Proverbs 18, 15, the heart of
the prudent getteth knowledge and the ear of the wise seeketh
knowledge. Now, in consideration of that
proverb, let's turn together to 1 Corinthians 1 first and
look at this verse. First Corinthians chapter one,
verse 22. Think about our text as we're
reading this. For the Jews who require a sign,
you know how the religious were always looking for a sign, show
us, Moses gave us manna from heaven, what are you gonna do
for us? Of course, our Lord gently corrected them. He said, Moses
didn't give you that bread. My father gave you that bread,
and I am that bread. I am the bread from heaven. Isn't
it beautiful how the Lord reveals to us? We wouldn't know
anything of these things from the Old Testament. We know that
the Lord, it says Christ was that rock. Christ was that serpent
lifted up in the wilderness. He said, I'm the bread that comes
down from heaven. That manna was a picture to teach
of me, to reveal and exalt me. The Lord is the lamb slain on
the day of atonement, the sacrifice. He's the high priest. He's everything
in the Old Testament pertaining to the worship and knowledge
of God. the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Jews require a sign that
Greeks, they were philosophers. They seek after wisdom. You remember
philosophy literally means the love of wisdom. They're seeking
after wisdom. But notice in that context, he
says, we preach Christ crucified. He is not what either one of
them are looking for. Unto the Jews, he's a stumbling
block. and unto the Greeks foolishness. It doesn't make any sense to
them. All of their truth was gained by human logic. And it wasn't logical to them
that somebody dying could give life to millions. It wasn't logical
to them that a carpenter from Nazareth could be God's holy,
only begotten, well-beloved son. That he could be literally the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, it didn't make sense to them.
But we preach him nonetheless, because unto them which are called, those who God did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, and them he did predestinate, them he
also called. And to those whom God knew from
the foundation of the world in love and electing choice, to them, whether they're Jew or Greek,
it doesn't matter which group they come from. Christ is the
power of God. He's the miracle we've been looking
for. You see, the Jews require a sign. Christ is that sign. He's the
sign of Jonah. He is the mystery revealed He is the miracle, God with us. And to those whom God foreknew
and loved in eternity and called by his grace, he is the wisdom
of God. You see, our truth is not arrived
at by human logic. It's arrived at by seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ. and seeing in Him everything
worth knowing. So now we've been exhorted in
the Proverbs before to get wisdom. And that's what this is talking
about, getting knowledge, getting, seeking, and getting knowledge.
But the uniqueness of this proverb is in the three pairs of words,
the three pairs of corresponding words that you might not even
notice, Had we not seen before from the Lord how important these
particulars are in these Proverbs? The first corresponding pair
of words is heart and ear. You see how they correspond here?
The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge, the ear of the wise
seeketh knowledge. There's corresponding pairs of
words, and the first one we'll look at is heart and ear. Look
carefully with me at this verse in 1 Corinthians. I should have
had you stay there in 1 Corinthians 1. Look at verse 21 of that chapter, 1 Corinthians 1, 21,
if you're already there. Look carefully with me at this
verse. For after that in the wisdom of God, all of this is
according to God's wisdom. It's not unfortunate, you know,
And, you know, it doesn't surprise God that people have no idea
who He is. He knows what we're made of. He remembereth that we're dust.
After that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by its wisdom,
knew not God. We can't. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. But that being the case,
it pleased God to give wisdom to some, to his chosen, to his
loved ones anyway. In spite of the fact that we
can't get it on our own, it's impossible with men, but that
didn't stop God. It pleased Him to save them. Notice the correspondence of
wisdom and salvation in this verse. The wisdom, we didn't
know God, and the knowledge of God is what? Salvation, to save
them, to give them a knowledge of God, to give them wisdom to
know who God is and what he did and why and where he is now,
where Christ is. It pleased God to do that this
way, by the foolishness of preaching. That's foolish to the Greeks. And by the way, the Jews and
the Greeks, there's not different kinds of sinners. These two in
the emphasis that they put on certain things represent all
of us as we are. Both of them do. We're all by
nature religious to the core. I guarantee you, you have a religion.
You may call it atheism, but it's another religion is all
it is. And Like the scripture says, man
would be wise, but he's like a donkey. I'm obviously paraphrasing
that, but the scripture says, man, though he would be wise,
he's born into this world like a wild animal. He presents himself
as wise. He pretends to be wise. He thinks
himself to be wise, but he's a fool. were fools. But notice in this verse, our
text, heart and ear. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save. Preaching, what's preaching?
It's something you hear. Preaching falls upon the ear. But by that means, God saves
sinners. And that's something that happens
to the heart. You see the correspondence? The
ear and the heart. Preaching that you hear You can
hear it with these ears and not hear it. We know that. Blessed
are your ears for they hear. He's not saying all lost people
are deaf. He's saying they can't hear the
truth. They can't hear the spiritual
reality of the gospel because they have no spiritual life. And then salvation, the work
of God on the heart, that's how wisdom and knowledge are obtained.
Hearing, and then God doing something to the heart. That's why our
Lord said what he did to Martha. And I want us to look at this.
Look at Luke chapter 10. Please. Luke chapter 10, verse
38. Again, let's see our text in
the light of this. Now it came to pass as they went
that he, Christ, entered into a certain village and a certain
woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a
sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard
his word. Now that's important that we,
that's the baseline of this whole passage right here. Look, get
the picture. There's Christ in their home,
two sisters. Martha is scrambling to fix a
meal for the Lord. That's commendable. Mary is sitting
at his feet, hearing his word. And listen to what the Lord says
to Martha. Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to
him and said, Lord, does thou not care that my sister hath
left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha. We need the Lord to come to us
and call us by name, don't we? Spiritually. Martha, Martha. Thou art careful and troubled
about many things, but one thing is needful. Christ is the one
thing needful. And Mary hath chosen that good
part. which shall not be taken away
from her. Where's Mary? She's sitting at the feet of
the Savior, hearing him, hearing his word. But notice she hath
chosen that good part, that good part, which is hearing the word
of the Lord. Now we've seen this in the word
of God how many places? as we study verse by verse through
the scriptures. And we're going to keep seeing
it in the Word of God as we go through it, verse by verse, if
God's pleased to show us. What you need and what I need
is not reform. It's not just information or
it's not religious warm and fuzzies. What we need is a new heart.
We need a new heart. And the way God gives new hearts
is through the hearing of his gospel, the gospel of his son. That's how it happens. And if
you have a new heart, all you want is to know him more, that
I may know thee in the power of your resurrection, that I
may know thee And think about that now. Do we live, think about
our mindset toward the worship that takes place in the preaching
of the gospel. Do we really live with the conscious
reality that what happens here is life? It's life. If God's gonna give life to a
dead sinner, he's gonna do it by the preaching of the gospel.
Do we live that way? Do we think of, when we think
of our loved ones that don't know Him? When we think of our own soul
and all of our needs as sinners, do we think of it that way? That
He's our manna, He's our bread from heaven, He's our sustenance,
He's all that we need. And that God fulfills that need
that way by these means. What a blessing. What a gracious,
gracious blessing. The second corresponding pair
of words in this proverb is prudent and wise. Prudent and wise. These two go together. Now we've
seen that wisdom is hearing and knowing Christ. The Lord giveth
wisdom, and Christ is the wisdom of God. The seed of the word,
the word that we hear is compared to a seed that's sown on ground,
as seeds are. The seed of the word in the parable
that our Lord told of the sower in Matthew chapter 13, the only
instance in which that seed grew and was strong and lived was
when it fell on good ground. There are four different types
of ground mentioned in that parable. There was the wayside ground,
stony ground, the thorny ground, And then there was good ground.
And this parable could only be understood in light of all of
scripture. And we know from the scripture
that there is no difference in sinners. There's not different
kinds of sinners. Romans 3, 22 and 23, there's
no difference. So on the authority of the word
of God, the stony, thorny wayside ground is the human natural heart. the dead in sins, black heart,
and nature of man, apart from God's grace in Christ, that cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2.14. But listen to the language. Turn
over there with me, Acts 16. We may go a little long. We may... A little bit, but maybe not.
Acts 16.13. With that in mind now, wisdom
and prudence. Prudence. That word prudence
means discernment. Discernment and understanding. Mary was able to discern. Was
she not? By the grace of God. She discerned
that it was more important to hear what the Son of God had
to say. She chose it. by God's grace, because good
ground was given. But Acts 16, 13, and on the Sabbath,
we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made,
and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped
God, heard us. whose heart the Lord opened,
that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." What
does that word attended mean? I'll tell you what it means,
she was baptized. She believed, you can only be baptized according
to Philip, if you believe with all your heart. Thou mayest. And when she was baptized in
her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there
and she constrained us. There is an attendance upon the
word of God that can only be true, it can only happen if God
does something to the heart. The Lord opened her heart that,
in such a way that she attended to the word of God and she believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. and was baptized in his name,
in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Then that person, when God gives
that heart, when he opens the heart and gives a new heart,
there's several different ways that's described, what he does. Then that person does that which
is wise and prudent. She attended to the word of the
Lord. And she believed that she was baptized. Like Mary choosing
that good part, just to discern and understand. That goes with
wisdom that God gives. How did Mary choose that good
part when Martha did not? At least at that time, she didn't.
In that case, she didn't. How did the one thief discern
what the other could not? And here's what the discernment
is. Remember what he discerned? Who that was. Who that was. The things of the Lord, as we
just read a moment ago, are received by spiritual discernment. How
much of that were you born with? The third pair of words is seek
and get. Isn't that a good pair? Seek
and get. Jeremiah 29 10, for thus saith
the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I
will visit you and perform my good word toward you. There's
the word again. in causing you to return to this
place, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected
end. Then shall you call upon me,
and you shall go and pray unto me, and I'll hear you. I will hearken unto you, and
you shall seek me and find me. when you shall search for me
with all your heart." He said, you're going to do what you're
going to do because of my thoughts toward you, to give you that
end. This is the expected end. You're
going to call on me. You're going to seek me, and
you're going to find. Where did that expected end come
from? I gave it to you, he said. by his thoughts of grace toward
his beloved. We have life. There is none by
nature that seeketh after God, Psalm 53, two and three. But
this seeking is a function of that new heart that God gives
a sinner. So here's the exhortation of
scripture, seek, seek. There's a promise and an exhortation
here. This is the promise of our Savior,
Luke 11. Now I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given unto you. That sounds like a promise, doesn't
it? That sounds like a promise from God in the person of his
son. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, he shall be opened. So it's the promise of our Savior,
and it's the earnest exhortation of the scripture. Isaiah 55,
six, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. Seek. Seek him while he may be
found, and call upon him while he's
near. Let's pray.