Chester Clark

Ouachita Hills College

True Education and the Final Generation

It is very good to be here this morning and to be feeling better.

And it's always wonderful to be able to worship God and nature.

But you know I'm also thankful every time I come back to Ouachita Hills because we are blessed with nature there too.

And I think sometimes in the busyness and the stress of our week and our work and our studies that we sometimes don't see just how beautiful a campus God's given us.

And so I would just encourage you sometime to just take a deep breath and look around and when the sun's coming up and there's some fog over the vineyard or maybe you see the bright green grass or whatever it is, and just be thankful for the nature God has given us there too.

And you know I was thinking, you know as we experience God in a little different way in nature, I've heard some of the testimonies here this morning.

I was thinking about how, you know sometimes we as Adventists we're a little weak on the mystical side and maybe for a good reason.

You know we don't we know that God hears prayer everywhere right.

We don't have to go to a church to to to say our prayers or to to find God because we believe God is wherever we seek him.

But Jesus did give us an example of not just rising up a great while before day but also going into a solitary place and there praying.

Jesus had a practice in his life of, I think, which started very early of going out into a place, a special place that was his and God's, his and his father's.

And I would encourage you, even on campus, you might find a spot where you can make that your spot with God.

It may be a tree or a place by the creek, or I realize it'll get cold and it won't be comfortable to spend all of your time with God in that spot.

But particularly maybe when you want to pray or spend time alone, there's nothing wrong with having a particular place that you keep for you and God.

I was reading in Patriarchs and Prophets, the life of Abraham and when God spoke to Abraham that final test and he said, Abraham, Abraham take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go and offer him for a sacrifice at Mount Moriah.

In the spirit of prophecy we're told that when that message was concluded and Abraham wondered, he doubted, he questioned whether that was really God speaking to him and giving him that specific instruction.

Allmight says that he went to a place where he had beforehand met messengers from heaven.

And he hoped there again to have some special revelation to have some communication from God some additional affirmation but nothing happened.

But what struck me was that he had this place where he was in the custom of especially meeting God.

And it would be well for us, I believe, to form a habit of also seeking God, not just in our dorm rooms, wherever we are when we need him throughout the day, But perhaps also in a spot in nature where we can draw close to him well I'm glad there's no clocks around because I have 2 sermons Last nights and this mornings You had a big breakfast, right?

And it's only going on 10 o'clock in California.

But I wanna just do a quick review, if it's okay, of the thought for last night, and then maybe this next few minutes that we share together with today's message will be more meaningful.

Last night, I wanted to look at the principles of true higher education.

When we speak of higher education today, we often think of post-secondary, maybe even post-undergraduate studies.

Higher education is sort of that academic world that colleges and universities are particularly thought of as allowing us to enter into.

But there's a different higher education that's spoken of in the Bible and throughout the spirit of prophecy.

And so just to familiarize you with that concept make sure we're on the same page when we speak of true higher education We're not really distinguishing between 1 college and university and another We're talking about a principle here.

That is a principle that really supersedes institutions.

And that principle is a principle that God established as a principle of education from the very beginning.

If you've read the book Education you're familiar with the concepts.

It was a school where Adam and Eve could learn throughout all of eternity because God created us with minds capable of infinite expansion.

God intended for them to learn in this school of higher education throughout all of eternity.

And the principle of this school, the concept of higher education, was that that education would come as man's mind, the human mind, the finite mind, would come into contact with the infinite mind, with God's mind.

Now there are 2 ways that that would happen.

1 would be of course throughout their day and their work and especially in contact with God's first book of revelation of nature, right?

So throughout the creation of God, man would become familiar with the character and mind of God.

And so, as they would be out in the Garden of Eden and what a wonderful garden that must have been.

If we think this is beautiful, if we think that after 6, 000 years of sin we're still moved by natural beauty, I can only imagine what the Garden of Eden must have been.

So we have to we have to keep looking for blessings and and and counting our blessings because we become accustomed to it.

And I suppose we'd become accustomed to the Garden of Eden too.

But Beyond the book of nature there was also communication that God would have directly.

In those days before sin, God could speak directly face to face with man.

In these 2 forms of contact, the finite mind with the infinite mind, true higher education would take place.

That's a very fundamental principle underlying true higher education.

True higher education is our minds coming into contact with God's mind and our minds being raised, elevated, our characters even being changed as a consequence, as a result.

That is the underlying principle of true higher education.

Let me just read to you a couple things from, well, first of all, let's just look in the Bible at Proverbs chapter 1.

Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7, it's a theme that will be repeated throughout the book of Proverbs so it's important for us to find it here in the very first chapter.

It says in verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Chapter 2, verse 5, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.

It's the basis of wisdom and understanding.

We can see this throughout, particularly, maybe we're familiar with Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

So the concept is this, higher education, when we speak of it in a biblical spiritual sense, higher education has less to do with the degree or the pursuit or the institution.

Higher education has to do with the heart.

It has to do with our spiritual development.

Now that makes us step back and think a little bit because we tend to think of education as dealing with the realm of the mind, the intellect.

And we sometimes are even tempted to think that if I just study the truth, if I just, if I'm smart enough and I study the truth, I will come to the truth.

It, the understanding comprehension of truth has more to do with the heart than it does with the mind.

Jesus would even say in John 7, 17, If any man will do my will, he will know of my doctrine, whether I speak of myself or of God or whether I speak of myself.

So as we yield ourselves, which is a function of the heart, as we yield ourselves to the obedience of the truth, our minds become open to the comprehension of true knowledge.

This is the fundamental principle underlying true higher education.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The knowledge of the holy is understanding.

You know I'm concerned today because in the intellectual world and academic world there are many who have different ideas about truth.

The question is not how high our IQ is or how many years we've studied.

The question is, are we submitted, are wills submitted to God?

Be very careful, be very careful in trusting the opinions of men who do not understand the basics of commandment keeping.

We tend, especially in the world of Christian music, we're sort of all united as a Christian community.

But the understanding of truth is dependent upon the willingness to follow truth.

And the more we are willing to obey the truth, submit our hearts to the will of God, the more he's going to be able to lead us into the knowledge of him.

True higher education is gained by studying and obeying the word of God.

This is from Christ Object Lessons 107 if you're taking notes.

True higher education is gained by studying and what?

But when God's Word is laid aside for other books that do not lead to God in the kingdom of heaven.

The education acquired is a perversion of the name.

Education, page 14, in a knowledge of God, all true knowledge and real development have their source.

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True Education and the Final Generation

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