Ignorance/Bliss 3-9-25

Overview

Is Ignorance Really Bliss?

The popular saying "ignorance is bliss" may carry a kernel of truth when it comes to everyday troubles we haven't yet discovered, but in spiritual matters it is dangerously false. In Ephesians 4:17-18, Paul affirms and insists that believers must no longer live as the unbelieving world lives—"in the futility of their minds," "darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance" and "hardness of heart." Paul writes not to correct heresy, but to lift up God's eternal plan. That plan cannot be received by minds content to remain in the dark.

Scripture repeatedly warns against spiritual ignorance: 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 1 Peter 1:14, Romans 10:3, 2 Peter 3:16, and 1 Peter 2:15. The danger is that ignorance has become an "acceptable sin"—not acceptable to God, but easily tolerated by us. We grow comfortable making God an addendum to our busy lives, content to know little of Scripture, salvation, or the Savior. By nature, our hearts are stone and even hostile toward God Romans 5:10; any desire for Him is His work, not ours.

Paul's remedy is clear in Ephesians 4:22-24: put away the old self, "corrupt and deluded by its lusts," and "be renewed in the spirit of your minds," clothed with the new self created in true righteousness and holiness. Notice the passive voice—this renewal is God's work, not ours. He accomplishes it through Word and Sacrament: the proclamation and study of Scripture, and the reception of Christ's body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. The old Adam and old Eve in us are strong swimmers, so daily we return to our Baptism in repentance, drowning the old and rising new in Christ.

This is precisely why Satan's attacks—from the garden's "Did God really say?" onward—aim at pulling us away from Word and Sacrament, the very means God uses to grow and keep us in the faith. Bliss is not found in not knowing. Bliss is knowing Jesus: hearing His Word of forgiveness again and again, receiving His gifts at the Table, understanding why we exist, and remembering how cherished and loved we are by God. Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing Christ.

Transcript

Would you open your Bibles, please, with me, for our time and God's Word to the fourth 3s

chapter of the Book of Ephesians. 8s

If you're using a Puedition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that page 171 in the 10s

New Testament. 16s

Ephesians the fourth chapter. 18s

Bless, bliss. 25s

For some, it's on a beach, right at the edge of the sand, where the water lapse and tickles 29s

the toes and goes in between the toes. 39s

And one listens to the ocean waves. 44s

Bless. 51s

For others, it's high atop a mountain, looking down and seeing the hawks flying below, looking for 56s

food. 67s

One so high up that one wonders, is there enough oxygen up here to breathe, taking in the 68s

the grandeur of God's creation quiet. 77s

Bless. 83s

We're perhaps, it's a comfortable share with a good book. 87s

When one simply sits back after a long day and says, bliss, bliss. 92s

There are many things associated with that word bliss, aren't there? 104s

How about this? 109s

Ignorance. 113s

Ignorance. 115s

You've heard the phrase, right? 117s

Perhaps you've used it yourself. 119s

Ignorance is bliss. 122s

Is it? 131s

Is it? 134s

I certainly understand why it is we use that phrase, right? 137s

Have you used the phrase, ignorance is bliss when you were living in that time before 142s

you discovered a problem existed? 149s

And then when the problem becomes apparent to you, you say ignorance was bliss. 152s

I get it. 159s

You get it, right? 160s

We use that phrase to talk about that period of ignorance, so to speak, when we were unaware 161s

of a problem. 169s

But we can all do things that are ignorant, that don't contribute to bliss, right? 175s

I think 1995, Pittsburgh was a bank robbery, true story. 186s

Man went into a bank, walked right in, stopped, looked at the security cameras, gave up 191s

big smile, walked over them to the teller and proceeded to rob the bank, left with the 199s

money that afternoon did the same thing at another bank. 208s

He walked in, saw where the security camera was, gave a big smile to the security camera, 212s

went to the teller, robbed the bank, and left. 219s

Well, of course, both of the banks, they submitted the security footage there and they quickly 222s

identified the man, they went to his house, they said you're under arrest and he said, 228s

I didn't do anything, I said, sure you did. 235s

Here's the footage and they showed it to him and he said, how can this be? 238s

How can this be? 244s

I used the juice, he said. 245s

I used the juice and they said, what are you talking about? 247s

He said, I took the lemon juice and I put it all over my face because I read that the 253s

main ingredient in invisible ink is lemon juice. 261s

And so I took the lemon juice and I put it all over my face. 267s

How is it possible that they could have seen my face? 271s

That's ignorance, isn't it? 279s

That's ignorance that doesn't result in bliss. 282s

Little aside on this. 289s

Professor of Psychology was really, really intrigued with that story when he saw it. 292s

And so he did a study, very well developed study, many, many subjects. 298s

And he wanted to study the correlation or the relationship between ignorance and confidence. 306s

You know what I need to discover? 315s

So people that are ignorant have a very, very high level of confidence that they overestimate 316s

their abilities, they overestimate their knowledge, they overestimate what they know. 331s

Ignorance correlated with confidence. 341s

The psychologist said the inverse was true. 345s

That intelligent people, intelligent people understand their limits. 349s

He said intelligent people understand that there are things that they don't know, 356s

that they have to rely on good advice from others, that they have to seek out people 363s

that aren't in their area to instruct them. 369s

You see, the ignorant the study showed, correlated with an overestimation of themselves. 376s

Mark Twain simplified all of that. 389s

He put it this way. 392s

Quote, it ain't what you don't know that'll hurt you. 395s

It's what you know for sure that ain't so. 404s

There's wisdom there, isn't there. 410s

Now we can do things that are ignorant that don't result in bliss. 416s

Let's go deeper here. 421s

What about spiritual matters? 423s

Is ignorance bliss with regard to the things of God? 430s

Is ignorance bliss with regard to God? 437s

Paul writes this incredible letter to the church at Ephesus. 447s

When Paul wrote this letter, he wasn't addressing, he wasn't addressing heresy that it's 453s

not kind of the church. 458s

He wasn't addressing errors that had stuck into the church. 459s

What he was doing in that letter to the church at Ephesus, he was lifting up God's eternal plan 463s

for all people. 470s

It's a soring, it's an incredible, incredible letter. 471s

Look at verse 17, please. 476s

Paul says, now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord. 479s

You must no longer live as the Gentiles live in the futility of their minds. 486s

No, we understand Gentiles as one who was a non-Jew. 495s

But we also see in Holy Scripture that the word Gentiles is used for an unbeliever. 500s

The context tells you what's being communicated. 508s

So let's reword that there with that understanding of Gentiles. 512s

What Paul is meaning. 516s

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord, you must no longer live as the unbelievers live. 517s

And how are the unbelievers living in the futility of their minds? 524s

That is no life in Christ, that is vain, that is empty, that is thoughts that are contrary to God's 531s

ways. 541s

And then he goes on in verse 18. 542s

They're darkened in their understanding. 545s

Alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance. 548s

The word here is a lack of knowledge of or about God, a lack of knowledge of the ways of God. 564s

The problem with their living in this darkened state, in the futility of their mind, 573s

Paul zeros in and he says, it's a problem of ignorance. 581s

Then he goes on to say, and hardness of heart. 591s

Hardness of heart, what comes naturally to us. 596s

Who we are by nature. 599s

Our heart is hardened against the ways of God. 602s

Romans the fifth chapter, Paul says this. 606s

For if while we were enemies, what's the adversarial relationship here? 611s

Who are we in enemy with? 619s

He's talking about a relationship with God. 621s

We are by nature. 624s

Scripture says, born and enemy of God. 625s

We want absolutely nothing to do with him. 629s

That's the heart of us all by nature. 633s

There is not an inkling in us that wants a relationship with God. 638s

There's not a spark in us that wants a relationship with God. 646s

If there's a relationship with God, that has to be the result of 650s

God's changing of our heart. 654s

In our Lutheran confessions, it talks about our heart being a stone, a stone. 657s

We want nothing to do with God. 664s

So when it comes to spiritual matters, ignorance is not bliss. 669s

Is it? 677s

Scripture pounds the point. 679s

For Cecilonians 4. 682s

But we do not want you to be ignorant or to grieve like the rest. 686s

For Peter 1. 691s

Like obedient children do not be conformed to the desires that you 693s

formally had in ignorance. 698s

Romans 10, for being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and 702s

seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. 709s

Second Peter 3, speaking of Paul's writings, it says, there are some things in them hard to 715s

understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other 721s

Scriptures. 731s

How about one more? 732s

First Peter 2, for it is God's will that by doing right, you should silence the ignorance 733s

of the foolish. 745s

Back now to verse 17 of our text. 748s

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord. 752s

You must no longer live as the unbelievers live in the futility of their minds. 758s

Darkened alienated because why because of their ignorance? 768s

Their ignorance. 778s

But there is the challenge, isn't it? 786s

There is the challenge. 790s

Because ignorance is one of those acceptable sins. 795s

Not acceptable in the eyes of God but acceptable in our own eyes. 803s

We can be content with living in ignorance. 810s

We can take God and we can turn God into an adendum in our lives. 823s

We're God's an adendum. 833s

If everything works out, then there's God. 837s

We're just really busy. 844s

God a lot of things to do. 847s

Yeah, I understand God. 851s

But God becomes an adendum to our life and the ignorance forms. 855s

Around an acceptance, a contentment with regard to ignorance when it comes 863s

to Scripture, salvation, and the Savior. 873s

Where we're tempted to become content in staying in our ignorance. 889s

I think of Luther had so many incredible things. 904s

Luther said for example this, he said, 909s

whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God. 911s

He said, even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, 920s

I'd still plant my apple tree. 925s

He said, pray and let God worry. 929s

And I think one of his best ones is this. 934s

Are you ignorant of what it means to be ignorant? 943s

Luther said, are you ignorant about what it means to be ignorant? 955s

That temptation though of the acceptance of ignorance, it lurks constantly. 969s

For example, look at verse 19, they've lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to 979s

licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 988s

That's not the way you learned Christ. 993s

For surely you have heard about Him and were taught in Him as truth is in Jesus. 997s

You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self corrupt and deluded by its lusts. 1004s

That word corrupt there in the Greek, it's in the present tense. 1018s

That tells us that that old nature, that old self, that old Adam, that old Eve, 1022s

is very ready and willing to lead us into deception. 1030s

Paul's has, that needs to be put away. 1039s

There was, don't be ignorant about the reality of the old Adam and the old Eve in us. 1044s

That needs to be put away. 1054s

A former Secretary General of the United Nations said this, quote, 1057s

you cannot play with the animal in you without becoming holy animal. 1066s

Play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth. 1075s

Play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. 1081s

He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds. 1091s

But the temptation lurks doesn't it to simply accept ignorance, accept ignorance of scripture, 1104s

ignorance of salvation, ignorance of the Savior, ignorance of the ways of God, 1114s

ignorance of God's plan for us, ignorance of what God desires for us and we can go about our daily 1119s

activities. We can be in a weekly routine and yet God still can be pushed to the 1124s

end of and we can become content in living in ignorance. Why? Because that's the natural 1132s

poll in us. That's the old Adam and the old Eve in us. That's the poll in us. The poll is for acceptance 1140s

of what we can see as an acceptable sin content with ignorance. But God lifts it up as a sin 1155s

that needs not acceptance, but repentance. Here's the grace. Here's the grace. 1165s

Look at verse 22 again. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self 1172s

corrupt and deluded by its lusts. Now watch this. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds 1182s

and to clothe yourselves with the new self created according to the likeness of God in true 1191s

righteousness and holiness. Our old selves, that old Adam and old Eve, that has been charged to Christ. 1201s

When Jesus went to the cross, all of our sin was placed upon him, the spotless perfect 1218s

lamb of God. All of it, all the sins of the past, present and the future, Jesus bore all of it. 1226s

And he won for us the forgiveness of our sins. And we are called each and every day to drone 1235s

the old Adam and old Eve in us. To drone it, how do we drone it? By returning to our baptism 1243s

in repentance, permit me to use a phrase. I used it so many times, permit me to use it one more time. 1253s

Former professor of mind said that old Adam and Eve has to be drowned through daily repentance 1264s

because the old Adam and old Eve and us are really good swimmers. And so each and every day, 1269s

we return to our baptism in repentance and we drown that old Adam and old Eve in us. And what is it 1277s

that God is at work doing in our lives? When you look at these verses here in 23 and 24, 1285s

what you have, you've got embedded in the verses, you've got passives in terms of the tense. 1292s

That tells us that when it says to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, to be created 1299s

according to the likeness of God and through righteousness and holiness, that that's not our work, 1307s

that's God's work and how does God do that? God does that through Word and sacrament. 1314s

Those are the means whereby God says, this is how I am at work in your life. 1321s

Through Word and sacrament, He renews us and He creates us a new. We don't produce that. 1331s

That's God's work. But what means does God use? We must not be ignorant about that. 1339s

The means that God uses is the proclamation and the study of the Word of God, 1347s

the reception of the sacrament where we receive the forgiveness of Christ, Christ's very presence 1355s

in the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. We are told to swallow it for it is ours. 1363s

It is those means that God uses us to bring forth continually the new you to transform us into the person 1372s

that God wants us to be. The old Adam and the old Eve then want to pull us away from what? 1384s

The very thing that God uses to accomplish his good work in us, Word and sacrament. 1393s

So where is Satan going to attack? Where is Satan going to say, it's okay to accept this? 1403s

Where is God going to lead us into an acceptance of an ignorant thought? 1413s

But around the subject of Word and sacrament and the reception of that? 1418s

Where is Satan going to attack? Put God at the end, put God as the adendum to it all? 1425s

Pull yourself away from the very means whereby God says, this is how I work in you. That's where the attack is. 1435s

And after a while we can start to accept the ignorance of that thought ignorant because it is not 1443s

grounded in the Word of God. You see where the attack comes? See where the attack comes? Always 1452s

Satan's attack will be there. It goes all the way back to the garden. When Satan said, 1460s

is God's Word, did he really say that? You see, it's constantly trying to pull us away from the 1465s

very means whereby God says, this is how I grow you. This is how I keep you in the faith. 1473s

This is where I'm working. Word and sacrament. 1483s

Bless. Bless. Bless. Is knowing the Word of God? Bless is receiving the sacrament of God. 1493s

Bless is hearing again and again the Word of forgiveness of God for us. Bless is the transformative work 1513s

of God in our lives. Bless is understanding our purpose of why we are here. Bless is understanding 1525s

why it is that we exist. Bless is hearing again and again how cherished and loved we are 1536s

by God. Ignorance is bliss. No bliss is knowing Jesus. 1548s