The Pursuit of Knowledge

Romans 2:12-16

How important do you think it is for us to have a thirst for knowledge? Did you ever stop to think that if God had not created us with a thirst for knowledge, it would be virtually impossible to have a cup of tea.

Think about it? Who was the first person to boil water? How did that happen? Maybe there was a fire in a forest and some primitive man noticed that a log with an indentation filled with water was burning and the water was bubbling. “That’s useful information,” he thought, “I wonder if I could make that happen again?” So he set out to learn how to make a fire and how to make a container that would hold water and allow it to boil. After using up container after container of wood that burned up with one use, perhaps he tried one day a hollowed out stone that could be used over and over and over again.

How then was the next step made, to cook food in the boiling water? What would make you think that cooking a vegetable or piece of meat in boiling water would be a good thing to do? Watching and learning, gaining knowledge. Using the knowledge to take a next step. Learning from that experience, adapting and moving onto something else. Wanting to know why? How?

In 2737 BC it is said that the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, scholar and herbalist, was sitting one day beneath a tree while his servant boiled some drinking water. A leaf from the tree dropped into the water and Shen Nung decided to try the brew. The tree was a wild tea tree, Camellia sinesis. By the time of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 BC), tea was China’s national drink.

And then, of course, it would have to wait over 4,400 years for the British Empire before tea drinking could be done in a civilized form, in the afternoon with scones and butter and milk poured in the cup before the tea.

A thirst for knowledge is indispensable and the history of man is a history of people observing, thinking and drawing conclusions. Someone sat by the ocean and watched as ships sailed out and noticed that as a ship got further and further out to sea, it disappeared bit by bit until only the top of the sails were visible. “I wonder what that means?” thought that observer who had a thirst for knowledge. “It must be that the world is round,” this brilliant observer concluded.

Progress is made when people learn, gain knowledge, are not satisfied with what they know but want to know more. “How can I make this more efficient, more beautiful, faster, quieter, simpler.” How can I make sense of what I see?”

Progress is not measured only in technological terms. People watch people and ask why it is that certain people behave as they do. People will pass a beggar in the street day after day after day. Some people give something to the beggar each day or each week, others never give anything to the beggar. Why is that? Why is it that people act independently from one another?

Some people are cool and calm during a crisis, others fall apart. Why is that? Some people laugh more than others. Why is that? Some people take bribes, others do not. Why is that? Some people are generous with what they have, others are not. Why is that?

We make progress when we thirst for knowledge. We observe, reflect and make hypotheses to explain what we have observed. This process is God given and without this God-given characteristic, we would not be here this morning. We would be out in some field, trying to find food to drag back to the cave.

In the text this morning, Paul is in the middle of a section of his letter where he is talking about the wrath of God. His discussion of the wrath of God is divided into four sections and this section is focused on critical moralizers. Critical moralizers are people who view themselves as morally superior and not in any particular need of a savior. Other people make a mess of their lives, but not moralizers. Critical moralizers are better than others they observe. They are above the foolishness of others.

And one of the reasons they feel superior is that they are intellectually superior. They have knowledge others don’t have and they tend to think that what the world needs is not a savior but more knowledge.

Paul begins here to bridge into the next section of his discussion of the wrath of God. Dave Robey will preach next week on the attitude of religious Jews who thought they could escape the wrath of God by their religious knowledge and piety. But this week we will focus on the more secular side of knowledge and the thought that having the right kind of knowledge gets a person to where he wants and needs to go.

What is the goal of the Law or of knowledge? The Law was observed in all its rigorous detail so that by observing it, one would be blessed by God. How did one know he or she was blessed by God? The blessing of God resulted in peace and contentment. The Old Testament emphasizes the blessing of God in material form, being healthy and wealthy, but when you consider this, the thought was that in being healthy and wealthy one would be at peace and live in contentment.

The pursuit of knowledge has the same goal. The idea is that if we pursue knowledge, it will lead us to an enlightened state where we will have no wars, no poverty and everyone will live together in peace and harmony.

Paul talks about the law in this section, but the law for Jews is what knowledge is for us. What is knowledge after all? Isn’t it simply a search for truth? We observe and reflect and make hypotheses so we can learn more about this world. We want to know what is true about the world. How did the universe begin? Is this the only planet in the universe that has life? How is it that life began on this planet?

Knowledge and the law both have as a goal the search for truth and when truth is discovered, the expectation is that we will be at peace and in harmony. The Jew studying Torah and the academic studying Medieval French literature have the same expectation, that in this pursuit of knowledge, they will find what will bring peace, harmony and happiness to their lives.

So we can easily switch the two terms and use the same argument. Intellectual Jews studied Torah day and night and thought they had found in their study the way to God. In our modern day, intellectuals search for knowledge and think that in their study they have found the purpose of life.

So let us look at what Paul is saying in these verses.

The first question to be asked is that if it is law that makes us good, why are some people good without the law? If knowledge is what makes us good, why is it that some people are good without knowledge?

Let me ask the question another way, if it is the Law or knowledge that leads to peace and contentment, how is it that some people who know nothing of the Law or some people who are uneducated are at peace and living contented lives? How is it that some uneducated, unenlightened people are much more at peace and content than many of the “enlightened” people in the world?

In John 9 there is the story of Jesus giving sight to a man born blind. Because this man was healed on the Sabbath, the Pharisees set out on an investigation. As the story unfolds, it is obvious that it is not the well-educated Pharisees who are on the path to peace and contentment, but the man who has just received his sight. As the day goes on and he is questioned over and over again, his responses become increasingly articulate and I wonder if he did not become a leader in the new church that was formed after the resurrection of Jesus.

The Pharisees, the intellectual and religious leaders of the day, were the ones who were shown up by the simplicity of the insights of this man who had never read Torah, never argued Torah and never practiced Torah.

We know this in our own experience as well. Not all good people go to church and not all people who go to church are good. Simple observation leads us to the conclusion that it is not knowledge that leads to peace and it is not knowledge of the Law or of the Bible that leads to contentment.

Enlightened intellectuals assume that if the rest of the world was as enlightened as they were, the world would live in peace and harmony. Really? Peace like the horrible political infighting that takes place in departments as professors jockey for position and power? Contentment like the pitched battles that are fought over tenure? There are wonderful academics but the university scene is not the Eden it should be given all the enlightened professors in the community.

If enlightenment is the answer, it receives a failing grade.

What history reveals is what Paul teaches. The Law does not make us good. Knowledge of the Law does not make us peaceful and contented. Knowledge is not the answer. It is obedience to the Law that leads to peace and contentment. It is submission to the truth to which knowledge leads that is the source of peace and contentment.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

Knowledge does not save us. Knowledge does not lead in itself to peace and contentment. Consider one of Jesus’ disciples. Judas was trained by Jesus for three years. He had a better opportunity than any of his generation to learn directly from the source of truth about truth. Don’t you think Judas was able to quote from the Hebrew Bible? Don’t you think Judas could have given the talks Jesus gave in village after village after having heard Jesus teach so many times? What is there do you think that Judas did not know? And yet Judas betrayed Jesus, sold him out for thirty pieces of silver.

Knowledge does not save. Knowledge may give you an exalted place in society. Knowledge may give you the right to lecture in universities and write articles in prestigious journals and give interviews on television and be published. But when it comes to the end and you are lying in a hospital bed, gasping for breath as you prepare to leave this world, what then does your knowledge do for you?

Knowledge does not make us good. It does not lead in itself to peace and contentment, but it is indispensable to we who call ourselves Christians. Knowledge may not be the final goal but it is critical to getting to the final goal.

Paul wrote this in Romans 10
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Someone may observe nature and conclude, rightly, that a creator exists, but how does that person get beyond a vague understanding of a creator unless someone tells them? Knowledge of God’s interactions with Abraham and Moses and the incarnation of Jesus is critically important. Taking the Gospel out into the world is essential because people cannot believe what they have not heard. Knowledge of God is essential.

When God called Isaiah into ministry, it was to carry a message, to teach the people.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
and then God gave Isaiah the message he was to deliver.

God’s call of Jeremiah was also a call to speak God’s words
But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.

And in the Gospels, over and over again you read something like this from John 8
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

Teaching and preaching, helping people to grow in their knowledge of God is critical. The Christian church cannot function without knowledge.

But it is not just the study of Scripture and preaching and teaching from Scripture that is beneficial and worthwhile. Inasmuch as the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of truth, the pursuit of knowledge, any knowledge, is a Godly pursuit.

In II Chronicles 2
God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king,  12 therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you.

What was the wisdom and knowledge God gave to Solomon?

I Kings 4
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore…. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five.  33 He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.  34 Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

In addition to all his proverbs and songs, Solomon was a zoologist and a botanist. He studied plants and animals. This was God’s gift of wisdom and knowledge.

A thirst for knowledge is God-given. God wants us to learn and explore. He gave Adam the task of naming the animals and it is not a coincidence that many of the most brilliant Christian thinkers were naturalists. From early ages they had a desire to walk in the woods and meadows and learn and observe creation.

A thirst for knowledge is what leads us to God. Early man observed the sun rising and the sun setting and asked, how can that happen? He observed the stars and how they moved in the sky from month to month and asked, is someone trying to speak to me? What is the message I can learn from the stars? When Jesus was born, it was by observing the stars that the wise men were led to worship him.

Early man observed how when you plant something in the ground it comes up and bears fruit in due time. He learned when to plant and how to harvest and he considered who it was that had made this process work.

Early man observed the stars and moon and sun and the seasons and so when God decided to reveal himself to Abraham, he was ready for the revelation because man’s thirst for knowledge had already made clear that God existed. Now knowledge took a quantum leap forward because it was no longer simply that some god had created but it was that the God of Abraham had created. Now when creation was observed, specifics about the creator were known.

But here is the danger. Just as wealth is dangerous because it can pull us away from God, so is knowledge dangerous. Because when we accumulate knowledge, we are tempted to make what we know the end. Knowledge is no longer a search for truth, a search for the one who is the truth, the light and the way. Knowledge becomes the end rather than a means to the end.

And it is here that Paul’s argument resonates. God has created a magnificent world and it speaks loudly and clearly about his existence but the sinfulness of man is such that we look and learn and twist the evidence away from the screaming conclusion. In our search for knowledge, we abandon a search for truth and make ourselves gods. We are what we know and the more we know the more we are.

Belief in God is for those who are unenlightened. People worshiped the sun god because they did not understand the physics of the universe. Unenlightened people worship God because his existence answers for them the things they don’t understand. Primitive people have witch doctors because they are uneducated and Christian belief in God is a residue of superstitious, primitive belief.

The nonexistence of God becomes a baseline assumption in academic pursuit and allows the testimony of creation to the existence of God to be ignored. It becomes more plausible that aliens from somewhere else in the universe brought life to this planet than that God created life on this planet.

I love learning. When Annie and I go on a vacation to a new place, we go with a stack of books about the geology of the area, about the history of the area, perhaps some literature written in that area. I love learning and the more I learn, the more questions I have.

I used to think that when I got to heaven, all my questions would be answered. But then I was thinking one day and decided that to know everything would make life in heaven pretty boring. Much of good theology comes from C.S.. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and in the final book of that series, he describes the exhilaration of being in heaven. And I think it may have been that description of exploring and getting deeper and deeper into the wonder of heaven that made me realize that heaven will be a place of learning.

We will continually explore the history and science of our planet and the rest of the universe and who knows what other existence there will be to study, and in our exploration, we will be increasingly drawn into the wonder and worship of God.

We will see how amazingly he worked all things together for good. I’m very disappointed that Greg & Kelly will not be returning to live in Morocco. But in heaven, if not beforehand, I will see how amazingly God was at work in their live and in the lives of all who intersect with their lives. We will tell each other our stories and wonder at the orchestration of God who loved us and pursued us as he built up the church.

Listen, I want to encourage you to study, to pursue knowledge. Whatever it is that interests you, pursue your interest. Physics and astronomy, literature, psychology, philosophy, music and poetry, theater and dancing, history and biology. Pursue knowledge because that pursuit will lead you to the wonder of God who created all you observe. Study theology as well, but don’t be limited in your pursuit of knowledge.

You were created to explore and think. God gave you a mind to use and delights in your use of what he gave you. But be careful that you do not abandon the one who gave you the mind to think.

It is wonderful to discover new galaxies and to stare into the depths of the universe at stars that were formed just 200,000 million years after the creation of the universe. How much more wonderful to lift your heart up in praise to the one who created what you are observing.

It is wonderful to grow in your understanding of human personality and genetic tendencies that affect personality, but how much more wonderful it becomes when the beauty and intricacy of what you discover leads to worship of the one who has formed us in the womb and who loves us.

Use the mind God gave you to learn, explore, ponder, consider and then to worship.

Benediction
Romans 11
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.