (watch, this is the quote, this is something that they had said. We know that) ‘all of us possess knowledge (right? Yeah, he hears them say that, but he says this).’ This ‘knowledge’ (does what?) puffs up, but love builds up.” Yeah. What is the “this knowledge” he’s talking about? It’s ignorance. It’s a false knowledge. It’s an arrogance, where you think you know something, but you really don’t. Have you ever done that? Nobody? It’s quiet in the Methodist Church here, right? Do you have kids? It’s one of the most aggravating things when the teenager tries to take you to school. I raised four. Okay? I feel you parents. And listen, if you’re a teenager, let me just tell you this, the older you get, the wiser they were. Your parents will get smarter, the older you get. You’ll look back and be like, “Man, Dad was not really as dumb as I thought he was.” That’s what Paul’s dealing with here. Arrogance puffs up. It’s an arrogant supposed knowledge. Which look at the next verse, actually it’ll explain it to you. “Now, if anyone imagines that he knows something (you see? you see the text now, right?) If anyone imagines that he knows something he does not yet know, as he ought to know.” That’s what he’s talking about. Can knowing things puff you up? Yeah, it can. But love will edify, and a love for the truth is nothing to be ashamed of, and growing in knowledge is required in sanctification.
I want to further prove this to you. Again this is a one point message. I want you to repent if you’ve been anti-intellectual, and I want you to press on to know the Word of God and to know Jesus more. That’s my whole point. Look at the end of 1 Timothy 6:20-21. Paul writes to Timothy these last two verses of the epistle. He says, “‘Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. (And look he tells him). Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions (watch) of what is falsely called, ‘knowledge’. (Remember? that’s the same kind of knowledge we were talking about in 1 Corinthians). For by professing it, some have (done what?) they’ve swerved from the faith.’” And that’s what people do. They swerve. They become unsteady. They become unstable. They lose their stability, and they think, “Why am I not growing?” And again, you could sit through 10 years of teaching on sanctification right out of Romans. It can be accurately presented. It can be cut straight rightly applied in the finished work of Jesus, and there won’t be any growth. Why? Because you have to do your part. You have to. You just have to do it. I can’t do that for you nor would I want to. I’m too busy doing it for me. You’ve got to take responsibility for your own discipleship. It’s part of the plan.
Look, how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 1:13-16, he says, “Therefore, preparing, (look) preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that we brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed with the passions, (look) of your former (what?) ignorance.” Ignorance. Now, that’s not a put down. That just means you did some things before you came to Christ, and you were ignorant. You were ignorant of the way it was offending God. You were ignorant of how you were following Satan. You were ignorant how of how unloving it was toward other people. Now, not all of it, some of it you probably knew about, but it was in the ignorance you see, knowledge is the cure for this once someone is actually saved. He goes on, he says, “But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. (In other words, you’re not going to walk in ignorance anymore) Since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” God calls us to this. He calls us to a walk that pleases Him. The pinnacle of sanctification is a growing up into love. We’re gonna say that on repeat in these three chapters that we’re in. We’re gonna keep saying that on repeat. But listen to me, if you don’t know what love is biblically, you might have a world love. The world’s kind of love is not love, by the way. The world’s love is this tolerance that lets anybody do whatever they want without any consideration that those things are going to send them to hell without Jesus Christ, or damage their family, or damage their body, or damage their testimony, whatever it is. A biblical love is rooted in knowledge. I’m going to prove it to you. I can tell there’s still some skeptics that are here. You’re still going, “Oh I don’t know, can’t I just kind of come to church? Won’t I be sanctified if I just come to church?” Well, it helps. Obviously, you need to be part of the body, but coming to church won’t make you a disciple any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. I’ll tell you this. You’re not just going to have a magical transformation. He wants your mind engaged. We’re to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And so, your mind has to be growing. You have to be growing in the knowledge.
I’ll prove it to you now. Let me show you this. If you get a Bible, you might want to go here. 2 Peter, chapter one and then we’ll start in verse five. I want you to see this with your eyes. He talks about the first verses one through four, talking about people being born again in 2 Peter and in verse five, he transitions into growing and we would call sanctification, becoming more like Jesus Christ. Now you watch the pivotal role that knowledge plays in this process because this is a progression. It’s a cyclical progression. You don’t go through it once, and then you’re done. It’s constantly in motion. But there’s a key point, 2 Peter 1:5-8, “For this very reason (in other words because you’re born again) for this reason, make every effort (oh, make every effort. Or some translations like NAS says be diligent, in other words, you do this, he’s saying), make every effort to supplement your faith…” Now, what? Why do you need to supplement your faith? Well, here, listen to me, your faith is a gift from God. It’s not of yourself. You didn’t have any faith. He gave it to you. That’s why it says that Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of your faith. You didn’t drum it up. He gifted it to you. But you’re to supplement something once you’re saved, once you’re born again. In other words, faith in this verse, is talking about you being born again, to supplement or add, to be diligent to do it. Make every effort to add to your faith. What? Here, watch the list, it’s in order to “…Your faith with virtue…” Now some of your bibles might say ‘moral excellence’. So, what does it mean “When you supplement your faith with virtue” or moral excellence? Well, it’s this. It’s when you say, “I have come to Christ, and I now have new affections. I now have new ambitions. I now have new loves. I know what’s virtuous and what’s not. I know what’s morally right and what’s morally wrong.” And he’s saying, supplement your faith with this. Focus on those new affections. Focus on the on the way that you know you’re to live now. Focus on what’s virtuous. Turn from these things and go toward these things. It’s a desire, if you will. Virtue isn’t yet being lived out. It’s a desire here. That’s what the word is talking about. So, supplement your faith with this desire for moral excellence. Watch what’s after moral excellence with virtue, “…And virtue with (what?) knowledge.” Knowledge. Okay, so let’s stop and let’s think about this. Is it possible for a true Christian, a real Christian, they’re born again. They’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of them. They are going to heaven. God’s discipline is on them. They have new affections. They have new desires. They want to start doing this. They want to stop doing that. They feel it deep in their bones. They get into worship, and they understand that they want to grow in these things. They do have a love for God. They do have a love for people. There’s actually something that’s happened in them. They want Jesus to come back. That’s a real believer. That is moral excellence. Those are virtue. But let’s say they don’t supplement their virtue with knowledge. Well, guess what they do? They have the want to do something but they don’t know how. They lack the mechanisms, if you will, to carry out the remainder of the list, because the list doesn’t end here. Again, here’s the list to your faith. What do you supplement virtue? To virtue knowledge. In other words, you’re to be learning.
Now look at the next verse, here’s what you supplement knowledge. What comes after knowledge, “And knowledge with (uh oh) self-control…” Now don’t raise your hand if you struggle with self-control. And people say, “Well, wait a minute, hang on, Pastor, that’s a fruit of the Spirit. It is a fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. I get it, but those are things that you do. The Spirit produces them but you’re a part of that. And if you lack self-control, listen, I’m telling you, you’re not going to grow in your sanctification, you’re going to find that you have the want to stop that, but you find that you can’t. You ever felt that? Here it is. This is it, knowledge gives you the motivation and the ability to pull the levers on your own life, and people who are anti-intellectual, they don’t want to learn, they don’t want to give any time, they don’t want to study, they don’t want to grow in that knowledge. What do they do? They tend to stagnate. They just sit kind of where they were. I’ve had people tell me, people at this church, when I first came, one woman told me “I’ve been here for 50 years.” Turns out she was just in the way. And I’m thankful she’s going to spend the next 50 years somewhere else because she felt like just attending a church was all that mattered. She was mean to her family was the deal, and we were trying to, you know, help her not be mean to her family because it’s good to not be mean to your family. It’s Mother’s Day. You can agree with that. At least don’t be mean to your mom today. Okay? But look, she didn’t want to learn anything. She didn’t want to learn anything she felt like, “Well, no, I’ve been here a long time. In other words, what she was trying to do say, basically this, “If you’ll preach better, I’ll be better.” Like, I don’t think I have that kind of power. I think you have to cooperate with that. Now you see what I’m pointing to here, what the Bible’s pointing us to here, is this knowledge to self-control. If you’re struggling, listen, oftentimes, what happens is people learn this. They start applying themselves and learning. And guess what? Their lives start to change. “And then…self-control with (what comes after that?) steadfastness…” They keep doing it. Steadfastness, godliness, they start focusing on who God is. Look at the progression. Look at the next two verses “…And godliness…” Right? That’s godliness is Godwardness. That’s when you care more about what God thinks than people. And then at the end of that, what is the result of that? “…Brotherly affection…” That’s when you’re just starting to be kind to people. “…And to brotherly affection with (what? Here’s the pinnacle of sanctification) love.” Love. You want to grow in love? Well, that’s what you gotta have. If you’re born again, you do have moral excellence, you have virtue. You’re growing in that. If you’re coming to a church, you’re probably there, but what you may be lacking is knowledge. And if you lack growth in knowledge, you’re going to lack growth in self-control. And ultimately, what you’re going to see is that lived out in a lack of love. Family, I’m calling you into joy. I’m not a task master nor is God heavy on you for this. He wants you to do this. This is a call into joy for you to grow in things that will bless you, that will glorify Him and bless those that are around you. Oftentimes, what we find is knowledge is the linchpin, and once that gets fixed, the other things fall into line.
Same book, actually, 2 Peter 3:17-18 says this. These are the last two verses of that book. It says, “You therefore, beloved, (here’s the word again), knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own (what?) stability.” Why? Because you know it. If you know the attacks coming, you’re insulated from it. And then he finishes the book with this statement, look at verse 18, “But grow in (what?) grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ….” You’re to grow in knowledge. Now, I know all of us would love to grow in grace. You’d love to be a more gracious person. Want to be a more gracious person? Grow in knowledge. The two go hand in hand. It’s not something that’s mystical. It’s actually something that you know, some things that you’re learning. If we don’t apply ourselves that way. It just doesn’t happen. Now, I wish the Bible worked this way. I didn’t bring this out for this reason but I wish I could just set this on my head and just, you know, not have to study. It would be amazing. I didn’t do this for first service, and I will never do this again. I’m already embarrassed. Feel like I’m graduating. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could just set this on my head? “Pastor, what do you do all week?” I just stand around the Bible on my head, and it just soaks into my head, and all of a sudden my wife goes, “Gosh, you’re so godly. You’re so loving. Wow! You’ve been you’ve been keeping the Bible on your head, haven’t you?” Let me tell you something, I go one day without Scripture, God knows it. I go two days without scripture, Kelly knows it. I go three days, everybody knows it. Why? Because there’s no way to just bear the fruit of the Spirit spontaneously. You are required to have that inflow. That’s called abiding in the vine. That’s what produces the fruit of the Spirit. You’re not gonna be able to do that of yourself. Can’t believe I put the Bible on my head. And, by the way, this is a heavy Bible. I have a headache now. This is my wife’s study bible. I’ll get to that in a minute. You were to grow in the grace and knowledge. Stop distracting me. We’re to grow in the grace and knowledge. We’re to grow up into it. We’re to apply ourselves.
In fact, I want to end with these. It’s actually three verses here. This is Matthew 20:18-20a. I don’t know if anybody’s ever told you this, but Sherman Bible exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ. Did y’all know that? You ever heard that before? We mean it though. That’s what we’re here for. This is why. This is the final words of Jesus before His ascension there in Matthew. Start verse 18, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples…’” “Mathetes” is the Greek word. This word in the Greek literally means, here it is, “learners:. You can also translate it pupils. Go and make pupils. Go and make learners. Go and make disciples. “‘…Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, (look) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…’” Do you see this? That is learning. There is teaching. There is learning. There is didactic cost. There is line upon line. There is didactic explanation and illustration. There is exposure to the Scripture. That’s what He’s talking about. “Make disciples.” That doesn’t mean just hang out with people. That means teach them, train them, show them the Word of God, so that what? So, they can be dependent on the pastor? No! So that you do it yourself. You are responsible for your discipleship. I am not. I’m here to help as our other pastors and D group leaders as well as you for other people because we need each other. That’s what a body is, okay? But you cannot disciple somebody who won’t be a learner. It’s impossible. You have to someone that says, “I want to grow in knowledge.” This is the Bible’s way, guys, this is the Spirit’s way. You can’t be passive, you can’t be lethargic, you can’t be lazy. My prayer this weekend is that the Holy Spirit would shake some of us out of our stupor, and we would say, “You know what? I’m going to stop putting off the Bible. I’m going to pick it up and I’m going to start learning it for myself.”
So, I want to give you just a few pointers. I want to give you five pointers to help you grow in knowledge. These are very simple. None of them are hard. Here’s the first one. It’s this, put your I’m not going to bring them up. I just say them to you. Put your “yes” on the table. Put your “yes” on the table. What do I mean by that? I mean this, tell God, “Yes, I’m in.” Tell God, “I’m going to repent. I’ve been ignoring Your Word. I’ve just come to church. I’m a passive participant. I need to be an eager seeker of truth. I’m going to be a student of the Word, God. I repent of that, and I’m going to head forward in this.” And right now, you could say that, “Whatever this pastor says to me next I’m going to do.” Is that you? Pay off the building for me, I’m kidding, but put your “yes” on the table. Man, you can do that. That’s called consecrating yourself. You don’t need to come to the front. You don’t need a hand laid on you. We don’t need to pop you in the forehead. You don’t need oil splattered on you. There’s no magic prayer. It’s your hard attitude where you just say this, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. I’m tired of standing still. I want to be a disciple. I want to grow in sanctification. I want to grow in love. There’s 1000 things I’d like to stop doing. There’s a couple of things I really want to start doing. God, I want You to grow me. Don’t leave me where I am. I am going to participate with You, Lord.” Put your “yes” on the table. See what happens. Here’s number two, read your bible every single day. Read your bible every single day. I always get the same question: “How much?” And it’s always kind of sad when I hear that, like people are saying, “What’s the minimum I can do to get by?” Nobody ever goes, “What’s the maximum I should do?” I hope you think that way. How much bible can I read? I’ll tell you. I would say a minimum would be enough to stimulate a prayer life. You have not read enough scripture unless you begin to pray it unless you begin to repent of what you see in the Word of God and begin to glorify Jesus Christ in prayer. That’s a two-way conversation. When I open my bible, this is my wife’s bible. I would never have a bible this big. It’s the Sword of the Spirit and you can knock someone out. But when I open my bible and I read my bible, God’s talking to me, His Spirit’s ministering to me. I’m seeing what He says. I’m seeing into His mind. He shows me how He thinks. He tells me what love is. He tells me what to hate. He tells me what to stay away from. I mean I get these things but I’ve read enough when it results in me praying something back to Him. “Thank You, Father, for this. Lord, I receive that. God, I haven’t walked this out, and I see it yet again. Lord, it’s gotta give You glory for that. I’m so thankful.” Whatever it is that’s when you’re probably getting near enough a Bible, a two-way conversation. So, it’s put your yes on the table, read your Bible. It needs to result in prayer. Let me give you another pointer, and this is just for free. In case you don’t know, this is a study Bible. And I know most of you probably know what a study Bible is but a study Bible is a Bible that has notes built into it. Okay? Now, this is an ESV English Standard Version, and this is a John MacArthur Study Bible. Now, I’m a fan of John MacArthur. I think he’s been a faithful preacher for 58 years, Grace Community Church there in California. Is he perfect? No, he’s not perfect neither are the footnotes in here. But there’s plenty of them, and they’re 90 I’d say 99% of them are amazing. And so, what you have here, if you’ve never seen the study bible, I’m just going to show you this part is the bible. Now, he’s not adding to the bible, but these are comments on it. On each individual verse, you can read your Bible, and then you can look down and go, “I don’t understand that.” And I mean, the light can go on, and you don’t need to wait for a sermon. You can have your own sermon from the Holy Spirit of God in the scripture in your chair every single morning of your life. Every morning of your life, disciple, you should be found with your bible in your lap. And I’m not saying you gotta have paper. You can do it on electronic if you want to, but these footnotes really help. And I mean, this is Kelly’s bible. It’s goat skin. They killed a goat to make this. Thanks a lot, Kelly. But you can pick these up for about 30 bucks. And I’m gonna tell you something if you go, you know, “I’d love to have a study Bible. I’d love to buy a MacArthur Study Bible. I just don’t have the money.” Email the church. Let’s see what we can do. We’ll see what we can do. We’ll help you out. Jim Bob Bradley will buy you bibles if you need them. Thank you, Jim Bob, thank you, Jim Bob, praise God and thank you, Jim Bob. Right? Don’t make an excuse. Don’t be like, “Well, I’d love to have one.” If you email the Sherman Bible, you can email the elders, you can email the office. Doesn’t matter. “I need help. Man, I’d love to get a MacArthur Study Bible.” We’ll work it out. It won’t be brown goat skin because these might be pricey. That was a gift she got. But I want you to be able to use those. Okay, so it’s that. Here’s another suggestion. Here’s another way you can do it. Get in a d group. Get in a d group, go out to Connection Central, sign up for a d group and tell those guys, “I want to be in a d group that goes over the sermon every week. “Now I’m going to explain that to you. Here’s why I’m suggesting it that way. It’s not because I want to be popular because you’re talking about the sermon. It’s not what it’s about. When you hear truth on a weekend service that somebody has spent 30 hours preparing, and you hear this much text, it’s going to take you more than 40 minutes to digest it. It just is. That’s literally why we don’t have Sunday night services. We do not believe that you are ready for another meal. I know I’m not. I sit under this as much and more than you do. I’m going to say it three times after I’ve studied it all week, and I still need to digest it. That’s why I’m saying that. When you sit under that truth, and maybe you take notes, or maybe you go back and you listen before your d group, and you go into the d group, and then they start the discussion, they start asking questions, and you ruminate over it, you bring up questions, and you’re finding answers, and you’re digging into the Word of God. You’re gonna grow. That’s why we have d groups. And do you make friends? Yes. Do you find people that you love and like? Yes. Do you find people you don’t like? Maybe, but even that’s a sanctifying effect. But you can get in the Word in a d group, and also you can do this. Here’s number five, you can attend any of the equipping opportunities throughout Sherman Bible, and they’re on repeat. It’s everything from Gospel 101, Gospel 201, Membership class is a great way to learn. There’s no obligation to join Sherman Bible by going to the class. Love to have you do that. We have Theo Doxos. You’ll hear about that. That’s where we teach theology. And we have worship and doxology afterwards. The women have Through The Word groups. We have equips in the spring and in the fall that you can come to and you can get in the Word of God, dig deep into it. Some of you men, if you get referred to Men’s Theology, you can’t sign up for that. You have to be referred. But as you’re studying the Word and men are seeing you walk that out, your name will end up getting referenced, and you might get an invite. “Hey, why don’t you pray about coming to meeting seeing if you want to go through a two year systematic theology course?” I’ll tell you what. We leave nobody unscathed in those things. You talk to any of the men that have been through that. It’s not a magic course, we just open it up. We do it on the regular. And they read a lot of bible. Do you understand the point of my one point message? I want you to grow. I want you to grow in knowledge. Nobody here has arrived. Nobody here ever will this side of heaven. It scares me to death when pastors are like, “Oh, I went to a-” and nothing wrong with seminary, by the way, if it’s a good one, but I’ve known pastors, and it scares me to death they got out of seminary and they figured, “Well, that’s why I learned everything, and now I just go out and I teach it all” and they no longer study. That’s dangerous, man. That’s dangerous. I’m telling you, I put my foot on the gas in 1986 and by God’s grace, I have not taken it off. I have not. I continue to study. I’m encouraging you to do the same thing. Are you going to arrive? No, but you’re going to grow and again, it is a call into joy to commune with the Triune God every morning of your life, to walk in the council of the Holy One, His counsel will stand to glorify Jesus Christ, and you will not get to the end of your life and be like this, “I wish I hadn’t listened to that, Pastor. Gosh, I spent all that time reading the bible. I could have been video gaming. I could have been watching Netflix. Oh, I wasted all that time. Look how godly I am.” No, you’ll be glad you did it in the process. There is my exhortation. There is my encouragement. May we be the people as we go through these next three books that you don’t just take somebody’s word for it, but you go home, and that’s why we say, “Now it’s your turn.” You go home, and week after week, day after day, you open up the Word of God and you dig into it for you. May we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
KEYWORDS
Mother’s Day, Sanctification, Know, Knowledge, Romans, Gospel, Anti-intellectualism, Intellectual Faith, Discipleship, Disciples, Bible study, Virtue, Moral Excellence, Self-control, Steadfastness, Godliness, Brotherly Affection, Love, Ginosko, Naïve, Grace, Mathetes, Audio Sermon, Texas, Bible Church
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc