All-Wise God
Notes
Transcript
All-Wise
All-Wise
Who is the smartest person you know?
Who is the smartest person you know of (someone you haven’t met)?
Before we start I want to take a look at the wisest man to ever live: anyone know who that is?
Solomon
And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
God tells us he was wiser than anyone that came before him or will come after him. All the kings of the earth had heard of his wisdom
And so Solomon writes the book of Ecclesiastes to his son, trying to explain to him the folly of everything, including wisdom.
He starts this journey in chapter 1.
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
So he has this great wisdom and tries to use it to find some sort of satisfaction.
The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!
Solomon concludes there is no joy in wisdom—the end result is the same; death!
And so as you go through the book of Ecclesiastes and works through all these different things and concludes they are all meaningless and provide not satisfaction. So he concludes the book with this great overarching mission statement
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
We have gone through all these things, it provided no joy. Fear the one who gave us all these things.
We have seen throughout this study the sovereign, all-powerful God on display. Today we are going to explore another one of God’s great attributes—his wisdom.
Like we have talked about the last couple weeks, God’s attributes have to go together.
If God were not wise, then we would be left with a God who has all-powering control but would misuses it.
Instead all of God’s choices are perfect choices. God always has the highest end in mind and the best means to that end.
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
We see specifically his wisdom and strength going hand in hand, you don’t have one without the other.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Again, Spirit of wisdom and Spirit of might
We also see in scripture just how vast and wide this wisdom is
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
This wisdom is vast and deeper than anyone can even know. All wisdom and knowledge in all the universes, including all that Solomon possessed is from God.
Let’s stop here and define wisdom
What is wisdom?
Being wise, knowledge, good judgement
God has all wisdom—His choices always pursue the highest end—he has the best judgement
That highest purpose is always for the greatest good for us and the greatest glory for Him
Additionally He always knows the best means to get there.
This is just a small example but we used to go to California every year and a place called Mammoth Lakes which was half dessert half mountains. And there are all sorts of roads and paths and trails. Each has obstacles or negatives of using them (Cattle guards, speed limits, traffic) and the first couple of times I could get you anywhere you needed to go. The Lord has blessed me with a sense of direction some don’t have. But getting there and taking the best route are not the same thing. The last couple of times I have mastered the best way to get there; the quickest way, the less taxing way, easier for the car, etc. It’s one thing to get it done but another to get it done most efficently & effectively
God in is wisdom not only achieves the highest goal but does it in the most effective way
He does all things for His glory
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
We see not only does everything go through him and he is worthy of the praise for that—he is the only wise one, praise Jesus for that!
The wisdom of God and the glory of God go hand in hand.
The highest end of wisdom is the glory of God; what will most glorify God is true wisdom
And so I want to explore three dimensions of wisdom or even displays of His wisdom
Creation
Consider the wisdom of God in creating the world
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
John Calvin said, “The entire universe is a theatre to showcase the glory of God.”
What are some ways in which there is great wisdom in lets say even our earth?
By the way he created it. Not by a big bang or by pulsating in the universe but the greatest display of his power was simply for Him to say, “Let there be light and there was light”
He created everything out of nothing, what greater display of his power than that
He tilted the earth at just the right angle to spin at just the right speed orbiting around the sun at just the right distance to not only keep us on this earth and not floating in space but to sustain the whole globe, we don’t burn to death or freeze to death because the earth spins to slow or is too close or far from the sun.
He balanced the heights of the mountains with the depths of the oceans. The earth spins at perfect balance and precision, it doesn’t wobble around like a beach ball in the wind.
That doesn’t even consider the majesty of his creation on the earth itself. The great beauty and diversity and animals and regions and weather. All the things God created that work seamlessly together; if one part of it was off one bit it wouldn’t work but God in his great wisdom and power created them all perfectly.
2. Providence
God has the highest end in mind—His Glory, which is seen in divine providence
He chooses the best path for us to providentially be ushered along by in order to reach the highest end.
His timing of all things in our lives is perfect.
He chose for you the perfect time in history for you to be born
It may not seem like that sometimes when you consider everything going on, how many times have we heard about the “good ole days” but God perfectly chose this time in history for you be born
He chose the perfect place on the map where you were born, chose who your parents would be, all of it perfectly coming together for your greatest good.
That can be hard for us to wrap our minds around in the flesh because we think about the broken families or the people born in regions that don’t even have food and water or are going through great hardships. That was perfectly chosen? Yes—in providence God laid on a plan for the elect to bring the greatest glory to God and good in their life despite any circumstances.
This is all done in perfect wisdom, including trials
We talked about the vine and the pruning process Wednesday night. The idea of the vinedresser coming along with a sharp knife and cutting off and trimming the branches in a painful process to allow for the best fruit. This hurts, times of deep sorrow and pain can result, but its done for our good. This includes the loss of a child, the loss of a spouse, a parent, losing a job or a friend or maybe even a church.
John Piper said, (I won’t do it justice to the emotion he has)
“Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain, from the fallen nature or fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that.
I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism. I don’t care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something! It’s not meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing. Don’t look to what is seen.
When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you’ve got cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say, “That’s meaningless!” It’s not. It’s working for you an eternal weight of glory.
Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.”
Job 13:15 (ESV)
Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
The blade may seem to cut right to the heart, but its being perfectly wielded to bring about the greatest growth.
Even the things Satan & demons do is to bring about the highest glory of God
We see this in the scriptures.
Consider the life of Joseph—betrayed by his brothers, beaten, sold off, wrongly accused, jailed, taken away from his family
Josephs father dies, and his brothers are worried he is going to repay them for the evil he did to them
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”
And yet that was not his response
But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
I am not God, He knew best and he worked all those things together for good, to literally save thousands of people, but also to promote the glory of God even in Egypt, a land of false idols!
This includes even the death of Jesus, in divine providence that was perfectly orchestrated in wisdom for the best possible outcome. More on that shortly
God causes all things to work together for good, all part of the master plan for our lives
Consider even this class today; God in his great wisdom orchestrated all of you being together in this class today. There are hundreds of places each of you could be right now and yet you are right here under the word of God together.
Well there is a third way that we see this great wisdom on display
3. Salvation
The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
Not just in the providence of it but also in the power of the cross to save sinners.
Only God could have designed something like that. Only God could have come up with such a plan. We would never of even imagined a plan that would rectify our sin. Something so brillant, stunning, simple and yet so profound.
That the commissioned Son of the Godhead would be born of a virgin
That the all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, all-present Jesus would enter the human race yet be without sin nature. He would be under the law, grew tired, got hungry, was thirsty, needed rest and yet never fell into sin.
That the Godman Jesus would live perfectly to impute on our account as if we have lived perfectly.
That he would suffer on the cross, the most shameful and horrendous death—we dont think enough about just how awful that death was. See being shot, being hung, drowning, poison, they are all terrible ways to die from our prespective. But to hang on a cross in full view of hundreds of people for days, with every breath the pain shooting through your hands and feet where a nail was driven through. His wounds for his beating undoubtly stinging as they rubbed against the wood, splinters probably going into open wounds. Using all of your weight to keep your body upright so that you can breath. And as if that was not enough the would break your legs or stab you with a spear; you cant move or fight back your helpless
That he would suffer on the cross, the one who knew no sin but became sin for us, transferred to him, shed his blood which would wash away our sins.
He took on the sins of the world on our account
That he would use a borrowed tomb, how fittingly give then story for three days later he would rise from the dead as the risen victourous Savior.
That he would then ascend to heaven and is now enthroned on the right hand of God the father as both the just and justifier
This extraordinary plan was put together in great wisdom for the greatest good of the elect and the greatest glory of God. It magnifies and displays this glorious Christ in a way that no other plan could ever do.
That God in his great wisdom saw it best to save a wretch like me and you
Amen.