Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs
chapter 1. While you're turning, I need to mention a couple of
things. Bob Kauff will be here preaching
this Sunday. I'll go out to Brother Drew's.
But I want to mention a couple of prayer requests. Of course,
we want to remember Brother Bruce. The Lord has blessed him and
continue to bless him and enable him to be back. And Shirley's
mother and daddy's awful sick. Her mother went to the hospital,
was it Monday morning, Sunday morning, Saturday morning? But
she has to take care of her dad, and her dad has to be fed through
a tube, and he's on a catheter all the time. He just had his
89th birthday. And she's going on hospice. Her
mother's going on hospice. And there's some issues about
where she's going to stay. So if you all please remember
her mother and daddy. It's just getting old is tough. And getting old and sick, you're
sick, and trying to take care of somebody else is sick. It's
very, very, very hard on both of them. So you all remember
them tonight as we pray. I'm going to read the first seven
verses here of Proverbs. First seven verses. 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 subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and
discretion, a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and
a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to
understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of
the wise and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, we come, Lord, with hearts so thankful,
so full of thanksgiving for the day, for the days, for the years
that you've kept us. And Lord, I stand astonished,
astonished that I'm saved by your blessed grace. And I stand
astonished that I stay saved and that you keep me saved. You
keep me keeping on, keeping on. And Lord, I know every child
of God stands in wonder, absolute wonder, that you in sovereign
mercy, wondrous grace, manifested itself to them and made them
know you, the true and the living God. Brought us to the place
where we worship you. We love you and we need you.
Utterly and absolutely dependent upon you. And Lord, it's in our
hearts to do your will, to understand your word, to preach your word
and give sense to the understanding of your word. And Lord, we pray
for those we mentioned tonight. Pray for Brother Bruce and Sandy.
God bless them, God strengthen them, God encourage them. Cause
his body to heal and he come worship with us again. Pray for
Arthur and Ruthanne, Shirley's mom and dad. Lord, you know their
hearts, you know their conditions. You know the troubles they're
going through and the trials they're going through. And Lord,
we ask that you would please, please work out their situation. God, give strength, give wisdom,
give understanding, and most of all, give a desire to turn
to you with all their hearts and souls. God, enable her sisters
to deal with them wisely and lovingly and kindly. And our
father, we Ask again for our children and our grandchildren,
our great-grandchildren. Lord, they're in your hands,
and we trust that you'll do with them what you've done with us.
Save them by your grace, and bring glory to yourself in doing
so. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. Amen. And I read these first seven
verses, and God helping me, and by the
grace of the Lord, I want to start preaching through my verse
for a while and see what the Lord would lead us on it. But
the theme of this book is wisdom. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. It talks
about wisdom and the fear of God. And we know who it speaks
of when it speaks of wisdom. It says wisdom built her house,
and she does it with the seven pillars. But here's the thing
about wisdom. We know who is our wisdom. Christ
is our wisdom. Christ is our, all in him are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So even wherever
we go, We've got to understand that we want to learn something
about our Lord Jesus Christ, learn something about ourselves. And this book, the theme of it
is wisdom more than anything else. Christ, our wisdom. He
is our wisdom. We wouldn't know a spiritual
thing in this world if it wasn't for the Lord Jesus Christ. We
wouldn't know anything. And it's also to give instruction
in the fear of the Lord. Teach us what it is to fear the
Lord. And it addresses, this book of Proverbs addresses every
aspect of our lives. There's not a subject that will
not come up that deals with our lives in this book. Anything
you can think of. About work, he says, look to
the ant thou sluggard. Talks about boasting of tomorrow.
He says, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forth. And there are so many things
that the Scriptures talk about. But look at who it says wrote
this book. And there are some other things
I'll show you. He wasn't just the only one. The Proverbs of
Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. He wrote this book
and the book of Ecclesiastes. He is a wise man. He's the author. He's considered one of the wisest
men that's ever lived. And he says he was the son of
David, king of Israel. He is a glorious king. He is
a glorious king. Remember when the queen of Sheba
in 1st Kings 10 came to hear his wisdom. Came to prove him
with her words and to hear his wisdom. When she got through,
she saw his wisdom. saw his men, saw his table, saw
his servants, saw his wealth, saw all that he had, and she
said, the half ain't even been told yet. And is that not the
way our Lord Jesus Christ is? When we behold him in his wisdom,
and we behold him in his glory, behold him in all of his servants,
his table that he spreads for us, the gold of His blessed deity
and the wealth that He possesses, and all the treasures that's
in Him, and we receive, we're enriched by Him, made wealthy
by Him. And that's why our Lord says,
Behold, a greater than Solomon is here. You think Solomon's
something. And Solomon built an earthly
temple, and he built an earthly house. And he had all kinds of
gold in it and all kinds of brass in it. He built this great glorious
temple, Solomon's temple. But our Lord Jesus Christ, He
built Him a temple, built Him a house. And He's the foundation
of the house. He's the builder of the house.
And He puts everybody in the house as it seems good in His
own sight. And I tell you what, the house
that our Lord Jesus Christ built, his church, beloved Solomon built
his with wood, stone. Wood and stone, and gold and
brass and silver. Christ builds his with his precious
blood, with his blessed power, with his grace, and with his
kindness, and with his love. That's how he builds his house.
And oh, that's why our Lord said, behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. Let me, what is a proverb? What is a proverb? You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ use them often. It says he often spake
a parable. He often spake a parable. And
they're used many places in the scriptures. And we use proverbs
in our everyday life. I'll give you two illustrations.
And we've heard this all our lives. An apple a day will keep
the doctor away. Now that's a proverb. Another one is a penny saved
is a penny earned. And another one is a bird in
the hand is worth two over yonder in that bush. That's a proverb. That's using very few words to
tell a great truth without using a lot of words. And that's what
the Proverbs do. They take very, very few words
and in the Proverbs sets forth, in the word of God sets forth
the spiritual truth. And it's just a very brief saying
and just uses very few words instead of lots of words to make
great strides and gives any, anybody can understand. Anybody
can understand. In fact, they're easy to memorize.
You know, we can't, I know a lot of people can't memorize scriptures.
But when you're dealing with the Proverbs, they're just one
verse at a time. And there's things that really
stand out in the book of Proverbs. And if you can, if you would,
you could memorize Proverbs. Memorize ones that sticks out
to you. And I tell you what, another thing about a Proverbs,
it doesn't explain a matter or anything that's going on, but
what it does, it don't explain it, it just gives you great expression
to it. Great expression to it. And that's
what the Proverbs do. Look over here in Proverbs 12.1,
just to look at here what he says here. Proverbs 12.1. This is what some of the things
that the book of Proverbs is dealing with. Whoso loveth instruction,
being instructed, he loves knowledge. But that person who hates reproof,
being told that they're wrong or being corrected, and then
another proverb says this, says open rebuke is better than secret
love. But here it says, he that hateth
reproof is brutish. And that's another thing, it
teaches us to love knowledge. And it's made such pointed expression
in such few words. To what one person's like and
the other person's like. Sentiment opposite of one another. One loves it, another just despises
it. And he's an absolute like a beast,
he's like a brute. And Solomon wrote 3,000 Proverbs. Let me show you something in
his lifetime. Look over in 1 Kings chapter 4. You keep Proverbs
1. Look in 1 Kings chapter 4. Solomon wrote 3,000 Proverbs
in his life. And look down here in verse 30. It says in verse 29, it said,
and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much
in largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.
And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children
of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser
than all men, than Ethan, the Esarathite, and Heman, and Kalko,
and Darda, the sons of Maol. And his fame was in all nations
round about. And he spake 3,000 proverbs,
and his songs were about 1,005. So God blessed him, and he spoke
of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even under the
hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts,
and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there
came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings
of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. Y'all remember
the story where a woman Stole another woman's child. And the woman that she stole
her child from, she went to the king. Said, this woman stole
my child. Hers died, she took mine. And warned, she said, oh no,
this is my baby, this is my baby, this is my baby. And that woman
was in such anguish, the one that she took her from, such
anguish. And Solomon said, give me the baby. He laid that baby
down, he got his sword, and he's going to go do like this. And the woman who stole it stood
there just as stoic as she'd be, but the real mother threw
herself on the baby's body. Solomon knew right then who the
mother was. That's just one story of his
wisdom. Just one. Just one. Do you know that? You have to divide that. But
the mother who stole said, just go ahead and divide it. Give
me half or half. But the mother who done it, she just cried and
jumped on that baby. Jumped on that baby. And I tell
you, back over here in Proverbs, the Proverbs are like all the
rest of the Bible. They're all inspired by God. Every verse of scripture, all
scripture is God breathed and inspired by God himself. And
they are perfect. All of them. Everything in God's
Word is perfect. And they address us. Me and you. They speak to us. Everybody. And let me show you something.
Not only did Solomon write them, but look over here in Proverbs
25. Let me show you a couple of things
in Proverbs 25. Not only did Solomon write them,
but after Solomon was gone, look what happened here. Verse 25,
chapter 25 and verse 1. These are also Proverbs of Solomon,
which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out. So after
he got, they took some of his and they copied them out. Now
look over here in verse, chapter 30 and verse 1. Here's some more. Here's another person who wrote
some Proverbs. The words of Agur, the son of
Jacob, even the prophecy, the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto
Ithiel and Eucl. So that's one, Agur, the prophecy. And then the last chapter, in
verse one of chapter 31, the last chapter of Proverbs, here's
another one who wrote some Proverbs. And he just wrote one chapter,
and Agur wrote one chapter. The words of King Lemuel, the
prophecy that his mother taught him. So we have four Solomon,
some who copy Solomon's proverbs, Agur and King Lemuel. So these
folks wrote the scriptures. And the proverbs, I tell you,
for my benefit, for me, I think these things ought to be read
through once or twice a year just because there's just so
much instruction in them, just so much instruction in them.
But let's look at just these first seven verses, see what
we can learn a little bit here. So these are the Proverbs of
Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. And this is what he
wrote them for, to know wisdom, to know wisdom. and instruction
to perceive the words of understanding, to know wisdom and instruction.
Look down here in verse 20. That's what he's talking about.
Wisdom. Verse 20 of chapter one. Wisdom crieth without in the,
her uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief
concourse. The chief priest opening the
gate, she uttered the word, saying, wisdom cries out, listen, seek
me, you need me. And that's why Solomon wrote
these, to men might know some wisdom. They might learn some
things and they might have some instruction. And I tell you what,
that's why Christ is the, he's the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
are in him. And what he's saying is, is to
perceive these words of understanding. Lay these things to heart. Take
these things to heart and look what he says here in verse 3,
to receive instruction. Wisdom and instruction, to know
wisdom and instruction. Now some people don't take instruction
because they know already. Dirk and I was talking about
that for the service. You try to talk to some people
and you can't tell them anything because they already know it.
Shirley and I was talking to a man this morning at the house.
And he was talking about, you know, being slayed in the Spirit
and all that kind of stuff. And he said, I don't know if
it's right or not. And I said, well, I know it's not right.
I don't believe it's right. He said, I started out in that
kind of mess. And said, it didn't take me very
long reading the scriptures to find out how awful it was. And
he says, yeah, yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, yeah, that's
right. That's right. And I told him, I said, and he talked about
the Holy Spirit. And this is what I said. I said,
the Scriptures, how you can tell if the Holy Spirit's working
anywhere, He's always taking the things of Christ and showing
them unto us. He does not speak of Himself.
The Holy Spirit never speaks of Himself. The only person He
speaks of is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said, if you got somebody,
somewhere, that's preaching to you and teaching you, and if
the Holy Spirit's present, you're learning something about Christ.
Oh yeah, that's right, that's right. And the next word out
of his mouth, Ted started telling me about what his preacher preached
that Sunday, and he said, and the preacher, you know, he prays
on his way out of the service, on the way back to, he's praying,
he said, when he walked by me, he said, it's just like the Spirit
of the Lord went by me, like a Russian wind, he said, just
like the Spirit of the Lord, and I just got through telling
him. And he said, he told his preacher, he said, when you went
by me, it's just like the Spirit of the Lord went right by me.
And I just got through telling him. Deaf men can't hear. And that's
why Solomon said, you need to know wisdom and some instruction. So I wrote these Proverbs so
we could have some wisdom, so we could be instructed. Instructed
for our hearts. Instructed for our homes. Instructed
in our relationships. Instructed in the things of God.
Instructed in our, have our brains be confronted with things. Have
our hearts confronted with things. Some instruction. But it's just,
if somebody starts, you start telling somebody something, they
start saying, I know, I know. Just shut up. Now have you ever
been in that situation where you've been talking to somebody
and you don't even let the word get, you don't even let you start
talking and they'll start talking right back before you get finished
saying anything. And you just will shut up. Just say, as Floyd used to say,
save your breath to cool your coffee. Oh listen, look what else he
says, to perceive words in verse 2, to perceive the words of understanding. To take these words and perceive
these words with some understanding. He said wisdom, instruction,
and some understanding. And of all the things, there's
two things we ought to always ask our Lord for. And that's
what in the scriptures teaches this. He says, if any man lacks
wisdom, let him ask of God. who gives liberally to all men,
and he never upbraids anybody. He don't never chide anybody
because they ask for wisdom. And the second thing is, is understanding. And when you get wisdom, get
understanding with wisdom. There's things, we need wisdom,
that wisdom that descends from above, that's peaceable, gentle,
easy to be entreated, and brings forth the fruits of righteousness.
And to get understanding. Understanding of what these words
are. That's what he said. He said he makes understanding
of these things. We want to perceive understanding.
And perceive words with some understanding when you read them.
And then look what he said in verse 3. To receive the instruction
of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity.
These are still the same sentence. We ain't even, we got, there's
three verses here that's, four verses, it's just one sentence.
But he says, to perceive the words of understanding and instructions
of wisdom. Let wisdom instruct you. Let
the wisdom of God instruct you. Let the wisdom of His Word instruct
you. And oh, and when He instructs
you, He'll bring you to justice. And they said, this justice,
you know what justice means? It means just doing what's right. That's all it means right here.
Doing what's right. That's why they say, you know,
that the scales of justice, you know, you look at this, at the
lady justice sitting on a scale, she's supposed to be blind. Everybody's
got equal justice under the law. But that's not the way America
does it. It's not the way any place does it. But here, the
scriptures where it says justice, always do what's right. David
said it like this, he said, a just man will swear to his own hurt. Swear to his own hurt. And secondly,
not only give instructions in wisdom and justice, but also
of judgment. And judgment here means that
you have to make a judgment. You have to make a decision sometimes.
And then these Proverbs are given to us so that we can make the
right kind of judgments. So when we make a decision about
something, certainly God would teach us and hopefully instruct
us to where we'd make the right judgment, come to the right conclusion. And then equity means this. It
means the sameness, the sameness. It means straightness. Equity
means the sameness. You know, everything's the same. Equity is giving everybody their
proper amount. It's the sameness and straightness. And then he says, you know that
instruction? Oh, listen, instruction to teach,
to train. And look what else he says here.
Now this is the end of the sentence. This is what the Proverbs also
do. He says, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man,
knowledge and discretion. What does that mean, give subtlety?
The word subtlety means craftiness, guile. And what is he saying,
give subtlety, give guile, give craftiness to the simple? Well,
to give the simple man enough sense to know how to deal with
situations. instead of just being so simple
that everybody would take advantage of it. And he says, you know,
giving subtlety to the simple, giving some sense to the simple,
making the simple able to figure out things for himself as he
reads the proverbs. Oh, listen, teaching knowledge
and to the young man, to the young man, Oh, for a young man
to read this, to give him knowledge, teach him some things, give him
some knowledge about life, about God, about Christ, about wisdom
and understanding, about how to work and how to deal with,
you know, the scriptures even tells us about our finances in
Proverbs. Let me tell you what it says.
He says, take heed to your flocks. And he says, sluggard? A man
who turns on the bed just turns one way and another? He said,
it won't be long, his fields will be grown up and his walls
will be torn down. And he says, you consider that
fool. He said, you go out and take heed of your flocks. You
make sure that your flocks are washed over and take care of.
And so these are the things it gives you. And discretion. And
discretion means is... is to not just pop off and not
just, it's to be discreet and not tell things and not interfere
in things and make yourself a nuisance to somebody that you know how
to, when somebody tells you something, you deal with the situation,
you're discreet enough to wait until you get to the end of the
situation before you decide what to do about it. And oh my, And then look
what he says. So we're talking about wisdom.
He says, now here's what a wise man will do. Here's what a wise
man will do. This is why we need to say, God,
give us wisdom. A wise man will hear. He'll listen. A wise man will listen. He's gonna listen to what's being
said, especially when you're dealing with the scriptures.
He wants to hear. He wants to hear. Be more ready
to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools. That's another proverb. And then look what he says. A
man will hear, and that man who will hear, a wise man, he'll
listen. And you know what he'll do listening?
He will increase learning. He'll increase learning. A couple
of men said that in the service, in the men's meetings, Sunday
night. I said, well, I've always heard
that if you keep your mouth shut, you might learn something. I
said, that's why I don't learn nothing. But that's the truth. That's what he's saying here.
A wise man, he listens, he'll hear. And when he's listening,
he increases in learning. He starts learning things. He
starts learning things. You can't learn nothing if you're
talking all the time. And he'll increase learning.
And you know why he'll increase learning? It's because he knows
he hasn't attained yet. He knows he's not already perfect.
He's reaching forth, pressing toward the mark of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. He wants to learn. He wants to
learn. And hearing is, you know, it's hearing through the ear.
That's where knowledge comes from. Faith cometh by hearing. And if we get any knowledge,
it comes from hearing. If we learn anything, it comes
from hearing. Look what, now you keep this, and look what
our Savior did over here in Matthew 13. Here's an instance of our
Lord Jesus. Matthew 13. Here's a parable
He's teaching. And look what He says to His
disciples. In Matthew 13 and verse 11. A wise man wants to hear so he
listens so he can learn. He's listening so he can learn.
In verse 11, He answered and said unto them, Because it is
given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but
to them it's not given. For whosoever hath to him shall
be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever don't
have anything, from him shall be taken away even that he has.
Therefore, speak out to them in parables. Now listen to it.
Because seeing they see not and hearing they hear not, neither
do they understand. These are not wise men. You know
what our Lord said about a wise man? He's a wise man who digs
deep and builds his house on a rock. And look what else he
goes on to say. He said, they hear, but they
don't hear. They see, say they do, but they
don't, and they don't have any understanding. And in them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet, by hearing you shall
hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and
shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, their ears, listen to this, are dull of hearing, their
eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with
their eyes and hear with their ears. Why'd they do it? They
automatically, when you start teaching them something, they
automatically start saying, I know, I know, I know. I've got it.
And they should understand with the heart and be converted and
I should heal them. But now listen to what he says
to us here. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your
ears, for they hear. That's what he says. He says,
a wise man will listen. He's going to hear. And when
he does that, he'll increase his learning. And we got to be
hearers before we can ever be teachers. We got to listen. We
got to listen before we can ever be teachers. I remember years
and years ago, we used to go to Cherokee every fall. I would
get anywhere from four to five, six questions together every
year. And I'd write down a bunch of
questions. And starting on Tuesday, we'd get there on Monday night
for the meeting, starting on Tuesday, gather around them motels. And I'd get out my question and
I'd ask Brother Henry. I'd say, Henry, I said, I got
a question for you. And I'd ask him that question.
And away he'd go. And that'd be 30 people standing
around there listening to Henry. I wanted to learn from a man
who knowed what preaching was, had some spiritual sense, some
spiritual wisdom. And every day I'd come up with
a new question every time he was there. Because I wanted to learn something.
And a lot of things he'd come up with that I didn't even, I
thought, you know, and I mean, I didn't just get these questions,
just pull them out. I mean, these were things that
I wanted to know, I wanted to understand. And oh, and I tell
you, you got to be hearers before you can be teachers. And I know
this about us, we that are believers, the longer we learn, the more
we feel like we need to learn. We ain't come close to arriving
yet. And the more we need to learn and the more we are ready
to learn, the more we're ready to hear. And we ain't gonna learn
nothing by not hearing. And that's why he says, and we
do that, the more ready we shall be at what to hear, and we may
increase in our learning. And I'll tell you, you know,
in schools and in colleges, you have to take tests, and you have
to pass a certain thing to get in certain schools, and you know,
you gotta, and to get in certain colleges, you gotta pass all
kinds of tests, and you gotta have certain grades and all that
kind of stuff. Be pretty smart to get in. But in God's school,
You know who goes to his school? The ignorant. Simple, foolish, young. God says, come on, come here
and I'll teach you. I'll teach you. Makes wise the
simple. And then there's always that
bunch that's ever learning, never able to come. to a knowledge
of the truth. Then look what else he says now.
A wise man will hear an increased learning and a man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsels. Now what does that mean? That
means that he'll attain to a position and a place that he will be able
to give wise counsel himself. She'll be able to give understanding.
And that's what he goes on to say here and continue on. This is starting another sentence.
And he says, to understand the proverb and the interpretation,
the words of the wise, and their dark understanding. If you seek
learning and you seek hearing, you'll understand, attain, and
the wise counsel, and you'll come to where you'll understand
the proverb. You'll know the interpretation of a proverb,
and you'll know the words of the wise, and when you hear a
dark saying, you'll look for them. And this is what God uses preachers for and people that
he's taught a few things is to open the understanding and take
dark sayings. You know, Paul said it like this,
he says, I hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it
entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared
for them that love him. But he says, the next verse says,
but he hath given us the spirit that we might understand the
deep things of God. Even the hidden wisdom of God
and the mystery of God, the hidden mystery of God, and the glory
that's revealed in that hidden wisdom. Now those are the things
that he says that we'll be able to understand. And let me show
you in Ephesians 4. Look in Ephesians 4. Let's look
at this together. This is what God gives us His
word for. You know, he'll increase in learning
and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsel. So he
can understand the proverb and the interpretation. He can hear
the words of the wise and interpret them in the dark sayings. Look
what he says here in Ephesians 4 in verse 11. This is what we're
saying. And He gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, listen
to this, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And He does
this until we all come in the unity of the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God. And we come unto a perfect man,
a mature man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ. We'll be grown up and we'll have
some maturity in Christ. And so that we won't be henceforth
no more children tossed here and about and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. See, we talk about wisdom. If
you get some wisdom and some understanding, listen, and learn
and increase your learning, this won't happen to you. But speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him, into Christ in all
things, because he's the head, even Christ. And that's what
he's talking about. A wise man will understand these
things and teach these things. There are those who are faithful
stewards of the mysteries of God. And people need to be in
humble subjection to them, and coming to learn, not to teach,
not to have their curiosity fed, but the conscience to be satisfied.
And when we do this, our heart will be established with grace.
With grace. Now look back over here in verse
7, and let me wind this up. Verse 7, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. When you look over there in the
margin, it says the fear of the Lord is the principal part of
knowledge. Verse 7 there in Proverbs 1.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning, the principal part of knowledge. Oh my, you get knowledge, fear
the Lord. That's just, that's the principal
part of knowledge. but fools despise wisdom and
instruction. And that's the object of this
book. That's the object of the whole Bible, is to give us some
wisdom about God, some wisdom about ourselves, some wisdom
how to carry on in this world, some wisdom how to glorify Christ
while we live. Look in Proverbs 20, excuse me,
Job 28, 28. Look what Job says here. Oh my, you know talking about
the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the principal part of knowledge.
A man don't fear the Lord, he ain't going to learn nothing. He ain't going to know nothing.
A man don't fear God, he's got no sense. And look what he said
in verse 28. Job 28, 28. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom. And depart from evil, that's
understanding. That's what he said is about
it. And I'll tell you, and Solomon repeats this very same thing
in Proverbs 9 and verse 10. It says this very same thing
that he just got through saying. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Oh, listen, and that's the whole,
you know, Ecclesiastes said, Ecclesiastes 12, 10, 13 said,
this is the whole duty of man is to fear God. That's the whole
duty of man to fear God and keep his commandments, keep his word,
keep what he says, his precepts. So what is the fear of the Lord?
He says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Well,
I read today and wrote it down. The fear of the Lord is an affectionate
reverence the child of God humbly submits himself to and waits
on his father's word, will, and law. We have an affectionate
reference and we wait humbly and submit to his word, his will,
and his way. But why do some despise wisdom? And he says, fools despise wisdom
and instruction. One last verse of scripture.
Look at it with me. Psalm 36, 1. This is why fools depart from wisdom. They despise wisdom. Psalm 36, 1. And you know, and
another reason is they're wise in their own eyes. Men are wise in their own eyes,
but a man's wise in his own eye, he's a fool. God says he's a
fool. Look what the Lord, he says,
here's why some despise wisdom and instruction. God says they're
fools. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart
that there is no fear of God before his eyes. Verse two, he
flattereth himself in his own eyes. until his iniquity be found out. That's why he despises it. That's
why he despises it. No fear of God before his eyes.
Well, I trust the Lord to bless that to our hearts and our understanding
and that he'll use it to his glory. And Lord willing, next
Wednesday night we'll pick up where we left off, maybe make
a few comments. Oh, Father, our God and our blessed
Savior. Father, thank you for allowing
us to meet here and deal with your word. Blessed, oh God, to
our hearts, our minds, our understandings. Lord, we do want that. We want
wisdom. We want knowledge. We want understanding. We want to know Christ. We want
to know your word. We want to know your word. We
want to know your will. We want to spend our lives seeking
you and learning at your feet. And God, as these dear saints
go home, go to their jobs, go to deal with life, God, bless
them, strengthen them, encourage them. Bless Bruce and Sandy. Bless Shirley's mom and dad.
Please, please meet their needs there. bring peace and harmony,
bring calmness and assurance and quietness there, and wisdom
to work out that situation to their good. Oh, Father, we need
you. We look to you. And when Bob
comes to preach Sunday, God bless him. Oh, Lord, use him. Use him,
quicken his mind, his heart. Bless the saints to hear him. and give them here in years.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.