Let's pray together. Father, we thank you again
for this time that you've given to us week by
week to come together to worship and to praise
and to hear from you. We pray now as we attempt
to open your word this morning that you have
accompanied that word with the power of your
Holy Spirit, that you'd enable me to proclaim
all that you've given, that you'd enable us all
to hear and to receive that which you have for
us this morning. that we would apply it to ourselves,
that we would appropriate it into our own lives.
We ask again for the loss that they might be
found of you this morning, that you would have
mercy on some who were yet in their sins. And
we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I arrived
at the Roberts this morning, and it's my intention
Lord willing, of course, to be here for a few
weeks as we look at various Proverbs. So it's
a book of wisdom. And this morning we're going
to look here at the first chapter, about the
first six or seven verses of the first chapter.
Solomon is going to tell us about wisdom and
he's going to tell us really the purpose of his
writing all of these proverbs and that is to
depart wisdom. So we need to know obviously what
wisdom is and so on and so forth. But before
we look at the proverb I want to look at Job
and read what Job has to say about wisdom. So
in chapter 28, chapter 28 beginning at verse
12, but where shall wisdom be found and where
is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not
the price thereof, neither is it found in the
land of the living. The depth saith, it is not
in me, and the sea saith, it is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver
be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be
valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious
onyx. or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal
cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall
not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall
be made of coral or of pearls, for the price
of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia
shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued
with pure gold. Whence then cometh it? Wisdom.
And where is the place of understanding? Seeing
it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept
close from the fouls of the air. Then down to
23, God understandeth the way thereof and he
knoweth the place thereof. And in 28, and unto
man he said, behold, The fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding.
So that's Job's view of wisdom. That's Job's
and dare I say God's view of the importance of
wisdom. It's above price. So the question for
us is, how do we value wisdom? Have we considered
the fact that wisdom is available to us? Have
we considered the fact that we lack wisdom? It's
a very important topic in the scriptures, and
we all are familiar with the verse quoted there,
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. But that's the beginning. What does that
even mean? Well, wisdom... is to be found in
Jesus Christ. Wisdom is to be found in the gospel.
The gospel of God is the wisdom of God, the scriptures
say. Jesus Christ is wisdom. And the respect,
the fear, the respect that we have towards God,
toward Jesus Christ, toward the gospel, and toward
ourselves as we live before a holy God. determines
really the state of our minds, the state of whether
we have any wisdom or not. So it's the first
sermon of the new year. So as I normally do,
I ask questions concerning the new year. And
so the first question that I've already asked
is what do you think of wisdom? What value do
you place on wisdom? Are you willing to pursue
wisdom? Are you willing to give it the place
that it is above Christ? Are you willing to take
the stance of Job in your understanding of wisdom?
Is that important? Is it that important? Is it
that important for us to have the wisdom of God?
You know, the world talks about resolutions at
this time of the year, but do you have any goals?
Have you got before God and prayed and thought
and considered what would God have me to do this
year? How can I improve myself this year? How
can I better show my love to the Lord this year?
What changes do I need to make this year? How
can I make progress? in my confirmation unto
the Lord. How can I gain more and more assurance
of my standing before the Lord? All of these
questions are valid. Do we ask any one of them?
Have we been convicted of any sin that we need
to repent of? We always say the Christian life
is a life of repentance. Is it? Well, I ask you
to consider. I know I fall far short in many
areas and I repent in many areas and I hopefully
you do too. That's what we are meant to do. We
are meant to be confirming ourselves unto the
Lord with our repentance and our receiving of
the forgiveness from the Lord. Well, all these
things take wisdom, folks. You can't answer these
questions without wisdom. You can just go barely,
barely down the road, like so many other Christians
do, and you don't have to face these questions.
But again that shows your real opinion of wisdom
it shows your real opinion of how You are going
to love the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is
wisdom you despise wisdom you despise him If
you say I don't need it you call him a liar If
you say I have enough Your contrary description
So let's read these verses and see if we can
just, probably very briefly this morning, look
at wisdom. So in verse two of the Proverbs, 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, through the
young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man
will hear and will increase in learning, and
a man of understanding shall attain unto wise
counsels, to understand a proverb and the interpretation
of the words of the wise and their dark sayings."
That's why he wrote the book. Those are five
reasons there, and they're five truths of wisdom.
So we just want to take a quick look here. What's
Solomon talking about? Well, he wants us to attain
wisdom. What is it? Simply put, the simplest
way I can put wisdom to you is to a proper application
of the knowledge you possess. That's wisdom.
When you can apply what you know, you are a wise
man. If you can't make an application, then you
don't know it. You only think that you do. To
make an application of knowledge. What does that
tell us about knowledge? You've got to have knowledge,
folks. You've got to know the Word. You've got
to know God. You've got to know Jesus Christ.
You've got to know the Holy Spirit. You don't
only know him intellectually, you know them personally.
You know these truths to be personally true to
you. You've appropriated those truths into your
life. And you're wanting to spread it out. You're
wanting to spread the word, spread the love.
You're wanting to tell about it. You're wanting
to demonstrate it by your life. You're wanting
to demonstrate it by how you treat your fellow
church members. What you think of one another.
Do you love your church members enough? To think
that how I act is going to have an effect upon
them That's making an application folks God put
us here He put us all together to love and to
help and encourage one another You know that
have you applied it How have you applied those
are the questions If you're not asking questions
in the Christian life, folks, you're missing
it. We always ask questions. We always ask ourselves
questions. We talk to ourselves. If we don't,
we're not making any progress. We're not right.
God does not have the opportunity that he should
have to be in our lives unless we're talking
about it to ourselves. What do you think about
when you're by yourself? What do you think about
when you're driving down the road? Well, these
are some of the things that you could be thinking
about. To answer the question in the most basic
form, you show your love to one another by showing
up for the meeting. It's not hard. Nothing should
keep us from the meetings. And I don't mean Sunday
morning. I mean Wednesday as well. I mean the
women get together for prayer on Mondays. There's
a women's ministry meeting. There's a men's ministry
meeting. We have prayer first thing on Sunday
morning. We have prayer first thing on Sunday
morning because we think that's important. We
think that is the proper way to start off a worship
service. imploring God on behalf of one another
and for His glory. We think that's an application.
We think that's wisdom. We know God wants us
to pray. We know He calls us to pray. He tells
us so. He tells us that the apostles continued
steadfastly in what? Well, one of the things
was prayer. We think prayer is more important
than Sunday school. Let's be blunt about it.
Everybody has Sunday school first. Well, I mean,
I'm not going to argue about it, but I am going
to stand firm in my belief that prayer is far
more important than Sunday school. Amen. Thank
you, brother. To know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding. So we
have here then, what? Discipline or instruction.
Character and discipleship. I don't know what
words exactly you have in yours particular Bible,
but discipleship is a disciple in its most literal
understanding is a learner. That's what the word
means in the original language, a learner. So
are we learners? Do we want wisdom? Well, we
have to be learners. So another question we could
ask you in the beginning of the year, what have
you learned? What new thing have you learned
in the past year? And how have you applied it
to your life? Are we really disciples if we don't
ever learn anything? Well, that's a hard thing
to do. It's hard to be a disciple, a follower
of Jesus Christ, learning from Jesus Christ and
never learning from Jesus Christ. I mean, you
know, it's not ethereal. It's not up in the clouds.
It's everyday life. What are you learning and
how have you used it in your life? That's how
we should be talking to ourselves. And if we're
not doing it, we should start doing it. If we
want wisdom. Now before we go any further with
this, we know what James says about wisdom, right?
We know, those of you who lack wisdom ask God
for it. That's what he tells us, right? So all
of this use of the word that we're going to be
talking about today goes right along with the
praying, praying for God to use it in our lives.
We want wisdom. We're going to pursue wisdom.
It's priceless It's a treasure that cannot be
measured or possessed apart from God All these
wise men of the world they're fools That's all
they are they don't know God They can't be wise
give them too much importance. They've got some
good things to say, I'm sure of it. But it's
far more important to know God and to be in pursuit
of what God wants for us. A learner, a disciple.
Okay, well, I had thought I had a bio verse I
couldn't agree, but I know I do but I gonna have
to live it up So, excuse me Okay, Isaiah 65 verse
24, and don't try to turn there, just listen
please, and it shall come to pass that before
they call I will answer and while they are yet
speaking I will hear. Now that's God telling
us about our prayer lives. Is that the faith
that we have? Is that the confidence that we
approach God with? That verse that I just read
to you, Isaiah 65, 24. Well, are you wise? That's
how we pray, folks. That's how we approach God.
That's the confidence that we have in Him, not
in our prayers. It's the confidence that we have
in our God. He wants us to pray. He delights
in our prayer. If we pray for wisdom, is he going
to deny us? No, he's not. Well, what would you
say then? I've prayed for weeks for wisdom and
I'm not getting anywhere. What is that? How do
you explain that? Well, an old friend of mine...
explain it to me this way. Let God be true and
every man a liar. Did you get it? God said he's
going to answer our prayers. You're a liar if
you think that you can stand before me or anybody
else and say that you've sought something from
God that was legitimate. a legitimate expression
of a promise of God and He didn't give it to
you. You're a liar. That's all. You never really
pursued anything. That's harsh. That's hard.
I know. But we have to face the realities. Again,
it's not ethereal. It's not... It's hard work
to pray. It's hard work to get before God. You
have to want it, you have to desire it above
all else. What's going to be the situation that
you find yourself in in this new year? Just more
of the same old same old? In verse 3, to receive
instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment,
and equity. All that means is you're going to
inquire the necessities to live a prudent Christian
life through wisdom. That's all it means. There
is such a thing as a Christian worldview, a Christian
life. There is such a thing as living out the
truths of Scripture. And wisdom will supply that.
Wisdom will give us that. That's godly wisdom.
It's not worldly wisdom. In verse four, to give
subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge
and discretion. This is probably one of the most
important verses in the Bible, but... Nobody
knows it. To give subtlety, prudence, would be
another word. You probably have prudence. What's
that mean? Prudence. Well, if you're looking
at, what is it? The, the, the, the, the horses?
Yeah, thesaurus, yeah. It's watchfulness is one
of the words that would come up, or prudence.
Watchfulness. The simple. What's a simple? It's
not a mental condition. It's just somebody that
lacks knowing, lacks knowledge. They're ignorant.
Ignorance is not a bad word. If you say somebody's
ignorant, you're not saying they're stupid. They're
just ignorant. They don't know enough. They don't
have the knowledge that they need to do what
they want to do. They're simple. But the thing
about a simple person is they don't want to be
simple. Because they're not stupid. They're not
mentally handicapped. They want to progress.
The simple. But they lack knowledge. And this
knowledge here in this verse, as I said before,
this knowledge is not simply head knowledge.
This is a knowledge that is relational. And that's
why the simple want to know more. They have a
basic knowledge. of God. They're saved, in other
words. They're saved men and women. They have
a desire to know more of that one that loves
them so much. That one whom they've decided to
follow. They're a disciple. They're a learner.
But they're simple. They don't know everything.
They don't know hardly anything at all. Are they
in a bad way? Well, they're not in a bad way.
Because they're not going to stay there. That's
what the verse is telling us. It says that wisdom
will give watchfulness to the simple, to the
young man, knowledge and discretion. Discretion,
I guess I should... look at an alternative to
that word. But discretion simply means that you're
able to decide. You're able to make a decision
between one thing and the other. You're able
to plan. You're able to purpose out your life.
Discretion. You can tell good from evil. But
the simple. Everybody is welcome to this knowledge,
this wisdom. Everybody is welcome in the University
of Jesus Christ. You don't have any pre -courses
to take. You don't have to qualify. You don't
have to have a certain IQ. You don't have to
have a certain education level at all. Everybody
is welcome. That's the greatest news you could
hear. God wants you to progress. He wants to
give you wisdom. Do you want it? Are you dissatisfied
just floating along? Do you want to have a life
and live a life that is more and more glorious
to the Lord Jesus Christ? For all that He's done
for you, for all that He's done for us. Shouldn't
we be striving after Him? Shouldn't we be striving
to live a life that is pleasing to Him? Shouldn't
we be less worried about ourselves and more about
Jesus Christ? That's wisdom, folks, when you
can begin to submit yourself to Him. Because
that's what's doing right. That is watchfulness.
Am I doing this for my good? Am I just worried
about how I'm going to look, how I'm going to
progress? Am I doing this for my kids to benefit
me and my kids? Or am I doing this to benefit
and to bring glory to God? Those are the questions,
more questions, more questions. Wisdom, wisdom
will give us the answer and everybody qualifies
to receive it. Do you want it? Will you pray
about it? Will you pursue it in the Word? Do
you have a desire to know more about Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you have a desire to have a better
understanding of the Trinity? Whoa! Probably
not many of us are in that position. Some of
us may be, but that's glorious pursuit. It's
under attack today, but I don't even know about
it. But it is. So -called Christian scholars.
That's another topic. We want wisdom. We want
to pursue these things. And as a matter of fact,
in the next verse, it says, a wise man will hear
and will increase learning, and a man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsel. What is that
telling us? Well, they're telling us that everybody
has got to be a learner. Everybody. Everybody
learns. Everybody increases in wisdom. Everybody
who's a Christian, that is, and is a desiring
God, and desiring a deeper relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ is ever learning and progressing
in that pursuit. We never arrive. To understand
the prover and the interpretation, the words
of the wise and their dark sayings. So, in other
words, it's a progression. To dig into the Trinity
is a progression. You may not be ready for that,
but that's what wisdom will do for you, enable
you to pursue your desires. of a deeper knowledge
of more wisdom a better relationship living a
better life before god that's what that requires
wisdom wisdom requires knowledge knowledge requires
the word you have to be in the word and when
we pursue those things god is right there Helping,
instructing, guiding, directing, leading us onward.
It's a glorious thing, folks. I want you to understand
what the Bible is telling us here. God is revealing
Himself in this way to know God. To know God
is salvation. It's what the Bible says. It's
a strong one, really, to convey the delight,
the joy that's involved in pursuing wisdom. It's
not like anything else. It's not like academics.
It's not like going to school. It's relational.
God is revealing himself. God is making us wise.
God is enabling us to be more like Jesus Christ.
Is that a wonder to anybody? That that would
even be possible. Do we know ourselves well enough
to be astonished with that truth? How can I be
more and more like Jesus Christ? How is that
possible for me? I'm too much of a sinner. I've
still got too many rough edges. I still mess
up. But it is possible. And that's what God wants
me to pursue. And it's a joyous pursuit of God.
So that's the importance of wisdom. It governs
all of our lives. The less amount of wisdom we
have, the more we're going to mess up. That's
all there is to it. And when we mess up, we're
going to repent. And when we repent, we're going
to be forgiven. And we're going to amend our
lives according to what we have just learned
and experienced. That's Christianity. There is
no other. And that's a glorious thing too. So,
live up to your knowledge. Apply what you know.
Gain wisdom. Gain knowledge. Improve yourself
before the Lord. Have a desire to improve yourself.
And do it. So then we read here the very first
proverb here in verse seven. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools
despise wisdom and instruction. So there you
have it. The fear of the Lord, the respect, the
acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Lord.
The respect and love that we have to Him is the
beginning of knowledge. Most people in this room
have that beginning. Most people do. So we're
all good there, right? We can expect more. Because
we've started. We've made the first step. God
has brought us to Himself. But fools despise
wisdom and instruction. So all those people that
are running around thinking that they're Christians,
to be blunt, they're all thinking, oh, holly
jolly, I'm a Christian. I walked an aisle 20
years ago. I'm all good. But they've never taken
a step forward. They're the same person they
were when they were created or when they were
converted. What are those people? they're fools
they don't want wisdom and they make no effort
to receive it so they obviously they're not in
christ jesus right it said that's what it said
the fools despise wisdom and instruction christians
don't despise wisdom and instruction they love
it they eat it up they go forward So let's go
forward this year. Let's make great strides.
Let's have confidence in God. Let's know that
He's going to hear us and answer us before we
even get done speaking. Right? Let's do it. Let's
apply ourselves. Let's learn. Let's grow. Let's
honor God more and more. Let's delight in Him
more and more. What a wonderful year it's going
to be. as we seek the Lord and serve him with
all of our hearts. Amen.