Assume Nothing!

Good afternoon, brethren.

Well, there’s... We live in a world where God has built laws. That’s an obvious statement. We live in a world that is constructed by laws. Think about it. Now, we... when we think about the laws that God has created, oftentimes we’ll think about the Ten Commandments, for example, or all of the laws, the Levitical laws, the laws that we see in the Old Testament. But God has, of course, created laws that are not even written in the Bible. Think about scientific laws. We serve a God who is very mathematically minded, who is very precise. Think about the astronomical clocks that we have that God has given us, both the sun and the moon, to measure time. He is very precise, and He’s created these laws built into his creation. Think about gravity. Gravity is, we all experience it every day. Probably none of us think about it every day, but we all experience gravity. It’s a law. There’s laws that man has found out over time, over the last thousands of years, that they have discerned as well. Think about some of the laws of thermodynamics, some of the laws of entropy, that things over time begin to decay.

There’s laws of motion. There are so many laws that govern the way that God’s creation operates. I mean, it’s... think about the fact that you need sun. We all know that you need sun, and you need water-[coughs] excuse me- and you need good soil for a plant to grow. Where is there... Maybe there’s some law that defines that, but there’s laws all around us throughout creation that aren’t even written in the Bible. Things that we experience every day, that we know are going to happen because they are laws, they’re not just theories or ideas or hypotheses, and so forth.

They’re actual laws that govern the way that God created the world. So, there is a hidden law that we can find in God’s word. One that’s almost never talked about... You know, we hear a lot about the laws of God. We hear a lot about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is an absolute law that we should keep. If we keep the Sabbath, God says that that’s a sign between He and his people. So, it’s a law that God has established so that we can keep, and that helps us better draw closer to God and know that we are His people. There’s laws of tithing. There’s laws of clean and unclean meats.

We know that God has laid those laws out. They’re pretty explicit in the Bible. Some of them are just straight up. “Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet,” and so forth. We know a lot of those laws, but there are certain laws, one of which we’ll get into today, kind of like the law of gravity. It’s not written in the Bible, but it’s there. Nowhere does the Bible talk about gravity that I’m aware of. Maybe obliquely in certain things it does, but I can’t think of a place where it talks about gravity. There is a law that we will discuss today that is in God’s word, but it’s hidden, and you can’t know about it until you mine it.

You have to find it. You have to dig it out and look for it. But once you see what I’m talking about today, once you see this hidden law, you’ll know that it’s everywhere. And you won’t be able to escape it. Everywhere you turn, you’ll think about it, and you’ll know, wow, there it is again, this hidden law. It’s as definitive as the law of tithing, just not as explicit. It’s as definitive as the laws of gravity, but just not written explicitly in the Bible. So, let’s get into this subject today with a test. I’m going to pull out a clipboard here. I’ve got my handy-dandy clipboard.

Okay. How many have heard of the nine-dot test? Maybe some of you have, maybe some of you haven’t. The nine-dot test was created, I think, back in the eighties. The question is, how can you connect all nine of these dots using four lines? How is that possible? Try to imagine. Try to do it in your brain. You can draw these nine dots in your own... If you’ve not heard of this before, try and draw these nine dots in your own paper, and see if you’re able to draw four lines that connect all four dots, or all nine dots. Imagine you come over this way, come down, maybe you go up, and you can’t repeat dots either.

Come down, you can’t... Yes, never mind. I’m sorry. You can do that, but you have to do it in four lines. Now, I’ll give you the answer to this here, after about a minute of struggling. If you’ve never heard of this before, no matter what you do, no matter what you do, no matter where you go on this line, you will always miss about one dot, at least one dot. Now, here’s where this intersects with the topic of today. The answer is, one must draw a line up, draw a line over, all the way beyond the box. Draw a line down. Excuse me. Draw a line up.

Now, we’ve hit four lines, have caught all nine dots. Now, the only way you can solve this puzzle is by going outside of the assumed parameters that you would be given. Whenever we’re given this test, the assumption is, I have to stay within the confines of the nine dots. When, in reality, that was never part of the rules. The rules were, you had four lines to hit all nine dots. So, if you come up diagonally, go across all the way outside the box, come down diagonally across these two, and then up, you’ll hit all nine in four lines. Now, why is that important?

It sets up the subject of the message today. We had to... Naturally, we assumed, we made an assumption, that we couldn’t go outside of those nine dots. Was that right? No. The only way to answer the problem, to solve the problem, is to assume you don’t have to... is to not assume, is to not assume anything. Think bigger. Think outside the box. You know, this has been used as a think outside the box type of a test. Well, turn over to First Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five, we’re going to read one verse, very familiar verse, and we’re going to ask a simple question.

First Thessalonians five and verse twenty-one, we’re all familiar with this, says, “Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good.” Let’s just focus primarily even on the first three words. [coughs] Excuse me. “Prove all things.” I’m getting over some allergies, so forgive me if I’m coughing. What is the opposite of proving all things? I’m not talking about disproving all things. What’s the opposite of proving all things? If we don’t prove something is true, what do we end up doing? What do we end up doing? We end up assuming that something is true.

That’s the opposite of proving something. If we don’t prove something, we end up... the only other option is, if we’re trying to believe in something, the only other option is that we assume something. God tells us we must not assume anything. We must prove all things. Prove all things. It doesn’t assume all things. The definition of an assumption is this, and you may write this down. This will be very helpful throughout the message. An assumption is a thing that is accepted as true or certain to happen without proof. A thing that is accepted as true or certain to happen, but without proof.

Think about it. If we don’t prove something, what are we left to do? We’re left to assume it’s true. Assumptions are, in effect, just an opinion that a person might have. I have an opinion about something, but that opinion isn’t backed by any facts or proof, but you wholeheartedly believe in that opinion. “I just believe that this is true.” You don’t have any facts to support it or prove it or back it up, but yet you believe it as truth. God, on the other hand, says we must prove all things. In effect, He’s telling us don’t make assumptions in life. Now, this is the first great point that begins to open our eyes to this hidden law that’s all throughout God’s word, and that is that God does not want us to assume anything.

He wants us to prove all things. He doesn’t want us walking through life assuming things. We’ll see how detrimental assumptions can be, and when you see, the idea of assumptions is all throughout the Bible, brethren. We’ll see that. We’ll see that in spades, and you’ll find that maybe seeing all of these examples in the Bible will help us to see where in our lives we’re making assumptions that we may not have even thought that we were making before. But at least the goal of this is to make it so that we are... that the idea of assumptions is on the forefront of our mind regularly, that we’re not making assumptions in life, that we prove things.

The doctrines of the world’s churches are often rooted in assumptions. There’s actually a church nearby here named... Now, it’s named, and I’ll tell you why it’s named this, it’s named the Church of the Assumption. It’s ironic. Now, that... when they use the word assumption, they mean like the Assumption of Christ, or some people even say the Assumption of Mary. Oh, that’s strange stuff, but how ironic that their name is the Church of the Assumption, because churches in the world, that’s what happens, is we grow up... What happens is...

How did all of us grow up? When we were taught religion as a child, maybe we grew up in the church, maybe we didn’t. Maybe we grew up in God’s Church, or maybe we grew up in the Catholic church, or the Protestant church, or maybe we grew up a Muslim, or a Jew, or something. The starting point oftentimes for people in the world is not to ask, “What does God teach in His word?” and pursue the truth of whatever it is that they just want to follow, whatever God says. The assumption is, I’m going to believe whatever my family believed, I’m going to take their word for it.

And oftentimes the Bible isn’t even opened. Proof is not something, particularly in the realm of finding the truth of God’s word, proving stuff is not necessarily something the world really concerns themself about. They’re concerned about if they want to go to church, if they want to be religious, they just want to make sure that they go to church every Sunday, mostly, because that’s what they were taught. That’s the tradition that they have. And when they go to church, maybe they hear a few verses, but mostly, particularly in the Catholic Church, it’s oftentimes just a bunch of ritualistic stuff that takes place.

Very little is rooted in whatever the Bible actually teaches. So, we must be different, brethren. The world’s churches are rooted in assumptions. They take a belief that they want to believe, or maybe they’ve been... they’ve traditionally just believed, and they don’t try to prove it further. They don’t try to disprove it or find out what does God say about this. They just simply accept it on its face, instead of going to God’s word and trying to dig and find what is the truth of the matter. Think of the Trinity. Many people assume the God of the Bible is a Trinity, because that’s what they’ve always been taught.

I know that’s what I was taught. When I first came to the truth of the Trinity, and I was confronted by a Catholic priest, my parents wanted us to talk with the Catholic priest before we decided to move on and continue with this and follow the truth of the Bible, we sat down with the Catholic priest and discussed the merits of all kinds of doctrines, including the Trinity. And it struck me at the time, rather than... You know, we were explaining we don’t believe the Trinity is the God of the Bible. We believe the Bible speaks of two beings, two God beings. God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Over and over, it omits cr... it omits the Holy Spirit all throughout the Epistles. We went through all of the different, you could say, points, discussing with this priest, this mini... this Catholic priest, about why we believe that there are not three God beings in the Godhead, that there’s only two. And his response was not to open the Bible. The response was to pick up a... like a, what do you call it, dry erase marker, and go to a whiteboard behind him, and start drawing a diagram about what the Trinity is and talking about it. And while talking about it, even admitting it’s very confusing and hard to understand and very amorphous, and we just can’t really under...

It’s mysterious, it’s something that we can’t fully grasp, but we just have to believe it. In other words, trust me. Just trust me. Don’t go to God’s word. Don’t look up what it, the Bible, says. Don’t look up what God Himself says, who is supposedly part of this Trinity. No. Just take my word for it, because that’s what I’ve been taught. I was taught that it’s mysterious. The people before me believed it was mysterious, and they didn’t really understand it. The people that they learned it from believed it was mysterious, and didn’t understand it themselves.

Because, brethren, that’s the way that the churches in the world are often. They’re often... They’re sincere in their beliefs, but they’re just, as Mr. Pack has said, they’re sincerely wrong. They’re wrong in believing that. Now, is it their fault? Well, God has put the veil over them, and He’s not calling the people, the vast numbers in the world yet at this point. So, the point here is, we can’t be like that. If God is calling us, if he’s opened our eyes to the truth, we can’t be like the world, where we just simply draw diagrams and assume that what we were taught in the past is right, without ever looking one word of what God says about it.

We have to prove all things. We cannot assume all things. We can’t assume that God is a trinity. We can’t assume that. We have to dig and prove it. And what we’ll find, brethren, very clearly and very easily, and Mr. Pack has written a book about this, is that God is not a trinity. It’s very easy to understand that in the Bible, but it takes work. It’s what separates us from God’s... from the rest of the world’s churches. We strive to never let assumptions drive doctrine. And if we, brethren, if we ever find that we’ve assumed something in the Bible wrong, incorrectly, guess what? We correct it.

We don’t just hold to tradition. We don’t just hold to whatever it was that we learned before. We correct it. Think about the... I know it was a simple... a small point, but it’s powerful. It’s powerful. One would assume that when we’re in God’s family and have eternal life, we would not have wings. Why would we assume that? We assume it for the same reasons that we assumed that we weren’t allowed to go outside the lines of this box, these nine dots. We assumed that we wouldn’t have wings, partly, probably, because we don’t have wings now, do we?

And we’re made in the image and likeness of God, aren’t we? Well, yes, we are. We are made in the image and likeness of God. But we also know that we’re not exactly in the image and likeness of God, because God is... He shines, and we know that Christ, when he comes, he’s going to... [coughs] Excuse me. He’s got feet as brass and eyes of fire. We’re not exactly in the image of God in that way. Our eyes aren’t on fire right now. We don’t have legs of brass or anything like this, feet. We don’t have... We’re not exactly in the image of God yet.

We’re made in His likeness. But the assumption was that since we don’t have wings now, and we’re made in His likeness, that we’re never going to have wings. Well, that assumption was shattered to pieces when we read over and over and over and over and over and over and over again that not only God has wings, but that we will have wings in the future, too. We dwell under the wings of the Almighty. And it says in Isaiah forty verse thirty-one... Turn over there. This is just one example of where we’ve made an assumption in the past and corrected it because we proved what God says in His word.

We stopped assuming something, and we began to prove it. Isaiah forty and verse thirty-one says this. It’s speaking about us, this verse. It says, “But they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They’ll run and not be weary, and they’ll walk and not be faint.” It doesn’t say we’ll mount up as eagles with wings. It says we’ll mount up with wings as an eagle would have wings. That’s irrefutable. We are going to have wings when we enter God’s family. We don’t have them now. Mr. Winkfield’s message recently set this up perfectly because he got into, we can’t make assumptions about God himself.

The expansion of that is we can’t make assumptions about anything. God wants us to prove all things. He wants us to dig, work, labor, be a good student, a workman in the Bible to find out what it is that God wants from us. But through study and proof, through study and proof, we don’t need to assume anything. God tells us what we’re going to look like. That’s just one example. The fact that we’re going to have wings, that’s a small example, but that’s... again, that’s what separates us from the br... from the churches in the world. When we prove something and we see what God’s word says, we adhere to it.

We live by it. We don’t just continue in tradition and ignore it. We don’t snip it out of the Bible like Thomas Jefferson. Now, assumptions are seen all throughout the Bible, everywhere. Turn over to John chapter one. John chapter one. We’re going to go over a few examples of some assumptions and show just how prevalent it is and how easy it is to fall into having assumptions and not even know that you’re getting into an assumption. But let’s label it, let’s call it what it is. Let’s identify it and so that we can start to identify it in our lives, too. The more we see it in God’s word, and we see that people have fallen prey to assumptions over and over and over and over and over again, the more we can look at ourselves and say, “You know what? Am I making assumptions? Maybe I’m making assumptions more often than I thought.”

And then it helps us to change. John chapter one and verse forty-four. Now, Philip was a Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, we’ve found him of whom Moses in the law, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.” He had an assumption that it’s not possible that any good thing, never mind Jesus Christ himself or the Messiah, could come out of Nazareth.

Now, we’ve seen that before, but have we ever thought of it as an assumption? Nathanael made a great assumption that was wrong, and the account comes down. So, Philip took him and said, “Come and see.” Verse forty-seven. “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said unto him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Nathanael said to him, Whence know you me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before that Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And Nathanael answered and said unto him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel,” and so on and so forth.

And Nathanael was... believed on him at that point. But until then, he made assumptions. Now, it was a... it seemed like it’s just a pretty small subject. No, it’s, assumptions are all throughout our lives. If we’re not cognizant of them, we can make the same assumptions. Let’s turn over. Let’s turn over to Matthew chapter twelve. You know, many in the first century missed Christ because he didn’t fit their assumptions. Think about the Pharisees. We’re turning over to Matthew twelve. Pharisees believed that, and the Jews many of the Jews, believed that Christ was going to come and thought that maybe it was like, the Day of the Lord was the next thing that they were waiting for, or something.

I don’t know exactly what they were believing, but they believed that Christ would come, the Messiah would come and destroy the Roman Empire. That’s not at all what happened, but that was their assumption. They made that assumption, and therefore entirely missed Christ when he came. All because of an assumption. That’s grave. Assumptions can be small in nature and have certain consequences, or they can be huge in nature. They could be like the Jews in the first century, assuming that Christ was not the Messiah, or assuming that Christ would come and destroy the Roman Empire, and entirely miss Christ and end up killing him because of it.

Talk about an assumption with grave consequences. It’s an amazing thing. Matthew chapter twelve and verse eight. “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. When he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue...” he went to the Jews’ synagogue, “...and behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?” The Jews asked him, “Is it lawful?” to Christ. “... is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they may accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that has not... that shall not have one sheep, and if it fall into the pit on the Sabbath day, will not lay hold on it and lift it out?

How much then is this man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. Then said he unto the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it forth, and he restored it whole like as the other.” Both his hands were now perfectly operational. Jews assumed, based on their tradition, that it was not good to heal on the Sabbath day. Christ disproved that. Christ disproved that. He showed that it was more important to help somebody. If you could pull an ox out of a ditch, which they would have known that, how much more so is it that you can heal somebody on the Sabbath and that’s not considered work?

Consider something fascinating. Think about this. The Jews assumed we should keep the Sabbath in a very pharisaical way, based on their Jewish tradition. They made that assumption. That was one ditch. But here’s the irony. Modern Christianity look at this verse and they say, they make the assumption completely the opposite way, “Oh, then, because we can heal on the Sabbath, that means that we don’t have to keep the Sabbath. It’s okay to just do whatever we want on the Sabbath. Look, Christ did. He was showing the Pharisees that you don’t have to... it’s okay to do stuff on the Sabbath that the Jews thought that it was wrong to do.”

So, you’ve got religion out in the world today, who looks at this verse, and we see assumptions are everywhere. Jews assume one thing, Christianity at large assumes another. But brethren, our question is, are we making assumptions about what God says, or are we taking the word of God in its entirety and looking at it as a whole and proving how do we actually keep the Sabbath? We don’t throw out the Sabbath because of this verse. We still keep it. In fact, it’s proof that Christ did keep the Sabbath. We look at this and say, “We’re not going to throw out the Sabbath. We’re going to keep it,” because Christ kept it, but he just kept it differently from how the Jews did, because the Jews were pharisaical and very traditionalistic in their ideas.

So, with respect to doctrine, we’re seeing assumptions that are generally made when not enough information is accounted for. If we look at this one verse in a vacuum, and we’re in the Protestant church or we’re in the Pentecostal church, wherever we are, we may look at this verse and say, “Oh, that actually proves that the Sabbath doesn’t need to be kept,” when we’re not looking at it as a whole, the Bible as a whole. We’re looking at incomplete information. We’re drawing sa... conclusions and assumptions off of incomplete information. But we don’t do that in God’s church.

We take all the Bible verses into account. And we know what... We know that we must keep the Sabbath, but not in the way that the Pharisees did. Okay. Turn over to John chapter nine. There’s another assumption. John chapter nine and verse one. “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which had... which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin?” Their assumption immediately was this man is blind because somebody sinned. Did... They weren’t sure who sinned, whether it was this man himself or his parents, that he was born blind, but they were sure in their minds that somebody had sinned, causing this blindness.

Now, that’s an assumption. That’s a big-time assumption that we’re seeing. Here’s Christ’s response. “Neither has the man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Brethren, what the apostles, the disciples at the time, who were going to become the apostles, they assumed something. They imputed a motive or a problem, a sin on this... on somebody that caused this blindness when they weren’t taking into account that Ecclesiastes nine, chapter... verse nine... nine, eleven, excuse me, Ecclesiastes nine, eleven, Solomon said that time and chance happens to them all.

They weren’t looking at the Bible as a whole. They were, for some reason, just assuming that somebody had sinned, either this man himself or his parents. God says we shouldn’t do that. Christ himself says it’s has nothing to do with whether he sinned or not. All people sin. Of course, sin can lead to bad... There’s cause and effect in life, and sin can lead to problems, but that’s not to say that time and chance doesn’t happen to them all also, and that God was... this person was blinded for the great purpose of the story that we can read today for Christ healing him.

Luke chapter thirteen has something similar. If you read there, it says, it talks about the Tower of Siloam. Luke thirteen, verse one, “Therefore, were present at that season, some that told them of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered, and said unto them, suppose you that these Galileans...” Suppose you, assume you, is what he’s saying. Are you assu... “Do you assume that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, no, but except you repent, you shall likewise perish.

Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think you or suppose you or assume you that they were sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but except that you repent, you’ll all likewise perish.” Assumptions are all throughout our lives, and they can be very, very dangerous, brethren. We just have to be aware of them that the... If there’s nothing else you take from this message, it’s that you should walk away being more aware, more cognizant of where we are making assumptions in our lives than ever before, because you see now, you’re starting to see how all throughout the Bible, assumptions are made.

People, assume you that they’re sinners above all because the Tower of Siloam fell on them? No, no. Our assumptions can be misleading and cause us to, in effect, put words in God’s mouth, which is wrong, when He, in fact, may think very differently about something. First Samuel chapter sixteen, one last example of an assumption in the Bible. First Samuel sixteen, the account of when David was selected. First Samuel sixteen, verse one, “The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go, and I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

Jesse is David’s father. “For I have provided me a king among his sons. So Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears it, he’ll kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. And call Jesse unto... Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint unto me him whom I name unto you. And Samuel did that which the Lord spoke, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming.” They see a prophet come, Samuel, coming, and they’re...they start to tremble. And he said, “Come you peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably, yes.”

Okay, then they wiped the sweat off their brow. “I’m come to sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come unto me with your sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to a sacrifice. Came to pass when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” Samuel made an assumption. Samuel. He looked at David’s first, or Jesse’s first son, David’s oldest brother, Eliab. Looked at him and said, “Surely this is the anointed, that surely this is the one that God has selected.”

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Not so fast. Look not on his countenance...” he’s a big guy “...nor on his height, on the height of his stature, because I have refused him.” God doesn’t want him. “For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” And so Samuel goes on. Brother, after brother, after brother, after brother, and finally gets to David, who’s in the... with the sheep, and finally selects David, the littlest one. And that’s the one God picked. Assumptions are everywhere. Everywhere, brethren. The goal of this message is to ensure we don’t make assumptions about God’s will in our lives.

Human nature generally makes assumptions based on appearances, circumstances, biases, first impressions. You know, assumptions, that’s why stereotypes are around. Stereotypes exist because people want... people like to make assumptions. They like to assume that all people of certain races or genders or whatever are the same. And that’s not true, but assumptions are built into our human nature. We can’t forget that God says we must prove all things and not assume all things. Now, remember what it says, that the carnal mind is enmity against God.

The carnal mind, our natural minds, hate God. We’re the enemy, our carnal minds are the enemy of God and sees God as the enemy. Now, if our carnal minds read in the Bible that God says to prove all things, what do you think our carnal minds naturally want to do? They want to do the opposite. Carnal minds think opposite of whatever God wants. So, if God says, “Prove all things,” naturally, brethren, we don’t want to prove all things. We want to just assume all things. We want to assume that what we believe is right. We want to assume that what we’re doing is okay.

But Jeremiah seventeen, nine says this, Jeremiah seventeen, nine, memory scripture, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Do we really want, do we really want our deceitful, above all things, desperately wicked hearts to drive the decisions that we make in our lives? Because our desperately wicked minds that are... that have enmity against God, simply want to assume all things. And that is dangerous. We can’t let this part of ourselves... Because brethren, whether we like it or not, human nature is part of us.

We’re trying to root it out, trying to get it out as much as possible. But until we die, we’re still going to have human nature, and we’re still going to have deceitful minds if we allow them to take control. So, we can’t let our deceitful minds and human nature drive the decisions that we make in life because they like to assume things. They don’t want to prove all things. It will never lead anywhere good. Proverbs chapter twenty-three. Proverbs chapter twenty-three. We’ll read in verse four. Proverbs twenty-three, four, “Labor not to be rich, cease from your own wisdom. Will you see your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”

You know, gathering, this is just a total side point, but gathering wealth in this world doesn’t benefit us anything. It’s all going to fly away. If you believe what the Bible says, then gathering riches is a vain pursuit in this life. It doesn’t help us at all toward the kingdom of heaven, toward entering God’s kingdom. In fact, it hinders us. It prevents us from being able to enter God’s family in the same way. Only through the eye of a needle, if... You can’t enter the kingdom of God except, how does it put it there? a camel enter through the eye of a needle.

You can’t. It’s impossible. A camel cannot enter through the eye of a needle. It’s as much... It’s as difficult for a camel to go through the eye of a needle as it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So, it doesn’t benefit us anything. “Eat you not the bread of him...” verse six, “...that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, says he, to you, but his heart is not with you. As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Our whole lives, brethren, being... our whole lives being in character are based on what we think.

You’ve heard the phrase, you are what you eat, which is true in a certain regard. If you just eat junk food all the time, you’ll gain weight, or you’ll be unhealthy. You are what you eat. Well, really, if we’re going to take that phrase from God’s word, we are what we think. What we think in our lives, if we allow our deceitful human nature to take control and drive the car of our mind, if I could put it that way, get behind the wheel and take the wheel and drive our lives, if we let human nature drive, then assumptions are going to be prevalent. All our decisions in life come from one of two sources.

They’re either rooted in assumptions, or they’re rooted in facts, proof, and evidence. The more we go through our life and prove all things, the less we’re going to let our deceitful human nature take over. It’s pretty simple. Second Timothy chapter two.

Second Timothy two and verse fifteen. Why do we study the Bible? Why? We know we’re supposed to. It’s one of the tools of Christian growth, but why do we study? Brethren, the purpose is simple. Second Timothy two and verse fifteen says, “Study to show yourself approved to God.” If you study, you’re showing God that you’re proving all things. It’s that simple. And if we prove all things, the way that we prove all things is we have to show ourselves “workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

We have to toil in the scriptures. We have to work. Studying the Bible is not easy work, particularly if we’re trying to look for areas where we need improvement. If we see that we’re making a lot of assumptions in life, we have to study what is God’s will on all matters. Because we may find, brethren, that God expects something different from us than what we thought. Samuel didn’t expect God to come to him and say, “No, Eliab is not the one.” Samuel thought, “Here he is. Look at him. Perfect. Jesse’s firstborn or whatever. Big, strong. He could replace Saul.”

No, no, no. Assumptions cannot be made because it takes work. It takes work in proving all things. It takes work and effort, which is hard, but the end result is that you’ll have strong confidence in the decisions that you’re making. Romans chapter twelve and verse one. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Part of being a living sacrifice means you prove all things, because it’s hard, it’s a sacrifice to spend time working to prove what is God’s will on a matter. “Present yourself a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world...”

The world focuses on just assuming everything. We’ve seen that. “...but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” God wants us to- [coughs] excuse me- understand His mind and His will. The only way we can do that is by studying the word of God and praying and focusing and being close to God. The further we are from God, the more assumptions we’re going to make. The closer we are to God, the more we’re going to know His will for us, what He wants from us and expects from us in life, and we’ll be making far less assumptions.

That’s it. Draw closer to God and you’ll assume less. Be further away from God, and assumptions will abound. And the closer we are to God, the more confidence we’re going to have because we’ll have proven all things. As soon as we trust what others say and don’t prove it for ourselves, we’re beginning to break the law of assumptions. The hidden law that’s written all throughout God’s word. That’s particularly important for youth in God’s church, too, who may be working toward baptism. If you grew up in the church, if you’ve been in the church for any length of time in your youth, maybe you’re a teenager, maybe you’re early twenties, you’re working toward baptism, or you’re thinking about it, trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, where you want to go, this is a simple path.

All you have to do is decide, “I don’t want to assume anything. I don’t want to assume what my parents teach. I don’t want to assume what the world teaches. I want to go prove it for myself.” And if we decide, if we just make that active decision to prove all things, take First Thessalonians five, twenty-one to heart and live by it, brethren, youth, young people, young adults, it’ll make your life a lot easier because what you’ll find is that God’s word has a lot to say. God has a lot to say, but it’s very easy. And hopefully, you’ll be able to prove the same thing that your parents did, that this is where God is working.

That there is no other place on earth like it, there’s no other people on earth like it, because we don’t make assumptions. We believe what God says, and we live by it. We can even make assumptions about ourselves and our character. Now, there are two wrong ways to make assumptions about our character. Number one, we can assume we’re okay when we’re not. We can believe, oh, I’m doing just fine in life. Everything’s okay, and then we’re not okay. Or two, we can make the assumption that we’re just unredeemable and God has judged us already and that we’ve... maybe we’ve committed the unpardonable sin, and we judge ourselves too harshly.

Those are the two ditches with assumptions about our character, and it’s easy to fall into both of them. Believe me, it’s hard to ride that line in the middle. It’s hard to stay in the middle of the road. It’s very difficult, because one day, we may be allowing ourselves to do certain things that we know we shouldn’t be doing, but we just overlook it and say, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Then the next day, we could be beating ourselves up for something that we just... It’s... What are you beating yourself up for? It’s okay. We have to find the right balance.

We have to understand what God’s will is for us and understand that we are going to sin, but that we can’t just allow sin in our lives. We’re going to fall, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get back up. We have to get back up. We have to try to overcome. First Corinthians chapter ten. Let’s talk about the first ditch. The type of person who assumes they’re okay, but they’re really not. We do not want to assume we’re okay, brethren. We don’t want to fall into this ditch. First Corinthians chapter ten and verse twelve. Verse eleven, “Now all these things happened unto them in Israel for examples, and they’re written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore...” here’s the key verse, “...let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

If we think that we stand, brethren, built into that verse is the assumption that we think we’re standing. We think we’re standing. We look at ourselves, and we assume that we’re doing just fine in life. That is a grave error to make because if we don’t take heed, what will happen to us is that we will fall because that’s part of God’s word. He says that. He says that if we think we’re standing and we don’t take heed, we’re going to fall. Plain and simple. Being lifted up with pride, being high-minded or haughty, is very dangerous for a Christian.

We lift ourselves up in our minds, elevate ourselves and put ourselves on a pedestal in our minds. It can be a very dangerous place to be. And the more we think this way, the more we don’t feel the need to prove what’s right from God’s word because, well, oh, look at me. I’ve got all the answers. What do I need God for? I already am standing. It’s okay. I don’t need to go to God’s word. I’m already standing. I don’t need Him to tell me that I’m already standing. I already know it for myself. Very, very dangerous. We can’t assume that we’re standing in life.

We can look at God’s word, and if we prove in God’s word, you know what? I’m doing pretty well in this area, it’s okay to say that. It’s okay to say, “You know what? I haven’t lied in a long, long time. I’m feeling very good about that.” I can actually feel like I can say, “According to God’s word, I look back at my life, proving all things, examining myself, and I see, you know what? I haven’t lied in a long time. I’m feeling good about that.” But the second that we start to think, “You know what? I’m doing re... I’m really doing well. I don’t think I need to go continue to prove all things.” Be careful because we could fall back into sin.

That’s the danger of being in God’s Church for any length of time. You might... It comes in waves. You might see yourself overcoming something, and then you start to see it slip back, and you see you’re overcoming something else, and it slips back, and you got over... Overcoming is not a perfect uphill bat... It’s an uphill battle. Human nature never goes away, brethren, so we can’t assume that we’re standing all the time. We have to constantly be checking, constantly be proving, looking at our character and proving that we are not assuming anything about our character.

And having closed minds is very dangerous and can lead to assumptions, too. People think they know it all, or assume that they’re fine on their own. It’s very dangerous. Turn over to Galatians chapter six. Galatians six.

Verse three. Let’s just pick it up in verse one. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” If you’re going to go out and try and help somebody else, understand that there is danger in you being tempted as well, so you better be ready when you go help somebody else.” Bear you one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” But know that it’s good, it’s good to help others. It’s good to help pull people out of sin if you see something, but here’s que... here’s the point.

“For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.” The only way that we can have true joy in ourselves and in our character is by proving our character, proving our work. We can’t think that we’re something when we’re nothing, because, brethren, it says that we are nothing. We know that God has called the weak, foolish, base, things that are despised, things that are not. We’re nothings. God has called the nothings of this world so that we can eventually confound the mighty.

But if we take our nothingness and look at it and say, “Oh, I really... I don’t think so. I think I’m actually something,” God said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You’ve deceived yourself. You’ve made an assumption, and that assumption is deceptive. Remember, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That’s how you know that when assumptions come in, that’s what... it’s evidence that the carnal mind is taking over, the deceitful mind, human nature is taking over. But we can watch out for this if we prove our own work.

Prove means to test, try, examine, or discern. We have to prove ourselves, and the only way to do that is by studying God’s word and measuring ourselves accordingly. How am I doing in this area? How am I doing in that area? Now, the other side of the coin is this. Turn over to John chapter eight.

John chapter eight, verse three, John eight, three, “And the Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery...” was brought to Christ, “...and they had set her in the midst and say unto him, Master... they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now, Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned, but what say you? What do you have to say about this matter? This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground...” He kept going. “...and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” Now, when Jesus had lifted up Himself, He saw none but the woman. And He said unto her, ‘Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?’ She said, ‘No man, Lord.’ And Jesus said unto her, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.’”

Now this woman caught in adultery proves that we can make assumptions, the Jews made assumptions, that she would be condemned, that she should be stoned. And we, too, brethren, can more too harshly judge ourselves. This woman may have even... the crowd certainly did, but this woman may have even looked at herself and thought and assumed that she would be condemned, that she would be stoned to death. But Christ showed otherwise.

Now, what’s the lesson from this? We can look at ourselves and easily, the other side of the ditch here, you know, you’ve got this side of the ditch where people are not judging themselves enough, they look at themselves and say, “I’m doing just fine, thank you.” But here, the other side of the ditch, you’ve got the problem that you can assume that you’re in grave shape when really everything’s okay. You’re just committing... You may be sinning, you may be doing something wrong, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be stoned to death or lose eternal life.

When examining our character, we simply have to compare ourselves to the plain word of God. Nothing more and nothing less. We have to find that balance. It’s very challenging, but we have to find the balance. God looks at our hearts and He knows that each of us probably tip more naturally one way or the other. Some of us judge ourselves too harshly, some of us judge ourselves too leniently. Whichever boat you fall into, whichever ditch you fall into, naturally, try to tip the other way a little bit. Try to judge yourself a little bit more strictly, more strictly, if you find that you’re too lenient on yourself. But if you’re too harsh on yourself, give yourself a break.

Sometimes that’s hard. Sometimes you have to go counsel and say, “You know what, I’m really struggling with how to let go of this.” So counsel will help. Okay, so we’ve seen that assumptions can be made in our character. We’ve seen earlier in the message that assumptions can be made about doctrine. We can easily make assumptions about doctrine. The world’s churches do that all the time. We strive not to do that.

But here’s a final area in our lives where assumptions can crop up regularly. And that’s, if you read in the How to Build a Happy Marriage booklet, Mr. Pack describes three great causes of trouble in marriage. If you recall that, if you’ve read the booklet, encourage you to do so. Even if you’re not married, it’s very good to read through it. Great lessons. The three great causes of trouble in marriage are these... excuse me, finances, sex, and thirdly, communication. Communication. This third issue that intersects with today’s subject, communication. This is an area in our life where we can very easily make assumptions, and it can be very detrimental, not only to us, but to those around us.

Oftentimes, the underlying problem with communication is that assumptions are made. Think about it. If a woman, just think of this example. If a woman... I’m married, many of you married men out there, maybe have experienced this to a certain degree. If a woman expects her husband to notice certain things around the house and to help out, but doesn’t say anything to the husband, she becomes increasingly upset in her mind. She sees, “Oh, you know what, this...” whatever it might be, maybe the garage door’s broken or maybe the kids have left toys all over and they won’t pick it up and the husband just keeps walking by, walking by, walking by, doesn’t help pick up, doesn’t help do anything around the house.

So she sees that and is increasingly upset in her mind, but doesn’t say anything. Just starts boiling and boiling and boiling and boiling about it. Finally, she blows up, says, “Why don’t you help around the house? Why don’t you fix this thing? It’s been broken for years,” whatever it might be. If a woman expects... If a wife expects something of her husband but doesn’t communicate it, is she at fault, or is the husband at fault because he didn’t see it, or didn’t notice it, or didn’t do anything about it for a long time? Well, the answer is, brethren, both are at fault. Really, both are at fault. Both parties can do better.

And this is just general marital counseling. If you think about it, oftentimes, when a couple needs marital counseling, they’re always looking at the other person’s fault. Brethren, the only person you can change is yourself. You have to almost assume that your spouse may or may not ever change. And you have to put yourself at ease and come to recognize that that may be the case. But the problem in this example, this scenario, is that both parties could have done better. The husband could have been more attentive, alert to his surroundings, and helped out the wife, seeing that she’s busy already doing various things around the house, too.

But the wife could have asked the husband using a simple question, using communication, and not assuming that maybe he saw it and walked by it over and over and over and over and over again. Rather than making the assumption that maybe one day he’ll see it and walk by it and do it, she could have just simply communicated, “Honey, I see you’ve got the garage door’s been broken for a little while. Do you mind fixing that one of these Sundays coming up?” “Yes, sure. You know what? I hadn’t noticed that.” Maybe he noticed it. Maybe you should have noticed it. Why didn’t you notice it?

It’s on both sides of the relationship should take responsibility. But we can’t assume that just because we see something, that it’s seen by the other partner in the marriage. So communication would have very easily remedied this scenario. Men and women are very different. Men think different than women. Women think different than men. We see and use emotions differently. So, assuming anything about your spouse is not a good idea. Talk to them. Communicate. The more we communicate, the more effective we’ll be in our marriage.

Simple and often short conversations can alleviate great difficulties, great strife. Brethren, as much as we... Again, the goal of this is to see where we are making assumptions, and we can see the area of communication is a great big area where we can really fall short in that area. We can really make assumptions often and not even know it. Not even know it. We can’t let that happen. The more we communicate, if we get into the pattern of communicating more with others, it could be our spouse, could be a co-worker, could be our friends. Generally speaking, when issues and strife crops up, it comes down to communication breakdown.

So if we just stop assuming things and we just communicate to others, then it will help smooth everything over. Assumptions often stem from either a lack of communication, meaning you just don’t communicate something, or unclear communication. If we’re not clear in what we say, if we decide we’re going to say something to somebody, tell them, “Honey, could you fix such and such around the house,” but you’re not clear about what’s going on, and they don’t see it. Clarity in communication will help alleviate all assumptions as well.

So let’s turn over to Hebrews chapter thirteen. Hebrews chapter thirteen. Okay, we’ll pick it up in verse twelve. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go therefore unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him, by Christ, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” The more often we communicate with God, communication is not just with one another, it’s with God too.

The more often we communicate with God, praising Him, thanking Him, the closer we’re going to be to Him and the less we’ll make assumptions in life. That’s just a side point. We have to communicate not only with one another, but with God. Verse sixteen, “But to do good and to communicate, forget not. To do good and to communicate, forget not.” Communicate means to participate, be social, have social intercourse, contribute, and fellowship. God wants us to communicate with one another. If we’re not communicating, assumptions will naturally arise.

Communication will tamp down assumptions, particularly clear communication. It says forget not. If we’re to prove all things in life, and we’re not to assume anything in life, it says don’t forget this. Do it all the time. Just like we’re to prove all things, we’re supposed to communicate all things. It’ll help us greatly. Naturally, we view communication as how we speak too, the things that we say to other people. It’s important what we say to others. It’s important that what we say is said on time, and that it’s said clearly.

But what we say, how we say it, and when we say it is not the sum total of communication. You could argue the more important side of communication isn’t the speaking part, it’s the listening part. Somebody might be saying something to you, but if you’re not listening intently, you’re not listening carefully to what they’re saying, then you’ll walk away thinking, assuming that you heard everything that was said, and operate off of your assumptions of what you heard instead. That can be very dangerous. So being a good listener is key, absolutely key, to having clear communication.

Turn over to Proverbs chapter eighteen. Proverbs eighteen and verse thirteen. Proverbs eighteen and verse thirteen. “He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him.” If you answer a matter, that could mean you go off and you don’t wait for somebody to finish speaking. You get part of the picture, but you cut them off, and you go answer them anyway. Or if you do hear the whole picture, but you don’t listen properly, you’re only hearing part of the picture, and then you’re going off and you’re living your life without using the full picture at hand.

Don’t answer the matter before you hear it. Again, at least fifty percent of communication is just listening. If we don’t hear the whole matter before we jump to a conclusion, we’re basing our decision on assumptions, and that can be very detrimental to us. We don’t want that. You know, there’s... assumptions are all throughout our lives. My wife and I, we work with camps in years past, and, you know, oftentimes, where assumptions come in, is because of breakdown of communication.

There was a time when certain things were left in a van, and multiple people were given the responsibility to go pull those things out of the van. But because none of them talked to each other, there was no communication, and therefore everything was left in the van, and the food could have spoiled potentially by staying overnight in the vans. So, breakdown of communication, lack of communication, unclear communication, has us assuming things.

Every person in that camp assumed somebody else was going to take care of it, because there was a breakdown in communication. We don’t ever want to do that. So, over-communicating is a very important point with this. Even if you feel like it’s unnecessary to communicate something, if there’s a chance that somebody might have misunderstood, misinterpreted, or didn’t hear the full picture of what you said, be sure to clarify it. Over-communicate when necessary, because it will help solve all kinds of issues.

Food won’t get left in vans, or whatever this scenario might be. It could be anything in life. We could be talking about stuff that’s very little, very small in life, or we could be talking about things that are very big. Things that are very big. We don’t want to assume anything. We want to prove all things. And the other thing, too, is don’t assume you know where people are going in their conversations. You know, if somebody is telling a story to you, maybe they’re somebody elderly or somebody you know, a relative, who you’ve heard the story multiple times, or you’ve heard the lesson multiple times, let them continue to speak. Let them finish the story to you.

You know why that’s important? Because maybe there’s something this time that you’re going to hear in that lesson that you hadn’t heard in times past. And by hearing it this time, you could glean something new and use that to better yourself or better other people. And so hearing the whole conversation, even if you’ve heard it before, listen to it again. You know, it’s a funny thing. I work with Mr. Pack regularly. Every day we sit down together and we talk about prophecy. We talk about all kinds of things in God’s Word. And I’m very close to the subjects and the topics that are going to be covered in whatever are the upcoming sermons.

Well, it’s a funny thing because as much as I hear the conversations that we have, and I learn the things that we’re talking about, and I know what Mr. Pack is going to be speaking about on the Sabbath, still when I come to Sabbath services and hear it laid out in its entirety, it strikes me almost every time in an entirely different way. Now I could tune out. I would never do this, but I’m just saying, theoretically, I could tune out during Mr. Pack’s messages and say, “Well, I don’t need to listen to this because I’ve heard it all week. I know what Mr. Pack is going to be speaking about. I helped with the notes.”

Well, no. The reason you need to tune in, reason it’s helpful for me to tune in and stay focused is because I can always learn more. We can always learn more. So that’s the lesson here. With communication, it’s the same. Don’t ever assume that you’ve heard the story three or four times in the past and therefore you don’t need to hear it again. You can just tune out. Now listen again because you might learn something new.

Proverbs chapter nine says this, verse nine. Proverbs nine, nine. “Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase learning.” If you have an open mind, if you want to be wise, have an open mind to recognize that you could learn from anywhere. Be a sponge. Absorb information. Don’t push information out because, again, the more that we absorb information, the more information that we’re able to gather, the more we’re able to make right judgments and decisions. And if someone is giving advice, don’t assume they’re giving it because they think you’re ignorant of a subject. They may just be giving advice because they’re trying to be helpful to you.

So let’s go to Matthew chapter twelve. One final verse. Matthew chapter twelve. Verse thirty-four. “O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”

So what kinds of words do we have coming out of our mouths? What kind of communication are we having with other people? If we assume all kinds of things in our lives, and rather than communicating, it can be extremely, extremely detrimental to us. Words are important to God. What we say has direct and potentially lasting impact on both us and the people we’re speaking to. So the clearer we are in communication, the clearer we will be before God at the judgment. Plain and simple.

Because all of our idle words will be taken into account. Or our lack of words. If we decide we don’t want to communicate something, our lack of words will be taken into account as well. Why didn’t you speak up? You could have communicated. You could have made things clear to other people. You could have overcommunicated to make sure that everybody understood what your intents were. Communication is important.

So let’s return to the verse that we started as we close. First Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five and verse twenty-one. Oops, sorry, I’m in Timothy. First Thessalonians five, twenty-one says, “Prove all things and hold fast that which is good.” Prove all things. Assume nothing. If we take this powerful hidden law in God’s Word and use it, see ourselves throughout our lives, watch for where we are making assumptions, it will completely and totally alter the way we see and live our lives.

Make no assumptions about doctrine. We can’t be like the world. Make no assumptions about doctrine. Prove all things. Go back through the literature. The literature, as you heard in the sermonette today, their websites are there as a great tool for you to use to prove all things. Every doctrine you can imagine is laid out with crystal clarity in our literature. Go and prove it. Prove all things. Prove doctrine. Make no assumptions about your character. Don’t assume that you’re doing either just fine, thank you, or that you’re going to be condemned because you’re judging yourself too harshly.

Make no assumptions. Prove what is your character; and strive to always improve it. And finally, make no assumptions in your communication. Be clear, speak up, and assume nothing. If we assume nothing, verse twenty-three reads as follows, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”