(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Isaiah chapter 11 and the Bible reads and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and shall make him of quick understanding and the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall his judge he judged the poor and reproved with equity of the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth and the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them and the cow and the bear shall feed and their young ones shall lie down together and the lions shall eat straw like the ox and a cycling child shall play on the whole of the asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice din they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and in that day there should be a root of Jesse which shall stand for the an instant of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious and I'll shut come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from pathros and from Kush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea and he shall set up an instant for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth the envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vex Ephraim but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west they shall spoil them of the east together they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon shall obey them and the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river and shall smite in the seven streams and make men men go over dry shod and there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt there were thank you Lord for this day and your blessings and thank you Lord for the church and everyone in it Lord and we thank you Lord for everyone that went out so any day and all the souls would say Lord and I pray just breast bless pastor Shelley and filling with the Holy Spirit Lord in Jesus name we pray amen amen let's look at verse number one where the Bible read and there shall come forth the rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch will grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither approve after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked now in Isaiah chapter number 11 we see a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the title of my sermon this evening is the spirit of wisdom the spirit of wisdom now I'd preached a sermon in Oklahoma City where I titled it the seven spirits of God and throughout that series I really wanted to preach seven different sermons I want to preach on all seven spirits what I believe the Bible teaches but you say where are you coming up with seven spirits well keep your finger here and go to revelation chapter 5 quickly revelation chapter number 5 we will see a phrase mentioned in the Bible about the Lord Jesus Christ having seven spirits look at verse number 6 in your Bible says that I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sit forth into all the earth so according to the Bible in Revelation chapter number five and other places it mentioned the seven spirits of God and it specifically mentions the fact that Jesus Christ has those that that's the seven eyes now if you go back and you listen to my first sermon I explained in more detail why I believe the seven spirits of God are found in Isaiah chapter number 11 but and you look in Zechariah it mentioned the seven eyes and it calls him the branch and then when we look back go back to Isaiah chapter number 11 and you look at verse 1 it notifies that Jesus Christ is the branch now what is a branch why is he saying branch what does that mean well if you just look at a tree okay there's things come off and get called branches now the Bible often uses this language to denote lineage to denote the fact of where your family tree came from in a sense okay so you are a branch of your parents and you know what your parents are branch of your grandparents and your grandparents are a branch of your great-grandparents and the Bible is telling us where the Messiah is going to come from he is going to be a stem from Jesse or he's going to be hey a branch off of David okay now we know that the Lord Jesus Christ he's not just a branch he's the root and the offspring of David so he's also the root of that tree and he's also a branch off of that tree but we see clearly when it's talking verse number one it's talking about someone coming and then it come from the lineage of Jesse and we know the Lord Jesus Christ comes from David specifically because in Matthew chapter number one if you just start reading the very beginning of the New Testament it gives you the genealogy of Jesus Christ it tells us where he comes from okay now if we look at verse number two though it says something interesting it says in the spirit of Lord shall rest upon him who's that talking about it's talking about Christ it's talking about Jesus Christ and if you look at the rest of this verse you notice seven different things you notice the spirit of the Lord the spirit of wisdom understanding the spirit of counsel might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord that's seven if you were counting and I believe that the Bible teaches that the seven spirits could be identified here in this verse specifically okay now what I want to do is I want to kind of preach a sermon on each one of these aspects what is the spirit of the Lord what is the spirit of wisdom well if you want to learn about the spirit of Lord you got to go reference my first sermon but I'll give you the highlights okay whenever you study the spirit of the Lord you see it majorly coming upon people in the book of job of judges okay and in the first Kings and stuff and it's usually coming upon a judge when he's going out to do battle there are the Kings and we see it comes upon saw King Saul it also comes upon David so the major people that comes upon Samson saw David there's other mentions throughout the Bible but I had identified three different aspects of the spirit of Lord the spirit of Lord when it comes upon you it causes you to go to the battle it causes you to go out and to fight additionally when the spirit of Lord comes upon someone they're gonna have victory in that battle so they're not gonna go out and fail they're gonna go out and they're gonna win they're gonna win the victory they're gonna have the victory through the spirit of the Lord and thirdly you're going to speak the words of God when the spirit of Lord comes upon you now interestingly enough if you follow the timeline of King Saul to King David there's this interesting handoff because King Saul has the spirit of Lord upon him but then as soon as David is anointed with oil the Bible says the spirit of Lord departs from Saul and then it comes upon David and if you study the rest of Saul's life you know what he doesn't do anymore go out to the battle have any victory and he doesn't speak the words of God in fact he's saying oh man God's not talking to me anymore so then he goes and visits a witch and the witch has to conjure up a spirit for him Samuel and Sam was like hey tomorrow you're gonna be with me buddy it's a bad way that's you know a nice way to say you're gonna die a nice way to say you're dead buddy it's over and we see what he do he goes out to the battle and fails and dies all right but what does David do well after he gets anointed he goes out and debates Goliath he goes out to the battle he has the victory and he preaches God's words I mean David is one of the most powerful people in the Bible one of the people that God uses most to speak his word and the Spirit of Lord rested heavily on David and David is one of the strongest pictures of Jesus Christ himself but let's get into the spirit of wisdom I just wanted to give you a little bit of taste just kind of so you have a good introduction of where we're coming from but the spirit of wisdom what is that well go if you would to Proverbs chapter number two Proverbs chapter number two in your Bible and I think Proverbs is obviously gonna be one of the best places to learn about the spirit of wisdom because Proverbs is filled with wisdom and you know who wrote Proverbs Solomon right yeah Solomon and Solomon is considered very wise we'll even look at that here in a minute but when it comes to the words knowledge understanding and wisdom there is a strong connection between these words and in fact I believe there's a lot of overlap between these words but I do also believe there's distinction among these words and if I were to try and think of how to how do I get from no knowledge and all these places how do I get to wisdom I don't think wisdom is where you start in fact when you study these spirits you probably start with the fear of the Lord but I'm not gonna get there yet but knowledge is where you just get information knowledge is just information in the midst of the garden there was the knowledge of good and of evil and you know what not all knowledge is good knowledge there's things that I don't want to know there's things that I don't want to learn about okay but knowledge in and of itself is just information and you know what it's good to have a lot of information it's good to be knowledgeable it's good to know things we shouldn't be stupid and ignorant and foolish and simple we should not be like that we need to have and acquire a lot of knowledge but once you get that knowledge the next step would be understanding that knowledge you know there's people they can just recite things and repeat things but they have no idea what they're saying it's called false prophets false prophets can get up and they can quote Bible verses and they have no idea what they mean then they come up with analyses like pianos falling on your head is salvation ok then it manifests you you don't understand what the Bible teaches ok so understanding comes from after you get all that knowledge you know that knowledge means you have some level of understanding now once you have knowledge and you have a lot of understanding then you can be esteemed wise that's where the wisdom comes into play so look at proverbs chapter 2 verse 6 the Bible says for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding notice that when he speaks with wisdom there's two things that come with it knowledge and understanding because if you don't have any knowledge you're not going to be esteemed wise and if you have a lot of knowledge you don't understand it you're not going to be esteemed wise in order to be wise you must have knowledge and you must understand that knowledge and we see when God gives wisdom it's because he has a lot of knowledge and he has understanding with it but let's get an example I want to give you a practical example of how we delineate these look at verse 10 when wisdom enter into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant under thy soul discretion shall preserve the understanding shall keep you to deliver thee from the way of the evil man from the man that speaketh forward things who leave the paths of brightness to walk in ways of darkness who rejoiced to do evil delight in the forwardness of the wicked whose ways are crooked and they forward in their paths to deliver thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with her words let's stop for a moment what the Bible has just done is it has given us knowledge now we know we already know that anything the Bible tells us is already good knowledge ok but in and of itself verse 16 to deliver thee from the strange woman ok even from the stranger which flatter through their words the Bible is telling you that you should not be around women that flatter you that she's a bad person that that's that's information that you're getting ok so let's keep reading let's understand how what understanding means now says verse 17 which forsake of the guide of her youth and forget it the covenant of our God for her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead so knowledge is saying it's it's bad to be around a woman that will flatter me but understanding is when you realize why why do I not want to hang out this woman well it clearly says in verse 18 for her house inclineth unto death her paths unto the dead so the knowledge is don't hang out this woman the understanding is why I don't hang out with her because it leads to death and you know what the wisdom is the wisdom is when you apply it in your life the wisdom when you say okay I understand I know that she's bad I understand why she's bad so therefore I'm going to make decisions to avoid her that's where wisdom comes into play because just because you know it you understand it if you still do it it's like well that's a really foolish thing to do that was really stupid thing to do so wisdom comes into applying this into your life and in fact there's still a lot of overlap because if you do something at work maybe your boss gives you instruction you understand it and then you still fail he'd like did you not understand what I said is that you the first question you say or you say hey kids don't touch that it's hot and they touch it it's like did you not understand what I was trying to tell you so there's still some overlap but we see once you have the understanding it can give you the wisdom to be applied into your life so what we have we have a flattering woman and once you see that you say I need to flee fornication and you need to avoid her at all costs so the wise person will take this knowledge they'll understand it and then they'll apply it into their lives and that's the spirit of wisdom the spirit of wisdom is when you're applying the knowledge and understanding that you have in your life when you realize okay hey it's my job to be a soul winner and the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that when his souls is wise the guy that applies that wisdom I need to go out and preach the gospel because if I don't people are gonna go to hell the person that does that he's wise you know it's not wise the guy that says well our goals go so winning ok and I understand if I don't people are gonna go to hell I'm still gonna watch TV not a wise person the wise person says you know what I know that and I understand it therefore I'm going to do it that's the spirit of wisdom and you know what we need to have this in our lives with the Bible we need to not just know it we not just understand it we need to do it we need people that do the Word of God now there's two points that I have for this sermon what is wisdom going to do in your life why should I apply the knowledge and understanding that I have well look at chapter four just flip over a couple chapters and look at verse number five it's going to tell us the two benefits of having the spirit of wisdom of being wise look at verse 5 get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth forsake her not and she shall preserve the love her and she shall keep wisdom is the principal thing therefore get with them and with all that getting get understanding exalt her and she shall promote the she shall bring me to honor when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine head and ornament of grace a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee here oh my son and receive my sayings and the years of thy life shall be many so in this portion of scripture it's emphasizing you know you really need to be trying to do young men get wisdom you know we also be trying to do getting wisdom getting understanding it's the principal thing we should be constantly trying to get more knowledge of God's Word and understand it more so then we can have the wisdom to live our lives be wise people so that they don't look at the church and say man he's a bunch of foolish idiots making the same mistakes we are know they're taking the Bible they know it and they understand it and they're applying their lives they're different there's a difference between the the clean and the unclean the holy and the profane God's people and the world we should be able to be noticeably different ok now what does it say here what's the two points verse 6 she shall preserve the wisdom will preserve your life wisdom will give you link of days why well if you just go hang out with that flattering woman she's going to lead you straight to death if you're just a foolish idiot you're going to kill yourself you're going to destroy your life you're going to destroy all kinds of different things for the wage of sin is death the guy that avoids sin in his life the guy that avoids all the things the Bible warns about he's going to literally live longer the guy that honors his father and his mother his days are going to be long on the earth it's a promise of God and it's wisdom to actually do that it's wisdom to actually honor thy father and mother to do what the Bible says but look at verse 8 another benefit exalt her she shall promote thee you know wisdom does it gives you promotion you can be promoted in every area of your life they all want to be promoted work will be wise what is the wise guy do at work well he knows everything about the job he understands everything about the job and he applies it into his job he applies the stuff that he's doing and they're gonna say wow this guy's really wise he's great at his job he's the best at his job let's make him the manager let's put him in charge let's make him the lead technician let's make him the one that's over all the projects because he's so wise concerning this task and you see all the great men of the Bible they constantly are getting promoted you know let's just constantly promote Joseph I mean this guy gets so promoted he gets to the point where he's the ruler of all the lands and you know Egypt basically all the nations are coming into Egypt and borrowing from them and becoming servants to Egypt and Joseph's over everything why because he was wise he took God's Word he applied in his life he understood it and he did it Oh Potiphar's wife is coming in the woman that's coming in and she's flattering her hey lie with me what does he do he avoids her you know he does he gets preserved and he gets promoted what would happen if you lied with her well eventually would have gotten caught and have been killed for being an adulterer for being in a wicked person God would have not preserved him God would not promoted him and that's literally wisdom now let's go to a guy that's considered the wisest person in the Bible okay go to Proverbs chapter 1 Proverbs chapter 1 the Bible says you know how we get wisdom the Bible says in Colossians 3 let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts of the Lord wisdom comes from this book so if we have the words of Christ dwelling on us richly we can be wise when you don't know any of the Bible you are a fool you are an idiot I've never met someone that's wise that doesn't know anything in the book you know the wisest people on the planet are the ones that know this book really well they really know it and they understand it and they can and they do it those are the people they are that guy is wise now look at Proverbs chapter 1 verse 1 the proverbs of Solomon the son of David king of Israel to know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words of understanding to receive the instruction of wisdom justice and judgment and equity to give subtly to the simple young man knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain and wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings so according to the Bible the book of Proverbs is written to give you wisdom it's telling you hey these proverbs are wise attain under the wise counsel of the book of Proverbs and notice he also says that we should attend to the words of the wise so you should find someone that knows stuff that understands it and is applying it and listen to their words so let's go if we would the first Kings chapter 3 who was this person how about Solomon let's go and just learn from this guy this guy sounds like a good guy he must have the spirit of wisdom where do we get this from God and where do we get the words of God from God want to get wisdom it all comes from God and that's how we get the spirit of wisdom now look at first Kings chapter number three verse 5 says in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what I shall give you now wouldn't that be cool don't you want God to just come down from heaven just say ask what do you want what are you looking for a lot of people be like new house new shoes vacation what is Solomon asked for well he asked for wisdom does he not look at verse 9 give therefore thy servant and understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so great of people and the speech please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing and God said them because I was asked this thing and it's not asked for thyself long life neither is asked riches for thyself nor is asked the life of thine enemies but as asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment behold I have done according to thy words lo I have given thee a wise and understanding heart so there was none like thee before thee neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee the Bible says Solomon is the wisest man to ever live this is obviously with the exception of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ literally is wisdom ok why because the words of God are wisdom and Jesus Christ is the Word of God all right so we all understand that Jesus Christ is literally wisdom that's why Proverbs chapter 8 the whole will get there but it's all about wisdom then it draws a connection to how it's like oh I was with God the Father in the beginning hey it all talks about how wisdom was with God and it's not specifically just wisdom is Jesus Christ is who we understand that is but we see Solomon he's the wisest guy to ever live period Solomon now look at verse 23 then said the king the one said this is my son that liveth and thy son is the dead and the other saith nay but thy son is the dead and my son living what's happening well immediately after Solomon has this he's tested he's tried there's two harlots they come on to him and they say hey this one lady she overlaid her child and it died in the night and she stole my baby in the morning so when I rose I didn't have it and there's this dispute there's two harlots they both say the baby's theirs who's telling the truth we can't know and out of the mouth of one witness you know we don't really have anything to go on it's just woman against woman but Solomon is a wise person because you just asked God for wisdom he just said hey you're gonna be wiser than anybody so he knows how to deal with the situation he says in verse 24 and the king said bring me a sword and they brought a sword before the king and the king said divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half the other then spake the woman who's the living child was unto the king for her vows yearned upon her son and she said oh my lord give her the living child and in no wise slay it but the other said that'd be neither mine nor thine but divided then the king answered and said give her the living child and in no wise slay it she is the mother thereof and all Israel heard of the judgment with the king had judged and they fear the king for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment now what just happened well because of Solomon's words he's going to be promoted and this is why just because you hold a particular office does not mean that people have embraced you ok and even though Solomon was on the throne at age 18 ok mind you that does not mean all the people are going to really respond to his rule they're going to obey him they're going to do the things that he says and in fact with his son ten tribes are going to rebel and leave and so it's always an option for people to leave you say hey can people leave this church if they wanted to yeah it's like just because you get in a position of authority doesn't mean everybody's just gonna obey or everybody's gonna respect for you or everybody's gonna do things the way that you say them so we see it's important to be established what is establishment it means it's not going to change its setup it's been made where it's going to last and we see when he provides this kind of wisdom they say whoa you know this guy is the real deal this guy is the guy that we're going to leave in charge we're going to follow after him Solomon's here he's obviously gotten wisdom from God you know that's going to do it's going to give him promotion and his kingdom and not only that it's going to preserve him it's going to preserve his life he even preserved life did he not we have this baby we don't know who it is we don't know the mother is really but through his wisdom he preserves and returns the child back unto his mother chapter number 10 we see that Solomon had the spirit of wisdom through God and through that spirit he's able to preserve life and he's able to have promotion and we see why through Solomon's wisdom okay he becomes so wise that all the other nations in the world come and bring him gifts now is that going to happen is that just going to happen because you're the king of Israel the king of Judah you're the king of the children of Israel know why was everybody just coming and just giving gifts unto because he was so wise when they hear this judgment they say let's go and be buddies with him let's go hear him talk let's go be friends unto him let's go learn from him that's where the promotion came from and look just because he's in that position doesn't mean he's going to get the promotion he got the promotion from his wisdom my friend he got the promotion from being wise and if you want to succeed in any area of your life it's going to come through having wisdom it's not going to become you know obviously the world gets by by cheating and stealing and lying and backstabbing people and doing all this but if you as a Christian want to succeed it's going to have to come through wisdom the spirit of wisdom God's not going to bless you by backstabbing and lying and cheating and doing that which is wicked now look at verse number four and when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord there was no more spirit in her isn't that an amazing phrase she's just she's just flabbergasted she's blown away she has no more breath this guy is so wise and we see that's why she comes and she brings the gifts she brings all the goods she brings the president of Solomon she says you know I heard how great you were but then when I saw it it was even better it was way more than I ever had expected and the Spirit of God the spirit of wisdom coming upon a person is going to blow people away the wisdom of God has power now go if you would do Matthew chapter number 12 we see that literally a woman comes and sees the wisdom of Solomon she's blown away you know what there was somebody that was better than Solomon the spirit of wisdom came upon him look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 42 the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here you know Jesus was saying I'm wiser than Solomon there's your proof even though Solomon's the wisest man Jesus no wiser he literally is wisdom okay and we see the wisdom of Jesus Christ is supposed to be something that's in awe and we see Solomon was so wise that people are literally coming from across the planet just to hear his wisdom and they were blown away there was no more spirit left in her that tells me we have a lot of room to grow and wisdom okay I mean when the things that just come out of your mouth are blowing people away they can't even believe the wisdom and we're not just talking about a mean man you say what's a mean man average this is your average Joe book we're talking about chief rulers chief princes people of great nobility of great wisdom themselves and we see the words of God far surpass anything man can do this is the ultimate wisdom this is where we should study this is worse we should learn we should know the Bible we need to understand the Bible that's how you're gonna get wisdom it's not going to some Bible college somewhere it's not learning man's wisdom it's learning the wisdom that comes down from God through his word the word of Jesus Christ okay go view a dilute chapter number 20 and we see Jesus had the same effect as Solomon what happens when Solomon's wisdom is shown people are blown away they don't even know what to say they can't even speak anymore you know we see even with Jesus Christ they said never man spake like this man they go to arrest him and just for his words they're like I've never even heard words like that before this guy's so incredible well look at Luke chapter 20 verse 34 and Jesus answering said unto them the children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor is given in marriage neither can they die anymore for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection now that the dead are raised even Moses showed at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he's not a God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him then certain of the scribes answering said master now it's well said and after they durst not ask him any question at all they're blown away they're trying to trick him and trying to trap him they're asking him all kinds of questions what does the Queen of Sheba do she tried to prove Solomon with hard questions and after all the wisdom came out his mouth blown away we see the Pharisees and the scribes when they heard the wisdom of Jesus Christ they couldn't even ask any more questions they're just they're just they can't speak they're dumbfounded they're just like you know every time we ask him a question he just makes us look like idiots let's stop asking questions for a minute okay cuz he keeps making us look like fools and he keeps destroying us with the wisdom of God and look the wisdom of God will put all of man's wisdom to silence to shame they'll make them look like fools and idiots and imbeciles that's why we need to get the spirit of wisdom where we can blow people away with the words of God not our own wisdom not the wisdom that man teaches but the wisdom of God you don't think that people would want to come all across the planet to hear someone that knows everything about the Bible and understands everything about the Bible you say hey I want to be a great preacher one day I'll help you out know all the Bible understand all the Bible will be very wise and people will want to hear what you have to say go to Matthew chapter 11 it says also in Matthew 22 while the Pharisees are gathered together Jesus asked them saying what think ye of Christ whose son is he they say I'm the son of David he saith unto them how then doth David and spear call him Lord saying the Lord said to my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool if David then call him Lord how is he a son and no man was able to answer him a word neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions when Jesus Christ asked a question they couldn't answer and they were just done asking questions they're like wow the wisdom of this guy far surpasses anything that we are capable of the spirit of wisdom you say how can we have that through this book when Stephen starts preaching the Bible you know what the only thing they had left to do just stop their ears and stone him because they can't answer him anymore and the same is today whenever you speak the truth they don't have an answer I mean I've never got out so winning and someone's giving me an ulterior way to get to heaven so that makes any sense they're just dumbfounded they don't know what to say it's just like hey there's the truth what's the other alternative I don't know you know I just don't believe it I reject it I'm not sure I've never heard a good option I'll be a good person now what everybody basically says have you just boil it down be a good person do right love others that's the only real other option that anybody presents and that was foolishness because there's none righteous no not one look at Matthew 11 verse 16 let's get some of Jesus Christ wisdom let's understand the spirit of wisdom from Jesus Christ look at Matthew chapter 11 verse 16 but where and to shall I like in this generation it is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling under their fellows and saying we have piped unto you and you have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have not lamented for John came neither eating or drinking and they say he hath the devil the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of publicans and sinners but wisdom is just to five of her children now I like this phrase but wisdom is justified to her children I think a lot of people they look at that and like I don't really know what that means well let's understand what he's saying here okay let's just slow down first of all in verse number 18 who's John it's John the Baptist okay and they're saying he didn't come eating or drinking now let me just give you a tip what this is saying it's not saying that John never ate food not saying that John never drank water what he's saying is that John did not live a luxurious life John did not enjoy the finer things of this earth he's eating wild honey and locusts okay he's just drinking water from the stream all right this guy is not going and eating the fancy steak meals he's not enjoying the wine the Bible even told him not to drink wine so basically he's living a very austere life okay and look there's nothing wrong with living an austere life but because he lived an austere life because he's not enjoying the normal type of foods that everybody else is enjoying he's being reserved from those type of things they say he hath a devil now to John the Baptist have a devil lie wicked lie this guy was spilled from the Holy Ghost from the womb he's considered the greatest man to ever live and apparently you don't have to be the wisest man to ever live to be the greatest right because we see Solomon's the wisest man John the best the greatest all right notice you don't have to eat the finer things in life to be the greatest either John the Baptist was considered the greatest man born among women and he lived an austere life but they considered that demonic they considered demonic to live austere but then what do they say in verse 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking now what are they saying about him well Jesus Christ apparently had some good meals hey you know what there's nothing wrong with having some good meals Jesus Christ did it some people want to live the John the Baptist lifestyle I kind of like the Jesus lifestyle just sounds a little bit better he came eating and drinking now what do they say about him behold a man gluttonous now let me ask you this was Jesus gluttonous there's no sin in him and gluttony is a sin according to Bible okay and now what do they say about John the Baptist it was a lie right so wouldn't you expect this wouldn't be a lie what was the second one all right a wine pepper what's that somebody someone that's drinking alcohol often someone that's known as being a social drinker now did Jesus have any alcoholic wine no I know some people believe that stupid doctrine it's wicked as hell I don't have to take time to destroy that but wine is a mocker just put that in your pipe and smoke it tell me how wine can be good when the Bible says wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever there's whosoever there is deceived thereby is not wise according the Bible so what is this lie about gluttony lie about wine pepper now here's the interesting thing every false prophet under the Sun they all embrace the third one a friend of publicans and sinners but let's just keep our logic consistent okay is he a glutton false is he a wine bibber false let me just give you the answer is he a friend of the publicans and sinners false he was not okay now some people get really confused they're like what he's a friend of sinners now here's the thing Jesus Christ when he said to his disciples you're my friends indeed he says if you continue my word you know you're a friend of God by following his commandments by living righteous you know how Abraham was called the friend of God because he didn't just have the faith he had the works you see then how a man is justified by works and not by faith only is what the Bible says meaning just because you're saved doesn't even make you a friend of God if you're a friend of the world you're an enemy of God according to Bible and look the publicans and sinners are not Jesus friend okay don't get stupid doctrine from false teachers oh he's a friend of publicans and sinners that was a lie about Jesus Christ from the Pharisees okay now so why does he say but wisdom is justified of her children he's saying I'm being falsely accused of being a glutton of being a wine bibber of being a friend of these sinful people but you know what at the end of the day it's gonna be proved true that he wasn't now what does it mean what if somebody says wisdom is justified of her children okay it means that wisdom is going to be judged as good advice by its fruit what is children fruit is your offspring okay many times it even talks about a woman you know if her fruit departs from her that's her child okay so we slow down what's the children of wisdom it's the fruit of wisdom okay it's what's coming off of the wisdom and when you look at the fruit you can discern the tree so you know how you decide if something's wise or not by its fruit vibe it comes to pass you know when you read the Proverbs and you see something and it gives you advice and then you see it come to pass in your life you're like wow that's really wise that makes a lot of sense that's super clear that's why the Bible's telling me this now someone gives you advice and you take it and it fails you're gonna be like that was stupid that was bad advice you know what wisdom is justified of all their children and anytime someone brings a false accusation against you once it gets proven false that wasn't wise that wasn't something that was true so how do we know things that are true because they come to pass because they're evidenced in our lives because we see them we see the flattering woman she's a whore she'll be flattering to any guy and she's just trying to destroy men's lives and you know after you go through that process you're like wow the Bible is really smart that was some good advice that was wise so what is he saying here well he's saying y'all are dumb because according to your perspective everyone's a false prophet because you either live an austere life and you're a false prophet or you don't live an austere life and you're a false prophet he's saying you're not leaving any room for anybody to be a true prophet but how could you tell if someone was a true prophet or not go to Deuteronomy chapter 18 Deuteronomy chapter 18 you know Jesus gave us a way to tell if someone was a false prophet or not he said woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets sounds like Jesus could be a true prophet because we're everybody speaking well of him they just gave us an example they're calling him a glutton and a wine bibber and a friend of public in the center right so they're falsely accusing the guy they're speaking evil the guy but Jesus Christ he was not a false prophet because he lived in he came eating and drinking he did not live a prosperous prosperous life okay but there's also nothing wrong with living a prosperous life and when you study the Bible you'll see there's John the Baptist prophets and there's Jesus prophets and there's even better than Jesus prophets as far as their prosperity goes okay we see really austere prophets like Jeremiah Jeremiah's thrown in the dung pit Jeremiah's like nothing he still buys a field eventually but we see a lot of people in the Old Testament they have like nothing they're just vagabonds or they're just sojourners Elijah is just kind of wandering around everywhere he has to stay with people I should say with people okay but then you have other prophets that are really wealthy the whole time Abraham I mean this guy's super blessed this guy has tons of cattle he has tons of servants he has tons of goods he was still a great prophet of God so you know what your prosperity level doesn't determine if you're a good or bad prophet okay it doesn't really Joe he's all of it okay Joe was the wealthiest guy then he's little porous guys and he's back to the wealthiest guy again you know what it didn't affect his prophet status because that's not a way to indicate who's a false prophet or not what's some indication well when all men speak well of you there's an indication but the Bible tells us that what Jesus said but wisdom is justified to our children that's going to be our indication whether someone's a false prophet or not because look at Deuteronomy 18 verse 18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him that's Jesus Christ okay verse 19 it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him but the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods even that prophet shall die and if thou shalt say in thine heart how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of them so what does the Bible say well when someone comes up and they say I'm a prophet of Lord this is gonna happen tomorrow you can't know if he was true or false but then when it doesn't happen tomorrow false prophet when it does happen Oh sounds like this guy could be a true prophet of God I'm not talking a big something's gonna happen tomorrow some bad happen some bad happen Oh true prophet of God no you see in the Old Testament some really specific prophecies hey he's gonna come from you know Bethlehem that's pretty specific okay naming the place Hayes of the seat of David Oh really specific prophecy okay and we see those come to pass because the Word of God okay now let's see who's the true prophet the one who's justified of his children the thing that comes to pass the fruit of his words when the Prophet speaks the words of God and they really happen Jesus Christ kept saying hey I'm gonna be betrayed into the hands of the Pharisees they're gonna put me to death and three days later I'm gonna rise up again you know what proved that Jesus Christ is a true prophet that really happened he really did get betrayed he really was crucified and he really did rise again so wisdom is truly justified of her children was he a false prophet because he came eating and drinking no and all the other things about this were lies about him okay he's not friends of Republicans and sinners I'm sorry to float you know destroy your little float boat there go to Matthew chapter 13 they're like oh if Jesus was here today he'd be hanging out at the gay bar the strip club and you know hanging out with all the the government you know Donald Trump and lies wicked lies now obviously of a sinful person came unto him and a humble attitude wanting to get saved he would receive them amen there was plenty of whores and publicans that did come into him that were very humble and he received them and in fact one washed his feet okay but you know what he didn't go to the strip club to have the strippers wash his feet all right wicked railing on Jesus Christ Matthew 13 verse 53 and it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables he departed things and when he was come into his own country he taught them in their synagogue and so much they were astonished and said wince hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works is not this the carpenter son is not his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us wince then hath this man all these things you know he was so smart he was so wise they're like where'd he get it where's the secret let me tell you where the secret is this book it's the words of God that will make you wise that will make you wise beyond all measure nobody can look at you and confound you because you have the words of God this is gonna confound them that's why we need the spirit of wisdom but how are we gonna get it from this book from getting knowledge of this book from getting the understanding of this book and then applying it our lives that is gonna give us wisdom go view it to James chapter number one James chapter number one the Bible gives us a verse that actually tells us how to get wisdom and in fact he said man it'd be really cool if God would come down and just say what do you want but here's the thing we have the same access that Solomon did in fact probably more so because we have more scripture but look at James chapter 1 verse 5 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and it braideth not and it shall be given him but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for you that waver is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed or let not that man think that he should receive anything of the Lord you know what why don't you learn some of the Bible get some knowledge then try to ask God to give you the understanding and then apply it in your life and have that wisdom ask God for it in faith and he'll give it to you you know what faith is faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God you know what the Bible commands you to do read your Bible study your Bible to memorize the Bible to sing the Bible so if you're doing all those things in faith because God told you to do it and then you're praying and asking God to give you wisdom he will give it to you and you can have the spirit of wisdom come upon you and you know what the spirit of wisdom will do it will promote you and it will preserve you those sound like great things hey I want to live a long life and I want to live a long life of promotion that sounds great so I'm gonna have to get the spirit of wisdom by getting on my knees and begging and pleading with God to give me that spirit of wisdom but you know I'm gonna do it in faith you know I'm gonna do it in faith I'm gonna read this book I'm gonna study this book and I'm gonna try and understand this book through the wisdom of God that he gives to all men go to Proverbs chapter number eight faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God you know we get that faith by reading more of the Bible you know some of the disciples they asked Jesus hey increase our faith he should have just been read your Bible more hear more Bible preach you know get more of my words that'll increase your faith and you know what it does and you know you get more increased faith by actually doing the work too you know when you go out soul winning it just increases my faith crease my faith the Romans 1 and John 3 16 and every verse of the Bible you know Matthew chapter 7 where it talks about how there's not very many people that are saved how does that ring true and isn't that sad isn't it sad that most people think that everybody's going to heaven but even in the Dallas Fort Worth area where there's a Baptist Street the Baptist Church on every street corner virtually it seems like nobody say it's just like be a good person be a good person I am a good person I'm going to heaven yeah for sure yeah and it's just like where's can I get a Bible verse can I just get one can I get anything it's so it's so ridiculous but the Bible tells us that wisdom wants you look at Proverbs chapter 8 verse 1 does not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice she standeth at the top of high places by the way in the places of the past she cry at the gates at the entry of the city at the coming in at the doors until men I call and my voice is to the sons of man oh you simple understand wisdom and you fools leave an understanding heart here for I will speak of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things for my mouth shall speak truth and wickedness is an abomination to my lips all the words of my mouth are in righteousness there is nothing forward or perverse in them they're all playing to him that understand it and write to them that find knowledge receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that thou may be desired are not to be compared to it I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions well in that great if you get wisdom you get it all and look it's more precious than anything you could possibly have rubies gold money money can come and go you know what when you got the wisdom inside you it's going to stay with you and we also not need to be diligent to not forget it but when you have wisdom that can last and wisdom can get all the riches it needs to it's going to bring you promotion it's going to bring you to the preservation but a thief breaks through and takes all your rubies is gone you can't take the wisdom out of the man you can't just come in and just oh you're stupid now now God can do that to a reprobate you know he might come up to a reprobate and you know give him a reprobate mine but we see wisdom it's crying for you you go down the street you'll see Bible verses I hear Bible verses out in the world you're people preaching the Word of God wisdom and this book you can go to every store virtually and buy a Bible you can just go to the gas station and buy a Bible you can go to the Dollar Tree and get a Bible for a dollar wisdom abounds it's right here we have a whole bunch we're trying to get away for free I mean it's everywhere but people don't want it they want to read anything else in fact they hate reading books they just want to watch TV listen to music they don't want to listen to the Bible they don't want to listen to the words of the wise they just want to be simple stupid foolish people that just waste their life and the people that have no knowledge of God they have no understanding of God are fools are idiots are simple-minded and they constantly destroy their lives they're constantly failing in every area of their life you want promotion get this book you want to be preserved get this book and read this book we can't emphasize this book anymore he's magnified thy word above all thy name Jesus Christ literally is the wisdom you want to know Jesus Christ you got to get wisdom with all that getting get wisdom let me ask you this are you really applying all of your effort to getting wisdom every single ounce of your strength it's like I don't even read the Bible every day really in a 24 hour a period you can't even read the Bible for five minutes you're gonna tell me you're getting all the wisdom you possibly can look we can't just spend our lives focused on everything else and expecting wisdom wisdom is crying for you it wants you but you have to be diligent in getting it you have to try to get it you're not gonna accidentally become wise you know who comes wise people that work hard let's just take in the secular sense at your job people don't get really good at their job automatically they get good at their job by working hard by being diligent by studying by doing it by having the experience experience is a great teacher and they become really wise in that you say I want to be really wise and things of God I must read my Bible I must pray I must sing the Psalms I must memorize I must come to church I must be out and go with soul winning I must do the work otherwise we forgetful here and I'll ruin all the opportunities I had to get it solid my mind and established in my mind and we need to get the spirit of wisdom in our lives today it's gonna do great things for you gonna promote you say oh I'm just struggling in my job get some wisdom we've been talking about promotion for the most part but go to Proverbs chapter 2 let's get some more practical application quickly Bible says in Ephesians 1 that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him God wants to give you wisdom but it comes through the knowledge and the understanding so I'm excited to preach those other sermons about the importance of getting that knowledge and getting the understanding but we see the principal thing is getting the wisdom applying in our lives now what will wisdom do it'll preserve thee from sin from death from destruction from heartache from the evil man from the evil woman if you don't read this book you're gonna be tricked by a lot of evil people you know there's whores on every street corner there's whoremongers even more so and they're constantly wanting to destroy you to give you heartache to run your children to run your lives but when you learn the words of God to say I want to avoid those people like a verse 10 when wisdom enters my heart and knowledge is pleasant I soul discretion shall preserve thee understanding shall keep thee to deliver thee from the way of the evil man from the man that speaketh forward things who leave the paths of rightness to walk in the ways of darkness you know most people if you talk to them they say I've heard he's a pretty good person there's good in everybody and good in the man of heart in the heart of men but the reality is a lot of people are forward a lot of people are contrary are negative will flatter you will try to rip you off will try to deceive you will do wicked stuff to you and if you don't have any knowledge from this word you're gonna just get ripped off all the rest of your life you're gonna constantly be destroyed by evil people evil people exist I'm sorry to break it to you okay they really do exist and there's people that want to harm you and hurt you and if you don't know any of this book you're just gonna be susceptible to a lot of harm a lot of evil look at Proverbs chapter 6 verse number 6 here's another way it's gonna preserve you it's gonna preserve you from being lazy and laziness will destroy your life laziness will get you fired on the job laziness will take everything from you you lose your family you lose the relationship be up with God you lose everything that you have precious in this world by being lazy the lazy guy tends to poverty the wise guy tends to prosperity tends to be being promoted look at Proverbs 6 verse 6 go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no guide overseer ruler provide her meat in the summer and gather food and harvest you know you'll do good on the job by not asking your boss what you got to do just getting stuff done that needs to be done just look at the situation hey this just needs to be done I'm just gonna do it you know what in your life if you're a husband you don't have any other ruler there's nobody over you so you have to decide how am I gonna provide for my family how am I gonna lay things aside you know I'm gonna provide my meat in the summer because I know that there's gonna be a time when we're not gonna be able to gather food so I got to lay things up in store to provide for my family I'm gonna preserve my family through being diligent now go to Romans chapter 16 Romans chapter 16 wisdom will preserve you from death destruction heartache from the the sin of laziness it'll also protect you from false doctrine and man does that abound look at Romans chapter 16 verse 17 now I beseech you brethren mark them which caused of visions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which you have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not a Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple for your obedience has come abroad unto all men I am glad therefore in your behalf but yet I would have you wise under that which is good and simple concerning evil what does God sing well first of all the people that are getting deceived are simple they're not wise the wise person they know the words of God they understand the words of God so when someone gets up and teaches lies they're not tricked they're like that guy's a liar Francis Chan's a liar Paul washes the liar I can just just give me a name I mean Kenneth Copeland Creflo dollar every single virtually person is a liar anybody on TV liar every big church in this area liar deceiver wicked person you know how do you say that won't you and all men speak well of you that was the wisdom of Jesus Christ not my wisdom not because oh they have a big fancy church you're saying like Jesus he came eating and drinking so he's bad no there's nothing wrong with being a big church you know those wrong whenever he speaks wealthy whenever is your buddy when the mayor likes you and Donald Trump likes you and Oprah likes you you got some problems go to private go back to Proverbs chapter 13 the Bible will preserve you from all kinds of destruction and harm you say what about a bad pastor you know what you can't always know if you have a bad pastor but if you have wisdom it will preserve you from even a bad pastor when you start hearing the bad doctrine or maybe they just fall suddenly but you say well you know what it's still important me to go to church it's so important me to read my Bible it's so important me go out soul-winning you say hey I don't know if I can trust my next pastor when does the Bible say you have to trust your next pastor I thought you're supposed to trust the Lord I thought you're supposed to go to church period I thought you're supposed to go out and preach the gospel period and you know what you shouldn't trust me above this book if I start getting outside this book leave quick run run in the other direction you know why I say that because I want you to do the same thing to anybody else too I don't want you end up going to another church someday and be like well I'll just blindly trust this guy he seems really nice he has good words and fair speeches he doesn't get there and yell like Pastor Shelley does you know it's not annoying to listen to his voice or whatever Proverbs chapter 13 look at verse 13 who so despised that the word shall be destroyed but he that fear at the commandment shall be rewarded the law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death good understanding give a favor but the way of transgressors is hard you know what your life is going to be really hard when you don't strive for wisdom you know I'd rather do things the smart way than the hard way and in fact some people work harder not smarter you know my philosophy is work smarter not harder I'm not trying to work as hard as I possibly can I'm trying to work as smart as I possibly can and Ecclesiastes 10 I'll read for you the Bible says if the iron be blunt and you do not wet the edge then must be put to more strength but wisdom is profitable to direct here the Bible says if you have a dull blade and you keep chopping that tree you're gonna have to hit it a lot more times than if you just stop go and sharpen it and then maybe it's just a couple hits BAM done and in fact you'll get the job done quicker now why wouldn't you want to get the job done quicker easier faster wiser and in fact that's how our lives should be we should do things with wisdom now admittedly when it comes to us accomplishing a lot of the goals that we have we need to do things with wisdom hey preaching the whole gospel the whole world we need to be wise about decisions we make not just trying to work as hard as possible look at Nehemiah when they rebuilt the wall what did they do they had people build by their house they didn't say hey let's all drive like five hundred miles this way and then we'll all go build it over there no let's just build it where we live and in fact one of my goals for this church long-term goals is to have a lot more regional soul winning where people are having to drive less to go out so winning so we can accomplish more let's be smarter about our soul winning not just harder you know in fact even in our soul winning presentations you should strive to have an efficient gospel I'm not saying you should skip on anything but it should be efficient you shouldn't just sit there and waste time and spend all these you know it doesn't take 45 minutes to preach Christ and crucify if you're taking 45 minutes of doing something wrong period now obviously there's exceptions I'm not saying someone that doesn't have some issues might have to deal with a couple extra verses or whatever but I'm saying if you can't preach it in under 20 minutes you have some serious problems there's something really bad with your gospel you need to go wet that edge all right you need to go get your axe sharpened a little bit and why wouldn't you want to just think about it if you could cut five minutes off your gospel and not trim any of the truth okay you're gonna get more people saying you're gonna be able to have more opportunities you're gonna have less times where people just walk away at the end of your gospel where you didn't get them saved so why don't we work more efficiently why don't we have the spirit of wisdom on us that says I don't have to just work as physically hard as possible I want to work as smart as possible I want to work with wisdom let's go to one last verse go to James chapter 3 James chapter 3 we'll finish the sermon the Bible says and Joshua the son of none was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him now when we think of Joshua what did Joshua do he literally led all the children of Israel into the promised land and he won many battles you know what the spirit of wisdom did for Joshua it preserved him he made all the way the end made all the way into the end of his life winning battle after battle after battle not only that promotion this guy literally gets to inherit the promised land so we see a literal example where he gets the preservation and the promotion that comes from the spirit of wisdom not only that bezel eel and all these other guys that are called out in the Bible to do what to make the instruments of the service of God that's promotion wouldn't that be cool hey of all the millions of people you're the guy that's gonna make all the special instruments you're gonna make the ark of God that's promotion to me my friend why cuz he was filled with the wisdom of God God filled him with wisdom and he promoted him and you know what I would love to be a great worker I would love to have the wisdom come into my mind to know how to do all the jobs and all the things I need to do and for God to help me the Bible says the wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the promotion of fools if you are simple-minded if you are foolish if you do not strive for knowledge and understanding and wisdom you will fail and you will be ashamed look at James chapter 3 verse 13 who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom you know you can tell who's the really wise person the guy who gets a lot of people saved the guy when he preaches a sermon you're like wow that was amazing what you can see it through the fruit but wisdom is justified of her children why do we look at Jesus Christ with so much admiration look at his works I mean look at the works of Jesus Christ and you say hey I want to be a wise person I want to do great works okay we need to strive for knowledge and understanding and get on our knees in faith and beg and pray to God to give us the spirit of wisdom so we can go out and be successful in everything we do let's close in prayer thank you father so much for your word thank you for giving us the opportunity to be filled with the spirit of wisdom I pray that every person in this heart in this room with their heart would decide to realize the importance of getting wisdom and they would strive to attain knowledge they would strive to attain your understanding and that through your knowledge and understanding you would bless them with wisdom through faith through their faithfulness of reading their Bible and studying and praying and being diligent seeking you that you would just bless them with a special anointing of wisdom and that we'd have great preservation and we'd have great promotion in their lives in Jesus name we pray amen