Sermon or Lesson:  Pursue Wisdom - Part 4:  Reasons For Having or Not Having Spiritual Wisdom, In Relation To Spiritual Knowledge  (NIV based)

INTRODUCTION:
- - In the study below, it is interesting to notice and learn that spiritual wisdom has an interrelating and mutually interacting relationship with spiritual knowledge - in a manner, each feeds off of and contributes to the development of the other.  Thereby, together they both naturally manifest in various ways to facilitate and bring into effect what God wants in a true believer's life.  In the following examples, it is important to note that the context of these quoted verses from the Scriptures about 'knowledge' in relation to 'wisdom' indicates that the use of the words 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' is including referring to them as being spiritual in nature or kind - spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge.
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[Lesson Question:  For each verse in this section below, analyze, discuss, and describe how spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge relate to each other and affect the acquiring of each other, in the life of true believers.  And for applicable verses, include in your description how foolishness plays a contrary role in the life of a foolish person.]

SECTION POINT:  In the Scriptures, spiritual wisdom is directly linked to spiritual knowledge, and both interrelate and mutually exert positive and acquiring affects on each other, in the life of a true believer.

REASONS FOR HAVING SPIRITUAL WISDOM, IN RELATION TO SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE:
- - Proverbs 15:14 "The discerning heart seeks knowledge," - The "discerning" or "wise" believer is continuously striving to find, identify, and obtain knowledge, particularly spiritual knowledge, which furthermore serves to increase and expand his possessing of spiritual wisdom; whereas on the contrary, "but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly." - the fool in a sense both consumes or "feeds on" foolishness with his mouth, and he spews forth foolishness from his mouth, in other words, in a perverse way he thrives on submersing himself in foolishness.  (Strong's Hebrew #2450)

- - Proverbs 18:15 "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge;" - Indeed, "prudent" or wise believers are very successful at acquiring knowledge, particularly spiritual knowledge, which they find plentifully in and from the Lord, by means of their studying the Scriptures (Strong's Hebrew #0995; Romans 11:33; Proverbs 2:6; 2 Timothy 3:16-17); "the ears of the wise seek it out." - these wise believers are readily open to and even very much desiring to acquire more knowledge from the Lord, which they enjoy and actively engage in doing, because they have experienced the numerous benefits and blessings that knowledge from the Lord brings.

- - Proverbs 2:6 "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." - Wise believers are profoundly aware that the knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and accompanying blessings, that they have acquired, have come from the Lord, from His written words, the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16), so they are very grateful to Him and very careful to use those 3 virtues appropriately, and in a manner that pleases Him and contributes to the spiritual growth of His church and His Kingdom.

- - Proverbs 10:14 "Wise men store up knowledge," - Upon obtaining knowledge, wise believers also "store up" or place in their permanent accessible memory knowledge that does fortify or could potentially fortify their spiritual wisdom that will produce beneficial effects for themselves; whereas on the contrary, "but the mouth of a fool invites ruin." - the foolish speaking of the fool creates and stores up the building of the adverse condition of bringing upon himself "ruin" or harmful effects.

- - Proverbs 15:2 "The tongue of the wise commends knowledge," - Wise believers regard spiritual knowledge as a valuable virtue, even to the extent of showing and "expressing approval, admiration, and praise of it as worthy, qualified, and desirable" to live their life by; whereas on the contrary, "but the mouth of the fool gushes folly." - by the content of his profuse and "gushing" speaking of 'foolishness', nonsense, and garbage, the fool expresses his approval, admiration, and praise of 'folly' as worthy, qualified, and desirable to live life by.  (AHD - 'commend')

- - Proverbs 14:18 "The simple inherit folly," - As a general and natural occurrence, the "simple", or naive, or deluded-thinking people "inherit" and "descend" into "folly" or "foolishness", which includes "moral wickedness"; whereas in contrast, "but the prudent are crowned with knowledge." - the acquiring of spiritual knowledge by prudent or wise believers "encircles and encloses" them, in effect bringing upon them a sense of glory like being "crowned" would, because by implication, the acquiring of that spiritual knowledge is directly contributing to the substantial growth of their spiritual wisdom - which is a huge and glorious advantage for them.  (Strong's Hebrew #5039, #3803)

- - Proverbs 15:7 "The lips of the wise spread knowledge;" - The speaking of wise believers naturally contains and exudes spiritual knowledge, along with spiritual wisdom, even to the extent of "spreading" it, or "scattering" it, "freely pouring it out, and causing it to become widely dispersed"; whereas in contrast, "not so the hearts of fools." - the speaking of fools naturally does not contain nor spread spiritual knowledge, along with spiritual wisdom, because their hearts are devoid of having resident in them spiritual knowledge and spiritual wisdom (Strong's Hebrew #2219; AHD - 'diffuse').
- - On a relating note, this 'devoid' phenomenon also manifests in carnal believers, in varying degrees, depending on how carnal they are.

- - Proverbs 13:16 "Every prudent man acts out of knowledge," - Every true believer, who is "prudent" or "wise", "acts" with and conducts himself in a manner of, and from a position of, and from a foundation of spiritual knowledge and corresponding spiritual wisdom, behaving genuinely in this manner mostly consistently all day, every day; whereas in contrast, "but a fool exposes his folly." - the speaking, behavior, and actions of a fool "lay open", "expose", and display his foolishness, which extends forth from the foundation of foolishness from which he operates.  (Strong's Hebrew #6566)
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[Lesson Question:  For each verse in this section below, analyze, discuss, identify, and generate the reason why a person does not acquire spiritual wisdom in relation to spiritual knowledge.]

SECTION POINT:  Fools categorically have not acquired, or accepted, or responded appropriately to spiritual knowledge, which is the cause for them thus being rendered as fools, devoid of spiritual wisdom.

REASONS FOR NOT HAVING SPIRITUAL WISDOM, IN RELATION TO SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE:
- - Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," - In order to start the process of acquiring spiritual knowledge, a person must first acquire the "fear of the Lord", establishing in his heart "reverence" or "profound awe and respect" of the Lord in a correct and adequate way, which includes acknowledging and accepting the rights of the Lord as Creator to impose authority over him; whereas in contrast, "but fools despise wisdom and discipline." - for any of numerous reasons, fools have not established a correct fear or reverence of the Lord, which thereby yields in them the reality of "despising", or outright "refusing", or perhaps passively failing to accept spiritual "wisdom" and "discipline" or "chastising instruction" that come from the Lord, which consequently produces the effect of them not having genuine spiritual knowledge from the Lord.  (Strong's Hebrew #6343, #3973; AHD - 'reverence', 'discipline')

- - Proverbs 9:13 {personification} "The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge." - Being "without [spiritual] knowledge" renders a person "foolish", having additional negative characteristics such as: being "loud" or 'boisterous' ("making a loud racket") (vv.14-17); being "undisciplined" or naive and "simple-minded" that include an insatiable "longing" for any form of pleasurable self-gratification; and "lacking judgment" and understanding (v.16; AHD - 'boisterous'; Strong's Hebrew #0185 in v.13).
- - Also this folly, that is "without [spiritual] knowledge", manifests the characteristics of intentionally and actively engaging in tactics of being alluring, attracting, enticing, tempting, beguiling and fatal to other vulnerable persons who are likewise "simple" and "lack judgment" (vv.14-18;16).

- - Of a relating aspect, having knowledge and knowledge of God does not guarantee the acquiring of spiritual knowledge and spiritual wisdom, as described in Romans chapter 1: "21. For although they ["godless men" (v.18)] knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...".
- - Humans, who do not have an authentic personal relationship with God (v.18), can possess some initially minimally sufficient "knowledge of God", but then they choose not to respond appropriately to that knowledge, for examples by failing or refusing to "glorify Him as God", as their Creator, and failing or refusing to "give thanks to Him".  (v.21)
- - Consequently, their "thinking becomes futile" - their "reasoning and internal consideration" "becomes vain", producing no beneficial results for them, and rendering their thinking as foolish.  (v.21; Strong's Greek #1261, #3154; AHD - 'futile', 'vain')
- - Furthermore, their "foolish hearts were darkened" - their minds become hindered from thinking clearly, which includes being substantially negatively influenced and obstructed from being discerning and intelligent spiritually, in effect being "darkened" or "obscured" from thinking rightly, in other words being reduced to thinking in a mainly "foolish" and corrupted manner.  (v.21; Strong's Greek #0801)
- - This degradation of the thinking of godless humans contains a powerful and hugely impacting self-deceiving element - a blatantly erroneous self-evaluation from which they "claim to be wise", but in fact and in reality their bad choices and corrupted thinking have rendered them as utter "fools".  (v.22)
- - With this total self-convincing, in conjunction with the "darkening of their hearts", godless humans are securely ensnared in this darkened corrupted foolish thinking that leaves them unable on their own to see in a genuine spiritually-enlightened manner and perspective.  (v.21; 1 Corinthians 2:14)
- - Escape for this ensnared condition requires God intervening specifically on their behalf, orchestrating their exposure to and understanding of the enlightenment of the gospel, which offers an opportunity for them to be "rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of [His] Son", "the kingdom of light".  (2 Corinthians 6:2; Colossians 1:13,12)
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BIG IDEA:  Spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge interrelate and feed on each other, which serves to build each other and their affects in the life of a true believer.

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APPLICATIONS:

- - For those of you who are true believers, do you now see, appreciate, and value the interrelation between spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge?
- - If you have decided to pursue spiritual wisdom, then what does that mean for you in regard to pursuing spiritual knowledge?
- - Are you going to actively seek spiritual knowledge, in order to acquire it, store it up, and integrate it with spiritual wisdom so that they both together influence how you conduct yourself in life?
- - Or instead, by your actions and busyness in life, are you going to essentially ignore what you just now learned about the interrelation between spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge, and their value for your life?

- - If you are going to seek spiritual knowledge, where are you going to look for it?  From ongoing study of the Scriptures?  From sound-doctrined expository teaching and preaching of the Scriptures?
- - Or instead, are you going to look for spiritual knowledge from charismatic-sounding, eloquent-speaking, self-proclaimed ministers who in reality hold and promote some blatantly-false and potentially-harmful doctrines within their supposedly Spirit-inspired preaching or teaching?
- - Perhaps you should take some time to go back and thoroughly contemplate and meditate on the meaning of each of these verses in this document.

- - For those of you who are not true believers, do you see that you are ensnared in a spiritual predicament that you previously were unaware of, thinking that everything in your life is acceptable to you and seems suitable for your well-being, but in actuality is leading you into more and more of what God considers as foolishness and worthless in His sight?
- - If you are being honest about yourself, do you in fact "despise wisdom and discipline" from God?
- - From God's perspective, are you in fact "undisciplined and without [spiritual] knowledge", even though you may consider yourself to be a good person?
- - If you consider yourself as being wise, in which regard are you wise?  Wise by human standards?  Or wise by God's standards?
- - To what advantage do you think being wise by human standards, while being utterly foolish by God's standards, will get you on Judgment Day - when God judges you personally and hands down His verdict upon you that will affect you for eternity?  (Hebrews 9:27)
- - Perhaps you should take some time to go back and thoroughly contemplate and meditate on the meaning of each of these verses in this document, to consider what God says you really are, as opposed to what you think you really are.
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Works Cited:
The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD). 3rd ed., ver. 3.6a (CD-ROM). Cambridge, MA: SoftKey International Inc., 1994.

Bible. “The Holy Bible: New International Version.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Greek Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Hebrew Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.
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