In Praise Of Wisdom - [Ecclesiates 7:11-22]

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Newman begins to lay out some of the praises of wisdom, some of the better findings of wisdom as he goes.
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And he talks about, he talks about wisdom. And in specific here, we are, we are talking about wisdom as opposed to knowledge or learning because as many of you have learned the hard way, knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing.
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And intelligence does not necessarily equal wisdom either because all of us know a lot of well -educated, very intelligent fools because the biblical definition of a fool is what?
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A fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. And the world is full of people who are living, either they overtly say that or by their style of life, their manner of life, they proclaim that.
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They live as if God is not there. And as GK Chesterton wrote, if when a person stops believing in God, it's not that he believes in nothing, but that he believes in everything.
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He can't, he has no, no criteria by which to judge anything anymore.
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So Solomon goes on, wisdom, true biblical wisdom. And we'll look at where wisdom comes from as we get into this lesson.
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True biblical wisdom, first of all, is necessary to the right management of our possessions. As we go through life, depending upon what
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God has for us in our life, some of us acquire possessions. We all acquire some possessions, some acquire more than others.
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And how are we to treat those possessions? Do we look at them as something that has been given to us by God for our use, for our management, but they are not the be -all and end -all of our lives?
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The acquisition of material goods can and all too often does become the objective of too many people as they go through life.
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I'm trying to acquire more and more. Whatever I have, it's not enough, I want more. I'm never satisfied.
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I constantly want more than I have. Or do I view what
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God has chosen to give me as gifts from His hand for me to use, for me to use wisely?
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If the Lord has given us material wealth, do we see that as something, okay, we can use some of it to support our own lives.
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We will certainly give some of it to our...leave some of it to our children. We will support the church,
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His church, with a part of it. We will use that wealth wisely. Or do we view it as an end to itself, to be acquired and hung on to?
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You know, money in the bank really doesn't do much good for anybody except the banker. And so, wisdom is necessary to know how to manage our possessions and to not let them consume us.
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And as Solomon points out, he says, with an inheritance, it's good. With an inheritance, it's good.
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But an inheritance is of little value without wisdom. Now, we all know stories, we've all heard stories about people who, one way or another, come into sudden wealth.
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Either they inherit, you know, the ne 'er -do -well son who inherits the family fortune and within a year and a half, it's gone.
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Or, you know, someone who wins the lottery and never...that's another sermon whether we should be participating in the lottery or not, so strike that.
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But they come into sudden large quantity of money and within a very short period of time, it's gone.
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Why? Because they have no wisdom. They don't know how to make proper use of their estate. Because if you do come into an estate, that estate exists because somebody worked hard.
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Somebody worked hard. Somebody was wise in their management of their resources and built that estate up and then it is handed down from father to son or father to daughter or however, and it comes into your possession or our possession.
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And we have to have wisdom on how we are going to deal with that. And the wisdom to properly deal with what has been given to us as what has been given to us comes from God.
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Because when you think about it, when you...if you do come into an estate, you don't merit that estate in the sense that you didn't work for it, somebody else worked for it.
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And it is an accident of your birth. If you will, it is an exercise in grace that you have received this estate from your parents.
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And so, true wisdom, biblical wisdom is required for the proper management of this or what
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Francis Schaeffer called the compassionate use of wealth. And so, wisdom is good.
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Wisdom is good across the board. Wisdom is good for the poor because wisdom, biblical wisdom makes us content with what we have.
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If we take the attitude that this is what God has for me at this stage in my life, this is what He wants me to have, you know,
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God promised to provide my needs. And as we know, we expand that because what
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He's really talking about there is your spiritual needs much more than your physical needs. But He promised to provide your physical needs too.
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And so, if you don't have something, you must not need it. Because if you needed it,
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God would see to it that you had it, wouldn't He? And so, from that standpoint, wisdom is good for the poor.
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Wisdom is also good for the rich because it keeps them from being hurt by their riches.
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You say, what on earth does that mean? How could you possibly be hurt by your riches?
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And yet, wealth and the stories of this are legendary and go on and on and on.
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Wealth does far more damage as a rule than it does good because people get sucked up in this and it becomes the be -all and focus and the be -all of their life.
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One of the legends, perhaps apocryphal, who knows, but someone is supposed to have asked John D. Rockefeller, who is one of the richest men of his time, if you remember him, you know, how much money do you need?
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And his answer was very telling. He said, just a little more. And this guy was a billionaire.
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And he was a billionaire back in the 19th century, you know, when money really meant something. And so, but, you know, what do you want,
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John? Oh, a little more, just a little more. And so, you know, talk about being hurt and having your life sucked up by your riches.
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So wisdom is good for the rich and the poor. And you learn to view that,
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OK, whatever wealth I have is an opportunity for service. It's an opportunity for ministry.
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One of our good friends when we lived, when Dallas and I lived in Germany, one of our good friends was a self -supporting missionary.
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And as he put it, he said, I worked my whole life so that I can be a self -supporting missionary.
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And he was retired, you know, and but he didn't have to worry about, oh, is one of my church is going to cut me off and I have to go back and spend half of my time doing fundraising and all that.
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He didn't have to do any of that because, you know, he had planned his life deliberately so that he could spend his later years in ministry and service supporting himself.
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And he was very effective partially because of that. Moving on, though, wisdom is of a great advantage throughout life.
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And this is all verses 11 and 12, which we take after verses 11 and 12 of chapter 7. Wisdom results in true profit.
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It's not that there is no profit in life, but we need to have the wisdom to discern what is really profitable, that is, what has lasting value and what is only transient.
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Because even if we do acquire material wealth in our lifetimes, we're going to die.
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That's one of the things that that Solomon emphasizes. All of us are going to die. And when we die, all that we acquired goes to somebody else.
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And, you know, it might be somebody that we don't like. It might be, you know, the third cousin twice removed that we couldn't stand in life.
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But he happened to work in, you know, he had the best lawyer. And so he winds up with what what we amassed in life.
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But we're not going to whatever is going to happen to it is not going to be to our benefit. We're not going to take it with us.
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And so we need to know what is true value, what is true profit. Because it's not that there is no profit in life, but it's where the profit comes from and who actually bestows that profit upon us.
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Uh, it's certainly a contribution to our safety. And this is our physical safety as well as our spiritual safety.
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Because wisdom, wisdom, and I'll jump ahead here. I'll give you a hint.
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True wisdom is learning to think like God thinks. It's learning to think like God thinks.
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It's viewing your circumstances, viewing your possessions, viewing everything that comes into your life as God views it.
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What is his criteria? And so we start to look at our circumstances and the things that are happening to us and the things that are going on around us from God's perspective and from a divine perspective.
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The Bible says Psalm and Proverbs both say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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A proper view of God is the beginning of wisdom. And so things are going to come into our lives.
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Storms are going to come into our life. You can count on that. You know, there is no guarantee that your life is going to be sweet and peaceful.
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And, you know, there'll never be anything that happens in your life that is not disastrous, humanly speaking.
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And yet a divine wisdom learning to look at these things from God's perspective helps you weather these storms.
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It's not that the storms disappear. It's not that they don't exist. But your reaction to them changes.
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Your view of them changes because you look at them as God looks at them.
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And so as you go through life, this is a shield to you. The wisdom, the wisdom that comes from God provides a defense.
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It's a shield to you. It guards us against things.
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How many people do you know? Everybody in here, I'll guarantee you, knows at least one person that goes through life anticipating a disaster at any second, right?
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You know, we know from childhood, if you read
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Winnie the Pooh, everybody remembers Eeyore, right?
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The little donkey. Because it didn't matter what happened. You know,
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Eeyore could grasp the downside of everything. Go outside to a beautiful day like we have today.
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The weather is perfect out there. The temperature is mild. The sun is shining. It's glorious.
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The trees are turning, you know, the beautiful colors. And what's Eeyore say? Well, it's probably going to rain tomorrow.
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Or it's probably going to rain this afternoon. That's Eeyore for you. And everybody knows at least one Eeyore, I guarantee you.
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And so, but wisdom, divine wisdom looks at this and says, Lord, what a beautiful day you have provided for us.
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But if it's raining and stormy, you look at that and say,
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Lord, thank you for this day that you have provided for us because the rain is necessary. You know, we need the rain.
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We need whatever comes into our lives. We need whatever he brings into our lives because he told you,
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I'll supply your needs and I know what your needs are. And sometimes you need a little adversity.
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And sometimes you need to be scared to death. And sometimes you need to really have a struggle.
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Because, you know, God knows what his objective is for us. And his objective, he tells us broadly, is to make us into the men and women that are like him.
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Right? We are to be like Jesus. And we are being molded and shaped.
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We call that process sanctification. We're being molded and shaped to be like our heavenly father so that we reflect him.
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That's where we go. We are to look like him. We're all members of the family of God. And one of the things that family members do is they all look alike, don't they?
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And so he's shaping us. He's molding us. He's working in our lives. And so we are to view everything that he brings into our lives as part of that process and thank him for it because he's working for us.
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Moving on, there's a joy and true happiness that comes from divine knowledge. True wisdom gives spiritual life.
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True wisdom makes us bold and makes us resolute as we go through life. Moving on now to verse 13.
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Verse 13. Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked?
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Well, certainly, like we've already said, always consider God in our activities. Uh, see divine providence in everything.
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Robert E. Lee, General General Lee used to constantly cite divine providence in his correspondence, in his orders of the day that he issued to the to the
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Southern armies. He was always referring to divine providence. You know, we'll do this, that and the other thing if divine providence permits or if divine providence allows.
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Uh, and several of the Stonewall Jackson was another one that was constantly citing the providence of God, uh, in his activities.
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And we are supposed to see everything as coming from the hand of the Lord and to see divine providence.
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And sometimes I think we fail to explain this to our children or to emphasize this to our children.
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If we have the narrow escape on the roadway and, you know, it could have been a total disaster.
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It could have wrecked our car. It could have done serious damage to us. But we escape unscathed.
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Do we take a moment to reflect that this is the hand of God in our lives? This is not just a lucky break or, you know, something like that.
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But this is the hand of God working in our lives that he has guided us and point this out to our children.
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See, God is really there. God really is with us. I'm afraid sometimes we fail to do that.
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Because as we look, as we look at the things that happen to us, Solomon is saying every work of God, every work of God is wise.
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Even though it does not appear so to us, every work of God is just. Because if it's justice you want, we'll all be dead.
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That's what we deserve. The truth of the matter is we don't want justice. We want mercy.
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So every work of God is wise. Every work of God is just. Every work of God is good. Every work of God has beauty and harmony, because there's beauty and harmony in all that he does.
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Now, we may not be able to see it. It may not appear so to us. And this is where the faith comes in.
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That we know, God, that you are wise, you're just, you're good, and all of the other attributes of God, and that you have the best in mind for us that could possibly be.
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And therefore, I will accept what you have just brought into my life, regardless of the seeming consequences of it.
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I will accept that as something that is the best thing that you could possibly have for me, and that ultimately it will work out to good in my life.
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Because the Bible promises that all things will work together for good.
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Not that all things are necessarily good in themselves, from our perspective. It is not good, for example, if one of your children is severely injured, or if one of your children dies.
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That is not a good event by no stretch of the imagination. Can you make it that way? But what will come out of that event?
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Only God knows. And only God can see that, you know, this, what is a tragedy.
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And it is a tragedy, make no mistake. But what will come out of this tragedy will resound for good, you know, in five years, or ten years, or thirty years.
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And, or we may never, we may never understand and see the positive result that came out of what
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God did, but it's there, and He knows what it is. And so, whatever
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He chooses to do, our part is to always give Him glory. Whatever He has brought into our lives,
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He is to be given glory for that, because we can trust Him that He is doing the best thing for us.
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And as he said, as Solomon says, we cannot alter or affect what
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God chooses to do. Now, I will point out this, you might say, well, that's just fatalism, but it's not fatalism.
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It's not a fatalistic saying, well, we can't do anything about it anyway, and so we just have to put up with whatever happens to us.
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It is a sincere and convinced knowledge that whatever God is doing in our life is for our benefit, is for our good.
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It's not just a passive acceptance of what life dumps on us. It's the idea that we are constantly in God's providence, that He does control.
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And sometimes, you know, we say that, but we don't, we frequently, I'm afraid, we don't really understand what we're implying when we say that, is that God does control what happens to us, step by step by step, that He is in control, that He has numbered our days, and He knows what
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He is going to bring into our lives day by day by day by day, and we can trust
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Him to do that. He has not abandoned us to ourselves. Somebody actually is in control of events, no matter how chaotic the world seems to be.
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Because look at it this way, if you don't function from that viewpoint, the world is a very scary place.
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It is a terrifying place. And you sympathize, you have sympathy for people who are running around desperate for something or someone to give them stability, and for something or someone to give them safety, when the truth is, again, speaking from a human standpoint, life is very unsafe when you really think about it.
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Although on the other side of things, life is actually very stable. We worry so much, don't we, about things that have never happened to us, they've never gotten close to happening to us, they have never happened to anybody that we know, and yet we're so worried that, oh, something's going to happen, something dire and disastrous is going to happen, and life runs and plays on our fears like that, and we let those fears run away with us.
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But Solomon is saying, you know, God is in control, and God is watching over you.
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And don't take that to mean that nothing will ever come into your life, but what does come into your life,
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God is in control of. And so this, and this is wisdom, when you start to look at life the way
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God does. Excuse me, and I need to move on. But we cannot mend or alter
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God's work, we cannot make straight what He has made crooked, and we cannot make crooked what He has made straight.
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What He decides to do is what is going to happen. And so, secure in the confidence that this is the best for our lives, we move forward with our life, and we accommodate ourselves to whatever
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God in His providence does, and we take each day and whatever God puts in it as it comes.
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Largely at face value. You know, we don't sit around constantly trying to dig, well, what's this really mean?
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You know, most of the time, I'll tell you a secret. Most of ordinary life is ordinary, okay?
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There's nothing hidden beneath the surface. It's just ordinary life. It has its ups and it has its downs, but it goes along pretty much evenly.
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And we call that the providence of God as it goes. And so, we take things as it comes.
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We depend upon God's providence. And by depending upon God's providence, we're ready for whatever does come.
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When the unusual events do occur, we're ready to deal with those. Because God balances things.
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What does Paul promise us in Corinthians? He will not put into our lives more than we can bear.
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Whatever God sends into our lives, He also sends us the resources to deal with that, whatever it is.
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And that applies to our spiritual life. That applies to our physical lives and surroundings as well.
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And so, all we have to do is comply with the will of God. We have to live in the universe that He has created.
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This is the only one we have available to us. And so, we have to function and live and move within the world that God has provided for us.
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And we can do that secure in the knowledge that it's a good world that He has provided.
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Even though it is tainted by sin, nonetheless, it is a good world. Just look around you.
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And so, Solomon says, in times of prosperity, be joyful. Enjoy what God has provided.
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Again, most of you probably know someone who is almost afraid to enjoy what
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God gives them, right? Because somehow they, well, if I enjoy this,
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God will take it away. Well, what if He does? He gave it to you now, so enjoy it now. You know, bless her heart.
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I had an aunt who was, she just could not let herself enjoy anything.
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Because somehow this was, you know, this was taking away from her love for God or something.
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And so, she was, frankly, a pretty miserable person through most of her life. And God doesn't want us to be like that.
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We are to be joyful in Him. And times of adversity are going to come too. And so, in times of prosperity, we are to enjoy.
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In times of adversity, Solomon says, consider. Consider. Be disposed to reflection.
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Because when God sends adversity into your life, He is inviting you to a private lesson with Him.
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He's invited you to a private lesson with Him. Consider what He's teaching. There is a proper way to ask, why me,
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Lord? And that is, if you're trying to say, what are you trying to teach me, Lord, with this?
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What do you want me to learn? What is there in my life that needs to be filed down, that needs to be sanded off, that needs to be smoothed out?
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You know, what are you trying to show me? Now, we are not supposed to ask, why me, Lord, in the sense of, how could you do this to me?
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You know, I don't deserve this. But we are certainly to inquire of Him as to what
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He is teaching us when He sends these lessons into our lives. Otherwise, you've wasted the opportunity.
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And frankly, the truth of the matter is, we learn more from our adversities than we do from the good times, right?
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You talk to any couple that has been married for a long time, and they will tell you that the seams of their marriage have been welded much more by the adverse times, by the bad times, than by the good times.
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You look at people of my parents' generation that got married during the Great Depression.
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Well, part of what welded those folks together so much was that shared adversity, where,
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I mean, times were really hard then. And those of us who were born later, we don't really comprehend just how bad it was.
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And yet, that secured things. And so God does. He sends into our lives what we need.
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And we are to consider the why's and wherefores. And we are to do this properly with a view towards what
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He's teaching us. So moving along, in verses 15 to 18,
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Solomon says, don't be offended when it seems that the wicked prosper. Or don't be offended when it seems that the righteous, that calamity comes into their lives.
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We all know some people who are, they're believers, they're strong in the faith, and yet it seems like everything happens to them.
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You know, they never get a break, right? And we also know people who are wicked and openly living that way, and they seem to prosper.
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And Solomon says, God has this in hand. God has this in hand. He knows all about it.
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Don't be offended at it. Because true wisdom, one of the things that true wisdom teaches us is how to properly evaluate the seeming inequity of circumstances.
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Again, how to look at things from God's perspective. Because there are apparent inequities of life, apparent inequities of circumstance.
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And yet, what the Bible teaches us is true. What the Bible tells us about God is that it is true.
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He is holy. He is faithful. He is true. He is just. He is wise. And He always has our best interest at heart.
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And this applies to every one of His children. And so, the seeming calamity that might fall upon the righteous, well, our time here in life is very short.
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We have a few years here to enjoy on earth.
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And maybe, you know, typically, it's going to be what? 70 years, 80 years.
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Maybe if you're really rolling, you make it to 100. What is that by compared to eternity?
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And in eternity, we shall receive blessings constantly. Because God has promised us, read through Revelation, the last chapters of Revelation, and you get a glimpse of what
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God has waiting for us in the next life. And so, and by contrast, judgment is what awaits the wicked.
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And suppose they get their 100 years in the lap of luxury. They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and their stocks always stayed up, and nothing ever happened to their estate.
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And, you know, they go through life. They had the yacht. They had the private jet. They had whatever it was, they had it.
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And they go through life like that. Again, what is that compared to eternity?
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And what is that compared to an eternity of punishment? And so, again,
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Solomon is saying, learn to look at things from God's perspective, not from yours. That God has everything well in hand.
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He knows what's going on. He's never been surprised. You know, He doesn't call an emergency committee to decide on what do we need to do.
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No, He's got the plan laid out, and that plan is going forward. Just as sure as the sun comes up every morning and the sun sets at night,
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God's plan goes forward. And He has everything in hand. Now, starting in verse 19, wisdom is a caution both to the saints and to the sinners.
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First of all, as the saints go, persevere in righteousness. One of the characteristics of true saints of God is that they persevere.
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They are saints. They persevere because they're saints. They're not saints because they persevere.
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You understand the variation there. But keep at it, Solomon's saying, because keep this view in mind that look at things the way
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God looks at things and keep going with what He has. Don't duck and run, even though your reaction is to do that sometimes.
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And He also says for saints, don't go to extremes. Don't allow an excessive zeal to pull trouble down on your own head.
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Don't be over -righteous, is the way He puts it. You know, be balanced. Use discretion.
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Use discretion in your dealings with other people. The most recent evangelism class dealt with, you know, how do you evangelize in the workplace?
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And that's a touchy subject sometimes, because your employer is paying you to work.
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He's not funding your missionary efforts, right? And when you stop doing what you're supposed to be doing, when you're supposed to be doing it, and you're going and say, well,
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I'm going to go evangelize so -and -so over here. Well, you're not doing your work, you're keeping him from doing his work, and you're stealing from your employer on both counts.
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And so use discretion. It's not that we shouldn't evangelize. And it's not that we shouldn't evangelize at work when the opportunities present themselves, but know when to do that.
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You know, use discretion. And when we speak, speak cautiously and with prior thought.
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You know, how many people do you know engage their mouths before they put their brain in gear?
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You know, and we start, that's the way we get ourselves in trouble, isn't it? We start talking before we start thinking.
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Very bad. Don't be wise in your own conceit, Solomon says. Don't be opinionated overly.
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And not every issue is yours to confront. Again, a proper look at life is that God has everything in control.
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Nothing is escaping God's notice. Nothing is running outside of His control.
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Nothing's running away that He has somehow lost His touch on it.
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And so not every issue you need to confront. In particular, the issues that apply to you, the small slights and insults that all of us are constantly receiving or receive from time to time, let them go.
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They don't have to be confronted. You know, God will take care of this in due time. And so he goes on.
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Don't be a busybody. Mind your own business. You know, the doctrine of the long proboscis, as one teacher used to call that.
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Yes, Daniel. Don't be self -righteous is a good way to put that.
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Because nobody likes a self -righteous person, right? We don't like to be around them.
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And that's not a good testimony anyway. And also, don't meddle in issues that don't concern you.
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There are some times when the sleeping dog should be allowed to lie. Again, God has it in hand.
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One good friend of mine is a fellow that had probably the most uniformly negative experience in the military that I've ever heard of anybody having.
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And a lot of it was, and I like the guy much too much to really tell him this to his face, but a lot of the reason was that he didn't know when to just let things alone.
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That as a private E2, it was not his problem to work on.
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You know, that this was something way above his pay grade and he should have just let it go. You know, but he just couldn't bring himself to do that.
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And so he was constantly... I mean, it takes a certain talent to get the chaplain mad at you, but he managed to do that.
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You know, he managed to do that. And so anyway, you know, and on the other side of this issue, because I need to move on.
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Wisdom, and I'm talking about divine wisdom, is a value even to sinners.
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Because even if an unbeliever, if he has a Judeo -Christian worldview, this is an advantage because it's a restraint.
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It's a restraint even if it doesn't produce repentance necessarily. Now, we're hoping that divine wisdom as it is acquired will produce repentance and belief.
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That's our objective always. But some of the men, for example, that founded this country were not believers, but they had the
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Judeo -Christian worldview and that worked to their benefit. They understood that this was a restraint upon society and that society needed that restraint.
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Because we are, after all, at best sinners saved by grace. That's as good as it gets here on earth.
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And many of the citizens in our society are not believers, and yet they need to be restrained.
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And so the Judeo -Christian worldview is a positive thing, even in those who are not themselves believers.
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So moving along. Wisdom directs us away from extremes. It keeps us in the path of duty.
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It tells us things like we are to be diligent. We have to have self -control. Parents, one of the most important things you can teach your children is to be self -controlled.
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In fact, one of the things that defines an adult, an adult has the ability to be self -controlled.
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And yet, somehow in our modern society, we somehow think children are going to learn this by themselves, by osmosis or something.
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They're going to suddenly wake up one day and say, hey, I think I'll be self -controlled today. And away they go.
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That's not the way it works. Children are like that, are not like that. By definition, they have no discretion.
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They have no self -control. And it is the job of their parents to teach them that. However, that is necessary.
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Some lessons are harder than others. But as the Bible also points out, some things, once you start them, are hard to stop.
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Once you start down some paths, if the slope is too slippery, you find yourself, you can't stop once you go.
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And so wisdom teaches you, don't start. Don't paint yourself into a corner.
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Don't take extreme positions, he's saying. Some of us paint, not only do we paint ourselves into a corner, then we go back and put a second coat down, right?
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Do the same thing. Learn what is important, where you can compromise, and where you can't.
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There are certain things, don't get me wrong with all of this, there are certain things which do not lend to compromise.
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You cannot compromise. When we have discussions on what defines a Christian, if they don't have the substitutionary atonement,
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I don't care what else they've got, they don't have the gospel. That's key.
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You cannot compromise. Compromise on that. On the other hand, if we're going to discuss whether we're going to be pre -trib, post -trib, pan mill, whatever, those are things where good men can have discussions about.
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And as long as we can defend our position from the scripture, you know, we can have some jolly good discussions on stuff like that.
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And so know the difference between, you know, what is a legitimate point of discussion, and what is a point where there can be no compromise.
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But, you know, too many people, I'm afraid, you know, they won't compromise on anything, because I guess they're afraid of compromising on the wrong thing.
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Okay, wisdom also teaches us how to react to the sins of others. People, here's a newsflash for you, peoples are not faultless.
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Even believers are not faultless. And so we shouldn't really expect them to be. We shouldn't really expect them to be.
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At best, at best, we're all sinners saved by grace. And so righteous men do good, but even the best of them are not sinless.
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And so even our best efforts and my best efforts are going to be tainted by sin.
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I have never in my life done a truly selfless act, and neither have you. Because we are still tainted, even though we are saved.
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But that's why the sanctification process is still going on.
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If we were perfect, we wouldn't need any more sanctification. We'd already be sanctified, wouldn't we?
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But it's not until we get to glory are we going to be truly glorified, have our glorified bodies, and we will truly be like him at that point.
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In the meantime, we are forensically justified. You know, we have been declared just and righteous before God, but we are being shaped and molded by the circumstances of life and the things that God brings into our lives and the study of the word and all of those things.
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We're being shaped and molded into what God wants us to be. The point of all of this being don't expect. Don't be too harsh on your fellow believers.
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This is part of the point when Jesus says, judge not that you be not judged.
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He's not advising you to abandon discretion. What he's advising you to is don't hold other people to a higher standard than you hold yourself.
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You know, you look in the mirror first before you look at those around you. And so that helps.
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That helps. Wisdom also teaches us not to be quick to take offense. Don't go looking for things to be offended about.
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If you do, I guarantee you, you will find them. Life is full of stuff to be offended about.
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And life is going to be pretty miserable if you go through life that way. You know, because frankly, frankly, when we get offended, it's something that we think somebody has done to us.
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You know, usually they haven't got you in mind with whatever it was that they did.
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You know, we think too much of ourselves most of the time. And we think far too much of our own importance than is really justified.
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And, you know, most of what's happening to us is just life going forward. And so, you know, the idea that, well, so -and -so's out to get me.
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No, they're not. You know, they don't even know that you exist. That kind of thing.
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So and Solomon goes on on this very topic. Don't worry about what people say about you.
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Don't be worried about what people say about you, good or bad. It isn't that there might be some truth to it, but it's not 100 % either way.
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Nobody's as good as some people think you are. And nobody's as bad as other people think they are.
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Perhaps one or two exceptions. But, you know, if it's bad, if you overhear bad stuff, it just feeds your anger, doesn't it?
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And if it's good, it feeds your ego. And neither one of those things is good. So and don't go out of your way trying to discover what people are saying about you.
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You might not like what you hear. That's what Solomon says here. And so consider this.
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Perhaps there's a great deal more bad things said about us than we know. And what good is it going to do us if we hear it?
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So don't go out looking for that. And after all, who among us has never thought ill of others?
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Who among us has ever has never ascribed false motivations to others? Who among us has not cursed others, if not allowed, at least in our minds?
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I'm talking about the guy that cut you off at the light coming to church this morning, you know, him, whatever.
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And so when we get ready to take offense, remind yourself that you've done the same thing.
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We've done the same things. And we are to show meekness, which is defined as strength under control, to other people.
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And so to wrap up, what are the sources of wisdom? Well, Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the
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Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And here, knowledge and wisdom are the same thing. And so we must know
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God first. And if we do not know God first, we have no hope of gaining true wisdom.
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The man that does not know God is ignorant and will remain that way.
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Because he doesn't have the source of knowledge, the source of wisdom. And what is knowledge of God is the root of all knowledge.
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There's knowledge of his character, knowledge about his holiness, knowledge about his mercy and grace, knowledge about all of the other attributes that make up his character.
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And some other things right out of the Bible, which emphasize this point.
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There are a lot of verses that you can go to for this. I just picked a few. Then wrought
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Bezael and Aholiab and every wisehearted man in whom the
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Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the
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Lord had commanded. And Moses called Bezael and Aholiab and every wisehearted man in whose heart the
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Lord had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it.
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That's Exodus 36, 1 and 2. It's talking about building the tabernacle. But the key thing here is that the
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Lord puts wisdom and understanding in the hearts. And then in Psalm 3730, the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue speaketh of justice.
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And Psalm 110, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and good understanding have all they that do his commandments.
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So that's a key phrase there is that the doing, obedience is the mark of true understanding.
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His praise endureth forever. And then again from Solomon, the purpose statement of Proverbs, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, righteousness, and justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
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So here wisdom and intelligence are not synonymous. But notice that wisdom is available to the simple.
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Wisdom is available to the young. Wisdom is not necessarily something that comes with age.
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There is a wisdom that comes with age simply because being beat upside the head increases your wisdom usually.
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And life does that to you. But there is a measure of wisdom that is available to anyone that picks up the word of God and begins to study.
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So the simple, the young, the new convert, you know, wisdom is available to all of those.
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And he goes on, happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. And then finally in James, he says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given them.
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So wisdom is available. Wisdom is available. True wisdom is available to every believer.
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All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is ask. God has given us
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His Word. What He wants us to know, the foundations of true wisdom are available in His Word to each one of us.
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So let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You this morning that wisdom is available to us.
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You have not left us to make our way through life, to founder along a blindly stumbling and not being able to find the path.
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But You have given us Your Word to be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And You have told us that wisdom is available.
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Wisdom is available for the asking. And so, Lord, we ask today. Open our hearts.
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May the Holy Spirit minister to us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're dismissed.