Worldly Wisemen

"I would rather a thousand times be five minutes at the feet of Christ than listen a lifetime to all the wise men in the world." D.L. Moody

7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. Prov 3:7 (KJV)

The name of this study is Worldly Wisemen. This study is a little different from any thing I have ever done before. As this message was coming to me, I felt that queasy feeling that you get when you hear something really bad. That is when I was convicted of what this message was about. We are going to go over some stories in the bible most people do not want to hear about. These are stories that might make you a little queasy. We must remember that these stories are true. If we heard them on Fox news we would believe them and might even get mad or sad. If someone emailed them to us we would forward the stories to everyone we know. We might even research the story to see if it is true. When we read them in the bible we tend to put them in the back of our minds and say “I am glad that doesn’t happen any more”. Before we discuss any more, let’s look at a few of these stories.

16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Hosea 13:15-16 (KJV)

If this happened today to, let’s say some ethnic tribe in Africa, we would immediately say that Satan is doing it. The majority of the Christian world would say “oh those poor people, we need to help them. We need to stop the evil”. The truth is, this might be how God is stopping the evil. What I am trying to say is that we as children of God need to stop playing God with our worldly wisdom. There are so many times that good Christian people are attacked by modern, worldly, hypocritical, better than everyone else, so-called Christians. This happens especially in this country. There are people who have forgotten that God is in control or they never actually believed it in the first place. These people are the kind that are quick to say “that person over there in a no good sorry individual or those people need to have their children taken because they do not know how to be parents”. Most of the time these type of so-called Christians have had a time in their life when they were low down no good people but they were just a victim of circumstance. Now they have risen above all of the other no good people and they know better. This is another form of hypocrisy and exactly what the Pharisees were doing. Everyone always says that the Pharisees were criticized because they tried to look Holy. They were commanded to look Holy and to dress a certain way. This is not what was wrong. The Pharisees thought they were above the rest of the people. Neither they nor you are better than anyone. I might not be getting this across the way I am supposed to so let’s look at another scripture.

23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 25 And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria. 2 Kings 2:23-25 (KJV)

If any of us modern day children of God were to see a man of God do this today, we would immediately say that he is not a man of God but of Satan. Oh, you know he is not a Christian because Godly people don’t do things like that. Those poor little children didn’t have a chance. Yes they did. They had a chance to honor the man of God instead of mocking him. 42 children were mauled by bears because they were making fun of a bald man. How many of us have been at a Christian youth gathering? Do any of these children make fun of people? The scripture above said that these were little children. Today we would make excuses for the children saying that they just don’t know any better. They were just words. That evil man.

6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deut 13:6-10 (KJV)

It’s a good thing we do not take the bible as serious as the Muslim’s do, huh? This is what the Qu’ran says also. Of course we hear that Muslims will kill their own family member if they convert to another religion. The bible says here that if one of our family members tries to get us to serve another god we should kill that family member. Did you know that Muslims believe in the majority of our Old Testament? What all could we call another God? TV, Football teams, cars, hobbies, fashion, lifestyles, etc. Almost all denominations consider themselves right on how to be a Christian. Most of them say that they use the whole bible. I do not believe there is any denomination that can say they believe and use the entire bible, because they would not be accepted in this modern society. The next time you pass judgment on a Christian, I want you to remember everything you have done in your life. Oh but this is all stuff in the Old Testament. We are new Testament believers, we have a new covenant.

34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:34-37 (KJV)

Do you have any foes in your household? I hope you don’t. Do you love your husband, wife, brother, sister, child more than Jesus? If you do you are not worthy of Jesus. From the sound of this you will not make it to heaven because you love the things of this world more than Jesus. We need to get into an eternity mindset instead of a worldly mindset. We will lose friends and family members throughout our short little lives here. Some we will see die in the flesh. Some will be spiritually dead. We must not let another human being affect our eternity.

42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. 43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Mark 9:42-49 (KJV)

I used to think that Jesus was being figurative here, but I do not think that anymore. When he says if your hand offends you cut it off, this means if your hand causes you to sin cut it off. If your wife was bringing you drugs everyday and causing you to sin, what would you do? The word, offend here means to cause to sin. So if you cause one of these believers to sin something really bad in going to happen to you. This means if you meet someone and you ask them why don’t you do this and that. They reply, because God does not want me to, and you immediately reply, but there is nothing wrong with that. You might have just got a millstone wrapped around your neck. Who are you tell someone what is not sin if they think it is. I think Paul was very clear in this issue. It would be better for everyone to think that most things were sin than to fall into Satan’s trap by saying nothing is sin. You are free to enjoy your life any way you want. Show me where the word says that and I will show you hundreds of places where God has told us not to do this and that. Some people will call an ordered Christian life a form of legalism. I say an ordered Christian life is an outward showing of true surrender to God. I feel I have really bounced around in this study but this is what I was supposed to write. Truth is that no one on earth understands the entire bible, no one. There is more wisdom in the bible than any sinful man could ever comprehend. I believe we put ourselves in danger when we tell other people that they are not being a Christian because they are breaking man’s law. We should obey man’s law as long as it lines up with God’s law. We should only follow the traditions that God has ordained. When we say that this is a new world and a new time and new things are allowed or required then we are also taking the stand of other denominations that say God is getting smarter. God had never changed the way he is. He still believes the same way he always has. He still uses people the way he did in the Old Testament. We have grown up in a loving, peaceful society that says they believe in God, but do people really believe in God’s authority and holiness? I say no. I say this because people have made it clear that they are going to do what they want when they want, no matter what God’s word says. They will find a passage in God’s word that says that it might be ok for me to do this or God knows how much I enjoy this and he would not want me to be sad. God is the creator of everything including you. God deserves all glory, all praises, all attention, all of everything we have to offer. He is already bigger than anything we could ever imagine. We need to lift him up and magnify him above our selfish desires and our worldly wisdom. Focus on Him. Quit focusing on everything else and saying God would want me to focus on this because it makes logical sense. We do not know what true logic is. We cloud up true logic with our fleshly wisdom. We try and interpret the Holy word of God while we are yet sinners. Only the Holy sprit can interpret the scripture to us. I pray we can all quit being Worldly Wisemen.