Forsaking Renegade Wisdom

FORSAKING RENEGADE WISDOM

Text: Ecclesiastes 9:18

“Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroyeth much good” (KJV). 

     Have you ever noticed how we are sometimes lacking on common sense wisdom?

      Conrad Hilton, the hotel mogul, had a droll sense of humor. Once he was on the Johnny Carson show, and he was asked if he had a message for the American people. He looked straight into the camera and said, slowly and distinctly to about 30 million listeners. “Please put the shower curtain inside the tub.” (Streiker, L. D. (2000). Nelson’s big book of laughter: thousands of smiles from A to Z (electronic ed., p. 439). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers).  If we are sometimes slack with simple common-sense wisdom ideals like something as simple as a shower curtain, then how much more are we lacking when it comes to heeding godly wisdom?

     One of the problems that often goes unrecognized is the depth of God’s wisdom. Is it possible that we claim to know God, while failing to give Him the thanks and glory?  Is it possible that people claim to know God with futile thinking and foolish hearts that have become darkened (Romans 1:21 -22 paraphrased)?   How can anything good come from deceitful hearts (Jeremiah 17:9)? 

     In his book Growing Spiritually, the late E. Stanley Jones mentioned what he called the greatest hindrances to  Christian growth is the  present evil world---the herd.  Growth means departure from the herd …. Society demands conformity. If you fall beneath its standards, it will punish you; if you rise above its standards, it will persecute you.    (Nashville: Abingdon, 1953, p. 18). That is much like the world we live in today.   In the world the herd has its own brand of wisdom.   Isaiah 55:9 says For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (MKJV).  There is no way that we can know the depth and breadth and width of God’s wisdom and love  (Ephesians 3:18) because God is infinite, and we are finite, and we have rebelled against His love. God’s Word says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  What good is the renegade wisdom of deceitful and darkened hearts?

Today’s text has hints of warning. Today’s text seems to imply rebellion, consequences, and judgement.

REBELLION

      Can the “herd” have an effect on the way believers live in the world? 1) Selective obedience: There are those who claim to be children of God, calling themselves Christians but they have a selective reverence ——a selective obedience because they don’t seem to fear God.   

2) Rebellion: Those who have been influenced by the “herd” may invoke God’s Name when it suits them, but they rebel against His love in their actions. They put God in a box and play God with their power. They make rules that call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).  There are two famous Supreme Court cases that are examples of this --- Roe versus Wade (abortion), and Engel v. Vitale (taking prayer out of the public schools).    Who can call either one of them good?

What happened to Israel when they rebelled against God?  What has happened to our nation since the passing of those two court cases? What will happen to our nation if we continue to tolerate the acts of rebellion in our nation today? 

     What causes rebellion?  Is there some part of us that does not like authority?     What would we call that part of our personality?     

1)  Pride:  Would we call it pride?  What did Satan’s pride do for him?  Didn’t it get him cast out of heaven?   Before he was cast out, his name was Lucifer, which means carrier of light.  When Lucifer, one of God’s former top angels rebelled against God, he got cast out of heaven along with those who followed him (Revelation 12:9).  It was St. Augustine who said, “before God can deliver us, we must undeceive ourselves”.  (James S. Hewett. ed. Illustrations Unlimited. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, p. 434).   Again, Jeremiah 17:9 tells us: ”The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (ESV). 

  2) Prejudice:   If the heart can be blind to its own deception, then is it not true that it can also be blond to its own prejudice? James W. Moore, how prejudice can blind us in three ways:

  1) It can cause us to be lazy and harsh;

                          2) it can cause us to misjudge people and events;

                          3)… it can cause us to be close-minded.  … James W. Moore also cites the late Charles Schultz knew about the sin of the closed mind as he illustrated it in one of his comic ”Peanuts”  strips that went like this …

     “Lucy was chasing Charlie Brown, shouting, “I’ll get you Charlie Brown. I’ll catch you and when I do I’m going to knock your block off!”

     Suddenly Charlie Brown screeched to a halt. He turned around and said, “Wait a minute Lucy. If you and I as relatively small children with small problems can’t sit down and talk through our problems in a mature way, how can we expect the nations of the world to do so?” Then Pow! Lucy slugged him and said, “I had to hit him quick, he was beginning to make sense.” (James. W. Moore. O Say Can’t You See? Nashville, Tennessee: Dimensions For Living, 2000, pp. 16, 20). How many people act like Lucy? How many times have we ourselves acted like Lucy and countered someone who was starting to make sense? It that how we treat God’s Word and wisdom?