Get and Keep Wisdom

Introduction

Good morning please open in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 4 that is Proverbs chapter 4. That is on page 529 if you are using a Bible that is scattered throughout the chairs, page 529 Proverbs 4:1-27. As you make you way there I want to call you attention to another passage of Scripture from Romans 7:21–25 Paul writes “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 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? 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.” Paul is describing the Christian life. As Christians we desire to please God and to do the right thing. Yet, as fallen people in a fallen world we still struggle and wage war against the desires of our flesh. The members of our bodies. There is war taking place between the law of our minds (God’s law) and the law of sin the dwells within us. But Paul also gives us hope in the midst of this fight as he asks, Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And the answer is Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

We have in the Christian life to truths that we must reckon with that seem a bit of a paradox. It is true that we wage war against our sin and flesh. It is also true that the war is won in Christ. So how do we live? How are we to enjoy the blessings of God in this life knowing that we are still strugglers at such a fundamental level. That is what Proverbs 4 is all about. Proverbs 4 tells us how to get and keep wisdom. Wisdom, is the path to living in light of all of God’s blessing. The wise man fears the Lord and knows that Jesus is Wisdom incarnate. Jesus lived a life of perfect wisdom and it is only through him that wretched people like us can be delivered from the hold of sin in our lives. Let’s read Proverbs 4:1-27.

To Get Wisdom You Must Love Wisdom v. 1-9

EX: Solomon the author of Proverbs speaks to his sons and as he does he refers to his father, their grandfather. We have three generations represented here as we see how wisdom is to be passed down for father to son. The wise life is a powerful life and Lord willing can result in generational salvation to your family. That you would have children and even grand children you love God’s ways. But in order for that to happen we must heed the wisdom of Soloman’s father, king David. Listen to what Solomon records from his father Proverbs 4:4–9 “he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.””

King David tells us to pursue wisdom to go get it. We must remember Proverbs 1:20 “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice;” Wisdom is not hidden from us, but it is attainable to long as we look in the right place. He personifies wisdom and calls it a her. He tells his sons to love wisdom, prize wisdom, and to embrace wisdom. It is then the wisdom will keep you, guard you, exalt you, and place a crown in your head. These are the promises and blessings of living according to God’s way of wisdom.

But he also says something a bit puzzling in verse 7. He says Proverbs 4:7 “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” To get wisdom go get wisdom… thanks grandpa… What does that mean? It means while wisdom is a gift from God and it is a gift of free grace. It is still a gift that we must pursue. You will not get wise by not attending church. You not get wise by keeping you Bible closed at home. You not get wise with an inconsistent prayer life, by not attending your community group or men or women’s bible study. If you long to enjoy the blessings of the wise life. You must get wisdom.

And yet, we know that effort alone is simply not enough. Why? Because your flesh and mine wage war against our inner being. Resolve isn’t enough to overcome the enemy within. The sin that still indwells every Christian this side of heaven is powerful! And we cannot hope to overcome sin by simply trying harder, getting a better schedule, or setting another alarm. Disciple is crucial, but it is not enough. So, what do we do?

I want to suggest that we must replace our affections for the things of this world with something far greater. We must learn to love, prize, and embrace wisdom. Which is to say we must learn to love, prize, and embrace Jesus and his free grace. Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers wrote a sermon entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” he preached from 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” He writes the sermon and poses the question, how are we to go about no longer loving the world? He opens the sermon with this:

THERE are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world - either by a demonstration of the world's vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one.

Chalmers spends the rest of the sermon arguing for the second method of displacing a human heart’s love of the world. He argues, “We have already affirmed how impossible it were for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from it; and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The heart is not so constituted; and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one.” Chalmers is telling us that our hearts are not capable of casting off the love of this world on their own. We must instead set our hearts a new affection. This new affection is wisdom incarnate, the new affection is Christ. But what stirs our love and affections for Christ?

Again Chalmers is a help to us. “And never does the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation, as when under the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness. To do any work in the best manner, we should make use of the fittest tools for it.” Proceeding this quote Chalmers makes this statement concerning the Gospel of God’s grace, the freer it is the better it is. He is speaking of our perception of the work of Christ is our lives. A perception that I would note is ever changing in the heart of a person at war with their flesh. What I mean is that today you may have a right view of God’s grace, but tomorrow your sinful heart may distort it. Functionally, we all desire to earn our salvation. And that desire can worm its way into our hearts and minds tint our view of God’s grace.

To quote Chalmers one final time he states, “Retain a single shred or fragment of legality with the Gospel, and we raise a topic of distrust between man and God. We take away from the power of the Gospel to melt and to conciliate.” To conciliate is to esteem in Chalmers day. So he saying if you add stipulations to the Gospel if it believe in Jesus plus… church attendance, bible study, prayer etc. Then the Gospel loses its power to melt the affections the world and raise our affections for Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that sinners are saved by grace alone and faith alone.

So which is it? How do we get wisdom? You said earlier that we can’t get it sitting at home, but now you’re saying we might not get it by sitting in church. And what I am saying is that the attainment of wisdom and not about doing, it is about being. It is not about what you do, but who you are. You need to have your affections changed by the supernatural power of God through the Gospel of grace and then stirred by the normative means of God’s grace in our lives. This is how we obtain wisdom. This is why David tells Solomon and Solomon tells us to love wisdom. To love wisdom is to love Jesus, the love of Jesus leads to the life of wisdom.

T/S- And as we understand this we also must understand that in order to keep wisdom we must be increasing in wisdom.

To Keep Wisdom You Must Increase in Wisdom v. 10-19

The Christian life is like water in a fish tank. It you just leave the fish tank unkept in your home you are going to get a stinky bowl of nasty water and dead fish. In order to enjoy an aquarium is requires consistent maintenance. You have to clean it, ensure your pumps are oxygenating the water, you have to feed the fish. If you fail to do the basics, that fish tank will become blight to the rest of the house. Souls are similar. In order to enjoy the blessing of wisdom we must commit to the increase of wisdom fueled by our love for Christ.

Solomon tells his son in verses 10-12 that he has taught him the way of wisdom, he has led him in the paths of righteousness and that his steps will not be hampered. The son has wisdom in his grasp. And therefore in verse 13 Solomon tells him Proverbs 4:13 “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” He is pleading with his son. You got it son. The path to a good life is right before you, don’t lose her. Do not let her go. Wisdom is the key to living a good life. Don’t let go.

In verse 14-19 we are then presented with two paths in this life. The path of light and wisdom or the path of folly and darkness. And what we must see in this passage is this principle. Like leads to like. x = more of x and y = more of y. If you start do the path of darkness it only gets darker. If you take the path of light the light will increase. Solomon warns his son to take the path of wickedness and darkness because here is what the wicked are like: Proverbs 4:16 “For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.” Those who take the path of darkness have longing to commit more evil. There can be no passivity with our sin. There is no such thing as just a little sin to pacify desire. In this sense, you are what you eat. If you do evil, you will tempted toward more evil.

But the principle works in the opposite fashion as well. Those who do good will desire to increase in doing good. Proverbs 4:18 “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” The pursue it of wisdom will result in the increase of wisdom. If you’re here this morning and your in some desperate need for wisdom. Maybe you’re trying to make some tough decisions, maybe there are some hard situations at work, some challenging conversations that need to happen with kids or other family members. Not all of life is always so clear cut. We need wisdom to navigate this life and live in a way that is most pleasing to God.

But do not lose heart. God tells us you here in this passage that light leads to more light. When life gets tricky that is an opportunity to get back to the backs. Do the things you know are righteous and God will shed light on the rest of your path. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Let’s love Christ together. Prize him and embrace him! Let’s do some soul maintenance Scripture memory, Bible Study, Prayer time, Community Group. But not to earn God’s favor or get wisdom, but because we already have it! And it is our joy to increase in the knowledge of Christ.

T/S- This things are the reflection of hearts and our chief loves and affections. Our actions are just putting on display the content of our hearts. We conclude this morning knowing that It’s all about the heart.

It’s All About the Heart v. 20-27

We do not need to leave this morning with new habits we need to leave this morning with new hearts. Solomon tells his son in verse 21 to keep his commandments within his heart. He reminds us again that God’s commands is life and healing to our flesh. And he says this Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The heart in Solomon’s day was how they understand the core of person. We might call this our psyche in modern terms. It is the interworking of you mind. It is the essence of who you are. And we learn that all we do flows from our heart. Our thoughts, actions, words all flow from the heart. This is why in Proverbs 4:24 “Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.” Because there is no separation from our actions and our true self. The Bible does not allow us to say “But I didn’t mean it when say something foolish.” This is a false repentance. True repentance requires the ownership of what we say and do. Jesus reminds us in Luke 6:45 “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

In Mark 7:1–6“Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;”

Jesus is not looking for the outward appearance of obedience. He requires obedience that is from the heart. We must give him all of ourselves this is what it means to love him and prize him. Jesus continues to teach about the heart in Mark 7:14–23 “And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

One of the greatest temptations in the modern world is to believe that our thoughts, actions, and words are all dictated by that which is outside of us. I think, feel, believe this way I say these things and do these things because of the way I was raised, because I have been sinned against, because I have sexual needs, because of the stress of my job… etc. But this not what Solomon tells us. In Proverbs 27:19 “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” And how do we see the heart of a man. We watch his actions and listen to his words.

What we do is a reflection of who we are. This is why Solomon says Proverbs 4:25–27“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.” Because where you eyes look and where your feet step are a direct reflection of who you are.

Now, if you hear this apart from the free grace of God this is harsh and hard news. You can’t make excuses, you can feel like your suffering is being discounted, you can’t justify your actions that you are ashamed of. Without the free grace of Christ you are forced to just own your mistakes, but there is nothing to do with them.

You left holding the bag and you quickly realize it is a burden to heavy to bear. But you don’t need to hear this truth apart from the free gift of grace. Brothers and sisters our sin is just that is it our sin. We cannot justify it, pacify it, we cannot escape it. It is a burden beyond our capacity to carry.

Conclusion

In John Bunyan’s fictional work titled the Pilgrims Progress he tells of the main character Christian’s burden on his back. It is the burden of his sin that he must carry everywhere he goes and impedes him all along his journey. Until Christian is led to the cross of Christ. And while gazing upon the cross of Christ the burden falls from Christian’s back to role down a hill and into a grave. In death of Christ, you burden is put to death. And in the resurrection of Christ you are raised with Him. To get wisdom we must get a new love in Christ, to keep wisdom we must increase in that love (free from the burden of sin because the gift of free grace) because we a people who have been given new hearts. Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Come and receive His grace through the death and resurrection of his son. Your burden is gone, you have been given the heart of wisdom. Let’s live in the light of the path of righteous.