SPEAKER_00: Well, welcome to the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we do study through books of the Bible here.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you're gonna hear us say that every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: If this is your first time here, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: So glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: If you want a paper copy, just lift up your hand and someone will bring along to you so you can follow along in the text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Such a delight to be with you as we open up God's word together.
SPEAKER_00: Also glad to worship with all those who are worshiping along with us online.
SPEAKER_00: May the God of every grace be with you wherever you might be this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So this week we are finishing our study of the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: And we've called our study The Wisdom and the Ways of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been with us, you know we've been asking questions like: What is wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Why does wisdom matter?
SPEAKER_00: Is it valuable?
SPEAKER_00: How do we find it?
SPEAKER_00: And another question: what if I've already been foolish instead of wise?
SPEAKER_00: What remedy is there?
SPEAKER_00: And we just sang about it a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: In many ways, the book of Proverbs is interested, I think, in developing in each of us a godly intuition, I'm going to call it.
SPEAKER_00: A godly intuition on how to navigate the complexities of a world disordered by sin and folly.
SPEAKER_00: And also how to begin to navigate my own disordered heart.
SPEAKER_00: The writers of the wisdom literature, that includes the Proverbs, which we're studying today, but also many of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, even James in the New Testament has wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I think another way to put it is they're helping to cultivate in us a taste for the wisdom and the ways of God.
SPEAKER_00: So when a decision or a new season is weighing heavy on you, and I know it is for many in this room, I can see your face.
SPEAKER_00: When you're wrestling with a decision like that, just in your seats there, can you think what's the first person, the first resource that comes to mind?
SPEAKER_00: What's instinctual?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you go to for advice?
SPEAKER_00: Can you think of someone?
SPEAKER_00: I know I have at least two.
SPEAKER_00: One of them, actually both of my grandparents, my grandfathers, and now my grandmother's.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we often go to sage-like folks for guidance?
SPEAKER_00: Another metaphor would be like a master winemaker who's been cultivating grapes season after season after season.
SPEAKER_00: And she looks at the hillside and she knows that when the sun hits this side just right, when the sun hits it just right on this side, when the rain comes this season, if the fog hits just this way, this particular grape is going to be a little bit sweeter.
SPEAKER_00: This particular grape is going to be a little bit more bitter.
SPEAKER_00: We should tune our ears to those sage-like voices in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We should tune our ears to the words of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Tuning our ears to those, both who have more years on us, perhaps, but also more experience.
SPEAKER_00: Or those who are just simply gifted, more blessed, perhaps in their life with discernment.
SPEAKER_00: We should keep our ears open.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is a treasure, the Proverbs tell us, and we're going to read about that today.
SPEAKER_00: Do we think of wisdom that way?
SPEAKER_00: A treasure?
SPEAKER_00: Something to seek after, something that has immense value.
SPEAKER_00: We have classes on math, on science, good things.
SPEAKER_00: We have classes on language arts and poetry and economics.
SPEAKER_00: Is anybody in here taking a class on wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: In all my uh studies, even in seminary and beyond, I've had one class on the wisdom literature.
SPEAKER_00: It was my least favorite class, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna ask another profound question.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody in this room ever been to the Cheesecake Factory?
SPEAKER_00: If you're watching online and you're international, I'm not sure if they're there, but Cheesecake Factory is a wild and crazy place.
SPEAKER_00: You sit down in this cavernous room about the size of this chapel, I think, and they hand you this um paperback novel length menu that you thumb through.
SPEAKER_00: And you look through the chapter on pasta and burgers and the specials, but you remember uh you're trying to eat a little bit more health conscious.
SPEAKER_00: So you turn to the salads chapter, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you might not realize it, but according to the website and the book, have you heard of this?
SPEAKER_00: Eat this, not that.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded of this this week.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great little resource.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the salads, and I'm not just picking on them, but in this case, Cheesecake Factory, some of the salads there have substantially more calories than even their worst burger.
SPEAKER_00: The bacon hyphen bacon cheeseburger.
SPEAKER_00: Some of their salads have more, substantially more calories than even that burger meal.
SPEAKER_00: Eat this, not that.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps a helpful resource, a guide to help develop in us an intuition about what we're putting into our body for nutrition and health.
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully to develop a taste for what is good for us because sometimes it is not obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Is that true in your life?
SPEAKER_00: This is mine.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom, of course, is not simply information, it's not simply knowledge, but it's the right application of knowledge at the right time, in the right place, in the right way.
SPEAKER_00: It's the skill of choosing between the good, the better, and the best.
SPEAKER_00: That's often where many of us are.
SPEAKER_00: It's discerning truth from error.
SPEAKER_00: I think wisdom, in its most pure sense, godly wisdom, is living in pursuit of holiness and faithfulness and fidelity to our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what it is when you boil it down.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom, it has a pace, a cadence, I think, that slows us down.
SPEAKER_00: But not always.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it says to run like a gazelle, like a gazelle runs from the mouth of a lion.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a simple definition.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't say everything there is to say about wisdom, but we'll put it up on the screen here.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is the spirit-led art, not science, it's dynamic, the spirit-led art of faithful living in relation to God, his word, and his world, the way that he's created things to flourish.
SPEAKER_00: There's something dynamic about wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If we go back to the beginning of our study, if you're with us there on that first week, the first chapter of Proverbs reminds us that the cornerstone of all wisdom, the frame, if you will, the beginning of wisdom is what?
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: A posture or an orientation of humility before our God.
SPEAKER_00: It's true, I think that in almost almost everyone can recognize what I might call common grace wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Earthly wisdom that is woven into the fabric of our created world.
SPEAKER_00: Ordinarily, it's not good to eat a salad with 124 grams of fat.
SPEAKER_00: Ordinarily, it's not a good idea to disturb a beehive.
SPEAKER_00: We get that kind of common grace wisdom, right?
SPEAKER_00: But there's a different kind of wisdom, a heavenly wisdom that has an eternal perspective, and that's a key part of this.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly wisdom that has an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks, it does speak to the ordinary things of life, but with a depth and a power that can only be found in right relationship to God, his word, and his world.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly wisdom is wisdom that leads to life, the Proverbs will tell us, a flourishing soul.
SPEAKER_00: I think in some ways we don't actually find wisdom by pursuing wisdom itself, but by pursuing the God of wisdom, one of the graces that we sang about.
SPEAKER_00: The only wise God, the King James Version puts 1 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: The wise have learned from sage teachers like Solomon, who wrote much of Proverbs, also wrote Ecclesiastes, or some of it, we think.
SPEAKER_00: And the sage in Ecclesiastes says this for God is in heaven, and you are on earth.
SPEAKER_00: So let your words be few.
SPEAKER_00: So do we want wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Is a great question to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Are you pursuing it?
SPEAKER_00: Am I pursuing it?
SPEAKER_00: Am I treasuring it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it valuable to me?
SPEAKER_00: So if you would turn with me to Proverbs chapter 2, that's where we're going to look today.
SPEAKER_00: As we learn together how we might listen for it, how we might walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm anxious to learn from our brother Solomon here.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us and we'll get going.
SPEAKER_00: Father, your word is before us.
SPEAKER_00: May your spirit open it to us.
SPEAKER_00: Tune our hearts to hear it and lead us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we all said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, Proverbs chapter 2, and I'll remind you that Solomon wrote many of these first Proverbs, including this one.
SPEAKER_00: And he's writing to maybe a son or maybe a student, a young man.
SPEAKER_00: So keep that in the background as we're reading this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, my son.
SPEAKER_00: See the warmth there.
SPEAKER_00: If you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Are you noticing these action words?
SPEAKER_00: Incline your heart to understand, for if you, so there's a bunch of conditions here, if you cry out for discernment, if you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember in Proverbs chapter 1, wisdom is personified as a woman, lady wisdom, and he's employing that here.
SPEAKER_00: If you seek lady wisdom as silver, you search for her as hidden treasures.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 for the Lord gives wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see the source of wisdom vibrantly on display.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Lord, it is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives it.
SPEAKER_00: It is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Do we ask?
SPEAKER_00: From his mouth, his word, the written word, scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, the word made flesh, Jesus, fully shows us wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 is just so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So when you search for wisdom, when you seek it out, then you will discern the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of the Lord, this posture, orientation of humility.
SPEAKER_00: And you will discover the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of the Lord, this awe.
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: And knowledge here is this experiential idea.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just information, it's an experience of someone.
SPEAKER_00: It's like if I know you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord, awe, the knowledge of God, intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: In both places.
SPEAKER_00: This is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Derek Kidner said this about that particular verse.
SPEAKER_00: With these two phrases, verse 5 encompasses the two classic Old Testament terms for true religion: awe and intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice all these action words?
SPEAKER_00: It's even helpful to me to underline all those action words.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your heart to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Receive my words, treasure my commandments, make your ear attentive to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 3 he says, if you cry out for discernment or lift up your voice for understanding, and cry out there in the original language, there's an idea of desperation here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a deep desire.
SPEAKER_00: A drowning man doesn't whisper.
SPEAKER_00: A beggar doesn't stay silent.
SPEAKER_00: So much here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon is a gifted teacher.
SPEAKER_00: There's much for us to learn from him this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The power of words, the power of language, the power of learning is evident in his instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls us to receive his words, to treasure them, to seek them, to search for them, to cry out using our words and to call for help.
SPEAKER_00: But in order to receive them, we must listen.
SPEAKER_00: You are God in heaven, and we are here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Let our words be few.
SPEAKER_00: In order to receive words, we must listen, we must make our ear attentive, as the sage Solomon says.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us know, though, intrinsically, that there are different levels of listening, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when my beautiful wife is describing her day to me and she notices that I'm not really paying attention, she'll throw something absurd in there.
SPEAKER_00: She'll say something like, you know, I went to breakfast with my friend, and then I went to Trader Joe's, my arm fell off.
SPEAKER_00: That felt kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went to the post office and then I came back home.
SPEAKER_00: She wants to know if I'm listening.
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, wives, friends, anybody in here know this kind of listening that's not really listening at all?
SPEAKER_00: It's a common experience.
SPEAKER_00: Spouses know it, friends know it.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, do you know it?
SPEAKER_00: Solomon knew it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says in our text, and throughout the Proverbs, it's not just in Proverbs 2, make your ear attentive.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Pharisees listened, didn't they?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't incline their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that's me too.
SPEAKER_00: So here, I'm gonna put this up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a brief survey of the kinds of listening that I think we see in Proverbs and that many of us experience in our day-to-day lives.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm gonna call levels of listening.
SPEAKER_00: First, passive listening.
SPEAKER_00: And we see this in Proverbs 122.
SPEAKER_00: There is one who loves being simple-minded.
SPEAKER_00: They simply don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: They're ignoring it, essentially.
SPEAKER_00: Or even if the words are coming to their ears, they're really just listening so that they can respond.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to figure out what they're gonna say.
SPEAKER_00: It's called passive listening.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, selective listening.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife is saying, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Only hearing what you want to hear, ignoring the rest.
SPEAKER_00: In James, in the first chapter of James, really the Proverbs kind of a book in the New Testament, he says, ask for wisdom, but don't ask it like a double-minded person.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't ask for wisdom and then take it and say, you know, I'm gonna take that bit, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take that bit, I'm gonna discard the rest.
SPEAKER_00: Selective listening.
SPEAKER_00: Attentive listening.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I think we get closer to what Solomon has in mind here.
SPEAKER_00: Leaning in.
SPEAKER_00: Listening to understand, as Pastor Matt walked us through a few months or weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: It's inclining yourself towards the teacher.
SPEAKER_00: It's inclining yourself towards the text.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a note taker, it's taking notes.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a scribbler, it's it's making little doodles.
SPEAKER_00: And then four, there's another kind of listening.
SPEAKER_00: I think it really is a part of attentive listening, but it's another level, a deeper attentive listening, desperate listening.
SPEAKER_00: You're acutely aware of your need.
SPEAKER_00: When you're caught in quicksand and there's someone there who knows how to get you out of it, you're gonna pay very careful attention to what he or she has to say to get you out of that quicksand.
SPEAKER_00: When you're in a financial mess and you go to your financial advisor, you're gonna listen to every word that she says so she can help you navigate out of that mess.
SPEAKER_00: Desperate listening.
SPEAKER_00: I need to do more crying out for discernment to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When we come to the scriptures, when we come to the Lord in prayer, when we seek advice of sage-like people in our lives, godly men and women, it's good, it's fundamental, it's a simple question to ask, but are we, am I paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: Am I actively listening?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Richard Foster, he wrote this back in the 70s.
SPEAKER_00: He said, our adversary majors in three things noise, hurry, and crowds.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only gotten worse.
SPEAKER_00: It is difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It is difficult for us to pay attention in the world that we live in, but we're called to do it.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, as we uh grapple with the teaching that we have here in Proverbs 2, I'd like to give us three different postures of one who pursues the wisdom and the ways of God as we wrap up our series on Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: And we give these things to you so that we might apply them this week in our in our work life on Monday morning, in our play, and our rest.
SPEAKER_00: The first posture is active listening to the source of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Active listening to the source of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Uh set your eyes there if you if you don't mind to verse six.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord Yahweh gives wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Our primary source of wisdom is the word.
SPEAKER_00: We stay tethered to it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't worship it, but we worship the one that it points to.
SPEAKER_00: The word opened up to us by the Spirit of God, the word applied by godly men and women who speak into your life, the word made flesh, Jesus who is with us even right now by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the primary source of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Are we listening with ears inclined?
SPEAKER_00: Are we asking for it?
SPEAKER_00: In Luke 8, the Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus is giving uh several parables to describe the nature of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And as I read it, it kind of looks like he pauses for just a second as he's looking at his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching them, and he says, Take care how you listen.
SPEAKER_00: From the mouth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God's word, his spirit, communion with him in prayer, his people.
SPEAKER_00: These are all means that he uses to reveal himself to us, to give us the gift of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So let us pay attention, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep reading at verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: We'll continue.
SPEAKER_00: For he that's the Lord stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
SPEAKER_00: There's an abundance of wisdom and never runs dry.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, or at the end of verse 7, he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice.
SPEAKER_00: And he preserves the way of his godly ones.
SPEAKER_00: You might underline every time there's a description of a protection that he has in mind here: shield, a guard, preservation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity in every good course.
SPEAKER_00: Some translations, every good path.
SPEAKER_00: And who doesn't want that?
SPEAKER_00: Who doesn't want the gift from the Lord of discernment to know what to do?
SPEAKER_00: Who doesn't want equity and righteousness and justice?
SPEAKER_00: It's baked into who we are, how we were created.
SPEAKER_00: And here he's offering us the source.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, for wisdom will enter your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's the seat of your volition.
SPEAKER_00: That's all of who you are in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they would have thought of, the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, discretion will guard you.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding will watch over you.
SPEAKER_00: More protection language.
SPEAKER_00: And now in verse 12, it begins to describe, guard you from what?
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to give a couple of character examples, little case studies, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: 12, to deliver you from the way of evil, so it's a path.
SPEAKER_00: From the man who speaks perverse things.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking about a person or people or philosophies or ideas.
SPEAKER_00: The man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of unrighteous uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
SPEAKER_00: There's our first character study, the man who speaks perverse words.
SPEAKER_00: 16.
SPEAKER_00: To deliver you from the strange woman, from the adulteress, or some translations, the adventuress.
SPEAKER_00: There's a thrill in mind here, who flatters with her words, that leaves the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God, for her house sinks down to death, and her tracks lead to the dead.
SPEAKER_00: None who go to her return again, nor do they reach the paths of life.
SPEAKER_00: So there's our second character study.
SPEAKER_00: But this is not just about.
SPEAKER_00: Sin avoidance or folly avoidance.
SPEAKER_00: This is also about something to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: We all want that.
SPEAKER_00: 21 for the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted from it.
SPEAKER_00: I think there is a promise of what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: There's a promise for today, there's guidance for today, and a promise.
SPEAKER_00: This is that eternal perspective I was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the end of this proverb there clearly shows a connection between godly wisdom and what we might call holiness or righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: They go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon calls the wise way the righteous way.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us examples of what the wisdom of God protects us from using these two images.
SPEAKER_00: Two different kinds of people, but I'm going to actually suggest it's two different kinds of words from each of these characters.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice both of them spoke, the evil man and the adulterous woman?
SPEAKER_00: Both of them spoke.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them sought to influence the faculties of the mind and the heart, the whole person tempted with the words of the evil man and the adulteress.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the evil man in this story here for a second.
SPEAKER_00: He tempts primarily, I think, by deploying words that enter through the doorway of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: It affects the whole person, but he enters through the doorway of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: Here he's described as speaking perverse words.
SPEAKER_00: And they're compelling in some way.
SPEAKER_00: These words aren't, they're not simply, I don't think, coarse language or dirty jokes.
SPEAKER_00: It can include those things.
SPEAKER_00: But perversity in the deeper sense, a twisting, a turning upside down, a subversively planting seeds of doubt, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Did God really say?
SPEAKER_00: And you can see the natural progression of this kind of folly and sin.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that if you look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: First, it begins by listening to twisted words, and then in 13, it moves away from the protection of the wise path.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: It moves away from something.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of 13, it moves toward the path of darkness itself.
SPEAKER_00: There's a progression.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 14, it concludes by celebrating what is evil, delighting even in what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Solomon gives us these cautionary stories, the background music for all of us in this room and for the original listeners, readers, should be the fatherly instruction that he began with.
SPEAKER_00: Search for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's a treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Seek it out.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear towards it so that it might guard you in the moment that you meet this kind of person or hear these kinds of words that enter through the doorway of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the story of the adulterous woman, and this could be a man or a woman, these are just examples that he's giving, images that he's helping us, he's using to help us see it.
SPEAKER_00: She also tempts with words, but this kind of temptation, I think, primarily enters through the doorway of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's the whole person, but the doorway is the heart.
SPEAKER_00: The evil man used perverse language, the strange woman uses smooth language, some of your translations will say.
SPEAKER_00: Or flattery.
SPEAKER_00: She asks questions like, don't you deserve a little pleasure?
SPEAKER_00: You look like you've been successful.
SPEAKER_00: Haven't you earned a little thrill this afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: My empty house is just down that path.
SPEAKER_00: You can come right back.
SPEAKER_00: No one will know.
SPEAKER_00: Derek Kittner said it this way: she offers a taste of life, but she sells us death.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says in the text.
SPEAKER_00: A path that leads to the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And here again, think of that background music, what Solomon started with.
SPEAKER_00: Seek after wisdom like a treasure.
SPEAKER_00: It is valuable, it's protection for you, so that in that moment, when you meet this kind of person or these kinds of words, you might be protected from it.
SPEAKER_00: So our second posture this morning is walking in the protection of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord and his ways, verse 7 and 8, are a shield, a guard, preservation.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the eternal perspective of heavenly wisdom comes into view.
SPEAKER_00: Those on this side of the cross, those who are in Christ, are held in his grip.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be plucked from his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And we can rest in that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's an eternal promise here for the people of God, but there's also practical help for today.
SPEAKER_00: When we saturate ourselves in the sources of wisdom and seek to live faithfully, our tastes begin to change.
SPEAKER_00: The guardrails of the wisdom of God begin to make the way of darkness, the perverse way, the smooth talk, the way of death, distasteful.
SPEAKER_00: The protection of God's wisdom is that foolish talk of the world begins to seem foreign to us, unimaginable.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament calls it the renewal of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: We're being formed more into the likeness of the one in whom all wisdom is found.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's also a practice to this life of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I chose the word walking in the protection of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many action words that Solomon uses.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to walk.
SPEAKER_00: We see this pattern laced throughout the Proverbs and the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the source of wisdom and we listen.
SPEAKER_00: We listen attentively and then we walk the path with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Godly wisdom often requires, always requires really faith.
SPEAKER_00: Often requires courage, trust in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's well of an all throughout the wisdom literature.
SPEAKER_00: Just I'm going to show you four or five different proverbs where Solomon and other authors get at this.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to read this together.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to put it up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read this first one, and there are exclamation points, so we've got to say this boisterously.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say it together.
SPEAKER_00: Acquire wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Acquire understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: This one's my favorite because it's so piffy.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say it together.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16, 16, let's say it.
SPEAKER_00: How much better it is to get wisdom than gold.
SPEAKER_00: 19.8.
SPEAKER_00: He who gets wisdom loves his own soul, a proper love of self.
SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs 23, 23, buy truth and do not sell it, get wisdom and instruction and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: He had a few wisdom psalms as well, and he may have instructed young Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this in Psalm 119, and I'll just read this one aloud.
SPEAKER_00: How can a young man keep his way pure, or a young woman?
SPEAKER_00: By guarding it according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: With my whole heart I seek you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me not wander from your commandments.
SPEAKER_00: There's that path language.
SPEAKER_00: I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, that I might not go towards the smooth words, the perverse words, but stay on the wise path.
SPEAKER_00: He turned with me, if you would, to verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Let's set our eyes there for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Verse five, it gives us the outcome of one who listens to and seeks after wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It says, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God, awe and the intimacy of the Creator God.
SPEAKER_00: If I were to write a proverb on the pursuit of wisdom, it might be a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I might say something like, listen to the sources of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great place to start.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your ear towards them, seek after them, and then you will be wise.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: That's my nice little Western logic, but that's not what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: The pursuit of godly wisdom leads to the God of all wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard that, the Westminster Shorter Catechism says that.
SPEAKER_00: Our chief end, our purpose, our telos, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_00: The chief end of wisdom moves in the same direction, that we might fear him and know him.
SPEAKER_00: Stand in reverence and awe and humility before his greatness, his transcendence.
SPEAKER_00: But he's so compelling that I want to know him more.
SPEAKER_00: Our third posture this morning is pursuing the God of all wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not an ultimate goal, it is a means to something greater.
SPEAKER_00: It's a taste of the world to come.
SPEAKER_00: We sang about it earlier, where wisdom will be the way of life.
SPEAKER_00: That day will come, and for that we can say a hearty amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's a means to know more of God who has put eternity into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And through his word that we're studying here this morning, he speaks into every nook and cranny of our lives and says, Here is the way that you were created, a flourishing life in right relation to me, my word, and my world.
SPEAKER_00: A.W.
SPEAKER_00: Tozer says it this way: we pursue God because and only because he has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after him.
SPEAKER_00: Are we pursuing the God of all wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: You might ask the question, I know I do, what if I've been the foolish one who's already listened to the perverse words, the smooth talk, the flattery.
SPEAKER_00: The God of every grace calls you in the middle of the dark path that you might be in and says, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean there won't be earthly consequences, but he calls you to turn away from the other paths.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see that here in part in Solomon's fatherly instruction.
SPEAKER_00: He calls you away from those paths, towards this other path, newness of life through our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's at the center of the gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the story of the prodigal son?
SPEAKER_00: There were two sons in that story.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them were foolish.
SPEAKER_00: One was full of pride and self-righteousness, one was pleasure-seeking and full of licentiousness.
SPEAKER_00: The Father moved towards both of them.
SPEAKER_00: He comes for fools like me.
SPEAKER_00: And when we recognize our need, we can't help but fall before him in desperation, crying out to him, lifting up our voices for discernment, and he offers it freely through the ways he's given us in his word as people, in his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament describes Jesus this way: one who is greater than Solomon is here.
SPEAKER_00: The most sage person is Jesus, the one in whom all wisdom is found.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, when he was prophesying about the Messiah that would come, he describes Jesus, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And he starts with this the spirit of wisdom will fall on him.
SPEAKER_00: To know Jesus is to actually know wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a mystery there.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone in this room who might be wrestling with questions about relationships or location or family or finances, how do we go out and pursue the way of life, the way of wisdom, the wise way?
SPEAKER_00: It is simple.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon is writing to a young man, and it applies to young men and young women everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It applies to 90-year-olds, 40-year-olds, teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: We pay attention and we walk.
SPEAKER_00: We do make decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Can't be paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: We search the scriptures for principles and patterns.
SPEAKER_00: We cry out to God and we ask Him for insight and help.
SPEAKER_00: We go to godly men and women, and then we make a choice.
SPEAKER_00: We walk in the protection of wisdom, like we talked about.
SPEAKER_00: We use the gifts, the good gift of our mind and our heart to make a decision that seems right to us and to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: But we rest in the reality that we are held in his grip, walking by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in the protection of the wisdom that he has laid out in his world, in his word, and in him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Ecclesiastes, I started with this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For God is in heaven and you are on earth.
SPEAKER_00: So let your words be few.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Listen attentively, incline your ear.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says it a different way, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's an unending source available to you and to me.
SPEAKER_00: And we cry out for the riches of that wisdom, and he's eager to provide it.
SPEAKER_00: And the book of Colossians so helpfully describes the fullest expression of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, our Lord Himself, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: As he calls us this morning to pursue him, to follow him, to walk with him, are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: Am I paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: May he give us ears to hear his call this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We said amen.
SPEAKER_00: And hey, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God of grace and mercy and wisdom, we cry out to you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I cry out to you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I lift up my voice for understanding.
SPEAKER_00: We desperately need you.
SPEAKER_00: That we might enjoy the gift of wisdom, yes, but that we might come to know you more.
SPEAKER_00: What we know not, Lord, teach us.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to delight in your ways and to walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as we go back to work and play and school and home, may you start that work of renewal, renew the tastes that we have, that we might we might enjoy and delight in your good wisdom and ways.
SPEAKER_00: And might that lead to a revival in our homes, in our communities, in our schools.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, only you can do this work.
SPEAKER_00: Come and move among us.
SPEAKER_00: God of all wisdom, God of all grace.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ, we all said.