Welcome to our new series on wisdom. We are going to take the next three to four weeks to talk about biblical wisdom, the path of godliness. And essentially, What I want to do is give you kind of an overview of the Bible's concept of wisdom. Wisdom is a prominent theme, most specifically in the Old Testament, but it appears in the New Testament as well. But it is a central theme. It's a central theme to the Christian life. It's a central theme to godliness. It's a central theme just in regards to living well. In fact, just as I said that, I thought of recently, I don't know if you guys have seen, Andy Stanley has been in the news again, and he made some controversial statements that we need to unhitch the New Testament Christianity from the Old Testament. And yeah, he's received a lot of blowback from that. But I was thinking about those comments that he made there just in relation to biblical wisdom. The New Testament says very little about wisdom. I mean, of course, it speaks about wisdom, but it all builds upon the Old Testament wisdom literature, which would be Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job. Those are the four books of wisdom. Of course, we see some wisdom psalms as well. But it is the Old Testament that lays the foundation for wisdom, and the New Testament really just kind of points back to it. And if we don't understand that, we're not going to understand what is wisdom and how it applies to us as New Testament Christians. So, that's really what I want to do is just whet your appetite with this for the next three to four weeks. A brief introduction to what wisdom is and why it matters. And so, we're going to define what wisdom is, of course. What is biblical wisdom? We're going to consider why it's important for the Christian life. We're going to think about and look at scripture and try to answer how do we find wisdom? How do we grow in wisdom? Why is it a prominent theme in scripture? And most specifically, I guess, applying wisdom is how do we find the will of God in our decision making? That's related to wisdom, but I want to take at least a week or maybe the majority of one lesson to consider that question. How do we find the will of God in decision-making? We have lots of decisions, right, that we're all faced with. Wisdom is a key to that. So today, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give a brief definition of wisdom, and really it's going to be very brief because I'm going to build upon it tomorrow. Excuse me, tomorrow. No, not tomorrow. Next week. I want to give a brief definition of wisdom so we know what we're working with initially today, but then I want to take the rest of today to convince you of why this topic is important. To answer the question, why this topic? Why now? Why is it important? Why is it worthy of a study? Why here and now at CRBC? That's what we're going to focus on today. So a brief definition, and then why this topic, and we're going to pick up on that next week. But here's the big idea today. Very simple. I simply want to convince you of the necessity and urgency of cultivating biblical wisdom. That's it. Today's the first step in this. The necessity and urgency of cultivating biblical wisdom. So, I want to begin with a question. It's the best way to always begin a series, right? What is wisdom? Let me hear some definitions, some feedback from you guys. What is wisdom? Knowing how to live well. I like that. That's a really good definition. Someone else? Understanding how the world works. Oh man. It's going to be hard for me to teach you guys if you already got this stuff down. Understanding how the world works. That's excellent. So that you can live well. What else? Excuse me? Involves the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Someone else? Discerning good from evil. Absolutely. Yeah. I think of Satan in the garden. He's described as wise. It says the serpent was more crafty. It's a synonym for the biblical word wise, the Hebrew word for wise. He was crafty in that sense, and Adam and Eve fell because they could not discern between good and evil, at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Anyone else? Wisdom. That's good, that's good. So, I'm going to give you a full definition and then move on from that because I don't like this definition, but I just looked it up in the biblical, the Baker Encyclopedia, and I thought I would just throw it out there for you. Wisdom is a capacity of the mind that involves both knowledge and the moral ability to direct the mind toward a full understanding of human life and its moral fulfillment. Wisdom is thus a special capacity necessary for full human living. I mean, it's a good definition, it's just a little too wordy for me. So it involves knowledge, but it's not just knowledge, it's connected to what? Moral ability. And not just knowledge of morality, but the ability to direct the mind, and perhaps the body as well, towards a full understanding of human life. So it doesn't just consider scripture, what God commands us, but the full totality of human life. It's a special capacity. It is necessary for full human living. Maybe necessary for human flourishing. You could put it that way. I'm going to, that's nice, but I would prefer something more specific. Wisdom is the art of living well. That's what we're going to work with. That's our working definition. It's the art. It's something that's beautiful. There's symmetry to it. It's attractive. The art of living well. And this can encompass a lot of different things. It can refer to, it's even referred to in Scripture as physical skill or ability. When Solomon is building the temple, describes the various people, the men that he commissioned to do things, to make the ornate and beautiful things in the temple. And it describes them as wise in their abilities, their craftsmanship. So it can refer to a physical skill. an ability that someone has. It can refer as well to mental ability and intellect. Wise and understanding, right? That's perhaps what we think of most. The sage, the wise old man. You can ask him any question and he can give you a solution and a story to go along with it, right? And as such, on the surface level, it can be used for both good or evil. Mentioned before, Satan used his craftiness for evil. We'll look at this more next week. I'm going to give you some scripture passages that break this down. But for now, I just want to work off that definition of living well and what it encompasses. But to narrow it down a little bit more specifically, In a general sense, we can describe wisdom as non-redemptive and morally neutral. I just made that argument, right? The ability of your hands, the ability of the mind. But for our purposes, the Bible emphasizes that wisdom is the skill not just for living, but for godly living. And that's the Bible's thrust, its emphasis towards us. that we need wisdom in order to live lives of godliness, god-likeness. This kind of hits at the foundations of how we grow in godliness, which is through sound doctrine. It is through the mind. It is knowledge that accords with godliness, Titus 1.1. Wisdom, growing in our understanding of God, growing in our understanding of this world from God's perspective, is necessary for godly living. Obviously, you guys are in a Reformed church. That's Reformed Theology 101. It's not experience. It's not just loving your neighbor, good deeds. It's not just living a fulfilled and happy life that is the central of our life in Christ, but it is growing in our knowledge of the Lord. It's why we emphasize sound doctrine, why we emphasize the exposition of Scripture, why we emphasize that what we believe is foundational and more important, ultimately, than what we actually do. Not that what we do is not important, but creeds come before deeds. Much of the rest of Christendom argues, or de facto, that deeds come before creeds. It's more important that you live like Jesus, it doesn't matter what you believe. It doesn't matter as much. No, we believe that wisdom is the skill for godly living and that true good deeds flow out of true knowledge of God. As Kim mentioned earlier, Proverbs 1-7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Wisdom and godliness go together. Wisdom without godliness is ultimately foolishness. So, that's the brief working definition. I want to ask and answer now why this topic? Why this topic? Why, let me ask you, why do you think this is important other than what I've already said? I hate reading the manual. It takes discipline. It takes time. It takes care. You want to just enjoy the thing, whatever it is that you've now got. But you're right. In order to fully take advantage of every aspect, feature of whatever it is that you've purchased, you've got to read the manual. I think as well you know with some with some things in life you never stop reading the manual you never stop pursuing growth in that area. I think, of course, my vocation, which is obviously pastoral work, but, I mean, I remember very early on, Dr. Renahan in class emphasized to us students the necessity of a minister always pursuing growth in knowledge. You can't just go through seminary and say, I got it! I'm good! Now I can just focus on Whatever. He exhorted us to stay up to date on the current theological journals and issues and controversies of the day, to grow in our knowledge through these various means, to always be in pursuit of growth in this area, and it's very wise counsel. It's good. Anyone else? Why do you think this would be important? It's kind of like zeal without knowledge, right? John Calvin said that zeal without knowledge is like a sword in the hand of a lunatic. Oh, it just matters that you're on fire for God. It doesn't really matter what you believe. You can destroy a church that way. That's good, that's good, that's good. So, I want to give you three reasons. Wait a second, hold on. Okay. I'm not to my three reasons yet. I want to go for a general sense here. This is a general specific sense. Why this topic? Well, many of us in this room, in this church, are in a stage of life where we're facing big decisions. Not to name names. Whom to marry? When to get married? What job, career to take after school, perhaps? Where to live? How to invest, how to plan for the future, how to be prepared for the days ahead. These are questions that as I get to know you all, you are facing or will face in the near future, many of us. So wisdom, of course, is needed to properly make these types of decisions. Right? You guys get that? It affects our, intersects with our decision-making in real life. And wisdom, of course, is much broader than that. It's day-to-day. It's the life of cultivating godliness. But one application of that, be wise in understanding the will of the Lord. Do I take this job or this job? Do I move here or here? Do I get married to this person or no? Wisdom is needed in order to make those types of decisions, and I'm going to talk about that more in just a moment. But more specifically, this topic is needed and urgent, and these are the three points I'm going to give to you today. This topic is needed and urgent because of our innate sinfulness in remaining flesh. because of our cultural situation here in 21st century America, and because of our religious cultural setting as well. That's what I want to break down here for you today. So let's consider this first. It's important to grow in wisdom, to understand wisdom, because of our innate sinfulness in our remaining flesh. Of course, this is very basic, you all know this, but even after conversion we all have remaining sin dwelling within us. And foolishness, foolish living, is what comes most natural. I don't want to read the instruction manual to use Kim's illustration. We want to live, right? We want to live by emotion, by instinct, reactionary. This is what comes most natural. This is what is most instinctive. This is the message that is being preached to you by popular culture. Live according to how you feel, right? Be authentic to your true self. Be you, who you are. Don't let anyone else tell you what to do. What makes you happy? What is satisfying to you in the moment? This is the way in which we are to live. What comes natural to us is also to make decisions based upon emotion, instinct, reactions. or being blinded by how these things color our perspective. You ever heard of the proverb that speaks of that there is wisdom in a plurality of counselors or there's wisdom in many counselors? I'm quoting that off the top of my head. Well, part of being wise is realizing that you're not wise. You're not wise by nature and oftentimes It's easy to be blinded by your own presuppositions, by your own blind spots. And so part of being wise is seeking the counsel of others. So because of our remaining sinfulness, we ought to seek wisdom. Also consider it this way. What is Satan's work? What is Satan's primary work? I used to have a friend, who I hope is not listening right now, but I used to have a friend who, on sermon audio, not a friend here. I used to have a friend who used to say, He would talk about Satan's activity in the world and he would always say, Satan is most active in governments. That's where he spends all of his time. And not to deny that there is spiritual warfare going on in some sense at the government level, but this does not do justice to what the New Testament says. The New Testament Satan teaches that Satan's work, primary activity in this world, concerns deception. He's actively blinding people so that they do not understand the truth. His work is to deceive people and pervert the knowledge, the true knowledge of God. And so, because we are susceptible to this, wisdom is important. Without wisdom, we are helpless to stand against his schemes. We should go without saying that the confused or the deceived Christian will be the unfruitful Christian. That's why Paul says something like, Be wise in understanding the will of the Lord. Just think about it in your own life. Have you ever been confused about a decision? Have you been confused about a decision that's not black and white? Okay, is it a sin for me to do this? To see this movie? to participate in this activity? Is this a sin or not? Well, the Bible doesn't say. If you're foolish, you can easily fall into sin. It's not clear in Scripture, thou shalt not do this, because you're foolish and you're deceived. You're blinded by Satan, or you're just confused about the will of God. And thus, you remain unfruitful. And sometimes when that happens, you experience the consequences and you look back and you thought, oh my goodness, I fell into sin because I wasn't wise, I wasn't circumspective in watching where I stepped, where I walked, the counsel I listened to. So it's important because of our remaining sinfulness. Oh, I've got more on this point, sorry. And as we will see next week, Scripture commands and urges us to seek wisdom because of our sinful nature as well. That's really what I'm going to hit on next week is the exhortations from Scripture to seek wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from God, ultimately. Wisdom from the Spirit. Wisdom in Christ is ultimately a gift of God that counteracts our remaining sinfulness. Alright, second thing. Cultural setting. Why study wisdom? Why this topic? I hope you can all see that picture. We live in an age, culturally, where the world is at our fingertips. And so let me ask you, are we wise because we have easy access to more information than any other generation in history? I mean, probably just about all of you have a smartphone on you right now. You know, if I were to, you know, throw out some random question to you, you know, what's the capital of Wyoming and you didn't know it, you know, 15 seconds, you can pull it up. What if the monitor all of a sudden, you know, stopped working and, you know, oh no, we can't continue our Sunday school. You pull up, oh, let me pull up the manual right here. Let me Google this question. Monitor went blank, Epson, model, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, here's a problem right here. You need to clean the filter. You need to reset this. Does that mean you're wise? I just got an inheritance. $50,000. Do I pour this into my house and pay off my mortgage or do I invest it? Well, let me poll the financial advisors online and find the most relevant answer. Is that wise? Is that wisdom? No, okay. Good, good, good, good. Yeah, exactly. It may be tempting to think that knowledge is the same as wisdom, or that intellect is the same as wisdom, or that information is the same as wisdom. But they aren't. Wisdom is not just information. And it's easy to think, because we have all of this information, that we are wise. I want to read this passage. If someone would please turn to 1 Kings 3 16-28. We're doing good on time, so we're going to go ahead and read this. I want to demonstrate the difference between information and wisdom. Would someone please read that loud and clear? 1 Kings 3 16-28. And this is speaking about Solomon's wisdom. Go ahead, John, thank you. Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, oh my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. And this woman's son died in the night because she lay on him. And she rose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne. But the other woman said, no, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours. The first said, no, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine. Thus they spoke before the king. Then the king said, the one says, this is my son who is alive, and your son is dead. And the other says, no, but your son is dead, and my son is the living one. And the king said, bring me a sword. So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, divide the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other. Then the woman, whose son was alive, said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death. But the other said, he shall be neither mine nor yours, and divide him. Then the king answered and said, Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put her to death. She is the mother. And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. Thank you, John. The context here is that Solomon, God comes to Solomon and says, I'm going to give you whatever you ask of me. And Solomon says, I seek wisdom. That's what my request is. And God says, Well, since you asked for wisdom and you didn't ask for riches and honor and all of this, I'm going to give you wisdom and riches and honor and all of this. And so Solomon is a preeminent wisdom figure in Scripture, right? The wisest man who ever lived. So here is an incident where his wisdom is on display. Two prostitutes come to him. There's a dead baby involved. They're both claiming that their child is the living one. And in the wisdom of Solomon, He deals with the issue. Solves the riddle, as it were. Divide the child. The true mother stands up. And thus, the liar is exposed. And the conclusion is, all Israel heard of the judgment of the king. They stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him. I want to ask you this question. How would this issue be solved today? Genetic testing. I got it. Let's do a DNA test. That's it. Issue solved. We'll find out who the real mother is. No problem. Would the people stand in awe of the wisdom of a judge who orders a DNA test? Oh my goodness. That's the wisest judge I've ever seen. He ordered a DNA test. No. Wisdom is not the same as information or knowledge. There's more in play here. So, my argument in this is to show you, to demonstrate that having the world at our fingertips, being able to do a DNA test, does not mean we are wise. Wisdom, as we will see, is the right use and application of knowledge, of information. It's more than that as well, but just in this standpoint it's the right use of the right information. Any questions on this? Comments? Cody? who, way back in the day, was one of the most brilliant minds ever at Southern. The knowledge that he had of theology and scripture was just insane. And yet, because of his lack of wisdom, ended up heresy, and was kicked out of seminary, went to Harvard, basically, and ended up denying the faith. Yeah, that is, that's a, unfortunately, it's not entirely uncommon. for men, for people to assume that knowledge of God, knowledge of the Scriptures is the same as wisdom. And men who are great in learning sometimes fall away from the faith. Absolutely, good illustration. Alright, so... Exactly, exactly. Absolutely, exactly. Yeah, and there's a moral component as well that's involved in all of that. The morality of the heart, the sinfulness, and things of that nature. But it's so easy, trust me. I saw it in seminary. I saw it in my own life in seminary. It's very easy to think, oh my goodness, I can read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. I spend all day studying the scriptures. I know all theology and all mysteries. And to equate that with godliness and to equate that with wisdom. I know some brilliant theologians who are not very wise. They still may be Christians, but they're not very wise. They're not very wise in the application of Scripture. In fact, we think specifically about the office of an elder and the calling of a pastor. One of the qualifications is that he rightly handles the Word of God. It's not just your knowledge of Scripture. You've been to seminary, you can be a pastor now. You can talk about any theological issue on the table. You're equipped now in that respect. No, you have to know how to apply it. You have to be wise in applying it. You must be wise in applying it to people's lives and situations as well. And this is something that is demonstrated in a gifted man. The church sees that and based upon that says this man needs to hold such an office. So, very very good. Now let's turn third and finally to our religious and cultural setting for why wisdom is important. Religious fundamentalism, this is opening a can of worms here, I know. Religious fundamentalism in reacting to modernism. I hope you guys know kind of what I mean by that. Early 20th century Darwinism, naturalism arose, and the reaction to all those things kind of explains the religious fundamentalist movement. in responding to monarism has argued something like this. Well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and I am a Christian, therefore I'm wise. And I'm wiser than anybody and everybody else who's not a Christian. This is a very popular perspective. But this fails to understand the Bible's teaching on wisdom. And I'm going to argue that even many unbelievers can be much wiser in a broad and relative sense than some Christians. That's why we're going to explore what it means the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and what wisdom is. Now, it's a relative wisdom. It's a worldly wisdom. But just because you're converted doesn't mean that you're wiser than people who aren't, regarding many of life's issues, regarding even some moral issues. Like for example, Luke, you mentioned marriage earlier. There is some good secular material on cultivating a healthy, happy, fulfilling marriage. We would be foolish to deny that and say, oh, well, A non-believer can't possibly be wiser than a believer when it comes to marriage and so I'm not going to read anything from a secular perspective. Same with raising kids, investing, decision-making. Wisdom is not just delegated to believers only. And so we need to grow in our religious, I mean, in our understanding of this because of this, what the culture has kind of ingrained in us in this sense. Then we have religious fundamentalism. Again, I mentioned it before, but I know my Bible, I can recite large sections from memory, I know God's law, therefore I'm wise. Again, a fundamentalist aspect here. Equating wisdom with knowledge, but more than that, equating wisdom with God's law. What I hope to show you is that wisdom is not law. Wisdom and law must be distinguished. In fact, I know many Christians who go to the wisdom literature and Proverbs. You're foolish if you take out a loan on interest. Well, then it's a sin to take out a loan on interest. Many Christians argue and believe such a thing. But Proverbs is not law. We have to be careful by saying, now of course there is law in Proverbs, there are commandments in Proverbs, but in general, the book of Proverbs, the wisdom literature, is not an issuing of commands and saying, you just follow these commands, you'll be okay, you'll be wise. No. Wisdom and law must be distinguished. Again, wisdom's not just mere information. It's not just mere information about God. It is the proper application of such. And then finally, it's important because popular Christian decision making. I'm gonna be careful here. I don't wanna step on toes. We're gonna talk about it, okay? We're gonna talk about it. God told me to make this decision. I have a peace about it. Therefore, I'm making this decision. Even, to a certain respect, I want to be careful here, but even, God is leading me to make this decision. God made it clear. He closed every other door. God made it clear because I set these parameters up beforehand, and since those parameters weren't met, I know to do this. Or they were met, so I know to do this. These are popular ways in which Christians make big decisions. Another one, I'm going to ask all my friends, the answer that I like the most, that's God's wisdom and God's will for my life. I'm arguing here that none of these are a right application of wisdom and none of these are the proper means of making a decision in the life of a Christian. Again, we're going to talk about it, okay? I have some questions here. Making decisions is a matter of wisdom. It's not a matter of these things, biblically speaking. And so, let me just pose it to you this way. Why would the Scriptures repeatedly emphasize our need to seek out and gain wisdom if God leads us to make decisions through these other means? Having a peace about something is not wisdom. God telling you is not wisdom. Your friends telling you is not wisdom. Setting up parameters that you decide and then saying, God led me to this decision because of these parameters is not wisdom. And we can make poor decisions if we follow these means. And think of it this way. What if one of those four ways we make a decision and it ends up, you know, being a very poor decision? Or does the fault lie? God told me to do this and I did it. Now it's disaster. It's proven to be an unwise decision. You're placing the blame on God. You're getting out of it. You're not being accountable to the fact that you did not make a wise decision, and you are to grow and learn from that. Right? I polled all my friends. The fault's on them. I have a piece about it. The fault's on the Spirit, because He gave me this piece. So, again, wisdom is different from these things. The Bible says grow and seek wisdom And it holds us accountable for every decision that we make, which is why we ought to seek wisdom. Loving accountable, but still accountable. Let me give you an example of this. I know someone in my family who bought a car based upon having a piece about it. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for, it wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but They showed up, he saw it driving by one day. The dealership was closed and he went to unlock, he went to look at it and the door was unlocked and he's like, this is it. God has provided this car for me. This is amazing and it ended up being like the worst car he'd ever bought. It was a lemon and he lost a ton of money on it. God opened that door and he gave me a piece about it. Therefore, I made a poor decision Where's the fault lie? It lies with God. And now he, not making a wise decision, of course, bears those consequences. Alright, let's wrap up. So the conclusion is, because of our church situation, because of our cultural situation, both secular and religious, because of the Bible's emphatic emphasis on seeking wisdom, it is necessary and urgent for us to understand what it is, to understand where it's found, to understand how we can cultivate it. And so next week I want to look at motivations from Scripture to grow in wisdom. So we looked at more general, cultural. Now let's look at what Scripture, how it exhorts us to do that. Let's look at the benefits of wisdom in Scripture. Let's really define biblical wisdom. And we're also going to make that distinction between wisdom and law and see how they interact with one another because that's really what's key is understanding how wisdom and law sweetly comply and go together. Any questions, any comments as we close? I think it's just really amazing how you're describing this. I was thinking back to when I went to visit my boss in 2015, and I was a Christian, but I'm still learning a lot about what it means to be a Christian, because I asked him, out of just starting a conversation, you know, what would be your advice to young men wanting to get married? And immediately I was thinking in my head, you know, I had a buzzer in my head, like, ah, he's gonna be, you know, he's an atheist. You know, I'm like, you know, whatever. And he totally says, get past the infatuation. I'm like, I just froze. I'm like, whoa, is this right? He's gonna be your partner for life. She's gonna help you and this is scriptural. He's not a Christian. So it helped me to redefine or redirect my mind of what is Christianity? It's not wisdom. Yeah, that's good. I like how you say, this is scriptural. He's bearing witness to the fact that he has the image of God stamped upon his soul. And so when he speaks, he's speaking in accordance with Scripture because he's made in God's image, even though he's not giving credit or deriving that explicitly from God's revelation. But as a Christian, we can see that, we can appreciate that, we can benefit from that, and we can grow in wisdom through someone else bearing the image of God. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. That's excellent. And that's important too in understanding that wisdom is closely associated with natural general revelation. General natural revelation, you know, it's seen in creation. Special revelation is in Scripture. Wisdom really is the beautifying of both. They come together. But an unbeliever who does not fear the Lord can grow in wisdom through natural revelation. It's still God's revelation. It's just not redemptive. Redemptive only is revealed in the gospel, special revelation. Understanding how those play out and coincide is true biblical wisdom. Alright, let's close in prayer.