ARE YOU WISE?

James 1:5–8 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

God takes this principle so seriously that He's offended if we don't believe He wants to give us wisdom. He said if you ask for wisdom and don't believe I want to give it to you, then I won’t. You will only be denied wisdom because you don't believe in me. We prove we're foolish if we fail to ask for wisdom. Oh God, I don't want to learn just your Word, which is good in itself, but I desire the wisdom that comes with it. I want to apply your truth to every area of my life and future. It's one of the great promises of the Bible.

I want us to look at Solomon's life in 1 Kings 3. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” Solomon said, “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You.” David’s history was imperfect, but Solomon saw his father always return to a living relationship with God. Solomon continues, “You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.”

Solomon is saying he doesn’t know what to do. Have you ever felt called to do something for the Kingdom? Maybe you cried to God, “I feel like a child! I don’t know how to love people. I don’t know how to forgive my enemies.” Solomon continues in verses eight and nine: “And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” He is asking God for wisdom.

Not only did the Lord give Solomon wisdom, but there'll never be another person who will measure up to the wisdom he got except for Jesus! Solomon became so wise that people were afraid of him. The last verse of the chapter, verse 28, says: “And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.”

We’ll fast forward to the book of Ecclesiastes 2:3. There's never been greater wisdom than was given to this man. Still, at the end of his days, Solomon is listless and disillusioned and drifts shockingly away from God and the calling on his life. Verse three says, “I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.” Solomon left the answer to pursue the question. Alcohol was the beginning of his demise.

In verse 15, Solomon says, “So I said in my heart, ‘As it happens to the fool, It also happens to me, And why was I then more wise?’ Then I said in my heart, ‘This also is vanity.’” He’s at the stage where he says there’s no real point to having wisdom. In verse 17, he says, “Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.”

How did Solomon fall when people worldwide once traveled to hear him speak? When the queen of Sheba came with a massive questioning entourage, the Bible says he told her all the answers, and she was so aghast by his wisdom that there was no more breath left in her. The answer is in 1 Kings 3:9: “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” Solomon asked for wisdom to judge good and evil in others, not himself. That's the point, and that's human tendency. We learn, discern, and can tell right from wrong in everyone except ourselves. We fail to understand the true measure of wisdom is within.

In Proverbs 2:16–19, Solomon says, “To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words, Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead; None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life.” Did he follow his advice?

1 Kings 11:1–3 tells us: “But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” I once led a men's Bible study and read this scripture. An older man sighed and said, “Only a fool would want more than one wife.”

Verses 4–8 show Solomon’s spiral: “For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.”

Solomon was great at advising others but horrible at looking inward. In Proverbs 3:5–7, he warns us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Yet, at the end of his life, he departed from God and moved towards evil.

Lastly, we’ll look at Proverbs 4:5–13: “Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you. Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.” The Holy Spirit speaks to Solomon, yet he ultimately builds heathen temples.

Similarly, we're watching pastors fall like dead flies nationwide. They teach others the principles of God, which somehow they have deceived themselves into thinking don't apply to them. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” We all tend to twist the scriptures and convince ourselves that what is for others is not for us.

I look back on Solomon's life and feel sorrow. He asked for wisdom but didn't ask for a heart to follow it. If he had, God would have given him one. If this downfall happened to the wisest man that will ever live on the face of this planet, it can happen to us. We can’t just keep piling on knowledge and expect to be immune to the world's evils. David’s cry in Psalm 139:23–24 is: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” God, don't let me assume what I'm doing is right. If I search myself, I'll come out smelling like a rose most of the time. You know my thoughts and ways. When you get older, beware. All of your zeal is gone, and who Christ is in your heart gets harder to cover with religion. There's a point when all you have left is Jesus.

I think of this desert lizard story. As it walks through the sand, its tail wags left, right, left, right, left, right, okay? The lizard covers its tracks. The hawk can't spot it because its tail is covering its prints. As it gets older, the lizard’s tail starts to stiffen. It goes a little less left and a little less right. Suddenly, the toes appear, and then more of the foot appears. Eventually, the lizard’s tail stiffens, and the hawk sees and captures it. How similar to the Christian life!

Your sin will find you out; be sure it will come to the surface. You can't get away forever with what may be hidden now. Are you wise? I almost called this message, “Are you a wise guy or just a wise guy?” Do you seek wisdom? Do you want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? It's simple. Ask God today for a heart to obey all He promises to show you.