Word of Salvation – Vol.07 No.05 – February 1961

 

Being Wise; Wise In The Ways Of The Lord

 

Sermon by Rev. F. De Vries on Hosea 14:9

Scripture reading: Hosea 14

Psalter Hymnal: 276:1,2; 52 (After the Law); 404; 340; 32.

 

Beloved in the Lord,

When we have a look at the leading statesmen, in history, but also in the world of to-day, then it surprises us that the list does not include any outstanding scholars.

You would think that men, who have studied all their lives, would make good leaders, and people, who know much more than other people, should be able to show others the way how to live.

But that does not seem to be the case.  Men like Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman and Churchill had a very ordinary education, and although they learnt a lot afterwards, and even obtained university degrees, they never were outstanding scholars.

The famous Greek philosopher Plato was of the opinion, that all statesmen should be philosophers, for no one else would be suitable to give the people a properly balanced government.

But that never seemed to work out.  The only outstanding scientists that come to my mind as also having been good statesmen are Dr. Abraham Kuyper, the theologian-prime-minister, and Dr. Chai Weisman, the president of the young state of Israel.

Yet, no one will say that the leaders of the nations lack sense or wisdom, or knowledge.  Some of them have been decidedly brilliant.  One of the most brilliant statesmen of all time, Sir Winston Churchill, was a no-hoper at the high school, and never was any good at studying.  Yet, he learnt a tremendous lot, during his lifetime, and apart from being an outstanding statesman, he also became one of the world’s leading speakers of the English language and a celebrated author of old and modern history.  And again we ask: How is that possible?  How can we explain it?

I believe that we find the answer to all this in the Bible, and more particularly in our text.

The people of Israel were not stupid by any means.  They were probably the most civilised and the most cultural minded nation in the world of that time, they were all able to read (at least all the men were, and most of the women), and a great number of them could write.

They also possessed many men of outstanding ability in the fields of history, theology and philosophy.  But Hosea and later on Isaiah complain that the people of Israel are facing destruction because they know so little.

They make clear what they mean.  They are not interested in human wisdom, in human knowledge, in a people who knew a long list of historical facts….!  They wanted a people who were wise in God’s ways.  It is of little use if you have a lot of knowledge but you do not know how to apply it, how to use it.

That is the reason why we have so many of these outstanding scholars, who, in a lot of ways are fools.  They know a tremendous lot.  But they do not know how to use their knowledge.

The leaders of the people, which I mentioned, had far less knowledge, but they knew how to use it.  Every ounce of knowledge they had, they put to use.  That is wisdom.

And when the Bible speaks of wisdom, wisdom as God sees it, then it refers to people who use, what they know, to walk in the ways of the Lord, and who with their knowledge, do their utmost to build the kingdom of God.

Our text speaks to us about

BEING WISE – WISE IN THE WAYS OF THE LORD.

The book of Hosea actually finishes with vs.8.  We do not know whether Hosea himself wrote vs.9 as an afterthought, or whether somebody else wrote it.  It does not really matter.

But if we have a look at vs.8, then we see that the book of Hosea finishes on a beautiful note.

In the beginning of the last chapter Hosea has been teaching his people how to pray.  He taught them, that they must repent at all cost, otherwise their prayers would be useless; but at the same time he taught them that God hears their prayers.  That they would not be praying in vain, but that they would find a ready ear if they would come to God in the right spirit.

Then in vs.8 Hosea shows them God’s reaction.  “If Ephraim shall stop worshipping idols”, God says, “then I will answer him, and I will regard him; I will be unto him as a green fir tree”, portraying strength, and life, and fruitfulness.

And then comes vs.9.  You see, if you are wise, and you read this book of prophecy, and you understand its meaning, and you are prudent, careful, so that you shall know and recognise these things, then you are really wise.  For a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.  And seeing what happened to the people of Israel, and reading what was the fate of Judah, should warn any reader of the dangers of the world, of idolatry and of adultery with strange gods.

If you drive along the roadway, and you see the car in front of you going through a deep pothole, then you will do your best to swerve, and to drive around the hole.

If you have a friend who is having a house built, and the builder is doing a poor job on it, then it is pretty certain that you would not go to the same builder.  For you have been forewarned.  That is all easy to follow.  But now what do you do when you see something going wrong with another man, or with another project, and you can not see the cause of it?

Of course, if your car won’t run, then you take it to the garage to have it fixed.  The mechanic will look and search until he has found what is wrong with it.  For if he does not know what is wrong, then he cannot repair the thing either.  And if you go to the doctor, he first has to find out what is wrong with you, before he can even attempt to cure you.

But in ordinary, daily life we often do not take the trouble to find out what is really wrong.  We just see that the world is a poor sort of a place to live in, that the international situation is bad, that the politicians only take care of their own pockets, that the statesmen of the present-day world are a poor lot compared with those of a generation ago, that the houses they build are not nearly as solid as those which they built before the war, that the people in general have only time for sport and pleasure, and do not care about spiritual matters.

But that is as far as we go.  We do not look beyond those facts.  We are not digging into the causes.  We only see: that is how it is!  That is one thing, against which our text warns us.  When you see things going wrong, don’t be satisfied with just noticing the fact, but find out why they go wrong, and do something about it!  Take care that you do not make the same mistake yourself, but follow another course, take a different road.  Otherwise you will finish up making exactly the same mistake.

Literally our text says: He who is wise, pays attention to these things, and then, when he is prudent, when he is careful, he shall be able to know them, to recognize them.

For that is the part of wisdom.  Finding out what is wrong, then doing something about it, then keeping on the lookout for similar things, and similar events.

It is remarkable that nearly all great statesmen are students of history.  They study history, because they see where others went wrong, and where they themselves may be able to do better.

We even find that with Church History.  When we read the New Testament, and the early History of the Church, then we find the same heretics and the same sects as we find for instance in the middle ages, and again in our own times.  Pentecostals, Jehovah Witnesses, Revivalists – to mention just a few – are nothing new, but they have been with us right throughout the ages.  Only they keep changing their names.

Now if we know God’s Word, and we know the history of the Church, then we shall know these things, we shall recognise them and understand them.  So, in this way, we should read the prophecies of Hosea, and understand them.  So, in this way, we should read the Scriptures, and understand them, and apply them to our daily lives.  That we may be able to recognize the signs, and that we may know the way in which to walk.

For when we are wise, we do what we KNOW is right, namely to walk in the ways of the Lord.  The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk therein.

Those people who are wise, take the people of Israel as an example, and do not think: Oh, that happened more than two thousand years ago, that could not happen now.  For the world has not changed much, and the people have not either; perhaps they have grown a bit worse than they were then.  And God has certainly not changed; neither has His word, neither has His command. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, but thou shalt serve the Lord thy God, Who has delivered thee.  I am the Lord”.

It is still the same God Who reigns over the same world and over the same people.  At least, most of those people.  For although we find the same heretics, and the same mistakes, and the same sects among us, we do also find another sort of people, namely those who have become wise.  Those who have learnt from the experiences of others, especially of the old people of Israel.

Thank God that there are people who know God, and who possess the wisdom, which God gives to them in His Word, and through His Holy Spirit.  As Hosea, the Jesus of the Old Testament, taught his people how to pray, so the Jesus of the New Testament, our Lord and Saviour, taught us how to pray, and how to be wise, in and through our prayers.

We have the map, that leads us to the right place, and along the right ways, the ways of the Lord.  All we have to do is to study that map, and to follow it right through.  Right through…. for it is no use to follow a map for a while, and then to throw it away to follow your own judgment.  The Bible is our guide, right throughout our lives.  We must use it and read it for our whole lives, or we might as well forget about it.

For the ways of the Lord are right, and if we have gained some understanding, and we have learned some wisdom, then we must prove that wisdom by following the right road, by sticking to the highway, the highway to heaven.

However, it is not enough to follow that road blindly.  We must also be suited for that road.  If you ride a bike and you travel along the main road from Melbourne to Sydney, then you will probably finish up in Hospital.  And if you drive a car, and you try to go cross-country, over ditches and rocks and through canals, then you will probably finish up upside down.  You have to be suited for the road you travel on.

So it is with the ways of the Lord.  If a person wants to follow them, then he must be a just person.  Otherwise he should not be on the road.  Those people that try to walk the ways of the Lord and who are not just (the unrighteous ones) they will fall therein.  Literally it says: they will stumble therein.  The road is not suitable for them.  They should not pretend to be just when they are not.

We find that a lot in life.  People belong to the Church.  They listen to the preaching of the Gospel.  They like the social spirit which there is in the Church, and they remain in it.  They are good members, at least as far as we can see.  But God can see the heart.  And if there are people who walk in His ways, but who are not serious, then those people will fall; they will walk to their own doom.  For what seems to be wise, is in reality their foolishness.  Listen to Paul, who states it very clearly in the epistle to the Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness; but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent will I reject”.

The same ways of the Lord, which are clearly righteousness and wisdom to the believers, will lead to the doom of many who do not take them seriously.  It is just another way of expressing that the preaching of the gospel is paving for us the way to heaven…. or to hell.  The word of God heals, or it condemns; it saves, or it destroys.  But it never fails to work.  God’s Word does not return empty to Him.  God’s word puts a man to the choice, the choice of which we read in Deuteronomy (30:19, 20), when Moses says: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you, life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore, choose life, that you may live, you and your seed: to love the Lord your God, to obey his voice, and to cleave unto Him; for He is your life, and the length of your days.”

The ways of the Lord are wise, and just; and they lead us to the Lord.  But for those people, who do not need the Lord, who can do without Him, there is no need to walk along those ways.  If your life is full without the Lord, then the Church is only so much waste of time.  The Bible becomes an irritation, a foolishness.  For it won’t make sense.  And in our world it is so, that that, which does not make sense, should be banned, it is foolish.

Mind you, just as there are two sorts of wisdom, the wisdom of the world, and the wisdom of God, so there are also two sorts of foolishness, the foolishness of this world, and the foolishness of God.

This is especially important for our young people, children and teenagers alike.  You are coming to the stage when you are thinking of which road to take.  Many have already come to that stage.  You will find two open roads in front of you.

One road is very wide, and very beautiful.  But as you go along, you will find that it gets narrower, and narrower, and the beauty slowly disappears.  Potholes are appearing everywhere, and at last the road gets so narrow, that you can hardly turn around to go back.  And then, if you do turn around, and you look all the way you have come, that terrible ugly stretch of road, then your courage sinks away, and you have not got the energy to go back again.  So you go forward, while the road is getting worse and worse.  Until the flaming gates of hell are opening themselves for you, and you are swallowed up… another lost soul, who took the wide and beautiful way, who thought that he was wise, who did not believe in the righteousness of God, and in the love and in the grace of our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ.

The other road does not look nearly as good.  It is a narrow road, and sometimes it gets so narrow, that you nearly fall off.  And like the other road, it seems as if it is getting worse and worse.  It is a difficult journey to travel along that road.  But there are important differences.  On the first road the blazing sun sapped all your strength and energy.  But on this road, the soft rays of the mild sun give you warmth, and the showers of the springtime quench your thirst, and somehow you find that this road is not nearly as hard as it looked.  And above all: there are no blazing gates at the end of it, but a beautiful throne.  And on it your Lord is seated, with outstretched hands: “Come to Me, all you who are tired and weary, and I shall give you rest.”  It is the road which our Lord took Himself when He lived on earth, amongst us.  Only, for us it is so much easier now, to follow that road, for although we are faced with difficult parts, we know that we will be helped along by our God.

Young people, people of God, when you have come to the cross-roads, make sure which road you will take.  You will reach the crossing sooner than you think.  Then the choice you make will at the same time be your confession: a confession for Christ, or a confession against Christ.  Which one will you make?  Remember, there is no age limit.  You are never too young and you are never too old to confess to Whom you want to belong.  Your Lord is waiting, also waiting for you.

For He wants to come back… but not before the work is finished.

Do you want to help in that work?  It is God’s work, is it also your work?

There is still a lot of work to be done, everywhere, in Australia, and in New Zealand.  There is no waiting list.  All those who wish, may join in.  Then together we will walk the road, the road that leads to Christ, to the lamb of God.

Then we will also assist in the coming of the Lord.

Then He will come back, so that He may judge the living and the dead, so that He may build the new heaven and the new earth, for those who have walked in the ways of the Lord.

Maranatha, the Lord is at hand!

Let us go and meet Him!

Amen.