Episode Transcript
Proverbs 12, verse 23.
The message tonight is knowledge concealed.
Knowledge concealed.
There are several Proverbs about prudent men, and when I read those Proverbs, it makes me want to be a prudent man.
They're very encouraging to me.
The Bible is teaching us tonight, if you'll look in your text, in verse 23, about a prudent man.
A prudent man.
The Hebrew word translated prudent here can be used in both a good and a bad sense.
Thank you, Sister Leah.
I saw that just pop up on my tablet.
Came right up over my sermon notes.
But the Hebrew word translated prudent can be used in both a good and a bad sense.
It all depends on the context.
It has the idea of a person who accomplishes what they set out to do.
I like people who can accomplish what they set out to do, as long as it's something just.
So if a person does so wisely and they do so righteously, if they go about accomplishing what they set out to do, and it's righteous and it's done wisely, then that's a prudent person.
But if a person goes about to accomplish what they set out to do using deception and doing something that's wicked, that's a cunning person.
So this word can be used both for crafty and cunning, which are negative, or it can be prudent, which of course is godly and is something we want to strive to be.
All depending on how they're doing it and what they're trying to accomplish.
So if he does so deceptively and wickedly, then he's cunning.
And the first time this word is used in the Bible is to describe the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
In our Proverbs tonight, the word describes a prudent man because he's acting wisely and righteously, not like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
He accomplished what he set out to do, but he did it deceptively in what he accomplished was unrighteous.
So same Hebrew word, but it's assigned to the serpent calling him subtle.
He was subtle, he was crafty, he was cunning.
And so in our Proverbs tonight, we're looking at a prudent man because a prudent man here is acting wisely and righteously, accomplishing a righteous purpose.
So the difference between a prudent man and a subtle or a cunning man is that the prudent man accomplishes his goals by wisdom, while the cunning man accomplishes his goals by deceit.
Now prudence is all about the end result.
And remember that tonight as we study this proverb, a prudent person handles his business wisely in the beginning to secure a better outcome in the end.
A cunning person handles his business foolishly to secure a quick reward and not considering the final outcome.
Esau is a good example of that.
The difference between the prudent man and the cunning man is like the difference between two athletes.
One who wins by talent, the other who wins by cheating.
We've seen them both, haven't we?
One is righteous, the other is not.
One gets the reward in the beginning if they cheat.
Remember Lance Armstrong, all those Tour de France wins and years later, what happens?
He gets them taken away from them.
They say, "Well, he cheated.
They found out he cheated.
He was blood doping."
So he got the quick reward in the beginning, but the end game was he lost.
And the person who went about it righteously and wisely, they won in the end.
And it's always that way for a prudent person.
And I'm so glad I don't have to cheat through life, aren't you?
And the reason we don't have to cheat through life is because God gives us wisdom through the Scriptures.
He gives us everything we need through the Scriptures so we can be prudent people and win in the end.
And one of the things a prudent person does, if you'll look in your text tonight, is he concealeth knowledge.
He concealeth knowledge.
Now remember, the prudent man is all about the end game.
There is a similar proverb a few verses back, if you'll look in Proverbs chapter 12, verse 16, and that will help shine some light for us concerning the proverb we're looking at tonight in verse 23.
In Proverbs 12, 16, it says, "A fool's wrath is," what?
"Presently known."
Remember, we're talking about the end game?
Fool's wrath is presently known.
So when you're thinking of that text, think of that word presently.
The fool may use anger to quickly get what he wants, but he doesn't consider the end game.
A fool's wrath is presently known, but a prudent man, it says, covers shame in verse 16.
So that's quite a difference.
Fool's wrath, presently known.
Prudent man, he covers shame.
If there's something he has, his wrath or something like that, he's just going to cover it up.
He's going to think it through, and he's going to conceal that knowledge.
So covering shame is similar to concealing knowledge in our verse tonight, because they are both matters that are being concealed.
In our verse tonight, the prudent man is concealing knowledge, so we're going to consider about the concealment of knowledge now.
Why would a prudent man conceal knowledge?
Well, simply put, it's because there's some knowledge that needs to be concealed.
There is some knowledge that needs to be concealed.
The word translated knowledge here, as you might expect, was first used back in the Garden of Eden.
All the scripture goes back to Eden, all of it ends up in Revelation.
It's so beautiful.
But it began in the Garden of Eden when the Bible described to us in the book of Genesis the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now what knowledge should not be known there?
The knowledge of evil, right?
It was okay for them to have the knowledge of good.
It wasn't okay for them to have the knowledge of evil.
There's an old saying, "Knowledge is power."
And that's very true, but only if it's the right kind of knowledge and only if it's given at the right time, which we'll see tonight.
As Adam and Eve found out, knowledge is not only power, but knowledge can also be death, destruction, sorrow, godlessness, and shame.
The way God designed man, He designed us to only know good.
And that's the first example we have in the Bible of a prudent person concealing knowledge.
When we look at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that's the first example we have of God concealing knowledge.
He only gave man the knowledge of good.
With the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was the potential of gaining knowledge that did not belong to Adam, but God forbade him eating from that tree, giving him the commandment, "Thou shalt not eat of it."
So God was concealing knowledge there.
But God's design, the knowledge of good, belonged to Adam.
The knowledge of evil did not.
So in God's prudence, He concealed knowledge that did not belong to Adam.
When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God said, "Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil."
That was for God to know good and evil.
It wasn't for man to know good and evil.
And so that was concealed from Adam.
So when is it proper to conceal knowledge?
Because a lot of times we may think, "Well, should I say this?
Should I not say this?
Should I let this be known?
Should I keep this hidden and concealed in my heart and not share it with anybody?"
When is it proper to conceal knowledge?
As I was studying for this message tonight, I thought and I prayed, "I want biblical answers to this.
I want biblical examples.
I don't want to just grab something out of the air and say, 'Well, suppose this happened or suppose that happened.'
I want biblical answers so we can look at how God handles things and look how the scripture shows us when and how knowledge is to be concealed and go by that in our lives."
So when is it proper to conceal knowledge?
When we learn from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that it's proper to conceal knowledge when that knowledge does not belong to someone.
If that knowledge does not belong to someone, that knowledge should be concealed.
Knowledge in the mind of someone that it doesn't belong to, it damages in the end.
When someone has knowledge in their mind and that knowledge does not belong to them, it causes damage in the end.
If you've been going through Brother Shepard's Sunday School class, then you'll remember in 2 Kings 20, verse 15, that Isaiah came to Hezekiah.
Hezekiah had been sick and Hezekiah had these Babylonian people come visit.
This is why it's so important to go to our Sunday Schools and stuff so you're always in on the scriptures and what we're teaching on.
But the people came from Babylon and they were going to pay him a friendly visit.
While they were there, Hezekiah took them into his house and showed them all his treasure and showed them everything.
And then Isaiah, the prophet, came to visit Hezekiah after they left in 2 Kings 20, verse 15, and he said, "What have they seen in thine house?"
And Hezekiah answered, "All the things that are in mine house have they seen.
There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them."
So this is knowledge that Hezekiah revealed to these people that did not belong to these people.
My treasures in my house, why am I showing them to you?
If you come over to my house, you're going to be treated nice.
I'm not going to show you if and where I have a safe.
I'm not going to tell you what the combination is.
So Brother Richard, we're church people.
I'm still not going to tell you.
And if I come over to your house, I don't want to know what the combination to your safe is either.
I don't need to see all that stuff.
And let me tell you one of the reasons I don't want to know.
If anything ever comes up missing, I don't want anyone to blame me.
That's knowledge that could be dangerous to me.
There was a laptop that came up missing last year at work.
Not ours, didn't belong to us, it belonged to someone else.
But it came up missing and boy, did they make a big deal out of that.
And their solution was to build a room to house some of these things in that only certain people had access to.
Now being over the security, we've got to have access to any place that someone could be harmed or be held captive or something.
We got to be able to get in there and help them or rescue them if we were to have to.
But we didn't get access to this particular storage room.
And guess who was happy that he did not get access to that storage room?
Because if another laptop comes up missing, nobody's going to be looking at old Richard.
That's something that I don't need to know.
That's something that they can keep to themselves.
So concealing knowledge is not only good for you, it's not only for your benefit, but concealing knowledge from someone it doesn't belong to, it protects them as well.
So we know what happened.
After Hezekiah showed them all his treasures in his house, Israel ended up losing them and guess who got them?
The Babylonians.
The Babylonians got them.
There was a moment of boasting for Hezekiah in the beginning.
Look what all I have.
But the Babylonians took all those treasures in the end.
It was knowledge that did not belong to them.
Listen to what Jesus said concerning the knowledge of the gospel in Matthew 11 verse 25.
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent."
Now those are the wise and prudent according to the world, not according to God.
"Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes."
Now that's us.
Those who've become like children, willing to be taught, willing to humble ourselves to God.
So what Jesus is saying is, "Father, I thank you that these spiritual truths, and those spiritual truths are spiritual treasures.
I thank you, Father, that these spiritual treasures..."
How do we know that they're spiritual treasures?
Because remember what Jesus said, "You don't cast your pearls before swine."
Those were spiritual treasures.
And so spiritual truth is spiritual treasure because truth makes you spiritually wealthy.
And so he says, "Thank you, Father, that you hid this knowledge from these people, but I thank you that you revealed that knowledge to these people."
So God in his prudence, he concealed knowledge from one group and he revealed that same knowledge to another group.
And I thank God that he revealed it to us.
I thank God that I once was blind, but now I see.
And God would have revealed it to them if they would have listened and sought the truth.
But they would not.
Those who were prudent in their own eyes and rejected God's wisdom, God hid the gospel from them.
God concealed the knowledge of salvation from them.
Why?
Because it did not belong to them.
God was not going to cast his gospel pearls before the swine.
He wasn't going to give them the revelation of that knowledge and open their eyes to that understanding.
And when Jesus' disciples, when they asked him why he spoke in parables around those same people, when Jesus got around the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the scribes, he would speak in parables.
And he did not speak in parables because parables make things easy to understand.
You go study the parables and you'll see.
They don't make things easy to understand.
They're spoken in code and they have to be interpreted.
And so they asked him, "Why are you speaking in parables?"
In other words, "Why aren't you speaking plainly?"
And in Matthew 13, 11, "He answered and said unto them, 'Because it is given unto you to what to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.'"
So to this group of people, we are going to reveal these mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
To this group of people, we are not going to reveal.
I am going to keep them hidden from these people.
Why?
That was the prudence of Jesus.
Why did Jesus not give them that knowledge?
It did not belong to them.
The lost person doesn't understand the scriptures.
Sometimes I think how wonderful it would be if people could understand the Bible and know God like I know.
I think everybody would be happy if they just understood.
But you know what?
That's not true.
The devil understood.
He was a light bearer.
The name Lucifer means "bearer of light."
He knew the truth.
He was like Judas.
He was one of these rare birds.
He knew the truth.
And what did he do when he knew it?
He despised what he knew.
And God knows the heart of man.
And knowing the heart of man, God says, "That person will never believe on me as their Savior.
And I am not going to take my treasures and open their eyes and give them this light.
I hide it from them.
I conceal this knowledge from them."
He concealed knowledge from the people when Jesus came.
So that unwittingly, by crucifying Jesus, they ended up fulfilling the scriptures about Jesus.
He hid that knowledge from their eyes.
And not only did he hide it from their eyes, but even while Jesus was telling them that he would have to be crucified and buried and raised again the third day, his disciples kept rejecting that.
Now that knowledge belonged to them, did it not?
The knowledge has to belong to the church.
It has to belong to the believers.
Or else how are we going to preach the gospel if he doesn't give us that knowledge?
Nevertheless, Jesus kept that knowledge hidden from them for a while until after the resurrection took place.
And then he opened their eyes to understand the scriptures.
And that lets us know a second thing.
Not only is knowledge hidden from those to whom it doesn't belong, but knowledge is hidden to those to whom it belongs until the right time.
Those are the two things that we're looking at tonight.
A prudent man conceals knowledge from them to whom it doesn't belong.
God loves to give knowledge.
The reason God gave us a Bible and prophets and apostles and pastors and evangelists and teachers is so we can gain the knowledge of God's plan for this world and for our lives.
And praise God, we are part of God's kingdom plan.
So God gives to us his kingdom knowledge.
To the rest, God hides this knowledge.
It's given on a need-to-know basis.
In Genesis chapter 18, verses 17 through 18.
Now that we're looking at this proverb tonight, other parts of the Bible will begin to pop into your mind perhaps.
Genesis 18, 17 through 18.
And the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?"
So what's God saying?
God says, "I have knowledge of what I'm about to do."
Abraham doesn't know it yet.
It wasn't time for Abraham to know it, so God has not yet given it to Abraham.
God didn't reveal it to Abraham when he called him from Ur of the Chaldees.
It wasn't time for him to have that knowledge yet.
But now it was time because God was about to go judge Sodom and Gomorrah.
And so now the knowledge belonged to Abraham because Abraham was working in God's kingdom plan.
And now it is given to the right person at the right time.
So God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"
Do you see God's reasoning here?
I have knowledge pertaining to the kingdom of God.
I have knowledge pertaining to my righteous judgment and my mercy.
I have knowledge pertaining to how I know how to judge the wicked, yet deliver the righteous from condemnation, which I'm about to do in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now shall I hide that knowledge from this man that I'm about to do?
The question is not meant to cause you to answer it.
It's meant to let you know, "Of course not."
The inference is, "No, I will not."
And then he says, "And here's why."
Because this is the man through whom the Savior will come and the world will be blessed.
He is part of my kingdom agenda.
I'm going to let him in on my kingdom plan.
So God's not going to conceal this knowledge from Abraham.
At the same time, there is some knowledge, again, that God hides from us.
He hid this knowledge from Abraham for a time, but then at the right time, he gave it to the right person.
And that's the way it works for us concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Does the second coming of Christ pertain to us?
Absolutely.
He's coming for us.
But God has hidden that knowledge from us at this time, right?
That knowledge has been hidden from us.
Matthew 24, verse 36, Jesus said, "But of that day and hour knoweth," there's knowledge, "no man, there's concealment.
No, not the angels of heaven, more concealment, but my Father only."
Ultimate concealment.
This is knowledge that God prudently contains to himself.
I began to imagine what it would be like if we all knew when Jesus would come.
If we all knew the century, the day, the date, and the time.
Do you think that would change how we behave and how we live?
I believe it definitely would.
I believe it would.
I think it would change how we live.
If you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow at 12 p.m., would it change your plans?
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, you all would go to work tomorrow if you knew Jesus was coming at noon.
No, I wouldn't either.
And so God in his prudence, he wisely holds that knowledge back from us.
We're the right people, but it's not the right time.
And so we learn the kingdom truth for this.
And this kingdom truth on how we watch God operate with when he conceals and when he reveals knowledge, we can now apply this to our lives when we conceal and when we reveal knowledge.
Here's the kingdom truth.
Knowledge should be given at the right time to the right people.
If you have something that you know, some knowledge that you know, it should be given to the right time, I mean at the right time to the right people.
And if it doesn't meet that criteria, then it should be concealed by you.
Let it remain hidden.
If it does meet that criteria, don't conceal it.
You need to reveal it.
So if you have knowledge, that knowledge should be given at the right time to the right people.
If that knowledge does not belong to the people, don't give it to them.
If it does not belong to them at this time, don't give it to them.
Is there anything you withhold from your children that you say will tell them when they grow up?
I think everybody does that with kids, right?
There's some things you just don't tell kids till they grow up.
Does the knowledge belong to the children?
Yes.
Does it belong to them now?
Perhaps not.
Not if it's an adult thing, not if it's some bad news they need to learn about a family member.
You wait till they get older and they can process it.
And so God uses that criteria with us and we should as well with others.
There are some things now as we're beginning to wrap this up, we need to understand that now there's some things that other people just shouldn't know about you.
There's some things you just should keep to yourself.
You know, if you're going to marry someone and you have a terrible past, I believe that that knowledge should be given to the right person, that's the person marrying you, and the right time.
You don't wait until after they pronounce you husband and wife to let them know, "Oh, I've been in prison, baby."
You know?
"I used to be a homosexual.
God saved me out of life of homosexuality."
That's not the time to spring that on somebody.
You give it to the right people at the right time.
But if it doesn't belong to another person, and most of the time that knowledge does not, it's best to keep stuff to yourself.
Because if you give knowledge about yourself to another person and that knowledge does not rightfully belong to that person, that can come back and harm you.
It can come back and harm you.
It can make you vulnerable to other people when they have that knowledge.
And if they share that knowledge and violate your trust, it can bring harm and shame to you.
You don't have to tell everybody everything about you.
What do they need to know that?
They don't.
Keep it concealed.
Does God tell us everything about Him?
No.
No.
No man hath seen God at any time.
That scripture pops in my head.
There's a lot about God we do not know as of yet.
There are just some things that are better left unsaid.
A prudent man conceals knowledge.
Look at the last part of your text now and we'll close.
But the heart of fools proclaim with foolishness.
Now this is in contrast to a prudent man concealing knowledge.
The heart of fools, it proclaims.
They proclaim foolishness.
So here's the difference.
Here's the contrast in the scripture.
A prudent man hides knowledge that does not belong in another person's heart.
A foolish man reveals knowledge that does not belong in his own heart.
You see?
A prudent man hides knowledge that does not belong in another person's heart.
A foolish man, he reveals knowledge or he reveals foolishness that does not belong in his own heart.
A prudent man hides knowledge to protect something precious.
A foolish man reveals to promote something absurd.
A foolish man can't keep the gate of his mouth shut.
So he just lets junk out.
And you know what?
If a foolish man can't keep the trash from getting out, then you better know he can't keep your treasure from getting out.
He can't keep your secrets from getting out.
Never ever trust a fool with your secrets.
A lot of people have done that.
They thought, "Well, I'll just confide in this person.
It's serious enough.
They'll take me serious here and they won't break my trust."
If it's a foolish person and they're spewing out foolishness, they'll spew out your secrets too.
They can't keep the gate of their heart shut.
Only give knowledge to the right person.
Only give knowledge at the right time.
And if you want the best knowledge of all, seek it from the right person.
That's God.
Seek it at the right time.
That's now.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
Thank you, Father, that if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not.
And in your great wisdom and prudence, Father, you give to us the right knowledge at the right time.
And thank you in your love, Father, for not revealing to us certain knowledge, such as the day we're going to die, the time we're going to die, the time when you're going to return.
In your prudence, Lord, you've hidden that knowledge from us because it's wise and good in your eyes.
And it keeps us, Lord, looking to you each and every day for our sustenance in doing what Jesus says for us to do, to occupy until you come.
We thank you so much for that, Father.
In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
