The Ways of the World: Wisdom's Path

Introduction

Every Christian lives in the real world. When we’re saved, we aren’t somehow teleported out of our current reality into a Caribbean commune of people who will appreciate our walk with Christ and be agreeable with all that Christ has called us to do. We still go to work at the car dealership or the Honda plant or the bank where we worked before. We still face the dilemmas over how we will operate our businesses and deal with our employees. We still go home to a marriage that isn’t perfect and a home that isn’t conflict free. We still find ourselves wanting to say what we shouldn’t say, do what we shouldn’t do, and spend what we shouldn’t spend.

We live in the real world, and we have real world problems. This is where I think the book of Proverbs helps us. Proverbs teaches us that God built order into life and that it’s an order that we can learn and apply to our lives. That is, God has given us Proverbs so that we might learn the ways of the world and be able to navigate all of its complexities and dilemmas in a way that is in alignment with our pursuit of Christ. He has given us this book so that we can know how to not only live in the real world, but to thrive and flourish in the real world. This morning, we’re going to begin gleaning from Proverbs how we might understand the ways of the world as God designed it.

God’s Word

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To My Son

v. 1 “My son, if you receive my words” The purpose of Proverbs is not to call us to self-help. The purpose of Proverbs is to call us to the Gospel. Proverbs takes the gospel and helps you to apply it to your job and your speech and your romantic life and your temper. So, starts off how so many of the chapters of Proverbs start, with a father talking with his son. It’s a father living life beside his son and pointing out the ways of the world along the way. Proverbs was used most often in the Hebrew culture for the purpose of training the young men of the household how they might lead their families and God’s kingdom well. It was so they could learn the ways of the world according to the design of God and then live according to that design, and as a result, not only would they flourish, but God’s people as a whole would flourish.

APPLICATION: There is a word their for the teenagers and the children that are in the room this morning. You’re not wise, and that’s okay. You’re not wise, but you can be. You have the opportunity to obtain wisdom that will propel you and protect you. You have the opportunity to avoid pain and sleepless nights. You have the opportunity to draw from the well of Christ. But, you need to understand it’s not always going to feel good, and it’s going to run against the wisdom that you’re going to hear from your buddies, and it’s going feel like it’s putting you behind sometimes. Wisdom always makes you look foolish to fools for a little while. The question facing you this morning is whether or not you will choose wisdom or not.

APPLICATION: There is a word their for the teenagers and the children that are in the room this morning. You’re not wise, and that’s okay. You’re not wise, but you can be. You have the opportunity to obtain wisdom that will propel you and protect you. You have the opportunity to avoid pain and sleepless nights. You have the opportunity to draw from the well of Christ. But, you need to understand it’s not always going to feel good, and it’s going to run against the wisdom that you’re going to hear from your buddies, and it’s going feel like it’s putting you behind sometimes. Wisdom always makes you look foolish to fools for a little while. The question facing you this morning is whether or not you will choose wisdom or not.

APPLICATION: Oh, and what I want for the rest of you is to realize that there is no age limit for the need of wisdom. No doubt, there are people here of every age that find themselves doing things that are foolish and reaping the harvest of that foolishness. Whenever we believe ourselves wise enough and thoroughly learned, then we are only proving how unwise we are and how far we have drifted away from gospel humility. If you’re drifting, you will never drift to wisdom, only away. Will you choose wisdom this morning?

The Means of Wisdom

v. 1 “if you receive my words...” Solomon writes this to his son about the attainment of wisdom by showing causes and effects, means and ends, conditions and realizations. Three times in the first four verses, Solomon says, “If you....”, and then in verse five and verse nine, he says, “....then you will understand.” So, you can see this is about causes and effects. “If you do this, then you will understand this.” I want to start the same way that Solomon does by looking at the means of Wisdom.

Wisdom Must Be Treasured

v. 1 “treasure up my commandments to you” The first means of wisdom that I want you to see is that Wisdom must be treasured. The first four verses present Wisdom to us as a treasure. That is, wisdom is valuable and wonderful and can secure your future like the discovery of a great treasure. There’s a change that happens between chapter one and chapter two. In chapter one, Solomon calls for the ‘hearing’ of wisdom, but now in chapter two, he escalates it from ‘hearing’ to ‘accepting’ or ‘receiving’. Because he wants his son to be wise, he wants him to do far more than merely hear wisdom. He wants his son to embrace it, to accept it, and to treasure it. To become wise, there must be a willingness to receive and accept wisdom. Because true wisdom will often run against what you feel and what you think and what your opinions are. If you aren’t willing to have your feelings and opinions confronted and changed by true wisdom, then you aren’t willing to be wise. When we come to the gospel, we come to Christ out of a repentance that confesses our own inadequacy and foolishness and desire to rebel against the goodness of God. And so, in coming to Christ in the gospel, we are, in effect, saying that we depend upon his goodness and wisdom and strength. So, for us to live out the gospel, is to live our lives in pursuit of that wisdom and the application of that wisdom, even when it seems counterintuitive to what makes sense to us.

You Focus on What You Treasure

v. 2 “making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” You can hear this father imploring his son to focus on the wisdom at hand. And, even in imploring him to focus, he is calling him to treasure wisdom. For you focus on that which you treasure. He doesn’t just want him to hear wisdom and have it go through one ear and out the other. He wants him to listen to wisdom. He doesn’t want him be like a child that refuses to take their medicine or goes limp in protest of being picked up; he wants him to soften his heart and open his heart to receive the wisdom that he has to offer.

Between North and South Korea, there is a de-militarized zone that is 2.5 miles wide and 155 miles long. In that zone, there are an estimated 2 million landmines. If you found yourself in the middle of an area as saturated as that, you would treasure above all else a friend who was there with a map. You would hang on his every word. You would follow his instructions precisely. You would be focused like you’ve never been focused before. The most important thing in your life would be his words because your very life was dependent upon them. You would treasure them. Brothers and sisters, you live every day in the middle of a minefield. You go to work in a minefield and you go shopping in a minefield and you come home to a minefield. Our children are living in this minefield. And, God has come to us as a friend with a map that we can navigate it now and live forever. Focus yourself, and treasure wisdom!

You Accumulate What You Treasure

v. 1 “treasure up” Whenever you treasure something, you can’t have too much of it. In fact, you want to collect it and accumulate it. There’s no shortage of people trying to accumulate as much money and as much gold as they can. ‘Treasure’ up can be translated as ‘store’ up. It’s the accumulation of wisdom over a long period of time so that it’s available when you need it. Each of these implies something that takes place over time. If you will always receive my words, if you will keep on listening, if you will keep your heart focused on what is right, you can be wise. Wisdom comes through preparation, not reaction. Wisdom requires that I not wait until the heat of the moment and the last possible second to seek it. I obtain wisdom now so that I can respond wisely later. I learn now so that I can understand later. I don’t wait until I’m on the verge of disaster to desire it; I pursue it now so that I can avoid being on the verge of disaster.

APPLICATION: Wisdom comes through living urgently even when life isn’t urgent. It’s storing up what is needed for the winter during the summer. It’s saving for emergencies when there are no emergencies. If you want wisdom, if you want life, if you want to flourish, don’t wait until your heart breaks to understand why our hearts will be broken. Don’t wait until you experience loss to understand how to cope with loss. Don’t wait until your life unravels to understand your true identity and your true purpose. Accumulate wisdom now! Store up wisdom now!

Wisdom Must Be Mined

v. 3 “if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding” The second means of wisdom that I want us to see this morning is that Wisdom must be mined. Notice how verses 3-4 describe how one obtains wisdom. Verse 3 says that you ‘call out’ for wisdom. That is, you ‘summon’ wisdom. You must call out for insight. You must summon it to come to you. And, it’s often going to feel as though it’s never going to answer. You find yourself in a situation, and you need insight. It can feel like your entire life is boiling down to this one desperate need for insight, but you still just don’t know what to do. You need to know about the college to attend or the job to take or how to make things right with your husband or wife. You need to know how God would have you deal with your unethical boss at work or with a child that continues to rebel. And so, you ‘call out’ to wisdom! You ‘summons’ it to come to your home, but you feel just as lost as you ever were. You call out by going to the Scriptures and going to God in prayer and seeking the counsel of your church family, but you still feel like a speck of dust blowing in the air. What does the wise person do? What does the person do that trusts God? What does the person do that has their faith in the Lord and not in themselves? They call out again! They call out louder! They tenaciously and persistently seek out wisdom.

APPLICATION: Wisdom requires a persistent pursuit. The attainment of wisdom requires a stubborn refusal to be foolish or to respond foolishly. You cannot be wise if you call out to God in a moment in which you need genuine insight only to quickly give up on him when you perceive him to be silent. Wisdom is not about the discovery of answers; Wisdom is about the formation of your moral character. It’s not about passing life like a spelling test; it’s about life transforming you into the image of Christ. And, character formation doesn’t come easily or quickly. If you try to bend metal without heating it first, either the metal won’t bend or it will break in half. But, if you heat it first, you can change its shape so that it never goes back. Your waiting for God, your calling out to God, your persistent refusal to move without God is about bringing your character to the right temperature so that God can do more than provide you answers; He can form your character. He doesn’t just want you to be right; He desires you to be insightful, and there’s a profound difference.

Wisdom is Obtained Actively

v. 4 “if you seek it like and search for it as for hidden treasures” But, we shouldn’t confuse this with a common lie about wisdom. There’s a lie out there about wisdom that you can obtain wisdom simply by waiting and getting older. If you’re drifting, you will never drift to wisdom, only away. Wisdom is not the human default. Wisdom is obtained by seeking it actively, not passively. This is the meaning of verse 4. It’s digging for wisdom as though wisdom were a hidden treasure that would secure you for the rest of your life. It’s being willing to sweat and crawl and scratch that you might have it. Treasures must be mined, and there is no treasure of greater value than wisdom.

Author Forest Finn hid a $2 million treasure in the rockies in 2010. Since that time, 4 have died out of some 350,000 treasure hunters. Some are so obsessive that they say they spend 12 hours per night scouring every resource for clues. Treasure seeking is a dogged pursuit that requires your full devotion. It requires you to give up on other good things so that you might obtain the greater thing, the treasure of greater value.

Author Forest Finn hid a $2 million treasure in the rockies in 2010. Since that time, 4 have died out of some 350,000 treasure hunters. Some are so obsessive that they say they spend 12 hours per night scouring every resource for clues. Treasure seeking is a dogged pursuit that requires your full devotion. It requires you to give up on other good things so that you might obtain the greater thing, the treasure of greater value. Treasures don’t come looking for you. You have to go and find them. It’s hidden after all. Treasures require active, intentional, relentless pursuit.

APPLICATION: Mining is an act of faith. It’s believing that there’s silver where you can’t see it. It’s believing that the payoff will be worth the work. It’s being more passionate about the long-term benefit than the short-term labor. Dig now because hardship is coming. Dig now because difficulty is going to find your house. Dig now and mine wisdom in your life so that your storehouse is full when life dumbfounds you. Put in the work, and insight will be there when you need it.

The Ends of Wisdom

v. 5 “Then you will understand…every good path” So, we have in verses 1-4 the means of wisdom, and then in verses 5-11, we’re given the ends of wisdom or the effects of wisdom. That is, the only way that verses 5-11 come to be true in your life is if you meet the conditions of verses 1-4. In verses 5-11, you have two different ‘then’ results that are given to us, but they’re really the same ends stated two different ways. Verses 9-11 parallel and mirror verses 5-8. In verse and verse 9, Solomon is talking about perceiving the truth about wisdom. It’s perceiving God as the source and fountain of all true wisdom. In verse 6 and verse 10, we see the pleasure of wisdom. That is, the Lord gives us his wisdom by putting it into our hearts. He gives us his knowledge and his understanding as his children, so much so, that we will love it and take pleasure in it. Then, finally, in verses 7-8 and in verse 11, we see the protection of wisdom. That is, when we perceive the wisdom of God and take pleasure in the wisdom of God we will be protected and guarded by that very wisdom.

Perceive —> Pleasure —> Protection

“v. 5 “Then you will understand…every good path” Woven throughout his Psalm is the idea of a ‘path.’ ‘Path’ or ‘way’ are used 13 times throughout . It’s intended to teach us that if we we will meet the conditions of verses 1-4, they will set us on the path to wisdom. Being wise isn’t simply about arriving at a destination in a particular decision or acting wisely in a particular circumstance. Being wise is about getting on to the path of wisdom and then walking that path with God for the rest of your life.

You Must Perceive What is Wise

V. 5 “then you will understand the fear of the LORD” The first step along the path is to perceive and know what is wise and from whom wisdom comes. It is to have the fear of the Lord and to understand what is righteous and just and equitable in his eyes. The first step of wisdom is to see God as He is and to see the world as God sees it. To fear God is not to live in dread of God or horror of God. To fear God is to recognize that wisdom doesn’t come from you. It doesn’t come from within. It doesn’t come from experience. Wisdom comes from God. If you will seek wisdom with all of your heart, you will abandon self-rule in favor of submission to God’s rule. The first insight of wisdom is that you are not wise within yourself, and the proper response to that insight is submission to the One who is.

You Must Take Pleasure in What is Wise

v. 10 “wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” The second step along the path of wisdom is to take pleasure in what is wise. It’s one thing to know what is right and wise, but it’s quite another to love it. This is how you can know something supernatural is taking place in your life. This is how you can know that God is transforming your character into the character of Christ. You’re calling and summoning and mining and digging and working, and then, what is wise begins to become clearer for you. Remember this is a path. It happens in a process. But, inside, you still find yourself resisting and find yourself pushing back and explaining away what is wise. You find in yourself with a desire to justify what is unwise. But, as you keep calling out, as you keep digging, as you keep walking down the path of wisdom and trusting in faith that God’s way is better than your way, something supernatural happens, and what is wise is at the same time what is pleasurable and preferable for you. ‘Wisdom comes into your heart’, and it transforms your desires. It’s the picture of the heart that is made new in salvation complete with new appetites and new inclinations to bring glory to Christ. But, that new heart is still being perfected over time so that ever more, you love what is wise.

You Will Be Protected By Wisdom

v. 11 “discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you” And so, knowing what is wise and loving what is wise, you now do what is wise. And, when you do what is wise, you will be protected by wisdom. The ‘knowledge’ that verse 5 and verse 10 talks about is a knowledge that provokes action. It’s being so convinced of what is good and right that you do what is good and right. And, that is the nature of wisdom. Wisdom is submitting to God’s reign in every practical part of your life. And, it’s submitting to God’s reign in the actions and decisions of your life because you are filled with a passion for God within. This is why we mean that ‘the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.’ Fear is an inward pressure that leads to an outward expression. The knowledge of God creates a pressure in you to revere him and pursue him and honor him, which leads to an outward expression. You can’t know you’re holding dynamite and just stand pat. You can’t know how to keep the plane from crashing, and just ride it into the ground. You can’t know the Lord, and just keep on living like you know what’s best. It’s a knowledge that requires a response.

APPLICATION: And so, perceiving what is wise and loving what is wise compels you to do what is wise. And, doing what is wise will protect your life! How will you survive when a car crash takes your husband from you? Knowing what is wise and loving what is wise, you will store away the promises of God’s word in your heart so that you have wisdom to protect your heart from completely unraveling. How will you respond to a boss that berates you every day? Knowing what is wise and loving what is wise, you will have security in your true identity and you will understand the grace that you’ve been shown through Christ. And, God will protect you through the wisdom He has given you. How will you make it when your business closes its doors? Knowing what is wise and loving what is wise, you will have saved and prepared, and you will be protected. Brothers and sisters, the wisdom of God shapes the character of his people and protects them from the disasters of brokenness. Walk the path of wisdom.