Participants: Dwayne Lemon (Host), Lance Wilbur
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000006
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00:31 Hello, my name is Dwayne Lemon. And I'm Lance Wilbur.
00:34 And we'd like to welcome you to TKS, 00:37 a True Knowledge of Self, 00:39 where we get to know ourselves from a Biblical perspective. 00:42 We wanna welcome you all to our session today 00:44 where we're gonna be picking back up 00:46 from where we left off in our last session 00:48 where we were talking about 00:50 what are these ideas about knowledge of self, 00:53 true knowledge of self. 00:54 What does this mean? How do they gel together? 00:57 Do they gel together? 00:58 And we've been going over this 00:59 and we've been looking at it from the Word of God. 01:01 And we've seen amazing things from His Word. 01:04 We were able to discover that according to Ezekiel 28 01:09 that God created a being by the name of Lucifer, 01:12 which meant light bearer. 01:14 And Lucifer as a result of looking upon himself 01:17 and exalting himself, 01:19 he found himself at odds or at variance with God. 01:23 He became God's enemy 01:24 and that's how he earned the name Satan. 01:27 And then he began to slander God 01:29 and that's how he earned the name Devil. 01:31 And we saw that it was through self-exaltation. 01:34 Lucifer was not content 01:35 with the gifts and the abilities that he had, 01:37 but he wanted to go ahead 01:38 and try to exalt himself, 01:40 not even as God but above God, the Bible says. 01:44 And we were reviewing that in Isaiah 14:12-14 01:48 and we saw incredible things from the Word of God. 01:51 And Brother Lance and I were going through these things 01:54 just to see the mindset of Satan 01:57 and then seeing how this mindset was transitioning 02:00 into the minds of people 02:02 especially through this concept of knowledge of self, 02:05 where individuals now are thinking that 02:07 they are Gods, 02:08 and that they are above the things that are of God. 02:11 And this is where we left off 02:13 and we wanna pick right back up on that again. 02:15 Lance, we wanna, of course, be thankful unto the Lord 02:17 for being back for another session. 02:18 Indeed. 02:20 And we're gonna pretty much pick right back up 02:21 where we left off, 02:23 you were explaining, very powerfully, 02:24 how we were looking at Ezekiel 28: 14-17, 02:27 and Isaiah 14:12-14, 02:29 and we were looking at the Bible 02:31 seeing this characteristic of Lucifer 02:33 who became Satan and the Devil. 02:36 And now we were kind of transitioning 02:38 what we saw his mindset 02:39 but his mindset started to become manifested 02:42 into the minds and hearts of people. 02:44 So I wanted you to go ahead and pick right back up on that 02:46 so we can build in this session on that very thought. 02:48 Okay. 02:49 There is a verse that we found that kind of highlights this. 02:52 It's all throughout the Bible. 02:54 The Bible is constantly 02:55 and that's another thing that spoke to me 02:57 about the reality and the truth of the Bible 02:59 is that it doesn't just highlight the good things 03:04 about the characters that are found in it. 03:06 It highlights the wickedness of man as well, 03:09 and it shows the contrast 03:11 between righteousness and wickedness 03:13 and that each man, no matter how great, 03:15 has the potential of success or failure in God's sight. 03:18 That's right. 03:20 So Isaiah 47:10, and I'm gonna read that for us. 03:24 In Isaiah 47:10 and I think it kind of summarizes 03:28 what we're dealing with, 03:30 the idea that this corruption 03:33 that began in the heart of Lucifer 03:35 that we'll talk about in future programs 03:37 that transferred to humanity in the very beginning 03:42 now is being perpetuated throughout humanity 03:45 and that same self-exaltation can be found there. 03:48 So I'm gonna read now Isaiah 47:10, it says, 03:53 "For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness. 03:57 Thou hast said, none seeth me. 04:00 Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee. 04:03 And thou hast said in thine heart, I am, 04:07 and none else beside me." 04:10 Now we have individuals with a certain wisdom 04:13 and a certain knowledge 04:15 but that certain wisdom and knowledge perverted them. 04:17 So just because you call it wisdom, 04:19 or just because you call it knowledge, 04:21 or just because you call it understanding or overstanding, 04:24 it doesn't mean that it comes from God. 04:25 That's right. 04:27 And I think that's the crucial thing, 04:28 the fundamental thing that we have to understand. 04:29 Just because you're wise, 04:31 it doesn't mean you're godly or righteous. 04:33 Well, a good example of that 04:34 is when you go right back to Ezekiel 28. 04:36 Yeah. 04:37 Because Ezekiel 28 acknowledges the fact that Satan, 04:40 he never ever lost wisdom. 04:42 Right. 04:44 It says that his wisdom became corrupted. 04:46 So he still had wisdom but now the gift that came from God, 04:50 which was designed to give glory to God, 04:52 that gift now was corrupted because it was... 04:55 All the focus of the gifts were not designed 04:57 to give glory to God anymore. 04:58 Those focus or those gifts was now 05:00 to bring glory to oneself. 05:01 So we see that when an individual 05:03 is gifted with skill, talent, or ability, wisdom, 05:06 whatever it maybe, 05:07 when an individual no longer uses that skill, talent, 05:10 or ability to help people know of the creator, 05:13 to help them know this is the one 05:14 who gave these things to me... 05:16 To direct them to God, not themselves. 05:17 That's right. 05:19 Once they fall into that situation, 05:20 it becomes another corruption of wisdom as well. 05:23 And this is exactly what we're seeing 05:24 taking place through the concepts 05:26 of knowledge of self. 05:27 Right. 05:28 And it also, you know, 05:30 summarizes the fact that individual, 05:31 the humanity here, 05:32 God's people have set in their hearts, 05:35 I am and there is none else beside me. 05:36 Well, we know that, 05:38 that's what God says about Himself, 05:39 "I'm and there is none like me." 05:41 Right? That's right. 05:42 But now we have an individuals saying, 05:43 "I am and there is none beside me." 05:45 That's right. 05:46 And the idea of a created being 05:50 claiming the prerogatives of God 05:53 is the highest offense, if you will, 05:57 that scripture outlines. 05:59 That's right. 06:00 The idea that you are God, or can be God, 06:02 or greater than the God of creation. 06:05 That's right. 06:07 So there is also many cases in the Bible 06:10 where you have individuals that are highlighted 06:11 that express this self-exaltation. 06:15 So in my mind I think of Nebuchadnezzar, 06:18 and we'll be talking about him in future programs. 06:21 But Nebuchadnezzar was an individual 06:23 who eventually got to the point where he renovated, 06:26 or resurrected Babylon, it became Neo-Babylon, 06:31 and when we say "Babylon" 06:32 all kinds of images pop into people's minds. 06:35 You know, Babylon is a town that still exists 06:36 but at this point under Nebuchadnezzar's reign 06:39 and that become the most prominent, 06:41 the greatest super power on the planet, 06:43 and the most beautiful city, capital city, if you will, 06:46 that exists and one of the wonders of the world, 06:48 the gates, the walls. 06:49 In fact, museums are still fields the greatest museums 06:52 have artifacts, and some of these gates, 06:55 and some of these reconstructions from Babylon. 06:58 That's right. 06:59 And one day the Bible talks about 07:00 and we'll be highlighting that, 07:02 but it talks about how he went out one day 07:03 and looked, you know, perhaps on a balcony 07:06 and oversaw the city and said, 07:09 "Is this not great Babylon that I have built?" 07:12 Now this is after he learned that God is the one 07:14 who removes kings and sets up kings. 07:17 And God is the one who gives wisdom to the wise 07:19 and all these things that we'll be talking about, 07:21 but he said I, and he fell in to his great crisis. 07:26 That's right. 07:27 Another individual King Herod, after the death of Christ, 07:32 these individuals became kind of, they felt empowered, 07:36 they felt, you know, a hardening against the truth, 07:41 and now that they were able to kill Christ, well, 07:43 now they're gonna go out and kill His followers. 07:45 And so he arrested the Apostle Peter, 07:48 and the Apostle James, 07:49 he executes James, cuts his head off 07:52 and then he orders the execution of Peter. 07:55 And he goes out in between kind of in this transition, 07:58 the people are gathered, and he goes out 07:59 and gives this great speech or whatever you wanna call it, 08:02 he preaches a sermon or what have you. 08:04 And the people said this was the voice of God 08:06 and not of a man. 08:08 And it says that he gave not God the glory, 08:11 he accepted that worship, if you will, 08:13 and accepted the prerogatives of God upon himself 08:15 and he dropped dead, right on the spot. 08:17 It says the angel of the Lord came and he dropped dead. 08:20 So we have a case, every single time in scripture, 08:24 where somebody catches that disease, if you will, 08:26 that mindset or accepts the ideology 08:28 or the philosophy that Lucifer had 08:31 that "I am and there is none else besides me" 08:35 that it leads to destruction every time. 08:37 So, I'm gonna ask you now as we move forward, 08:41 we talked about some of the negativity 08:43 and I'm gonna, you know, transition, 08:44 I'll highlight another verse or two 08:47 but I want you after these to kind of share 08:49 what the Bible says is the true knowledge of self. 08:52 That's right. 08:53 In other words, we're not just gonna spend time 08:54 highlighting the error and highlighting the error. 08:56 The Bible has something to say about the true, 08:58 it doesn't just point fingers 09:00 and then not provide a way to escape. 09:02 So we'll talk about that. 09:04 I wanna now transition kind of to the Book of Proverbs 09:06 and highlight a couple of verses 09:08 or at least one verse there 09:09 and then again I'll ask you that question. 09:12 No problem. 09:13 So I wanna turn now to Proverbs 16, 09:16 and we're gonna look at verse 25. 09:19 Proverbs 16:25 09:23 and I'm gonna read that for us here. 09:26 And in Proverbs 16:25 again it speaks to this subject, 09:32 I think most profoundly. 09:34 It says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, 09:39 but the end thereof are the ways of death." 09:42 So what that tells me is just because something is logical 09:46 or just because something is apparently factual. 09:50 Some of the ways that you would leverage yourself 09:54 against Christians or against the individuals 09:57 the deaf, dumb, and blind as, you know, 09:59 associated with these religious aspects, 10:01 and other side of the hip-hop culture. 10:03 You would leverage yourself against people 10:05 by just spitting out facts, random facts. 10:08 You know, the sun is 99 million miles away 10:12 and, you know, all of these random facts. 10:15 You know, the body is two-thirds water, you know, 10:18 some people would say three quarters. 10:20 There is all different random facts. 10:21 Speaking several different languages. 10:22 Yeah. 10:24 You would start breaking down the Greek and the Hebrew. 10:25 And you would start just 10:27 spitting out these random facts, 10:28 and you would try to overwhelm people 10:30 with random knowledge. 10:32 So the people go, wow. Wow. Yeah. 10:33 So this brother knows these things. 10:35 Yeah. He must know the rest. 10:37 And then you would use that kind of as hook 10:40 and then once you get people kind of enamored 10:41 with your knowledge, you would then now say, 10:45 now let me tell you the real reason 10:47 why we're talking here. 10:49 And that was attractive and probably still is. 10:53 And some of the things were factual, 10:55 some of the things were true, 10:57 and some of things were logical, 10:58 but some of the things were absolutely wrong, 11:00 you know, facts and figures. 11:02 So just because it's logical, just because it seems right, 11:05 doesn't mean it is right. 11:07 And there has to be a standard that says this is right, 11:09 and this is wrong, it can't just be a human being. 11:11 That's correct. 11:12 As a human being you can't, you know, Bible says, 11:14 "Put not your trust in man or in princess." 11:16 You can't trust human beings that we'll be looking at 11:21 when we go to this next verse in Jeremiah. 11:23 Human beings have a problem. 11:25 You know, I'm gonna be honest with you. 11:27 Sometimes, you know, I meet people and we talk 11:30 and not everything is always connected 11:31 to the hip-hop culture 11:33 'cause this issue of sin and confusion 11:35 and everything has affected all cultures. 11:37 It doesn't matter whether it's hip-hop or not. 11:39 Nevertheless, because we come from this background 11:41 with the hip-hop culture, we stress it. 11:44 Nevertheless, here is what I'm thinking. 11:46 You meet people that 11:47 when they do not have anything 11:50 that is an absolute truth to help guide them 11:52 in the day-to-day decisions of life, 11:54 then what happens is we have a natural tendency 11:56 to follow our own heart of what we think is right. 11:59 And I remember, I spoke with someone about that. 12:02 You know, they even use God, "They said God know my heart. 12:04 God knows my heart." 12:06 And I said, "You know what, you're right, 12:07 God does know your heart. 12:08 And God knows your heart so well, He wrote about it." 12:10 But before I even took them to the same text 12:11 you've taken us to in Jeremiah 17, 12:13 I asked them a question 12:14 because I knew that once we go to Jeremiah 17, 12:16 I really want this thing to hit them forcefully. 12:19 What I did was I said, "Let me ask you something. 12:21 If you're just one day at home relaxing, 12:24 and enjoying your day, and then somebody rings your door bell, 12:27 and when they ring your door bell 12:28 they ask if they can come in your house, 12:30 and they said, hello. 12:31 But before they wanted to come in your house they say this, 12:34 "Hello, I'm deceitful above all things 12:39 and I'm a desperately wicked person. 12:41 Can I please come in your house?" 12:42 Right. 12:44 And then I asked them, "Would you let that person in?" 12:45 And they look at me like I'm crazy. 12:46 Of course, not. 12:48 I said, "What if they said, hi, 12:50 I'm deceitful and desperately wicked, 12:53 will you trust me? 12:54 Right. Would you trust that person?" 12:56 No. Answer is absolutely not. 12:58 I said, okay. 12:59 But, yet you're saying that when you go about the decisions 13:01 that you make day-by-day in life, 13:03 you said that you follow your heart, 13:04 you follow your natural inclinations. 13:06 Well, here is what the Book of Jeremiah 17 says. 13:08 So why don't you turn there now 'cause I believe that this is 13:11 what's gonna really help bring this point out 13:13 because clearly a person, if someone admitted, 13:17 I'm deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, 13:19 will you please trust me? 13:21 Any thinking person is gonna say, "No way. 13:23 It's not gonna happen." 13:25 But nevertheless, look at what the Bible says 13:26 about the human heart. 13:29 Absolutely, Jeremiah 17:9 and we're gonna read that 13:33 and see what the Bible says. 13:35 It says, "The heart is deceitful above all things 13:40 and desperately wicked, who can know it?" 13:44 And it's a rhetorical question 13:45 because God answers it later on. 13:47 He says, "I, the Lord, search the heart. 13:49 I know it." 13:51 That's right. So we cannot even imagine. 13:54 We look at the news, you know, the clips and the headlines. 13:58 And, you know, you click on a headline 14:01 and you read the story 14:02 and you can imagine in some cases, 14:04 I can imagine some of things that I read about in the news. 14:07 As this person did that, that person did this, 14:09 and we don't wanna highlight all those things. 14:11 But nevertheless, 14:13 there's things that go on in our world, 14:15 in our society, 14:16 there's documentaries out there, 14:18 there's things, this things that we don't even consider 14:20 that are happening in our cities, 14:22 under our noses, all around us, 14:24 in other countries that would shock us. 14:27 You know, it would completely shock us. 14:29 And we think how far can depravity, 14:34 how far can that moral decay go? 14:36 How able is the human mind to become corrupted? 14:40 And that root corruption is that self-exaltation. 14:43 And as you mentioned, I just wanna highlight, 14:46 you know, 'cause we're talking, 14:48 we're focusing on hip-hop culture, 14:50 again because that's where we came from. 14:53 But every single culture, as you said, 14:55 is infected with the disease. 14:57 That's right. 14:58 Because, you know, even if we look at the education side 15:00 and we'll be talking about that, 15:02 and the philosophical side, 15:03 and we look at, you know, 15:04 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great. 15:07 And you look at the lineage of that Hellenistic, you know, 15:10 Greco-Roman philosophy, 15:11 or you look at the Egyptian culture 15:13 and that stream of philosophy, 15:15 and even the Babylonian culture and that stream of philosophy, 15:18 and every other culture has this concept 15:21 and this idea that "I can obtain enough knowledge, 15:25 and enough information, 15:27 and apply that knowledge through wisdom 15:31 to the point where I don't need a God." 15:32 That's right. 15:33 "I don't need a power greater than myself 15:35 because there is no power greater than myself." 15:37 That's right. 15:38 And we see that everywhere 15:39 and now we see it even ingrained in little kids, 15:41 little kids are naturally inclined 15:44 to please themselves and not others. 15:46 That's right. 15:48 So it's not just relegated to hip-hop culture 15:51 but it's highlighted, profoundly in hip-hop culture, 15:54 and hip-hop culture is everywhere. 15:57 That's right. It's everywhere. 15:59 Any commercial corporate world, 16:03 everybody is tapping into this popular aspect, 16:06 the most popular aspect of our culture right now. 16:08 It's in everything, in sports, in politics, it's globally. 16:12 Even back in the '90s, 16:14 my producer and my DJ, his friend, 16:17 his close friend was an individual 16:19 who passed away the X-Ecutioners, Roc Raida. 16:24 He was doing shows in Iran, you know, back in the '90s. 16:29 Hip-hop shows, a DJ not just a DJ 16:32 doing turntables is pertinent scratching 16:35 in Iran... 16:36 That's right. 16:37 I remember, this goes way by, this is in the '90s 16:40 and I went to a club 16:41 it was called the Palladium in Manhattan 16:43 and we saw these guys dancing and, 16:45 you know, dance is always going, 16:47 and they size each other up. 16:48 You know, they kind of look at the other guy just to say, 16:50 okay, 'cause I'mma battle him. 16:51 And when we saw these guys and they had dreadlocks, 16:53 so naturally we said, okay, 16:54 they're probably Rastafarians or something 16:56 and they were just dancing on the floor. 16:58 But in the clubs you can't always see the people's face 17:00 but you can see the images and so on. 17:02 So I'm seeing these dreadlocks, I'm seeing these guys dance 17:04 and they're moving with incredible rhythm, 17:06 and I'm watching them dance, 17:08 and I'm thinking these guys are pretty good. 17:09 Later on, when the lights come on in the club, 17:13 all of these guys who were dancing with the dreadlocks 17:16 they were all from Japan, they were all Japanese. 17:20 And I remember, looking at them and I said... 17:22 They could barely speak English very well but nevertheless 17:25 they were saying, "Oh, yeah, we're from Japan." 17:26 And I said, "There is hip-hop in Japan?" 17:29 'Cause, you know, this, again, this is like 1989, 1990. 17:31 And I said, "There is hip-hop in Japan? 17:33 And they were like. 17:34 "Oh, yeah, we have clubs, everything." 17:36 And that was kind of like my first time opening up, 17:38 realizing hip-hop is really penetrating the world, 17:41 it's not just something that's in little America, 17:44 it's all over the place. 17:45 So, you know, they called it in the '80s, 17:47 they called it a fab, 17:48 but now it's the predominant culture. 17:50 So, you know, this is why we're gonna be harping on it 17:52 to some degree. 17:54 But I wanna now again ask you the question, 17:55 I asked you earlier, 17:57 but we talked about the problems, 17:59 we talked about how the Bible exposes 18:01 this false knowledge of self. 18:03 What does the Bible say about the true knowledge of self, 18:06 does the Bible say anything? 18:07 Well, you know, it's interesting. 18:08 When you think about true knowledge of self, right? 18:11 We're still talking about ourselves 18:13 but instead of having a false knowledge, 18:15 we now wanna have a true knowledge, 18:17 we wanna have a right understanding 18:18 of who am I? 18:19 Where is my position? Where do I fit? 18:21 The Bible speaks in marvelous language 18:25 about the idea of knowledge 18:27 and being able to understand various things, 18:30 but the ultimate knowledge 18:32 that God wants to impart to men, 18:34 if I had to single it out in one verse, 18:35 I would take everyone to John 17:3. 18:39 In John 17:3 it says, it's so clearly 18:43 that I don't believe anyone can miss it, 18:44 and this is the purpose of knowledge. 18:47 It says, "And this is life eternal, 18:52 that they might know that's knowledge, 18:55 they might know, " it says, "and this is life eternal, 18:59 that they might know thee the only true God, 19:03 and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 19:06 All knowledge, all true education 19:10 is designed to bring us to an understanding 19:12 of God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. 19:17 This is the key focus of knowledge 19:20 and you find that when Israel was taught knowledge, 19:22 even when they would learn things like agriculture. 19:24 Agriculture was always designed to bring people back to God 19:27 so while they could understand things about nature, 19:29 they could also understand things about God. 19:31 So by no means it's true education, 19:33 or obtaining of Biblical knowledge, 19:36 it's not negating 19:37 the importance of the temporal life 19:39 and understanding the things that we have to do. 19:41 But even the things in temporal life 19:43 have a way that it can point us back to God. 19:44 Yeah. 19:46 I use agriculture because that's what Jesus used, often, 19:47 He would use agriculture as a model, 19:50 a great example of that. 19:51 When a person would work in agriculture 19:53 and they would notice trees, 19:54 they would notice there's something different 19:56 about the evergreen from every other tree. 19:57 Right. 19:59 And the fact is that an evergreen stays green 20:01 all the time. 20:03 Yeah. 20:04 Where all these other trees, at different times, 20:05 they go through their various changes 20:07 and fading and so on and so forth. 20:08 Well, obviously that would help us 20:09 to understand Malachi 3:6 20:11 when God says, 20:12 "I am the Lord and I change not." 20:14 Right. 20:15 So every time I see the evergreen tree 20:17 that doesn't change 20:19 it would remind me God is God and He doesn't change. 20:22 So even when bad things happen in life 20:24 and all these things, 20:25 I can remember God is God and He doesn't change, 20:27 He's like that evergreen tree, He stays the same all the time. 20:29 It's good to know that there's somebody 20:31 that does not change 20:32 with every wind of doctrine that blows. 20:33 That's right. 20:35 It's good to know that there's somebody 20:36 that doesn't change 20:38 whenever circumstances in life change. 20:39 God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 20:40 Right. 20:42 So it was like even when people learn knowledge 20:44 from a temporal standpoint, 20:45 they were able to still take the knowledge, 20:48 and it was designed to point them back to God 20:50 in some shape, form, or size. 20:51 And the Bible promises, 20:53 thou will keep him in perfect peace, 20:56 whose mind is stayed on thee. 20:58 And that's the benefit of true education. 21:01 Now when an individual gains a knowledge of God 21:05 and they understand His purity, they understand His character, 21:08 they understand His wisdom, they understand His love, 21:10 they understand His grace, they understand His mercy, 21:13 something happens. 21:14 I wanna use an example, I'm in Isaiah 6. 21:16 Okay. Because in Isaiah 6. 21:19 I believe it's very powerful of what this does 21:21 because Isaiah went through an experience 21:23 that I know I've been through it 21:25 and through know, I know you went through it. 21:26 Yeah. 21:27 But there's a lot of people 21:29 who still need this and this is what it is. 21:30 In Isaiah 6, I'm gonna start at verse 1 21:33 and we're going to take it down to verse 8, Isaiah 6:1-8, 21:38 here's what the Bible says, 21:39 "In the year that King Uzziah died, 21:41 I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, 21:44 high and lifted up, 21:45 and His train filled the temple. 21:46 Above it stood the Seraphims, 21:48 each one had six wings with twain he covered his face, 21:50 and with twain he covered His feet 21:52 and with twain He did fly." 21:54 It says, "And one cried unto another, 21:56 and said, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, 21:59 the whole earth is full of His glory, 22:02 and the posts of the door 22:03 moved at the voice of Him that cried, 22:05 and the house was filled with smoke. 22:07 Then said I, woe is me! 22:11 For I am undone 22:13 because I am a man of unclean lips, 22:15 and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, 22:18 for mine eyes have seen the King, 22:22 the Lord of hosts. 22:23 Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, 22:25 having a live coal in his hand, 22:26 which He had taken with the tongs 22:28 from off the altar, 22:29 and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, 22:31 this hath touched thy lips 22:33 and thine iniquity is taken away, 22:35 and thy sin purged. 22:37 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 22:39 whom shall I send, and who will go for us? 22:41 Then said I, here am I, send me." 22:47 Isaiah is a servant of God. 22:49 When you read Isaiah 1-5, 22:53 literally 8 times Isaiah looks at Israel and says, 22:57 "Woe to you all." 22:58 Woe, woe, woe. 22:59 In other words you guys all messed up, 23:01 there's something wrong with you, 23:02 you're going off the path of God. 23:04 He's woeing them. 23:05 But in Isaiah 6, 23:07 it is as if Isaiah is seeing God in a way 23:10 that he's never seen Him before. 23:12 He's gaining a knowledge of God that he never had before. 23:17 And as he beholds God in his purity, in his majesty, 23:22 in his glory, it causes Isaiah 23:25 to make a better estimate about himself and he says, 23:30 "Woe is me, because I am undone. 23:34 I'm a man of unclean lips, 23:35 and I'm in the midst of a people of unclean lips." 23:38 It was through beholding God 23:39 and having a right knowledge of Him, 23:42 that Isaiah was able to have a right knowledge of himself. 23:46 And this is the concept of a true knowledge of self. 23:48 Yeah. 23:49 A true knowledge of self helps us see, 23:50 woe was me. 23:52 When I compare myself to man... 23:53 Oh, yeah, there always be something 23:54 that I can say above and beyond myself 23:56 about the next man. 23:57 But when I compare myself to God, 23:59 when I begin to see God, 24:01 and when I begin to see Jesus Christ 24:02 in His character and in His purity, 24:04 it helps me see how much I'm unlike Him, 24:06 and how much I need to be like Him. 24:09 So that by the grace of God 24:10 when Jesus comes I can be with Him. 24:12 And this is the design of true knowledge of self. 24:16 Yeah. 24:17 It is designed to help us 24:18 get a clear picture of who God is, 24:20 His character, His love, and His grace, 24:21 and as I behold that character, 24:24 then by beholding I become changed. 24:27 And then I now have a right estimation of myself, 24:29 who am I to glory about anything that I have? 24:31 Yeah. 24:32 God is the one that gave me my talent, 24:33 as He's the one that gave me my abilities. 24:35 How can I boast or brag about anything? 24:36 Right, so it's not a drudgery, it's not slavery, 24:39 it's not mental slavery, it's a relationship. 24:41 That's right. 24:43 And so it's a benefit for me to observe God 24:46 and see myself for who I truly am 24:48 and acknowledge the fact that God wants greater for me. 24:50 That's right. 24:51 That God designed me to be like Him. 24:54 He didn't design me to be who I am now, 24:56 He designed me to be like Him, His son and daughter, royalty. 25:00 So there is power, there is heritage, 25:02 there is prestige in following God. 25:04 It's not servitude and slavery? That's right. 25:07 And always remember with knowledge 25:08 always comes wisdom. 25:09 And the question is, well, what is wisdom? 25:11 We can define it lots of ways 25:13 but I like to let the Bible define it. 25:14 In Deuteronomy 4, 25:16 we get one of the clearest Biblical examples 25:18 of what wisdom is. 25:20 And I love to look at it 25:21 and I want to go ahead and read it. 25:22 We're in Deuteronomy 4, 25:24 we're just gonna look at verses 5 and 6. 25:25 Okay. And here's what it says. 25:26 It says, "Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, 25:30 even as the Lord my God commanded me 25:34 that you should do 25:36 so in the land whither ye go to possess it. 25:37 Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom, 25:44 and your understanding in the sight of the nations 25:47 which shall hear all these statues, and say, 25:49 surely this great nation is a wise 25:51 and understanding people. 25:53 So it's not just a observing or a studying, it's a doing? 25:57 That's right. 25:58 And that's highlighted throughout scripture. 26:00 That's right. 26:01 And the Bible says in the Book of James, 26:02 it tells us, 26:04 "Blessed are the doers of the word." 26:05 Right. 26:07 So it becomes imperative that we understand 26:08 that God has called us to, number one, 26:10 understand who He is, by understanding who He is, 26:13 I can get a better understanding 26:15 of who I am. 26:16 Yes. 26:18 And then when I understand who I am, 26:19 then I'm going to access God 26:20 because all I can say about me is, woe is me. 26:22 There's nothing great, marvelous, and fantastic 26:24 that I can look at myself and say great I Am. 26:27 And then in my humility I go to God and say, 26:29 "Lord, come into my heart 26:31 so that your greatness can be lived out within me." 26:33 And when I begin to practice the things 26:35 that God has called me to do through Him 26:37 giving me power to do it, I am humble, 26:40 there is no point of self-glorification, 26:42 there is no wisdom 26:43 that I can boast or brag about of myself, 26:45 all glory goes to God. 26:48 So, essentially the Bible defines 26:51 true knowledge of self? 26:52 That's right. 26:54 And it's contrasted to a false knowledge of self. 26:56 That's right. 26:57 So there is a difference 26:58 and the Bible makes it very plain. 27:01 So I believe there's another verse 27:02 that highlights that 27:03 and if you could read that for us? 27:05 Well, it's in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7. 27:09 And here's what it says, 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, 27:12 "For God, who commanded the light 27:13 to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, 27:15 to give the light of the knowledge 27:17 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 27:19 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels 27:22 that the Excellency of the power of God 27:24 may be of God, and not of us." 27:29 So we have to recognize that it's of God and not of us. 27:35 We want to consider these things 27:36 and know that the Bible is clear 27:39 and highlights this true knowledge of self. 27:42 We're gonna continue to delve into these things. 27:45 We thank you for viewing and we invite you to come back, 27:48 and we want you to remember in Proverbs 2:6, 27:53 "It's the Lord that gives wisdom 27:55 and out of His mouth, 27:57 comes knowledge and understanding." 27:59 God bless you and we hope to see you again. |
Revised 2017-05-01