The Wisdom of Jesus Christ

RV105-02

This heavenly scene is one that stresses the fact that no human salvation from the lake of fire is possible apart from a personal trust in Jesus Christ as One who has paid for every individual's personal violation of the righteousness of God. John 17:3 therefore says, "And this is eternal life: that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." If you don't know Jesus Christ, you have no basis for hoping to spend eternity in heaven.

Acts 4:12 adds: "Neither is their salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." That makes it very clear that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

John 14:16 explicitly says this, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.'"

1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men: the man Christ Jesus." Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no possibility of entering heaven. If there's anything that this scene of praise in heaven should tell us, it is that simple fact that Jesus Christ is the key to it all.

One of my daughters-in-law, who is a stewardess on an airline, was telling me that she fell into a conversation with one of the other attendants – a lady who had been reared in a comparatively biblical frame of reference, but who had married a man who is Jewish. So, she had now entered Judaism, and she was lauding how wonderful it is what she has found in Judaism. My daughter-in-law said, "But how can you deal with the person of Jesus Christ? How can you be in Judaism and have any relationship to Him? Doesn't that form a problem, since they must reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah (as the Savior)?" She said it was obvious that the girl was somewhat troubled by that, but her response was, "Yes, but it's such a beautiful religion. It's just so wonderful. It just makes me feel so good."

Well, if she had never been born again in the days of her youth through the Word of God, she will never be born again through her Judaism. That is an example of the kind of insanity that possesses the religious minds of our generation – that people believe that they have a beautiful religion. They think that if they have something that makes them feel good and excited, that they're somehow going to have a line of communication with God and enter eternal life.

There is a very prominent evangelist that you may hear on your television sets on Sunday mornings. I have been picking up something over the past few weeks. I have enormously experienced ears, which are attuned to the subtleties of the charismatic movement, plus a nose which has been enormously gifted for smelling out charismatic movement, drifts, and odors. And several weeks ago, I got it. And I said to Mrs. Danish, "This fella is toying around with the charismatic movement." All of you know him, and you know him well. He has been one who is highly esteemed and very influential. Over the next few weeks, the signals became stronger and stronger and stronger. Then there was a public announcement that the normal group with which he fellowships refused to let him speak at one of their denominational functions because they had become aware of his involvement in the charismatic movement. This morning, I heard him a little bit, and he has practically gone the full route. I don't think that he has made a public committal. I expect it down the line very soon. But his whole message and impact was how he had come to a feeling for God, and how he was reaching out, and He had such feelings for God. And it was all an emotional orientation, even to the effect of his being an evangelist, and saying how terrible he felt that he just didn't feel all terrible and crushed about these unsaved people.

Well, anybody who is sensitive to a person who rejects Jesus Christ will be saddened. And we must all be saddened by one who turns against the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must reach out and hope to give them the information to preserve them from their madness. But the only thing that will reach them is your understanding clearly how to speak to people relative to the Word of God. It is answering the questions that people have; the objections that people have; and, the disorientation that people have – answering that with the Word of God. When you can do that, you have hopes of reaching them. I don't care how many tears you shed, and how terrible you feel, and how emotionally you are upset, and you may well have that. But that is not going to reach them. You can go ahead and express all the emotion you want. But until you give people the content of the Word of God, you will not reach them. You can tell people how appalled you are by what they believe; by what they think; and, how they think they're going to make it with God, but your being emotionally appalled is not going to make it.

Either you have the information to give them, or you go dashing up into that type room, and you get yourself a series of those introductory tapes on how to go to heaven, and a handful of catalogs, and you snap a rubber band around the two, and you walk around with those handy at hand to give to people when the opportunity and the need arises. And you be out there ready to sow the seed that's going to make it possible for eternal life to spring up in their souls.

If there's anything we should learn from the heavenly scene, it is that Jesus Christ is where it's at. That's why all the heavenly host bursts out in praise to this One who is held in such contempt in our society today. All the religions of the world which reject Jesus Christ, who is the only key into heaven, are false religions. They are satanic, and they doom their followers to hell. Don't ever make a mistake about that. They doom their followers to hell. Any religious group that rejects Jesus Christ as the God-man and the Savior of the world dooms its adherents to hell. And if they add anything to His great salvation in the form of human effort and human works, they doom their followers to hell. We need to be very clear about that.

When we are, we will indeed (all of us) be saddened by that. It will cause us, however, to be more bold in sounding a warning of the eternal consequences of dismissing Jesus Christ. It will make us more careful to stop being sloppy in our thinking, and in our speaking, and to become more content-oriented and accurate in presenting what people need to know to escape that terrible destiny.

Power

Riches

Wisdom

One place that I have found I lack an enormous amount of wisdom in one of the ordinary experiences of life is driving into the drive-in bank tellers. Every time I come on the lot, and I look at all those slots lined up, I always pick the slowest one. I will inevitably pick the one that gets hung up. I notice that – that I just don't have the wisdom to pick the right line. So, one time, I decided which line I was going into, and then at the last moment, I switched to another one. The one I switched to was the one that was the slowest line that got bogged down and got nowhere. I am a loser when it comes to drive-in windows at the bank. However, that is not of much consequence since I don't often have occasions to go there anyhow.

However, wisdom does have its application in these practical areas of life that enable us to do that which brings us blessing, and which makes life run smoothly. It's an insight into the true nature of things.

The wisdom of God guides us as believers in a variety of ways. It guides us in our language. It's God's wisdom that enables you to know what kind of language to use, and what kind of language not to use. If you lack God's wisdom, you have a foul cursing mouth. That's what it amounts to. God's wisdom enables you to know how to pick the right language to use.

It enables you to have the right mental attitudes. You have a mental attitude of jealousy; greed; envy; and, slander; or, it'll enable you to have the right kind of mental attitude. It'll enable you to have a mental attitude that has great personal self-respect, because Christ died for you, and, therefore, you're enormously worthy, important person; or, it'll give you a bad personal image if you don't have wisdom. It'll be a bad mental attitude.

It'll guide you in those ambitions. What's really worthwhile for you to pursue and to use up your life? It's wisdom that enables you to realize that every day you've got just a little box of energy mental capacity and emotional capacity; and, every day you use it up. It's gone forever, and its eternal consequences are forever sealed. It is wisdom that gives you the direction of how to invest your ambitions.

It is wisdom that gives you direction in politics. Why is there so much madness on the American scene today? It is because the American people, who have abandoned the Scriptures, have now abandoned the only source of wisdom, and therefore they have gone mentally insane relative to economics. They have gone insane relative to the role of government. It is wisdom that enables us to know how to act in politics. When you get wisdom from the Word of God, then you know which person to vote for and which person not to vote for. If you don't have wisdom, you vote for somebody who happens to be the party that you're associated with. You will not realize that wisdom calls for thinking on the part of the person that you're voting for.

The same thing occurs in economics. It is wisdom that gives us an understanding of how biblical economics works, and what makes a people prosperous, and what makes them poor.

It is wisdom that guides us in the social life that we have; the kinds of things that we are engaged in; the places that we go; and, the entertainments that we seek. It is wisdom that guides us to the right kind of entertainment.

It is wisdom that guides us to what kind of a family life we have; what we what we hope to do with our children; what we encourage in our children; and, the way we train our children. It is wisdom that guides you in the kind of education that you pursue, and in your interest in education. It is wisdom that tells you as a parent whether you have a child in a public school or a Christian school. It is the parents without wisdom that don't think it makes any difference. It is the parents who lack wisdom, or who lack wisdom at a certain stage, that don't understand that the battle today is on the front of the mind. That's where the battle lies.

The battle lies in Satan's world. He has limited his resources. We are in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The resources of Satan are becoming more limited because he is under a time pressure. He realizes that he does not have much longer before the Lord Jesus Christ returns. If he's going to make his win, he's got to make it fast.

Therefore, if you've been a discerning person, you have probably observed that there are only two things where the battle now rages within this world. One is what you think on the educational field. It's all in education. That's where the battle is fought. That's one of the consequences of the rebellion of the sixties. It's on the mind, and no public school can serve the interests of a Christian parent: period.

Secondly, the battle is with the doctrinal instruction of churches. That's the other point. It is on people being informed on the contents of the Scriptures. That's all where Satan is fighting. And when you have wisdom, you know how to beat him on the field of battle, and you are a winner or a loser.

It is wisdom that guides us in sex – having the wisdom to understand how to use this gift from God. It is wisdom that guides our emotions, and how we understand that our emotions legitimately that arrive from the guidance of the Spirit of God under the mind that is controlled by Scripture – that our emotions are a beauty. Our emotions are a precious thing. But Satan manipulates those if we do not have wisdom.

We need to have wisdom in the use of our time. That's a good one – the use of our time. You just need the judgment; the awareness; and, the concept of what to do with the minutes of your life. When a person gets wisdom, he is deeply conscious of the fact that there's a clock with his name on it that is ticking down to zero. That's one of the biggest signs that you've got wisdom – when you become aware that there's a clock ticking down to zero. And in not too long a time, it's all going to be gone. Then there'll be an examination before God as to what you did with the time.

All of this wisdom that we're talking about, in short, leads us to the will of God. Proverbs 14:8 puts it this way: "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand His way. But the folly of fools is deceit." It is the folly of fools to deceive themselves.

Colossians 1:9: "For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." What is His will? His will is wisdom. What is wisdom? It's the content of the Word of God. Wisdom enables us, in short, to live our lives in terms of eternal values. That's the thing that wisdom gives. In other words, this is spiritual smarts that we're talking about.

Proverbs 8:35-36 puts it this way: "For whoever find me (that is, wisdom) finds life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But He that sins against me (against wisdom) wrongs his own soul. All they that hate me love death. To hate wisdom is to love death. And to love the Word of God is to love wisdom.

Here are some things about wisdom:

1. Only God has Wisdom

   Only God has absolute wisdom. He is the source of all true values. Consequently, when we want wisdom, we have to look to him. 1 Kings 3:28 has this to say: And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice." Here was a political ruler who gained respect of the people that he was ruling because they saw that in him dwelt the wisdom of God. Wisdom is something that God has to give you. You don't learn it at school.

   Daniel 2:20 says, "Daniel entered and said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His.'" Wisdom is something that belongs to God.

   Job 12:13: "With him is wisdom and strength. He has counsel and understanding," speaking concerning God.

   Romans 11:33: "O the depth of the richness, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. Wisdom comes from God.

2. Wisdom is not Derived from Human Intelligence

   Secondly, wisdom cannot be derived from human intelligence. That is the problem that we have in our day. People who have good IQs think that they also have wisdom, and they act with an arrogance, consequently, toward the Word of God. Ecclesiastes 7:23 says. "For all this I have proved by wisdom. I said, 'I will be wise,' but it was far from me." This is being spoken, mind you, by Solomon, the man who God gave such great wisdom. Solomon says, "All this have I proved by wisdom. I said, 'I will be wise,' but it was far from me. The book of Ecclesiastes is the great monument to Solomon's own stupidity and his deviation from wisdom.

   In 1 Corinthians 2:4-10, the apostle Paul says, "In my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom." Have you ever sat in a church service where there was tremendous oratory – where a person had an ability with words – he could turn a phrase, and it made everybody just feel so emotionally high as they listened to the orator? The apostle Paul said, "When I came to you, I did not come in the tradition of the Greek philosophers with smoothness of oratory. I came to you with enormity of content information. My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

   What are you going to have when you walk out of a church service where you've heard some silver-tongued orator who has moved you with his oratory, and when you walk out, you take zero of the mind of God with you? What have you got? Nothing. Paul knew that. Verse 6: "However, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect (mature), yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the princes of this age that come to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God and the mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages unto our glory, which none of the princes of this age knew, for had they known that, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." The political and the religious leaders of Israel were totally ignorant of the wisdom of God – so ignorant that they killed the fountain of wisdom in the person of Jesus Christ.

   "But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him." What are the greatest misinterpretations of this verse (1 Corinthians 2:9) is to apply this to heaven. And this is the way people usually do. They say, "It is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love Him." And they thing that it is conveyed that in heaven there is going to be so much we're going to find, that it's going to be awe-inspiring and breathtaking. Well, it will be. But this verse happens to apply to right now. The whole context is talking about how to get wisdom right now, and that you wouldn't believe, Paul says, the kind of understanding of reality that God will give you.

   You can go ahead and grind your teeth, and arch your back, and snipe back at the preacher who says, "God has wisdom, and God's wisdom says this. And if you don't like it, that's OK with me. You can believe as you wish, because we're both going to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ." And when the Lord says, "The preacher was right, and you were wrong," I guarantee you that I'm going to look over at you. But you better be sure that you understand the wisdom. The apostle Paul says, "It is for now. It is not for out there. It is for today." It is your opportunity to get with it or not to get with it. In the Old Testament, those poor born-again people walked along without the Holy Spirit within them. They had the worst possible disadvantage that one could imagine. The one person who could teach them spiritual phenomena was not a constant companion within their bodies. But we have Him constantly – the real teacher. He is the person that you really need to understand wisdom and to understand reality, so that you know how to fit your life into touch with what God says, "This is what's real. This is what is lasting."

3. Wisdom is the God of God to Believers

   Another point is that wisdom is the gift of God to believers. It is something that he has made available through the Word of God. You don't have to pay somebody to get it. You don't have to plead with God to get it. You simply have to step up to the fountain and start drinking. Proverbs 2:6: "For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding." "For the Lord gives wisdom." How? "Out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding." Well, where do we have what is come out of the mouth of God? You have it recorded here in Scripture. That's where wisdom lies. All you have to do is step up and help yourself.

   Ecclesiastes 2:26: "For God gives to a man that is good in His sight: wisdom; knowledge; and, enjoy. But to the sinner He gives travail: to gather; and, to heap up, that He may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit." The Lord said, "Solomon, realize that evil people can heap up and gather to themselves what they think is of value, but it has a way of being taken by God away from them and given to those who have the wisdom of God residing in them. God blesses his own.

   In Ephesians 1:17, we read, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him." Wisdom is something God gives you through a knowledge of Him.

   Then we have that famous verse in James 1:5 that says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally, and does not upbraid, and it shall be given him." Do you want wisdom? Then go to God, and you will get it. How?

   If you have ever visited the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, you have seen this verse everywhere. James 1:5 is their final proof that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; that he spoke the truth; and, that Mormonism is for real. The way they interpret this verse is that they go to God, as one lady guide told us on our youth trip camp. She went to God and she said, "God, show me if Mormonism is true. Is this really from You, or is this false? Is Joseph Smith your prophet?" And she said, "And I claimed James 1:5, and I asked for God to show me, and He told me it was true." Well, I don't know who told her it was true, but I can assure her it wasn't God.

   I couldn't resist going up to her and saying, "Are you aware of the fact that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has just recently been given the original Egyptian hieroglyphics, which Joseph Smith found in a case of a mummy, and from which he translated one of your Scriptures, which is in The Pearl of Great Price (the Book of Abraham), and which he translated as a filling out of the experiences of Abraham with God, and which you read as part of God's word, don't you?" She said, "Oh, yes."

   I said, "Are you aware of the fact that the Metropolitan Museum has the original manuscript which was thought to have been burned in the Chicago Fire? The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has found that manuscript with Joseph Smith's notations in his own handwriting on it. They know that it's the original one that he translated the book of Abraham from." She said, "Is that right?" I said, "Yes. And Egyptologists, including one of your own, Dr. Nelson, have translated that manuscript, and found it to be a pagan ritual ceremony of the dead to take a person from this life into the afterlife. It has nothing to do with Abraham, and it has nothing to do with Old Testament theology. Now we have a manuscript that Joseph Smith claimed to translate under the power of God, and it has proven to be false. Does that disturb you?" She says, "If that's true, it would." I said, "But you think that God has told you, through James 1:5, that it is true. Are you sure?" And then I left her.

   I don't know where she's going to go with that. If she's an honest-thinking person, she'll say, "My prophet lied. He did not translate that. If he lied there, where else did he lie?" You see, when I gave her a little content of information, then James 1:5 (inspiration from God) just went slithering out of her soul. It isn't just how you feel about it. If any of you like wisdom, you'll get it from God. Go to God and ask Him. He will give you liberally and freely. And He won't he won't rebuke you for coming again and again, and you'll get it. Any of us who study the Word of God study it on the basis of this Scripture. We go to God and say, "God, I want divine viewpoint information. I'm going to study this text; I'm going to examine it; and, and I'm going to have to teach it. I want your wisdom on it." He says, "OK, you research it, and through My spirit, I will give you illumination on it, and you'll understand it. But apart from this Scripture, there is nothing to illuminate. It is the Bible that the Holy Spirit illuminates. Anything else is a human viewpoint nonsense.

4. God's Wisdom is Found in Scripture

   Another point is that God's wisdom, therefore, is to be found in the doctrines of Scripture. That's where wisdom lies. It isn't something you have to go into your closet; close the door; agonize over; and, plead with God to give you. You'll get zero from that. Luke 2:40 says, "And the child (that is, the child Jesus) grew, and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him."

   Verse 52: "A child filled with wisdom; and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." What Jesus increased in was His knowledge of the Word of God. His parents were teaching Him that knowledge so that when, as a 12-year-old boy, he came to the temple, he awed the doctors of the law (the theologians) with His knowledge of the Word of God, and His interpretation and understanding.

   When He came to be a grown young man and began His ministry, Matthew 13:54 says, "When He (Jesus) was coming to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and said, 'From where has this man (this wisdom) and these mighty works come? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon and Judas, and his sisters? Are they not all with us? From then has this man these things." The Lord Jesus Christ wowed them with His wisdom and His understanding of reality. He could cut right through the sham. When He spoke, boy, there was the ring of reality and the ring of truth.

   And these people looked at Him and said, "This is a carpenter. This is not one of our university graduates. Furthermore, he is just of one of the regular families that lives down the street. We know all those brothers of His, and we know His sisters. Of course, they didn't understand that they were half-brothers and half-sisters – children of Mary and Joseph, while He was only a child of Mary. But in any case, they were His brothers and sisters. They knew the whole family. Jesus grew up with brothers. Jesus grew up with sisters. They said, "This is just Jesus. Who is this man that He has this kind of wisdom?" He was in touch with reality. Where did he get it? He got it because he had the enormous good fortune to have parents who exposed Him to an understanding about learning of the Word of God and of doctrinal principles from the days of His youth. And he responded.

   Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." When you have wisdom, your heart indeed will sing.

5. Jesus Christ Conveys God's Wisdom

   Furthermore, Jesus Christ is the conveyor of God's wisdom to mankind. Apart from Him, you will get nothing. Therefore, 1 Corinthians 1:34 says, "But unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

   1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of him are you in Christ Jesus who of God has made unto us wisdom." He is the source of wisdom.

   However, of course, I know that we have people who thumb their nose at this – people who are out in that world, that sophisticated world of human viewpoint intellect. They are world-movers in the institutions of our life: in politics; in education; and, in religion. And they scoff at the Word of God. They scoff at the Bible. They scoff at this being the only source of wisdom. They scoff at such an idea as somebody saying that somebody should not be elected to political public office unless he has a mind which is well-steeped in the Word of God. Wouldn't that be something? A person should not be allowed to teach in the classroom unless his mind is steeped in the principles of the Word of God, whether in a public or a private school? Wouldn't that strip things down? And the scoffers of wisdom as coming from Scripture have nothing, therefore, to substitute except their decrepit and their bankrupt human viewpoint.

   Proverbs 14:6 says, "A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it, but knowledge is easy unto him that understands." A scoffer seeks wisdom, but he doesn't find it. What have we in our world today? People trying in one way or another to make things work, and to get it together. But they scoff at the Scriptures, and therefore they lack wisdom.

   Therefore, there is a great contrast between divine and human wisdom. Notice James 3:15, which delineates this contrast: "This wisdom descend not from above (which he has just described), but is earthly, sensual, and demoniacal; for where envying and strife are, there is confusion, and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by then that make peace." Now, that's beautiful.

   Look at that verse 17. Here are some of the tests of wisdom that you can see in yourself and which we may see in each other: The wisdom that is from above (you people who really have divine viewpoint wisdom, first of all): you're a pure lot." That's just the way you are. You talk pure; you think pure; you act pure; you go pure; and, you do pure. Then you're peaceable. You're the peace kind; you're not the pushy; you're not always using your elbows; and you're nod the primadonnas, who are looking for a place in the sun. You are peaceable. You are a peacemaker. When you find a rift, the people of wisdom are the first to stand in line and to smooth the waters. You're gentle. You're an easy-handed person. Even when you're in a place of authority, you don't go around with a club, beating people's brains in. You are gentle. You give them a chance save face. You try to give them a chance to come to their senses, even when you spot their human viewpoint with idiocy. You go carefully, and you try to give them a chance to come to a better understanding so that tomorrow they can go on with the Lord. They've got a little face saved, and they haven't been crushed out of existence.

   Next is says, "Easy to be entreated. You're an easy-to-be-entreated person. Your wife says, "What would you like for supper? Would you like hamburgers tonight or filet mignon?" You say, "Either is OK." If you're easy to be entreated, you'll say, "OK." Then she can do whatever she wants. You're the easy kind. No matter what she gives you as alternatives, you say, "OK, that's wonderful." You are the easy-to-be-entreated kind. And you can be appealed to. You're not just the stubborn, bullheaded type. When you have wisdom up in your brains, you're not the bullheaded type. You're full of mercy. You do have a kindness. You do have a pity for people in their misery. That's what mercy means. Mercy means grace in action in someone's misery. You treat people with mercy who perhaps don't deserve to be treated well. They're in their misery because they created it. And that is tough. That is tough to have the wisdom to treat somebody with mercy who's in a problem because they brought it on themselves. They brought it (in terms of knowing better) by deliberate volition. And now they have got some consequences to live with. And you can stomp them into the ground, or you can reach out and treat them with mercy and lift them up.

   Certainly, if you're a wise person, you're full of good fruits. You're a divine, good-producing person because you know that the real life that you have is out there in eternity, and you intend to go into eternity as a very wealthy person. You're seeing to it that your good works are there.

   Also, you work without partiality. You treat people with an even-hand, even those that may be off-base. You treat everybody with an even-hand, and you maintain the peace as much as possible, and you act without hypocrisy. A person who is wise is not a hypocrite. You don't walk out of here today, and say, "That was a very inspiring message, your excellency" if you think it stinks. You don't act with hypocrisy. That's being two-faced, and the Scripture condemns that. When you get wisdom, you don't have to do that anymore.

   So, this is a great verse. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. That's how God's work is done& – in peace, by them who make peace.

Contrasts between Divine and Human Wisdom

1. Human Wisdom Calls the Cross of Jesus Christ Foolishness

   Human wisdom calls the cross of Jesus Christ foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:23: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the gentiles foolishness. But unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Jesus Christ is God's saving wisdom, but to the human viewpoint wisdom of the unbeliever, Jesus Christ is called foolishness. Salvation by Him is called foolishness.

   The human viewpoint wisdom of the world's leaders and the opinion makers is foolishness. 1 Corinthians 3:19: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 'He takes the wise unto their own craftiness.'" Where can we go as a nation when this Scripture tells us that our leaders, who are immersed in human viewpoint wisdom, are people who have foolishness in their minds? They have a mentality of foolishness. Where can we go? There's one thing that human viewpoint wisdom can never do. It can never discredit divine wisdom. That is important to remember. When we are the dog's tail, so often in our society, it becomes discouraging. You want to throw your hands up and say, "What difference does it make?" And you just want to quit getting out there in the battle.

   Therefore, Acts 6:10 is an encouragement: "And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke." Stephen, standing here on the threshold of his own death, spoke the Word of God. There were no emotional appeals; no cutesy-pooh stories; no talking about mother waiting with the light in the window for you to come home. It is just plain: "Here's what God has said." Run your eye over chapter 6 and see how he reaches back into the history of the Jewish people. He puts one point after another, and he draws a conclusion. And these people who were full of human viewpoint wisdom hated everything he said, but they were not able to resist and to dismiss what he said.

   That's the beauty of wisdom. People just cannot wash you out. People just cannot dismiss you. People cannot ignore you. When you speak with God's wisdom, it's a knife right into their vitals, and they're aware of it. So, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, learned Bible doctrine. He became qualified, therefore, to receive the divine wisdom of Almighty God. This is why they praise Him in heaven as being one who is worthy of wisdom. He is worthy because he took the trouble to learn the Scriptures and he has had a positive attitude toward it. He did not say, "Yes, this is what I learned from my parents," as so many young people say, "but if I follow the leading of my parents who told me this from Scriptures, and indeed I saw it in Scripture, it will keep me from fulfilling this ambition. It will keep me from fulfilling this desire. If I listen to my parents and the wisdom that they have given me from Scripture, it's going to keep me from doing my own thing.

   That's right. And the Lord Jesus went through exactly that same thing. To the wisdom of Scripture, which his parents gave Him, that little boy said, "Yes. Amen. I believe it." He acted upon it, and never missed once. He grew up to be the finest; the most beautiful; the most powerful; and, the most forceful man that the human race had ever seen since the time of Adam before his fall.

   You and I, as Christians, I remind you that the Word of God tells us, possess through the Word (through the Scriptures) the mind of Christ. We possess the mind of Christ. The wisdom that the angels praise the Lord for is the wisdom that you have. Now aren't you really something? The dude who sits next to you is not really very much, but he is more than you think out there. That person who has the content of the Scriptures in His mind is an enormously smart person, and an enormously important person in our society, because it's people with that kind of wisdom who are going to act as salt to preserve us from national and personal destruction.

   How nice to know that we have a Savior who is worthy of all the wisdom of Almighty God. And because we are part of His body, the wisdom that flows in His mind also is open to flow in on ours. It's up to our acceptance and our willingness to be open to that wisdom.

   I don't know what you do in terms of studying the Bible. I heard him on one of the TV programs this morning, one preacher was telling people how to move forward in their Christian life. He said, "And I want to tell you to read your Bibles." When I heard him say that, I thought to myself, "No, that's not right. I don't tell people to read their Bibles. What people should be told is not, "Read your Bible." What people should be told is, "Study your Bible." There are all kinds of good Christians out there who are going through and they're reading through the Bible in one year. They get their little chart out, and they say, "Well, let's see, this is the fourteenth day of the month. I should read these chapters. And they read it through, and then they close it. The next day they go to the next one. Then they get up and say, "I've read through the Bible 40 times in my lifetime. It takes them about a year to read it through. Every year, they read through the Bible. But they haven't learned anything. I've observed these people who've read through the Bible so many times are among the most ignorant of what's really in it.

   What people should be told is, "Study your Bible." While I know I will probably get some flak. Every time I make this remark, I get the flak on it from somebody. My suggestion to you is to get up in that tape room, and find yourself a series of studies that maybe you've already heard, and start reviewing and start pursuing. The thing that people don't like me to say is, "It wouldn't hurt your family to sit down and listen to part of that tape as well, and for you to take over from there." After a while, you may discover, father, that you won't even need that tape as your starting point. You won't even need that as a basis on which to proceed to teach your family the wisdom of God. But that's your job: to teach that wisdom. And if your family situation is that you're on your own, that you teach yourself the wisdom of God. This is what's going to make it for you not only now. It's going to preserve you from all kinds of scars; it's going to give you all kinds of prosperity; and, and give you all kinds of happiness and blessings. But it's going to make your heaven just that much more magnificent because you entered it with the wisdom of God.

   Dr. John E. Danish, 1982

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