Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000016
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00:29 Hello, my name is Dwayne Lemon. And I am Lance Wilbur.
00:32 And we like to welcome you to another session of TKS, 00:36 a True Knowledge of Self, 00:38 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective. 00:42 We have been studying the word of God and learning so much. 00:45 We are looking at the concept of true education 00:49 and we are looking at this because we know that in compass 00:52 within all education is knowledge 00:54 and knowledge ultimately should lead to wisdom. 00:56 And therefore, we had to look at 00:58 the subject of education 00:59 because we know that in urban society, 01:02 in urban communities and in hip-hop culture, 01:05 we know that knowledge, understanding 01:08 or as it is termed over standing. 01:10 These type of things are often words 01:11 that are used in relation to growing 01:13 and understanding this culture. 01:15 And therefore, we wanted to address 01:17 the topic of education 01:18 because we saw in times past 01:20 that education was used even by the devil himself. 01:24 And we saw it in the Book of Daniel 01:25 where Nebuchadnezzar wanted to take away 01:28 the true education of God and His word 01:30 from the minds of the Hebrew captives 01:32 and he wanted to introduce a false education, 01:36 a science, falsely so called to the minds of Israel, 01:39 so that they would forget God, 01:40 forget His word, forget His truth, 01:42 forget His lifestyle and culture and standards, 01:45 and of course embrace the false education. 01:48 The Bible lets us know 01:49 that we are going to once again be faced 01:52 with a spiritual Babylon. 01:55 And we have recognized in our programs 01:57 that the hip-hop culture is not the all encompassing 02:02 of the spiritual Babylon 02:03 that spoken off in the Book of Revelation 14:8 02:06 as well as Revelation 18:1-5. 02:09 But we do see that the works and the effects 02:12 that come through hip-hop culture 02:14 are very much in harmony with the overall works 02:17 of that which is taking place 02:19 through the spiritual institutions of Babylon. 02:21 And that's one of the reasons 02:22 why we have been finding this parallelism 02:24 between the things that Babylon did evolved, 02:26 and the things that's taking place today 02:28 as it relates to the influence 02:30 that comes from hip-hop culture and lifestyle. 02:33 And so it is that we have gotten to the point 02:35 where in our study from our last program, 02:38 we were looking at the subject of true education. 02:40 We were looking at where did it begin. 02:43 And Brother Lance was taking us 02:45 through on amazing Bible journey 02:47 as we started to go back to the beginning, 02:49 to the beginning of the beginnings. 02:50 And when we got there, we saw in Genesis 2:9 02:54 that God gave what was called the tree of life. 02:57 And that was something that was supposed to be 02:59 a source of life unto Adam and Eve. 03:02 But there was also another tree there. 03:04 It's called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 03:05 Today we're gonna be unfolding 03:07 a little bit more about that tree, 03:08 but in our previous program, 03:10 we saw what the tree of life that there was a lesson 03:14 that God wanted to teach through that instrument 03:16 and we went to the Book of Proverbs 1:7, 03:19 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." 03:20 Then we went to Proverbs 3:13, that wisdom is comes from God 03:24 and is designed to make us happy 03:27 to give us pleasure in life, 03:29 true pleasure, lasting pleasure. 03:31 But then we saw 03:32 in the later verses of Proverbs 3 03:34 that the tree of life was equated 03:38 to that wisdom, that education, 03:41 that understanding that God wanted to give. 03:43 So when we entertain the question 03:44 of where did true education begin, 03:47 it began right there, in the beginning 03:49 even before sin ever came into this world 03:52 through the instrument of the tree of life. 03:54 It was designed to teach lessons 03:56 to Adam and Eve 03:57 so that their characters would develop and grow. 03:59 And there are lessons that we can learn from it as well. 04:02 But today while we continue 04:03 on understanding more about true education, 04:05 we're also gonna understand some things about 04:07 the idea of false education. 04:10 And Brother Lance is gonna help us to look at this. 04:12 So Lance, we want to again, 04:14 of course, we're thankful to be back for another program 04:17 on True Knowledge of Self 04:18 where we get a chance to dig into the word of God 04:21 and get a clear picture of what God is trying to present to us. 04:25 So we can have a true knowledge of ourselves 04:27 as we gain a true knowledge of God 04:29 and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. 04:31 And on our last program, you basically showed us 04:34 from the Bible that true education, 04:37 it began right there in the beginning 04:39 even before sin came to the world 04:41 and it was through a representation 04:43 or a model of the tree of life and you show them to us. 04:46 But the question is, well then how do we understand 04:49 where false education. 04:50 Where is its origin? 04:52 Where do we see that coming into the picture now? 04:54 Right, as we've been doing, 04:56 we're going right back to the beginning. 04:57 We've already kind of highlighted 04:58 in previous programs, Genesis 3 in the conflict, 05:01 the entrance of sin or the problem into the world. 05:05 Well, this is what we are dealing with here. 05:07 False education begins right in the Garden of Eden. 05:11 So I want to direct our attention to Genesis 3, 05:14 and we're gonna read several verses here. 05:16 We're looking at Genesis 3, we're starting with verse 1, 05:19 we're gonna go all the way down to verse 10. 05:21 So I am gonna read those 05:22 and we will talk about those origins. 05:26 It says here in Genesis 3:1, 05:28 "Now the serpent was more subtle 05:31 than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. 05:34 And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, 05:38 Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 05:41 And the woman said unto the serpent, 05:42 We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 05:45 But of the fruit of the tree 05:46 which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 05:49 Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 05:51 lest ye die. 05:52 And the serpent said unto the woman, 05:54 Ye shall not surely die: 05:57 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, 06:00 then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 06:03 knowing good and evil. 06:05 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 06:09 and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 06:11 and a tree to be desired to make one wise, 06:15 she took of the fruit thereof, 06:16 and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; 06:20 and he did eat. 06:22 And the eyes of them both were opened, 06:24 and they knew that they were naked; 06:26 and they sewed fig leaves together, 06:27 and made themselves aprons. 06:30 And they heard the voice of the Lord God 06:31 walking in the garden in the cool of the day: 06:34 And Adam and his wife hid themselves 06:36 from the presence of the Lord God 06:38 amongst the trees of the garden. 06:41 And the lord God called unto Adam, and said, 06:43 'Where art thou?' 06:45 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, 06:47 and I was afraid, because I was naked; 06:50 and I hid myself." 06:53 So we see here, 06:54 remember that choice was given, 06:57 the option was given if you will. 06:59 Every tree you can eat freely off 07:03 and then you would have access to the tree of life. 07:05 But the tree which is in the midst of the garden, 07:06 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 07:08 you shall not eat of it, because if you do, 07:11 it's gonna harm you, it's gonna hurt you, 07:13 in fact, it will kill you. 07:15 But lo and behold, a serpent appears. 07:19 A serpent appears in the very tree 07:23 or in and around the every tree 07:25 that God said expressively not to eat. 07:28 We saw that, that war in heaven 07:30 that we discussed in Revelation 12 07:32 is dealing with a war 07:35 between Christ or God and Satan. 07:39 And it says the dragon in Genesis 12-- 07:43 oh, excuse me, Revelation 12, 07:45 but then it goes on to say in verse 9 07:47 that the dragon was that old serpent 07:52 called the devil and Satan. 07:54 So we find out who this serpent was himself. 07:57 Absolutely. Okay. 07:58 So we know that this serpent, that old serpent is the dragon 08:01 or the devil and Satan, 08:02 fallen Lucifer was now been cast out of heaven 08:06 and comes to the earth 08:07 to tempt man and challenge God if you will. 08:11 He's kind of challenging God to say, 08:12 well, if they really love You 08:15 and if You are who You say You are 08:18 then they are gonna do what You say. 08:20 And in fact, you know, it's kind of an argument 08:24 that is almost proposal, 08:26 we can see kind of highlighted here. 08:28 It says that the serpent was more subtle 08:30 than any beast of the field, right. 08:32 If the wages of sin is death, right. 08:36 And if all have sinned 08:38 and fall short of the glory of God and if God said, 08:40 "If you eat of this tree, then you will surely die." 08:43 Then Satan is arguing, 08:46 "Well, they ate it, so they should die." 08:50 And so if You really are just, 08:53 You really are 100 percent a God of justice, 08:56 then you have to kill them. 08:59 "But on the other hand, he can say, 09:02 "If You are love, 09:05 then You can't go killing Your own children 09:09 and you have to forgive them." 09:10 So he kind of cast this doubt and we talked about that 09:13 how Satan cast doubt on God's character, 09:15 His government, His way of determining 09:18 what is true or what is right 09:19 versus what is wrong 09:21 and how can God then judge a righteous judgment. 09:23 And we see this now 09:24 this conflict unfold on the earth 09:26 throughout the Bible, and it deals with this subject 09:28 and it represents Christ. 09:29 It says that in Revelation 12 09:35 that we dealt with. 09:37 That they overcame them-- 09:38 Yes, Revelation 12 or 11. Right. 09:40 And they overcame them by the blood of the Lamb 09:44 and by the word of their testimony 09:45 and they love not their lives even onto the death. 09:48 So we're gonna have to talk about that, 09:51 you know, shortly, 09:53 but God was willing to substitute Himself 09:57 to pay the penalty for man's transgression. 10:01 And as soon as that took place, 10:03 God was ready to step in on man's behalf. 10:06 So death came, physical death, degradation, 10:09 sin came unto the earth. 10:10 It affected man mentally, physically 10:12 and all these things, 10:13 even spiritually as we can clearly see. 10:16 But God supplied a substitute in His own Son. 10:20 We saw John 3:16, 10:21 "For God so loved the world, 10:23 that He gave His only begotten Son, 10:25 that whosoever believeth in Him 10:26 should not perish, but have everlasting life." 10:30 So God didn't wanted to just execute man 10:32 for transgressing but nevertheless, 10:35 this false science, this false education 10:37 through the dragon, through Satan 10:39 comes in and proposes an alternative 10:42 and makes the alternative appear 10:44 as if it will benefit them. 10:45 It's a complete reversal of what God presented. 10:49 God presented two options. 10:51 You can eat everything 10:53 and you'll have access to the tree of life. 10:55 You'll have joy, happiness. 10:56 Remember, we saw in Proverbs of Deuteronomy, 10:58 he is connected to the tree of life with wisdom and joy 11:01 and happiness and life eternal. 11:03 The other alternative was the tree of knowledge 11:05 of good and evil which would bring death. 11:07 Satan comes along and says something-- 11:11 he's very cunning, he's very deceptive 11:13 and I think I'll take some time to talk about 11:15 how these things play out in modern philosophies. 11:18 But he comes and says, 11:20 "Well, did God say 11:23 that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" 11:28 So he already-- it's what is in philosophy, 11:31 it's what called the interrogation of the thesis. 11:34 So the thesis is that God-- you can eat it, 11:38 God said you can eat everything except this one thing. 11:41 Satan now comes and says, 11:42 "Did God say you can't eat anything?" 11:45 So Eve now in dialoging with the dragon 11:47 and that's one very important lesson 11:49 that we all have to understand, never dialog with the enemy. 11:53 It's not necessary. 11:55 Once you identify that it is the enemy, 11:57 he can come and deceive you 11:58 and you don't know who you're dealing with. 12:00 But once you identify who you're dealing with, 12:03 conversation is over, no dialog 12:05 'cause we're not gonna outwit Satan. 12:07 That's right. Right. 12:08 And we can't physically beat him either. 12:10 That's right. 12:11 We have to like Daniel put our trust in someone greater. 12:14 So he interrogates the thesis 12:17 and now Eve feels compelled to educate the serpent. 12:21 He said, "No, no, no, no, 12:22 God said that we can eat the trees 12:24 and we can eat everything except the tree that you're-- 12:28 that we're dealing with right now, 12:29 this tree of knowledge of good and evil. 12:31 He says that we can't eat it or touch it. 12:32 If we do we'll die. 12:34 Satan now introduces the first lie on the earth. 12:37 And he says, "You shall not surely die 12:42 because God knows 12:43 that in the day that you eat this, 12:46 from this tree, 12:48 your eyes will be open and you'll be as gods, 12:52 knowing good and evil, you'll be like God. 12:53 You'll be better than or like 12:55 or better than that competition, 12:56 that strife, that emulation. 12:59 You'll be like God or better than God 13:01 just like Lucifer strive to be which, 13:03 which allowed him to be cast out 13:06 which cost him to be cast out. 13:07 But now he says, 13:09 "It will actually benefit you Eve and Adam 13:11 if you do what God said not to do. 13:14 It's the complete reversal of the truth. 13:17 So it's a deceptive way 13:20 that kind of mingles the truth with error 13:23 and creates some new alternative. 13:25 And this is an extremely devilish demonic practice 13:30 that is played out everywhere in these philosophies today. 13:34 Now, we're gonna take this because this is incredibly deep 13:38 and we want to be able to package it in a way 13:40 where we can say, "Wow, let's look at this thing 13:43 and really see how do I understand this practically. 13:45 In the beginning God gives a tree of life. 13:49 He equates education via knowledge and wisdom of-- 13:55 that's of a heavenly origin to a tree of life. 13:57 We saw that in Proverbs 3. 13:58 Happiness, joy. Happiness, joy. 14:00 And he equates it to a tree of life. 14:01 Then we read in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 14:04 that God Himself says, "I am life." 14:07 The Bible says, "Choose life," in verse 19, 14:09 then in verse 20 He says, "For I am life." 14:12 We know in John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am life." 14:16 We know in John 11:25, Jesus says, "I am life." 14:19 Now watch this. 14:20 While God is also life, God is also truth. 14:24 And this is where Jesus says, 14:25 "I am the way the truth and the life," right. 14:28 He is a God of truth. 14:29 So we find that truth and life, 14:30 they are harmonious with each other. 14:33 But when we look to the tree of the knowledge 14:35 of good and evil, 14:37 we see a combining of that 14:40 which is good and truthful with that 14:43 which is bad and evil. 14:45 And here it is or false. 14:47 And now we're seeing a mixture of good and evil 14:50 or truth and lies. 14:52 Now the reason why this is important 14:53 is because Jesus referred to Himself 14:56 as truth in John 14:6. 14:57 But notice what the Bible says in 1 John 2. 15:00 I think this is one that is very worthy of reading. 15:02 In 1 John 2 and it's found in verse 21. 15:06 Okay. 1 John 2:21. 15:08 I thought that this was very powerful 15:10 because I'm gonna be honest with you. 15:11 I used to believe in white lies. 15:13 Have you heard of white lies? Yeah, white lies. 15:15 Yeah, you know, these were supposedly 15:16 the kind of lies that were permissible or innocent. 15:19 You know and they called that white lies. 15:22 And there are ways that people manifest white lies. 15:25 I mean, if you think about it in the year, 15:27 in a 12 month calendar, 15:28 we have a day within it that's dedicated to lies. 15:31 And people don't even notice that. 15:33 It's called April Fools' day. 15:34 You know, it's a day that we dedicated to lies. 15:37 It's a great day to tell somebody a lie. 15:38 Hey this is something, something, we tell a lie, 15:40 the person gets in a frenzy and then we say-- 15:43 April fool. Exactly, you know. 15:45 And it's a day that to a lot of people seems innocent 15:48 but to the child of God, 15:49 when we begin to look at the word of God carefully, 15:52 we know that God always refers Himself as a life 15:54 and He always refers Himself as truth 15:57 and there is something about this God of truth 15:59 that we need to understand. 16:00 In 1 John 2:21. 16:04 Notice what it says. 1 John 2:21. 16:07 It says, "I have not written unto you 16:09 because you know not the truth, 16:11 but because you know it, 16:13 and that no lie is of the truth." 16:18 In other words, no lie is connected to God. 16:23 No lie 'cause God is truth. 16:25 And the Bible says, "No lie comes from truth." 16:28 There is no lie whether it's white, black, 16:30 red, yellow or green that comes from God. 16:32 There's no such thing as an innocent lie. 16:35 Lies are condemned by God. 16:38 And therefore, we find that there is no connection 16:40 but it gets even deeper than that 16:41 because lies does have a father 16:44 and it's found in the Book of John 8. 16:46 In John 8, the Bible says in John 8:44, it says, 16:52 "Ye are of your father the devil, 16:55 and the lusts of your father you will do. 16:59 He was a murderer from the beginning, 17:01 and abode not in the truth, 17:03 because there is no truth in him. 17:06 When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: 17:11 for he is a liar, and the father of it." 17:14 So we find that lies have no connection to God. 17:18 And we see that God is a God of life and truth, 17:21 and therefore, it is very applicable 17:23 to the tree of knowledge representing God 17:25 in His form of education. 17:26 But when we look at the tree of the knowledge 17:28 of good and evil, 17:30 we see a combining of good and evil 17:32 or truth with lies as Satan manifested 17:35 when he was talking with Eve 17:37 and as Satan manifested when he was talking with Jesus. 17:39 He said, "Why don't you go ahead 17:41 and turn these stones into bread? 17:43 Why don't you go ahead and jump off the distance? 17:44 Didn't the Bible say that God will make sure 17:46 that you don't dash your foot against the stone? 17:48 I mean, He would use scripture which is the truth, 17:51 thy word is truth. 17:52 But he would co-mingle those lies. 17:55 So the bottom-line is, is that true education deals with that 17:59 which leads to eternal life and a happy life, 18:02 a true happy life on this earth and leads to truth. 18:06 False education is a combining of false and truth, 18:13 good and evil, 18:15 where it presents a picture as if we will have a happy life 18:18 when we really won't 18:19 and that we will have eternal life 18:21 which we really won't. 18:23 And therefore, this is the exposure 18:25 that is being given between these two paths, 18:27 these two trees that we get to pick from, 18:29 either the tree of life 18:31 or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 18:33 And the problem is, is that when we look at 18:35 what's happening in hip-hop culture today, 18:38 we see a lot of combining of good and evil. 18:41 Not everything that's thought 18:42 or said in hip-hop culture is bad. 18:45 There's a lot of truth in there. 18:47 The problem is all those little drops 18:49 of cyanide like evil, those little drops of error, 18:52 those little drops of lies that are mixed with it, 18:55 that makes up this formula of false education 18:58 which leads to sin and death 19:00 rather than to righteousness and life eternal. 19:02 Right, and that goes back to that principle of temperance. 19:04 It plays out in this regard as well. 19:07 True temperance teaches of abstinence 19:09 from everything harmful 19:10 in moderation things that are good. 19:12 And some people say, "Oh, moderation in all things." 19:15 But it would be foolish and ridiculous 19:17 to consider or recommend or counsel somebody 19:19 to smoke crack in moderation. 19:22 It wouldn't make any sense. 19:23 So there's things that we'll say, 19:24 oh, that's really harmful, so we can't do that at all, 19:27 but there's some things that are less harmful 19:29 and we can do it moderately. 19:30 And with error and falsehoods, abstinence, none at all 19:36 because even a drop 0.1 percent of error 19:39 makes it all error. 19:41 That's correct. 19:42 And this is the point that God wants us to understand 19:44 is that the best, the highest-- 19:46 Remember, we have learned that sometimes better 19:49 can be the absolute unadulterated enemy of best. 19:53 God gave the best, 19:55 He gave the best in His Son, 19:57 He gave the best in His word, 19:59 He gave the best in His councils to us. 20:01 And therefore, he says follow this. 20:02 This is what I want you to choose 20:03 because it leads to life, 20:05 a happy life here on this earth 20:06 and most importantly an eternal life 20:09 when the earth is made new. 20:10 Satan comes in, he says, 20:11 "Listen, you can still have a happy life, 20:13 and you can take some of what God says. 20:14 Just don't take everything too seriously, 20:16 just, you know, hang on to a little bit of those things 20:18 that are erroneous. 20:20 Hang on to a few of those lies but you know what, 20:22 just put enough truth in there. 20:24 And I'll be honest with you, 20:25 this is the house where I grew up in. 20:27 I grew up in a house where there was no religion, 20:28 there was no church, there was nothing like that. 20:31 But we were taught things like just, you know, 20:33 don't kill anybody, don't steal anything, 20:35 you know, and more than likely, you'll be all right. 20:37 And that's the general world at large that we live in today. 20:41 People who make up their own rules to say, 20:43 what is acceptable to God. 20:44 When a person dies, 20:46 no matter how wicked or bad a life they lived, 20:47 we still know how to put him in heaven. 20:49 And we got to understand that God says no, 20:51 my standards are different. 20:53 And this is why Jesus gave 20:54 the most beautiful counsel in Matthew 4:4 20:57 of which we have learned to condition our minds 20:59 by the grace of God 21:00 and are still conditioning our minds to this. 21:01 And we want to encourage you as our viewers 21:04 that if you want to have 21:05 a true happy life on this earth, 21:08 if you want to have life eternal, 21:11 you must get to a point 21:13 that the life is submitted to Christ 21:15 in such a way that you will follow His words 21:17 as revealed in Matthew 4:4. 21:19 You know what it says, it says, 21:21 "Man shall not live by bread alone, 21:24 but by every word 21:27 which proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 21:30 Oh, yes, we're living a life like this will be laborious, 21:32 living a life like this will require sacrifice, 21:34 but living a life like this 21:36 provides the happiest life in the world. 21:39 It has been stated that when a man puts 21:40 Christ first, last and best in his life, 21:44 He is the happiest person on earth. 21:46 And this is what God wants for us, Lance, 21:48 this is what God wants for our viewers, 21:50 but let's ascertain the cost now 21:52 because we know that a great portion of the world 21:54 today is going in the path 21:56 of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 21:58 false education, okay. 22:00 We see that very prevalent into hip-hop culture. 22:03 We see that generally in the new age movements 22:06 that are various all throughout our world. 22:08 We see this in various forms 22:09 even in some church circles and religious circles. 22:12 What was it that ultimately caused Eve 22:15 to become and trapped 22:17 into falling for false education? 22:20 All right, well, there are several things 22:22 but we're gonna focus on, you know, the primary things. 22:25 We're gonna go back to Genesis 22:27 and we're going to look at chapter 3 again. 22:30 We'll kind of go and review 22:32 and we're gonna look at verse 6. 22:33 So we're turning to Genesis 3, back to Genesis 3:6 22:38 'cause we want to answer the question 22:40 how did Eve, how did Adam as well fall into this trap? 22:47 So Genesis 3:6, it says, 22:50 "And when the woman saw 22:52 that the tree was good for food, 22:55 and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 22:58 and a tree to be desired to make one wise, 23:00 she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, 23:02 and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." 23:06 Now, you know, on our next episode, 23:08 we'll take some time, maybe to talk about 23:10 the exchange and the dialog 23:12 between Eve and Satan that was problematic. 23:16 But nevertheless, after this conversation, 23:18 she begins to reason in her own mind 23:20 and evaluates and counts the cost if you will. 23:23 And it says here that 23:24 when she saw that the tree was, number one, good for food. 23:28 Number two, she saw 23:29 that the tree was pleasant to the eyes. 23:33 And number three, she saw that the tree was desirable, 23:36 it was attractive to make one wise. 23:40 She took and ate. 23:42 So she rationalized in her mind 23:43 that these three benefits outweigh the risk. 23:48 These three things outweigh the warning 23:50 that God gave the command, 23:52 the explicit command that God gave 23:54 that if I eat this, I am gonna die. 23:56 She said-- Well, Satan said or the serpent said 23:58 I won't die. 24:00 And as a matter of fact, as I evaluate this 24:02 using my intellect and reason, 24:04 it rationally makes perfect sense 24:06 that this thing is good for me. 24:08 It's good for food, it's pleasing to my eyes 24:10 and yes, it will make me like God. 24:13 My eyes will be open, I want my eyes to be open 24:15 and I think every human being wants their eyes to be open. 24:18 That's a good thing. 24:19 We should all have the ambition to have our eyes open. 24:22 But we can be deceived easily if we allow these things, 24:27 three things to attract us. 24:29 You know, there is nothing wrong 24:30 with having our eyes open 24:32 because the first thing it does, 24:33 it puts us in the position to confess 24:36 that we are in a state of blindness. 24:37 And again when we know ourselves 24:39 for who we really are; 24:41 wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. 24:45 When an individual realizes that they can't see, 24:48 then the prayer of David becomes their prayer, 24:50 Psalm 119:18. 24:51 The Bible says in Psalm 119:18. 24:55 It says, "Open thou mine eyes, 24:58 that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." 25:02 So we find that David realize 25:04 that though he wasn't going through physical blindness, 25:06 he understood spiritually speaking 25:08 that without you Lord opening my eyes, 25:11 I can't see right. 25:12 So therefore again that's a statement of humility. 25:15 So it is that God wants us to recognize this. 25:17 The problem with Eve is she consulted her senses 25:23 and she allowed her senses 25:25 to have supremacy over the words of God. 25:30 That's right. 25:31 And it reminds us that we just discussed 25:33 in our previous conversation in 1 John 2:15 25:38 that we're given the same warning. 25:39 Yes. 25:40 In 1 John 2:15 it says, 25:42 "Love not the world, 25:44 neither the things that are in the world. 25:46 If any man love the world, 25:48 the love of the Father is not in him. 25:51 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, 25:55 the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 25:58 is not of the Father, but is of the world." 26:01 These are very three components 26:02 that Eve evaluated and rationalized in her mind 26:06 that caused her to choose 26:09 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 26:11 or self over the tree of life or God and wisdom. 26:15 Amen. 26:16 Well, let me not say amen to that 26:18 because amen means so let it be done. 26:19 We don't want this to be done. 26:21 But we understand that this is an issue, 26:23 this is a major issue. 26:24 And this is the issue that's plaguing our world at large 26:26 and this is plaguing our urban communities, 26:28 especially through the hip-hop culture 26:30 where we find that there is a consulting of senses, 26:33 there is a consulting of does it feel right. 26:35 If it feels right, then let me do it. 26:36 But we learned that Jeremiah 17:9 says 26:39 that the heart is deceitful. 26:40 You can't consult your feeling to know what's right. 26:42 We learned in Proverbs 14:12 that, 26:45 "There is a way that seems right unto a man, 26:47 but the end thereof are the ways of death." 26:49 We see through the example of Lucifer, 26:52 who was a bright morning star but unfortunately, 26:55 he degraded himself 26:57 to becoming God's adversary Satan 26:58 and a slander of God's name, the devil. 27:01 These are the things that God warns us from 27:03 and this is the dangers of false education. 27:07 The combining of good and evil, 27:08 the combining of truth and error. 27:11 You know, friends, we've gotten to the point 27:13 where we need to close, but I'll tell you the truth. 27:16 When I think about Jesus, I think about a man 27:19 who lived a life, 27:20 where his life was completely subservient 27:22 to God's will. 27:24 And yet, He still was fulfilled in His life 27:27 because He knew that He was ministering unto people 27:29 and serving His Father. 27:30 He got to a point in Gethsemane 27:32 where He realized that He had to go to that cross. 27:35 And His senses said that I don't want to do it, 27:38 but we know that His word said nevertheless, 27:40 not my will but yours be done. 27:42 I hope that this is the attitude 27:44 that we will take to let the words of God 27:46 be supreme in our lives. 27:48 And please remember that beautiful quote 27:51 from Proverbs 2:6 that tells us, 27:54 "It is the Lord that gives us wisdom 27:56 and out of his mouth 27:58 comes knowledge and understanding." 28:00 God bless you. |
Revised 2016-02-25