Be Wise (2)

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an honor to share the Word of God at the OBI Spiritual Emphasis this year.

When I think back to high school, one of the highlights of that era for me was playing high school football. Now it needs to be known that I was not then, nor am I now, a stellar athlete. I’m not especially strong. I’ve never been extremely fast. I don’t really enjoy being tackled by other people. People running towards me while I’m trying to throw the ball to someone else really gets on my nerves. All of those realities make it pretty hard to play football! But somehow, despite all of my glaring weaknesses, I just loved playing football. To compensate for my weaknesses, I studied. I read the playbook all the way through. On any given play I knew what every position on the field was supposed to be doing. The coaches took notice and eventually, by the time I was a senior, I was starting Varsity at Bryan Station High School in Lexington, KY.

One day at practice, we were running through our plays and I was out a wide receiver. I don’t remember all the particulars of how it went down, but it was clear that I didn’t execute the play correctly. I was supposed to be *over there* but instead I ran *over here*. My coach was a stickler for excellence so he blows the whistle and approaches me. As he is walking over I know I’ve done messed up big time. My coach just laid into me big time. But something he said has stuck with me ever since, “Pearce! I don’t know if you’re the dumbest smart kid or the smartest dumb kid I know, but you better figure this out!” I found out later that he had adapted that from a movie, but at the time I thought it was both the most embarrassing and profound thing anyone had ever said about me. I’m still trying to figure out if I’m a dumb smart kid or a smart dumb kid.

When it came to my football career, I at times had a hard time translating what I knew in my head into what I actually did on the field.

In some ways this same struggle can be found in the Christian life. We know the things that we are supposed to do, but we struggle to live it out! At my church, We recently walked through the book of Colossians and chapter 3 in particular is a bullet point list of all the things we are supposed to do. Things like Bear with one another. Do not LIe to one another. Have compassionate Hearts, Kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Love one another. The list of what we are supposed to do goes on and on in Colossians 3.

But the problem is, we don’t always do the things we know we are supposed to do! We can read it! We can even memorize it! But we struggle to do it! To go back to my football analogy, We know the route that we should be running, but we find ourselves going a different direction! The redeemed Christian understands the call to seek the things that are above where Christ is, but feels the pull of the flesh to look else where. It can be very difficult at times to pursue righteousness for the glory of God, and if anyone is self-righteous enough to tell you that obediently following the Lord is easy, then I would suggest that they need to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Coming to and following the Lord is simple, but it is not easy. Y’all may have heard of a guy named Paul. He wrote half the New Testament. Well, Even the apostle Paul after coming to faith in the glorious encounter with the Lord on the Road to Damascus wrote:

Romans 7:22–24 (ESV)

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul would answer that question with an emphatic: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! That’s who delivers us from the body of death! Who will? He will!

Romans 7:25 (ESV)

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

You see, In the mind Paul knows and serves the law of God, but the flesh still sins. Paul has experienced the grace of God to cover his sin, his sins have been paid for, but does that mean he should keep on sinning? By no mean! It means that whenever Paul sins he still has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one and his salvation is secure.

I’ve said all of this so far to lay a foundation for what we are going to get into this morning. If you know the Lord, you know that you are called to righteous living. You probably even have some idea on what that looks like, through reading God’s Word, through studying the Bible, you have at least some idea of the actions that honor God. But you struggle putting them into practice.

Well if that is you, and I truly believe that is ALL of us saved by grace through faith, then you should recognize that God has graced us with His Wisdom to guide us in bridging from knowledge of a rule to living it out. But maybe that’s not you, maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about when I talk about God’s grace. I hope that you will be listening intently because the goodness of following the Lord goes beyond anything you could ever imagine!

With that in mind, turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs. Today we are going to begin in chapter 1 verse 1. Throughout the four times I’m blessed to speak with you over the next few days, we are going to be looking at the first two chapters. Proverbs, This book of Wisdom is a great grace of God to guide us in practically living out the truth of Scripture. This book uses imagery and metaphor to stimulate our minds and show us the value of God’s Wisdom. Today we will be looking at the first 7 verses which serve as a three part introduction to the rest of the book.

Begin with me in verse 1

Proverbs 1:1 (ESV)

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

The first part of this introduction to the book of Proverbs Is simply to title.

Now this may seem like a rather elementary verse without much going on, but this verse helps set the framework for how we process everything else that will follow.

Framework

In this simple verse we learn two important facts. We learn the author and the mode of communication.

The book of proverbs is a fascinating text that receives attention from both believers and secularist. The wisdom contained within is very practical and accessible. There are some who assert that the wisdom contained therein has value that is general enough for all people regardless of faith. When you are reading through all of the Bible, you will see callbacks to earlier events. All throughout the Old Testament you will see the authors make mention of the Exodus account. For instance in 1 Samuel 8, which we will be studying in a few weeks, God talks to Samuel and 400 years after the exodus says, “I brought them up out of Egypt”, calling back to the Exodus. It happens consistently in the New Testament as well. The book of Hebrews walks through the hall of faith. Jesus says in John 3, “Just as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Through these references we are shown that all of Scripture tells a unified story. From Genesis to Revelation we are seeing a true story of salvation for the glory of God.

But here in proverbs, we do not see the consistent connection to biblical historical events as in other books of the Bible. Add to that the parallels between some of the latter chapters of Proverbs and “The Instruction of Amenemope” from Egypt, and many people view this book as self-standing and accessible. They keep the “baby” of Proverbs and throw out the “bathwater” of the rest of Scripture.

We will see as we get to the end of our text this morning why this is not truly possible, but our first clue to this being an improper approach to Proverbs comes by acknowledging the author.

Author: Solomon

In Verse 1 you see These are the Proverbs of SOLOMON, son of DAVID, and King of Israel. This is a contextual clue that all of the writings contained in this book flow from those who serve the One True God of Israel. This book asserts right in the beginning that it is being produced in the flow of Biblical History. This book comes from those in the lineage of Jesus!

The wisdom contained in Proverbs is wisdom that flows through Solomon, but ultimately comes from God!

In 1 Kings we are shown how when Solomon comes to be king, God is going to bless Solomon. Solomon asks God for wisdom and then we read this:

1 Kings 3:10–12 (ESV)

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

God gave this wisdom to Solomon and it is now a grace to us all that the Wisdom He gave to one man would be shared with the many. But we cannot forget, this wisdom is FROM God.

We also see back in Proverbs 1:1 that the wisdom is given to us in Proverbs.

Mode: Proverbs

What exactly is a Proverb? Well a proverb is not just the name of this book, it is a specific way of sharing information. It has been defined by some as a practical truth that’s easy to remember. We say “Variety is the Spice of Life” “Practice Makes Perfect” or “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

Those may be some common proverbs, but Biblical Proverbs provide more than common sense. A biblical proverb is a little model of reality. It gives a picture of aspects of our everyday lives. Through a study of Proverbs, we are given a model to see how God has designed the world. We can study the design and then know how to act when we go out in it. One pastor noted, “The world says, live and learn. [Through the Proverbs,] God is saying, Learn and live.”

In just the short first verse, the Title of the book, we learn who wrote it and its connection to the rest of the canon of Scripture as well as the mode through which wisdom is given. Let’s now look at the goals of the book stated in verses 2-6

Proverbs 1:2–6 (ESV)

To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in 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.

There are two primary goals the author has for the reader of this book. He wants the reader to “know” and to “understand”. Both of these come to us in verse 2 and then are expounded by next 4 verses.

Goals

So the goal is for the reader to Know. To know What? wisdom and instruction. I’ve said the word wisdom quite a bit already throughout this message, but I have yet to define what it is. To be honest that is because it is hard to put a concrete definition on. But we’ll give it a go anyways. Wisdom is more than knowing the right answer. Wisdom is more than understanding morality. If you were to pull out the Hebrew and look at how this word we render wisdom in Proverbs 1:2 is used elsewhere in Scripture, you we see there is a deep connection to skill. The same word described the craftsmanship used to create priestly garments, and the artistry used to create the tabernacle. So from this we come to see that Wisdom is applied skill and competence that understands how life really works.

Now this should excite us! We have already seen that the wisdom in this book comes from God and now we see that the goal is for us readers to know wisdom! This should excite us because God is gracing us to grow in our understanding, mastery, and skill through a grasp on how the world works and the ultimate author of the book is one who created the world!

Let me illustrate why this is so important. Imagine for a second that I was this groups shop teacher. I’m not sure if shop is even a class anymore, but back in the day it was a class where you learned how to use tools and tried not to cut off a finger. So just imagine for a moment that I was your shop teacher and I gave you the assignment of building a birdhouse. Now, imagine that I gave you a set of instructions that I wrote myself on how to build the birdhouse. At first you’d probably be grateful because you didn’t have to figure it out on your own. But very soon , if you were following my instructions closely, you’d see that the walls weren’t lining us as they were supposed to. You’d see major flaws in the plans. That’s because when it comes to building birdhouses, I have no idea what I’m doing! Anyone can write a set of instructions, that doesn’t make them good or trustworthy.

BUT When it comes to book of Proverbs, it IS an extremely valuable source of wisdom, it is EXTREMELY Trustworthy, because it was inspired and written by the actual source of all wisdom! God Himself inspired Solomon to write these things for us!

This is a really great thing and should be cherished by all!

But unfortunately many people do not seek God’s Wisdom through His Word. Why not? Because of the other thing Solomon intends for his readers to know from this book: Instruction! In other English translations, that word is rendered Discipline! Godly Wisdom is gained through discipline and instruction! We obtain the Lord’s wisdom through trial, through difficulty, through adversity. In obtaining the wisdom of God, we are going to be brought low. In the fallen state of humanity, we don’t like that! We don’t like to be told that we are wrong. We don’t like to be corrected. We view being humbled as being humiliated! But the truth is, we need to be brought to the end of ourselves to see the goodness of God!

If you were to boil down the moral of almost every kids movie in recently history, you would find in almost every case some version of telling children “the truth was in you all along.” They go on the journey, they go to fight the big bad guy, and what they needed to find success was hidden deep within their inner being the whole time.

I’m sorry, but that is worldly, false wisdom. The truth of the matter is you don’t have what you need within yourself and deep down you know it. Deep down, though it is obscured by the foggy glass of sinful pride, we all know there is something bigger and better than us. When we truly look deep inside ourselves what we find is that our hearts are full of deception. We deny it time and time again, but we are in need of the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

If we want wisdom, we have to be able understand and receive instruction like that which is described for us in verse 3.

(PUT UP VERSES FOR REFERENCE)

Proverbs 1:3–6 ESV

to receive instruction in wise dealing, in 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.

Naturally we are not inclined towards wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity. We don’t handle our interactions with others properly on our own without the Lord’s instruction. We don’t know what righteousness even is without the instruction of the Lord. Justice in this life is a pail glimpse of the perfect justice of the Lord, we can’t know that correctly without His instruction. Equity here is referring to evenness, the opposite of partiality. In our sinful flesh, we are prone not to view things evenly, we give preference to things for superficial reasons. To truly understand any of these things, it requires heavenly instruction.

As we grow in our knowledge of the Lord through the study of His Word and living in response to the grace we have received, we receive His instruction and discipline.

Verse 4 of Proverbs 1 changes perspective from what we receive, to what we give.

As wise students we receive the instruction of the Lord in regards to dealings, righteousness, justice, and equity. And you know you’ve learned something when you’re able to turn around and teach it. Those who grow in godly wisdom turn around and give three things to others: Prudence, knowledge and discretion. Prudence may seem to have a negative connotation in our culture but there is wisdom in prudence, especially in context of giving it to the simple. That word here is describing someone who is deficient, who is lacking in godly wisdom and simply goes about life in a blissful ignorance. They don’t know what they don’t know. They may be susceptible to influence, weak-willed, irresponsible, but still correctable.

I know this was me! And I think God for the wiser people He placed around me to give guidance and accountability! The prudence mentioned in verse 4 is talking about giving discretion, helping the naive make wise decisions not based upon the changing winds of culture, but planted firmly in the Will of God.

This goes hand in hand with what is to be given to the youth. Knowledge and discretion. We are to take our God given growth in Wisdom and share what we have learned with the next generation!

We grow in wisdom by the grace of God to pass it on by the grace of God.

Then verse 5 shows us that we never stop growing. Let the WISE hear and increase in learning. the one who [ALREADY] understands [may they go on to] obtain guidance. We have a tendency to get stagnant as we get older. I understand that physical limitations can hinder what we are able to do in some areas. But we should never think ourselves so learned that we move beyond needing counsel from the Word of God. Stay humble and keep learning.

Verse 6 is a call for those long in the faith to continue to ponder on the teaching. To dwell there. There is always more to know about our God, more room to grow in wisdom and knowledge.

So the goal is this book is that the reader will know and understand.

In the final verse of our study this morning we will see the Key to truly understanding anything contained in this book:

Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This is the key, this the theme for the entire book of Proverbs and really all of life. True knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord. Those who fear the Lord love His wisdom and accept His instruction. The fool however despises them both.

I always try to model transparency from the pulpit. Allow me to confess, when I was in seminary, I did not like studying Hebrew one bit. I just didn’t get it. It’s written backwards, the letters are dashes and dots, there isn’t a single vowel, and on top of all it, I was trying to learn how to read it using an online program. The struggle was real I was really struggling. Bu despite the struggle with the language there is one bright spot that stood out in my studies, one word which is probably the only Hebrew word that I have memorized. Yirah.

Yirah is Hebrew word that we translate as fear in English. It is the emotion of being so awe-inspired and filled with reverence that we are left speechless. It being so overwhelmed by glory that we are at the end of ourselves and can only describe the emotion we are in as fear.

I heard a radio commercial this week from the Arizona tourism board. The commercial said something to effect of “just wait till you try our prickly pear chocolate. Come and taste our amazing food.” on and on it went about everything there is to do in Arizona, but then it ended by saying, “And the first time you step in front of the Grand Canyon and see it for yourself, it will take your breath away.”

I’ve never been to Arizona or seen the Grand Canyon myself, but I can imagine there is truth to that statement. There are wonderful things in this world that illicit a response of awe. Staring out into the deeps of the ocean, looking out from the crest of a mountain, watching from the front of the room as your soon to be wife walks down the aisle, witnessing the birth of your first child. All incredible sights that bring forth reverential awe and fear from us.

And it is in those moments, so beautiful, so beyond our control, that are attention should be drawn towards the Sovereign God in charge of it all. When we get a glimpse of the God who is working all things together for His eternal purpose, if we truly understand the bigness of God, it brings us to our knees in reverential, awe-struck, overflowing, love-inducing fear of Him!

Having real knowledge in this world begins with respecting, revering, FEARING the Lord! True knowledge in this world is understanding I am weak but Thou, O God, art Strong! True Wisdom is humbly, cheerfully, and reverentially submitting to God, knowing He’s got this whole world in His hand.

If you deny the One true God, you can’t be wise. If you are too proud to accept instruction from the Lord, you are nothing but a fool! Same goes for the Wisdom of God!

And what is the most vital lesson for all of us to learn in Scripture? That we are dead in our sin and stuck on our own, but God loved us even while we were still sinners and showed that Love by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross. Everyone who receives Jesus as Lord will be saved. And in the cosmic transference of grace through faith, those who believe in the Lord, Fear the Lord. Not because they think He will harm them, but because they see His Holiness and are left to bow before Him.

That is the start of true wisdom. Bowing before the Lord in reverence and fear.

You see God is PERFECT.

THREE CIRCLES GRAPHIC

If you are coming to understand true reverential fear of the Lord and want to talk more about that, respond today.

Let’s pray.