Good evening. If you would turn
with me to 1 Kings chapter 3. Our subject for this evening is going
to be wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. And as I was preparing
this message, I questioned myself and had to ask the question,
do I even understand what these are? And do you? You have to ask yourself the
same question. And what does the Bible have
to say about wisdom, knowledge and understanding? Because really,
that's what matters. And I have to look at, does what
I believe match up with what the Bible says, because that's
what really matters. And so that's what we're going to look at this
evening with the Lord's help. And do I need these three things
to be saved? Well, we can start with this.
I know knowledge is much more than a set of facts, and understanding
is much more than a comprehension of those facts. And of wisdom,
I think Job put it best. He said, where should wisdom
even be found? And so History shows us that
men have sought these three things for ages. From Egypt, they're
the architects of this world, the beginning of it. The Greeks,
they were the philosophers. They're engaged in learning,
searching out truth. The Romans built the greatest
empire, really, we've known, and collection of peoples. And
with all that they had, the peoples and the knowledge there, one
thing stayed true from Egypt, even until now, is that they
never found it. They never found wisdom, knowledge,
or understanding. So you say, well, how do you
say that? Well, they kept searching. That's why. Because once you
found what you were looking for, you don't keep searching for
it. When I lose my car keys in the house and I go looking for
them, I eventually will find them. And when I do find them,
you don't keep looking. I've found what I'm looking for,
and so there's no more need to search. And so we can see that
men have never found these on their own searching for them.
That's why they kept searching. So there's one man that has,
though, and so we're going to look at him for briefly here,
and that's King Solomon. And King Solomon at this time
had just taken the throne from his father, David, but he was
a boy. He was just a teenager at the
time. And we're going to pick up in verse five of First Kings
three. He says in Gibeon, the Lord appeared in Solomon in a
dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you and
Solomon said, Thou has showed and that I serve it. David, my
father, great mercy, according as he is walked before the in
truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with
thee, and thou has kept for him this great kindness. Thou has
given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And
now, O Lord, my God, thou has made thy servant king instead
of David, my father. and I am but a little child,
and I know not how to go out or come in, and thy servant is
in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people
that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore
thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that
I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge
this thy so great a people? And the speech, please the Lord
that Solomon asked this thing, and God said unto him, because
thou has asked this thing has not asked for thyself long life,
neither has asked riches for thyself, nor has asked for the
life of thine enemies, but has asked for thyself understanding
to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. Lo, I've given thee a wise and
an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before
thee. neither after thee shall any rise unto thee. And I have
also given thee that which thou dost not ask, both riches and
honor, so that there shall not be any like unto thee among the
kings all thy days." So Solomon, at this young age, what grace
he was given to see that he had to ask for wisdom. And so we
see that he asked for it. This pleased the Lord. So the
Lord puts importance on this thing of wisdom and so wisdom
and understanding. And so I need to look at it with
the same importance if the Lord is pleased with asking for this.
Solomon asked for wisdom. Now, this is probably not the
way that you or I would think about going about to get wisdom
or many people in this world would. But we're told that this
is how wisdom was obtained by asking for it. And so Solomon
understood two things about himself. One was he understood his condition.
He was unfit. He was not capable of gaining
wisdom. And so he was a child. He was
given charge over the kingdom of Israel and the Lord's people.
And he had to ask for wisdom. The second thing that he understood
was this was given. It was not earned. He was not
capable of earning wisdom. He had to be given it. That's
why he asked the Lord for it. So this takes us to where our
text actually will begin, which is the second chapter in the
Book of Proverbs. So I wanted to give us a little
introduction to Solomon, and he's known as the wisest man
to ever live. And I'll give us a little introduction
to what the Proverbs are. I'm going to turn back one page
to read the first six verses of chapter one. Proverbs of Solomon. The son of David, king of Israel,
to know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding
and to receive instruction, so this is what the proverbs are
to receive instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity
to give subtlety to the simple and to the young man, knowledge
and discretion. A wise man will hear and will
increase learning. And the man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsels to understand the proverb and
the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark things.
So this is what the proverbs were. And these are this is Solomon's
letter to his son. And we're going to start in chapter
two, verse one. My son, if that will receive
my words and hide my commandments with thee. Those first two words,
my son, that stopped me, initially stopped me when I started setting
this passage. And I saw three things in just
those two simple words, my son. First, I saw that it's a call
to attention. My son, this is a father speaking
to his son, immediately gets your attention if you're the
son. Second thing I saw, this is a call for instruction. So
we're told that the Proverbs are used for instruction. This
is a father instructing his son. The third thing that I see is
he says, my son, this is a call of endearment. So he didn't have
to call him my son. He could have called him by his
given name in the same way that the God, the father, When he
spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't say, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm most pleased, hear ye him.
This is the Lord uniting himself, he and the father. This is, you
know, a bond. This is one of love. And so you
can read this, these first two words in the same way, my son.
So he says, my son, if that will receive my words. Now, I'm borrowing
this from someone and I don't know where it came from, this
the word, if the word is a big word in scripture. And so when
he says, if that will receive my words, that first tells me
that there are some people who don't and that there are some
people who won't. And I'm speaking primarily to
believers here. You've seen this, and if you
haven't, you will. That our family, our friends,
our co-workers, our acquaintances, you declare your Lord unto them. You declare His Lordship. He's
the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. You declare His power. He's the
Great Creator, the Holy One of Israel. We declare His holiness. It's something we don't even
know much about that we're so different from it. Hopeless.
We can declare our need for Christ. See that we're sinners and we're
in need of Christ. This is our only hope is to be
found in Christ. And you can even declare through
logic and reasoning. The Bible is logic and reasoning. You look at all of grace or all
of works. It can't be one or the other.
And so when we say it's all of grace, it can't be of all of
works. To our family, our friends, our co-workers, to whoever. And
sadly, they say, I won't believe that. I won't believe in a God
that chooses who would be saved and passes by others. Or I can't
believe in that God. Or they say, even more sadly,
I think, I just don't see it. You know, you declare that that
which Which is all to you and they just don't see it. It means
nothing to them. And so can we be mad or bitter
at them or God for not revealing Christ to them, not revealing?
No, this is a reminder to us of God's great grace to us in
revealing his gospel at all. And so we can't we can't look
at it that way. So he says, if that will receive
my words, I see that I have these words have to be received. I
can't find them, not through study. It's not something I can
eventually attain them to. I can't make it. I can't build
and build and build and eventually get there. And I can't fake it
because God sees our hearts. I may be able to put on an act
to you and fool you for a while, even fool myself. But God sees
our hearts. And so this can only be received. And you can only receive what's
been given. And if given, then it's not owed. If it's given, it's a gift. And
if given, you have to be made capable of receiving. And so
there's a time when I and you have heard the gospel before.
I've heard it many times, but it never really, you never really
heard, heard with the hearing ear. You've heard it, you knew
it, but you never loved it. But there came a day when the
Lord put his spirit upon you and he says, thy people shall
be made willing the day of thy power. And this is the Lord making
us willing. I'm very thankful for that, because
otherwise I wouldn't be willing. So back to verse one, my son,
if that will receive my words. Thirdly, I want to receive God's
words. One is because they're true.
And if they're not true, then why waste your time? If you don't
believe this is God's verbally inspired book, then don't waste
your time with it. It's not it's not for you. I
want to receive God's words because they're important. If God took
the time to say it, then it's important. There's no idle words
with God. And thirdly, my life depends
on it. I don't want to miss out what's being said. This is the
importance of public worship. This is why we meet together.
This is where Christ said I will be when you meet to worship in
my name. And so I want to be here. I want
to hear what's being said. I might miss something. So if
that will receive my words and hide my commandments with thee.
So my first question is, why hide it? So we have to know that
hide doesn't necessarily mean conceal here. The scripture that
came to my mind was no man when he's lighted a candle covers
it with a vessel or puts it under a bed. And so what he's saying
is when you light a candle, you don't hide it away so that you
can't see the light from it. You light it because you want
to see the light. And so looking at that in light of the scripture,
we know that this can't mean to hide away these commandments
and not let them be seen or not mean anything to us because we
put them away to be forgotten. I think David said it best in
Psalm 119, verse 11, he said, Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against you. So this thing of hiding
the commandments is not one of concealing, but it means to hide
away, to lock within your heart. How can I do this? I can't. But he can. He says, I'll put
my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. That's
something that I'm thankful for, that he does that, that he causes
me to do it because in and of myself, I've got no cause or
reason. But what I can do is I can seek him, I can seek him
in prayer, I can seek him in public worship, and I can seek
him in my private worship. And this is how I hide the commandments. So verse two. so that thou incline
thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding. The
first thing we see is that we need an ear to hear. And if the
Lord will give me his spirit upon me and cause me to walk
in his statutes, he'll give me an ear to hear to. This word
incline means to hearken, to heed, to be attentive. But I
believe the best thing that I found with for it that it meant was
sharpening. Sharpening is a good word. It's
being made keen, understanding, being able to sharpening to hear
the word so that you know truth and error. So inclining thine
ear into wisdom. How do I do this? So I would
like to look at Isaiah chapter 32. Let's start in verse 1. Behold,
a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
Now, that stops me right there, because who's the only king that
reigns in righteousness? There's only one king that reigns
in righteousness, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
this second verse speaks of him as well. And a man shall be as
a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest.
and the rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. And this is speaking of our Lord. And the next two verses speak
of those who are united with this King, with this Lord. And
the eyes of them that see, they shall not be dim, and the ears
of them that hear, they'll hearken. And the heart of the rash that
shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers
shall be made ready to speak plainly." And this is us. This
is the Lord's people. This is what he makes us when
we're united to Christ. He makes us see. Our eyes won't
go dim, and he'll give us a heart that shall understand knowledge
and ears that will hearken to his word. So that's how it's
done. That's how we incline our ear
unto wisdom if the Lord does it for us when we're united to
Christ. Let's go back to our text. so that thou incline thy ear
unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Now, these
things of understanding and wisdom, they're intertwined. You can't
find one without the other. And I think Proverbs three actually
gives us some really good examples of this shows us through the
word. So I'm going to look at Proverbs
three three starting. He says, Let not mercy and truth
forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. write
them upon the table of thine heart, and so shalt thou find
favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
And so bind mercy and truth, and it will give you what? Good
understanding. Verse five. Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lead not unto thine own understanding.
You see, when we're leaning on our own understanding, we're
not trusting in the Lord. And so I want a heart of good
understanding, so I need to trust in the Lord only. And it's very
plain from the word here. Go down to verse 13. Happy is
the man that findeth wisdom and the man that get it understanding
for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of
silver and the gain thereof than a fine gold. She is more precious
than rubies. And all the things that thou
canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in
her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She
is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy
is every one that retaineth her. That verse 15 just strikes me
so much. All the things that thou canst
desire are not to be compared with her. So this is attaining
unto wisdom and understanding. The value of such, all the things
that you can desire, and there's many things that we can think
of, vain and foolishly, that we do desire and want. It's not
to be even compared with these things, knowledge of wisdom and
understanding what these things really mean. So verse three,
in fact, our text. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge
and liftest up thy voice for understanding. So we see here
that we're going to have to ask for these things. The Lord's
going to make us ask. He's not not just going to. That's
that's just the way he does it. He makes us ask. And so Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. James 4.2 says you have not because
you ask not. And so, of course, there's somebody
that's going to say, well, I have asked for these things and I
didn't get them. Well, James 4.3 deals with that as well.
He says you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you
may consume it upon your lusts. And so what that means is we're
not the word amiss. It's the same thing as saying
aimlessly. There's no asking with the whole heart. We're to
ask with our whole heart. When we ask the Lord to save
us, when we ask the Lord to reveal himself to us, we don't ask aimlessly.
We ask this thing that we need this, and this is our only hope.
You can't ask that aimlessly. And so that's what it means to
ask with the whole heart. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. That's everything in your being.
You can't aimlessly ask that. And we're to ask, believing that
we will receive what we ask for. And isn't isn't that what faith
is? I'd like to look at Mark chapter 11 for a minute to look
a little more into that. This is one of the parables or one of
the stories of the Lord passing by a fig tree on their way to
Jerusalem. And I'll start in verse twelve
and we'll skip down. So and on the morrow, when they
were come from Bethany, he was hungry. The Lord was hungry and
seeing a fig tree far off having leaves. He came if half happily
he might find anything there on. And when he came to it, he
found nothing but leaves for the time of the figs was not
yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of
thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it. This
time they went to Jerusalem and were coming back. Skip down to
verse 20. It said in the morning as they
passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots and Peter
calling for remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the
fig tree which thou cursed is withered away. And Jesus answering,
saith unto them, have faith in God. For barely I say unto you
that whosoever shall say in this mountain, be thou removed. and
be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart,
but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come
to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto
you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you
will receive them, and you shall have them. And so this is, when
we pray and ask, we're to believe. that he will give us exactly
what it is that we've asked for. So this, this is, this is what
faith is. And so I go back to our text,
if you would, Proverbs 2. Go to verse 4. If thou seekest her as silver
and searches for her as for hid treasures, So you think how diligently
you would search if I told you that there was a box full of
buried treasure out underneath that tree outside. You'd have
everybody, your kids and the whole family out there digging
for it if you thought you could get a hold of it. Treasure doesn't have to be just
silver and gold. Treasure can be anything that
we put great importance and value on, whether it be a house, a
job, sports, a hobby, whatever it
is that we put this great value on that may be some treasure
to us. But as we're seeing here in verse 15, all the things that
thou canst desire cannot be compared unto her in chapter three there.
This treasure is a much greater value, something that can't even
be compared with the things that you and I may call treasures
that we want in these temporal lives. You can live without these
treasures and a whole lot of other things. We we have it pretty
good. There's a lot that we have that
is is just kind of extra that is extra stuff that we could
do without. But the one thing that you can't live without is
Christ. And so that's that's the thing that the treasure that
we can't live without that we seek. So we're told in these
first four verses to receive, to hide, to incline, to apply,
Cry after and lift up by voice to seek and to search all for
the sake of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I want to
go back to this question that I ask in the beginning when I
said when we were asking, what is wisdom? And I use Job where
he said, where shall wisdom be found? I want to look at Job
chapter 28. He tells us. Going further into what this
value of what wisdom is. Chapter eight, twenty eight,
verse twelve. But where shall wisdom be found
and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof.
Neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth said
it's not in me. And as he said, it is not with
me. It cannot be gotten for gold. Neither can silver be weighed
for the price. You can't buy it. It cannot be
valued with the gold of over and with the precious onyx or
the sapphire, the gold and the crystal cannot equal it. And
the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No
mention shall be made of coral or pearls. For the price of wisdom
is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not
equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Winston
cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding? Seeing
it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept close from the
fowls of the air. Destruction and death say we
have heard of the fame thereof with our ears. God understands
the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof. For he looks
unto the ends of the earth, and sees unto the whole heaven, to
make the weight for the winds. And he weighs the waters by measure.
And when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning
of the thunder, then did he see it, and declare it. He prepared
it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man he said, Behold
the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil
is understanding. So, my son, if thou wilt receive
my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline
thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding, yea,
if thou criest after knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding,
if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for
hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the mystery of this
life. The hidden secrets of this world,
what they may be, all these things. No, that's not what wisdom and
understanding and knowledge are. He's saying in verse five, then
shall thou understand the fear of the Lord and the knowledge
of God. The fear of the Lord is not fear
from. But the fear of the Lord can
be fear of. We fear of his power. We fear
that he's omnipotent. He's the sovereign God on the
throne that can do with us what he will, that he created this
world and we live and consist by his will. Fear of his holiness. This is something that I said
earlier that we really don't even understand because we've
never even seen holiness. Isaiah did. And he said, woe
is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You see, it's
only in the sight of true holiness, holiness that only God has, that
we see our own corruption. And that's what Isaiah saw when
he had that fear of his holiness, a fear of out of respect for
who he is. He's God. I know that in this in this day
and age doesn't seem it's a very commonly used word for who he
is. But he is God and that encompasses
everything. The fear of the Lord, when I
think of what the fear of the Lord is, the fear of the Lord
is the fear of being found anywhere but in Christ. The fear of being
found in my sin, the fear of being found in my own works,
in my own anything. I can't come before the Lord
that way. And so the fear of the Lord is the fear of being
found anywhere but in Christ. And in verse five, he says, and
the knowledge of God. So this thing of the fear of
the Lord and finding the knowledge of God, these two are also intertwined. So the knowledge of God is more
than just knowing who he is, because you can know who someone
is and not like them. So knowledge in scripture is
also used as the word love. And so if we read it, then shalt
thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the love of God.
So the question is not, do I know him? It's, does he know me? And
do I love his person as he is without excuse, not making excuse
for who he is? All who love the person and work
of Christ will fear the Lord. And all who fear the Lord, the
fear of being found in your sin, fear of being found outside of
Christ and the fear of the justice of a thrice holy God. Well, those
people are going to love the person and work of who Christ
is, because that's good news. The person work of who Christ
is, is he's merciful, he's just. He paid my sin debt willingly
and freely with no contribution from me at all. So there's nothing
for me to have to bring to this. It was freely done. He was willing. He was able. He was my surety
and my substitute. When God the Father said who
is going to make sure that these my people were brought back to
me safe and accounted for. Christ stood up and said, I'm
the one responsible and I take them that they are my charge.
And he died for it. And by and by him dying for the
sins of all his elect, he makes me clean, truly clean, not just
you and I are. The way we are now in our bodies,
we think, you know, well, you know, the scripture says we're
clean of our sin, but we still think, well, I still sin and
God sees it. This is truly clean inside of
God. So what we think doesn't matter in this, it doesn't matter
at all. So it makes me clean and unblameable
and righteous. And I don't want to miss this
because all these things are the personal work of Christ.
But the one that that really just makes this so sweet is The
Lord desires that we dwell with him where he is. It's not just
that he's done this for us and has given us puts us over here
on this part of heaven. And, you know, he's over here.
It's it's he wants us to dwell with him. This is this is our
redeemer. And so he wants his desire is
for us to be where he is. So one day my faith is going
to be made sight and I'll see why he delights in me. Verse
six. For the Lord giveth wisdom and
out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. So he's going
to provide all that I need. He's going to make me willing,
he's going to give me an ear to hear, and he's going to provide
wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. And the beauty of this is it's
going to be his good pleasure to give that to us. There's nothing
that we have to do to earn it or to make ourselves recommended
or try to attain into it. Lord's going to give all of it
to his people, everything that's necessary into them.