The Beginning of Knowledge (2025)
Notes
Transcript
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Text
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, 3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; 4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— 5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, 6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Prayer
Prayer
Sermon
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
There are a number of different sayings regarding the Bible that all sound something like, “The Bible isn’t a how-to manual for life,” or, “The Bible doesn’t tell you how to change an alternator.” Sayings like this are true, but only to a point. No, the Bible doesn’t tell you how to work on a car, repair a house, or balance your personal budget. But it does tell you that you should do these things, why you should do them, and, to a certain degree, how.
If you have spent any time in the book of Proverbs, you will know how vast its topics are. It speaks to things like work, worship, family, marriage, politics, war, and many others.
The man who wrote most of Proverbs knew more about these things than any other king, for he was Solomon the Wise. He and his father, David, were the pinnacle of Israel’s Kings. After David died, Solomon went to pray, and God asked him, “What do you want?”
Solomon asked for wisdom. He recognized his helplessness:
7 … I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.
Therefore, he asked God this:
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
Here’s what we read immediately after:
10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 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, 12 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. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.
It was here in this moment that God put history into motion that would produce the book of the Bible we have just read. This man, whose mind was unlike all other mortal men who came after him, gathered up the most important things he had to say at the end of his life. And the church took them and organized them
Now, it’s always important to understand the context around whatever portion of Scripture we are reading. We need to understand the environment and some of the culture of the people who wrote the Bible. Then, beneath and on top of that earthly dimension, there is the heavenly one. We should always be reading to see, “What is God saying to all of his people through his Word?” These two things are not at odds with each another—they go together.
In Verse 1, we see Solomon introduce himself as the “son of David” and “king of Israel.” And all throughout the book, the phrase, “Hear, my son,” tells us who the original audience was: Solomon’s sons. This is the original context.
No doubt, these sayings were studied by all the men and women of the church (going all the way back to Israel). And now, God has chosen to inspire and preserve these things so the church would feed on them for the rest of this world’s existence.
As Solomon spoke to his children, so God now speaks to us—adopted sons and daughters of God.
The Point of Proverbs
The Point of Proverbs
And the main point and purpose of this book is given to us in the opening verses. Taking them all together, the book of Proverbs is written to teach the people of God how to live wise and righteous lives. This knowledge is given to us mainly through a huge collection of one to two verse phrases. They are catchy, pithy, pointed, beautiful, terrifying, and plentiful. There are a few different sections in the book, but the bulk of it takes this form. All of it, though, is aimed at that purpose: “to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity” (v. 3).
Some of the hardest parts of life is not knowing what to do. Not knowing how to respond to a difficult situation. The standard advice for Christians is, “Pray and read your Bible.” If you ever wonder where in the Bible you should look for practical advice, few spots are as rich as Proverbs. Asking God to give you wisdom is a prayer he answers with abundance—remember Solomon. So the point of Proverbs is to equip the believer to respond to the difficult situations of life.
The other thing we should notice from these first verses is that God’s wisdom meets us where we’re at, and not where we should be. Look at Verse 4: “to give prudence to the simple.” That word means being “open to the instruction of wisdom or folly; believing every word; lacking.” None of us should want to be simple in this way. But in some ways, we are. And we need God’s help to grow. We need his wisdom.
It is not just the simple who are commanded to grow in this wisdom. Look at Verse 5: “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance…” Everyone in the family of God is to sit under his teaching—young and old, wise and stupid; all are in need of growing in this fundamental reality:
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
This verse is the climax of these opening verses. Everything from verses 2 to 6 build to this apex. You want to be wise? You want to live a righteous life? Are you tired of being simple? The fear of the LORD is the key.
The point of Proverbs is to teach us how to live godly lives in a broken world, regardless of where we are at in life. It’s message is for all of us. It is God’s desire and command for us to, as Verse 2 puts it, “know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight.”
Wise Dealing: Righteousness, Justice, and Equity
Wise Dealing: Righteousness, Justice, and Equity
Solomon then expands on these “words” in Verse 3. We are to receive instruction in “wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity.” Let’s pause and grasp these words for a moment.
Wise dealing describes actions that are full of understanding and comprehension. A person who deals wisely isn’t blind to the world. They aren’t foolishly optimistic or annoyingly cynical. Those are two ditches on opposite sides of the road. Wisdom doesn’t look like crossing your arms, furrowing your brow, and looking down on life as a nuisance. It also doesn’t look like someone who can’t guard their heart and control their body, so they throw themselves at life without restraint. There isn’t anything wise about either of these.
Wise dealing is righteous, just, and equitable. It fears the Lord, and so submits itself to him. It understands it can’t make sense of this life without beginning with him and what he has spoken.
Let’s talk about those three words for a moment.
Funny enough, I actually like the NIV reading the most.
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;
Translations like those do some of the thinking for us. They’ve helpfully lined out how they’re different in simpler terms. “Right, just, and fair.” Let me give a few examples.
Every blue moon or so, despite all our attempts to prevent them, payroll errors happen at my work. Somehow and some way, someone gets paid twice. If we don’t review every single paystub of almost 300 people, we wouldn’t catch it. Multiple times, people have voluntarily notified us they were double paid. I’ve smiled every time. That is a righteous action. It would be wicked to conceal that.
Now, you’ve heard of class action lawsuits before. A pretty common one is where large employers get nailed for illegal pay practices over long periods of time. Thousands of people could be affected, hence the “class” action. If you’ve ever gotten a random check from an employer, you know what I’m talking about. The fact this was exposed and corrected by the law means justice was done. It was just to right the wrong.
And the pay practices of modern businesses is an area of some seriously egregious sin. I’ll be brief, but about 3 years ago we developed our first serious wage table. We looked in detail at what we were paying everyone, compared to their responsibilities and seniority. Now, at no point did we consciously decide to be unfair, but the reality was that we were. There were glaring discrepancies between people. What was eye opening about that whole experience was less the discrepancies, but how extremely difficult it was to put together a pay structure that was doable, comprehensive, and fair. See, doable and comprehensive is easy—fair wasn’t. Equity wasn’t.
This is why we need instruction in these matters. It’s not easy. It’s hard. This broken world is in a battle for our souls. The devil and our flesh don’t want right, just and fair—they want quick and easy, and their way (not God’s).
So, Bowman, is your heart open to the Lord’s instruction? Where are you at this morning? God has told you that he is ready to give prudence to the simple, and knowledge to the youth. He has told the wise to hear and increase in learning. This room is made up of some combination of both, to varying degrees in different areas of life. Is your heart open to the Lord’s instruction?
11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord; how much more the hearts of the children of man!
God knows the answer to that question.
If things are going well with you, Proverbs 3:1 says, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments…”
If things are not going well, then hear the word of the Lord:
23 If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.
And here’s the promise for all the children of God.
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
As we move into the last half of this sermon, I pray that your heart is open to your God. That you would be open to his wisdom.
Despising Wisdom
Despising Wisdom
Because fools despise wisdom and instruction.
To set aside God’s counsel for anything else is the most foolish thing a person can do. What is God’s counsel to humanity but to repent of their sin and trust in Christ, that they may have eternal life? How foolish is it to reject heaven and choose hell?
Christ said to “seek first the kingdom of God” and everything else will follow. It sounds deceptively simple. The problem is that we are simple. We, like sheep, go astray. There are thousands of things in the world that want to be our shepherd. They want us to go rest in their rotten pastures, instead of the Savior’s.
You can take pretty much any area of life and find someone else’s “book of proverbs.”
If a marriage is struggling, the first problem could be that one or neither of them wants to fix it. This is “fools despise wisdom and instruction” at the highest level. However, even if both people want to fix things, the reality is most of the stuff out there is garbage. Most of what you’ll find in modern day counseling is rooted in pop psychology and not the word of God.
Same thing for family life, work life, and everything else. “Self help” is now a whole section of book shops today. The reason for that is because we’re foolish and don’t fear God. We don’t want to heed what his word says, so we manufacture something that flatters us.
13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
Foolishness is at the highest places of the town. It is highly visible. It is plentiful and everywhere.
15 The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
We need to be on guard against foolishness parading as wisdom. We shouldn’t believe everything, even if it’s on FOX News.
We can despise wisdom this way through ignorance; however, we can also despise wisdom through arrogance.
When telling Solomon to avoid adultery, David wrote this:
7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, 12 and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. 14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”
David is describing what will happen to a man who takes the “forbidden woman,” but anyone who knows the wisdom of God but rejects it can find themselves here, too. And like David and Bathsheba, the destruction that can follow can happen very, very quickly.
Why am I saying this? Because we live in an age of absolute information saturation. Human beings have never been so comfortable, entertained, stimulated, and spoiled than we are today. The problem is not new temptations, but old ones that are absolutely everywhere. Complacency. Lust. Greed and envy. Evil speech.
We need the Lord’s wisdom. We need his guidance.
The Fear of the LORD
The Fear of the LORD
We need the fear of the Lord.
“After having gone round the whole circuit; after having weighed exactly all the sources of knowledge; his conclusion of the whole matter is this, that the fear of God in its practical exercise is the whole of man—all his duty; all his happiness; his first lesson and his last… But what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law. His wrath is so bitter, and his love so sweet; that hence springs an earnest desire to please him, and a holy watchfulness and fear that we might not sin against him. This enters into every exercise of the mind, every object of life… The godly parent trains up his family under its influence. The Christian scholar honors it as the beginning of all his knowledge.” -Charles Bridges
The fear of the Lord is our “first lesson” and “our last.” Listen to what this pursuit of godliness produces:
23 The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.
20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
16 How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
A satisfied life, a good and blessed life, and a life filled with something more precious than gold or silver—wisdom.
Isn’t it amazing that God has spoken to us on this? He not only desires that we would grow, but he is giving us everything needed for that growth.
Growing in Grace
Growing in Grace
This is something that can make us anxious. “I’m not as wise as I should be,” or, “my life is too complicated” (or boring). Maybe you’ve pushed spiritual things off to Sunday morning. Or maybe you’ve grown cold to the word of God.
Each of these scenarios are essentially unbelief. We don’t trust God. “God didn’t do what he was supposed to in my life.” “God has given me unfair hardships to deal with.” “God’s way isn’t as enjoyable or helpful as the world’s way.” Or just the simple unbelief of laziness—of spiritual apathy. In due time, Proverbs will provoke us wherever we’re at, but let’s end with the words of the Lord.
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
In all the different areas of your life, seek first the kingdom of God. In all things, fear God.
Look at the world as it truly is, as God has made it.
And fearing him is the beginning of knowing it.
Above all, you must know, believe, and trust that this process is a work of grace in your life, through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Christian is a person who is a new creation, “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col 3:8). God is doing something with them!
The Christian is someone not “conformed to this world, but [is being transformed] by the renewal of [their] mind, that they… may discern what is the will of God” (Ro 12:2).
This whole process is something God planned for your life before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:2).
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…
Your destiny is to be conformed to the image of Jesus, the Son of God, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).
Prayer
Prayer
13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, 14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. 15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.
