Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

A few weeks ago I mentioned that errors creep into our lives when we are not properly rooted in growing affections, passion, delight, and satisfaction in God with our emotions engaged. The errors of anti-intellectualism come from a reaction to misapplied doctrine without practice. Those that are anti-intellectual usually are taught that plumbing the deeper things of God is foolish because it will make dry and frozen in some academic paralysis.

That observation is true when those deeper thing of God don’t result in a heart that is expanded for Him in a worship to Him and in a joy for all that He is for us in Jesus.

But where those deeper things cause us to swell for love and affections for God, being anti-intellectual is not optional because it is in the mining of the treasures of God that we know Him more and more and thus are apprehended by His greatness.

Solomon calls us to a place of knowledge and wisdom of God so that the common challenges of life are better dealt with because we know who He is in truth and can have wisdom and discernment as to how best trust in Him. I believe anti-intellectualism is a form of unbelief because it says that if we know too much about God, we won’t follow, love, pursue, or live our days loving Jesus.

Let’s hear what the preacher has to say about things that will slow our growth in wisdom and ultimately in our faith in God.

STUDY

Frustration

Verse 7- For oppression makes a wise man mad, And a bribe corrupts the heart.

Frustration from outside pressure can eventually eat away at the wise man until he becomes mad. Frustration is ultimately a form of unbelief.

A powerful way in the New Testament of overcoming frustration and revenge is to have faith in the promise that God will settle accounts with our oppressors so that we don’t have to. The New Testament teaches that we are free from vengeance by believing that God will take vengeance for us, if he must.

Living by faith in what God will do in the future involves overcoming frustration and bitterness by trusting God to settle all our accounts justly.

If you are wise, as Solomon is asking for us to be, we won’t allow outside circumstances erode our wisdom so that we become crazy, or we allow ourselves to be corrupted.

The wisdom that will last for us and that will glorify God, is one that will not be ultimately moved through circumstance or outside pressure. A wise man quickly becomes a fool when he gives way to the hopeless despair of oppression and lives contrary to the wisdom he is given.

The way we glorify God in this, is by trusting in Him alone for justice, not our fallen, finite selves, or our fallen judicial system. God is a God of grace, and a God of justice, and he will always be just.

Delighting in His justice, trusting in His future promise to settle accounts, being satisfied in His perfect character is what glorifies Him and what keeps us wise.

Frustration is a form of unbelief. It is only cured by trusting by faith in the wisdom and goodness of God. A fool will find himself constantly frustrated because he can’t control the pressure and circumstances of his life, but the wise man doesn’t jump ship each time a wave crashes against his boat, he weathers it and continues towards his destination.

Impatience and Pride

Verse 8- The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.

All these proverbs teach us about wisdom. Fools and wise people start with the same goals and ideas, but the fool doesn’t get up to pursue their goal. A wise person keeps pressing on to finish what they began.

1 Kings 20:11 Then the king of Israel replied, "Tell him, 'Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.'"

This is why we see in the New Testament a picture of the Christian putting on armor, constantly. We never see a Christian pictured as one taking it off.

The end is better because in the beginning, nothing was done. The end of the matter gives a sense of completion, and for our life this shows us that when we start with Christ who is the author and perfector of our faith, we are to see our love for Him and life in Him through to the end of this life and into the next.

Most people pursue pleasure with such impatience that they hurry right past it. Our impatience and our pride, causes us to fall short of the pleasure we desire.

Like frustration, impatience is a form of unbelief. It’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of God’s guidance. It is a pride that says that your timing is better than that of God’s. It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered.

I find my patience being tested when I have to wait in a checkout line, or when I drive. Even worse is waiting in a line so that you can drive. That’s called the DMV. I find my patience being tested in the ministry, when I get a sudden shot to the midsection from someone I care about, I recognize that my patience is being tried.

The opposite of impatience is a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned place of obedience- to wait in his place, and go at his pace. It is a key to faith, since it requires that we trust His timing.

Pride sets in because patience is the capacity to wait and endure without murmuring and being disillusioned and pride is just the opposite.

Solomon tells us that patience is better than pride because humility is not a popular human trait in our world. It’s not looked as the thing to be desired, or the topic of the talk show hour. It’s not in the speeches of our valedictorians, or listed as corporate values in a company.

If you go to the self-help section of the bookstores, you wont find many titles celebrating humility.

The basic reason for this is not hard to find: humility can only survive in the presence of God. When God goes, humility goes. In fact you might say that humility follows God like a shadow. We can expect to find humility applauded in our society about as often as we find God applauded.

When God is neglected, the runner-up god takes his place, namely man. And that, by definition, is the opposite of humility, namely, the haughty spirit called pride. So our atmosphere and air we breathe is hostile to humility.

It too is a form of unbelief and the only way to battle the unbelief of pride is by faith in God. Trusting God and being arrogant are two opposites. One trusts in self and is proud of self, the other trusts in God and is proud of and in God, and therefore realizes that self is secondary, God is ultimate.

Pride is a turning away from God and His Son in order to seek satisfaction in other things, specifically in self. Pride is one specific from of unbelief. And it’s antidote is wakening and strengthening of faith in Christ.

Faith in the works of Christ doesn’t allow self to be proud. Faith in the works of Christ doesn’t allow self to be consumed with self. Faith in the works of Christ doesn’t allow self to demand what Christ has not allowed us to demand.

All other sins lie behind the unbelief of pride. Because self-determination and self-exaltation lie behind all these other sinful dispositions. Every turning from God, for anything, presumes a kind of autonomy or independence, and that is the essence of pride. Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God. Pride lies at the root of every turning from God. It is the act of every distrust toward God.

The battle against pride is the battle against unbelief, and the fight for humility is the fight for faith in God’s promises.

A wise person is patient and humble. A fool is impatient and proud.

Anger

Verse 9- Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools.

What’s the difference between a wise person and a fool when it comes to anger?

James says: This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; (James 1:19).

There are some of you here that are hotheads. You fly off the handle at the drop of a dime. It doesn’t take much for you snap.

It’s not a sin to be angry, but you shouldn’t sin in your anger, some anger is good. But if you are constantly angry for reasons that seem absolutely logical to you but to everyone around you are really silly, then this may be you.

How many of you are like me, and driving is the lesson that God uses to show me how much grace I need in Him on a constant basis.

A wise person doesn’t get riled up easily. In the movie Troy, when they return from visiting Menaleus land and were supposed to come back with news of peace, instead Priam, Troy’s king, sees his son Paris walking up the steps with Menaleus wife, he doesn’t even flinch. Maybe that’s bad acting, but how great would it be to see catastrophic disappointment and not be moved? But a fool, flips out, chucks plates, jerks the wheel into a tree, throws a fit, and acts like a spoiled 2 year old every time someone upsets them.

A wise person doesn’t easily get angry. They are quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.

Anger, like frustration, like pride, and like impatience, is a form of unbelief.

Anger is the strong feeling of displeasure and hostility. I’m not talking about righteous anger. I’m speaking about the kind of anger that is a brawling, quarrelling anger that is unrighteous and ultimately distrusts God’s sovereignty.

It’s foolish. I know, I was a very angry young man. I was a brawling fool. I would get in fights and turn red and my veins would pop out on my forehead like a V. Couple that with many years of training in martial arts and firearms and you have a lethal combination.

Today, I would probably fight, but it just takes too much effort now. Plus, everything hurts these days.

Solomon says that anger resides in the bosom of fools. In other words, an angry person has anger on their mind and in their hearts over anything.

Living in the Past

Verse 10- Do not say, "Why is it that the former days were better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

Kierkegaard says that “life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” In other words, we learn from and understand our life from what we have experienced in our own personal history, but we must live in such a way that we are pursuing our life with a forward momentum not a backwards one.

People that believe in the illusion of the past or future being better, are often unable to cope and live in the present. They are disappointed in a time that doesn’t exist. Whether it’s in 10 years or it was 10 years ago, it isn’t now and therefore you are banking your hope on a time past that can’t be relived or a time to come that we can’t sovereignly control because we are not God and are not sovereign. God is in control of history, not you and I. So when we attempt to live without submitting ourselves to that reality, we find ourselves frustrated and unable to find joy and satisfaction in the present day God has given us, if it continues, our present happiness will eventually affect our future because each day will be spent unhappy.

We have a tendency to romantically think about the past as if those former days were better than these. Only a fool thinks that, because only a fool forgets the trouble that was in every day then like there is in every day now. A wise person realizes that they have grown in wisdom over the years and each day is better because they have grown in their understanding of God and can deal with what they weren’t able to yesterday.

Was there ever a “good ole day?” In the Bible the only good ole days was Genesis 1 and 2, after that from chapter 3 on when sin entered into the world we haven’t had “good ole days.”

My wife looks at the 80’s as good days. I see pictures of me in the 80’s and those weren’t good days. I had hair like a Flock of Seagulls. I also had a geri curl when I was going through my break-dancing days. Have you seen a blonde haired white guy with a geri curl? It’s pathetic. I had to sleep with a bag over my head so I didn’t ruin the pillow case. The past is not necessarily better, and neither is the future promised to be better either.

A wise person doesn’t live in the past, but lives today for their future, not in the future.

Verses 11-12- Wisdom along with an inheritance is good And an advantage to those who see the sun. 12 For wisdom is protection just as money is protection, But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.

We speak so much in our day about knowledge. We have even come up with a catchy phrase “knowledge is power.” Yet it is not the acquisition of facts or the ability to rattle off theorems which baffle most untrained minds. It isn’t even the ability to gain information quickly or retain information well.

It is about the proper application of knowledge that becomes wisdom. Without the right use of all the knowledge we gain, we are not much better than a boy genius who is so smart that he is unable to live socially or emotionally in a way that benefits him and others. What we don’t need is more information, what we need is transformation of our hearts so that we can use what knowledge we have and turn it into wisdom. Being wise doesn’t mean that we stop gathering facts, or figures, or that we dumb down our studies. Being wise, means that we know why we are gaining such information and knowledge, and we have in mind the goal for which we toil to gather such things. We have the goal of applying knowledge so that wisdom is seen and cherished.

In Proverbs, which are almost all written by Solomon, we are given instruction about wisdom. Wisdom is personified as a woman that we are to pursue, not forsake, love, and prize.

Proverbs 4:5-13 Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown." 10 Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. 11 I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. 12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. 13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The disposition of the unbelieving world is best characterized in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:18-24 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

So we are called to come to Christ and lay ourselves in faith before him. If we want to have Godly wisdom, it only comes through God’s own son.

Colossians 2:1-3 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We may not have all wisdom, but we can know the One who does. There is no thought or action that is unintelligible to Jesus. He know the origin and end of every thought.

The most convoluted psychotic and the most arrogant genius are open and laid bare to his understanding. He understands every motion of every mind. And he not only knows all of us as we are today, he also knows what we will think and do tomorrow. He knows all things that will come to pass.

The extent of Jesus knowledge and wisdom is a compelling warrant for faith in His divine origin. The greatest thing that can be said of Jesus’ knowledge is that he knows God perfectly. He knows God perfectly, because He is God. We know God partially and imperfectly. Jesus knows Him like no other being knows Him.

No one but Jesus knows the Father completely, at all times, and perfectly. Our knowledge of the Father depends wholly on Jesus’ gracious revelation; our knowing is partial and because of our sin, imperfect.

Jesus shows Philip this truth when Philip asks to see the Father:

John 14:6-9 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip *said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus *said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

A wise person pursues Jesus for wisdom and that also provides protection. A fool runs from wisdom and is naked with only a plastic butter knife in the great battles of their life. They are easily defeated because they are unwise and refuse to learn the ways of the wise.

Verse 13- Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

A wise person will… “Consider the work of God.” A fool will shake their fist, wag their head, and be angry at what God has brought, not realizing that in their response their heart is being proven.

Many of you are trying to draw a straight line with a crooked stick. It’s not working is it?

We need to be a people that shut our mouths, open our eyes and heart, get on our knees and consider God’s work. Who can thwart God’s hand when He has brought trouble? Who is the only one that can straighten what is bent? God. He is the one that makes things crooked so that in our frustration we cry out to help and throw up our hands and come humbly to Him and ask for His mercy to straighten things out.

We get frustrated because we’re trying to draw a straight line with a crooked stick and it’s not working.

A wise person knows that only God can straighten what He has made crooked.

Verse 14- In the day of prosperity be happy, But in the day of adversity consider-- God has made the one as well as the other So that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

Both prosperity and poverty, sun and rain, happiness and adversity is brought by God who has made the one as well as the other so that man will see that he can’t tell the future and, in realizing he can’t fix life, in realizing that he can’t tell the future, God did all these things so that we turn to Him.

Instead of shaking our fist, we should take His open hand and rest in it through His grace in Christ. The hand that we view as a fist to bring adversity, is usually the hand that is opened as a friend and Father if we trust Him and depend upon Him and treasure Him.

A wise person trust in God’s sovereign hand.

Job 2:10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

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