Jeffrey Johnson, in his sermon, emphasizes the importance of handling knowledge with care and humility, akin to a safety course on gun handling. He draws a parallel between the respect and caution needed in handling firearms and the approach one should take towards knowledge, suggesting that while knowledge is valuable and protective, like a gun, it can also be dangerous if mishandled.
Johnson explores the difference between knowledge and wisdom, stating that knowledge is the accumulation of data and facts, whereas wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge appropriately. He points out that wisdom, unlike knowledge, comes solely from God and is characterized by humility and love. He argues that while knowledge can lead to pride and arrogance, wisdom leads to a godly life and love for others.
Through an examination of the biblical texts, Johnson discusses the potential of knowledge to puff up and create pride, contrasting it with love that builds up and edifies. He critiques the misuse of knowledge for self-promotion and emphasizes the need for knowledge to be accompanied by love and humility.
Johnson further illustrates the dangers of using knowledge without love, which can harm rather than help others, and highlights the importance of seeking wisdom from God. He concludes by encouraging his listeners to use their knowledge in a way that reflects love for God and others, ultimately leading to wisdom that comes from above.
The sermon calls for a reevaluation of the purpose behind seeking knowledge and the way it is shared, urging a focus on humility, love, and the pursuit of wisdom that aligns with God's will.
Jeffrey Johnson, in his sermon, emphasizes the importance of handling knowledge with care and humility, akin to a safety course on gun handling. He draws a parallel between the respect and caution needed in handling firearms and the approach one should take towards knowledge, suggesting that while knowledge is valuable and protective, like a gun, it can also be dangerous if mishandled.
Johnson explores the difference between knowledge and wisdom, stating that knowledge is the accumulation of data and facts, whereas wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge appropriately. He points out that wisdom, unlike knowledge, comes solely from God and is characterized by humility and love. He argues that while knowledge can lead to pride and arrogance, wisdom leads to a godly life and love for others.
Through an examination of the biblical texts, Johnson discusses the potential of knowledge to puff up and create pride, contrasting it with love that builds up and edifies. He critiques the misuse of knowledge for self-promotion and emphasizes the need for knowledge to be accompanied by love and humility.
Johnson further illustrates the dangers of using knowledge without love, which can harm rather than help others, and highlights the importance of seeking wisdom from God. He concludes by encouraging his listeners to use their knowledge in a way that reflects love for God and others, ultimately leading to wisdom that comes from above.
The sermon calls for a reevaluation of the purpose behind seeking knowledge and the way it is shared, urging a focus on humility, love, and the pursuit of wisdom that aligns with God's will.
Well, what I want to do this morning, looking at the first three verses of this chapter, is to give you a knowledge safety course. It's kind of like a gun safety course. We all know about guns. I know, at least in this congregation, there's probably many guns surrounding us. And we all hope that you have the basic knowledge of how to handle a gun and the basic safety rules. I know that some of them are always treat a gun like it's loaded. That was instilled into me when I was just a kid. Every gun is loaded. And so we treated them with respect. Always aim it in a safe spot. Know your target. Just some basic rules. You're going to have a gun. You need to know how to handle it. Well, knowledge is also like a gun. It's very dangerous. Knowledge is very dangerous. It's a good thing, like a gun. It's protective and helpful. I pray that we all have knowledge. In fact, our text says, some of you are going to say, I don't have any knowledge. Well, the text says all of us have knowledge. So you have some degree of knowledge. We all do. But do we know how to handle it? Do we know how to control it and manage it? Are we reckless with our knowledge? Are we dangerous with our knowledge? Knowledge is kind of like the law. The law can be very dangerous as well. You just got to know how to handle it. The way I look at the law, I look at the law. Can we turn the mic down a little bit? I'm getting a lot of feedback, not feedback, but it's there we go. The law is like a double edged sword with no handle. And the sword is razor shot. So when you pick up the sword, the law to cut someone with it, stab someone with it, be careful. You'll probably get cut yourself. The same law will judge you as equally as it judge others. And so how do you handle the law? Well, you have to handle the law with gloves of love and humility. You know, you've got to pick it up and you've got to have a humble heart to handle the law. And you have to have love in your heart to handle the law. When the knowledge is no different, the knowledge can cut people. And often it does because we don't speak the truth in love. We speak the truth in pride and arrogance. And it's not helpful to others the way sometimes we use knowledge. You see, there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is having data and information, even if it's proper truth, doctrines understood in your head. So you have truths in your mind. That's knowledge, facts. That's knowledge. Wisdom is knowing how to properly use that knowledge and when to use it and when not to use it. So it's important to know the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Hebrews 5, 11 talks about wisdom is only for those who are mature and those who know how to properly discern good and evil. It's for those who have their discernment trained, if you would. And this type of wisdom comes from above. Knowledge in and of itself doesn't necessarily come from above. Knowledge can come from a textbook. It can come from experience. It can come from a teacher. It can come from various sources. But wisdom, the proper use of that knowledge comes from no other source but from God. That is, unbelievers, they may know the truth. They may have sound doctrine, but they don't have any wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord and they don't even have that. So they have no wisdom. And so if you want wisdom, the proper use of knowledge, it comes from God. And so we see in our text two key elements to controlling or handling knowledge. Read with me in verse one. Now, concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagined that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. In here we see three rules. You know, like gun safety rules, we see three rules of knowledge, how to handle knowledge. And there's two in particular that we want to focus on. Handling knowledge with love. So one glove needs to be love and the other glove needs to be humility. You see, it says we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge that we possess puffs up, but love builds up. Now, before I explain what this means, let's look at what it doesn't mean, because so many people will use this text out of context to discourage doctrine, discourage knowledge like we don't need knowledge. We just need love, knowledge and doctrine divides. If you're heard that doctrine divides, let's just love one another. And these is promoted a lot of times by the churches that love tolerance and loves diversity and things of that nature. Inclusivity and so they don't want anything that would separate from sinners from the saints. They don't want anything. They don't like sound doctrine. And so they'll use this text to say that knowledge just puffs up. It just makes you prideful. Let's get rid of knowledge. Let's just love one another. Obviously, this is not what this text is encouraging or what it means. It doesn't mean that knowledge is bad. If knowledge was bad, then this verse is contradictory. It'd be self-refuting. It's giving us knowledge about how to handle knowledge. So it's not saying knowledge is bad. We're told all over scriptures that we're to seek knowledge. Proverbs 18 15, the heart of discerning acquires knowledge. And the ears of the wise seek it out. We should always seek to learn and educate ourselves. The godly are always educating themselves and learning more and more and studying more and more. We're to study to show ourselves approved of God. Salvation comes through knowledge. Second Peter 13, his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him. The Bible tells us that the lack of knowledge leads to destruction. My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4 6. So knowledge is not the problem. Knowledge is not something we should hate or run from. Education is not something we should despise. It does not mean knowledge and love are opposed to one another. Secondly, it is true that you can have knowledge without love, but you cannot have love without knowledge. All love has to have some basis or some knowledge about that which you love. You cannot love God if you don't know God. You can love your spouse if you don't know your spouse. So you can have knowledge without love, but you cannot have love without knowledge. In fact, knowledge is one of the things that should produce love. The more we see of Christ, the more we know of Christ, the more we ought to love him. If you want to love Christ more and love your neighbor more, then study more, educate yourself more, seek knowledge. So this is not opposing love with knowledge as one is good, one is bad. No, this is just saying it is possible. It is possible to have knowledge without love. And love without a knowledge without love does puff up. That's what this means. Knowledge in and of itself without wisdom, without understanding, without humility does make us prideful. Knowledge in itself will make us arrogant. It will puff us up. You see, knowledge is not the end goal. Knowledge is not the end game. Why are you studying that? Well, I just want to know. Well, if that's the ultimate reason why you're studying the things you're studying, then you've got the wrong reasons for studying. Well, I'm just curious. Well, that's still not sufficient. Why do you want to know these things? It's a very important question. You see, truth, knowledge, sound doctrine will sanctify us. It will purify us. And we should want to be pure before God. We should want to be holy. And knowledge is a means to that end. Is it an important means? That word is truth. Sanctify them by thy truth, Jesus tells us. That word is truth. So we want to be holy and pure. It's truth that unites us. And truth is what will bring us into a greater love for Lord and greater love for our neighbors. Augustine, one of the church fathers says, knowledge only does good in company with love. Otherwise, it merely puffs a man into pride. If we're not seeking knowledge to lead us to love, God and love our fellow man, then we're studying and learning for the wrong reasons. A jail dagg in his manual of theology chapter one, paragraph one begins this way. The study of religious truth ought to be undertaken from a sense of duty with a view to the improvement of the heart. When learn it ought not to be laid on the shelf as an object of speculation, but it should be deposited deep into the heart where it's sanctifying power ought to be felt to study theology for the purpose of gratifying curiosity or preparing for a profession is an abuse of what ought to be regarded as most holy to learn things pertaining to God merely for the sake of amusement or secular advantage or to gratify the mere love of knowledge is to treat the most high with content. You see, and you start to study your scriptures, learn and we all should or all students of the word know why you're doing it. Have a reason for your knowledge and the improvement of what you know, and if it's simply to impress someone so that you can know something that someone else doesn't know, then it will lead to pride. In fact, the very motive is prideful and it undermines the very intent in which knowledge is given to us. In fact, it puffs up, it blows us up, it makes us arrogant. In fact, most of the time this word is translated as arrogant. Learning and improving ourselves and what we know our education does not always equal wisdom. Remember that having degrees doesn't mean you're wise necessarily. In fact, we can see this in the scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes were the scholars of their day. They gave their lives to studying the Old Testament scriptures. They studied the scriptures and in so doing the scribes and the Pharisees begin to be puffed up and arrogant in their thinking. And they despise the common person because of their learning. In fact, they look contemptually on the fishermen, the apostles, because they were without letters. They were just common people. They looked down their nose upon them. Scribes of the Pharisees, Jesus says in Matthew 23, they set on Moses' seat. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their praecularys broad and their fringes long and they love the places of honor and feast and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in their marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. That means teacher. They love places of honor and titles of honor. But the Lord warns us about seeking education or seeking knowledge just for to impress others or just for the titles. Jesus went on to say, "You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher and you are not, are you all brothers and call no man your father on earth, for you have one father who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." So they took their education and their learning and it led to them to have a prideful view of themselves, which the Lord Jesus condemns. And I don't think this is necessarily saying we shouldn't call people teachers. Paul himself is called a teacher. In fact, he calls himself a father to the Corinthians. But this is an exhortation not to love these titles for the sake of having a high honor, a position of praise among men. And if that's why we're learning for that reason, then God is not behind it. In fact, it just leads to a sin in our life. It helps no one to be arrogant. It benefits no one to know what you know if your knowledge only leads to pride. You see, knowledge should, the proper use of knowledge should lead to godliness and love. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong and a clinging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver of my body to be burned, but have not love, I've gained nothing." It doesn't matter how much education you have or knowledge you have. If you have no love with that, that knowledge is nothing. God is not impressed. He's not going, "Wow, look at you." You see, love edifies. Knowledge that pops up points to self. It's self-seeking. It wants the attention. Look at me. Look at my learning. Look at my knowledge. Be impressed with me. Let me spout out some details that might make me look smart. It's not needed details. It's not going to help the sermon or it's not going to help edify you. It's not going to be beneficial to your soul, but you can see what I know and that will make me feel better. How often are we tempted to go that route in our conversations? Spitting out dates and times and words for no other reasons but for self attention. But it's not what love does. Love is not self-focused. Love is not seeking a spotlight. Love is the opposite of these things. It's self-giving, self-sacrificing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It does not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, and endures all things. This is what love does and our knowledge is to be used for that reason. We should say, "Lord, give me more knowledge so I can be more helpful to the kingdom of God, that I might help the sheep and instruct them in the ways of righteousness. Let us not seek to impress others, but rather help edify one another." No one knew as much as Christ, remember this. No one was wiser than Christ and knew as much as Christ, but no one gave as much as Christ. You see, clarity is more important than profundity. Thomas Madden, my Puritan, had the opportunity to preach for the first time to the Parliament and it was a prestigious position. I mean, he was preaching before the most important men in England. So he goes and preaches the long sermon, and after the sermon he's walking home and an older lady comes after him and says,"Dr. Manton, Dr. Manton, I didn't understand a thing you said. I heard you were preaching today and I ran to hear from the Lord, but I don't know what you talked about. I understood anything you had to preach about." And Dr. Martin Manton, I mean, Dr. Manton said to her,"Though I didn't preach a sermon to you, you preached a sermon to me." And from that day forward, he made a point never to seek to impress people above seeking to be clear so people can understand them. You see, that's the purpose of knowledge. You see, the context here, and we'll get into this in the weeks ahead of us, the context here is we see in verse 10 of this same chapter, "If anyone sees you have knowledge eating an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother of whom Christ died." So you have knowledge to have some liberties in a certain area, but other people not might not have that knowledge. And you using your knowledge with indiscretion, without wisdom, could lead to the destruction of a weaker brother. And this is a misuse of knowledge. It's not using on your knowledge to edify others. It's using your knowledge for your own selfish intent. You see, knowledge, as I said, is like the law. It's sharp on all edges with no handle. Pick it up with gloves of love. Handle it with care. Ask yourself these questions, especially if you're younger and you're looking at your future. Why do you want more education? Consider that before you enroll into school. Why do you want more education? What's the purpose? Why do you want to share your knowledge with others? Ask yourself if you have a preaching opportunity or speaking opportunity. Why do you want to share? Why do you want to preach? Why do you want to talk? In fact, you could ask yourself when you're seeking a conversation in just a normal everyday environment, why do you want to talk so much? Why is the reason behind your conversation? Here's two things to remember. Don't take pride in your education, but also don't take pride in your ignorance. Don't go, "Well, I don't have a schooling. I don't have any education. I'm humble." No. You should seek to grow in knowledge. You should seek education. It's not a prideful thing to be uneducated. There's nothing glorious in that to be without knowledge. Just be careful regardless where you're at and what level of education you have that it doesn't lead to pride. That's the point I think he's talking about. It leads to humility. In fact, this is the second point. The second we'll always see this in verse two. Handle knowledge with humility. Look what it says in verse two. "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know." Basically, he's saying none of us know anything as we should know it. We're not as smart as we think we are. Even if we're at expert on a particular subject, we're still not exhaustive and know everything we need to know about that subject. We see here in verse one that we all have knowledge, but in verse 13, we learn that we only know in part. We only have partial or incomplete knowledge of anything that we know about, and we need to remember that. We're not we think, well, maybe I'm a scholar on this or maybe I'm an expert upon this. Maybe I've given my life and I know more than the average person on this particular topic. Come to me and I can tell you what you need to know about this. Remember you should have the attitude, well, I know a little bit more than other people, but there's a whole lot I don't know. There's a lot more I don't know than what I do know. I remember a sermon when I was younger, I'll ever forget it. I don't know what it said, but I remember the title. And the title of his message was we're dealing with degrees of ignorance. All of us. You take the knowledge of God and the knowledge that Jesus had and put us, all of us down here, and we're not dealing with how much we know we're dealing with how degrees of what we don't know. So there's so much more that we don't know than what we do know. Our knowledge of God is just so small. In comparison to what we should know and what we could know in scriptures. So we only know in part. And that should keep us humble. It should cause us to to remember that we were not what we think we are when it comes to what we know. And this is true, not just with biblical knowledge, it's just true with any form of knowledge. Even your secular knowledge in the area of your expertise. You're only a you only know a little bit. You only know a little bit in that field, even if you're the most knowledgeable person in that field in the world, you still are insufficient in what God knows about the topic. So we should view ourselves humbly and what we know. As if we don't know what we should know, rather than thinking we have arrived. I'm convinced of this for the Christian, there's no graduation. There's no diploma. You keep growing, in fact, into all eternity. Even day one, you're going to know so much about Jesus Christ when you see him. But for the rest of your life, for all eternity, you're just going to keep learning and learning and learning and learning. See, if we think we know something, we are only imagining things. Look what it says. If anyone imagines, you know, let's just make believe if you imagine you know something you don't know as you are, you're you're you're just pretending like you're smart. You're pretending like you're knowledgeable. And this is from God's perspective. He knows that you're you're not right about this, that you're wrong about the degree of knowledge that you think you have. You're imagining this in your head. What is reality? Paul is straining us out and says, this is the way you should think, because this is the reality of the way God views you. You don't know what you ought to know. You don't know much. Rather than you think you know something, think that, hey, I really don't know much at all. It's a well, how would I ever be a teacher if I don't think I know anything? Well, that leads to being a humble teacher. That's realizing your weaknesses as a teacher, as a parent, as a father, fathers. I know you're raising your children the best you can. Mothers, you're raising the children the best you can. And we should seek to know what scriptures teach about raising our children. But even if you're a 90 year old grandpa, they go, I know all this parenting stuff. No, we don't know what we think we ought to know. We don't know. We're still fumbling around so often. The Bible tells us, Proverbs three seven, do not be wise in your own eyes. I don't think that you're a wise person. In fact, I think the wiser we become, the more foolishness we see in ourselves. It's the fool who doesn't see his own folly. It's a fool who can't see his own ignorance. It's a fool who can't be corrected and learn. But the more we learn and the more I will, the wiser we become with what we learn, the more we see we don't know much at all. And the more we want to know. So we're not to be wise in our own eyes. Paul's point here is that we need to be humble. James three thirteen, who is wise and understanding among you, let them show it by good life by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. Proverbs eleven two, when pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with humility comes wisdom. The wiser we become, the more humble we become. Wisdom can be seen in humility. Education can be seen sometimes in pride. Wisdom can be discerned by humility. James three thirteen, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the maintenance of wisdom. Then he contrasts the difference between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below. The wisdom from below, which is not real wisdom, but it's some type of counterfeit wisdom. It has two characteristics about it. It says it's earthly, unspiritual, demonic. That's where it comes from. But here's the true attributes of worldly wisdom. It's jealous. A prideful man is a jealous man. A prideful man doesn't want someone to know more than he does on a particular topic. Have you ever seen that? Two men argue and they're kind of like fighting over who knows the most on the topic. It's a form of jealousy. And the second attribute of worldly wisdom is it's selfish ambition. Where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there will be disorder in every vowel practice. What leads to a lot of education and what drives a lot of education is selfish ambition. Getting ahead, building a platform for themselves, advancing themselves, improving their own what and life, making more money or so forth. So it's just selfish ambition pushes a lot of learning. But this is the wisdom from below. Let me give you the attributes from the wisdom from above. One, it's first pure and it's peaceful. It's gentle. I never knew reading the life of Christ. I've come to the conclusion. He is really beak. He doesn't just say it, but he truly is meek and gentle and lowly. Open to reason. You know, you might be an expert, but you still say, "Hey, I can learn from somebody else. I could be wrong, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." This is what wisdom from above looks like. And all these things can be characterized by gentleness and maintenance and humility. My last rule to kind of bring everything together as we conclude, it's not what we know, but who knows us. You know, we take pride in what we know, but what we should take pride in is that God knows us. Remember the disciples went out and God gave them authority over the demons and power to heal and they come back and they were so excited. The Lord went down Jerusalem to the Feast of the Booth and he came back and they had come back from all their journey. They meet back in Capernaum and they were telling Jesus everything they did. And Jesus looked at him and said, "Don't be prideful about these things. Don't boast," he says, use the word boast, "don't boast in these things, but boast in this that your name is written in the Book of Life." Don't boast in your knowledge what you know. Bost in this that God knows you. Dust says the Lord, Jeremiah 9, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For these things I delight, declares the Lord." So we see this, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Your knowledge should be utilized not for self-love and puffing yourself up and self-centeredness. Your knowledge should be led, should lead you to a greater love for God. That's the ultimate purpose of knowledge, even greater than loving your neighbor, loving God more. The Book of Corinthians ends in chapter 16 verse 22 saying, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." But here it says, "Anyone who does love the Lord, if you do love the Lord, then you're known of God." In conclusion, knowledge leads to pride if we don't handle it with love and humility. Often we can tell how educated a person is by how much he talks about himself, yet we can often tell how wise a person is by how much he doesn't talk about himself. When you go to use your knowledge, put on one hand a glove of love and on the other hand a glove of humility. Only with love and humility does knowledge turn into wisdom. Let's pray. Lord, the wisdom that we heard about tonight, this morning, the wisdom there in James that you say that comes from above, that's what we want. It sounds good, dear Lord. It sounds pure. It sounds clean. It sounds holy. It sounds lovely. It sounds helpful. It sounds like your son, Jesus Christ. Fill us with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can love him more and love your people more. Help us to be humble like Christ. This is our prayer in your son's name. Amen.