SEVEN CARDINAL VIRTUES
WISDOM
DR. JIM DIXON
JUNE 17, 1990
1 CORINTHIANS 1:20-2:7
Human beings have two sets of teeth, deciduous teeth and permanent teeth. Deciduous teeth are sometimes called baby or primary teeth. Deciduous teeth are not permanent, they are temporary. There are twenty deciduous teeth. They arrive and fall out when a child is young. Permanent teeth are not meant to fall out. Permanent teeth are not meant to be temporary. There are 32 permanent teeth. They begin to grow before birth but most of their growth takes place after birth. The first permanent teeth to appear in the human mouth are the central incisors, and they appear around the ages of six and seven. The last permanent teeth to appear in the mouth are the third molars. The third molars are sometimes called wisdom teeth. They’re called wisdom teeth because they do not appear until a person is about 17 to 21 years of age and the thought is that by the time you’re 17, or certainly by the time you’re 21, you ought to have some measure of wisdom. We all know that age does not necessarily bring wisdom. There’s a lot of people who are 17 or 21 who have very little wisdom and there are a lot of people who have very little wisdom at any age. In fact, the Bible tells us that true wisdom is very rare. And biblically speaking, most people in this world are fools.
This morning I want to discuss with you true wisdom. I have two teachings. And the first is this – true wisdom comes only from God. The source of true wisdom is God and God alone. The Bible says, “Does anyone lack wisdom? Let him ask God.” You remember how ages ago, Solomon, the third king of Israel, asked God for wisdom and God gave it and he became the wisest man on the earth, a gift of God, a gift which later Solomon abused, but a gift. Nevertheless, wisdom has its source in God.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Sir Richard Burton, the Explorer, the author Sir Richard Burton, lived in the 19th century. He was a brilliant man. Multilingual, spoke many languages, wrote many books. It was Sir Richard Burton who translated the Arabian Knights into English. Sir Richard Burton was most famous for his exploration of Africa. In 1858 Sir Richard Burton and his friend, John Speak, went into the African interior and they became the first Europeans to arrive at Lake Tanganyika seeking the source of the Nile.
The African explorations of Sir Richard Burton have been made into a movie called “Mountains of the Moon.” The movie shows how Sir Richard Burton sought the source of the Nile but I want you to know today that a greater quest in the life of Sir Richard Burton was a quest for the source of wisdom. He longed to know true wisdom and he sought its source. In 1853, Sir Richard Burton disguised himself as an Arab and he snuck into the holy Muslim city of Mecca where no outsider is allowed. Entrance of an unbeliever receives the penalty of death. But he snuck in and he saw the Holy Mosque to the Caba. He saw the black stone, which allegedly fell from heaven. Why did he risk his life? Why did he sneak into Mecca in 1853? He did it because he wanted to know true wisdom, but he didn’t find it.
In 1860, Sir Richard Burton came to America. He got on a covered wagon and he went west across this continent all the way to Utah. And there he found the Mormon community in Utah. He lived among the Mormons for a period of years. Why did he do that? He was seeking true wisdom, but he didn’t find it. He was knighted in 1888, Sir Richard Burton but he never found the light and he died in darkness. He knew that God was the source of wisdom, but he couldn’t find God.
Now, the Bible tells us that there’s only one way you can find God, only one way to find wisdom and that’s through Jesus Christ. You can only know God through the Son. You can only know the Father through the Son and only know God through Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus Christ is called in the Bible, the wisdom of God. That’s why for us as Christians, Jesus Christ is called our wisdom. That’s why Jesus Christ said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me.” You only can find wisdom from God through Christ, through the person of Christ.
Some of you may be brilliant, highly intelligent. You might have an IQ that exceeds 200, I doubt it, but you might. Maybe you had the perfect SAT score of 1600. Maybe you graduated with honors from M.I.T. Maybe you have read every book known to men. None of these things offer wisdom. They offer knowledge, but knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Experience might bring you common sense, but common sense is not the same as true wisdom. True wisdom only comes from God.
Now I’m sure most of you have television sets. Most of you have colored color television sets. But most of you did not watch the Tyson fight or Forman fight on television last night. You may have wanted to watch it but couldn’t because the fight was only on H B O. Maybe you don’t subscribe to H B O. You have televisions, but they’re not capable of receiving H B O. Last night, there were wonderful programs on Disney Channel, and maybe some of you couldn’t watch the Disney Channel because your television doesn’t receive it.
You see, God wants you to understand, we all have eyes to see, we all have ears to hear, but most of us do not receive the wisdom channel. We just don’t receive it. The overwhelming majority of people in the world do not subscribe to the wisdom channel and you must subscribe to Jesus Christ. It’s a clear teaching of scripture. Only through Christ can you find true wisdom. So it is appropriate that we would discuss what is wisdom?
What is this true wisdom that Jesus Christ alone offers? This leads us to our second and final teaching. I’d like us to examine the goal, the purpose of true wisdom. I would like to suggest to you the goal and purpose of true wisdom is this – To seek Christ’s kingdom and character. That’s pretty simple, but it’s what the Bible tells us. You want to know what wisdom is, wisdom seeks the kingdom and the character of Christ. Everything else is folly. Everything else is vanity. Everything else is empty. The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The Bible says in Psalms, chapter 4 that “The way of wisdom is the path of righteousness.” Jesus Christ said, “Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness.”
I hope you know we live in a world where most people care nothing about character and do not seek the character of Christ. As far as kingdoms go, most people seek their own kingdom in this world. That’s the wisdom of the world. Seek your own kingdom. But Jesus said, “seek first my kingdom and my righteousness. I’ll give you everything you need.” The wisdom of the world is for you to seek everything you need, seek everything you want. But Jesus, Christ’s wisdom is this, seek my kingdom and I’ll give you everything you want. The wisdom of Christ and the wisdom of the world are antithetical. They’re opposite.
I know all of you have heard about the sinking of the Titanic that took place on April 14th, 1912. The Titanic went down in the North Atlantic in the midst of a stormy sea on its maiden voyage from England to New York. According to the United States Senate Investigating Committee, 1,517 people died and most of the survivors were women and children. There’s a true story about one woman who was on one of the lifeboats about to leave the sinking Titanic. And suddenly in a moment of panic, she said, I’ve got to go back to my state room. She was told that she only had three minutes. They said, if you don’t come back in three minutes, the lifeboat’s leaving and we’ll have somebody else take your place. You’ve only got three minutes. And so she ran over the deck of the Titanic, which was already tilted. She ran through the gambling hall where money was all over the floor in some place’s ankle deep. She didn’t care. She ran to her state room where there were diamond rings, gold bracelets, gold necklaces. She was very wealthy. She ignored it all. She picked up three oranges and she took those oranges back to the lifeboat. She thought somehow those oranges could be critical for her and maybe others on the lifeboat in the midst of their thirst as she didn’t know how much time or for how long she would be stranded at sea.
How amazing. Thirty minutes earlier, she wouldn’t have exchanged the smallest diamond for a crate of oranges but suddenly in that moment, a crate of diamonds wasn’t as valuable as three oranges. Her worldview had been turned upside down. I hope you understand that for the Christian, our whole worldview has been turned upside down. We have the wisdom of Christ. We understand that this world and the ways of this world are like a sinking ship and only Christ and the kingdom of Christ and the character of Christ really matters. Everything else is vanity.
Remember the story of the rich man in the Bible? The land of the rich man brought forth plenty. He said to himself, “What will I do? I have no place to store my grains and my goods.” He said, “I’ll tear down my barns. I’ll build larger barns and I’ll store my grain and my goods. I’ll say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.” What did God call this man? God said, “You fool.”
Why was he a fool? He had followed the wisdom of the world. He did everything the wisdom of the world said to do. He sought the security that came from the accumulation of wealth and he put that wealth in a safe place just like the world says to do. Then he sought a life of ease, just like the world says, and the world tells us that’s supposed to bring happiness. But God said, this man’s a fool. You see the wisdom of heaven is this – nothing matters but the kingdom of Christ. There is no security except for in Christ. Nothing brings happiness except for the kingdom of Christ. Seek first the kingdom of Christ and his righteousness because everything else is vanity.
Barb and I went to Washington D.C with a group of Christians from around the country. We were supposed to meet the President in a private audience and we were supposed to have brunch at the Vice President’s house, and we were supposed to have a private tour of the White House. It all fell through. The chancellor of Germany came to Washington, D.C. to discuss a united Germany. The President and his people went to Camp David and everything was cancelled. We still had a conference there and we heard from some outstanding Christian men and women. One of the Christian men was Stuart Briscoe.
Pastor and author Stuart Briscoe said, “Most people in this world live for three things. They live for profit and they live for popularity and they live for comfort.” It occurred to me that, that’s really true. I think most people in this world seek comfort, popularity and profit. In fact, I think all of us seek those things to some degree, but that’s the wisdom of the world and none of it satisfies. What really satisfies is seeking first the kingdom of God. Stuart Briscoe shared, that means you have to seek what is good and what is right and what is true. What’s true is not always profitable, comfortable, and popular. What are you living for? Is your wisdom of the world or is your wisdom of God? The wisdom of God is this seek first my kingdom, my righteousness, and I’ll give you everything you need. Nothing else matters in life.
This is Father’s Day and we’ve honored a few dads here today. We honored the biggest dad, the longest dad, and the shortest dad. What kind of dads would God want to honor? What fathers are pleasing to God? I can promise you If you’re a father and you’re living for profit, comfort and popularity in God’s sight, you’re a fool; But, if you’re seeking first Christ kingdom and his righteousness, you are wise.
I’d like to close with a story. I think some of you have heard of Cleopatra’s needles. Cleopatra’s needles were two obelisks. They were built more than 3,000 years ago by the Egyptians. They were built 1400 years before Christ during the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. 200 years later they were inscribed by Ramses II. Then more than a thousand years later, in the year 20 BC, Cleopatra’s needles, were moved from Heliopolis in Egypt to Alexandria. There in the city of Alexandria, the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt raised these two obelisks into the heavens.
Today these two obelisks still stand. One is in the city of London in England, a gift from Egypt to England. And the other stands in New York City today, more than 3000 years old, it stands in New York City, a gift of Egypt to America, sixty-nine feet high, weighing more than 200 tons, not nearly as tall nor as heavy as the Washington Monument, but far older and far more ancient, far more precious to many over the world.
According to Pliny the Elder, who was a historian and died in the eruption of Vesuvius in Pompei, when Cleopatra’s needles were moved to Alexandria and were lifted to the heavens the two sons of the engineer were bound by rope to the top of those obelisks because the Ptolemaic Pharaoh of Egypt didn’t want a mistake to happen. He didn’t want the obelisks to fall or to break. So he took the engineer’s two sons and he bound them to the top of this pillar of stone so that if the engineer made a mistake, he would pay with the lives of his own children. The lives of his children would be tied to his own performance.
I hope you understand today that your children are tied to your performance. If you’re a father or a mother, God wants you to know your children really are bound to your performance. And if you are living for what is profitable, comfortable, and popular, that’s the wisdom of the world and in God’s sight, your foolish and your children will pay. If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you have the wisdom of God, and the blessings of God will fall upon your family. If you seek first the kingdom of God, everything else falls into place. If nothing’s more important to you than the kingdom of Christ, everything in life has its proper place. Your money suddenly will be used properly because you’ll view it as a tool primarily to be used for the service of the kingdom of Christ. Who is wise and understanding among you? Seek first Christ’s kingdom and He’ll give you everything you need. Let’s close in a word of prayer.