TRUE KNOWLEDGE

The Need

The recent scandal in the evangelical church has caused me to reflect upon the importance of having godly men in the pulpit. How we go about selecting a pastor today seems to me to be part of the problem. God is the one who chooses men to be pastors, but how does a church determine who these men are? God gave Moses detailed instruction on the priesthood. That set the example. The most important part of all the preparation for the Tabernacle was getting Aaron himself ready to do the work God chose for him. Aaron had to be cleansed, purified, consecrated and anointed with oil before he could enter the tabernacle and perform his work before God. He had to be sanctified before he could minister to God and to His people. The same is true today. Sanctification is a prerequisite for the ministry. The pastor needs to be clean, pure, consecrated, holy before any church allows him to enter the pulpit.

Spiritual Maturity

Today there is a big problem with how we select our pastors. The most important part being left out of the selection process is an evaluation of the man’s spiritual life. We are more interested in where he went to school and what degrees he has. Schools, even graduate schools, do not sanctify men. Only God can do that. The church today seems to believe that the more theology the prospective pastor knows, the more sanctified he is. That is not what the Bible teaches. Our way of thinking needs to change dramatically. Bible knowledge does not make a man holier, God does.

False Knowledge

Spiritual maturity does not come by studying theology in a class room. Seminary can even have the opposite effect. When someone receives a masters degree or doctors degree there is a natural tendency for the accumulation of that knowledge to create pride. Even if the knowledge is doctrinally sound. The acquisition of Bible knowledge by itself does not guarantee spiritual growth. When Christ was praying to His Father for the disciples’ sanctification, He prayed that the Father would do the sanctifying. The Father would use the truth; but it was not truth by itself that sanctified them. It was the Father that sanctified.

True Knowledge

Knowledge is important and essential. Churches should want to choose a pastor who is educated. No one can ever learn too much truth. But there is a danger in learning when we do not understand what the Bible means when it says to know something. It is possible to develop a false understanding of knowledge. To know something in Scripture means to know it experientially. God reveals it to the mind and then He applies it to the heart. When this happens the whole man is affected and true learning takes place.

Academic

If doctrine, theology, or any kind of Biblical knowledge is learned purely as an academic subject, it is useless and produces pride. We can never make head knowledge an end in itself. God never intended doctrine to be studied as though it were just an academic subject. This is entirely the wrong approach to divine truth. If a person studies Scripture and it never has an impact upon his heart, then something is wrong.

Knowing God

There is a difference between knowing about a subject and knowing the subject. The heart of Christianity is not preaching about God, but it is getting people to know God personally. If Christianity was just about teaching, it would be no different than a philosophy. Today many of our churches are no different than seminary classes. It is as though they believe that merely teaching the Bible, in and of itself, is their goal. But it is not a book we want to be intimate with. It is a person. The power is not in the book but the power is in the God who applies the truth in the book to the human heart. The great Puritan pastor William Perkins said, “There is a difference between Biblical preaching and Spiritual preaching.” He meant that Biblical preaching is just doing the research on a text and then delivering it to the people. Spiritual preaching, on the other hand, is doing the research and preaching the text under the direct power of the Holy Spirit. That is the only way preaching can change lives and have them stay changed. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, and a preacher can only receive that kind of power on his knees. It is the spiritual life of the preacher that God is most concerned about. The Holy Spirit works through a spiritually mature man, not a man who merely studied well that week. The point is how well he prayed and how close to God he drew.

An Experience

True knowledge will bring us to God. All preaching and teaching should have as its goal to bring the listeners into a closer personal relationship with God. Is God just a subject to you, or can you honestly say you love God? Christianity is supposed to be something you experience. If you have experienced God, you will be humbled. If you have experienced God, you will love Him. And loving God is what true Christianity is all about.