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?
3) God’s wisdom: “For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power. (19) The scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars" (1 Corinthians 1:18-19 GNB).
If one sinner can destroy much good, then how much good is destroyed by a whole company of sinners Ecclesiastes 9:18 paraphrased)? 1) Ignorance and neglect: What do we destroy when we neglect and ignore God’s Wisdom?
2) Labels for justification: Do we use labels that justify our positions while we usurp God’s Word? Do we use political labels or any other labels to justify our positions? If we delete the labels, then what do we use to justify our positions? Let us take this time to throw all of those political barriers aside and pose a question. Do we tolerate those barriers hindering God’s wisdom and God’s will? The only thing that will matter before the throne of God is how well we managed the things of His kingdom here on earth as its current stewards!
3) Rooting and grounding: “America’s founders established the new commonwealth after the pattern of ancient Israel. They dedicated it to God and saw it as a covenant with Him.” (Jonathon Cahn. The Harbinger. Lake Murray, Florida, 2012, p. 19). What does that original covenant look now? What does that say about how we are supposed to be rooted and grounded in God’s love (Ephesians 3:17)?
CONSEQUENCES
Are we ever naïve of the consequences of our choices? Do we play kick the can? 1) Kick the can: Do we ever keep kicking the can hoping we can run out the clock and avoid the consequences? Don’t we all have to face the music of the choices we have made?
2) Results and consequences: “A teacher asked her class in spelling to state the difference between the words "results" and "consequences." >>>>>> A bright girl replied, "Results are what you expect, and consequences are what you get." http://www.moreillustrations.com/Illustrations/consequences.html Are we always happy with the consequences of our choices?
What were the consequences for the nation of Israel for their neglect?
1) Before and after: Adam sinned and his sin has affected the entire race of mankind. Achan sinned, and because of him an entire nation went down in defeat. They had to deal with the sin of Achan before they could achieve a victory. Rehoboam’s sin split the kingdom of Israel. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira brought the first defect into the early church, and from that day on the church has not been as potent as it was in the beginning. (McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: Poetry (Ecclesiastes/Song of Solomon) (electronic ed., Vol. 21, p. 73). Nashville: Thomas Nelson). This question is only comfortable when it is someone else’s time to face the music of their bad decisions right? What about the bad decisions of our leaders that abandon God?
2) Reaping and sowing: What about our consequences concerning Roe versus Wade (abortion), and Engel versus Vitale (removing prayer for the public schools)? How can we avoiding reaping what was sown as a nation?
Roe versus Wade: It was a landmark case passed by the supreme court in 1973. What was its fruit? There are now 60 million unborn babies whose lives were taken from them! There was recently and event called Return.org on September 26, 2020 that focused on America’s sin in the passing of Roe vs. Wade.
How does the thought of 60 million unborn strike you? When I heard this statistic and saw the images of an innocent newborn child’s feet, the heavy weight of the image of the feet of 60 million children made me weep!
I recall a memory of my public speaking class back I my college days. One day I was assigned the topic of being “pro-life” while arguing against the “pro-choice side”. I went first and made my case. My opponent got up there rebutted my argument and won the debate as the class sided with him. After class, out in the hall way, one of my class mates said he was glad he and his girl friend got an abortion saying that their lives would have been ruined had it not been possible. It made me sick! Now, he is probably married with kids. I wonder how he might feel about that decision today as he looks at his kids today. If I had been him, it would have a decision that would never quit haunting me!
Consider Isaiah 57:4 Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit, 7:5 you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
In the Old Testament, people sacrificed their children to Molech and Baal. How is God glorified with this SCOTUS decision of Roe versus Wade?
Some might argue for the health of the mother and the decisions that she can make concerning her body. What about the understanding of doing no harm---doing no harm to the unborn? What about post birth abortion principles that some have recently argued for? What would Jesus do? Do the actions of Roe versus Wade not mock God?
Is this SCOTUS decision not a trophy---an idol of death? Consider Mark 10:14 “But when Jesus saw, He was much displeased and said to them, Allow the little children to come to Me and do not hinder them. For of such is the kingdom of God” (MKJV). How can the innocent unborn come to Jesus when this ruling can prevent their birth?
>>>>> Engel versus Vitale: What is there to be said of this SCOTUS decision?
What happened to our Four Freedoms mentioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his State of the Union speech on January 6, 1941.
* freedom of speech
* freedom of worship
* freedom from want
* freedom from fear
(https://www.sermonsuite.com/immediate-word/what-happens-vegas). Should we not be fearful of what these two decisions have done to our nation? Is this not another idol---secular humanism? “Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Why did we let one person (Madalyn Murray O’Haire) let alone the others who joined her get away with this? Consider Romans 10:14 -15: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? (15) And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (KJV).
Is it any wonder we have almost six decades of lost souls because they took prayer out of the public schools?
Consider once again, Mark 10:14: “But when Jesus saw, He was much displeased and said to them, Allow the little children to come to Me and do not hinder them. For of such is the kingdom of God” (MKJV). How can the innocent and impressionable come to Jesus when this ruling can prevent their “freedom to worship” and pray? Do these two decisions not give God a restraining order?
JUDGMENT
How did God judge the children of Israel when they went astray?
1) Business as usual: In the Old Testament, we see a pattern. Sin, repent and repeat. God does not want our repentance to be something that we do with our words only! How can repentance be true unless we have “broken and contrite hearts” (Psalm 51:7). God not only wants our heartfelt repentance, He also wants us to produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8)!
2) Prophets: We see God at work through His prophets. Through the prophets God brought warnings for the children of Israel.
3) Punishment: God sometimes used foreign nations to punish His chosen people for not keeping their end of the covenant.
4) Remnant: One of the understandings of the term “remnant” is to be spared to preserve God’s promise because the term “remnant” deals with both judgement and salvation. https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/remnant/ When God punished His own, He sometimes left a remnant. There were also times when God left no remnant. What will God do with us as a nation?
What will happen to us if God were to remove His hedge of protection from us? Or, has God already removed that hedge of protection to let us face the consequences of our failure and complacency to prevent these two SCOTUS decisions? Jonathon mentioned the removal the God’s hedge around His people in his book The Harbinger. There are some who argue that God is such a loving God that He would not punish us. Wrong!!! Hebrews 12:6-7 says For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (7) It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (ESV).
Again, do these two decisions not give God a restraining order? How can we expect God to bless us as a nation when our actions in these two SCOTUS decisions have give God a restraining order? Isaiah 45:22 says, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
There can be only one solution to this problem! We must forsake this renegade wisdom! We must turn back to God! 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. In the Name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
