THE WISDOM AND POWER OF GOD
Mike Cunningham
October 12, 2014

I don’t know about you but I spent a lot of time thinking about the awful events that were mentioned in last week’s sermon. From the moment I ended it I knew that I would have to have a follow-up. After all, when thousands of lives are suddenly snuffed out by catastrophic events such as earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and killer viruses like Ebola, as well as bloodthirsty terrorists such as ISIS and mass murderers in schools, your thoughts wonder about the victims and survivors.

Mine were centered on the little baby’s and small children. It’s bad enough when they loose their life, but to know that they are legally killed in the United States by abortion is beyond my comprehension. For instance, according to The Guttmacher Institute, formed as a division of Planned Parenthood of America, 847,140.4 little unborn babies legally had their lives snuffed out in the United States so far this year. Last Friday on October 10, 2014, 2,491.6 and counting were aborted that day. In fact, since Roe vs. Wade in 1973, 57,252,942.7 were legally killed in America.

I can’t help wondering about the wisdom and power of God. Concerning the wisdom of God, I’m going to quote A. W. Tozer who wrote his classic book, The Knowledge of God. Tozer begins by praying:

You, O Christ, who was tempted in all points just as we are, yet without sinning, please make us strong to overcome the desire to be wise and to be reputed as wise by other people who are as ignorant as ourselves. We turn from our wisdom as from our folly and flee to you, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Amen.

In this brief study of the divine wisdom we begin with faith in God. We shall not seek to understand in order that we may believe, but to believe in order that we may understand. Hence, we shall not seek for proof that God is wise. The unbelieving mind would not be convinced, and the worshiping heart needs none.

“Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever,” cried Daniel the prophet, “for wisdom and might are his…he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding: he reveals the deep and secret things: he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells within him.” The believing man responds to this, and to the angelic chant, “Blessing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever.” It never occurs to such a man that God should furnish proof of his wisdom or his power. Is it not enough that he is God?

When Christian theology declares that God is wise, it means vastly more than it says or can say, for it tries to make a comparatively weak word bear an incomprehensible abundance of meaning that threatens to tear it apart and crush it under the sheer weight of the idea. “His understanding is infinite,” says the psalmist.

Since the word infinite describes what is unique, it can have no modifiers. We do not say “more unique,” or “very infinite.” Before infinite we stand silent. There is indeed a secondary, created wisdom, which God has given in measure to His creatures as their highest good may require; but the wisdom of any creature or of all creatures, when set against the boundless wisdom of God is pathetically small. For this reason the apostle is accurate when he refers to God as “only wise.” That is, God is wise in himself, and all the shining wisdom of men or angels is but a reflection of that uncreated brilliance which streams from the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

The idea of God as infinitely wise is at the root of all truth. It is a fact of belief that is necessary to the soundness of all other beliefs about God. Being what he is with regard to creatures, God is of course unaffected by our opinions of him, but our moral sanity requires that we that we attribute to the maker and sustainer of the universe a wisdom entirely perfect. To refuse to do this is to betray the very thing in us that distinguishes us from the beasts.

In the Holy Scriptures wisdom, when used of God and good men, always carries a strong moral connotation. It is conceived as being pure, loving, and good. Wisdom that is mere shrewdness is often attributed to evil men, but such wisdom is treacherous and false. These two kinds of wisdom are in perpetual conflict. Indeed, when seen from the lofty peak of Sinai or Calvary, the whole history of the world is discovered to be but a contest between the wisdom of God and the cunning of Satan, and fallen men. The outcome of the contest is not in doubt. The imperfect will finally fall before the perfect. God has warned that he will take the wise in their own craftiness and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need guessing. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to everything else, and is able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.

All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for his own glory, and then for the highest good of the greatest number for the longest time. And all his acts are as they are wise, and as good as they can possibly be are wise and pure. Not only could his acts not be done better: a better way to do them could not be imagined. An infinitely wise God must work in a manner that can’t be improved upon by finite creatures. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou hast made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches!

Without the creation, the wisdom of God would have remained forever locked in the boundless abyss of the divine nature. God brought his creatures into existence that he might enjoy them and rejoice in them. “And God saw that everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

Many of the creatures have declared themselves unable to believe in the basic wisdom of a world wherein so much appears to be so wrong. Voltaire in his Candide introduces a determined optimist, whom he calls Dr. Pangloss, and into his mouth he puts all the arguments for the “best-of-all-possible-worlds” philosophy. Of course the French cynic took keen delight in placing the old professor in situations that made his philosophy look ridiculous.

But the Christian view of life is altogether more realistic than that of Dr. Pangloss with his “sufficient reason.” It is that this is not at the moment the best of all possible worlds, but one lying under the shadow of a huge calamity, the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The inspired writers insist that the whole creation is groaning and travails under the mighty shock of “the Fall. They do not attempt to supply “sufficient reasons;” they assert that the “creature” was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope.” There’s no effort to justify the ways of God with men, just a simple declaration of fact. The being of God is its own defense.

But there is hope in all our tears. When the hour of Christ’s triumph arrives, the suffering world will be brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. For men of the new creation the golden age is not past but future, and when it is ushered in, a wondering universe will see that God has indeed abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. In the meantime we rest our hope in the only wise God, our Savior, and wait with patience the slow development of his benign purposes.

In spite of tears and pain and death we believe that the God who made us all is infinitely wise and good. As Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving the glory to God, and was fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able to perform, so do we base our hope in God alone and hope against hope until the daybreaks. We rest in what God is. I believe that this alone is true faith. Any real faith, “Jesus said to Thomas: “Because you have seen me you have believed, but blessed are they that have not seen yet have believed.”

The testimony of faith is that, no matter how things look in this fallen world, all God’s acts are wrought in perfect wisdom. The incarnation of the Eternal Son in human flesh was one of God’s mighty deeds, and we may be sure that this awesome deed was done with a perfection possible only to the Infinite. “Without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”

Atonement too was accomplished with the same flawless skill that marks all of God’s acts. However little we understand it, we know that Christ’s expiatory work perfectly reconciled God and men and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Our concern is not to complain but to proclaim. Indeed I wonder whether God could make us understand all that happened there on the cross. According to the apostle Peter not even angels know, however eagerly they may desire to look into these things.

The operation of the gospel, the new birth, the coming of the divine Spirit into human nature, the ultimate overthrow of evil, and the final establishment of Christ’s righteous kingdom-all these have flowed and continue to flow out of God’s infinite goodness of wisdom. The sharpest eyes of the holiest watcher in the blest company above cannot discover a flaw in the ways of God in bringing all this to fruition, nor can the pooled wisdom of seraphim and cherubim suggest how an improvement might be made in the divine procedure. “I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God does it that men should fear before him.”

It is vitally important that we hold the truth of God’s infinite wisdom as a tenant of our creed, but this is not enough. We must by the exercise of faith and by prayer bring it into the practical world of our-day-by-day experience.

To believe actively that our Heavenly Father spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.

There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him. Here is His promise: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them.”

Let Him lead thee blindfold onwards,
Love needs not to know,
Children whom the Father leads,
Ask not where they go.
Though the path be all unknown,
Over moors and mountains lone.
Gerhard Tentergen

God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. “I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the bars of iron and I will give you treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who calls you by name, am the God of Israel.”

It is heartening to learn how many of God’s mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying exes of men or angels.

When God created the heavens and the earth, darkness was upon the face of the deep. When the Eternal Son became flesh, He was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin’s womb. When He died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness seen by no one at the last. When He arose from the dead, it was “very early in the morning.” No one saw Him rise. It is as if God were saying, “What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust me and be not afraid.”

With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.

In all our Maker’s grand designs, Omnipotence, with wisdom, shines;
His works, through all this wondrous frame,
Declare the glory of His Name.

Thomas Blacklock

As usual, I’ve just given you folks plenty of food for thought. That’s the reason I’ll end this message at this point.

Lord willing, next week….