(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And God, please help us understand how important this is, that we know the Bible, that we learn what we need to learn. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now I think the key verse in this chapter, and the one that I want to focus in on of course is in chapter 4 verse 7, the Bible says, wisdom is the principle thing. Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Look back a little bit, the Bible says in verse number 5, get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Now you have to understand that, hey, please, hey, hey, no talking please in the back, we're trying to have church service here, alright, thanks. Now you have to understand that when you're reading the Bible, there are a lot of reasons why people read the Bible, okay. You know when you grow up in church, you're taught to read the Bible every day. I read the Bible every day, I hope you read the Bible every day. Now one key reason that you're to read the Bible, and you'll notice throughout this chapter a lot of talk about the words of God, the word of God, hey, the reason that we read the Bible is so that we can get the knowledge that's found in the Bible. Now that seems kind of simple and rudimentary, right? But hey, if I were to hand you a science textbook, if I were to hand you a math book, if I were to hand you a history book, the purpose for you reading that book would be to get the information that's in that book and transfer it into your mind. Well when people approach the Bible, for some reason they approach it differently, because it's a spiritual book. And we know of course it is a spiritual book, I mean, the word is God, can't get any more spiritual than that, God's a spirit, okay. Jesus said, the words that I say unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Hey, but the reason that you read the Bible is because you need to get the knowledge that's in the Bible. Now we live in a day that knowledge is not emphasized. Look down, if you would, I'm just going to show you a few highlights of this chapter and then I'm going to get into the sermon. But look what the Bible says in verse number one, it says, attend to no understanding. It's talking about knowledge. He says, for I give you good doctrine, forsake not my law. Look at verse number four, halfway down it says, let thine heart retain my words. It's talking about memorizing the Bible, you think about retaining something that you've remembered. Let that heart retain my words. Verse five, be wisdom, get understanding, forget it not. Again, we're talking about memory. Neither decline from the words of my mouth. Wisdom is the principal thing, verse seven. Therefore, get wisdom and with all my getting, get understanding. Look at verse 10, hear all my son and receive my sayings. See how important God's words are? You see those words emphasize words, sayings, knowledge. We're talking about information. It says, in the years of thy life shall be many. Look at verse 13, take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, keep her for she is thy life. Hey, this chapter, the whole chapter is talking about having a pursuit of the knowledge of the holy. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Bible says, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Hey, God's trying to tell us over and over, listen to what I'm saying. Listen to what the Bible says. Remember what the Bible says. Learn the Bible, memorize the Bible. She is thy life, speaking of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. Hey, your life's goal should be a pursuit of knowledge. Learning the Bible, to know God. The Bible said in Philippians three, of course, the famous verse, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering. Hey, there's no better way to know God than to know the word of God, which was in the beginning with God, which is God. Now, look at verse 13. Not only are we to know knowledge and the words of God to seek knowledge, get wisdom. It's the principle thing. It's the number one pursuit. But look at verse 13, it says, take fast hold of instruction. What's instruction? Well, that's when someone else is teaching you something. Like right now, I'm instructing you in the Bible, okay? The Bible says, take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. See, a wise man will increase learning, the Bible says, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They despise the truth, the wisdom, and the knowledge, but they also despise being instructed. They don't want anybody to teach them anything. You ever talk to somebody and they already know everything? And so they don't need you to teach them anything. Especially when you're outsold and you run into somebody who's unsaved. And you try to teach them the truth, but the problem is they already know everything. And so that kind of person can't learn anything because they already know it all. And so the Bible says that that person's a fool. They despise instruction. They won't take a reproof. A reproof is someone tells you, no, you're wrong. Let me show you what the truth is from the Bible. But think about what it says here. Take fast hold of instruction. When I read that, I thought about dogs. You know how you play with dogs? And one way that you play with them, you get a bone or a rope toy or something like that. And what do you do? You put it in their mouth and try to take it away from them. And they go, and they won't let go, right? And you're tug-of-war with the dog. And dogs love to do that. And as long as you can't get it out of their mouth. I remember we had a Boston Terrier when I was growing up and I would tug-of-war with the dog, with the dog toy. I would pick up the toy. Maybe I shouldn't have done this. I'd pick up the toy up here like this at my head level. And the dog was hanging from the toy by its teeth. You know, the dog was like, ah. You know, you could see all the teeth and everything. The dog would not let go. And that's what I picture when I read this verse. God says, hey, look, don't ever let go of the opportunity to be instructed in the word of God. Now, 99% of what I learned from the Bible, I learned by myself reading the Bible alone. You know, that's the way it should be for you too. If you're reading the Bible like you should be, you should be getting most of your knowledge and most of your learning from your own personal Bible reading. But when you have the opportunity to have somebody stand up and teach you the Bible, instruct you in the things of God, hey, give you wisdom and understanding from the word of God, hey, you better take hold of that opportunity. Well, I can't go to church because I don't feel good. And your church doesn't make me feel good when I go. Okay, but hey, I'm not gonna go to church if I don't feel good. What kind of excuse is that, huh? You're like a dog that doesn't have any teeth or something. Hey, why don't you bite down and say, you're gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming out of church because I want to be instructed in the Bible. You take fast hold of instruction. Don't let it go. Somebody tried to pull you out of church. Hey, just go, you're not gonna get me out of church. I'm bitting down on this saying of instruction. Hey, my church attendance does not just go up and down and up and down. Hey, I don't miss church. I don't miss church for anything. Now I understand if you get broken down somewhere or yeah, it's happened to me one time. I got broken down in Blight, California of all places. You might break down. You may be so ill that you can't get out of bed. That's out of your control. But you know what? You ought to just decide Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I'm gonna be in church. Now part of the reason why I want you to come to this church three times a week is not because if you don't come to church three times a week, you're not right with God and I'm mad at you and I don't think you love this church. Now personally, I think that God does expect you to be here three times a week. But I'm gonna tell you something. I want you to understand that the reason why you need to come to this church three times a week is because if you don't come to this church for one service, there is something that you needed to learn that you will not learn, okay? Now maybe some churches you go there and it's just the same thing over and over again, a broken record every week. But if you come to this church, you will learn something tonight in the course of this sermon. If you were here this morning, you learned something. If you were here on Wednesday night, you learned something. You may not have liked all of it, but I guarantee when you come to this church, you will be instructed in the Bible. Hey, if you don't come to church, you're missing the instruction, you're missing the knowledge, you're missing the most principal thing in your life, which is wisdom, which is knowledge, which is understanding the things of God. Now the number one way that you get knowledge is not church attendance. Church attendance is very important though. And God says you need to bite down and hold on to instruction and not let it go. But the number one way, let's first talk about the number one way that you need to get knowledge, that's through reading the Bible. Church is of extreme importance, but reading the Bible is number one. If you don't personally read the Bible and you come to this church, you are not getting the balanced diet of what you need as a Christian. Can you imagine physically eating three times a week? It would not sustain you, you would die if you did that. Eventually you would die if you only ate three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. You must be eating daily. You must be eating throughout the day where you pick up the Bible yourself, where you take the bib off, where you get out of the high chair, where Pastor Anderson has to spoon feed everything into your mouth and you stand up on your own two feet, you walk over to the refrigerator, you grab a knife, you grab a fork and you dig into something that actually has some meat in it where you personally feed yourself. Can you feed yourself at this age in your spiritual Christianity? Or do you still need somebody to spoon everything into your mouth? I mean, how long have you been saved? It's time to feed yourself. I talked to a guy not too long ago and this guy thought he was really smart, but he wasn't. He thought he was very smart. He thought he knew the whole Bible and he just had it all figured out. He wasn't even saved. And this man that knew so much about the Bible, he said, well, you know, the Bible doesn't even really tell you anywhere to read the Bible. He said, I mean, nowhere, and he thought he was just so smart. I mean, he just stumbled upon this great truth. He, nowhere does the Bible tell you to read the Bible. It doesn't say read me, you know, like, you know, those read me files, you know, people are in electronics, you know, you get the read me file with the stuff. He said, I mean, it's not like God ever commands you to read the Bible. He talks more about, you know, obeying it and living right and blah, blah, blah. Not a lot of talk about reading it, but you know, I looked at it and I was thinking about how many times Jesus rebuked somebody and criticized somebody for not reading the Bible. Let me read it to you. Let me see what God says about the person who doesn't read the Bible. Let's see if Mr. Smarty Pants was right. Matthew 12, three, but he said unto them, and this is Jesus Christ speaking in every instance, but he said unto them, have you not read what David did when he was in hunger and they were with him? Matthew 12, five, or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Matthew 19, four, and he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he was made them at the beginning, made them male and female? Matthew 21, 16, and said unto them, Jesus every time talking, and said unto them, hearest thou what these say, and Jesus saith unto them, yea, have you never read? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou is perfected praise. Matthew 21, 42, Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? Matthew 22, 31, but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying? Now, what are you reading when you read the Bible? You're reading that which was spoken unto you by God. There's a, that's the greatest verse I've ever seen on divine inspiration. You know, everybody talks about all scriptures are given by inspiration of God. Hey, this is the quintessential inspiration verse right here. I mean, this is it. He says, have you not read in the scriptures that which was spoken unto you by God? Verbal inspiration in a nutshell. Mark 2, 25, and he said unto them, have you never read what David did when he had need and was in hunger, he and neither were with him? Mark 12, 10, and if you've not read this scripture, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? Mark 12, 26, and as touching the dead but they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying I'm the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? Hey, Luke 4, 16, and he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. That's what Jesus did. He said, I go to church to read the Bible. Look at, well, don't look at, I'm gonna finish this list. Luke 6, three, and Jesus answering them said, have you not read so much as this? I mean, did you even read, even just this one thing he's saying? Have you not read so much as this? Do you read the Bible and all he's saying what David did when he himself was hungry and they that were with him? You have to understand something. God gave us a book, so did you read it? Hey, how smart you have to be to figure out when God says, hey, this is my word. This is everything that I've ever said. Here you go. What do I do with it? What do I do? Put my coffee on it? What do I do? Use it for a doorstop? Why don't you carry it with me so I can feel spiritual? Hey, no, you read it. You read the Bible. And God rebuked here people again and again and again. He was very rude to them, in fact, because they were calling themselves a religious leader. They were wearing their long flowing garments and they did not read the Bible. And they did not teach the Bible and preach the Bible. He said, shame on you for not reading the Bible. There is no command to read the Bible. Well, there's a whole bunch of times when Jesus ripped somebody's face off for not reading the Bible and calling himself a religious leader. Look at Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter number 10, sixth book in the New Testament. Romans chapter 10. The Bible reads in Romans 10, verse number one. Romans 10, one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant, see, there's a problem. There's hellish. They want to serve God. I mean, they're excited about serving God, but the problem is it's not according to knowledge. And they being ignorant, they're ignorant. They don't know the truth. They don't know. They didn't learn. They weren't instructed. Hey, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, that's work salvation, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So who's going to heaven? Everyone that believeth. Because the law for righteousness, no. You will not get saved by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The Bible says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. When you believe on Jesus Christ, you have not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Not having my own righteousness is having Jesus Christ's righteousness imputed unto you and your sins are not imputed unto you. Did you know that 66 times in the Bible, I'm sorry, 66 verses in the Bible, use the word read or read? Read, read, and of course there's 66 books in the Bible. Maybe that's significant, I don't know. Deuteronomy 17, 19, here's a command from God to read the Bible daily. Deuteronomy 17, 19, and it shall be with him, talking about the Bible, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, why, that he may learn to fear the Lord as God to keep all the words of this law. It's only the thoughts that matter. Get whatever version you want, the NIV, the HIV. No, God says he needs to keep all these words, words, like words, like every word matters, like every word of God is pure, he's a shield unto them to put their trust in him, add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar, like the words of the Lord are pure words, and silver time, the first of earth, purified seven times, like heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. You say, well, I'm not sure how accurate this translation is. Well, you better show me a book somewhere that somebody has every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, because that's what God told me to live by. He said his words would not pass away. Are these his words? If not, then show me where they're on, I'll switch to that one. But I have them in my hand, the King James Bible, hallelujah. Now look, if you would, at 2 Chronicles chapter one, Old Testament, 2 Chronicles, this is shortly before the book of Psalms, 2 Chronicles, chapter number one, and we'll see a little bit of the life of the man Solomon who God used to pen down the book of Proverbs where we started the sermon. 2 Chronicles, chapter number one, and we'll see a great story in the Bible, kind of our introduction to the personality of Solomon. And to this point in the story, we were just seeing him as David's son. And at the beginning of 2 Chronicles, he's beginning to come into his own. He's just become the king of Israel. This is our first exposure to the man Solomon in the Bible. Look at verse number six. And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon him. So the first thing he does when he becomes king, he says, I'm going to make an offering to God. I'm going to seek after God. He makes a thousand burnt offerings. And that night, verse seven, did God appear unto Solomon and said unto him, ask what I shall give thee. Well, how would you like that? How would you like God to come up to you and say, just whatever you want. Just ask me whatever you want. Now the question is, what would you ask for? What do you want more than anything else in life? What do you desire more than anything else? What did Solomon want? Well, look what it says. And Solomon said unto God, verse eight, thou wast showed great mercy unto David my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established, for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth and multitude. Give me now, give me now, a Mercedes Benz. I've always wanted one. Hey, give me now fame and riches. Give me now popularity. Give me now time on the silver screen. Hey, give me now a fancy wardrobe and money and cars and women and goods and wealth. Hey, give it all to me. No, he says, give me now wisdom and knowledge. See, he's a man who understood that wisdom is the principle thing. He said, if I could have anything in the world, I would want the knowledge that God has, the wisdom that God has to be given to me so that I would have that kind of wisdom and I would have that kind of knowledge. Hey, that's why later on, when in 2nd Kings chapter three, you read about this, 2nd Kings, 1st Kings chapter three, you read about this, where the Bible said that the people knew that Solomon had the wisdom of God. That's where the wisdom came from. See, if God asked me, what do you want, Pastor Stephen Anderson? What do you want, you have anything? I say, you know, can you give me knowledge? Can you, I want to know what you know, God. I want to know. I want knowledge. If you have knowledge, you can get money. And that's what, we'll look what he says here. And obviously money is worthless to God practically. But look, if you would give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this like people that are so great? Look at verse number 11. And God said to Solomon, because this was in my heart and now it's not as rich as wealth or honor nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet has asked long life. He doesn't need that, he has eternal life, okay? It says here, but has asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king. Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee. Now, may I submit to you tonight that wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee as well? Because you're holding it in your hand right now. The Bible says wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee and I will give thee riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the life. He said, I'm gonna give you the riches and the wealth and the honor and the other things. But you see, wisdom and knowledge are the key to everything that you want in life, okay? Now, think about this. Think about how valuable this book is that I'm holding in my hand right now. Can you imagine if, see here today in 2007, you can go to the 98 cent store and find the King James Bible. You can go to the Dollar Tree, you can go to 7-Eleven Circle K. I mean, you see this book anywhere. It's everywhere. But can you imagine being in a situation where there's a limited supply of the Bible? Where you couldn't find it or it was so unaffordable that you couldn't even pay for it? Do you know what I would give to have this book? I mean, I'm saying if I didn't have one. You know, maybe I just had bits and pieces or I only had what I heard in church. I didn't have my own personal copy of the Bible. Hey, this would be the one thing that I would wish for. This is what I would ask for if I could have one thing. If I could only have one possession, it would be this book that I'm holding in my hand. This would be the one thing, the wisdom and the knowledge of God. This is what I would want. Can you imagine if I said to you, I have two boxes up here. One box has a million dollars cash in unmarked non-consecutive bills, 10s and 20s, right here, a million dollars. And in this box, I have the answer to every question ever asked. All the knowledge in the entire world, everything that God knows, everything that you want to know, it's all right here, all that information. Which box would you choose? Would you choose the knowledge or would you choose money? Because I'm gonna tell you something, the knowledge is right here. Why don't you realize that and why don't you go home and crack it open and read it? I just don't like to read the Bible. And why don't you change? Because you're wrong. You don't like to read the Bible because you've been fed a diet of television and the world's trash and all the rock music and all the rap music and all the filth. Hey, why don't you adjust your taste buds and why don't you learn that this is the exciting book to read. This is the knowledge that you need. Hey, this is the entertainment. This is what's fun. Hey, this is what's gonna build your life. This is what's gonna give you everything that you want in life. I'm not talking about money. Hey, I can care less about money. I want knowledge and wisdom. And that's where it's found right here in this book. You see, I think a lack of knowledge is probably one of the key problems in churches in 2007. I think just the total lack of knowledge, hey, sir, quiet. I think a total lack of knowledge is why people are so easily swayed on what they believe. Think about this verse, Hosea 4.6. You don't have to turn there. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. He said, that's why they're destroyed. Look at Ephesians chapter four. Turn in your Bible if you would to Ephesians chapter four, verse number 13. God said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge, the verse goes on to say. I will also reject thee. Why? Because you've rejected knowledge, he said. Thou shall be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Look at Ephesians 4.13. The Bible reads, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge. See, that's the goal. And of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. How easily deceived are you? How hard would it be for somebody to deceive you and fool you into believing false doctrine from the Bible? Well, it's directly proportional. It's inversely related to your knowledge of the Bible. See, you must come to the knowledge of the Son of God. That's where you will not be swayed. You'll not be cunningly tricked by them who lie in wait to deceive you. Hey, you won't be tossed to and fro. Well, I was going to a Baptist church, but then I decided I was gonna be a Catholic for a while. Now I'm a Mormon, go figure. Oh, you're an idiot is what you are. Hey, you need to realize that the knowledge of the Bible will plant you to where you're not every week switching churches, where you're not every week switching Bible versions, and where you're not every week switching what you believe about the gospel. Hey, why don't you just become grounded, firmly, steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Now that's what the Bible teaches because you need to have the knowledge in order to root you and plant you in what you believe. Now, how do you get knowledge where you get it by being in church? Because why? The Bible's being preached. You're being instructed. What's the number one place that you get knowledge? Your own personal Bible reading that you do by yourself, where the Holy Spirit is your instructor. That's what you need. But let me tell you where you don't get knowledge. I'm gonna tell you the worst way to get knowledge. The number one way to not get any knowledge is by arguing with people who believe in strange doctrines, okay? This is like the worst way to learn anything. Now, look, if you would, at the book of Titus. You're already in the New Testament. Flip over, if you would, to the book of Titus. You're gonna see something that God says over and over. Titus chapter three. And I'll tell you who he says it the most to. He says it the most in the books of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Why? Because in the books of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, he's writing to a pastor. Okay, those are called the pastoral epistles. Philemon is also a pastoral epistle. But in those three books, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, he's warning a pastor about what he needs to stay away from it. He says it repeatedly in all three of those books. Let me show you a few instances. Titus 3, nine. The Bible says, but avoid foolish questions. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask. Well, God says that there's a lot of foolish questions and you need to avoid them. Okay? Go ahead, ask anything. No. Don't ask a foolish question. Avoid foolish questions. And genealogies. And contention, that's arguing with people who believe wrong. And strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. Vain means you're wasting your time. Unprofitable means there's no value. Look at the next words. A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject. Knowing that he that is such as subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself. So how many times do you argue with the heretic? You outsole anyone. I just don't believe Jesus is God. I'm Jehovah's witness. I don't believe Jesus is God. How many times do you show them that Jesus is in fact God? Maybe once or twice. Isn't that what the Bible says? And then if they still are just saying, well, I still don't believe it. Well, that's, see you later. Do you think I'm going to go out soul winning so I can spend my time spending three hours at the door of some Jehovah's witness that doesn't believe Jesus is God? No, it's unprofitable and vain. I want to get to the next door where I can win somebody to Christ, where somebody's willing to learn. Now I'm going to give them the first admonition and then I'm going to give them the second admonition and then I'm going to reject them because that's what the Bible says to do. Otherwise you'll burn up so much time. You say, well, I'm learning. No, you're not learning. You're wasting your time. Look, if you would, at 2 Timothy. Go back one book from Titus. Go back toward the beginning of your Bible. One book, 2 Timothy chapter two. See, he's talking about a pastor because a lot of people come up to the pastor especially and want to ask him stupid questions. Now, none of you have ever asked me a stupid question. There are a lot of intelligent questions to ask the pastor. There are a lot of legitimate intelligent questions that people ask, but this is not one of the questions. Can God make a rock so big that he can't pick it up? Because if God can do anything, can he make a rock that's so big that he can't pick it up? Hey, you're a fool if you ask that kind of a question. And let me show you where most foolish questions come from. Look at 2 Timothy chapter two. I can give you, want some more examples? Dumb question? You know, you remember when you're in school, there's always that one person that had a lot of stupid questions. Everybody's just shaking their head like, idiot. What are you thinking, right? But anyway, 2 Timothy chapter two. The Bible says in verse 16, but shun profane and vain babblings. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. For they will increase into more ungodliness and their word will lead us to the canker. Look at verse number 23. But foolish, here's the root of the problem, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes. Talk about just arguing on and on. And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, will give them repentance, he acknowledges. What's he saying? He's saying, you know what? Somebody who's wrong doctrinally needs to be instructed, not argued with. Here's the thing. Brother Dave knows this because we go out soloing together a lot. When I go out soloing with people and they're doing most of the talking, goodbye. Because I like to hear myself talk. No, I'm just kidding. That's not why. That's not why. But you know what? Hey, guess what? I'm the one who's saved. I'm the one who's got the Spirit of God. I'm the one who's got the Word of God. Some JW is not going to be doing 60% of the talking and I do 40% of the talking. Why? Because God says, don't strive with people. Don't argue with people. Don't go back and forth with heretics for hours on end. Hey, don't foolish and unlearn questions. No, this is what I say. I say, listen, I have something that I'm here to tell you. Would you like to listen to that? Or are you trying to teach me something? You know, could you just listen for a minute? And if they go, oh, let me just tell you, I say, well, you know what? Go tell somebody else. And I go to the next door. Because when I go out sorting, it's not to go around arguing with people. And it's not to have people teach me because I don't need a Mormon to teach me. I don't need a Jehovah's Witness to teach me. I don't need a Pentecostal to teach me. Oh, there's something that you might be able to learn. No, I won't learn anything. I'll learn when I'm reading the Bible. I'll learn when I'm in a church that's being preached by a man of God that believes the Bible, that's preaching the Bible, not by some heretic. Reject that heretic. Hey, avoid his foolish questions. Hey, a son babbles, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When I go out sorting, I say, look, if I'm doing the talking, then I'll spend time talking to somebody. But as soon as they're teaching me all their garbage, I don't want it to be in my mind. I don't want to listen to it. So I'll listen to them a little bit and I'll just get back in control of the conversation. If I can't, then it's time to go to the next door because I don't have all day because I only have one life so soon has passed. And so both Dave knows that sometimes I just say, brother Dave, I give him the little hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod, let's go. You know, let's get out of here. And sometimes they'll chase us down the side and people will follow me down the street. Wait, I'm not there talking to you. Wait, wait, and I say, sorry, bye, see you later. That's what the Bible says. You know what's even worse than that? Getting on these internet chat rooms. There are people who get on these internet chat rooms and they argue doctrine for hours. You know what I mean? They're arguing and arguing doctrine with a bunch of fools, with a bunch of unbelievers. This is who you're talking to on the serums in many cases, they're unbelievers. Oh no, they're Christians. The stuff that they say shows that they're an unbeliever. They're a heretic. Two times you tell them and they're done with them. And the people get on these online chat rooms and these forums and everything and they go back and forth just arguing doctrine, doctrine, arguing, what about this? What about this? Hey, you're not avoiding foolish questions when you get on those things. Why I say bring on the stupid questions. That's why you're saying you're doing the exact opposite. You don't learn that. Well, I'm just trying to learn. Trying to learn about other religions. So I bought the Book of Mormon. I'm gonna read it because I wanna learn how to win Mormons to Christ. Hey, you don't need to read the Book of Mormon. The Bible says learn not the way of the heathen. And why are not after these people saying how did they worship their gods? Says about the Canaanites. Oh, but I wanna know how they worship their gods so I can win them to Christ. You have no business reading the Book of Mormon. You have no business reading the Apocrypha. You have no business reading the New World Translation. Hey, you have no business reading the ways of the heathen and how unbelievers worship their god which is a different god. You wanna learn how to win a Mormon to Christ? It's the same way you win a Jehovah's Witness to Christ. It's the same way you win a Pentecostal to Christ. It's the same way you win anybody to Christ. You teach them that it's not of works, all by faith, everlasting life, once saved, always saved because none of the people that we just listed believe that. None of the people we listed believe in once saved, always saved. None of the people that we listed believe in 100% by grace through faith, plus nothing, minus nothing. You can win anybody the Lord with that information right there. You don't have to know all their heresies and their falsehoods. Knowledge is achieved by reading the Bible. Here's another way you get knowledge. Ecclesiastes 2, 26, you don't have to turn there. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy. God will give you knowledge and wisdom if you're good in his sight. That if you obey the Bible that you do know, if you obey the knowledge that you do know, you may not know everything about Christianity. You don't, I don't. You may not know everything that God has to teach you, but are you obeying what you do know? You say, I've only been in church a couple of weeks. This is all I know. Are you doing what you know so far? Well, if you're good in his sight, if you're obeying what you've been given, God will give you some more to obey. But why would God keep giving you more knowledge if you're not obeying the one that he already gave you? Well, just work on that for a while. Come back to me when you're obeying that. I think it's God's attitude in many cases. Church, you should be getting knowledge from church. First Timothy 4, 13, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. He says, church is for reading the Bible. That's why we read a complete chapter at the beginning of every sermon. That's why there's a lot of Bible throughout the sermon that you're reading along in your lap as I preach to you. Till I come, give attendance to reading, exhortation, that's the preaching. That's why I'm exhorting you. That's why I'm trying to inspire you. I'm trying to teach you. I'm trying to rebuke you. I'm trying to fire you up. But then he says, into doctrine, you should be taught the Bible in church. Hey, the church is supposed to be the pillar and ground of the truth. The church of the living God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. Listen to Nehemiah's preaching. I'm sorry, Ezra's preaching in the book of Nehemiah, chapter number eight. You don't have to turn there, but this is how Ezra preached. The Bible says they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. He read the Bible and then he made it plainly to be understood. That's what good preaching will do for you. It's just exposing the Bible. It's just bringing to light what's already in the Bible. But my last point is this. Have you ever heard this phrase, or maybe you've seen this, that's from knowledge is power? You ever heard somebody say that knowledge is power? Who's heard that saying before? Yeah, that's a true saying. I'm gonna show you how biblical that is. I'm gonna show you how extremely biblical that is because knowledge is power. Look, if you would. Well, let me see where I wanna have you turn. Turn to Ephesians, chapter one, and I'm gonna read this other part for you. Exodus, chapter three, verse one. I'll read this for you. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God. You heard about that subject before, being filled with the Spirit of God? Let's see what God says about it here in Exodus. I have filled him with the Spirit of God. How, God? In wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. How was it that Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of God? Well, he was filled with knowledge. He's filled with wisdom, and he's filled with understanding. That's what God said. Oh, but I thought filled with the Spirit is when you start foaming at the mouth and speaking in tongues, and you've been healed, and you've been sacrificed. No, that's not what being filled with the Spirit is. Hey, being filled with the Spirit is when you're filled with knowledge. So you're filled with understanding. So you're filled with the Word of God. Jesus said, the words that I say to you, they are spirit, and they are life. Hey, be filled with knowledge like Bezalel was, and maybe God will say, I've filled him with the Spirit of God, because he's filled with knowledge, with understanding, with wisdom. Exodus 35, 31, and he had filled him with the Spirit of God. Another verse, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Look down at your Bible Ephesians, chapter one, verse 17, where you are, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. See, another correlation there. The eyes of your understanding, the enlightened that you may know. See, you have to look at, you have to notice, see, don't pass over the word that you may know. K-N-O-W, you know something. You've learned something. He said, revelation, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, enlightenment, knowing, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe. How are you gonna know the power of God? According to the working of his mighty powers, how are you gonna know God's power? Hey, know the knowledge of the Bible, you'll know God's power. Know the Bible, you'll know the power of God. You say, I wanna go to the service, now somebody slap me in the forehead and get the power of God. I wanna lay all night somewhere praying for three days and three nights, I'm gonna pray and fast, and I'm gonna have the power of God. Hey, why don't you know who you're praying to first? Why don't you figure out who God is? Hey, why don't you know the Bible? Then you'll know the power of God. That's what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 12, seven. You'll have to turn there. But the manifestation of the Spirit, capital S, God's Spirit, is given to every man to profit with all. For by one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. You see the correlation here between the Holy Spirit and knowledge, between being filled with the Holy Spirit and being filled with knowledge? How about Isaiah 11, two? And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. That's in a positive. He's restating who the Holy Spirit is. He's got a comma there where he restates the subject. He said the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Who is that God? Well, it's the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. What else? The Spirit of counsel and might. What else? The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of knowledge. See, God is not the God of ignorance. God is not the God of a lack of knowledge. God is not the God of keeping people in darkness. God is the God of keeping people in the light, keeping people in the know, giving people knowledge. Hey, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of knowledge. Know the Bible. Why do you read the Bible? So you can know the Bible. So you can know what's right and what is wrong. Look, you're still in Ephesians. Look at chapter five, verse 18. Famous verses, Ephesians 5, 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Now keep your finger there and turn to Colossians. You're going toward the end of the Bible. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. So you just got two books, two small books forward and look at Colossians 3, 16. Find the same type of a statement. And if you compare sometime Colossians chapter three and Ephesians chapter five, you'll notice that the subject matter is all the same. They're basically, Paul is teaching the same thing, the same train of thought in both places. He talks about the same things about obeying your parents, wives, obeying their husbands, servants, obeying their master. He goes through the exact same thing. And he says here, remember we saw, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Look at Colossians 3, 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. You notice that's the same phraseology, except the difference was in Ephesians, he's saying be filled with the Spirit, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and spiritual songs. Here he says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one. Hey, basically he's talking about in one, being filled with the Spirit, yet only he's talking about being filled with the word of Christ, with the word of God. Why? Because those two things are the same thing. You can't, maybe they're not exactly the same thing, but you sure can't have one without the other. You're never gonna be filled with the Spirit till you're filled with this book, till you're filled with knowledge, till you're filled with understanding. Look back, if you would, we'll close the sermon with this. Look back at Proverbs four, where we started. Proverbs chapter four, middle of the Bible, just right after Psalms, Proverbs four. And we'll see back where we started. Look, if you would, at verse number one. Hear ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsaking not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words. Keep my commandments and live. You hear a father pleading with his son, please don't be a fool. Please don't be ignorant. Please get the knowledge that you need to get. He says, get wisdom, verse five. Get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. This is what's gonna keep you straight, is what he's saying. Love her, and she shall keep thee. Look at verse eight, exalt her, and she shall promote thee. We're talking about being promoted? Hey, knowledge and wisdom will promote you. She shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Hear, oh my son, receive my sayings. The years of thy life shall be many. It is a prolong your life if you obey the Bible. I taught thee in the right way wisdom. I've led thee in right paths. When thy goest, thy steps shall not be straightened. And when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Hey, you wanna be a runner for God? Or you wanna just go through your Christian life like this? You know, you ever see the Jehovah's Witnesses out witnessing? They walk like this speed. Hey, when I go soul winning, I wanna walk like, I wanna walk like this. Hey, I've been soul winning before, where I literally ran from door to door. I've done it. I didn't do it today. Or it's only that I wasn't running, you know. But I was a brisk walk. Hey, I've been soul winning where I ran from door to door. And I remember when I was in, especially when I was in the ghettos in South Chicago, I would run from door to door. Because it would get people's attention. Because you have to know something. When you're in the ghetto, man, everybody's outside all the time. I mean, when you're in a real bad ghetto, like everybody's outside. No, you know, you go to a nice neighborhood, it's like a ghost town. You never see anybody, right? Because people just like pull their car into the garage, the garage door shuts, and you never see them again until the garage door opens, the car pulls out, you know. Never see anybody. But man, when you're in a bad neighborhood, everybody's outside. Everybody's on the porch. Idleness is what we talked about this morning. They're idle. And I remember, I would run from door to door because then everybody on the street is just like, what is this guy doing? But you know what, they knew that what I was doing was important, right? And when I came to them, they knew I was serious. And I'd start preaching to them, you know. And I'd go soul winning in those neighborhoods, man. I'd be, it's like I'm preaching about in the pool when I'm talking to these people. Because you got to get through to them. And I'd be giving them the gospel. They knew that I wasn't a joke. They knew I wasn't there because I had to be there. Hey, they saw me running up and down the street. I'd give them the gospel. Hey, I want to run through life. You think I want to just go at some kind of a slow pace where maybe I give the gospel to one person once in a blue moon, where I read the Bible through once in a blue moon, where I memorize the verse of the Bible every once in a while? No, I'm trying to run to the goal. Hey, I'm pressing towards the mark of the prize that I call on God Christ Jesus. Hey, I'm trying to run to the next soul winning opportunity. Hey, I'm trying to run through my Bible reading. I'm trying to run through memorizing the Bible. Hey, I want to run faster, faster, go, go, go. Hey, that's where I want to live my Christian life. Be lagging behind, dragging. No, I want to be running, sprinting through life. I just let life pass me by. Hey, I want to be running through life. I want to get to the next thing. I want to get to the next person to win the Lord. I want to memorize the next chapter. Hey, I want to do the next great thing for God. Hey, I want to do something with my life and not waste it. But look what he says here in Proverbs 4. He says, when thou goest, thy steps shall not be straight. And this is verse 12. And when thou runest, thou shalt not stumble. You see, the problem with running at high speeds is that there's a tendency to stumble and fall. Have you ever fallen when you're running really fast? I remember one time I was playing hide and go seek in Roseville, California. And I was running as fast as I could. Somebody was chasing after me. I'm sorry, I was it. Okay, and I'm chasing somebody and I'm running as fast as I could. And I'm sprinting. And this was like 10 o'clock at night. We're out in the park, you know how teenagers are. And I'm running and I tagged this guy on the back. And when I tagged him, he stopped immediately for some reason. I did not stop immediately because I was running as fast as I could. And so I just tripped over him and just went flying and just wham, just landed on the concrete. See, it's the dangers of running really fast. And so what happened? I tore open my arm right here, just a scrape, just a lot of blood scrape. But that wasn't the worst part. I landed on my pelvis right here. And I'm kind of a slim guy. And so my pelvis is not really very well padded. I just slammed the side of my pelvis in that concrete. And I fractured my pelvis, just a small crack in my pelvis. Well, people ran over me and they're saying, are you okay, are you okay? And I remember I was in the most excruciating pain. I don't think I've ever been in more pain in my life. Literally, I think back and I've broken a couple bones. This is the worst pain I was ever in. And they're saying, oh man, we gotta take care of your arm. I said, I don't care about my arm. I said, this is where it hurts, I'm dying here. And so I remember, and they wouldn't drive me home. This is the funniest thing. These teenagers are like, well, we gotta finish the game. We'll get you home in a little bit. I sat there, you know, waiting, right? And so I remember I had two shirts on. I took off one of my shirts and I took off the white shirt underneath and I used that to wrap around my bloody arm. And it soaked through the white shirt blood, okay. Sorry, this is a little graphic. This is, you know, all right. But anyway, and I put the other shirt back on, okay. And I got this bloody white shirt wrapped around my arm and I sat and waited. So I get home and by the time I got home, it was almost midnight. My parents were still up. I walked in the door and I didn't want them to know, you know, that I'd gotten hurt, you know, because you're prideful, you know, you don't want to walk in all hurt. So I walk in the door and I remember just kind of holding my arm over here and just kind of stumbling in. And I just remember, I just looked over and said, good night, mom. Good night, daddy. I just went to my room and I'm like, ah, I went to bed. Well, I go to bed. I think everything's pretty much fine. I was in a lot of pain, but I figure I'll go to bed. I'll feel better when I wake up in the morning. I wake up the next morning. I'm like, okay, I'm going to get out of bed. I went to lift up my leg, get out of bed and my leg just was not responding. Leg lift up and go down on the floor, okay. And it didn't, it was not happening. So I picked up my leg with my hands and put my leg on the ground. And then I just hopped on one foot up the stairs. And I remember I hopped up the stairs. My room was on the first floor. I hopped up the stairs on one foot and I knocked on my mom's door. I said, mom, I need to go to the doctor. I think I have a broken bone. And she took me to the doctor. There's nothing, what are they going to do? Put a castor on your whole body? It doesn't really work very well. So all they did was just, they gave me like a cane to walk away. And they gave me a bunch of pain pills. I don't even know if I took them. I don't remember. And so they just said, well, you're just going to have to tough it out. Nothing you can do. You know, there's nothing we can do. Just, it'll be fine. You know, the x-ray, they say it was going to be fine. How are you going to run? And sometimes when you move fast through life, there's a tendency to stumble and fall and hurt yourself. So what are we going to do better? I'll just slow down. Let's all just slow things down. Let's be like the South, where I was last week in Atlanta, Georgia. Let's just all be like Georgia. Let's all just slow down. I don't want to slow down. God said he'd provide a way for us to run without slowing down and without falling. He says, know what you're doing. Know where you're going. Know how to run. Hey, there are people in this world, I guarantee you, that are runners. They're professional athletes and runners. You think that they trip and fall? When they're doing their running throughout the day. I mean, they run 26 miles. How many times do you think they fell during that 26 mile run? Probably zero, because they know what they're doing. Hey, if you know what you're doing in life, you won't fall. I don't want to go through my life running in the wrong direction. He made me say, I love God. I want to run for God. And I just take off running, bam! And I'm going in the opposite direction that God wanted me to go. Wouldn't that be horrible? I get to heaven and I'm just. God, how far did I get? Yeah, where's the crowns? Where's the glory? Yeah, I did it! And God's like, are you nuts? You went the wrong way, you did nothing. You know, some other guy didn't run near as fast, but he was going in the right direction. And God's given him all kinds of rewards, because at least he did something right. And you're like, ah, ah, ah, ah, what? You went the wrong way, son. You better know where you're running. Hey, when you start running somewhere, when you start to do something, hey, you better know where you're going. You better know what you're doing. If I'm going to invest time into this church, I better know that this is the right church. If I'm going to invest my time reading this book, I better know this is the right book. See, a lot of people waste their life. They waste their time, why? Because they didn't get the knowledge. They were all excited about serving God. Boy, they jumped gung ho into what their church is doing. Man, they joined every program in their church. Man, church was their life. Problem is, they're in the wrong church. And they wasted their life. What a tragedy, what a shame. Hey, knowledge is the principal thing. Wisdom is the principal thing. Wisdom and knowledge are the number one pursuits of life, because everything hinges on what you know. Everything hinges on knowing the truth. Everything hinges on striving according to knowledge, having a zeal for God coupled with knowledge. Everything. How are we going to get the knowledge? We'd have a revival in 2007 in churches of knowledge preaching, and people who read the Bible for themselves. You know what God told a preacher in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2? He said, preach the word. I wish that every preacher in America would listen to that, where it says preach the word. Don't preach your philosophies. Don't preach all your stories about when you were a teenager playing hide and go seek. Don't preach all the cunning craftiness and whereby you lie waiting to see. Hey, I'm so tired of preaching it does not include the Bible. Walk into a preaching service. They read three verses at the beginning. That was it for Bible. Now it says blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You say, have you ever been in a sermon where the preaching was powerful? Every sermon I've been in where the preaching was powerful, the sermon was filled with Bible every time. God commands a preacher to preach the word. Don't just preach your little outline. Don't preach your little devotional book. Don't preach your little purpose-driven life, footprints in the sand kind of stuff. Hey, preach the word, pastor. Hey, preach the Bible. He doesn't just mean preach about the Bible. And I think that's what most people take it to mean when they read that verse. Preach about the Bible. Preach about the word. He'd say preach about the word. He'd say preach the word. That means you're preaching God's word like God's word is coming out of your mouth while you're preaching. See, we have to break things down in their simplest form because people don't understand these things and they've abused these verses. Hey, preach the word. Preach the Bible, sir. That's what we need. We need the knowledge of God. Read the Bible in your own life, not a book about the Bible, not a devotional book about it. Read the Bible itself. Read the words of God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the knowledge that I have in my hand, the ultimate knowledge, the word of God. And Father, thank you for putting me into the ministry, as Paul said, and giving me the opportunity to instruct the Bible. God, help every person in this room, including myself, to be a runner, but most importantly, to run according to knowledge. Help no one in this room to be ignorant of what the truth is. Knowing the Bible, dear God, is what we need to be. We need to be learning constantly, ever learning. We need to always be coming to the knowledge of the truth. We need to be walking in the paths of understanding. We need to take hold of understanding and bite a hold of that thing and not let it go so that if we're gonna be a runner, we better know where we're running, we better know what we're doing. God, please just help every believer in this world. I wish that every preacher in this world would preach the word. Help me to preach the word, dear God. Help me to not get off on some tangent when I'm preaching something other than the Bible. God, help us. Help me to preach the Bible. Help the people in this room to know the Bible. And help every person in this room to decide that they know what they believe and get it nailed down so that they can get on the starting block and start to really, really, really run for God and run hard.