Having Wisdom, Following Jesus - Proverbs 1:1-10
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
[READING - Proverbs 1:1-7]
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion, A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Solomon, the third king of ancient Israel, was an enigma.
He was the wisest man to ever live.
And yet by the end of his life, he had become a fool, living as if there is no God.
Tonight I’m going to introduce you to Proverbs and God’s wisdom, but at the start we should note that wisdom will have be learned, and wisdom will have to be relearned, and wisdom will have to be consistently practiced if we are going to remain wise.
This world is full of foolishness. It’s full of ideas and advice that are contrary to God’s ideas and advice. It’s full of ideas and advice that seem to suggest that God doesn’t exist.
We must decided which way we will live.
Will we live in the way of the world’s foolishness?
Or will we live in the way of God’s wisdom?
Wisdom is living in the way of God’s Spirit-inspired Word because God exists.
The opposite of wisdom is foolishness.
The fool says in his heart there is no God…
…but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Let’s jump in to Proverbs 1:1-7…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
The Author of Proverbs (Pro. 1:1)
The Author of Proverbs (Pro. 1:1)
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
EXP: When Solomon was being crowned king of Israel, he asked God, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge...” (2 Chron. 1:10).
God replied in “…wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you,” (2 Chron. 1:12).
In the kings account of Solomon’s coronation, Solomon asked, “So give Your servant an understanding heart...” (1 Kgs. 3:9).
And God replied, “Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you,” (1 Kgs. 3:12).
Solomon asked for wisdom because he was being made king of God’s people, and he recognized that he didn’t have the knowledge and understanding to lead God’s people.
God was pleased with Solomon’s request and granted him such wisdom that there was no one like Solomon before or after (1 Kings 3:12).
APP: When you don’t have the knowledge and understanding you need, who or what do you turn to?
Google search? Our friends? Our parents?
We can find godly wisdom in God’s creation, in godly counsel, and of course in God’s Word, but God is always the source of godly wisdom.
When we don’t have the knowledge and understanding (i.e., the wisdom) we need, we must ask God.
James 1:5-6, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”
Ask God for wisdom.
He give generously and without reproach, which means that He isn’t disappointed that we didn’t already know what to do; but rather He is delighted that we’ve come to Him for the wisdom we need.
Ask God for wisdom in faith.
James 1:6 says that we must ask in faith, which means that we ask believing that God’s wisdom is better than the wisdom of the world.
Ask God for wisdom with the right motive.
When Solomon asked God for wisdom, he asked for the good of God’s people and for the glory of God.
“Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours?”
“So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
Solomon certainly benefited from the wisdom that God gave him, but he asked for wisdom so that God’s people would be governed well and God would be glorified among the nations.
James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Let’s make sure that we ask for wisdom with right motives.
[TS] That’s v. 1: The Author of Proverbs…
The Purpose of Proverbs (vv. 2-6)
The Purpose of Proverbs (vv. 2-6)
To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion, A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles.
EXP: Verses 2-6 require humility. If we’re coming to Proverbs or other wisdom literature in the Bible like Ecclesiastes, which was also written by Solomon, we have to admit that we don’t know, we don’t discern, we need instruction, etc.
Like v. 2 says, we have to humbly admit that we don’t know the wisdom and instruction of God.
We have to humbly admit that we don’t discern (i.e., understand) the sayings of understanding.
Like v. 3 says, we need instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice, and equity.
Justice and equity are buzzwords in our world, but we often pursue them foolishly because we pridefully pursue them apart from God’s wisdom.
Verse 4 says that these Proverbs of Solomon can give prudence to the naive and knowledge and discretion to the young…
…but who wants to admit that they are naive or lacking in knowledge and discretion?
The humble will admit this.
But pay careful attention to v. 5…
A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
We may be wise, but we can become wiser still by understanding applying godly wisdom.
A prideful man may read vv. 4-5 and say, “I’m already wise and understanding; I’m not young and naive,” but even if one considers himself wise, he can understand and apply these proverbs and become wiser as a result.
APP: Will you humble yourself to grow in wisdom?
In Luke 2:40 it says of Jesus, “…the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom,” (ESV).
Jesus was once young and grew in wisdom, but even when He was filled with wisdom, He kept increasing in wisdom.
Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man,” (ESV).
If Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself in His incarnation to grow in wisdom even though He was already filled with wisdom, then surely we who are not filled with wisdom ought to humble ourselves to grow in it.
That’s the purpose of these proverbs and the purpose of all wisdom literature in the Bible, that we would increasingly grow in wisdom as Jesus did.
[TS] Verse 1: The Author of Proverbs, Verse 2: The Purpose of Proverbs…
The Beginning of Wisdom (Pro. 1:7)
The Beginning of Wisdom (Pro. 1:7)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
EXP: The fool says in his heart, “There is no god.”
The fool, therefore, cannot be wise because he lives as if there is no god.
The wise believe that God exists and live to please him; that is wisdom.
Hebrews 11:6 says…
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
When we talk about the fear of the Lord, we must distinguish between two types of fear.
There is servile fear, which is the fear of God based on the threat of divine punishment.
Servile fear is the fear a slave has toward his stern master.
And there is filial fear, which recognizes God as God, as righteous, holy, majestic, awesome, and out of reverence for God desires not to offend Him but please Him.
Filial fear is the fear (i.e., the awe, the reverence) a son or a daughter has toward a loving father.
If we repent of sin and believe on Jesus for salvation, then we no longer have a servile fear of God because perfect love has driven out fear (cf. 1 John 4:18).
Servile fear is the fear of condemnation, but Romans 8:1 says…
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And Romans 8:15 says…
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
By God’s sovereign grace, we who believe in the perfect life of Jesus, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and the victorious resurrection of Jesus—we are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30).
Fools despise wisdom and instruction, but the fear of the Lord (reverence for the Lord; being in awe of the Lord) is the beginning of knowledge.
That reverence, that awe begins with saving faith in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected.
Jesus makes us stand in awe of God.
Jesus is the beginning of wisdom.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
I want to close by diagnosing why I am often so foolish. This school year, we’ve been studying Proverbs as a family, and I’ve come to realize that I am not very wise.
Perhaps if you began to study Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, you’d discover the same thing, and maybe this process would help you diagnose why as well.
So why do I not live wisely? Why do I so often live like a fool? Why do I so often live as if there is no God?
It could be that I don’t know God through faith in Christ.
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
If the beginning of wisdom is reverential awe of God, and that reverential awe of God culminates with what God has done for us in Christ Jesus, then maybe I’m living foolishly because I haven’t experienced God’s awesome grace in Christ Jesus.
In other words, maybe I’m living foolishly because I’m not a Christian, and the first step to wise living would be to truly trust in Jesus.
But I have truly trusted in Christ Jesus, so then what?
Well, it could be that I’m filling up on and following the world’s wisdom, and I’m not filling up on and following God’s wisdom.
I think this is my problem. Maybe it’s yours too.
I think I’m not often keeping in step with the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Spirit of wisdom), because I’m not fill up on God’s Word.
The world’s wisdom is foolishness.
God’s Word is the wisdom we need.
When the Apostle Paul wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy, he encouraged Timothy by reminding him of his upbringing in the faith. He wrote in 2 Timothy 3:15…
and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
These sacred writings, these perfect Scriptures make us wise for eternal life and wise for life here on earth.
I need to give myself to the intake of God’s Word, so that I can live with wisdom.
What about you?