Precious ones,
One of the Scripture verses which forms the basis for Message # 8 is Matthew 13:51. Jesus has just completed His speaking of the seven kingdom parables. In this verse, He asks His disciples a question and they respond:
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“Have you understood all these things? They said to Him, Yes.” (Matt. 13:51)
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As TAS points out, it is so easy for us human beings to think that we have spiritual understanding when all we have is intellectual knowledge. We can be so full of knowledge and yet be so lacking in true spiritual understanding. Obviously, knowledge in the things of the Lord is not a bad thing in and of itself. Ultimately, however, it is the Spirit who must come in and make all things real to us. Otherwise, we end with knowledge which puffs up. This point is very humbling and very convicting to me.
Going even further, TAS points out that when we attempt to serve the Lord out of intellectual knowledge and natural ability, it may look good for a while, even for a long while. Eventually, however, our daily living catches up with us and exposes our lack. Our daily living can so easily end up denying and contradicting all the “truths” we proclaim with our mouths. When this happens, it is a very sobering time for us and for those around us. Such a time leads to very serious soul-searching questions.
O, how I can be so full of the knowledge which puffs up! O, how my daily living can be so contrary to the things I speak!
This is an exceprt of some of TAS’s speaking related to these topics taken from Message 8:
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"There is all the difference in the world between knowing it all here, and seeing it with your spiritual eyes. Now I say this is the most solemn thing. One of the most tragic and sad things that has come into my life has been this: I have known people to come and accept all the teaching that we could give, and to profess to believe it, and then to go out and preach it, teaching it in various parts of the world. And if you had seen them and heard them, you would have believed that they knew it all, and then afterward they have so acted as to deny it all. Just to repudiate it all by their conduct and their behavior and by their way of life. I have known that to happen in more than one case, and it leaves you asking very big questions. They seem to have taken it all. They seem to have believed it all. They talk to other people about it everywhere. And then they have taken a course in life which denies the whole thing. And their whole position and teaching afterward is a contradiction of all that they profess to believe."
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