The Way of Wisdom

Welcome to our final week of our Bible study through the Sermon on the Mount that's called The Way of Jesus. And this week's lesson is called The Way of Wisdom, which is great for a final wrap-up lesson, I think. I wanna say to you congratulations on writing out the whole Sermon on the Mount. I did it. I hope you guys got it accomplished as well. So are you ready for your opening question? It has nothing to do with mushrooms this week. The question is, are you wise? Do you want to be wise? What do you think of? Who do you think of when I ask that question? Maybe you think of Solomon, the wisest man in the world. Maybe you think of someone in your life who is wise, and that's good. Hopefully we all have someone that is wise. But there's a truth that years alone, do not make one wise, right? We have a saying, she's wise beyond her years. But we want our years to make us wise. It is a terrible thing to grow to be an old, foolish person. We wouldn't want that at all for ourselves. You know, just this last week, I was teaching at a retreat based on Psalm 22, and it has that phrase, they still bear fruit in old age. It is wisdom that allows us to bear fruit in old age. And so I think we all feel like we have a little headroom yet to add wisdom to our life. This lesson is about wisdom. I want to start with two Proverbs, and I'll put them on the screen for you. Proverbs 12 and Proverbs 23, you'll see why I feel like these relate to this lesson. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. And then this Proverbs 23 is hear my son and be wise, direct your heart in the way. And we'll leave those up for a little bit because I want you to see some key words in there. I want you to see those active verbs of listen, hear, and direct. That describes kind of the whole point of this Bible study, to listen to the words of Jesus. I've said this is all red letters, this is all Jesus talking, to listen, and then to hear what the Holy Spirit says to me in that listening, and then to direct my heart, to be the boss of my heart, like a band director. It's like this is what you're going to do with that. And that is the way of wisdom. Both of these Proverbs speak of the way, and I'll remind you what we mean by that, the way. Remember I told you so many Proverbs talk about the way of this or the way of that. And it basically means our whole manner of life, including what directs it and what it produces. That is our way. So we've been reminded in this study about choices. Do you remember when we first started and I said the average adult makes roughly 35,000 relatively conscious choices a day? That is a lot. They don't all promote spiritual flourishing, and they don't all lead to pleasing God, but we want to make wise choices, right? So for example, last week where we ended in our scriptures, Jesus was giving a gentle but a firm warning that not everything is as it seems. See it would seem to us that wherever we see a lot of people gathering, the way that a lot of people are going would seem like that's the right way. Have you ever been to a national park and all of a sudden there's a lot of people gathered or a lot of cars pulled off? What do you know? There's wildlife. It's like, oh, we should go that way because that's probably where there's gonna be a bear or a moose or a bison or something like that because wherever a lot of people are gathered. That's what seems logical. But in verse 13 of last week, Jesus was informing us, he was reminding us not so in spiritual matters. So I wanna start back in verse 13. This is Matthew chapter seven, verse 13, where Jesus said,

And you wrote all of those contrasts in your study guide. And so since things aren't always as they seem, always the logical path, we need discernment. We need wisdom to make the proper choices. One of the things that causes us trouble is influences. What influences us? And this is where Jesus is going. It's where he's been. He's talked about the influence of concepts and people. For example, the influence of, or the misunderstanding of God's words, which would lead someone to legalism. We went through that whole, you have heard it was said, but I say to you, okay, either legalism or loopholes. He talked about the influence of hypocrites. Don't follow that way. And now as we get in here, he's adding another potential influence. And so as we start these opening verses, he's talking about false prophets. Those who seem to be on the right path, but are actually leading people astray. So let's get started in our verses for today. Verse 15, Jesus said,

So this is an awesome, Jesus doesn't just give a warning, he does give a warning, but he gives a remedy. The warning is beware of the influence of what he calls false prophets here. And the remedy is you'll recognize them by their fruit. So there's a remedy to this. So first, why would someone go around, go to the trouble of deceiving other people? Why go to the trouble of being a wolf and dressing up in sheep's clothing? Well, maybe there's something in it for them. Maybe they love the influence or the power over people. Maybe there's money in it for them. Maybe there's prestige. Maybe they're just deceived themselves. Like how Paul says, the problem with deception is that it's deceiving. And deceived people go around deceiving other people. So maybe these people, Jesus called them false prophets, but I'm gonna go ahead and broaden it a little bit and interpret it as false teaching, false teachers, to be a little bit more relevant to how we would apply it to our lives today. Maybe they're just deceived. We have a phrase that we tend to use, confirmation bias, which means whatever you believe, you wanna keep on believing that. And you interpret any new information that comes your way based on what you already believe. But anyway, regardless, the point that Jesus is saying here is beware. And so we should take note when the scripture says beware. The immediate context, again, is false prophets. And a prophet means one who speaks to the people from God, from God through them to the people, okay? And so he was warning them about those who were masquerading as a leader, as someone to speak for God, a false prophet, a religious leader, but they had no true connection with the Lord. That was absent. Now in our world, in our day, we have dangerous influences as well. We have false teachers, false teachings, false churches, false things going on in the name of Christianity dressed as sheep all the time, all around us. And we're all susceptible to that influence, but particularly new believers that are just getting started in this way of wisdom. It makes me sad, frustrated sometimes when I see how gullible Christians can be to be influenced by people who aren't truly connected to the Lord. But we're not without help. We don't have to just swim in gullibility, okay? Because there is a way of wisdom. Do you remember last week when we talked about, Jesus said, ask and you will receive. And we pointed out that there are some things that when we ask, we know without a doubt, God will always say yes. Like we ask him, could you give me more forgiveness toward people? Yes, I will do that. Would you give me more patience? Yes. Would you give me wisdom to discern? Yes, God will always give us what we ask. And that's what James wrote too. I wanna remind you, I'll put it up on the screen. James chapter 1, starting in verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, and let's narrow this right now to the context of what we're talking about, lacks wisdom in this influence right in front of me, somebody who is Christian-ish and is saying things to me, if you need to, if something seems fishy, something seems like not quite right, if you need discernment, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach. And it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. So we can ask God for wisdom. But Jesus also said, too, how are you going to recognize? By the fruit, by the fruit of that person, that individual, that system, that church, whatever. And when we talk about fruit, it's not just like success or crowds or affluence or whatever. Looking more for those intangibles, like is there a peaceful heart behind this voice? Is there a joyful attitude? Is there a contented spirit? And most of all, is this person someone I would describe with humility, blessed are the meek, those who are Christ-like in their humility, not trying to draw attention to themselves to build a kingdom, but truly trying to build the kingdom of God and giving glory to God. So it's almost like as we go into the next verse here, Jesus was sort of reading their thoughts. Like they may think, okay, where there's a lot of good Christian work going on, that's where the good fruit is. If I see a lot of stuff going on, that means fruit. It's almost like he was reading that in their minds. And he goes on to say in verse 21, listen,

I hate those words, I never knew you. I've told you I got saved because I was listening to a men's chorus sing a song, and the title was, sorry, I never knew you. And I was eight years old, and I'm like, nope, ain't going to happen to me. And so when Jesus says right here, I never knew you, it's like, oh, no, no. So it is kind of a, you know, it's a desperate verse to me. But these verses here, they point us to that genuine relationship, again, with our Father who is in heaven. It's not a matter in my life, it's not a matter of my words that I declare, it's not a matter of my deeds that I do, it's a matter of my trust in the blood of Jesus Christ to cover my sins and create for me a genuine relationship with my Father. That's kind of a summary in post-cross, post-resurrection words of what he's saying. It's not what they say, it's not what they do. And so we take it into, it's a good reminder for us, it's not what I say, it's not what I do, it's my faith. The righteous shall live by faith. And so it's a matter of my faith in the sufficiency of what Jesus did that I have believed in to cover me and make me acceptable to my Father who is in heaven. So I don't think that the average Jew in that day was running around casting out demons. I don't think that the average Hebrew was doing that. So I think when Jesus was saying that, I think it was a nod toward religious leaders. They probably were the ones attempting to go out and do that. So it seems kind of connected to that statement a little bit about false prophets. But it's still true today that people can do things, they can do lots of things. People can do, okay, does this make you uncomfortable that people can go around doing good things for the Lord and they don't even know the Lord? That's kind of what's going on here. And so that's another layer that we need to add. Have you ever been in a situation in your life where you have benefited, you have grown in your heart, in your spiritual life, and then you look back and you realize that person, that place, that church where I grew, they were off. They were not, do you know why that happens? It's because you had a heart of faith and God honors a heart of faith. Now think about this people that Jesus is saying here, you know what, you say to me that you did all this stuff, they cast out demons, what about the people, okay, so they really did cast out demons, but they didn't know God. He says, sorry, I never knew you. What about the people from whom they cast out the demons? They're still in a better place. Like God did a good thing for those people. And so it reminds us that God has chosen not to limit himself and the work that he does to only the people who are connected with him. If he wants to bless somebody because they have faith for it, he will do it. And it reminds us again, God's ways are not our ways. And it's kind of an interesting thing. But for us, the warning is valid. Number one, beware of false teachers. Number two, do not think that your work done for the Lord is enough to rest on. Jesus is enough to rest on, not the things that we do. But we do the things that we do, we want to be doing them, we should be doing them out of love for Jesus and what he has done. So here we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. And now it's interesting that the listeners had heard what Jesus had to say, and now they were responsible for what they had heard. And that is the one bad thing about going to church and going to Bible study. Now you know. You know, we know a lot, us girls. We've gone through a lot of scripture. When we hear, we're responsible for what we have heard. And they were responsible. So where should this responsibility take them? What would they do with what they heard? What type of house would they build for this lifetime and for eternity? Same for us. Where should these words take us? What should we do with what we have studied these last eight weeks? And what type of house should we build for our lifetime and for eternity? And here's the answer. We're in verse 24.

It's interesting that you can't really tell in architecture. You can't tell from looking at the outside of a building what building codes were used to build that building. And we found that out during Snowmageddon five years ago. You couldn't tell from the outside what type of foundation it was or what type of building. Like I said, building codes. And you didn't know which cafeteria was going to stand and which cafeteria was going to fall with the weight of snow, which bowling alley was going to stand and which bowling alley was going to fall, which grocery store was going to stand, and which one would fall. You couldn't tell from the outside. It was in the storm that it was revealed. And, you know, I'm not saying anything bad about the builders of who built those places. We don't have building codes to, you know, hold up the level of snow that we got. That's not the point. The point was we can all put up a pretty good front and seem pretty stable on the outside when the sun's shining. Every one of us can. But when the storms come, we find out the reality of our foundation. And I think that's, you know, the summary of these last verses. It is in the storm. And do you notice how the winds came and the storm, the rain fell on both the righteous and the unrighteous, the good builders and the bad builders. It just happens. The storm's in life. Just because you're going through a storm in life doesn't mean you necessarily did something wrong. This is the world we live in. This isn't heaven, right? We remember that. This isn't heaven. We'll get to heaven. But here we have storms. And so what am I like in my storm? Am I at peace? Do I freak out? Do I even remember to pray? Do I even remember who Jesus is? This is the storm. Those are the things, that's the way of wisdom is to build today on the firm foundation. I love how the sun is coming out while I'm talking about this. It's like the Lord is saying, sunshine today, build up girls, build that strong foundation for the storm. But it's such a great analogy for us to finish on. It's so useful. Even children can relate to this, right? The wise man built his house upon the rock, you know? So good, we can understand. Again, the contrasts, the way of wisdom and the way of the foolish. So what I wanna do as a grand finale today is take us to Psalm 1. You can turn, you don't have to, because I also put it on the screen for us. But I've been drawn to this psalm for about six months and just rolling it over and wondering. I just felt like this is a, it was important. And I've been wondering, Lord, how is this gonna fit into our studies this year? And I think this is the place for it. Finally, we get to take a look at it. So again, we started this whole Bible study talking about choices. We're gonna end the same way. This psalm presents us with two contrasts, two choices. Even in my Bible, it's headed the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. Now, don't think of that word wicked there as we translate it in English, like Genghis Khan wicked. Okay, notoriously wicked. This just merely means those that do not honor God, okay? So it could be the way of the righteous and the way of maybe unbelievers or something like that. This psalm also speaks to what will influence us. And what I love about it is it begins with that phrase, blessed, blessed are, blessed is, blessed, just like a beatitude. So we started with beatitudes and we're gonna end with this beatitude that is Psalm 1. Let's take a look, verse one.

Influences abound in my life, they do in your life too. All kinds of things that influence us. And the choices presented here in this psalm by the psalmist as an opening for the whole book of Psalms is what's gonna influence you, the counsel of the wicked, the seat of sinners, or excuse me, the way of sinners, the seat of scoffers. Those are all just different ways of saying the same thing. And I think this sums up the input, the influence that we would get from most of the media, most of entertainment, most of academia, some of our family, some of our places of employment would all be influenced from these things. And, or the other option is the law of the Lord, the word of the Lord, the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have talked about being saturated in the word because some of us are in this place where we are influenced by the wicked, the sinners, the scoffers. We can't avoid it, it's just there, so what do we do? Well, this other choice that we have is to be saturated by the word, to make sure that that influence is more than, greater than the other influence that we have to endure. Maybe someone listening to this has an unbelieving husband, a scoffing husband. That's something that, you know, a person is enduring. So to be saturated by the word to make that even greater, that is our choice. Verse three,

Verse five,

The Lord knows your way. The Lord knows the joys of your way. The Lord knows the difficulties of your way. The Lord knows the choices of your way. It's never too late to change our choices and to go a new way, to follow the way of wisdom. The Lord knows the way of the righteous. And so because he knows our way sometimes, that our ways can be unbearable, he has given us the Holy Spirit to be our comforter. I wish I would have made one of these sessions called The Way of the Holy Spirit, but I'll just end it with that. That is our delight, that is our joy. He is our counselor, he is our comforter. He is the spirit of truth that will show us the truth that we need to discern these different influences that come at us and to sort them out and to continue on in the way of righteousness. You know, I said age alone does not make one wise, but we do not want to age without becoming wise. I want to be more wise next Friday and next year and 10 years from now than I am today. And God will give that to me if I ask, because it's a good thing, right? He's not gonna withhold that. I also need to yield. I also need to yield to his work in my life. Okay, last verse, 28. When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. Of course they were, we're still astonished today. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. And this is one thing we love about Jesus is the authority of his word. We see that, we feel that when we are saturating ourselves with the word of God, we feel that sense of authority and it is a beautiful thing. So with that, we have finished the Sermon on the Mount with this fantastic reminder to walk in the way of wisdom. And so I will just pray about it, okay? Father God, we thank you for these words. And Lord, I do ask for myself, for those listening, for those in this room. Lord, I ask that you would enable us to make the choices that will prosper our lives, the choices, Lord, that will increase our wisdom and at the same time increase our humility because we know that it is from you. Lord, we desire to be connected to you. We desire to honor you and do the things that you have put before us to do. So I pray, Lord, as we discuss now just this entire series and this lesson, Lord, you have more layers to add. You always have something more to show us and we're open to that. And I thank you, Lord Jesus, and I just pray a blessing over everyone who's been involved. In Jesus' name, amen.