Tonight we're going to be launching into the book of Proverbs. I got compelled going through wisdom and foolishness last week on the book of James, so I want to jump back in here to Proverbs. And I want to spend some time going through some of these Proverbs, and then I want to get into a study on the kings of Israel, and kind of do a character study on the different kings of Israel. I've never done that before, I've always wanted to do that, and so some of the kings have limited information, but you know you have Saul, then David, then Solomon, and Rehoboam, and just kind of walking through and kind of doing a character study, things that we can learn in some of these Old Testament lives and kings. So Proverbs chapter 1, if you have your, as you have your Bible there, we're gonna read verse 1 down to verse number 7. And so I was blessed with the opportunity to preach to a bunch of preachers yesterday down south, got to go to a preacher's meeting, and that was a blessing. And so they said, now you only have about 40 to 45 minutes. I was like, okay.
I don't know, I maybe went 46 minutes, I didn't time it. But here it says in verse number 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, to give subtlety to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion. Verse 5, if you'd read with me, a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. He goes on in verse 6 and says, to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. And then in verse 7 is our final verse, if you read that with me as well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And Father, we pray tonight that you would grant us such wisdom that we would not be seen as fools who would despise such gracious instruction that you have afforded to us through the glorious Word of God.
This is heaven's book, this is God's Word for man, and we want to treat it with a weight that it deserves. I pray that you would give our minds clarity. I know some have had busy days, busy weeks, and yet a fast pace in front of them, the finishing of this week, and I pray that we would just settle our hearts down, that we would calm our minds and think on things above.
The earth gets enough of us. May you take our hearts tonight, and may we be like a Mary tonight. Let our Martha pace settle down, and let our Mary minds be able to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear your Word. And I pray that you would plant your seed into our hearts, God.
We need that. We need purified, we need sanctification. Your Word sanctifies, and I pray that it would bring forth all good fruit unto growth and maturity, that we would be all that you've called us to be, which is the image of Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and God's people said, then you may be seated tonight. Well, as we jump into this study, we won't go through the whole book of Proverbs.
We'll just spend some time and maybe see how far we get. At most it'll be up to chapter 10, because after that it's just a bunch of pithy statements. I spent years actually going through and breaking down all the verses of Proverbs years ago into the categories that they basically would go into, and that was a helpful study. So much wisdom that Proverbs gives us. You know, Scripture was not only designed to bring men to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to guide them into God's way of living, to live in a way that would be considered wise and not foolish. And so the title of this book is the Proverbs of Solomon. In the Old Testament, they typically put the title in the first verse, like whatever the first verse is, is the title of that book. In the beginning, that's what Genesis means. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, right?
Genesis 1-1. And you'll find this same thing patterned all through the Old Testament. And so we have the Proverbs of Solomon. Now the word proverb in English is made up of two Latin words, pro, which means instead of, and verba, which means words. So a proverb is a sentence that is given instead of many words.
It's the idea of a short statement that contains a lot of information but packed into a concise, pithy truth or statement. The Hebrew word translated proverb means a comparison as well. It's comparing one thing to another. Solomon does a lot of that. He compares most of the time what a wise person would do compared to what a fool would do, a foolish person would do. And people in that world at that time, and the Jews as well, would use proverbs. They would use catchy statements that were easy to remember. And so you could pick a lot of wisdom out of just a few words.
They would say things that would really stick with you. So wisdom literature is part of the whole Old Testament. And when you read through the Bible, you'll find that the priests were the ones who gave the law, the prophets gave the word of the Lord, and then the sage, which was considered the wise man, gave wise counsel. Proverbs contains 31 chapters. Solomon is responsible for at least the first 29 chapters. Proverbs 1-1 says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. Proverbs 10-1, the Proverbs of Solomon. Proverbs 25-1, these are also the Proverbs of Solomon.
Now chapter 30 reflects on the words of Agor, and chapter 31 the words of Lemuel. And perhaps some have thought that Lemuel is actually referenced to Solomon, but Proverbs was not assembled in its final form until Hezekiah's day or after. As Proverbs 25-1 says, these are the Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied. And so 1 Kings and Ecclesiastes both also attest to Solomon's wisdom, Proverbs, and teaching. And 1 Kings 4-32 says that he spake 3,000 Proverbs.
His songs were a thousand and five. You know, it is interesting when you go back and read some of the great theologians of America's history and in Christian history, they also wrote hymns. They wrote great theology. And I'm thankful that in our present day there are some great songs coming out of some groups that are that are deep in theology.
They're producing some songs that are rich and theological, and not just 7-11, you know, the songs you were seeing seven words eleven times in a row. You know, there are things you enjoy to repeat, but it's like, you know, there's so much deeper, richer truths. You don't see that in the Bible where it says the same thing eleven times in a row.
It's like, come on, you know, there's so much more you can say of the glory of God. And Ecclesiastes 12-9 says, Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yea, he gave good heed and sought out and said in order many Proverbs. That's, that was what Solomon did, and he authored his Proverbs before his heart had fallen into sin. You know, Solomon's life is really one of both triumph and tragedy.
It's glorious, and it comes to gloom. One would not even think Solomon was a believer by the end of his life. He had fallen into such grave sin, he transgressed against the Lord, he married a bunch of women from other kingdoms to unite in peace and different things for that, but he was a lover of many women, and because of that they turned his heart to false gods, even false gods, to where pagan sacrifices would be made to them, to the point of even children's sacrifices would be made to them. And so, but these writings were done before that, and as Charles Spurgeon said, there is a greater than Solomon that wrote these Proverbs, because God is the ultimate author of all Scripture, as all Scripture is Theoth Neustas, breathed out by God. All Scripture is given by God. It's not man's writings. Man did not contrive the Scriptures.
They could not have done that. They don't have the capacity to harmonize over 1,500 years, 40 different authors, three different continents, three different languages, fitted all together like a hand in a glove, and that's what we have in the holy text for us. And so sin would ultimately rob Solomon of his wisdom, as sin makes fools out of wise people. And so King Solomon ruled from 971 to 931 BC.
He would have been around 30 years old when he ascended the throne, because King David reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years, if you remember seven years before that, but then he came in and reigned over Jerusalem for 33 years. And so Solomon was born shortly after that time as the child of Bathsheba, a child of grace. Isn't it amazing that through that relationship they lost their first child, but then he married her, and God's grace overshadowed that situation and even allowed a child, Solomon, to ascend the throne, and what a great, what a gracious God we serve. I think His grace is greater than what we realize, and how blessed we are, aren't we? God has blessed Solomon with great wisdom at the request of Solomon, who asked for wisdom.
When he began his reign, he had a couple situations that really put his wisdom on display. One of them was the case of two harlot women who came to him with a child. In 1 Kings 3, and I can explain this, but it's pretty just readable and clear as we go through it, but 1 Kings 3 16 says, Now two women were harlots, came to the king and stood before him. One woman said, Oh my Lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened the third day after I had given birth that the woman also gave birth, and we were together, no one with us in the house except the two of us. Verse 19, And this woman's son died in the night because she lay on the child, and it died in verse 20. So she rose in the middle of the night, took my son from my side, and while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose the next morning to nurse, she talks about how she examined the child, and she realized this child is not mine. And so the other woman said, No, this is my child. And so this debate goes on between them, and so they bring the case before the king, and the king said in verse 23, The one says, This is my son who lives, and your son is dead, and the other says, No, but your son is dead when my son is a living. And so King Solomon in verse 24 said, Bring a sword, and let's cut the child in half, and split the child between the two women.
Is that pretty audacious? Did you imagine? And they said, Bring a sword. And before this event can take place, the one woman said, No, no my Lord, let the other have the child. Let her have the child. And then the other woman said, No, cut it in half, and let it be neither's.
Neither, neither woman's. And the conclusion of this, Solomon said, Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill it, she is the mother. Because a mother would not allow that child to die, right? And as a result of this demonstration of wisdom, again, just a young man ascending the throne and all the responsibilities, verse 28 says, And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered, and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice. They saw in him what was not natural.
People don't just come up with that. A second example was in 2 Chronicles 9 when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, and she came to Jerusalem, it says, to test him with hard questions, according to 2 Chronicles 9.1. And she had a very great group that came with her, camels and spices and gold and all these things, and she wanted to see if the wisdom of Solomon was all that it was attested to be.
And the Bible says that when she saw everything, when she saw how happy his servants were, all the abundance of food and all the ways they were dressed and everything that was there, the Bible says there was no more spirit in her, verse 5. Then she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However, I did not believe their words until I came and saw with mine own eyes, and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard."
Isn't that something? Now if that's true of Solomon, what do you think will be said of the greater Solomon? What do you think will be said of the Lord Jesus Christ? You know when Jesus rebuked the Jewish cities who rejected his message, who would not repent, Jesus brings that story up from 2nd Chronicles 9. He said, The Queen of the South will rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
Isn't that interesting though? She travels thousands of miles to come to hear the wisdom of Solomon all these months of traveling because it was so important to her, and he says, And you've rejected me who am before you, and believe me a greater than Solomon is here. And I think about our day even now. People can give such a little amount of sacrifice to the things of God, to the Word of God, to the priority of its truths. We can treat it in such a mundane way, taking for granted that which the majority of Christians, the majority of Christians throughout history have suffered to have. Like it's, we're living abnormally. This is not the norm. This is not what is typical throughout history. Christendom has always been persecuted, but we we live in the blessing of the United States and the protection there, but even in that blessing sometimes our priorities can get off because we can take for granted the riches of it, right?
Let me ask you this. Do you think our founding fathers appreciated freedoms more than we do? I mean it's, it would have been laughable if they could have been here. Give me liberty or give me death. I don't want to be offensive, but I'll say whatever. You know, when COVID-19 rolled in, we like were so glad as a society to give up our freedoms for a 99.9% chance to survive something. And our founding fathers were like, our life is on the line, man.
We are way outnumbered by the redcoats coming in. We have been blessed so much with the Word of God and I just, I think sometimes we can take so for granted. If you have not loved the Word of God today, do you think you and I have taken it for granted?
If we have not set before in aid of its treasures and just cherished it and said, God thank you for this. Thank you for this wealth, this treasure, this glorious word. It is the greatest gift that I've ever received outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God. It has given me Christ, it has given me the truth, and in fact the Bible tells us in Colossians 2, 9 that it's in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid. When you receive Christ, you get all of Proverbs, you get all of Genesis, you get all of Revelation, you get all the truth.
He is all contained. So Proverbs contains a goldmine of biblical theology. It reflects upon themes throughout Scripture.
It talks about practical righteousness, how to, it's very, talks about morality, how to live moral, but also how to put feet to your morality, like how am I supposed to live this out in a practical way? Proverbs calls men to live as the Creator intended them to live. And the reoccurring promise of Proverbs is that generally the wise live longer, prosper, experience joy and the goodness of God while fools suffer shame and death.
On the other hand, we always have to remember these aren't guaranteed promises. These are rather general principles that the Bible teaches. This is how practically you should live before God to honor Him, but life can sometimes be unfair. Sometimes the righteous suffer, right? Psalm 73, we also know Job is a illustration of that. So it's not a guarantee. Sometimes people say, well you know you trained a child on the way you should go, when he's old he won't depart from it.
Generally that's true. Generally when you put that into practice that the direction you aim them is the direction they end, but man is also of, there's an amount of freedom that God has given, not total freedom, but there is an amount of freedom that man has and they can rebel against that. And so we have to understand that these are things we must apply to our life, but as we study through Proverbs we see the heart of God about how we are to live with common sense. I mean it gets into things like even finances, like you should not lend people money without wisdom in that. The Bible talks about you should not go into debt, like great amount of debt to people where you're in a sense a slave to that lender.
You get into some insecure debt and man we have a credit card culture and that kind of application. Now Proverbs addresses many different themes and topics, but primarily it deals with man's relationship to God, man's relationship to himself, and then man's relationship to other people. And the two main themes of Proverbs that overlap are wisdom and folly. Wisdom which includes knowledge, understanding, instruction, discretion, and obedience is built on the fear of God. And then folly is just the opposite of wisdom. Some biblical statements about the value of wisdom, Proverbs 8-11 says wisdom is better than rubies. Job reiterates this in Job 28-18, he said the price of wisdom is above rubies. Proverbs 4-7, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom and with all you're getting get understanding. So God's Word elevates it as this treasure that is a literal treasure, and again one thing you know about a treasure, it doesn't lay on the surface of the dirt. You always have to mine out precious metals, right? And that's the same way with God's Word, you have to dig into it to gain the great benefit of its treasure.
So just three points tonight. The first is the opportunity for wisdom. This opening prologue lets the reader know this book provides the opportunity to gain right insights into living the right kind of life. I like what Garrett said, he said, by this book one can learn the principles that determine success or failure in the major arenas of human activity, including business, personal relationship, family life, and community life.
It is the foundation we should really build so much of the practical things that we do in life. Verse 2 and 4 are a kind of a summary statement of the book as to why it was written, and he says here in verse number 2, as he launches into this, he says, to know wisdom and instruction and to perceive the words of understanding. The word wisdom here, hakma, is the Hebrew word, it just means skill or expertise in living. Just as a person would be skilled as a craftsman, as an electrician, or a carpenter, or some other trade, so a person might be skilled in living life. The purpose of Proverbs is that you might gain the skill of how to live life effectively. You know, there's some people who just don't know how to live effectively. They either waste their life, they keep making the wrong mistakes of life, they keep going down the wrong roads, and oftentimes it's because they have no reverence for the Word of God and no reading of it in application of it. They just keep doing things that oppose the Word of God.
Or they're riding a fence, living halfway in and halfway out. You and I come to the Word of God and it will help us be skilled in living. Secondly, it gives us instruction. It gives us instruction. It can also be traded, and I think this would be better translated in my opinion as discipline, to know wisdom and discipline. It's translated instruction, but it really carries the idea of moral discipline, like to be able to discipline yourself. And so discipline is the internal strength to act on right understanding. So wisdom is the intellectual, and the discipline here, which is translated in our Bibles, instruction, is really disciplined in a moral sense, that you would be able to control yourself. Knowing how to live right is not enough.
We've all been there, haven't we? I know what I'm supposed to do. I just struggle to do it.
That's the idea of the next word. So you have the wisdom, you just don't have the discipline yet. You don't have the moral fortitude. 2 Peter 1 says, and to knowledge temperance in our day would be easier understood as self-control. He'll add to knowledge self-control, and to self-control patience or perseverance, and to patience godliness. God wants you to have self-control. That's one of the fruits of the Spirit. You can control yourself. It's one of the greatest things to learn to do, isn't it? A person that doesn't learn to control themselves will be a mess forever.
That's why Paul says, I need to beat my body and bring it into subjection. You and I deal with this every day. Our minds saying dumb things, wanting us to respond in ways that you know are not appropriate and right.
It's a constant battle. People people think sometimes they're the only ones that struggle like that. Oh, if you knew how I thought. Like, well, praise God, we don't all know how each other thinks.
You understand? Like, we're worse than we realize. Praise God, he's the only one that knows how wretched we really are.
But because we don't live on the thoughts, is this making sense? You have enough wisdom to know I can't behave like that. I'm not gonna respond that way. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna do that.
I'm not gonna act in that manner. Think about these fires over in California. So tragic, isn't it, for these precious folks?
You know, there's 20-some people I've heard passed away. Definitely need to pray for them. And there's people dressing up as firefighters going in and robbing people. One guy, one guy had a torch, was setting fires. They did a citizen's arrest. They arrest him and they let him out. It's California.
He was an illegal alien as well. And it's just, it's just this, that's what you get if you don't have law and order. Praise God, Gavin Newsom is not the President of the United States. You know, it's, praise God, praise God God's merciful enough not to give us him. Because it's, it's a chafing thing to live under unjust rulers. Because, because when, when, when criminals can get away with wrong behavior, the righteous suffer. The righteous are the ones who suffer. And, and so, so government is designed to punish evildoers. That's Romans 13, isn't it? But if they don't punish evildoers, they don't punish people who do wrong, then the good people get punished.
Because the people who do wrong get out and they act on their misbehavior. And, and so we, we are, we are those to have wisdom. We are to have discipline, instruction. And then thirdly, he says to perceive the words of understanding. This carries the idea of discernment.
To have discernment, to perceive it, to grasp it, to, to discern things. So when you begin to gain these truths, these Proverbs, it's going to give you the understanding of how to live a life with skill, to live life right. And then you'll have the discipline to carry it out, and the discernment to know which course you are to take. Because sometimes in life you need deductive reasoning from the Bible to figure out which path to take. For example, you have two job opportunities. The Bible doesn't say, hey go be an electrician with this company.
Right? So, so it's like, so what do I do? Well, Proverbs says there's safety and counsel. So what you should do is you should have some mentors in your life to go ask them questions.
Say, these are the two different companies and this is what's going on. And then you should say, okay, God's in control of my schedule and, and I know he doesn't want me to forsake the assembling of the house of God. So if this one company pays me $2 more on the hour, but they have me working Sunday morning and Wednesday night, is that what God would want me to do? Should I put money over the house of the Lord?
You see what I'm saying? Though the, though the Bible doesn't specifically say which job to take, you would deduce from the Word of God that there are some parameters to how I should come to a decision here. And when you've received the Word of God, you can begin to make right decisions and live a skillful life. You can navigate through the false wisdom that the serpent lays. Because there is a worldly wisdom, isn't there?
We looked at that last week out of James 3 13 through 18. It will offer you things that make a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense to do that.
Makes a lot of sense to go over here. When, when I was, when I was young in Chillicothe, helping my brother start a church, making eight and a half dollars an hour at a not a fun job. It's the only thing that was open at the time to work and it was a crazy economy at the time and went from having a great job in Missouri, finishing college, go help my brother start a church. Super tight financially, God covered all of our bills, never had a need for anything, never borrowed a penny, never put a penny on credit card, never ate out, never, never stopped at the gas station, never bought a pop, candy bar, packed lunches for two years. And that's not even as hard as it, it's embarrassing like in America we act like that's difficult. Third of all, country's like, man you're living large baby.
It's embarrassing. Like, like the gated community we're like, man I really had a difference. But, but, but I remember I had to always work extra hours there, which wasn't a problem for me, but it was driving 45 minutes one way and then I'd go back and work and help my brother start the church so we'd be out canvassing on the streets like every night. So I'd be throwing a nightshirt on, going out, driving an hour that way, canvassing till dark and I mean that's just, that was, there was no days off. There was a, you know, you just, you lived this pace for a long time and it just, it was just, just tight all the time.
So it's like, man you know, if a tire goes out, you know, you're just living on the string. And so Kenworth, you know, they have a big factory down there and, and so I, they were opening up jobs and, you know, they, they had a job open up that was like paying two and a half times more than what I was making and I go through the first three interviews and, and I'm like, oh baby, I got this job, you know, I'm finally, you know, we're gonna go eat out. I was thinking like we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna be good, man. And, and I remember I got to the last interview with like one of the main bosses or whatever and he said, he said, do you see yourself working here for like the next 30, 40 years? All I had to say was yes and it's mine.
And I, but I know I'm not. Guy didn't call me to work in this factory but I thought I'd probably be there for at least a couple years and I said, no, no, no I won't. I said he's called me to preach and I'm gonna, but I'll work here, I'll work hard, I'll do diligently and he's like, well thank you for coming in, you have a good day. I thought I went through all these interviews and I, so I go back and I'm hoping, you know, my God, you know, but I thought the Lord shut the door, he doesn't want me to have that. But you know, human wisdom would have told the average person, take it, take it. Within about two months I was making twice what that company was offering at my current job. My income went up eight times in two months. You can live two ways based on what the world's wisdom offers you or based on what God, it became comical to me. I thought this is crazy.
Like what's, what's the chance of that? And so when you, and through all of that we faithfully gave, we never, we never cut corners, spirit, that was always the first thing that came out and then we made sacrifices, we didn't make God's sacrifice and he's always blessed because of that. He's, we've always wanted to put him first and I don't say that in any way to say anything of myself, I only say that because God's faithful. But there's two ways to live, you honor God, you live with, but again if I didn't know the Bible, if I, you see what I'm saying, if I didn't know the Scriptures well and if I wasn't led by that it would be easy to redirect my course on some things.
I don't think I'd be a pastor today if I would have made decisions like that. I think, because I think if we can't trust him with our finances, we can't trust him with our, Jesus said it this way in Luke 16, he said, if you can't be faithful with the earth's mammon or money, who will entrust you the true riches, which he's talking about spiritual things. And so verse 3 he expands on this, he says, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. So notice verse 2 he says, to know wisdom. And then verse 3, to receive the instruction of wisdom.
Do you notice the difference there? So verse 2 is to know wisdom and then verse 3 is to receive it. So the word instruction there is actually the same Greek word used in verse 2, but the word wisdom in verse 3 is not the same Greek word as used in verse 2. That's why sometimes in English you can sometimes miss some because there's other things there that tag along and English can translate things, sometimes only one way where there's multiple ways.
The Greek was very explicit in how it defined words. So here it goes from just knowing to receiving. This word wisdom here means discrete counsel or the ability to govern one's self by choice. So the first word was skill and living, but this is the discrete counsel and ability to govern your choices, to govern yourself by the choices you make.
It's building, in other words, on verse 2. You're skilled in living, but now you're able to harness your passions. You're able to control your desires, your cravings. How important is it to rightly govern your life in a way that pleases God, that harnesses self? You know, true freedom is not being able to do what you want to do, is it?
That's slavery. True freedom is being able to do what you know God wants you to do. When you can do what you know God wants you to do and you can pull that off, when you can get your body out of a bed to read the Bible and pray and memorize and be in church and share the gospel and reject sin and keep your eyes and your mind and your life and your thoughts where they need to be, that's freedom. The world shackles us, and most of the time we all give in to some silly sins through our your early years and the rest of our life we're trying to keep breaking off those shackles, aren't we?
We're thinking, boy it'd have been nice not to have that stuff stain my life in early years, you know? And so he says to to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice is the ability to conform to the will and standard of God, a practical righteousness that matches one's positional righteousness. This is kind of the idea of that sanctification, it's practically being what you are positionally before God. So you're able to receive instruction of wisdom and justice, you're able to live that out in a just way. And judgment, that's the application of true righteousness in dealing with others. You have right judgment with other people, you deal with them in a right way. And then equity is really that same idea of living with fairness in a pleasing way with other people.
You know, we live in a world that's very unjust and so we are called to live equitably and not have favoritism and preferring one over another. And then Proverbs 1-4 says to give subtlety to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion. A simple person here refers not to someone who's a fool, it's really the idea of a young man, somebody who's naive. You ever talk to a young naive individual? Very have huge thoughts and dreams and ideas and different things, but they don't have the experience.
They don't have the, they're not time tested, they don't really know a lot. They haven't been down the road very far. I was talking to a young guy yesterday that sometimes I just sit and laugh because I'm like, man I used to be like that. You sit around some older preachers and sometimes you'll have a young guy just wanting to talk and spurt off at the mouth and just, and I'm thinking there's there's decades of wisdom sitting around them and and all they do is want to hear themselves talk. You know, but that's how I was when I was young at times.
Like I looked back and I thought, well I would have just closed my mouth more and listened more. But the root of simple here is a word meaning an open door and this is interesting. You know how in our culture we say, you know, you need to have an open mind. And our culture elevates that idea, like if you have an open mind like that's that that's like the right thing. And if you're closed-minded like that's that's that's like a scorn on somebody, isn't it? Like like you're you're closed, you're just so, you're one of them closed-minded Christians. It's interesting because the word simple here is a word meaning an open door and it and it speaks about a mind of a young person that's open and it doesn't know how to discern what to let in and what to keep out. To the Jew, if somebody said oh I'm open-minded, they would say don't be a fool shut the door.
You don't want everything coming in, right? I had somebody one time say all you years ago all you people down there at lighthouse they brainwash people down there. I'm like amen we need some brainwashing, right? Clean these minds up. And I knew they meant it in a negative way but the people say silly things like that.
But that's that's the idea. You don't want to be open-minded. You want to be open-minded and let the Word of God in but I don't want to have Miley Cyrus in my head. I don't even like to say her name from the pulpit.
But you don't you don't want you know you don't want these certain things inside of your head. And so it says to give subtlety to the simple. Subtlety, Orma in Hebrew word is prudence or discretion. Let me let me give you some some statements about this Orma this Hebrew word how it's used throughout the book of Proverbs. So Orma in Proverbs 8 12 dwells with wisdom. This is so he gives he gives Orma to the simple. Orma you dwell with wisdom you are observant you you foresee evil you regard reproof you conceal knowledge you're crowned with knowledge and you keep silent. These are the kind of things that that get input into the mind of a person who's receiving the Word of God. They have subtlety they have prudence and discretion and it says then to the young man knowledge and discretion.
The word discretion there is the idea of common sense. It's going to give the young young man some common sense. I'll never forget I was in Chillicothe there was a young guy he said said you know I just want to want to have a get married have a family. He's living at home at the time. Yeah he had a pretty good job.
I think he was actually working at Kenworth dog. But he was he was yeah good good young guy early 20s. But but you know his idea he wanted he want to get married want to have kids want to have a house have a family.
He calls me up one day and he says man he said I just I just I just had to give you call let you know the good news I was like it's like what happened I thought maybe some girl got deceived into finally liking this guy you know. And so he he said he said yeah I I just I just bought a $45,000 truck. He said I said you now if you have a $45,000 truck I'm not kicking you tonight but when you're 21 years old you're living with mommy and daddy you don't have a house you want to have a family that's we $800 a month payment. So he said I said you did you say you bought a $45,000 truck and this was you know this is 20 some years ago so this is probably 40,000 these days. But he's much more than that but he said um he said yeah I say five grand on it.
That's that's that's the that's the idea of a person that doesn't have common sense. I said what you need to do is turn that around go back and beg them to take it back. You know he told me about he didn't like the comments I made to him. He he told me about two months later he's like I hate that truck. I said oh you don't like working like two weeks out of like a week and a half out of your month to pay for it? Like knowing that about ten of your working days are going to your truck and the other ten days are to the insurance because you have to cover it that high.
So you're working like half a month to just sit in that car for what I hope you're enjoying that. You know how you gonna get out of mom's house you know it's it's just you have to have common sense on some of this stuff. Those are the kind of things that sometimes young guys don't understand lasting effects.
R.C. Sproul said one can have knowledge without wisdom but one cannot have wisdom without knowledge. When you gain I and I've known people that have a lot of knowledge in life they know a lot of information they just don't know how to live it out and then I've known people with wisdom and I can tell you people with wisdom they have knowledge and so Solomon presents the opportunity it's it's here for us it's available it it is it is offered to those who would be wise enough to take it then we see the prerequisite for wisdom in verse 5. He says in verse 5 the response of the wise learner he says a wise man will hear and will increase in learning and a man of understanding shall attain into wise counsel. I like what one man wrote he said a wise old owl sat on an oak the more he saw the less he spoke the less he spoke the more he heard.
Why aren't we like that wise old bird? I might send this to my young preacher friend. Jesus said a lot about the importance of hearing. It's really when you read through the Bible you'll see the pattern of it. Hebrews 11 15 he that has ears to hear let him hear. Matthew 13 9 who has ears to hear let him hear.
Matthew 13 15 for this people's heart as wax grows their ears are dull of hearing. Matthew 13 16 blessed are your eyes they see in your ears that hear. Matthew 13 19 when anyone heared at the words of the kingdom. Matthew 13 43 then shall the righteous shine forth as a son who hath ears to hear let him hear. Every church he wrote to Revelation 2 and 3 he says he that hath ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
He says this every single church he writes to. If you have ears to hear are you hearing what's being said? It's not the words letters it's the spiritual mountain of truth that is there. Do you hear Revelation 13 9 if any man have an ear let him hear.
I mean just it just over and over saturates the Bible. Now how does the wise learner respond? He responds with ears to hear. A wise man will hear and the benefit he will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsel. To understand a proverb the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings a wise man will increase and it says they'll attain to wise counsel. Proverbs 9 9 says give instruction to a wise man and they'll get wiser teach a just man and they'll increase in learning. That that's what happens when you want to know the truth God wants to give you the truth more than you and I want it.
The question is are what kind of cup are we coming to him with? Now Acts 17 11 of the Bereans it says these were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Why were they more noble? Because they received the word with all readiness of mind and they searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. They they dug into it to find out is this true? That's why it's so important to be a student of the Bible to dig in. It's also important to help other people dig in.
Who are you helping grow? Hebrews 5 12 says when the time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again. You understand if you've been saved you need to be a teacher at some point. Actually you will be a teacher. It's just the question is who are you teaching and what are you teaching? You don't have to be in front of a class to teach.
You're teaching every day something. Either you're teaching the the love of the word the truths of God's Word or you just kind of think about it. If I'm not in the Word of God how am I going to be living according to God's wisdom? Then I'm not living with the highest skill of life.
I'm living based on what I think would be the best decision. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I would get it wrong, and then I'm leading other people to do the same. And wisdom's teachers show up here in verse 8 he says, my son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother for they shall be an ornament of grace into thy head and a chain about thy neck. You know where did Solomon get his wisdom? You know David had told Solomon to seek after wisdom in 1st Chronicles 22 12. It's interesting the way it's worded so David said this to Solomon his son his young son.
He said only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding and give thee charge concerning Israel that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. That's what he said to Solomon. He says this repeatedly to Solomon if you go back and read through this later portion of David's life. Now when God came to Solomon in a dream in 2nd Chronicles chapter 2, this is after David had died, Solomon is the king, 2nd Chronicles 1 7 it says in that night God did God appear unto Solomon and said ask what I shall give thee. And you know what Solomon asked for? We know what he asked for.
2nd Chronicles 1 10 Solomon said give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people for who can judge this thy people that is so great. Where do you think he learned that? He learned that from dad. He learned that from his father. He's following the example of his father. God answers Solomon and he gave him wisdom 1st Kings 4 29 says and understanding exceeding much in largeness of heart even as the sand of the sea and Solomon excel wisdom excel the wisdom of all the children of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt for he was wiser than all men. David's influence Solomon who influenced an entire kingdom and so it's even influencing us today and so you and I need to have mentors in our life you know I have pastors that I listen to guys that I talk to I receive wisdom from I've godly men in our church that I meet with that grant me wisdom you need to have mentors in your life people that you go to that you get sharpened by I had somebody one of the men of our church wrote about a page and a half of information about me I asked him to do this this study in like exam me on the areas that I I'm doing well in areas I'm doing weekend and and he laid it down these are the things are doing good these are things you need to prove on and very good and clear critique somebody who has a lot of wisdom in his field and and understands oversight and and and it's so helpful and and I and I want that I need that it grows me it helps me to ever to not seek counsel would be to think you've arrived how embarrassing is that as though we've reached the pinnacle I cannot be improved upon how audacious would that be for us but that's how we act just let your wife or husband criticize you one time about something you need to work on how dare you tell me I need to well you know what you need to work on is your mouth you know we get all is this true it's embarrassing isn't it we act like the the unwise person sometimes so we need to gain that I think our spouses can be a great mirror for all of us so much insight can be gained and so let's let's wrap up with a third point I know that always always comforting the word wrap up like now it doesn't really mean much from you faster job that's the best amen I've got all night verse 7 it says the fear of the Lord let's read verse 7 together it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction so so here we see the starting point it's called the fear of the Lord the expression the fear of the Lord you know the Bible is even called the fear of the Lord in the book of Psalms chapter 19 now this does not actually mean being afraid of God it's actually the idea of giving him great weightiness in your life honoring him it's it's an attitude issue you esteem him to a point that it causes you to obey him you you elevate him it's it's kind of like a you know a four-star general walks in and and the sergeant is not afraid of the general but he respects him and what he asked him to do he's going to do it he's going to give him weight if a person does not start out in the right place he won't end in the right place so you have to start with the right place which is the fear of God you have to you have to give the most weight in life to God you know you know the word vain Bob says do not take the name of the Lord in vain the word vain means without weight like we use the phrase you know that person took me lightly it just means that they didn't give you any respect the opposite of vain is the Hebrew word kabod and it means heaviness it's actually translated as glory in the Bible to give God glory is to give him weightiness to not give him weightiness is to take him in vain the fear of the Lord is to give weight to God it's does that make sense that's why that's why being being at church with our word with our hearts right before God reverencing the Word of God I think you know just just being prompt here being being serious about the things of God loving laughing and enjoying the truths of God the people of God elevating elevating his word above all else it's sad when like a when a when when small things seemingly small things temporary things in life could so easily take the time at church and the place of God's Word in a person's life and it says here it's the beginning of knowledge the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge it's the beginning of wisdom the Bible also talks about it's the starting place it's where you you launch from Proverbs 9 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord Proverbs 8 13 says is to hate evil and sin it is obedience to the commands of God Proverbs 1 11 verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all day that do his commandments and pray his praise endureth forever the opposite of this so the fear of the Lord provokes obedience and in what you'll find is in the Bible those who don't fear the Lord don't obey him that's why Romans 3 which gives the diatribe of the the sinfulness of man comes to the conclusion of verse 18 there is no fear of God before their eyes they have no fear of God fools verse 7 here says they despise wisdom and instruction they see it and and they they they won't accept it Proverbs 1 22 how long you simple ones will you love simplicity scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge I don't want to hear that Bible stuff I don't want to hear that Jesus talk I don't want to hear any of that stuff sometimes you think how much suffering do they have to go through like how much pain do you have to go through until you wake up a wise man will hear and increase but a fool does not they just continue down the path of their foolishness you know full promotes their own wisdom that's why Romans 1 says when they knew God they didn't glorify God and they made boast of themselves they persist themselves to be wise and the Bible says they became fools the wise man promotes God's wisdom the Lord gives wisdom out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding Proverbs 2 6 says and listen to the difference between the full and the wise here Proverbs 12 15 says the way of the fold is right in his own eyes but he that hearkens unto counsel is wise fools make up their own mind do what they think they based on what you know I'm just gonna that's why when you talk somebody ever think about what's gonna happen after you die well I just think really you forgot where you left your keys this morning and you're gonna you're gonna determine where you're gonna spend forever based on what you think don't you think that's risky I mean I could be a pagan and be like that's just not the best it's got to be something higher than this thing right algebra was tough you know I'm saying it's just it's just that's the kind of conclusion people can come to why watch this YouTube video please the way of the full is right in his own eyes Proverbs 28 26 for all of our Hallmark lovers he that trusts is in his own heart as a fool Oh Hallmark just got defeated right it just every time I hear them you know they're like which one should I which one should I fall in love with there's always that woman that comes in she's like honey she pulls her hair behind her ear just and we're all like Dan's a lot better choice Fred over here he's Fred Flintstone I mean this guy's a you know waste come over here and she said honey just just just follow your heart and it just sounds so good in the world's eyes and in the Bible's like you're a fool you know they'll follow your heart there's there's a lot more trustworthy things you know the Bible tells us in Proverbs 3 5 & 6 what we should do is this trust in the Lord with all your heart we don't we don't and we got to trust him you have a problem with that if you want to write me a letter I'll be glad to write you back and and the fools the fools effect on their parents is different the Bible says in Proverbs 17 21 he that begats a fool do with it to his own sorrow the father of full has no joy the father of someone who dis obeys God and lives out of line with those truths it's it's such a such a such a struggle for that parent Proverbs 10 1 on the opposite end a wise son maketh a glad father the Proverbs 13 1 a wise son hears his father's instructions and it just goes on and on like this so as we go through the book of Proverbs we're gonna go through the wisdom of not simply Solomon but the greater than Solomon who is the Lord Jesus Christ who is really the author of Scripture the Holy Spirit writing down these truths for us and we need to know that you can you can start off right you could be doing really good just like Solomon the end of your life can eclipse the whole of your life we don't want to just start well we want to end well amen and so let's be wise and not fool let us hear instruction and have the wisdom to obey it to bring our body into subjection to that truth that other people may follow our steps toward the at obedience as well and so if you would stand with me tonight you
