Proverbs one. The proverbs of Solomon, son
of David. King of Israel. To know wisdom
and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive
instruction in wise dealing. And righteousness, justice and
equity. To give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and
increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a
saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom
and instruction. As this new year launches, we
find ourselves with a new mindset, many of us with a new attitude,
a new approach, a new way of thinking. We look forward to
certain things with celebration. It is new thinking like this
that creates in us new habits, and for some, these habits will
pitter out in about 10 days. We call them New Year's resolutions.
We resolve within ourselves to become something different, to
change something about us, to move in a different direction,
to lose a little bit of weight, to grow a little bit taller,
to get a little bit deeper, to make a little bit more money,
whatever it might be that we resolve. My prayer for you, church. Is that you resolve today and
tomorrow and for every day that you have life in your body to
be glorifying God with every fiber of your DNA. Some of us will have these decisions
and these resolutions, these mindsets and attitudes that will
last throughout this year, that will create good habits. Throughout
December, we've been taking, we took a look, we have taken
a look at knowing how to truly recognize Christ. And we went
deep into an understanding of his person, his character, his
nature, as well as his purpose and his pleasure and, of course,
his passion. This year, 2011, as we embark
on a quest for knowledge and wisdom through the Proverbs,
we must ask ourselves if we exude and display the wisdom of God. Do we display the wisdom of God
who has a name and his name is Jesus the Christ? Do we display
his heart, the heart of holiness? Do we look at ourselves in the
mirror and see holiness as a treasure of our soul. Do we long to be
like Christ or do we long to supplant our own ideas and philosophies
under our feet? Do we have the heart of holiness,
do we see in us his heart of humility? Do we recognize the
truth about. Ourselves, that we are proud
and we are purposeful people that desire to have the pleasures
of our flesh. And do we humble ourselves under
the mighty hand of God? Do we humble ourselves under
His Word? Do we humble ourselves under
the authorities in our lives? And do we humble ourselves to
each other? Do we see the heart of heaviness? Do we have heaviness
in our soul when we recognize our sin? Do we have heaviness
in our spirit when we recognize the fact that the Christ took
the burden of our own sin on His own flesh? and took the wrath
of God that we will never taste, because by faith we have received
grace. Do we have His heart of heaven? Do we look forward to
that day when Christ is with us and we are with Him? Do we
see heaven as a glorious realization of the presence of a person?
Or do we just look at heaven as this good old holly jolly
time and we hope Jesus is there? In order to see these things,
it does require wisdom, which is why I've discerned and through
others discerning and praying, I believe Proverbs is a good
place to go for this. Wisdom is knowing how to rightly
apply and use knowledge, how to rightly use what one knows
in his or her own life. If we are not wise, it goes without
saying that we are fooled. And those who are fools make
a mess of all that we know. We make a mess of all that we
do. We make a mess of all that we
try. And I would like to say to you today that. When we make
ourselves to be wise, the scripture says we become fools. So although
there are many who are wise, there are none of us who are
the wise, for Christ is the wisdom of God. And Paul says in First
Corinthians, chapter one, is that the Weakness of God. Is greater than the strength
of men. And the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom
of men, he calls out rhetorically, where is the soothsayer of your
age, where are the wise? For God takes the foolish things
of this world to profound the wise, and he takes the weak things
of this world to overcome the strong, and he takes listen to
this, the nothings of this world to overcome, to bring the nothing. That's what he says, to bring
to nothing the things that are. And he, the heart of humility
that we saw that second week in December, Jesus Christ, who
was God, he did not take equality with God, something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing. Verse seven of these passages
here says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom. And for emphasis, I'll repeat
it with the second word and fools despise instruction. Think hard,
really hard church about this verse. All of us are either desiring
to be wise in the knowledge we have in Christ or we are foolish
in thinking that we have it together. There is no middle. There is
no middle ground. I would like for us to take a
look in each of our hearts today and ask, do I fear the Lord?
Do I fear the Lord? Do I seek his wisdom? In 2010, the elders have challenged
you to take seriously the bathing in the Word of God, the battling
with the Word of God and breathing out the Word of God in your life.
For 2011, we will continually hold that challenge in front
of you, and we will add another one. For the knowing God and
being wise in Him only comes from His Word. I've asked some
of you throughout the month of January to be prepared to give
a testimony about the Word of God in your life. And I'd like
for Megan, if she would, to please come this morning. She was going
to do this next week, but we didn't know if she was going
to have a child or not. So she's going to come this morning
and give a testimony of the Word of God in her own life. Hopefully my water doesn't break
while I'm up here. Yeah, Pastor James asked me to
share how the Word has impacted my life this year, and I was
thinking about what I should say to you guys, because there's
so many ways that the Word has impacted my life, particularly
in the area of the home and with children. I'm a homemaker, and
I have the fourth on the way. So for me, I've learned a lot
as a mother growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, knowing that Psalm 127 talks about how
children are a blessing from the Lord and the fruit of the
womb is a reward. And that, it also says, bless
this man whose quiver is full of them. And I started to think
about these verses and I think there's such a, there's just
such an ideology in our culture today that thinks that, oh, two
is just enough, or three is just enough. God said, blessed is
the man whose quiver is full of them. And I thought to myself,
does he lie when he says that? And no, he doesn't. And so my
husband and I have just decided that we're just going to leave
it up to the Lord, however many children we have. But even in
the church, I see this stipulation that, well, wait a second, why
do you want to have all these kids? Do you know how to stop
this? People have said to me, which I think is rather funny
because obviously we know how to control these things. But
anyway, it's just interesting to me how I just see the word
working through every area of my life. And it's just very,
very encouraging to see just growing in so many areas and
realizing at the end of the year particularly that we are here
for God's glory and everything we are to do is for the glory
of God and as a believer it's just such a realization to me
because Otherwise, we would be in heaven, right? If God didn't
have us here for His glory, we would be with Him so we can be
there to worship Him and such. But we are truly here for His
glory, and it's just been such a blessing to realize that, that
everything that we say and do is for the glory of God. And
yet, how many times do I fail to give glory to God and how
how I. Take the glory for myself and
such. But it's just amazing seeing
the hand of God. You know, particularly this year
has been tough for us financially, but God has been so faithful.
He says, I will supply all of your needs according to my riches.
And he has never failed us. You know, there were times that
that things were so tight we didn't know what we were going
to do and then all of a sudden Safeway comes to the door with
a delivery of groceries and my husband and I are like wait a
second where did this come from this is such a blessing and I
just think God is so great I still don't know who did that by the
way but it was just such a blessing to think that he knows our needs
you know and how In the darkest of times and in the toughest
of times, it's His Word that has sustained me and kept me
It's just an amazing thing, but I would just like to close with
saying that God says in His Word that we're to study to show ourselves
approved as faithful workers and that literally we're to seek
His Word just constantly and meditate. Psalm 1 talks about
meditating day and night and how that man is blessed by God.
And, you know, one way that was helpful for me is MacArthur.
John MacArthur wrote a book called Keep the Spiritual Growth, and
he talks in there about setting the word. And, you know, a lot
of times I hear people say, I'm going to read through the Bible
for the whole year. And I'm sure there's a lot of people January
1st starting that. But I think in that you miss
so much because, you know, MacArthur shared about reading the word,
like start in first John and read for 30 days straight through
the whole first book. And it really helped me when
I did that, because I learned that when you read it and reread
it and reread it and reread it, you're feeding your spirit, right?
Like the Bible says. desire the pure milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby. And I just learned that reading
the word and rereading the word has just been so helpful because
that's how you meditate on God's word, not just John 3, 16, for
God to love the world or reading through a book at a time, but
just when you feed that spirit in you, the Holy Spirit, then
it comes alive. And then when you're talking
to someone, you find yourself saying all these scriptures And
you're like, how did that happen? But it's through God, the power
of the Holy Spirit. So I just want to encourage you
guys, too, in this year, not even as a New Year's resolution,
but as a believer, just desire the pyramid of the Word that
you may grow. And anyway, that's all I would
like to say. And you'll be hearing from more
people as the month goes on. And if you know, if you say,
hey, I do have a similar testimony, we want to continue that throughout
the year. We'd like to hear from you. The people that I've talked
to are the ones who have shared them with me already. So if you
have something to share and and you know, I didn't say, hey,
I want you to relate your relationship with the word of God to what's
going on in your life right now. I didn't tell her to do that.
That's how the word of God works. If you're reading through the
scriptures, God will work it into your life where you are
today because it's a lie. And so for many years to come,
Megan will always have something related to childbirth, probably
when it comes to God's word. And that's a blessing. Some of you as parents, as grandparents,
as teachers, what professionals, whatever you might be, God's
word has an implication in every aspect of your life. It's a lie.
And it works. And so you'll hear from more
from more people throughout the week or throughout the month
and throughout the year in that regard. As we see this section
in Proverbs. The scripture is different, this
is a different type of scripture, there's a literary difference
here is a different genre or writing and the type of writing
that we see in every letter of the Bible determines how you
identify how to interpret it. So, for example, if it's a historical
narrative, then you interpret it as such and you look at it
as a story. If it's allegory, you try to
find the meaning. If it's if it's rhetoric, then
you start to try to think of what is the author trying to
push you to understand or what question is he trying to get
you to answer in your own heart? Is it an argument? The proverbs
are wisdom literature. It's to ascribe and give wisdom
to its reader. And the first nine chapters of
Proverbs as actually developed as poems, their little poems,
if you will. And so without understanding
the type of writing, one can easily be pulled into a misunderstanding
of the meaning and in turn create a wild array of theological mistruths. Proverbs was written by the wisest
human being that ever lived. Scriptures teach us that Solomon
asked God for wisdom and he received it. So he knew how to rightly
make use and application of the knowledge. And he wrote these
proverbs so that this wisdom could be known to his son. The
first nine chapters are done in a poetic style, and they entirely
deal with seeking wisdom and fearing the Lord is beginning
of wisdom. And so these first seven verses lay out, as most
of the epistles in the New Testament. But these first seven verses
lay out the architecture or the actual outline of the book. And so as we Journey through
these proverbs, we will be precisely looking at the intent of the
author, which is to seek wisdom through the fear of the Lord.
What does that mean? And so over the next few weeks,
we definitely will be dealing with wisdom. We'll definitely
be looking at some other things. We will we will pull out some
of the topical proverbs through these first nine chapters. and
begin to seek out how God wants us to look at our lives, sort
of like 1 John. Are we taking that test to see
how we measure up to what wise living is in the grace of Jesus
Christ? An amazing virtue of the proverb
poetry is the meaning, and some of them is very clear, and in
some cases it is actually very vague, sort of hidden. This morning
we will look at the purpose of the proverbs in the life of our
church. How is it that our church are to glean from the wisdom
of this literature and what is it going to do for us? I think
it's fitting as we start in this text that we start with verse
seven. Even though it's the last verse of the passage that I'm
going to talk about today and next week, I think it's the most
important verse here. I would also suggest to you that
in my opinion, it is the most important verse in all of the
and all of the Proverbs, because it sets the pace of the entire
literary piece. It sets the pace of the intent
of all the words that come after it is that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. And that those who do not seek,
what does it say there? Verse seven wisdom and those
who do not seek instruction should be labeled as fools. And so when
I see that in my own life, I ask myself, wow, do I seek wisdom
and instruction? Do I seek to know the Lord? Do
I fear the Lord in order to seek my wisdom? And so there's several
things that I want to start with. Number one, fools despise wisdom. Fools despise wisdom. There's
not a whole lot for me to expound upon there. It's very clear in
verse seven that fools despise wisdom. But what does that mean
for us? What does that do for you as you contemplate that text? Well, I look at it this way,
that there's a mindset or an attitude that the fool has who
does not seek wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to rightly
use and apply knowledge. Knowledge is gaining information
that goes into your brain. Wisdom is knowing what to do
with that information. And according to the Proverbs
here is right wisdom and right knowledge is the wisdom that
comes from the fear of the Lord. You also see a few verses down
in a moment that it only says that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. It also says the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. Both are here. And so I will use wisdom
and knowledge almost interchangeably, not in meaning, but in the context
in that the fear of the Lord is the premise of all these things.
There is wisdom that comes from the world that Paul says that
wisdom is foolishness. There is knowledge that comes
from the world, but that knowledge leads to death. The wisdom and
knowledge of God leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ, as you'll
see in a moment. So the fool despises wisdom.
And number two, the fool despises instruction. The fool despises
wisdom. That's the attitude set of the
one who knows the right way. And knows it. Did you hear that? The one that knows the right
way and knows it. Knows that they're right. It has nothing
else to say about it. You know what I'm talking about.
It's that spirit. It's that attitude. And they
do not desire to learn or hear of anything else. They don't
want to hear another ounce of how they ought to use the knowledge
that they've obtained. That's the fool that despises
wisdom. This is the mind of the indignant
child. You must brush your teeth. I've already brushed my teeth.
I know how to brush. You didn't brush this side of your mouth. I can
see the stains on this side of your mouth. You did like this
asleep in the mirror and then you put your toothbrush down.
You didn't do this side. I know what I'm doing. I know how to
do that. How many of you have teenagers and you hear the word
I know? That's the indignity, but we
as adults ought to grow up and understanding that wisdom. Is
an ongoing pursuit. The mind of the indignant child
who walks around haughty and esteemed as the bearer of all
good thought. I know, I know, I know that was a song we used
to sing like that. I had that in there and I always
used to get tickled in my spirit because my children say that
to me and I used to say that to my parents and I'm sure they
said it to theirs and it goes on down the list. Adam and Eve
heard it as well. But a fool despises wisdom. A fool also
despises instruction. This mind or attitude is one
who rejects being told anything because of several reasons. Number
one, they already know it. Don't tell me that again. I already
know it. Why do I need to know that? Why are you telling me
what I already know? You see what I mean? We've all been there
in some area of our lives. It used to irritate me when my
mother would say, did you wipe your feet? I know. OK, did you take off your shoes? Did you knock them off your shoes?
Can I check them? You see, that's just irritating sometimes when
someone stays on something that you know, that you know, that
you know. But why does that irritate us? Because we're selfish in
heart, because we are depraved, we're wicked and sin is just
sort of reached in and destroyed us from birth, from conception.
And it's only by the grace of God that that attitude changes.
The other reason that the fool despises instruction. It's because
they feel insulted when you tell them. And so my intelligence
is a lot being read to in a classroom in college that irritates the
fire out of me. OK, I paid 100 bucks for the
book. I've already read it and you're reading it to me again
as though I couldn't grasp it in my own mind. So I need to
hear your mouth and your voice actually will help me understand
it. You see how cynical that sounds? Because it is. And that's
the sophomore approach, that wise fool, you know, you really
don't know a thing. But that's the attitude. The
fool that despises instruction has the attitude that they already
know it. And then they, too, feel insulted
when you tell them. And three, they feel as though
further learning is a waste of their time. Or unmerited. I know what I know, and that's
enough. I don't need anything else. And why is it? You know
what's crazy about that? As I get older, And as I grow
in my knowledge of theological things, which is every day, and
as I grow, I realize just what I don't know. The more you know,
the more you realize you don't know. But when you first start
out and you take that first systematic theology class, boy, you know
something. You know a lot. Well, I just
passed Wayne Grudem. I got it now, baby. I'm ready.
Put me on a stage in front of everybody. I'm ready to debate
everything. And you don't know squat. And you realize that as
you keep going and keep growing. And so it's sometimes we feel
like it's a waste of time and unmerited or for the fool that
despises instruction. They regard themselves as one
who doesn't. Here's a real key word. Need
to learn. One that doesn't need to learn.
In other words, I'm fine the way I am, and it's not necessarily
a haughty experience or expression like some of these. It's not
an indignance. It's not going, I don't know. It's just like,
you know, I'm OK. It's a real peace about themselves that they're
fine with all the knowledge and the wisdom that they have. And
friends, that is a blind state of living. It's a very dangerous
place because the scripture, as you'll see in a moment, demands
that the believer continues to grow in the depths of the knowledge
and the riches of his glory, the riches of his grace. understanding
the face of Jesus Christ more and more each day. And if we
don't have a desire for that, we see some of the apostles saying
there's a danger of your salvation because the child of God desires
to know Him more intimately. So then I'll back up now, or
I'll push all the way down to the end, or the first part of
chapter 7, for the knowledge, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, rather, in verse 7. So I've started from the end
and then we'll go back now. So true knowledge. So what I
want to say here is this main heading and I've got a lot of
subheadings here. True knowledge is only through fearing God. True wisdom only comes through
fearing God. So. The purpose of God's word
is so that his people might know wisdom. We can pull that. We can pull that out of here
and know that Solomon wrote this collection of poetry, a collection
of wisdom literature for the purpose of imparting the wisdom
that God had given him to those who might read it, specifically
his son. And so if God put it in the Scripture, if God inspired
him, then God is wanting to teach us something through it. And
so if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the
beginning of knowledge, Then I suggest that we need to pay
close attention to what Solomon is trying to teach. So the purpose
of God's word is so that his people might know wisdom in several
ways. We see here, verse two, the purpose
of God's word is so that his people might know wisdom in a
practical way, a practical way, something that's useful. Look
what it says. To know wisdom. If you see this,
to know Solomon in a poetic style is saying the purpose of this
writing here is to know wisdom and instruction. to know, to
know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight. And so that's practical wisdom.
That's practical knowledge. That's something that you can
take. How do you sharpen a pencil? I'm not saying that's what God's
word teaches, but that's the that's an example of practical
knowledge. You give this to someone who's never seen a pencil sharpener
before. And if the pencil sharpener is full of lead shavings or pencil,
that can make a mess. How do you do this? Well, I mean,
it's pretty self-explanatory to some degree, but someone who's
never seen it might make a big mess trying to get a pencil sharpened.
Matter of fact, just think about the first time you got some new
gadget. Remember VCRs? They used to always blink? You
set it the first few times, but for the life of you, after the
power outage, you can't remember how to set it again. My grandmother,
Alice, my great-grandmother, used to pay me $10 to come and
set her VCRs. And if I had been smart when
I was a child, I'd have gone and unplugged those suckers every
few days. And I'd have been racking up. But, you know, we don't automatically
know how to do something. We must learn and have understanding
in practical ways. How do you tie your shoes? How
do you actually know how to do these things? You have to learn.
There's practical usage for the Word of God. There's practical
things. For instance, how do you deal,
just like Megan has shared this morning, how do you deal with
the onset of new children? Where does your strength come
from? There's practical knowledge in that. How do you discipline
children? How do you raise children? How do you get them to sit down
in the middle of a service? And that's not there. I wish
there was a letter that said how to get children to sit down,
but it's not there. But what is there is the approach
and how we should. Practical knowledge. The other
type in a practical way, The other thing is the purpose of
God's Word is so that His people might know wisdom in an intellectual
way, with their brain, to receive instruction in wise dealing,
verse 3. So there's an intellectual element
to God's Word. There's an intellectual element
to the wisdom of the Scriptures. In other words, we ought not
to all, we're not all going to be academic brains, myself included. However, we ought to be growing
our minds for the very reason that, what does it say in Romans
12, The transformation of God is through the mind first. The
renewal of the mind. You know, He's given us a new
heart, but how do we refresh our minds? Because what we love
with our heart, we seek after with our heads. And then we apply
with our hands. Love the Lord God with all your
mind, soul, heart, and strength. Not just do the right stuff.
Just not love the mind with your hands. Love the Lord with your
hands, but love the Lord with all your body, with all your
being. And so there is an intellectual learning to receive instruction
in wise dealing. Notice it didn't say to receive
instruction in making deals. It said wise deals. You can't
show an example of being wise in the way you walk. You must
be able to understand these things. So Solomon is exhorting and admonishing
his son to please pay attention. I'm going to help you understand
how to have wise intellectual wisdom and wise practical wisdom. And the third thing, the second
part of verse three, is that the purpose of God's Word is
so that His people might know wisdom in a moral way. In a moral
way. It says, in righteousness, justice
and equity. Righteousness, justice and equity. And so true knowledge is only
through fearing God. And the purpose of God's word
is to give us this type of knowledge this way. And God's wisdom is
for all people. I'll suggest that to you this
morning, God's wisdom is for all people. Every child that
belongs to him, his wisdom is for them and it is essential
to life. For instance, if you're not growing
in a practical way, in an intellectual way and in a moral way of your
knowledge and wisdom and the fear of the Lord, you are stagnant. And if you are stagnant, you
may not be a child of God, for no child of God can be OK in
their spirit being stagnant. You can't. That's why it just
baffles me so many times of how so often people are willing to
take seasons away from the spiritual family of the church, which is
the eternal reality of living as believers. Where is the heart, the affection? It's not a guarantee, but it
is a warning signal. It doesn't mean that you aren't
a child of God, but it should give you a due warning. It's like
that old light on your dash. Pay attention, don't keep driving. When the thing comes on, the
smoke comes out, just stop. Pay attention. God's wisdom is
for all people, and that's not my opinion on that, look at verse
four. The simple, the young, the inexperienced and the ignorant,
I'm told many more says to give prudence to the simple. The simple
people, the people who are very complex, the people who aren't
very academic, the people who aren't really into trying to
learn all this stuff. But there's something there for
you. There's wisdom intellectually for you. There's wisdom practically
for you. There's wisdom morally for you
here. And Solomon is teaching us that right now for the simple. And he says knowledge and discretion
to the youth. Flee your youthful passions.
Paul taught Timothy. Flee. Don't respond to the emotionalism
of your youth and your unwise ways, but begin to learn to discipline
yourself after the ways of the Scripture from which your mother
and your grandmother taught you and which I have imparted to
you. Don't turn away, but follow my example as I've taught you
the Word, is what Paul says to Timothy. And then by doing so,
you'll flee youthful passions. And Solomon is saying the same
stuff. I suppose to you that Paul knew Proverbs. I promise
you that he did. I promise you that he did. Probably
knew them all from memory. And so it's for all people and
it's essential to life. Otherwise, we stay unknowledgeable
with no discretion. We just act on impulse. That's
what verse four is teaching. It also is important and essential
to life for the complex, the older, the experienced and the
wise. You see, it's easy for us to
say everybody that's unwise or ignorant or young needs wisdom,
but we're experienced and seasoned. And yes, as we grow older and
we're more seasoned, we don't need the same lesson over and
over again. We learn lessons. But it doesn't
hurt to be reminded. And there are also many lessons
that we've never learned, never learned. The complex, verse 5,
let the wise hear. You hear that? Let the wise hear.
Pay attention, wise folks. Please hear. And it says, and
increase in learning. Increase in learning. Let the
one who is wise hear what I say and increase in learning. Now,
this has popped into my head. I'm not saying this is... But
doesn't Jesus say in John 10, the sheep know my voice? They
hear my voice and they follow me. And he says to the Pharisees,
they will not follow you for you're not the shepherd. I am
the great shepherd. Many will come into the sheep
gate over the walls like thieves and robbers. Folks, that's the
world's way and the wisdom of religion versus the true and
living Word of God. The wise hear, let the wise hear
and increase in learning. So even the wise and the experienced
and the older and the complex must continually grow. And that's
the thing. As we grow, we're never arrived. Dr. Elmer Townes at Liberty University,
he starts out one of his classes with a pencil and he talks about
if you sharpen that pencil and you sharpen it really, really,
really, really sharp. You ever sharpen a pencil real sharp? Really sharp? And you go down to use it and
what happens? It breaks. It's useless. So he
supposes that everybody in Christendom ought to be a dull pencil. But
a good round, blunt point. And don't ever think we're sharp
or we've lost it. Like Mike's pencil this morning. It was broken
off. He couldn't use it at all. Well, can't write. Isn't that
discouraging? Pull it out and it's like, ah! Can't use it.
That's where we are when we think we've arrived. We're always like
children in some sense. Looking and gleaning and learning
and growing. And the ultimate end of it is
what? Worship. That's the ultimate end. Let
the wise hear and increase in learning. And the one who understands,
listen, And let's say, okay, you've got the wisdom. Now, obtain
guidance. Learn to be directed in the wisdom
that you have. Learn to be molded and pushed
and established more soundly and more rightly in the wisdom
that you've gained. Obtain guidance, Solomon says. That's the purpose of this proverb.
That you might gain guidance in what you already know. So
God's wisdom is for learning and understanding. Not to be
left alone, for all people who belong to Him. And it is a continual and it
is an ongoing, forever, eternal venture and process. And I'll
suggest to you this morning, too, is that even in eternity,
we will learn and grow and experience new truth every day. How do you
get that? Friends, God's mercies are never
ending. His character and nature is eternal. How in the world are we ever
going to finish understanding eternal? You don't. You spend an eternity and never
get started. You never get started. Number
six or verse six says to understand the proverb and the saying the
words of the wise and their riddles. And so there's going to be an
increase in learning and obtaining guidance. There's an understanding
of things that are easy to understand. And there's some complexities
and mysteries in life. Mysteries in life. Mystery. True knowledge is only given
through Scripture, true wisdom only comes from the word of God.
And we see and understand, as God's children, that all Scripture
is essential knowledge to life and, most importantly, to worship.
Because that is the ultimate end of all of this, is that we
become true worshippers in Christ. That we become true worshippers
of Christ. That means that all of our affections
and all that we do surround the premise of who Christ is and
just fall in all and supernatural love and adoration of who He
is. And so we continually work to understand Him more and more
and more. The love of God cannot be grasped
in 60 years. If you studied it every day,
it cannot be grasped in 60 years. It cannot be grasped in 6,000
years. The love of God, the depth of
His holiness could never be held to. Yes, I see! No, you see a
little bit. We have seen God's glory, John
says in John 1. We've seen God's glory in His
Son, full of grace and truth. And from His fullness, we receive
grace upon grace. Folks, you can't grasp that. You've got to taste it. Actually,
I don't even know that we've tasted it yet. I think we're
just smelling the aroma. I think we're just smelling it
cooking. And we're not even near the restaurant. We don't even
know where He is yet. We're still trying to find out
the source of the fire. And we're overwhelmed with the
aroma, much less sitting down and trying to evaluate what's
on the plate. Any teaching that is an opposition
or extension of God's Word is not wise but foolish. I want
to make that point. If God's Word is the place of knowledge
and wisdom, then Ultimately, anything that comes not from
God's Word is foolishness. That means psychology, popular
philosophy, all these things. They can be used. They can be
looked at. That's okay. But you know what? Don't base
your wisdom and the guidance of your life on something that
someone else has created or thought of. Don't read a book and go,
you know what, this book is going to change my life if I follow
these 12 steps or 21 days or 9 places. You know how many books
Our bookshelf, we've got stuff like that. 21 Irrefutable Something
and Others for somebody else doing something else. You know
what's great? We could all save a whole lot of money and just
bought jacket covers for all these books. And just taking
one off and put it on the same book each several months. We
just buy another one. How to win friends and influence
people. And what's really ironic about that is the Dale Carnegie
course that I took many years ago in sales. What's really ironic
about that is that if you begin to preach the gospel, you lose
all the ones you won. It's ridiculous. Well, I just
wasted a thousand dollars. Great, because the philosophies
of this world, the wisdom of the world will never help you,
never help you if it's an opposition or extension or when I say superfluous
to God's word, it's not Jesus plus anything. It's the gospel
alone. God's Word is breathed out. Why
has it come through Scripture alone? It's breathed out. Those
of you who've been coming to What Is a Family on Wednesday
nights, you've heard this. We spent two weeks in this text.
The last two weeks, roughly, in and out of it. 2 Timothy 3,
16-17. God's Word is useful and beneficial
for all things. For Paul has just got through
telling Timothy about staying, holding on to the essence of
true knowledge of the Scripture. to hold on to what he knew was
true, to the Old Testament teachings that he'd received and to the
teachings that he himself had given Timothy. And then he says,
all Scripture is breathed out by God. Now, what does that mean?
That means the Proverbs that Solomon wrote are the words of
God himself. That means God inspired and directed every comma, every
word, every conjunction, every noun, every pronoun, every bit
of it. And we believe that that that
sign you'll see in these solas, some of you are like, what does
that mean? That's the Latin phrases of the original Reformation,
the five pillars of the Reformation. Sola Scriptura means in Scripture
alone do we find all that there needs to be known about God. And so with that, we believe
all Scripture is breathed out by God and it is profitable for
teaching, for teaching, for reproof. for correction and for training
in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, other
than what? Incompetent. Competent, equipped
for every good work. That means anything you want
to do in life, for the glory of God, the Word of God gives
you everything you need in order to do that. Peter says that in
the first chapter of his second epistle. God's divine power grants
us all things for life and godliness. You couple that with Romans 1.16,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God. So the gospel is the Word, the Word became flesh,
dwelt among us, the Word, the gospel. Jesus is the gospel.
Jesus is the power of God. Jesus is joy. Jesus is the kingdom.
Jesus is everything. He is enough. He's sufficient. My grace is sufficient for you.
When Paul asked to be healed and Jesus says, My grace is sufficient
for you, a really good way of translating that for the exact
same meaning is, I am enough. I'm enough. Jesus speaking, I'm
enough. Paul says in Romans 15 that for
whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures,
we might have hope. The JWs come to your door, they
want to talk to you about the hope of the Lord, the hope of
the world, the hope. You know what? We've got hope.
We've got hope in his name is Jesus. Scripture teaches that
the rightness of God and teaches the rightness and the righteousness
of God and teaches to revere Him, teaches to fear Him. And
so that's where I want to go today in closing of this text. Psalm 111, 10 says, The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice
it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. The outcome is always worship.
Proverbs 9, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Why would he
say those things? Because the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, according to
Proverbs 9, is the beginning of wisdom. And so with all of
this together, I want to close with this understanding. This
means that all knowledge outside of fear of the Lord is foolishness
because one takes it into account of their own making. their own
intelligence or their own abilities. So the knowledge outside the
realm of right worship and right understanding in the Lord is
just a fool's knowledge. It's useless. It's like knowing
how to build a floppy dog. What is it and what good is it?
I just made it up. Mentor of mine used to say a
swimmer diggy and he didn't have a word for anything. This is,
you know, one of those little swimmer diggy things. What is that? It
doesn't exist. It's useless. So what if you
create one? What good is it? What is it for? There is something
called a whirligig that we use in construction. And if you saw
it, you wouldn't have a clue. That's a bent screwdriver with
a hook on it. What is that thing? Yeah, think of a jig, think of
a bob. And what knowledge outside the realm of right worship is,
is a waste of a good brain. It's a waste of a good memory
and a waste of air and a waste of ability, a waste of purpose.
Knowledge without God is nothing. And wisdom only comes from God.
And all these things in right understanding of who God is,
which is theology that comes from Scripture, it always yields
true worship. When we learn God and we learn
God's ways and when we learn, we gain the wisdom on how to
use what we've learned. And then our actions go out and
our actions, our acts of worship, our lives that we live to, like
Romans 12 says, as a sacrifice of worship, living sacrifices. So. Jesus says that you would worship
in spirit and in truth, for these are the types of worshipers that
the father is seeking, no others, not intellectual worshipers,
although we have to have intellect to know the truth, but not much
because the word of God gives it to us. Knowledge is knowing
the right thing about God and life, and wisdom is knowing how
to rightly apply and live according to that knowledge. Fearing God
means knowing God, which means eternal life. In John 17, Jesus
speaking these words, and he says, and this is eternal life,
y'all remember this, that they know you, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent. It's amazing, we heard a tale
this past weekend about one of the brothers in the church who
was sharing with someone, and I can't remember for the life
of me now who this was, and it'll come to me in a minute. Oh, I
know exactly who it was now. They were talking with the person
who believed in Jesus Christ, and they asked, who is Jesus?
Was Jesus a right man or a holy man, a perfect man? He said no.
He wasn't. And so I would suppose that maybe
he thought that Jesus was just a good example morally, but he
wasn't perfect and holy. Folks, just because you say you
believe in Jesus, if it's the wrong Jesus, if you don't have
the intellect and the mindset of knowing what the Scripture
says about who he is, you have put your faith in the wrong Jesus.
It's not just the word. It's the person that you must
believe in. You can call him Bob if you want to. Because there
were millions of people across this world that have the name
Jesus in Jesus' day. The Hebrew name is Yeshua. Joshua
is the English translation. Jesus is the translation from
the Greek. Many people have that name. It's not a supernatural
name. It's the person behind it. It's the real the Christ,
the title, the holy anointed one of God. So we must know,
Peter says in his second epistle, may grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. His divine
power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory
and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and
very great promises so that through them you may become partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that
is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue
with knowledge. And knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,
and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection
with love. For if these qualities are yours
and increasing, you notice that word there, increasing, they
keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities
is so nearsighted that he is blind. having forgotten that
he was cleansed from his former sins. That doesn't mean that
study brings you eternal life and warrants you grace, but that
grace inspires you to be deeper in your love for Jesus, which
is worship. Knowing God understands who He
is. God is holy and God hates sin. And he does condemn it and he
will judge it forever. Over the next month or so, we'll
look at the fear of God and the heart of God's holiness and more
depth through the Proverbs. God is holy and he has given
his son that we might know him, that we might see him and that
we might cherish him as the only treasure, the only kingdom. The
only joy, the only peace that causes the wisdom and the knowledge
of things of this world to be cast away from our eyes and hands
and hearts. Keep your eyes upon Jesus, look
long into His what? Wonderful face. And the things
of this world will grow strangely in the light of His glory and
grace. That's not just a song to bide
the first 20 minutes of service. It's the truth of God's Word. Are your eyes fixed upon Christ?
See. He who requires wisdom. Who he is rather requires wisdom,
knowing who God is requires wisdom, and it also requires wisdom and
understanding of what he can do and what he should do and
what God can do is he can cast both body and soul into hell.
Ananias in Acts, chapter five. What does the doctor write? He
says, and when he heard these words, he fell down and breathed
his last. But that wasn't the point. The
point wasn't to kill Ananias. Here's the point. And great fear
came upon all who heard of it. And a few verses down, it says,
and great fear went throughout the church. Folks, God's holy and He will
not tolerate sin. And knowing who He is understands
that. And knowing that is where salvation
begins to start to bloom. You can't come to Christ just
because you want a good life. You can't come to Christ just
because you want to be saved from hell. You can't come to
Christ just because you want this or want that. That's not
salvation. Salvation is knowing God and
His holiness and seeing how far you've fallen from it and how
much you deserve His eternal judgment. And then knowing then
the good news of the gospel is that God became man and died
in your place, that by faith you receive a long grace. He should. He should judge us. Wisdom in fearing God knows not
to live in horrid fear, though. It's not like, oh, I hope I don't
see God, because John says in his epistle in verse four of
his first epistle, there is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment. And whoever
fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first
loved us. See, Christ is the love of God
displayed. It's not how much he loved is
how he loved and how he loves. God loves because we cannot love. God loves because without his
loving mercy, his love, his wrath is loving, too, because it's
right. It is a loving to destroy evil,
it is always loving to destroy evil. But it's such a merciful
love that we can't comprehend that he would give himself so
that we would live. Christ is the love of God for
his people. Do you have a heart for Christ? Do you have an affection
for the holiness of God and for His Son and for His words? Is
Christ your everything or are you just glad you have Him when
you need Him? You know what's sad about that? If you've just
got Jesus for when you need Him, when you need Him the most, He's
not going to be there. Not everyone who says to me,
Jesus' words in Matthew 7, Not everyone who says to me,
Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does
the will of my father, who is in heaven. And we know from Jesus
teaching throughout the gospels and throughout the epistles that
this is the will of my father, that you believe in the one who
he has sent. That is the will of God. That
is obedience. He says, what should we do when
he says that I'm the bread of life? And that now where that is in
John, I am the bread of life. Give us the spread always before
he says that. Do not labor for the food that
perishes, but labor for the food that endures unto eternal life.
Give us this bread. What should we be doing the works
of God that we should get this bread? What is it? This is the
work of God that you believe in me. That's what Jesus says.
So not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom,
but he who does the will of my Father in heaven, you believe
in Jesus as the Scripture teaches. And the Scripture teaches that
Jesus, who is God, who is holy, who put himself on the cross,
He said that the righteousness of God would be displayed in
the mercy of God forgiving you for your sin. And on that day,
Jesus says, many will say to me, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name? Did we not preach? Did we not
cast out demons? Did we not do many miracles and
works? And He will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from
me. Listen to what He talks about
their works in the name of Jesus. Preaching the Word, but they
don't know Him. You workers of lawlessness. You preach the Word. But you're not mine. What you
preached was lawlessness. Your actions are like filthy
rags to me. Because there's nothing you can
do except believe on my name that won't condemn you. Even
good stuff. Everyone then who hears these
words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who's built
his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods
came and the winds blew and beat on the house. But it did not
fall. Why? Because it had been founded on
the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does
not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the
fall of it. You know what's amazing? You
know how I know Proverbs is the Word of God? Because God just
spoke the same word Solomon's been trying to tell us. A fool
despises instruction and rejects wisdom. It's foolish to ignore the wonders
of God's grace and mercy. It's foolish to put aside the
reality of the sin that lives within you and ignore the only
way that you can be saved, which is God's grace in Jesus Christ.
Pray with me. Father. God, thank you for wisdom. Thank
you so much for this. When I prayed it, As we've heard
these words, as we've gone very quickly, gosh, I feel like I've
auctioned something off this morning, Lord. I've just talked
so fast. Lord, I pray that Your Word enough, those seven verses
in Proverbs, God, has done wonders in the hearts of everyone who
heard them this morning. Lord, I pray that through that,
that You have awakened us and got our attention And that some
today, Lord, would come to saving faith because of Your grace.
That they would see for the first time just the fact they need
You and that every day they will depend upon Your grace alone.
That they would stop trying to finalize their belief, but move
it to a different level and become richer and deeper in knowing
You. Father, crying out for Your mercy. So God, we thank You for all
that You are. and all that we have yet to understand
that you are. And we thank you that you are
going to give us eternity with you as your children. To continually
grow in the understanding of your greatness. As we venture
different ways, different thoughts, different focus, God, we are
united in Christ. As we have different ideas and
different philosophies, we all have a united philosophy of who
saves And it's not a philosophy, it's a truth. It's the reality
of you who created all that there is, saving a people for yourself,
for your glory, at the cost of your own flesh. Lord, I pray that as we take
to the Lord's table right now, God, that we would truly take
a moment to just really think about that. Think about it, reflect
upon it, become wise. to make a decision today that
we aren't in the Word enough. We aren't in the Scriptures enough.
We need to become more disciplined. And then, Father, our decision
is not worth its weight. It's not worth the voice that
proclaims it if it is not for Your Holy Spirit giving us the
ability to do so. So, Father, let us not resolve to be the
one that makes it determined, but God, let us resolve to be
determined to lay ourselves at Your feet. Let us resolve that
you are the only hope we have. That Christ alone saves and that
your spirit is the only one who will give us the heart to know
your word. And God, as a family, as a people, as an eternal family,
let us grow together for your glory and for your namesake in
Jesus name. Amen.