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We continue our consideration of various passages in the book of the prophet Isaiah, and today
we’re going to consider Isaiah chapter 5 verses 18 through 21.
Isaiah chapter 5 verses 18 through 21, you’ll find that on page 677 in your Pew Bibles.
I’m going to read verses 13 through 23 to fill out the context a little bit, but again
our focus will be specifically on verses 18 through 21.
So let us hear God’s holy word beginning at verse 13 of Isaiah chapter 5.
Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge, their honored men go hungry
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
For Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility
of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exalts in her.
Man is humbled and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the
rich.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
who say, let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it.
Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come that we may know
it.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who
acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of his word.
O gracious Lord and Father in heaven, once again we thank you that you have not left
us without a word.
You have given us your holy word.
You have spoken to us.
You have revealed yourself to us, not merely in the works of creation and providence, not
merely in the human conscience, but you have revealed yourself to us especially in your
God-breathed and errant infallible word.
We pray that by your spirit you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous
things from your word.
We pray that your word would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual
fruit that brings praise and glory and honor to your holy name.
And Lord, we pray that you would manifest your power even in the midst of our weakness.
For Lord, I am a weak servant of yours, a weak and sinful servant.
And yet Lord, we pray that by your grace you would use me, your unworthy servant, and assist
me in declaring your word with clarity and power and faithfulness.
We pray these things, Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord and Savior,
and all of God’s people said, Amen.
May be seated.
Well, dear friends, as you can see, the title of my sermon today is Darkened Values, Godless
Quote Wisdom.
And there’s five words I’d encourage the young people to listen for in my sermon today.
Those words are scoffer, sin, slavery, ethics, and wisdom.
Well, dear ones, the online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a moral compass as a set
of beliefs or values that help guide ethical decisions, judgments, and behavior, an internal
sense of right and wrong.
Beloved, based on that definition, I would suggest to you, friends, that our culture
and our society today have a broken moral compass.
Our society and our culture have rejected God’s moral law as summarized in the Ten
Commandments.
It’s rejected God’s law as the permanent and universally binding standard of ethics,
and as the measure by which we judge between right and wrong, righteousness and wickedness,
good and evil.
And in its place, in the place of God’s law, it has offered pagan humanistic ideas and
ideologies, and it therefore has multiplied burdensome man-made rules and regulations.
It has been said that when you reject the Ten Commandments of God, you end up being
burdened with the 10,000 plus commandments of fallen sinful man.
Having rejected the Ten Commandments of God’s moral law, because it is supposedly narrow-minded
and restrictive, having rejected God’s moral law in the name of freedom and liberty, our
society is now burdened with deep confusion, misery, and a deepened bondage to the slave
master of sin.
Our moral compass as a society is indeed broken, and we have lost our way.
We’re very similar to the professed people of God who lived in the days of the prophet
Isaiah.
This reminds me of the saying in Ecclesiastes that there’s nothing new under the sun.
When it comes to man’s rebellion against God and against the standard of God’s moral law,
well, man is still rebellious.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
God’s people living in Isaiah’s day, they too had lost their way, but they had no excuse
for that.
You see, God had given them a clear moral compass in his holy word.
He had given them his law, and he had blessed them with his prophets who spoke the word
of the Lord to the people of the Lord.
But they had strayed from his way.
They had spurned his covenant.
They had rejected his offers of mercy.
They had refused his calls to repentance, and they had gone after the ways of their
pagan neighbors and adopted the idolatrous practices of the Gentile nations that surrounded
them.
Instead of receiving instruction from God’s word in true values, and instead of seeking
after true godly wisdom, their values were darkened by their unbelief and hardness of
heart, and they trusted in their own godless wisdom instead of trusting in the trustworthy
word of Almighty God.
Now dear ones, as we turn our attention to our passage for this Lord’s Day morning,
our passage for today is found in the midst of a section in the prophet Isaiah that contains
six judgment oracles of woe.
These woes reveal the sins of the covenant nation which had been described metaphorically
as wild grapes or as stinking things in the so-called Song of the Vineyard which had opened
this chapter.
For example, back in verse 2 we read this as God compares his people to a vineyard.
He says, He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.
He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked
for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes, or as we learned on the last Lord’s
Day it could be translated as rotten grapes or even as stinking things.
And then also if you consider verse 4, what more was there to do for my vineyard that
I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
Rotten grapes, stinking things.
Well friends, these wild grapes, these sins of the professed people of God included such
things as social injustices, as the wealthy would add property to property at the expense
of the poor, for example.
It also included such things as debauchery and the excessive use of alcohol which often
led the leaders among the people of Israel to oppress people and to accept bribes instead
of perform justice.
And it also included things such as blasphemous and irreverent scoffing and rejection of the
Lord and so forth.
Friends in this section of Isaiah, Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, threatens his
faithless, unrepentant, unbelieving people with exile and death.
Look for example at verses 13 and 14 where it says, Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge.
Their honored men go hungry and their multitude is parched with thirst.
And then notice the next verse, verse 14.
Therefore Sheol, Sheol is the realm of the dead and it is a way of speaking of death.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure and the
nobility of Jerusalem, the nobility being the ones who were guilty of oppressing the
people and accepting bribes and so forth, the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude,
that would be the masses as well, will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.
So he’s threatening exile and death.
Or skip ahead to verses 24 and 25, it says, Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the
stubble and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness
and their blossom go up like dust.
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and have despised the word of the
Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people and He stretched out His
hand against them and struck them.
And the mountains quaked and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
For all this His anger is not turned away and His hand, meaning His hand of judgment,
ready to act in judgment against His faithless people is stretched out still.
Now with all of this in mind, let’s turn our attention to the details of our passage for
today and to the particular woes that this passage reveals.
And as we consider verses 18 and 19, I want you to notice that we learn in these verses
of the burden of sin and the blasphemy of scoffers.
The burden of sin and the blasphemy of scoffers.
Look for example at verse 18.
This is the first woe we are considering together.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood.
He’s painting a picture.
He’s giving us an image in our minds of drawing iniquity with cords of falsehood.
And then he repeats himself in typical Hebrew parallelism.
He basically says the same thing using slightly different terms.
He says who draw sin with cart ropes.
We learn in this verse that sin is a self-inflicted burden.
Now you may wonder what does that exclamation woe mean?
A woe has been defined as an interjection expressing great distress or sorrow.
And in the first woe we consider today, we see Isaiah or the Holy Spirit through Isaiah
saying woe to those who do what?
Who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes.
This vivid imagery pictures sin as a great burden, as a heavy load.
And yet it is a load that sinners willfully take upon themselves.
It goes on to say, it says woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who
draw sin as with cart ropes.
E.J.
Young describes the imagery of this verse as a strange sight.
A heavy cart is being laboriously drawn not by work animals, but by men, yoked, straining,
tugging men.
They are yoked like beasts and hitched to a heavy wagon.
And just as beasts are wont to do, so these men draw after them the heavy wagon.
This wagon is their own iniquity and sin.
And so by such a figure we are made to see the close connection between the sin and the
one who commits the sin.
You can’t disconnect the sin from the sinner.
The two are inextricably intertwined.
What a powerful illustration my friends to the truth that the way of the wicked is hard.
You know sin often presents itself, the way of sin and the way of the world often presents
itself as an easy way, the comfortable way.
And it might be comfortable and easy for a short time, but in the end the way of the
wicked is hard and sin is a grievous burden to bear.
Even though sin brings fleeting temporary pleasures, the scriptures speak of the fleeting
pleasures of sin, nevertheless the pleasures of sin are deceitful pleasures.
And in the end sin, if it is not atoned for and repented of, ensnares, enslaves, and crushes
and destroys those who commit themselves to its ways.
I’m reminded of what Solomon writes in Proverbs 5, 22-23, I’d encourage you to turn
there to Proverbs 5, verses 22 and 23.
We read these words.
The Holy Spirit through the author of Proverbs here says, the iniquities of the wicked ensnare
him and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
Does that sound like freedom?
Does that sound like liberty?
No, that’s bondage.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him.
He is held fast in the cords of sin.
He dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly he is led astray.
So sin is depicted, sin, iniquity is depicted as a great heavy burden but a burden that
is willfully dragged on by those who are committed to the ways of sin.
And who are the sinners in particular that Isaiah seems to have in mind here as we read
these verses together?
The particular sinners that he has in mind are those who scoff at God and at the ways
of God.
We notice in verse 19 what is said about scoffers who mock God’s word and God’s prophet.
It says this, as he describes those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw
sin as with cart ropes, verse 19, who say, let him be quick, let him speed his work that
we may see it.
These particular scoffers are skeptics and they are skeptical of the words of judgment
that the Holy Spirit has inspired Isaiah to proclaim to the people.
Isaiah has spoken of judgment to come if the people do not repent and turn back to the
Lord and Isaiah has described the Lord as the Holy God, as the Holy One of Israel.
And these scoffers adopt that kind of language in their mockery of the prophet Isaiah and
ultimately in their mockery of God’s word and they basically say, okay Isaiah, you say
that the Lord is going to judge us?
You say judgment is coming?
Let him show it.
Let him speed it forth.
Why is he waiting?
They’re almost daring God, Lord, you say you’re going to judge us?
Go ahead, go ahead.
Show us that you mean business.
This is the arrogant blasphemy of those who speak, these scoffers who speak against the
word of the Lord.
They say, let him be quick.
Let him speed his work that we may see it.
Let him do it and then we’ll believe in him.
Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel, meaning his counsel of judgment, let the counsel
of the Holy One of Israel draw near and let it come that we may know it.
In other words, Isaiah, we don’t really believe that the Lord is going to judge us.
We don’t believe your word is trustworthy.
Again, here Isaiah likely records the words of those scoffers who mocked the predictions
of judgment that he had pronounced to the people.
This verse, beloved, reveals the arrogant unbelief and the blasphemous mockery of these
scoffers.
But these types of scoffers did not just exist in Old Testament times.
They also existed in New Testament times as well.
In fact, the Apostle Peter predicts that there will be such scoffers in these last days.
Turn with me if you would to 2 Peter chapter 3.
In 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1, and let me just set the context here briefly in this
particular passage, biblical Christianity has always proclaimed that Jesus Christ is
going to return at the end of this age.
But even in the first century, there were hints of those who were mocking that idea
of the return of Christ, and so we read these words.
As Peter writes, I am stirring up, this is the end of verse 1, I am stirring up your
sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets
and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first
of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful
desires.
They will say, what’s the particular subject of their scoffing?
Well look at verse 4, they will say, where is the promise of his coming?
Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the
beginning of creation.
You Christians, you say Jesus is going to return?
Why hasn’t he returned yet?
You say judgment is coming, where is that judgment?
Why should we believe you?
Why should we believe you?
And of course Peter goes on to explain that God is not slow in his promise, but he is
patient towards us and providing opportunities for his people to repent.
But in any case, beloved, we see that scoffing at the word of God, and especially the prophecies
of the Lord’s judgment, is a very common thing among those who are opposed to God and
his kingdom.
So what do we learn in this passage, beloved?
Well first of all we learn that sin is a harsh task master.
It promises liberty, but it delivers bondage.
It promises freedom, but it enslaves you.
But at the same time, the irony of it, the paradox, is that sinners who have not been
born again by the Holy Spirit are willing slaves to this harsh master intent on destroying
them.
They willingly drag along the burdens and the consequences of their sins, refusing
to let it go.
Apart from the sovereign gracious intervention of God Almighty in his sovereign omnipotent
grace, apart from that gracious intervention, our relationship to sin is like the relationship
of a heroin addict to his heroin.
I’m not an expert in illicit drugs, but it’s my understanding that heroin is a very difficult
drug to get off of.
Heroin enslaves and eventually destroys the drug addict who is under its grip.
But the addict craves it, even though the addict knows that this drug is destroying
me, and destroying my life, shortening my life.
Nevertheless, the drug addict craves the drug, and he can’t get enough of it.
And without radical outside intervention, he cannot and will not free himself from its
grip.
Well friends, sin is like that.
Sin enslaves.
But the good news of the Gospel is that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, He not only
delivers us from the guilt and penalty of sin by His active and passive obedience, by
His living for us and dying for our sins and rising again for our justification.
He not only frees us and forgives us from the penalty and the guilt of sin and the pollution
of sin.
Through His indwelling Spirit, He has the power to deliver us from bondage and slavery
to our sin.
I’m reminded of that line in that wonderful hymn, oh for a thousand tongues to sing.
There’s a line that says this of Jesus.
He breaks the power of reigning sin.
He sets the prisoner free.
His blood can make the foulest clean.
His blood availed for me.
Does the blood of Jesus avail for you, dear listener?
Have you trusted in Him as your very own Savior from sin?
May God give you the grace to repent and believe in Christ alone for your salvation.
And by the grace of God, He will free you from the heavy burden of your sin.
And so friends, again, we see in this passage the burden of sin and the blasphemy of scoffers.
But as we move on to the next woe found in verse 20, we see in this woe the reversal
of true values, the reversal of true values.
It says in verse 20.
And again, these woes are interconnected with each other.
The one flows into the other because those who scoff at the Lord and draw iniquity as
with cords of falsehood and so forth, they are those who are inclined to call evil good
and good evil.
It says this, verse 20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness
for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
In other words, they completely reverse true values, perverting and twisting the values
that God has revealed in His Word, the values by which He governs the universe.
Unbelieving and godless scoffers who mock the Word of God will naturally tend to rely
on their own self-constructed, self-referential system of ethics.
To put it more simply, they will set themselves up and their own ideas up, their own sinful
ideas up, as the moral standard for judging right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness
and wickedness.
Instead of looking to God’s moral law as the moral standard revealed in His Word, instead
of looking to that for their ethical standards, they adopt their own fallen, twisted ideas.
And they judge you on the basis of those ideas.
And so, for example, just to use an obvious example from our culture today, in certain
circles today, if you were to openly affirm what the Bible affirms about homosexuality
for example, if you were to say, well, the Bible says that it’s sinful, that it’s described
as an abomination, in some circles you would be judged as a bigot.
In other words, you’re a bad person.
You don’t measure up to the standard of humanistic ethics because you cling to God’s ethics.
So in place of God’s law, they put man’s law, man’s ideas, fallen man’s ideas.
Like the people in the days of the Old Testament, judges.
They will do what is right in their own eyes instead of in the eyes of the Lord.
They will set themselves up as their own standard of right and wrong.
That’s basically what happened in the garden, right?
Satan came to Adam and Eve and said, are you going to die if you eat from that tree?
You shall certainly not die.
In other words, don’t believe God.
He’s not trustworthy.
Believe me instead.
Step back and judge by your own neutral reason whether God’s word is true or not.
In other words, that’s the satanic position.
Jesus says you’re either for me or against me.
You’re either for Christ, pro-Christ, or you’re against Christ, anti-Christ.
There’s no in-between, my friends.
Beloved, the stance of the godless scoffer will again naturally lead to the perversion
and reversal of true values.
According to God’s word, the true and living God Himself is the ultimate source of truth
and goodness, and His word reveals His moral law as the objective, unchanging standard
of ethics, the ultimate standard by which we can discern the difference between right
and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and wickedness.
But having said that, I don’t want what I’m saying to be misunderstood.
Beloved, it’s important to understand, in saying this, I’m not suggesting that keeping
God’s law can save us.
Of course it can’t.
None of us can be saved by the works of the law.
Only Jesus can save us and make us right with God by His grace alone, through faith in
Him alone.
But God’s moral law does show us the way of aligning our lives with the moral will
of God, and in doing so it directs us to the pathway of freedom and flourishing.
The law can’t save or sanctify us, but the law does provide direction for the believer.
Not only does the law show us our sin and our need for Christ, but having driven us
out of ourselves to Christ as He’s offered in the Gospel, the law now shows us the pathway
that we are to take as followers of Christ.
And it is that way of the Lord, following by faith and trust in Christ, that way of
the Lord.
That is the way of freedom and flourishing.
Again, to quote from another hymn, trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy
in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
If I can use an illustration.
Let me ask you.
Again, I’m not an expert on trains, but I think I can make this illustration here.
What happens when a train skips its track?
I mean, you think about trains.
Trains are confined and limited to their tracks.
But what happens when a train skips its track?
Well, what happens is that you end up with a train wreck.
We saw not too long ago with the train wreck in East Palestine what a disaster can be
caused by a train that doesn’t stay on its track.
Well, dear ones, obviously a train works best when it is limited, when it is restricted,
when it is confined to its tracks.
In fact, it is when it is on its tracks that it has the greatest freedom, the greatest
liberty.
When it sticks to the pathway and restraints that are laid out by the tracks, it can go
great distances.
But let’s imagine for a moment.
Let’s imagine a train that has its own personality.
Those of you who are parents may be familiar with Thomas the Tank Engine.
That’s not the train I’m talking about this morning.
Let’s call this train Ted instead.
Ted the train.
Ted the train goes all over the country on the tracks that are set before him.
He gets to see the whole country and he goes along his tracks and he sees in the distance
a great mountain and great hills and he also sees in the distance and other parts of the
country where he’s traveling.
He sees great cities and one day he gets the thought, you know what, I’m tired of being
restricted to these tracks.
I want to go up on that mountain that I see in the distance, that glorious beautiful mountain
or I want to explore the inner city here that I’m traveling through.
And let’s say that one day Ted the train decides to skip the track and head for the hills.
What’s going to happen to Ted the train once he skips the track?
Can he get anywhere?
No, he’s stuck in a rut.
He is completely stuck and has no liberty or freedom at all.
Well friends, many folks today seem to think that God’s laws and commandments, that the
way of the Lord is stifling, that it is a stifling burdensome limitation on their freedoms
and their flourishing.
Now it is true that the law of God does restrain our sin and that’s a good thing.
But does the law of God restrain our liberty?
No.
The law of God shows us the way of true liberty.
Of course, that we can only travel that way in union with Christ and by the power of the
Holy Spirit.
But friends, the point is, it is only as we seek to walk in the ways of God’s commandments
that we will experience the true freedom and flourishing that is set out for us in Christ.
Of course, again, we can’t do this by our own power or worthiness or merits.
It is only by God’s grace alone through union with Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit
that we can even begin to walk in the ways of the Lord.
But as we do so by grace through faith, we experience the joy of the Lord.
We experience true freedom.
We experience true flourishing.
And it is foolishness to reject that way of the Lord.
And that brings me to my final point, the final woe we are considering in verse 21.
Consider finally the folly of godless, quote, wisdom, the folly of godless wisdom.
Says in verse 21, woe to those who are what?
Who are wise in their own eyes.
In other words, in their own self-estimation.
I’m smart.
I’m wise.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.
Again, Hebrew parallelism here, Isaiah basically saying the same thing in two different ways
in order to lodge it in our brains, in our consciences.
This is the folly of godless wisdom.
And a woe is pronounced upon it.
This is the opposite of the stance of the true believer.
Consider where true wisdom as opposed to godless so-called pseudo wisdom comes from.
Proverbs 1 verse 7, it says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding, of knowledge, of wisdom.
But fools despise wisdom, meaning God’s wisdom, God’s covenantal instruction given in the
scriptures.
Or consider Proverbs 3 verse 7, again this is obviously, this is called wisdom literature
for a reason.
It says, be not wise in your own eyes.
Now let me pause there.
Isaiah says in verse 21 of our passage, woe to those who are wise in what?
In their own eyes.
But what does Solomon write here in Proverbs 3 verse 7?
Be not wise in your own eyes.
Be not wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
I’m reminded as well of what James writes in James chapter 3 verses 13 through 18 where
he speaks of a fallen demonic wisdom as opposed to true wisdom which is from above.
In James chapter 3 beginning at verse 13 we read these words, who is wise in understanding
among you?
By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and
be false to the truth.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason.
In other words it’s teachable, humble, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Dr. Young writes that what we have here in this woe is a general condemnation of reliance
upon the supposedly autonomous mind of man.
And again that brings me back to the garden.
What was at the essence of the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve?
God had told them, don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the day
that you eat thereof you will surely die.
Satan comes along and says look, why don’t you put God’s word to the test?
Why don’t you take a neutral stance?
He denies God’s word, Satan comes along and says you will not surely die.
And Eve says when Eve saw that the fruit was good for food, in other words she stopped
relying on God’s word and relied upon her own supposedly neutral reason.
That’s satanic.
Now we are not opposed to reason or rationality or logic.
In fact logic and reason are a great gift of Almighty God.
But logic and reason are not to be used autonomously apart from reliance upon God’s revelation.
There is a wisdom of common grace out there even among unbelievers when it comes to earthly
things, true enough.
But true godly wisdom comes from reliance upon the word of God.
And you and I do not have the right as mere creatures of God to ever take a position where
we sit in judgment over the word of God from a standpoint of supposed neutrality.
That’s a rejection of the lordship of Christ.
That is an embracing of demonic wisdom, not divine wisdom.
Dear ones, in conclusion, the proverb says the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge,
not the end of knowledge.
It’s not that you find the lord and fear the lord as a result of a long autonomous search
based on your own neutral reason, supposedly neutral reason.
By the way, there’s no neutrality.
That’s a myth.
None of us can be neutral in our use of reason.
Reason comes from God and must be used in submission to God’s revelation.
And so it says the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom
and instruction.
And just as eternal salvation is found in Christ and Christ alone and by trusting him
alone for your salvation from sin, so in Christ alone are found all of the treasures of wisdom
and understanding.
Consider what Paul writes in Colossians 2, verses 2 and 3, Colossians chapter 2, which
is a marvelous epistle, Colossians chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, where Paul extols the preeminence
of Christ and he says this, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in
love, to reach all the riches of full assurance and of understanding and the knowledge of
God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ and part of our spiritual
warfare is taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
And of course the pinnacle of God’s wisdom in Christ is the gospel message.
The message, the good news of salvation through the cross and resurrection of our lord and
savior Jesus Christ.
Again to quote briefly from Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning at verse 18, Paul writes,
for the word of the cross, that’s the message of the gospel, the word of the cross is folly
to those who are perishing.
They think it’s ridiculous.
The gospel is ridiculous in the eyes of the unconverted and those who are on the way to
eternal perdition.
But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning
I will thwart.
Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.
But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Dear listener, like Isaiah’s contemporaries who were wise in their own eyes and shrewd
in their own sight, are you, dear listener, wise in your own eyes?
Do you think you’re smarter than God’s Word?
Do you trust in your own neutral autonomous wisdom?
Or do you look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Word of God for true wisdom?
Are you relying on the folly of godless wisdom?
Or have you embraced the true wisdom of the gospel, a wisdom which the unbelieving world
looks upon as utter foolishness, but a wisdom which is true wisdom indeed?
As C.S. Lewis is purported to have said, I believe in Christ like I believe in the Son,
not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.
May God grant to us the grace to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and understanding.
And may we look to the so-called foolishness of the gospel message that we may gain a heart
of true wisdom.
Only then will we be delivered from darkened values and godless so-called wisdom.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you that in Christ we have the fullness of wisdom.
We thank you for the gospel, which is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of
us who by your grace are being saved, it is the very power of God.
O Lord, we ask that you would help us to be willing to be fools in the eyes of the world,
that we may gain hearts of true wisdom that come from your Word.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen.
Let’s close our time today by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, 156, Christ whose
glory fills the sky, 156.