Do Not Be Ignorant

11-12-23

Hoonah-Hadley

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Call to Worship Psalm 70

Daily Verse 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Ignorant: Without knowledge or education. Unaware or uninformed. The word ignorance does not have a nice ring to it and by its own definition is often misinterpreted. Interestingly enough, on the same page in Webster’s Dictionary is the word idiot. Idiot: A stupid person, fool. Ignorance is not idiotic, though it may lead to that. We don’t want to bring everybody into the same boat, but let’s face it, we’re all ignorant to something, or a lot of things. For example, radio waves. I’ve never researched it, but it is absolutely dumbfounding to me that you can plug in an old transistor radio in northwestern Pennsylvania and listen to some German station across the Atlantic Ocean. Eye surgery, that’s another one, how in the world? Do you know how a duckling gets out of its egg? Here’s one for you, the world is spinning while simultaneously rotating around the sun, here in Pa. our weather predominately comes from the west, the wind has a westerly fetch. It may have a northern or southern hint to it, but generally from the west. Then there’s hurricanes. They get their start off main land Africa and travel west near the equator. Now how can the earth spinning consistently in the same direction have weather traveling at different directions? Surely somebody could explain that to me. Not understanding radio waves, eye surgery or weather patterns doesn’t make us idiots but surely, we are ignorant in some things, we are simply unaware or uninformed, without knowledge or education. 2 Tim. 3:16 “All scripture…useful for teaching…correcting and training in righteousness.”

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Ezekiel 45:20 “And so you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who has sinned unintentionally or in ignorance.” Anybody? When the young man appeared in court in a foreign country on parking violations, he told the judge the way the signs were understood in his country. The judge, being a woman, said: “ignorance is no excuse, pay the fine.” “Yes ma’am.” We often use ignorance as an excuse for sin or some kind of worldly violation like parking in a “No Standing” zone. Just because you didn’t see a “No Trespassing” sign on the porch doesn’t mean you can just walk in somebody’s house, sit down at their table and have a bowl of cereal.

Intentional sin when apprehended often leads to lies, and ignorance is a ready argument to plead our case, but as the judge said, ignorance is no excuse. In fact, our conscience tells us the truth of the matter, this is wrong, or I have a bad feeling about this, or I know this is wrong but nobody will know or care. Somebody does know and He is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, Almighty. Here in Ezekiel the penman is talking “unintentional” or in “ignorance”. Anybody? If we don’t know what is right, then we don’t know what is wrong. If we don’t know the truth then we’ll never recognize a lie. If we don’t come to Christ, we’ll serve the devil out of ignorance.

Here in northwestern Pennsylvania, you can’t say “nobody told me about Jesus”. Maybe nobody told you but you just passed ½ dozen churches in two blocks and for 50 years you never stopped in one of them. Now it’s the blame game and ignorance is our only defense. Wrong answer. When God ask us what we did with the “talent” He gave us and we plead ignorance, it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you…” Ignorance will not stand in the judgment seat.

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If we remove the middle portion of verse 13 for observation’s sake, we have “But I do not want you to be ignorant…less you sorrow as others who have no hope.” The middle portion is a study for another day, the point we want to make here is the correlation between ignorance and hope. There was a saying, don’t recall it exactly, but it went something like this, “there are things we can do without in life, hope is not one of them.” Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” 1 Cor. 13 “…so faith, hope, love abide, these three…” We would do well to read through all the offerings of hope in the NIV concordance, 166 in all, but a few stand out. Lamentations 3:21 is a glaring example of hope. Only 5 chapters, it is a painful read. The book is perfectly balanced, 22 verses in chapter 1, 22 verses in chapter 2, 66 verses in chapter 3, 22 verses in chapter 4 and 22 verses in chapter 5. Something changes in 3:21 “This I call to mind, therefore I have hope.” The following verses inspired Thomas Chisholm to pen the words to the famous hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Vs. 22-26 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul; therefore, I hope in Him! The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” These words are music to our ears. What Paul is saying in our daily verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, in layman’s terms, ignorance in Christ’s finished work will leave us hopeless. The way of the cross leads home, without it there is no hope. Romans 8:24 “For in this hope we are saved.” Ephesians 2:12 “that at that time you were without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world.” Ignorance in things above is eternally fatal. Ignorance in Christ= Hopelessness. Put your hope in God”

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Do not be ignorant. Out of all the things we do in life, all that troubles us, all we carry, all we seek, all we consume, all we invest in, all the things that take our time, what does it profit us? Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?” (forfeit his life) Do not be ignorant. Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your prosperous, and then you will have good success.” If we said it before we’ll say it again, what Paul is saying is, there is an ignorance that leads to hopelessness. It’s no secret what he is talking about, he’s talking about Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 3:20, Galatians 5:22-26, and a host of other verses, read on and you shall see. God’s word is the Book of Life. It is living and active. It comforts, saves, redeems, heals, strengthens, fills, blesses, transforms, overcomes…it is the answer to all that aisles us. Proverbs 4:7 “What ever you get, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Proverbs is considered “Wisdom Literature”. There are 31 chapters, generally 31 days in a month, one for each day. You want a habit, there’s one for you. 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Folks often ask, “Where should I start reading in the bible?” Depends on who you ask. Proverbs 1:7 seems like a good place to start. God, slow to anger, abounding in love, gracious, merciful. But He is also a jealous, wrathful, unquenchable fire. Ignorance + lack of fear of God = hopelessness. 2:2 “Incline your ear to wisdom.” What do we listen to? We need to be seriously intentional about what we allow to enter into our minds. 2 Cor. 4:4 “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe.” These things were written that you might believe. Do Not Be Ignorant, it’s hopeless.

Amen.