SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 8 is probably the most theological chapter in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, it comes out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs so far has been instruction from a father to a son.
SPEAKER_00: The mother has been involved.
SPEAKER_00: There's been points where the father and mother together are talking to the son, and it really has been a pleading for the son.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been all based in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, as you're working through this, it's an introduction to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember in Proverbs chapter 1, it was the beginning of wisdom, the foundation of wisdom, where wisdom was described to the children.
SPEAKER_00: The father leans through and says, wisdom is going to be out there calling for you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to her, and you'll live.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 2 is the value of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The father explains how valuable it is to gain wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And he's again pleading with his, let's say, a teenage child here to embrace wisdom, like to grow up and actually hold on to wisdom and knowledge and cling to God and tells him it's going to be worth more than anything else you'll get.
SPEAKER_00: And warns him, there will be those out there who are who are sinners who are leading you astray.
SPEAKER_00: That's the end of chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: There will be people who say, hey, come murder with us, let's do bad things, let's get rich.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, Proverbs chapter one is the easy place to say no.
SPEAKER_00: It's like temptation is not subtle in Proverbs 1.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, let's go murder people and take their cash.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to be a mature believer to go, hmm, I think that's bad.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: And then it starts to get more sophisticated as you go through the book.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 3 is the warning to trust the Lord with all of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then you get some ethical implications that, how that's going to live out, how you're going to be generous with your life.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 4, then, is more pleading from the Father, accept the words of my mouth, be attentive to them, it's pay attention to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And then you get hit in Proverbs chapter 5 with adultery.
SPEAKER_00: That's where wisdom goes to die.
SPEAKER_00: Commit adultery, walk away from your marriage or your family, and watch your whole life be eroded.
SPEAKER_00: It's the opposite of wisdom, it's embodied that way.
SPEAKER_00: And then Proverbs chapter 6, more warnings to prepare you for Proverbs chapter 7, which is more warnings about adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 7 is the death chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 7 has the woman who's roaming, remember?
SPEAKER_00: She's out there patrolling the streets and beckoning you to come in.
SPEAKER_00: She's ensnaring the sinful person.
SPEAKER_00: She's lying, remember?
SPEAKER_00: The adulteress is lying.
SPEAKER_00: She says she cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, the dad in Proverbs 7 is just looking out the window and says, I see this in like almost like it's a different world.
SPEAKER_00: I see this out there somewhere, and there's a boy who's walking around, and this girl has been looking up down the highways and the byways and the marketplace to trap her, and you know, he to trap him, and he fell for it.
SPEAKER_00: And so the whole time there's different voices.
SPEAKER_00: There's the voice of the dad saying, Listen to wisdom, the voice of the mom saying, Listen to wisdom, the voice of the harlot, the sinfully immoral person calling out to the streets and trying to trap people.
SPEAKER_00: And then if you remember back in Proverbs 2, there was the voice of wisdom at the top of the street, crying down the whole street, telling everybody in the street, listen to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So those are the different voices you have so far in Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: The parents, you have the child who doesn't know who to listen to, the child hasn't spoken yet.
SPEAKER_00: You have the sexually immoral person, and then lady wisdom begging for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: What's always interesting about this is that the parents are directing this child to somebody else's voice.
SPEAKER_00: The parents are constantly telling the child you need to learn wisdom's voice and listen to that person.
SPEAKER_00: That's unusual in a parenting scenario.
SPEAKER_00: Parents don't usually direct their kids to listen to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what's happening through Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is listening, learning to listen to the voice of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the sexually immoral person is doing.
SPEAKER_00: She's trapping people.
SPEAKER_00: And so now this teenager has the two voices clearly described.
SPEAKER_00: This is what wisdom looks like, this is what sexual immorality looks like.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of uh the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you want uh treasure and knowledge and wealth, walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now in Proverbs 8, you really get to meet wisdom for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Now the rest of the book of Proverbs is all about wisdom lived out in life.
SPEAKER_00: Ethical wisdom, practical wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We get a couple more chapters of the introduction.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're doing one more chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 9 is the last of the introduction chapters.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that next Lord's Day.
SPEAKER_00: And then chapter 10, all the way through chapter 30, is General Wisdom for Life, with chapter 31, Wisdom for the Godly Wife, the description of her.
SPEAKER_00: So the rest of the book is practical wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of right, this is the closing scene here of the introduction of the book, and it's now introducing you to Lady Wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 8, therefore, is a fairly theological chapter because it's taking you to who is this voice of wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Like what is it?
SPEAKER_00: A fortune cookie?
SPEAKER_00: Like what is wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a different book?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a different tutor?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a you know a disciple, a rabbi, a mentor?
SPEAKER_00: What exactly is the voice of wisdom that you're supposed to listen to?
SPEAKER_00: Because for seven chapters right now, you have a parent telling their child, you need to recognize wisdom's voice and listen to it at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: Like so by this point, the adulterist will kill you, and so I'm in, I want to listen to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now what?
SPEAKER_00: What do I look for?
SPEAKER_00: Because the parents aren't saying, listen to me, the parents are saying listen to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So now you're like, okay, I'm there.
SPEAKER_00: Mom, dad, you've got me.
SPEAKER_00: Like when that kid died, remember the end of chapter seven?
SPEAKER_00: It's like he's a stag who gets hit in the liver with an arrow and is bleeding out.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, I'll follow wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: After that image, the kid is like, I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: What does wisdom look like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Proverbs chapter 8 is your introduction to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's introduced in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't wisdom call?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't understanding raise her voice?
SPEAKER_00: She introduces a woman.
SPEAKER_00: On the heights beside the way at the crosshart, she takes her stand beside the gates of the front of the town at the entrance of the portal.
SPEAKER_00: She is crying out loud.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is vocal, pleading for people to listen.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an outline to help you recognize wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Four characteristics of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That'll guide us as we go through this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Four characteristics of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So you recognize it.
SPEAKER_00: And right away we're seeing that wisdom's calling out, but how do you know what voice to listen to?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom's taking a stand in verse 2 at the portals.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, every entrance, she's crying aloud.
SPEAKER_00: What does she look like?
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we go much further in Proverbs 8, it is surprising to, I think, many uh American Christians understand what an important chapter this was throughout church history.
SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking in the early church, the early church uh Athanasius and Arius, their theological debates in the early fourth century, 300s, uh, Proverbs 8 was a critical chapter for them.
SPEAKER_00: So much of our uh current doctrine of the Trinity has grown out of Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: When you go back in church history, this was a chapter that the doctrine of the Trinity was forged in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Athanasius and Arius, Athanasius was a pastor who uh was an advocate for the Trinity, was an advocate for the deity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't invent the word trinity, but the concept of Trinity certainly comes from him.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of one essence and three persons, that kind of language that we just take for granted today.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we teach our children the Trinity is one God and three persons.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of language comes from Athanasius, uh, one essence, three persons.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's his language.
SPEAKER_00: Arius was a different uh theologian and he spun in a different direction.
SPEAKER_00: He was okay with uh different persons, but he rejected the idea that Jesus was eternal like the Father was.
SPEAKER_00: Arius was okay saying that Jesus existed before time, but he was not okay saying that Jesus was as old as God.
SPEAKER_00: Which is a little bit of a nuance there that is lost on us.
SPEAKER_00: The only people that really teach that kind of Aryan theology today are kind of Mormons, like that's our Jehovah's Witnesses, maybe, but Mormons more so than even that.
SPEAKER_00: Mormons who say Jesus is older than the planet, older than the creation as we know it, is their language, but not as old as the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Arius' theology didn't win, Athanasius won.
SPEAKER_00: But I tell you that, just so you know that Proverbs 8, this is the battleground of so much of their debates.
SPEAKER_00: So much of their debates.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Nicene Creed, which defines Trinitarianism, for say we sing it sometimes or we read it on Sunday mornings, often that kind of language from there comes out of Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it says that Jesus was the Son of God, is begotten, not made.
SPEAKER_00: That's Proverbs 8 language we'll look at in a second.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Arius was fine saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Arius could sign the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, okay, Jesus is begotten, not made, but begotten with the beginning, made with a start in time.
SPEAKER_00: He would sign the creed and then weasel his way out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Proverbs 8 was a chapter people kept going back to to fight Arius and his um heretical theology.
SPEAKER_00: So I tell you that before I thought about it, do I say that at the beginning or do you say that at the end, how important this chapter is in church history?
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to say at the beginning, because I think you can engage with this chapter now with a different gear, knowing this isn't just one more chapter in Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is a chapter with massive theological debates that have played out throughout church history.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's important for us to pay attention as we go through it.
SPEAKER_00: These descriptions will take on a different flavor as you hear them, knowing the history of Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, wisdom has the prerogative to reward.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has the prerogative to reward.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first characteristic of wisdom that we'll see in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is the capacity or the right, the divine right to reward people for their life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, to you, O men, I call.
SPEAKER_00: And my call is to the children of man.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not crying to angels, it's not crying to animals.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom here is given to mankind, and mankind in particular.
SPEAKER_00: O simple ones, learn prudence.
SPEAKER_00: O fools, learn sense.
SPEAKER_00: This is language that uh reminds you of Psalm 19, that the word of God gives, makes the foolish person wise, makes the naive person more profound.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God's educational, that's David's language, Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon is David's son.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that Solomon's writing this from the perspective of father talking to his son, and he's practically quoting here Psalm 19, which is Solomon's own dad, instructing him on the power of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has the ability, like the word of God, to teach you sense.
SPEAKER_00: You know, remember Proverbs 8, what it's doing here is it's teaching the kid.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the kid says, I want to listen to wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: What does wisdom look like?
SPEAKER_00: How do I recognize that I want to listen to her?
SPEAKER_00: Who is she?
SPEAKER_00: The very first description you get of wisdom reminds you of Psalm 19 in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what wisdom sounds like?
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what ton of voice wisdom has?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has the ton of voice you hear in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know the effect of wisdom's teaching?
SPEAKER_00: It has the effect of Psalm 19, making the wise person profound, giving the simple person prudence is the word in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Here, verse 6, and I'll speak noble things.
SPEAKER_00: From my lips will come what is right.
SPEAKER_00: My mouth will utter truth.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
SPEAKER_00: The speech of wisdom is never mixed with folly.
SPEAKER_00: The speech of wisdom is never mixed with sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you have your best friends might give you good advice 90% of the time, and 5% of what he says is silly, and 5% is sinful.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand that filter in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the voice of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not your best friend.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not the sage person down the street who's right more than the weatherman.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom here only speaks the truth, always speaks the truth, and never lets any falsehood come out of her lips.
SPEAKER_00: The word for that is infallible, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is infallible.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is inerrant.
SPEAKER_00: And all of her words, are righteous.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: They are righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is an attribute of God.
SPEAKER_00: The words of wisdom have that attribute.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing twisted, nothing crooked in them.
SPEAKER_00: They are straight to those who understand, and they are right to those who find knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: You have to have understanding in order to receive wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom makes the naive person mature, but wisdom does not make the naive person mature if the naive person doesn't receive wisdom as wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If the naive person doesn't receive wisdom with faith.
SPEAKER_00: This should remind you of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 that we read earlier.
SPEAKER_00: That to the people in the world, the wisdom of God is foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work on them.
SPEAKER_00: The wisest news the world has ever learned is folly to the wisest people in the world.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have the ears for it.
SPEAKER_00: But the foolish, naive, simple person, if they have faith, wisdom engages with their faith and grows them.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 10 is the prerogative to reward.
SPEAKER_00: Take my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than gold.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is better than jewels.
SPEAKER_00: All that you may desire cannot compare with her.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember Solomon was told by the Lord, you can have anything you want?
SPEAKER_00: You want money?
SPEAKER_00: Name it.
SPEAKER_00: Claim it, Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: The first prosperity preacher, right there, he could have been.
SPEAKER_00: Name it and claim it.
SPEAKER_00: And Solomon doesn't name it and claim it.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon names wisdom instead.
SPEAKER_00: And God rewards him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, with wisdom you can get the money, I suppose, if that's what you want.
SPEAKER_00: And Solomon, through the book of Ecclesiastes, finally understands that wisdom is just more profound than riches anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the point in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: It is better to have wisdom in silver or gold.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot you can say that about in life.
SPEAKER_00: But you can say it about wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't cost you anything, but it gives you everything.
SPEAKER_00: It should remind you of Isaiah 55.
SPEAKER_00: Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water and drink.
SPEAKER_00: Come who has no money, the one who has no money, come by and eat.
SPEAKER_00: Come buy wine without cost, milk without money, without price.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Isaiah it says, why do you spend your money on things that don't actually nourish you?
SPEAKER_00: Rather, delight yourselves in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Incline your ear, come to me, and hear that your soul may live.
SPEAKER_00: That's Isaiah 55, verses 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Job 28, remember, describes people who do all kinds of crazy things to find gold and silver.
SPEAKER_00: They'll lasso themselves up, they'll sway in the mines.
SPEAKER_00: My sister-in-law works in a mine in Montana, and you know, she was describing to me what they do to get this element out of the ground, and they they've made these machines out of sheep bone, and they swing this element in sheep bone until it gets refined, and they use it in some kind of batteries for cell phones or something.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but it's like this the most complicated process you can imagine involving literally some element that is swirled in sheep bones deep inside of the mountain to create the right element that we need for our for our cell phones.
SPEAKER_00: People do crazy things in minds because they value money, they value gold, they value silver, they value whatever chemical that is.
SPEAKER_00: And Solomon says, Isn't it better to do that stuff for wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: You'll swing on a rope underground for gold.
SPEAKER_00: What would you do for wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: That's the language of verse 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is better than all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can compare to her.
SPEAKER_00: She can alone reward people who search for her.
SPEAKER_00: Only wisdom can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom rewards people who search for her.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast earlier.
SPEAKER_00: The sinner back in Proverbs 1 says, I'll reward you if you come sin with me.
SPEAKER_00: And remember in Proverbs 1, you recognize that's not actually true.
SPEAKER_00: The sinner is as likely to kill you as reward you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the sinner says, Hey, come with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ambush that guy and take his stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how soon until the sinner ambushes you and take your stuff?
SPEAKER_00: That's the way sin always works.
SPEAKER_00: Sin says, follow me and I'll reward you.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me and you'll be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Sin in this way and you'll get your reward.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get the experience you want, the feeling you want, the toy you want, the pride you want, the compliments you want, whatever your category of sin is.
SPEAKER_00: Sin says, do this and you'll get the reward.
SPEAKER_00: And you recognize if you've sinned one time in your life, you recognize that's not actually true.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't actually give you the reward.
SPEAKER_00: It lies to you.
SPEAKER_00: Sin lies.
SPEAKER_00: It says, oh, you'll like this, and then you don't like it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you'll be rewarded and you'll feel proud and powerful, and then you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is a liar.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom always rewards.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom always delivers, nothing compares to her.
SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, wisdom is the power to reward.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, wisdom is the power to rule.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom alone has the power to rule.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, or sorry, verse 12, I wisdom dwell with prudence.
SPEAKER_00: I find knowledge and discretion.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, knowledge and discretion, ethical actions come from wisdom, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of Yahweh is the hatred of evil.
SPEAKER_00: Pride and arrogance are the way of evil.
SPEAKER_00: Perverted speech I hate.
SPEAKER_00: We've heard that refrain before.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, verse 14, I have counsel and sound wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I have insight, I have strength.
SPEAKER_00: These are attributes that wisdom possesses.
SPEAKER_00: This is language of possession.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom says, I possess these things.
SPEAKER_00: I possess knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: I possess, wisdom possesses wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, wisdom is not wise because wisdom went to school.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is wise because wisdom possesses wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Very different than how you and I are wise.
SPEAKER_00: You and I can have wisdom by studying and acquiring it.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom does not study and acquire it.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom just is it by its own nature.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom, by definition, is wise.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom takes counsel with herself.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't go to somebody else for counsel.
SPEAKER_00: She is counsel.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 by me kings reign and rulers decree what is just.
SPEAKER_00: By me princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly.
SPEAKER_00: There's an ethical distinction there.
SPEAKER_00: Those that govern justly have a particular relationship with wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, every king in the world reigns by wisdom's decree.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is, to use the New Testament language, sovereign over every king and every prince and every mayor and every person in authority in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is sovereign over their position.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has decreed their position before the foundation of time.
SPEAKER_00: It's only by wisdom's decree that the king can reign.
SPEAKER_00: And the rulers who do what is just are in a special relationship with wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is not even talking about those inside of the covenant with Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is any ruler anywhere in the world who is ruling justly is ruling by wisdom's commands.
SPEAKER_00: I should remind you of Romans 13 that every ruler, every king has authority because it comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: And those who rule according to God's commands and rule justly and well and suppress evil and promote the good, they are actually doing government the way God meant them to do government.
SPEAKER_00: So they have a special relationship with God, even if they're not Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They're actually following the pattern God cut out for them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what wiz- that's coming from Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: Where every king, good ones, bad ones, and medium ones, they all are ruling under the sovereign authority of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And yet those who rule justly and wisely are truly following the pattern of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is a source of common grace, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: This reminds me of one passage, 1 Chronicles 29.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, David blessed Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This is David's capstone prayer here.
SPEAKER_00: Blesses Yahweh at the presence of all the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: And David said, Blessed are you, O Yahweh, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty.
SPEAKER_00: All that is in heavens and in earth is yours.
SPEAKER_00: Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Your exalted is head over all.
SPEAKER_00: Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon would add a front row seat to this prayer, and he's adopting its language.
SPEAKER_00: Riches and honor come from Yahweh, and Yahweh rules over every nation.
SPEAKER_00: In your hands, in Yahweh's hand is power and might.
SPEAKER_00: In Yahweh's hand, it's to make great and to give strength to all.
SPEAKER_00: And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of language in Proverbs 8, much more succinct in Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, by me kings reign.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, I love those who love me, wisdom says.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is reciprocal.
SPEAKER_00: If you love her, she rewards you and showers you with love.
SPEAKER_00: Those who seek me diligently, find me, wisdom says.
SPEAKER_00: This should remind you of New Testament passages.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, ask, it'll be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Knock and it'll be opened.
SPEAKER_00: You lack wisdom, James 1 says, pray and God will give you wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's coming from Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: You seek God through Jesus Christ, you will find God.
SPEAKER_00: You seek wisdom from God, wisdom comes.
SPEAKER_00: When you knock, the door will be open.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 3, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, open.
SPEAKER_00: I'll come in and eat with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's this kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom not only rewards people, but by wisdom, rulers are built up, and wisdom rewards those who rule well.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this in verse 19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, my yield better than choice silver.
SPEAKER_00: I walk in the way of righteousness and in the path of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries.
SPEAKER_00: This is more kind of rewarding language.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom says, I walk in the way.
SPEAKER_00: I possess the truth and I reward you with life.
SPEAKER_00: So first, wisdom has the power to reward.
SPEAKER_00: Second, wisdom has the power to rule.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, wisdom has the potency to create.
SPEAKER_00: Potency just means the capability, like the latent power, the power wrapped up in there that when it's activated, it comes out.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom, lady wisdom, has the potency to create.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand this about God.
SPEAKER_00: God eternally has the power to create, but he hadn't always created.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't always the creator.
SPEAKER_00: He began as the creator once he created something.
SPEAKER_00: But he always has the potency to create.
SPEAKER_00: That power is always in him.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't get any new power by creating, but it was a new thing he did by creating.
SPEAKER_00: That's what potency captures.
SPEAKER_00: And here, starting in verse 22, you get the same kind of concept.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh possessed me, we'll get back to that word later, at the beginning of his work.
SPEAKER_00: The first of his acts of old.
SPEAKER_00: Ages ago I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So that should give you pause right there.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has her existence from before day one of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom was already there.
SPEAKER_00: When there were no depths, verse 24 says, I was brought forth.
SPEAKER_00: When there was no springs abounding with water, before the mountains had been shaped.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking Genesis 1-1 world right here.
SPEAKER_00: Before all of that, before verse 26, he had made earth with fields and the first of the dust of the world.
SPEAKER_00: When he established the heavens, I was already there, wisdom saying.
SPEAKER_00: When he drew a deep circle on the face of the deep, this is the first day of creation, wisdom says, I was there.
SPEAKER_00: When he made the skies, we're talking third and fourth day of creation here, I was there.
SPEAKER_00: When he established the fountains of the deep, the seas are separated.
SPEAKER_00: When he assigned to the sea its limits, so we're going through the days of creation, not in the exact order, we're hopping to the days of creation here back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: And wisdom's saying, I was already there.
SPEAKER_00: When he did the foundations of the earth, separating the dry land from the seas, in verse 29, wisdom was there.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 30, I was beside him like a master workman.
SPEAKER_00: What is wisdom doing?
SPEAKER_00: Not just watching, not just keeping track of the days.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is the workman who's there during creation.
SPEAKER_00: I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the children of man.
SPEAKER_00: So wisdom isn't just hanging out, wisdom's doing stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We have an expression in English that that person is older than dirt.
SPEAKER_00: You heard that expression before?
SPEAKER_00: It's worth thinking about for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Older than dirt?
SPEAKER_00: How old is dirt?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that goes back to the very beginning of creation, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When God separated light from darkness and then earth from sea, you got dirt.
SPEAKER_00: To be older than dirt, that's like angel territory.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom's not just older than dirt.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is older than the beginning of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is older than light in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom predates everything.
SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
SPEAKER_00: When everything else in the world was there, not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is already there.
SPEAKER_00: She existed before Yahweh did work, and then she was Yahweh's master workman, the one working aside with him.
SPEAKER_00: There's a simple principle here that I'm sure you're starting to build together through Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the world, I I've been telling my oldest daughter this, you can make any sentence sound profound by making a category distinction.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: There's two kinds of people, those who go to church and those who don't.
SPEAKER_00: There's two kinds of fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's that taste good and those that don't.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can make that distinction about anything in the world that makes you sound profound.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a fun thing to teach a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: There are two categories of things in the universe: those things that are created and those that aren't.
SPEAKER_00: In that second category, things that aren't created, the list has one thing on it, God.
SPEAKER_00: Anything uncreated is God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else comes into existence by his creation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to deal with persons in that second category, there are three persons that are not created: the father, son, and spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: There's no fourth thing in that category.
SPEAKER_00: There's no fourth uncreated thing.
SPEAKER_00: There's father, son, spirit, period.
SPEAKER_00: Except periods are created.
SPEAKER_00: Here you have wisdom existing before creation.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a fourth thing?
SPEAKER_00: Was it father, son, spirit, and lady wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: You're prepared by this point in biblical history.
SPEAKER_00: By the time Solomon is writing, you're prepared for some plurality in creation.
SPEAKER_00: After all, back in Genesis, God is speaking in the first person plural, let us make mankind in our image.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit was hovering.
SPEAKER_00: There's this kind of duality, at least, between the Father and the Spirit, and the first person plural has prepared you.
SPEAKER_00: Even the Shema, the Israelite, Hero Israel, the Lord your God, Shema Adna Elohinu Adna Echad, the Hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_00: It has an Elohim in it, this plurality to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a plural ending on that.
SPEAKER_00: So even in the Jewish mind, there's some ambiguity about this.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one God, of course.
SPEAKER_00: It's Hero, Israel, the Lord your God is one.
SPEAKER_00: But Elohim is kind of pluralish.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1, let us make man in our image, kind of pluralish.
SPEAKER_00: And so here you get to Proverbs 8, and Solomon says, wisdom is there with God before creation.
SPEAKER_00: Working with God.
SPEAKER_00: And also not just working with God.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice what else wisdom is doing?
SPEAKER_00: Being happy.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is rejoicing with God.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is psyched about things.
SPEAKER_00: See this down here in verse 30?
SPEAKER_00: I was sound like a master workman.
SPEAKER_00: I was daily his delight.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoicing before him always.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: So is that five things now?
SPEAKER_00: Father, son, spirit, wisdom, and joy?
SPEAKER_00: Where did joy come from?
SPEAKER_00: Is joy a fifth thing?
SPEAKER_00: Was joy a pre-created thing?
SPEAKER_00: The best way to understand this is when you put the whole list back on the screen again.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we'll go, we'll go point number four.
SPEAKER_00: We got one more.
SPEAKER_00: One more clue.
SPEAKER_00: Forgot about this one.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite one.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has been begotten.
SPEAKER_00: This is from verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh possessed me.
SPEAKER_00: And that word ESV possessed, it's the word for beget or begot.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a word we use in English.
SPEAKER_00: In English, we have the word for for women.
SPEAKER_00: Women give birth.
SPEAKER_00: What's the word for what a father does?
SPEAKER_00: Sired might be a word that people use, but you don't, I mean, you do that with horses.
SPEAKER_00: You don't do that with people, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: The old English word, Hebrew has a word for it, beget or begotten.
SPEAKER_00: This is a word for the father giving life to someone.
SPEAKER_00: Begotten.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the word here in verse 22, Yahweh, beget me or begotten me, and it's it's rendered here into the ESV is possessed rather than begat.
SPEAKER_00: Possessed, I assume, is fine.
SPEAKER_00: The father had him in possession, but at the beginning of his work, so notice that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be begat.
SPEAKER_00: Before the Father, at the beginning, so the very first thing the Father makes, the very first thing outside of the Trinity, the Father makes, the second person was already there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the doctrine of eternal generation, it's called.
SPEAKER_00: And in verses 23, it's referred to as set up.
SPEAKER_00: It's begotten, but set up is just a way to express that.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean the son had a chronological beginning, but it means that the son is indeed the son.
SPEAKER_00: The son has his life from the father.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be son.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it means to be a son, is to have your life from your father.
SPEAKER_00: All it means to be a father is to give life to a child.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not more complex than that.
SPEAKER_00: And you recognize there's no actual chronological start date to this because there was never a time when the father didn't have a son, or the father wouldn't be the eternal father.
SPEAKER_00: There was never a time when the son didn't exist, where the son didn't exist, or there would be a time when the father didn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: If the father is eternal, the son has to be eternal because he's the eternal father.
SPEAKER_00: That's his name.
SPEAKER_00: And so even the names, when you talk about the Trinity, the Father and the Son, is speaking to this concept of generation.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is the generation because he's got his life from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Father gives him life.
SPEAKER_00: Without beginning, there was never a start point to this.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the nature of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit isn't begotten, but the Spirit is the Spirit, proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit is marked by, get this, joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's the description that's often given to the Spirit throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is the Spirit of joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language you see here, not a fifth thing.
SPEAKER_00: The words of joy and delight is spiritual language.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 13, verse 52.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 14, verse 7, joy comes from the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 5, verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy.
SPEAKER_00: And then it works external outside the Trinity after that.
SPEAKER_00: Peace, reconciling, and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But love and joy are inter-trinitarian, speaking of inside the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 6, Paul says, Become imitators of me, of Paul, by having joy in the Spirit, he says.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is spiritual and produces joy.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is marked by joy.
SPEAKER_00: The Father has a son, and the Father and Son have joy in each other, and this represents a spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this language in Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying Solom knew the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon didn't have the cool little Trinity tattoo people get.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon wouldn't have been able to draw that.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon didn't have the language, one God existing simultaneously in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon wouldn't have used the word hypostasis because he wasn't writing in Greek, but he wasn't, he wouldn't have used this like theological language to describe the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: But Solomon is clearly engaging with God in this worldview here of a father with a life that was begotten to him, that is wisdom personified, and that Father created the universe through wisdom, and the father and the wisdom delighted with joy in each other.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the New Testament fills in as the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this language, when you take all four of them together, it becomes less arbitrary, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When you look at this chapter, just with a reasonable walking through this chapter, you see, listen, wisdom is described as somebody who can reward you for how you lived your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to stand before wisdom and be held accountable for how you lived your life and the deeds done in the flesh, whether good or empty, and wisdom will reward you for your deeds.
SPEAKER_00: That's divine language.
SPEAKER_00: That's 2 Corinthians 5 kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is the power to rule.
SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 13 kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom sets up kings and rulers.
SPEAKER_00: They rule by her.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom has the potency to create.
SPEAKER_00: This is Colossians 1.
SPEAKER_00: Through wisdom, all things were made, and nothing has been made unless it was made by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God.
SPEAKER_00: The Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: He was with God in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: All things were made through Him.
SPEAKER_00: Without Him, nothing was made that has been made.
SPEAKER_00: There isn't anything that exists that wasn't made by the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He was with the Father in the beginning, filled with grace and truth, filled with love and joy.
SPEAKER_00: And wisdom, of course, is begotten.
SPEAKER_00: This is language that's used in Psalm 2, implied in Psalm 110, all over the book of Hebrews, it makes it so clear.
SPEAKER_00: This is talking about the eternal Son.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament fills this out.
SPEAKER_00: David had hints of this, of course, in Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_00: The king in Psalm 2 is begotten.
SPEAKER_00: There's hints of this in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 89 speaks of the king that comes from David as having the radiance of the Father's face, being older than David and existing at the foundation of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Psalm 89 says that that king comes from the womb of the dawn is language in Psalm 89.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever the Dawn was born, that king was already there.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever gave birth to the first day, the king was already there.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes has a similar kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 8 just renders it here.
SPEAKER_00: As lady wisdom was there with God before anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom was there.
SPEAKER_00: Which leads to the fifth point.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is how Solomon ends Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sons, theology lesson closed.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Solomon didn't understand the nature of the Trinity in all of its fullness or anything like that, as if we do.
SPEAKER_00: But Solomon is clearly describing wisdom as being with God before creation, having a righteousness of herself, the power to rule and establish kings, sovereignty over the world, and to reward his children.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon wraps up that lesson with verse 32 and says, Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who keep my ways, hear instruction and be wise, don't neglect it.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how the chapter started with wisdom calling at every door?
SPEAKER_00: And now it says, Hey, hang out at my door.
SPEAKER_00: Wait until you're blessed by me.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever, verse 35, finds me, finds life.
SPEAKER_00: Remember John 14, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom says, Listen, if you encounter me, you have found eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You've obtained favor from Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: But he who fails to find me injures himself.
SPEAKER_00: All who hate me love death.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of language is letting you know this is not just some fortune cookie wisdom we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: There are those that don't that don't buy what I'm saying about Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: There are those that just say, Proverbs 8 is about generic wisdom and growing up in the ethical application of the rest of God's word is making decisions in life, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't make sense with the end of Proverbs 8, does it?
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you make wrong decisions in life, you deserve hell.
SPEAKER_00: Sinners deserve hell.
SPEAKER_00: Those who reject Jesus Christ deserve hell.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: All who hate me, Lady Wisdom says, love death.
SPEAKER_00: This is very stark language.
SPEAKER_00: This is your eternity at stake.
SPEAKER_00: You can receive the Lord Jesus Christ or you can reject him.
SPEAKER_00: You can receive the eternal Son of God or you can reject him.
SPEAKER_00: If you receive him, whoever finds him finds life.
SPEAKER_00: If you reject him, you stand ready for judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line: wisdom is God's son.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it in a QA format.
SPEAKER_00: Question.
SPEAKER_00: What does wisdom look like?
SPEAKER_00: Answer?
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom looks a lot like Jesus, doesn't she?
SPEAKER_00: Question.
SPEAKER_00: What is the chief expression of God's wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Answer.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, incarnate.
SPEAKER_00: What does wisdom look like when lived out in life?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom, the culmination of wisdom, which we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the culmination of wisdom is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest wisdom there ever was.
SPEAKER_00: That God would create a universe, the universe would fall into sin through Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: Through one man, sin entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: The wages of sin and death, even creation groans under the penalty of sin and death, longing for redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Creation doesn't willingly suffer through sin, it does so reluctantly because of Adam and Eve's sin.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God chooses to redeem people and make them into a new creation through their faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He sends himself, the Son, Lady Wisdom, comes incarnate as the person of Jesus Christ, who leads a sinless life, as of course wisdom would.
SPEAKER_00: Because wisdom is the antithesis of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, sinful words aren't going to come out of Jesus' lips.
SPEAKER_00: His lips abhor sin.
SPEAKER_00: You learned that in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: He leads a sinless life, dies bearing the penalty for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: What wisdom of God to figure out how to rescue sinful people by giving their sin to a sinless substitute.
SPEAKER_00: We would never have designed this, but Jesus designed it.
SPEAKER_00: He designed his own plan of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He's wisdom, of course, wisdom designed the plan of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If the gospel is called the wisdom of God, and lady wisdom is wisdom incarnate, you see how Jesus is designing his own gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And then he comes to us offering to forgive us of our sin by him laying down his life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we celebrate at the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful that you gave your life so that sinners can live.
SPEAKER_00: You came so that those who find you will have peace.
SPEAKER_00: You stand at the door, knock, and those who open it, you come in and you eat with them.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 3 says.
SPEAKER_00: You partake of the bread and of the wine with those who open the door to you through faith.
SPEAKER_00: This table in front of us is for believers to celebrate the gospel, the wisdom of God incarnate.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know your wisdom, your plan of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed so foolish to Pilate he couldn't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you die?
SPEAKER_00: It seemed foolish even to Peter, who forbids you from enacting it.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed suicidally foolish to Judas.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it was the wisdom of God unavailed to the world.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we would never appreciate this wisdom were it not for your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit is the one who searches the mind of God.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows your mind, O Lord, except your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But you have given us your spirit, and so we can see your heart.
SPEAKER_00: As we see your heart, it looks a lot like this table in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: Your body laid down, broken for sin, your blood poured out as an atoning sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, we receive that sacrifice and we give you thanks for it.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.