Sermon Tone Analysis

July 22, 2001

 

! Introduction

We live in a world that is exploding with knowledge and in which knowledge is at our fingertips.

I don’t know how many times in recent months I have had a conversation with someone about something we didn’t know and the response was “look it up on the internet.”

It is now possible to find anything out in minutes.

I have a great library, two sets of encyclopaedias on computer and access to the internet.

There is very little knowledge that I can’t have if I want it.

Knowledge is great and I support the concept of education and in fact of life long learning.

My Uncle Roland, whom we visited in Annapolis, MD is 80 years old and still has plans to learn many things before his life is over.

I applaud that attitude.

Knowledge can help us in many ways, but knowledge is not the same as wisdom.

We see the disturbing reality of our world in which knowledge is abundant, but wisdom absent in a piece written by a high school student following the Columbine High School tragedy.

“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts but less solutions; more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years…”

What is wisdom?

One writer says, “Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.”

I have never yet done one of those corn mazes.

When you enter them, you have to find your way out without knowing where you are going.

Complete wisdom would be like having the ability to see it from the top.

If that is wisdom, then who has wisdom?

Listen to what it says in Job 28:12-24.

This morning, I want to point to the one who has absolute wisdom and encourage us to look to the wisdom of God.

!

I.

The Wisdom Of God

!! A. Seen In Creation

            As we travelled during the last few weeks, we saw some amazing things.

The waters of Chesapeake Bay, four of the five Great Lakes, the mountains of West Virginia, the power of Niagara Falls.

We saw many birds and fields of flowers.

It gave us occasion to think about the wonder of the one who had created it all.

All of creation speaks loudly of the wisdom of the one who created it.

Even if we think about something as close to us as our own eye, we are filled with wonder at the wisdom of God.

We had our pictures developed yesterday and are very thankful for the amazing way in which cameras work.

But they are not nearly as amazing as the human eye which God has created.

The lens permits light to pass to a place in the back of the eye which allows us to see images.

Have you ever considered the intricacy of the eye?

The fact that light is translated to images?

The fact that it can automatically adjust for changes in light conditions?

No camera can as easily repeat what the eye does automatically.

Consider the way in which it is covered and lubricated?

What about the psychological powers of the eye.

The messages that can be communicated with our eyes?

Truly the wisdom of the one who created it is great!

My uncle was a scientist with NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center and we toured the facility and he told us things about how they put a satellite into space and how it transmits messages back to earth.

We learned things that went way over our heads and were amazed at what man has accomplished.

Even more amazing is the way in which the entire universe has been put together by God.

What scientists do is learn and use the things that God created.

The satellites which God has put in place, the earth, moon etc. are even more amazing.

The earth is the right distance from the sun to provide life on the earth.

The way in which it houses an environment that allows us to live and make a living tells us of the even greater wisdom of God.

Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 104:24, “How many are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you made them all…” Listen also to Jeremiah 10:12, “But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.”

What tremendous wisdom it would take to create in such a wonderful way.

!! B. Seen In Salvation

            Please turn with me to I Corinthians 1:17- 24 and let us read these verses.

This passage talks about the foolishness of the work of God in salvation.

That is the perspective of the world, of those who are perishing.

The true perspective, however, is that it is the wisdom of God as we read in verse 24.

How is salvation the wisdom of God?

For me, there are several things which help me see it as the wisdom of God and to worship God for his wisdom in salvation.

There is a line in Romans 3:26, “so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

If we understand this phrase, we will see the wisdom of God in salvation.

God is just and can do no wrong.

We, on the other hand do wrong all the time and are completely overcome with sin.

God’s desire is to make us right with Himself.

How can he do that?

If he overlooks our sin in order to make us right with himself, he is no longer righteous and holy.

If he judges us in our sin, as we deserve, he does not express his desire to make us right with Him.

The glory of salvation is that in the wisdom of God, he planned a course of action which would allow him to both justify us and remain just.

This he did in Christ when he allowed the sinless one to die in our place.

The work of salvation is indeed a work of the wisdom of God.

There is another way that I like to look at the wisdom of God in salvation.

The Bible speaks of the holiness, justice and compassion of God.

The holiness of God demands that he can have nothing to do with any evil, but is absolutely pure and perfect.

The justice of God demands that anything that is wrong must be punished.

Perfect justice carried out perfectly.

The love of God requires that he express his love to all his creation.

None of these are optional elements of the nature of God.

They are at the core of who he is.

The work of salvation is a work which takes into account each of these aspects.

God, in his wisdom is making us holy and justifying us so that he can express his love to us.

He is doing it in such a way that he remains holy and just.

The wisdom of God is seen in that.

Add to this the wisdom of God in bringing it about, planning salvation before the foundation of the world, announcing it at the beginning of time when sin entered the world, bringing Jesus into the world at just the right time and having the sinless Christ come to earth as a baby through the virgin birth as both man and God are all aspects of the work of salvation that cause us to stand in awe of the wisdom God as it is demonstrated in salvation.

Listen to Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

!! C. Seen In Lives

Proverbs 5:21 says, “For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.”

In fact, as we look at individuals lives, we see that God does more than examine our paths, he guides us in them.

I have been reading Genesis lately and was interested by the story of Jacob.

I read this description of his life somewhere and found it very interesting as I read Genesis.

Was Jacob a man of faith?

We see some pretty serious character flaws in him.

He was a grasper.

He liked to manipulate situations so that he would come out ahead.

He was born second, but came out grasping his brother’s heal.

One day when Esau had been out hunting, he came back hungry and Jacob took the opportunity to force Esau to sell the birthright.

He knew the plan of God, but was determined to get it by any means he knew how.

When the opportunity came to steal the blessing from his father, even though he deserved it, he did not trust God to give it to him.