Look at verse 3, "Grace be unto you in peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ,
that in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge."
So he discussed us here two areas that we need to be enriched in.
He said in our utterance and in our knowledge.
It's funny, one time a guy told me, he said, I was talking to him about soul winning and
he was a Calvinistic guy.
And so he said, you know, the epistles of Paul never teach soul winning.
He said, they never talk about soul winning.
He said, I don't see it in Romans.
I don't see it in first and second Corinthians.
I don't see it in Galatians.
I don't see it in Ephesians.
He said, you know, if it's so important, why didn't the epistles of Paul talk about it?
Well, nothing could be more ridiculous because in Romans chapter one, in Romans chapter 10,
I mean, just things are pop, verse are popping into my head from Romans about going out and
preaching the gospel, Romans 10, that's what the whole chapter is about, going out soul
winning, but throughout the book of Romans, but right here we'll see a term that often
appears in Paul's epistles referring to soul winning, and that term is utterance.
Go to Ephesians 6, keep your finger here, and go a few pages to the right in your Bible
to Ephesians 6.
I'm just going to show you one other example, but throughout Paul's epistles, he uses the
term utterance to talk about opening your mouth to utter words to give people the gospel.
Look at Ephesians 6, and I'm taking the time to explain this because utterance is a word
that we don't really use that often today.
It's a word that has fallen out of fashion.
But when we say an utterance, if someone is to utter something or make an utterance, it
basically just means that they're talking, right?
I mean, if somebody utters or makes an utterance, it just means they talked, they spoke, they
said something, right?
So he's saying you need to be enriched by Jesus Christ in your utterance, which is stuff
that you're saying and in your knowledge, which is the things that are in your mind.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6, and I'll show you what I mean.
It says in verse 18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints," he's saying
we need to be praying for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Notice again the use of the word saints, but look at verse 19, "and for me," he's saying
pray also for me, "utterance may be given unto me."
And what does he mean by that when he says pray that utterance may be given unto me?
He says that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which
I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Of course in 2 Corinthians 5 he's going to use that illustration about being an ambassador,
speaking of soul winning, saying that we go to the lost in the place of Christ, beseeching
them to be reconciled to God, and we're ambassadors for Christ, and we preach the word of God
that they might be saved.
So utterance is referring to opening our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
And so the Bible says that in everything we ought to be enriched by him in all utterance
and in some knowledge.
Is that what it says?
It says all knowledge.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not teaching that we should know everything that's
in the Bible?
We ought to learn everything in the Bible.
That means if somebody teaches us Leviticus, we should be ready to learn from the book
of Leviticus.
If somebody wants to teach us Numbers or Deuteronomy or Joshua, we ought to be ready to learn and
say, you know, I don't need that.
And that's what people are at today.
They say teach me something relevant to my life.
I don't need to know about Leviticus.
I don't need to know about Numbers.
I don't need all this heavy doctrine.
You know, just give me something that's a little more relevant and applicable in my life
today.
No, we need all knowledge.
Everything in the Bible is something that God wants us to know, and God has given it
to us.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
I mean, we need the whole council.
We need the whole Word of God.
Now, it's funny because when you start talking doctrine and when you start, you know, demanding
that a certain doctrine be upheld from the Word of God, people will often accuse you
of being divisive.
And we're going to get to that just in a few verses of this chapter.
But then the other thing that people will often bring out when you try to tell them
about a certain doctrine or you try to tell them, "Hey, this is important that we understand
such and such the principle from the Bible," here's what they'll use often.
Well I'm not worried, you know, you shouldn't worry so much about it.
You just need to be out soul winning.
You know, don't spend so much time worrying about this doctrine or that doctrine.
Quit worrying so much about Leviticus and quit worrying about Psalms.
You know, quit worrying about every little doctrine and just get out there and win souls.
We just need to win souls.
But wait a minute, he said utterance and knowledge.
He didn't say go do all the utterance instead of knowledge.
You know, instead of reading your Bible, go soul winning.
Man, why would you spend a bunch of time reading the Bible when you could be out soul winning?
Because I'll tell you why.
If you don't read your Bible and you spend all your time out soul winning, you're not
going to know what the Bible says and you're going to fail as a Christian.
You're going to fail in your life.
And if our church is a church that's just soul winning, soul winning, soul winning,
without the knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, our church will fail.
We need everything that God has to offer us.
We need to be enriched by knowledge and by utterance.
Knowledge yes, utterance yes.
Other people make the opposite mistake.
They want to just fill their mind with knowledge, but they never do any utterance.
They're not doing any soul winning.
And they will also fail.
And that's why Paul is giving us here the key to success.
We need to be enriched by Jesus Christ in all utterance and in all knowledge.
Someone will say to you sometimes about a certain doctrine, that doctrine doesn't matter.
Every doctrine matters.
Everything in the Bible matters or it wouldn't be there.