Wisdom

GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
WISDOM
DR. JIM DIXON
NOVEMBER 12, 2000
1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-11

Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom. According to Greek mythology, she sprang out of the forehead of Zeus in a kind of lobotomous birth. Today, you can go to the city of Athens. You can go up on the hill of the Acropolis across from the Areopagus, and you can see the Parthenon. The Parthenon was built by the Greeks more than 2,400 years ago. The Parthenon was dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The Greeks sometimes called Athena, “Parthenos,” which means “virgin.” It is also true that the city of Athens itself was dedicated to Athena and named after her. In the Greek world, no virtue was greater than the virtue of wisdom. It was the greatest of the virtues.

In the Bible, we read about Solomon. Solomon was the third king of Israel, the last king of the united kingdom of Israel. When he ascended the throne of his father David, he was very young. He said he was “like a little child who did not know how to go out or to come in.” The Bible tells us in 1 Kings 3 that Solomon was at Gibeon when he had a visionary dream. God appeared to Solomon, and God said, “Ask what you would have Me give you.” God said to Solomon, “Make a wish. Ask for anything!” Solomon could have asked for wealth or power. He could have asked for health or a long life, but Solomon asked for wisdom so that he might be able to govern the people of God well. God was pleased with Solomon’s request. He not only gave Solomon wisdom, but He also gave him wealth and power. He gave him health and a long life.

Now, if you had a visionary dream tonight, and God came to you and said, “Ask what I should give you . . .” If God came to you, and God said, “Make a wish . . .” What would you ask for? If you could ask for one thing and it would be granted you, what would you ask for? How important is wisdom in your life? How great is your desire for it?

We come now to this gift of the Holy Spirit, this special endowment of God, called the gift of wisdom. The gift of wisdom is critically needed in your life and in my life, critically needed in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ, and desperately needed in this world. The Bible speaks of three different kinds of wisdom, and these comprise our three teachings this morning.

First of all, the Bible speaks of human wisdom. In Acts 7:22, the Bible tells us that Moses was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt. The Bible is speaking there of human wisdom. In Daniel 1, the Bible tells us that Daniel the prophet was educated in the language, literature, and wisdom of the Chaldeans or the Babylonians. Again, in that context, the Bible is speaking of human wisdom.

In 1 Corinthians 1-2, the Apostle Paul distinguishes between human wisdom and divine wisdom. Paul does not condemn human wisdom, but he does point out that human wisdom is inadequate. Human wisdom cannot bring us into a relationship with God. Human wisdom cannot bring us into the reality of the eternal, and it cannot even enable us to fully understand the earthly. Human wisdom is limited.

Five hundred and fifty-one years before the birth of Christ, a man named Kung was born in what is now the Changtu Province of China. When that man grew up, he became famous and renowned. He was called Kung Phou Zu, which means “Great Master Kung.” The Latinized form of Kung Phou Zu is “Confucius.” Confucius was what the Greeks would have called a philosopher. The word “philosopher” comes from “phileo,” which means “to love,” and “sophia,” which means “wisdom.” Confucius was a “lover of wisdom.” He had no desire to start a religion. He simply wanted to describe the good society, and he wanted to define good behavior. He had no desire to start a religion.

Throughout history, there have been people who have taken the teachings of Confucius, and they have added theological concepts to those teachings and have come up with a kind of religion. But Confucius had no desire to start a religion. Even in modern-day Confucianism, there is no clergy, no concept of life after death, no worship of God. Confucianism is basically a human philosophy. A person who is a follower of Confucius may choose to be religious or may choose not to be religious; but Confucianism is basically a human philosophy. The sayings of Confucius were passed on verbally by oral tradition.

There’s no evidence that Confucius ever wrote a book, but his sayings (passed on by oral tradition) were put into a book. That book today is called the “Analects.” The word “analects” means “the gathering up” or “the compiling.” It is a compilation of all the alleged sayings of Confucius, sayings like: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” or “He who aimeth at nothing, rarely hiteth it every time.” Of course, before all of the alleged sayings of Confucius in the “Analects,” there is this statement: “Confucius says . . .”

We don’t know whether Confucius actually said these things, but we do know this: he had two cornerstones to his teachings, which are still the two cornerstones of modern-day Confucianism. Those two cornerstones are service and respect. Confucius taught service of mankind and respect for authority. Particularly, respect for parental authority and respect for governmental authority. This was the wisdom of Confucius: serve people, respect your parents, respect the government. This was the philosophy of Confucius. As far as human wisdom goes, it was pretty good.

You can look at human history and you can see a lot of pretty good philosophers. You can find a lot of good human wisdom in Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” or in the “Analects” of Confucius. But, of course, human wisdom is inadequate. It cannot lead us into a relationship with God. It cannot lead us into the eternal, and it does not really fully explain the earthly. It is limited and inadequate.

The Bible says there’s a second kind of wisdom. The second kind of wisdom, the Bible tells us, is demonic wisdom or satanic wisdom. I’m going to tell you what the Bible tells us, and that is this: this world is far more influenced by satanic wisdom than it is by earthly wisdom, far more influenced by demonic wisdom.

In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, most Bible scholars believe we’re given a glimpse of the fall of Satan at the dawn of time. We are told in those passages that Satan corrupted his wisdom for the sake of his splendor. The Bible tells us that Satan has brought this corrupted wisdom to the earth, and he has infused the cultures of this world with his corrupted philosophy. The Bible tells us that Satan is the “archon” of this world, from the Greek word “arche,” which means “ruler” or ”prince.” Satan is the prince of this world.

The Bible tells us that Satan is a usurper. One day Jesus will come again, and He will claim this world for Himself. Satan is a usurper; but in this age of the world, he is the prince of the world. And his philosophies, his corrupted wisdom permeates our society. In James 3:15, the Bible speaks of wisdom which is not from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish—satanic wisdom.

In 1 John, the Bible describes satanic wisdom as consisting of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” The lust of the flesh refers to hedonism. The lust of the eyes refers to materialism. The pride of life refers to self-ascension and ego. You see, the philosophy and the wisdom of Satan is this: “You can find happiness through hedonism, you can find fulfillment through materialism, and you can find happiness and fulfillment through self-promotion and self-ascension.” This is satanic wisdom, and it permeates our culture.

I read recently an article in the New York Times. This article concerned pornography and the proliferation of pornography in our nation and in our culture. The article talked about a man named Larry Peterman who owns a video store in Provo, Utah. At that video store, Larry Peterman sells all kinds of videos from Disney classics to sexually explicit videos. He was recently arrested for the selling of obscene videos, and he went to trial. His attorneys offered a very unusual defense. Their defense was this: Larry Peterman is small potatoes in the Provo pornography business. His attorneys offered statistics regarding the number of hotels in Provo, Utah that offer pay-per-view explicitly graphic sexual videos. They offered statistics on the number of people who purchase those videos in hotel rooms as they travel to Provo, Utah. The statistics were astounding.

Then the attorneys told the jury about all the homes in Provo, Utah and the numbers of people in Provo, Utah who receive cable or satellite TV and purchase pornographic programming through cable or satellite television. The statistics were again just incredible. The point was that Larry Peterman is small potatoes. Ultimately the jury bought this, and they let Larry Peterman off.

The truth is that pornography is huge in America, and America peddles pornography all over the world. Ninety percent of the world’s pornography is produced right here in the USA and marketed amongst the nations of the earth. In this nation, pornography is a $10 billion-a-year industry.

Who are the prime movers in pornography? You might think it’s Larry Flynt and the Hustler empire. You might think it’s Hugh Hefner and the Playboy empire, but they’re small potatoes. The real movers in the porn game are the corporate giants. According to this article in the New York Times, General Motors has 8.7 million subscribers to Direct TV, a GM subsidiary; and those subscribers purchase more than $200 million worth of sexually explicit programming—that’s far more money than Larry Flynt and the Hustler empire make annually.

According to the New York Times, Rupert Murdoch and the EchoStar Communications Corporation, through its subsidiaries, makes far more money selling sexually explicit materials and videos than the entire Playboy empire—more money than Playboy’s magazines, videos, and internet services combined. EchoStar is huge in the porn game.

According to the New York Times, AT&T, through its subsidiaries, makes millions of dollars through the selling of pornographic videos and materials. They own a subsidiary that sends sexually explicit videos into more than a million hotel rooms in America. So, according to the New York Times, the big movers in the porn business are AT&T, Time Warner, GM, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, and they go on and on.

Now, these companies and corporations also offer some legitimate services much needed by people. You may work for one of those companies or corporations, and your job might be very respectable. But there’s no denying that corporate giants are big players in the porn business. How could that be? I mean, how could that be? The answer is simple. Satan is the archon. He is the prince of this world, and his wisdom permeates our culture. His wisdom is this: “Profit, pleasure, and power satisfy.” This wisdom permeates the corporate world, and it permeates the private world of Americans. It is the wisdom of Satan.

If tobacco addiction can damage the lungs, if alcoholic addiction can damage the liver, how much more does pornography addiction damage the soul? Satan wants to destroy us body and soul. There are many people in this world who unknowingly have embraced the wisdom of Satan. I know there aren’t many people in this world who would knowingly embrace Satanic wisdom. There aren’t many people in this world who would say, “I want to follow the wisdom of Satan.” It’s subconscious, and it’s very subtle; but Satanic wisdom permeates our culture.

You saw the video earlier regarding the persecuted church around the world. Two hundred million Christians are involved in this global persecution, greater than at any point in world history. How can that be? I tell you, it is the wisdom of Satan to destroy the Church. He wants to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ through any means possible. Even here in America, he wants to destroy the Church. Here he is less blatant and more subtle, but he would destroy the Church.

Satan has sold a religious wisdom called religious syncretism. Religious syncretism takes a little bit of Buddhism and a little bit of Hinduism and a little bit of Taoism and a little bit of Islam and a little bit of Christianity, and it just combines them all. It denies absolute truth, theologically or morally. It just syncretizes the religious systems of the world. This philosophy is embraced by growing numbers of American women and men, and it is the wisdom of Satan. He is seeking to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.

There’s another wisdom, and it is divine wisdom. The Bible speaks mostly with regard to divine wisdom. Even the Greek philosophers sought divine wisdom. The reality is that most Christian theologians and church historians acknowledge this. The Church of Jesus Christ owes much to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle because they sought divine wisdom. It was Plato who taught the immortality of the soul and the innate goodness of God. It was Plato who taught that the purpose of philosophy is to know the mind of God because all wisdom belongs to God. It was Aristotle who spoke of the first philosophy. Aristotle said, “All philosophy begins with the first philosophy.” He sometimes called the first philosophy “theology.” He, at other times, referred to the first philosophy as metaphysics. The goal of the first philosophy and the primary goal of philosophy in general, according to Aristotle, was to know the mind of God. “Wisdom is summed up,” Aristotle said, “by the mind of God.”

The Greek philosophers called the mind of God the “logos.” The “logos” is a Greek word from which we get the English word “logic.” In classical Greek, the word “logos” described the faculty of reason. The Greek philosophers thought the goal of philosophy and the sum of wisdom was to know the mind of God, the “logos.”

The problem for the Greek philosophers was how to find the mind of God. How can we know the mind of God? How can we have wisdom? How can we understand the mind of God? The only way they knew to do that was to work backwards from the creation to the Creator. They thought, “If we can look at the creation, we can know something of the mind of God. If we can look at the mind of man, created by the will of God and the power of God . . . if we can look at the mind of man, perhaps we can know something of the mind of God.” Through sensory observation combined with inductive and deductive reasoning, they thought they could work backwards from the creation to the Creator. They thought they could know something of the mind of God and gather wisdom.

The Bible says there is some truth to that. In Romans 1, it says, “Ever since the foundation of the world, God’s invisible nature, namely His eternal power and deity have been clearly revealed in the things that have been made.” So, there is some knowledge of God in the mind of God that we can glean through the creation, but it’s not adequate. It’s not adequate because the creation is fallen, and mankind is fallen.

The Bible tells us that the “imago dei,” the image of God, is, at best, residual in us. You can’t get a clear picture of the mind of God. You can’t get a clear picture of divine wisdom by looking at man. You just can’t do it. The Bible says, “His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts.”

So, how do you know the mind of God and how do you come to wisdom? In the Bible we’re told that Jesus Christ is the “logos.” We’re told that in the gospel of John in the very first chapter. “In the beginning was the ‘logos,’ and the ‘logos’ was with God, and the ‘logos’ was God. All things were made by the ‘logos.’ Without the ‘logos’ was not anything made that was made. And the ‘logos’ became flesh and dwelt among us.” Isn’t that incredible?

We translate the Greek word “logos” with the English word “word.” “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God . . .” In classical Greek, the word “logos” meant the “mind of God.” It is the word from which we get the word “logic.” It was not irrational for them to associate the word “word” with the word “logic” because they believed that logic could only be communicated through words. The Bible calls Jesus Christ the “logos,” “the Mind of God,” “the Word of God.”

If you want wisdom, if you want to know the mind of God, you can’t start with the creation and go back to the Creator. That’s not adequate. You’ve got to go to Jesus. He came into the world that you might know what God is like. That’s one of the reasons He came—that you might see the Father, that you might know the mind of God. If you want to know the mind of God, you need to know Jesus. You need to get to know Him. You need to commune with Him. You need to fellowship with Him, and you need to do it every day.

The Bible also calls the Scriptures themselves the “logos.” This is the “logos,” the words of God. This is the mind of God. If you want wisdom and you want to know the “logos,” you’ve got to study this book every day. You may need to change your lifestyle because you’re just overly busy. You get up in the morning, and you barely have time for a bowl of cereal. You take a quick shower and you’re off to work. You come home, and you don’t hardly have time for your kids. You hardly have time to read the newspaper. Maybe you watch an hour of television, and then you’re off to bed. And it’s all the same thing the next day. You might need to change your lifestyle.

If you really want wisdom, you need to get to know Jesus because He is the “logos.” He is the Mind of God. You need to come to Him. You need to receive Him as your Lord and Savior. Having received Him as Lord and Savior, you need to develop a friendship with Him so that the mind that is in Him might begin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to be in you. You need time every single day in the Word and in prayer.

The gift of wisdom is a corruptible gift. Solomon was given the gift of wisdom, and it was corrupted in him. There have been many that God has given the gift of wisdom to, and that gift has been corrupted. The Bible says of Satan that in the purity of his beginning, he had divine wisdom but it was corrupted in him. As Christians, we need to have our wisdom constantly monitored by the Word of God, by fellowship with Jesus, and by time in prayer. And we need to pray for the gift of wisdom, so that as we study the Word and as we fellowship with Christ, the wisdom of God might be manifested in us.

So much is at stake. I mean, in your life, if you choose even subconsciously to follow satanic wisdom, so much is at stake. If you think that you can satisfy all of your needs by following the best of human wisdom, so much is at stake.

I want to conclude with a story that began 3,400 years ago. It was 3,400 years ago that the Egyptian Pharaoh, Thutmose III, built two giant obelisks. He raised them to the heavens in the Temple of the Sun in the City of Heliopolis. He decreed that his name, Thutmose III, be inscribed on those two giant obelisks. Two hundred years later, Ramses II also had his name inscribed on the two giant obelisks because he sought all glory for himself.

In the year 10 BC, those two giant obelisks were moved from the Temple of the Sun in the city of Heliopolis. They were actually moved all the way to Alexandria, Egypt because a Ptolemaic Pharaoh had decreed that those two giant obelisks would adorn his grand palace at Alexandria. At that point in time, those two giant obelisks began to be called “Cleopatra’s Needles” (although they had nothing to do with Cleopatra).

Today, you can see one of those two obelisks standing along the banks of the Thames River in the city of London. You can see the other of those two giant obelisks standing in Central Park in New York City. Those two giant obelisks were given by Egypt to England and America. The giant obelisks, Cleopatra’s Needle that stands in Central Park in New York City is 69 feet tall and weighs more than two hundred tons. Whenever you go to New York City and you go to Central Park and you look up at that giant obelisk . . . or when you go to London, England by the banks of the Thames and you see that giant obelisk, you should be reminded of a story told by Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder was a great historian who died in Pompeii in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. According to the writings of Pliny the Elder, when those two giant obelisks were lifted to the heavens in the city of Alexandria in 10 BC, the ruler of Egypt was concerned that the obelisks might fall and be ruined. The ruler of Egypt decreed that the two sons of the supervising engineer be tied to the top of Cleopatra’s Needles, one son on each obelisk. This was done so that the supervising engineer would be careful. If the obelisk fell, the supervising engineer would lose his son. And so, every day, according to Pliny the Elder, this supervising engineer was filled with fear that in elevating these giant obelisks to the heavens, he might lose his sons. He was extremely careful, and his sons lived.

It is a scary thought for any of us to think that our children’s lives are tied to our performance. I mean isn’t that a scary thought to think that your children’s lives might, in any sense, be tied to your performance? We all need grace and mercy, and in Christ we have grace and mercy; but there’s no denying the fact that our children are greatly impacted by how we live and how we perform. I tell you this as we close: if even subconsciously you give yourself to satanic wisdom and you seek fulfillment through profit, pleasure, and power, that is a giant obelisk that is destined to fall. It will destroy you and damage your children with you.

If you give yourself to human wisdom, even the best of human wisdom, that too is a giant obelisk that’s destined to fall. Even the best of human wisdom will never lead you into relationship with God, and it will never solve the riddle and the mystery of life. Ultimately, it will take you down, and perhaps your children with you. So much is at stake. But divine wisdom, the “logos,” Jesus Christ, the Word of God—this is an obelisk that will never fall. “All flesh is like grass. All of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers. The flower falls. The Word of the Lord, the ‘logos,’ abides forever.”

“If anyone lacks wisdom,” God says, “let him ask God who gives to all people generously and without reproaching.” So, if you would have wisdom this day, you must come to Christ, the mind of God, the “logos.” You must cultivate a friendship with Him, and you must bask daily in His Word. So much is at stake. Let’s close with a word of prayer.