With Wisdom

We continue on this morning in our series Psummer in the Psalms (& Proverbs). I’m excited to get back to it.

I’m so thankful for everyone who covered for us while we were gone on vacation; we are truly blessed and grateful for you all. Thank you, Richard and Stephen, for preaching. Your sermons were encouraging to me, as they were to others.

It’s good to be home and to be with our church family.

Upon returning, I ran into Kathie Heuser and she said, “I don’t think we’ve ever been so far apart; you and Meghann were in Alaska while I was in Florida.”

I don’t like to be apart from my family or my church family; it’s good to be home. It’s good to be here with you today, and it’s good to be here to open God’s Word with you this morning.

Let’s dive in:

Proverbs 2—the second chapter of this book—is a helpful chapter. Of course it’s helpful; it’s God’s Word.

This chapter is something special; in this chapter, God is telling us how we can grow in Him.

We don’t program or control God, on the contrary; God is in control.

In this passage, God tell us how to take our next steps into a newness of life; we want to change. We want to get closer to Him, don’t we?

Proverbs 2 tells us how.

If you are longing for a deeper walk with God, you can have it. It’s complacency that destroys. You don’t need to hate Jesus to waste your life; you only need to be okay with how you are.

Proverbs 2 is about growth and sanctification and renewal. Proverbs 2 breaks down into two parts: vv. 1-11 speak about renewal and change; and vv. 12-22 speak about protection and blessing.

Let’s read the first few verses:

Proverbs 2:1–4 NIV

1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

In verses 1-4, we read about a desire for God. There’s an if-then thing going on here (called a protasis). The if-statements are evidence of God’s grace in our lives.

You will only accept His words and turn to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding; you will only call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, you will only look and search for wisdom if the LORD is doing something in your life.

Grace comes before the desire for wisdom. If these verses describe you, that’s great news: it means the LORD is at work in your life.

We don’t earn God’s favor. We don’t deserve a place in His family. He gives it freely through Jesus.

It’s Him, our Heavenly Father, who speaks to us here, calling us to take new steps of growth toward him.

Wisdom is not automatic for us. Wisdom is not our default setting. We will never get there by drifting.

What God does, upon your belonging to Him, is offer you a treasure worth seeking. That treasure? More of Him.

With Wisdom,

There is Desire

Verses 1-4 are about desire. Desire Him. Desire more of Him.

If you accept [His] words and store up [His] commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

THEN something is going to happen. It’s there in verses 5-8:

Proverbs 2:5–8 NIV

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

There’s the “then”—did you see it?

God is not saying, “If you seek me, I will love you more.”

He is saying, “If you seek me, you will find me.”

With Wisdom

There is Reward

If our desire is for Him, our reward is more of Him. He is our very great reward, the One who is worth it all.

If our desire is for Him (vv. 1-4) and we search for Him, we will be rewarded with Him—wisdom, knowledge, understanding, protection.

How do we seek Him? Where do we find wisdom? In what form do we experience this?

Prov 2:6 “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Ray Ortlund says rightly, “The Bible is the mouth of God today—not a voice speaking within our minds, but the Bible lying open before our eyes.”

The Bible is the Word of God. It’s the very words of God, recorded and preserved for us. This is a treasure. It’s the way we hear from the LORD. He speaks through His Word, the Bible.

If we seek God here, He will deal with us directly. Our reward is Him, more of Him!

But there’s another “then” in verse 9. There’s more!

Proverbs 2:9–11 NIV

9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

The second result of heeding wisdom is that one gains an understanding of righteousness and justice.

You see, Proverbs 2 is saying that God is able to give your heart a new taste for wisdom.

Contrary to the self-help movement, all those books (five easy steps, seven surefire principles, how to win friends and influence people)—you don’t need any of that.

Neither do you need someone to beat you down with guilt or pressure.

What you need is a new heart, a new character, an awakening.

This is a work the LORD does; He changes us. He replaces our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh and gives us new desires—here, in this instance, a desire for wisdom(the reward being more of Him: knowing Him on a deeper level).

This is primary. This is foundational. We need to be made new—and that’s just what He does.

With God’s wisdom soaking down into our hearts, we will come to realize what God’s wisdom does in our lives.

For one, wisdom protects against the temptations we face in this world.

Proverbs 2:12–15 NIV

12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

The key phrase is in verse 12—wisdom will save you—will be repeated in verse 16.

With Wisdom

There is Protection

Wisdom will save you…

What will wisdom save us from? The ways of wicked men…whose words are perverse.

Here’s this temptation played out in modern day scenario:

“They are often highly impressive, successful, formidable men. You secretly hope that they will include you in their inner ring at the office or the dorm or the club. Over coffee one day in friendly conversation…the hint will come what they are welcoming you in. It will mean a little bending of the rules now and then, but cool people are never held back by that. In your insecurity, you want to be included. So you go along. You take that step. When/if you take that step, you will get further away from Christ, and the next time further still. You might end up in scandal and even prison, or you might end up on top of the heap. But either way you will be a fool, with a heart that loves darkness.”

- C.S. Lewis, quoted in “Proverbs-Wisdom that Works”

Here is what we need to realize: the ways of wicked men—those who walk in dark ways and delight in doing wrong, those who rejoice in evil, whose paths are crooked—well, these people are everywhere.

Perverse speech is not just bad words and dirty jokes. The force of the Hebrew word perverse is “upheaval, turning things upside down and inside out.”

Perverse is simply a twisting of reality, and that can happen in any number of ways. It happens in politics (whatever side you’re on; no one is immune); it happens in society.

It happens in religion, all the time. Bad men, evil men, will co-opt good words—like “Jesus,” “love,” “justice”—and use them to smuggle in evil.

And some people will be fooled. But the wise will not be fooled—those who have had wisdom enter their heart will not be taken in by wicked/perverse men. The ways of wicked men won’t entice you; you’ll see right through it.

Tricky words won’t pass the sniff test. You might not be able to explain what bothers you, but you will be protected by the wisdom God has put inside you.

Christian, have you experienced this? Have your hackles been raised by certain people? Have you decided you should keep your family from this or that because it seems wicked?

That’s the wisdom of God, protecting you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men…

Proverbs 2:16–19 NIV

16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. 18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman…with her seductive words.

The temptation here is flattery and seduction. This is the first time we meet “the forbidden woman” in Proverbs. She’s a major character in this book.

She is the subject of the father’s warning many times. She’s clearly presented as one of the main competitors for our affection and attention. Her words are attempting to rival the LORD’s words, to compete with Him, to take us down a different path.

This woman in the book of Proverbs is deceptive. In Proverbs 7, she promises to give herself to her lover while emotionally and spiritually holding herself back in order to use him. She inflicts death on both him and on herself. It’s all destruction.

Verse 18-19: Her house leads down to death…her paths to the spirits of the dead…none who go to her attain the paths of life.

The temptation to follow this “woman” down the path of literal adultery and spiritual adultery is very real.

And the only thing there is death—spiritual death.

We need nothing less than an almighty Savior to free us from the bondage of sexual sin.

Thank God for Jesus!

Proverbs 2 assures us if wisdom has entered your heart, it will save you from this temptation. The wisdom of God is protecting you. Wisdom will save you from the adulterous woman.

As we finish this Proverb, we will see that wisdom is more than avoiding sin; it does more than protect. Wisdom also leads us down the path of what is good:

Proverbs 2:20–22 NIV

20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Here at the end of Proverbs 2, Solomon points his son (and us) to what we all need for new beginnings in our lives.

The Bible doesn’t hold up a standard and then leave us to ourselves. Christianity isn’t a mama bird that pushes her chicks out the nest with a “Good luck; sure hope you can fly. Oh, whoops. That hurts.”

Don’t you see? These verses are good news for weak people. We’re not left to ourselves. We’re made into something different by His wisdom.

When the LORD gives a new heart, new desires, more of Himself to His people, His people with new desires and new hearts will walk in the ways of the good, will keep to the paths of the righteous, the upright, the blameless.

All these, because of Him, will live in the land.

“The land” = the place of God’s blessing.

In verses 21-22, we read that phrase: “the land.”

In New Testament terms, in the land is the equivalent to in Christ. “‘Living in the land’ is Old Testament code language for ‘abiding in Christ’.”

It’s like what Jesus says:

John 15:5–7 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Wisdom isn’t just protection from bad things; it’s what ushers us into the best things, what God has for us. For the OT people, that was the land—the Promised Land.

For us on this side of the Cross of Christ, that’s life everlasting, life with Jesus.

The good, the righteous, the upright, and the blameless are those who live in the land.

The good, the righteous, the upright, and the blameless are those who are “in Christ.” And they’re only good and righteous and upright and blameless because of Christ, because of what Jesus has done, because Jesus stepped in and took their place.

Jesus took our sin which brings death, and gave us His righteousness which brings life. There’s an exchange there, a glorious exchange, an undeserved exchange.

The wise are in the land. The wise are in Christ. In both, there is life.

With Wisdom

There is Life

You notice the different paths throughout the Proverb. Verses 18-19 refer to the paths of death and life to indicate where these paths ultimately lead.

Verse 21: the upright live in the land, the blameless remain in it.

Verse 22: the wicked will be cut off from the land, the unfaithful will be torn from it.

After the wicked are cut off, the wise will remain.

“The picture presented here is that of a land which has been purified of all the wicked people, leaving only the pure and the righteous dwellers therein.” - Greenstone

Of course, this, we know, is how it will be in the Kingdom of God. Only those who belong to God by faith in Jesus Christ will be granted entrance.

There will be a great separation: the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, the sheep and the goats, those who trust in Jesus and those who don’t.

The difference, says Proverbs, is wisdom. Wisdom, given by God. The authors of the NT refer to Jesus as wisdom itself.

Jesus is not only the wisdom of Proverbs. He is also the Son who perfectly listens to His Father, perfectly keeps the law, perfectly avoids immorality.

In the end, Jesus takes the penalty that covenant-breakers like us deserve.

Through His life, death, and resurrection, He has defeated all of our enemies.

The point is never: become more wise and escape death and judgment in your own strength and power.

The point is always: run to Jesus who is Himself wisdom. He will protect you, He will give you life. He will give you a new heart, with new desires. And in Him, there is the reward of eternal life, right relationship with God the Father.

Are you wise? That is, are you in Christ? True wisdom is knowing Him, belonging to Him.

Desire Him. Find your reward in Him. Depend on Jesus to protect you and give you life.

With Wisdom—with Jesus—come all these things.