The lens of God’s character. What we saw is that knowing is relational. This morning in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to look at Proverbs expanding on that understanding of wisdom is relational. If we look to the reading of God’s word, if you please join with me in prayer. Bless are you, O God, the Father of all mercy. You have elected us. You’ve called us. You’ve justified us and sanctified us. You have glorified us all through your Son, who is the living word. And may it please you today to take from the blessings of your word and that you would feed us by the spirit of truth working in us. For it is in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear an increase in learning, and the one who understands, obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The word of Lord. Today’s sermon, the absolute key to all of life every believer must know, or avoiding a click bait life. Now, some of you may not know what click bait means, and it simply refers to misleading sensationalized headlines that try and exploit your curiosity to click on a web link. Something that might say something like, angry squirrel kills grizzly bear over acorns. And the thumbnail is this terror-filled squirrel blood all over his face. You’re like, I’d like to see that. And you click on it, and there’s nothing to do with any of that. It’s an information infoburcial for investing in Bitcoin. That’s the type of things that are readily out there. And when that happens, you feel a little foolish for getting suckered in and a little exploited for being lied to. It’s nothing new. Magazines and newspapers have been doing this for centuries, pulling you in with misleading titles. Why do they do it? Because it works. Works so often that it’s scary. For you who are peanuts fans, you know that 100% of the time Lucy pulled the football away from Charlie Brown as he went to kick it, and he landed and fell on his back.
And your sister, the question is, why does he do it? Because surely this time it will be different. And wisdom is what keeps us from doing that over and over again. From being constantly pulled in to deception, to foolishness. Wisdom is the route out of the click bait of life. But we know that life does not come with an owner’s manual. Learning life’s lessons often is sometimes a school of hard knocks type of approach. But even here, the Lord has not left us to just simply bump around in the dark. We are not to live and learn. We are to learn so that we might live. And because the Lord calls his people to live wisely, we must cultivate his wisdom in every part of our life. And the biblical approach to living life rightly is living with wisdom. Wisdom is not just intellectual, like all that you would have to do is take some classes or read a book. It’s not just practical, as if all you had to do is just gain some life experience. Biblical wisdom is both of these brought together. As some have referred to it as the skill in the art of godly living.
It’s a skill because it has to be developed, it has to be cultivated, it has to be practiced. It’s an art because it’s not just checking off all the right boxes. It’s more of an intuitive sense of knowing what’s needed at the right time, a fittedness. It’s Godly living in that we live out our lives before the Lord, morally as well as rationally. One writer said, Wisdom is becoming competent with regard to the realities of life, how things really happen, how things really are, and knowing what I should be doing about it. The skill, the art of Godly living. And so we are going to look this week and the next couple, God’s wisdom for us. Here we see the necessity of it as well as its extravagance. Looking at the necessity, if we just peaked a little ahead in Proverbs 4, we would read there, Get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Why? Because wisdom is not optional for life. It’s an absolute necessity. And that’s why the Book of Proverbs begins by telling us to know wisdom, instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth.
And that’s a tall order because that is all of life. Nothing’s excluded. I’m sure we’ve all heard that legal phrase, you have the right to remain silent, and yet we know how little that is applied. Very few people are wise enough to know when to keep their mouth shut. That’s an issue of wisdom. Proverbs describes that in Proverbs 29, A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. And we see this comparing between someone who’s foolish and someone who’s wise. A fool is not someone who’s intellectually stupid. They’re morally deficient. You can have someone with many degrees behind their name, but be foolish in dealing with life. It’s a contrast between two ways of living life. If you compare that with Psalm 37, it says there, The mouth of the righteous utter wisdom. The tongue speaks forth justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. It’s talking about an orientation. One is orientated, he’s facing towards God. In his life, he submitted to his way. But the fool is running according to his own understanding. Now, that’s not to say that learning wisdom is easy.
Often it’s very difficult. The opening verse here tells us that Proverbs is to know instruction, to know wisdom. We see, at least starting the Proverbs of Solomon, Son of the King of Israel. Solomon wasn’t the only author of Proverbs. There are several mentioned throughout the book. It’s likely that all these were compiled over a long period of time, and then they were edited. A large selection from chapters 10 to our tribute to Solomon. It says 375 Proverbs in that section. It also happens to be the numerical value of Solomon’s name in Hebrew. Let’s say there’s something hidden in secret there. It’s just saying there’s intentionality. They’re not just haphazardly thrown together. It’s meant to be an instruction for us with intentionality behind it. And in verse 2, we’re given this long series of verbs of purpose, to know wisdom, to understand, to receive instruction, to give prudence. And all these have an overlapping meaning to assign to our mental powers the realm of wisdom. So all of our thinking, all of how we comprehend is brought under this idea of wisdom, to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth. And again, that’s not easy.
It’s the business of wisdom to impart skill, to impart, as it were, an art. And interpreting them can sometimes be a challenge. I don’t know if you have seen the children’s book about Emilia Beddylia. She’s a silly maid who takes everything too literally. It’s part of the joy of the book. She’s told to go dust the furniture, and then she grabs a bunch of dirt and she starts throwing it around. She said, We’re going to hit the road. And then she goes out and gets a stick and starts beating the driveway with it. And children laugh at that because it’s quite apparent she’s taking things too literally, too wooden in her interpretation. It’s funny when children do it, not so much when adults do it. I’m sure some of you have seen that type of behavior. There are adults who argue with the police about getting a ticket because they’re not driving an automobile, they’re traveling with a personal property, and therefore, they don’t have to obey traffic law. That’s a real thing that clogs up our court system. It’s crazy. And this type of behavior is everywhere. This wooden way of looking at the world that can’t figure out how to nuance anything.
And with that, we have to know the difference between what’s referred to as descriptive and prescriptive. Many of the Proverbs simply are descriptive. They tell us this is how life generally is. It’s not telling us that’s what we should be doing prescriptive. It’s saying this is often what happens or takes place. It’s true the Bible in many places. Sometimes the Bible just tells us this is What was going on? It’s not saying you should do this. Just letting you know. Proverbs 21: 14, A gift given in secret sooths anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great rath. We’re told not to give bribes in other places and in Proverbs as well. But it’s telling us that these types of things happen in the world around us, and this is how they function and how they work. We need to be aware of that as we live out life in sometimes a very complicated way. Other times we were given just very general rules. Train up a child in a way that he should go. When he is old, he will not depart from it. That is a universal promise to parents. No, It’s a general rule of thumb.
Not saying, If I do this this way, then I will get this outcome. It’s saying, Generally, this is what takes place in life. We have a lot of these in our culture, too. A penny saved is a penny earned. Too many cooks spoil the broth. And we get the import of what that is saying. The same thing in the sense that when life happens to us, it isn’t necessarily because we’re foolish, but because the Lord allows a particular trial or hardship and suffering to mark our lives because as our all-wise and knowing Father, he sees this purpose that we do not see as necessary for us. Things can happen to you not because you’re necessarily doing something wrong, but because of what God’s purposes are for your life. We have a whole book of Job, of friends coming up to Job, and what do they tell him? They go, Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things are happening to you, Job. You’re bad. You need to repent. That is a very pervasive attitude with lots of people. And the whole point of Job is, no, actually, that’s not the reason he was suffering. He was suffering for the purpose of God that were hidden from him.
And wisdom is a part of how we live life to know the difference when these types of things take place. And this is a part then of this interpreting Proverbs as a believer with wisdom. It takes wisdom to understand wisdom. It takes belief. God’s not just sprinkling out some fortune cookie advice for people. He’s speaking to a people connected to him in covenant. They are a redeemed community. And that’s a part then of who we are. We are a redeemed community in relationship to God. I remember it was class, I had a young agnostic, a man who was one of a fellow student, and he was well-educated. We always question, Why are you in religious studies if you’re an agnostic? But he was. He wasn’t stupid. I remember him saying, coming as if he found the aha moment Here it is. Deal with it, Christian. He said, The Bible is full of contradictions. Look at Proverbs 26: 4-5. Do not answer a fool according to his folly. Or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. Ha, got you. Blatant contradiction.
He was not a part of God’s redemptive community. He lacked wisdom and lacked godly people in his life to help him understand what’s really a very easy set of Proverbs to get. I said to him, I said, So you think this person who is smart enough to put these Proverbs together in editing and compiling was so stupid that he put two seeming opposite phrases side by side and didn’t catch it? Like, Oh, no, it’s already gone to the printer. Maybe people won’t notice. Well, a wise person knows there are times when you do one of those or the other. Circumstances often determine our action. How do you know which one applies? That’s the part of gaining wisdom and understanding in life. We all know it’s very rude to yell in a library, you’re going to get the right away. Unless the library is on fire. By all means, yell away. Yell to the mourned people of danger. We know that’s an appropriate outside voice inside. That’s wisdom. That’s a part of understanding and making the difference between various truths and applications, a sanctified common sense, as it were. It’s not optional for life. It’s a necessity.
But we also see the extravagance of wisdom here. How God is not only giving us as a necessity, but as an overflow of the abundance of his grace and his mercy. Let the wise hear verse 5, an increase in learning, the one who understands, obtain guidance, to understand Proverb is saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The Lord is not miserly in teaching his people. He’s not hiding things from us. He desires that we would flourish in the world that he has made, that we would obtain guidance, that we would get direction, that we would live connected to creation and to one another. The great word for this, the big word is called coherence. Coherence is simply the quality of being logical and consistent. It’s forming a unified whole of life in the world around us. How you live in the world coherently, that is what wisdom teaches us. It’s part of the wisdom of Proverbs. The Psalm 104: 2, verse 24, Oh Lord, how many are your works in wisdom you have made them all. We saw this last week with creation. We have this great blessing of making sense of the world around us because we are in a relationship to our creator.
We can study the patterns of knowing all of life as a single system in the universe. We’re invited by God to study and to know his creation. All of it is open for our exploration. And we’re able to do so, of course, with humility and reverence for him because our God has made the world to work together in a fitted way. We know the sun is going to rise tomorrow. Nobody is fearing that somehow Venus is going to decide to go out of its orbit and crash into the Earth. We don’t live in fear of that. There’s an ordered and a structured because God has made things fitted together to work. And we are made in that system as well. And we do so knowing with humility and reverence. That’s verse seven, The fear of the Lord’s beginning of knowledge. A fool despises wisdom and instruction. And Proverbs opens up with this phrase in verse 2 here and at the end. So Chapter 1 and Chapter 31 both remind us the fear of the Lord is beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is to have reverence for God. It’s an awe of him.
It’s a care to think of the things of God, to avoid doing anything that would be displeasing to him. And there is actually a touch of fear here. In a day where we can treat the Lord with casual indifference, a healthy amount of fear is a good corrective. God is not your homeboy. No time in scripture did anyone come into a visible manifestation of God and say, Yo, what’s up? No, they fell on their face in fear and trembling because of the Holiness and the Righteous of that revelation. And there is an aspect of that that we are to take into our life, a humility of the greatness and the grand a manger of God. Verse 7 shows us there are essentially two classes of people, those who fear the Lord, who want to live according to his understanding, and those who are foolish, who want to live as if their own life is the only standard, and they live according to just their own desires. And unfortunately, that can roll over into Christians as well. See, Proverbs is more than just obedience to the Lord. It’s a development of our character. I put this in your bulletin from Pastor Robert Rayburn.
He said, There are other Christians of whose faith in Christ I have no doubt who can’t keep a job. They get jobs, they just can’t keep them. They don’t show up on time. They don’t do what they’re told to do by their supervisors. They turn instruction into an argument. They make careless mistakes for want of attention and inattention, and they can’t believe that they have been let go once again. See, being a Christian doesn’t mean that you are shielded from the consequences of bad behavior and choices. You can’t be surprised at the persecution you’re getting because you showed up late five days in a row. They’re persecuting me. No, they’re just getting rid of someone who doesn’t understand the basics of showing up on time. God is not your alarm clock. And how people, even though believers, can live in such foolish places of life. Proverbs is not live and learn. It’s learn so that you can live. You don’t just fall into wisdom. That’s why we are given instruction. You will fool suffer from foolish things. So how are we to cultivate this wisdom? And expressly, we are told to know wisdom instruction, to understand words of insight.
We are receiving this from multitudes of forms. Wise words dealing in righteousness, justice, and equity. Because knowing is first and foremost relational. Wisdom is relational. My character is the vehicle to express glory to God. You must start by being in relationship to the Lord. We need a new heart. We need to be in covenant with him. And yet how often we have acted in the opposite way of what we know is good and right. How often we have probably said, either out loud or to ourself, Why do I keep doing these dumb things? Wisdom is knowing the Lord is not simply mastering a technique or learning some steps. Proverbs pursuing wisdom is not self-help. Ten things for this, four things for this, the absolute truth you need to know to have a whatever life. That’s not what it’s talking about. That is a pursuit of a technique separated from relationship to a person. And you will not have wisdom that way. Proverbs, pursuing wisdom is pursuing God. We are the only one of God’s good creation that cannot live in coherence, in conformity to the world that he has made. You know why you don’t have to click on the little squirrel kills grizzly bear?
Because squirrels know not to attack grizzly bears. They’re pretty consistent about that. God has given them wisdom. We use the word instinct. The Bible uses the word wisdom. Look at creation and the wisdom, the instinct that has to live and cohere with the world that God has made. We’re the ones who don’t do that. We’re the foolish ones who can’t comprehend very simple things at times. We do stupid things to our own harm, even when we know it’s stupid. Our compass is broken. Rather than pointing to God, it points to ourselves. And the Lord in his wisdom, he has not left us to try and to figure it out all on our own. The wisdom of God has come to us personally incarnated. And in Jesus, we see the absolute necessity of being reconciled to the Father. And in Jesus, we see the absolute extravagance of his grace. The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom. Ephesians 1, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
God’s not hiding these things from us. They’re not like you have to go and search every cave and look under every stone and figure out this secret, hidden insight through numerology or whatever, through the horoscope. It’s right there. He comes to us. That’s the good news of Jesus. We’re not left searching and scrambling. He comes to us, that we would have life in him. And in spite of our foolishness, in spite of our pursuing avenues of foolish things that are to our harm, the Lord comes into the midst of that, and he redeems a people for himself. Because of the goodness of his grace. The absolute necessity of the wisdom of God and the personal work of Jesus lavishly given to us, that we would begin to know how to live live life in conformity to the world around us. And the good part of that for us as God’s people is we’re awash, particularly in a culture that has long borrowed capital from Christianity that has expired. And we have people moving around and doing things to their absolute harm and doing things. You go, why on earth would anyone think that? Because they’re disconnected from their creator.
They’re disconnected from Jesus. And a part of the responsibility we have as God’s people, not going and trying to argue everyone out of every foolish thing on the planet they’re doing. It’s to come and bring to them the good news of Jesus Christ, because if you don’t have the person of Jesus worked out, these other things are really peripheral. That’s the main thing. Jesus is the main thing. It’s him walking in relationship with him, applying Jesus to our lives, that we indeed would have understanding then as we come to the word of God, that his spirit in us connected to one another, that we are operating with the various gifts that God has given to us to be a blessing to each other. I can’t know it all. Neither can you. We got little pieces and parts. Some things are really obscure. We come together as the body of Christ, the living with one another in conformity to pointing to him. Perfectly by no means. We all continue to do things that are the equivalent of the right to remain silent, and all we do is open our mouth. In the midst of that, God is not throwing you away because you’re foolish.
He hasn’t rejected us for continuing to stumble over the same dumb things over and over again. Consequences for that, sure. Rejection, no. Not if you belong to Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we come to the one who brings coherence to all of life, even the parts we don’t understand. That is joyous good news. If that is not the part of the message you are telling those who are outside of the saving knowledge of Christ, I would encourage you to be in there. Stop hitting them with the wrong things. Bring yourself to Jesus. The compass points to him. And know that all the dumb times in your life, when you have chosen to do the equivalent of the squirrel taking on the grizzly bear, God has not rejected you because of He continues to pour upon you, mercy upon mercy upon mercy, because of the love he has for his son in you. Pray with me. Father of all glory, you are great and you are mighty. And Lord, we are a foolish bunch of people apart from you. And Lord, even we who have called upon your name, sometimes for decades, we do dumb things. And Father, we thank you that you forgive us.
We do sinful things. Father, and you reconcile us to yourself through Jesus. And Lord God, we pray then that our lives would be a testament of the extravagance of your grace, the necessity of our savior, that Lord, we indeed would be a people who are wise. Father, bring our lives together in conformity with your will. And we pray and ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.