“Wisdom cries aloud in the street” …Andy explains the personification and the cry of wisdom as seen in Proverbs chapters 1-3 and 8-9.
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street” …Andy explains the personification and the cry of wisdom as seen in Proverbs chapters 1-3 and 8-9.
– Sermon Transcript –
Why don’t you open to the Book of Proverbs, we’re gonna be looking this morning… Or this evening at Proverbs 1, 2, and 3, and also a little bit in Chapters 8 and 9. But before we do, let’s turn to the Lord and ask him for help. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We’ve had in your presence a day in your house. We’re grateful O Lord, for the fellowship we’ve had with one another, it’s very precious to us, O Lord, to know that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who take a genuine interest in our welfare. Take a genuine interest, O Lord in our lives. They’re praying for us and caring for us, and who would, if needed, bring resources to bear into our lives as your Spirit directs. We thank you for sweet fellowship. Thank you that we hold in common certain truths that we’ve gotten from your Scripture, which are equally precious to each one of us.
And so, when we see each other, there’s automatically a smile and a connection from one to another, because we’re all children of God by your spirit. We’re grateful for that, and I thank you for the time of worship that we’ve experienced together O Lord, there’s nothing like it Lord throughout the week, the time we have in your house O Lord on Sundays to sing praises to you and to pray and to lift our hearts to you, and to focus on you and to acknowledge your greatness. And Lord, it’s refreshing to us because the world is offering us all kinds of counterfeit treasures and distractions and allurements that are designed by Satan to take our minds off of you so that you somehow seem less valuable, or less satisfying, somehow prompted we are to wander away from you to other things, and we ask your forgiveness for this.
We’re grateful that on Sunday we can be restored, our view can be lifted up and we can see you again. And we thank you for your precious word, which gives us the faith that we need to see you as you really are, and to see the world as it really is. Father, we thank you for the wisdom that comes from studying your scripture, and now as we turn our hearts to that wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, we pray that you’d open it up to us, O Lord. As spiritual beggars, we ask you again to teach us Lord, we’re ready to receive from you. So instruct us by your Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
This evening what I would like to do is talk about the cry of wisdom. In which wisdom is personified as crying out to us and beckoning to us to come follow her. We see wisdom personified three times, Chapter 1:20-33, so please turn there, that’s where we’re gonna start this morning… Or evening. That’s the second time I’ve done that. Is it evening or morning? I’m not quite sure. Sunday has an amazing effect on my brain, all you have to do is talk to my wife, there’s not much left of me mentally at the end of this day. But at any rate, if I say morning, alright, you know I mean evening. The rest of the way, I’ll set on that. Would that be sufficient? Alright.
So we’re looking at Proverbs 1:20-33. We’re also gonna take a look at Chapters 8 and 9 to look at this call. Now, wisdom is personified here as a woman out in the streets beckoning to us to follow her, alluring us and enticing us to follow in her ways. And it’s a phenomenal thing when compared with Chapter 2 as we’re going to see. Wisdom is personified, is available, accessible, enticing, satisfying, and available for any who will seek with a pure heart. Let’s begin at Verse 20 and look through to Verse 33 and see what Solomon says to us. Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares, at the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. In the gateways of the city, she makes her speech.
“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you, but since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand. Since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I, in turn, will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will look for me, but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the wayward-ness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm.”
In verses 20 and 21, Wisdom is making an appeal. She’s crying aloud in the streets, she’s not silent. Neither is wisdom hidden in the halls of academia, for PhDs, or for kings, or for doctors, or for specialists. Wisdom is personified as out in the streets, basically begging for an audience. It’s an interesting thing here. Wisdom calls aloud in the street and raises her voice in the public squares, at the head of the noisy street, she cries out, in effect saying, wisdom is available for anyone. It’s there for you. If you just reach out. And as Wisdom is calling out, reaching out in everyday life, in effect saying, I’m available for anything you’re going to face, this basically unfolds the whole themes of the Book of Proverbs.
Now last week, we saw that there’s no… Almost no area of everyday life or practical life that’s not covered in the Book of Proverbs. Isn’t that true? You all perhaps have some favorite Proverbs that you’ve memorized. I like one that’s very useful. A gentle answer turns away wrath. Isn’t that powerful? In other words, somebody comes to you and they’re distressed with you, and just to respond gently with humility, can end that controversy before it even starts. But all of you have some other ones. The point is that there’s no area of life that’s not covered by the wisdom that God offers, reaching out. But along with it, wisdom offers not just a beckoning or an invitation or an appeal, but also somewhat of a complaint. Look at Verse 22. “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you, but since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I, in turn, will laugh at your disaster.”
So there’s a complaint here, and what is the complaint that wisdom is making? They’re not paying attention. They’re rejecting her, as she reaches out there, basically loving their own ways. It seems no one wants to listen to wisdom, because as you look around in all the areas of life that Proverbs is dealing with, the workplace, the home, family relationships, dealing with money or time, labor, any topic addressed in the Book of Proverbs, we see foolishness abounding, don’t we?
We see it around us, and sadly we see it in us, and so wisdom has a kind of a complaint against us. In effect she’s saying, How long is it gonna go on like this? I’ve got everything you need. If you’ll just turn. How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? So, she addresses three types of people here, the simple… These are simple people, it doesn’t… There’s nothing wrong with the simplicity in one sense, but these are people that should know better in effect. The simple means people who know nothing or are untrained neophytes in effect. And then there’s scoffers or mockers. This is somebody that hears the truth and hears the wisdom, but rejects it with a laugh, thinks of it as humorous really. It’s a joke in a way. And then there are the dullards or the fools. Now, we said last time that we were going to have two escorts through the Book of Proverbs, one is the wise man and the other is the fool.
Now, in the Book of Proverbs, a fool is not just somebody who doesn’t do well on a test, it goes a lot deeper than that. A fool is somebody who has a serious moral problem. Basically at heart, they do not fear the Lord. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So they do not have a right relationship with the God of wisdom, they’re in rejection of His wisdom. In effect, they’ve turned the whole thing around and they are wise and God is the fool. That’s the way they look at it. And so, basically, the foolishness runs right to the heart of their relationship with God. They don’t fear the Lord, and then it plays out in all these arenas, doesn’t it? The fool does this, the fool speaks that, the fool does the other. So it plays itself out in various ways, but at heart, it’s a spiritual problem. And they all have one trait in common, they hate wisdom, and they love foolishness. They hate wisdom and love foolishness.
Now, Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon entitled ‘Treatise on Religious Affections’, said that true religion, in the end, consists in affection. Affection, passion. Basically, religion comes down to what you love and what you hate. I’ll show you what I mean. Look over at Hebrews Chapter 1, take a minute and turn there. In Hebrews Chapter 1, the writer to Hebrews is speaking of the superiority of the Son of God to angels, and Jesus Christ is superior to every created being. He Himself is not created. There was never a time that He did not exist. And here, God Himself, the first person of the Trinity, the ancient of days, from Daniel Chapter 7, is speaking to the second person of the Trinity, fascinating chapter. And he’s speaking words of scripture to Him and He’s speaking straight from prophecy. Basically saying, The Father says this to the Son, the Father says this to the Son. So we’re kind of listening in on a conversation from the Father to the Son, and the intensity and the passion is strong.
And this is what he says in Chapter 1:8, “But about the Son, he says, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever. Do you see that? Look at Verse 8, about the Son, he says, well, who says this? God the Father. And who is he speaking about? God the Son. And what does he call him? Well, he calls Him God, Your throne, O God, isn’t that amazing? God the Father calls God the Son, God, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. Look at the next Verse though. “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” This is what Edwards meant when he said, True religion consists in what you love and what you hate. It’s not enough just to love, we have to love and hate, why? Because there’s evil in this world, isn’t there?
We can’t be ambivalent about evil, we have to hate it. And we can’t be ambivalent about good and wisdom, we have to love it. And because, according to this Verse, Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness, God loves him and sets His throne above all others. That’s how the logic of the Verse works. Go back to Proverbs 1.
What I’m contending to you is that as you grow in spiritual maturity, as your character develops, it’s going to be developing along lines of love and hatred, isn’t it? Not just love, and certainly not just hatred, but love and hatred. You’re going to love righteousness more and more, and you’re going to hate wickedness more and more. You see how it is? ‘Cause, that’s the way God is. And so in effect, what’s going on here in Proverbs 1 is that the simple, the mockers and scoffers, the fools, love what?
They love wickedness, they love their simple ways, they love anti-wisdom. They’re not ambivalent about it, mind you, they enjoy it. This is what brings them pleasure, and they continue to love their simple ways, the ways of un-wisdom when they should have loved wisdom. This is the core issue. And so, therefore, wisdom speaks regretfully as we already read in Verse 23, “If you had responded, if you had responded to my rebuke,” isn’t that amazing? If you had only listened to me, you would not be in the bind you’re in right now. [chuckle] And you know the funny thing is, we get in binds, don’t we? Sin leads us to interesting places in our lives. And you wonder, how did I get here? What series of decisions did I make that led me to this place that I’m in now?
And if you just would take the time to unravel it, and if you knew the Book of Proverbs thoroughly, wisdom would say, I told you. I told you. I told you, if you’d only listened, we wouldn’t have gotten in this problem. And so, wisdom is in effect out in the street saying, please listen to me, I don’t want you to get there where you are. If you had only listened to my rebuke, etcetera. Now, very interesting what she says. If you had listened to my rebuke. Note this word is in here three times. If you had listened to my rebuke, it says in Verse 23. And then again it says in Verse 25, “Since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I will laugh at you.” And then again, it says in Verse 30, “Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways,” etcetera. What is a rebuke?
Correction. Strong correction. Yes. There’s correction and then there’s rebuke, so it’s a correction with a stinger in it, isn’t it? I mean, there’s a kind of a sting to it, and wisdom is in effect offering a rebuke. And we’re gonna find out, we’re not gonna look at it tonight, but kind of one of the keys to being a wise person is how you handle a rebuke. Isn’t that true? How you handle a correction. How, when somebody comes to you and says, brother or sister, I see this in your life and it’s going to cause X, Y, and Z, please stop. How you respond to that shows whether you’re a wise person or a fool. If you become prideful and defend yourself, it’s a certain thing. If on the other hand, you listen and respond and accept, then you’re wise. And so, the path of wisdom is a way of listening to rebukes according to wisdom. Now, what is the rebuke? I think there’s a key rebuke right at the start of the Christian life.
Look at Chapter 3:5-7, this should be familiar to you. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” There it is. That’s a rebuke. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. But keep going, Verse 7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil.” It’s the same thing, don’t think of yourself as knowing what you’re doing, [chuckle] ’cause you don’t. And that’s the same thing, all of us basically need to come to wisdom, humble and open like a child and say, teach me because I don’t know what I’m doing.
And that’s kinda hard to take, isn’t it? I mean, after all, we’re such and such years old, we’ve been at this for a while. Things are kinda going along, and yeah, we have some bumps along the way, but I mean, it’s going, isn’t it? And so, we in effect have to turn our back on our own wisdom, our own ways, and say, I don’t know what I’m doing, and that’s a little bit hard to take, isn’t it?
Look over at Chapter 12:15. Somebody read this for me. Big, loud voice, Herbert. But read it in English. You can read it it in Spanish, it’s International Sunday, so you can go ahead and do that.[chuckle] It’s 12:15, right?
Okay. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.”
The way of a fool seems right to him. It seems like it’s going all right, doesn’t it? But is it? Is it? And so, the kind of entry rebuke that wisdom gives us is, you don’t know what you’re doing. [chuckle] You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re going to mess it up if you lean on your own understanding. Check your understanding at the door and come in ready to learn and we will be fine. And then even stronger, 14:12, somebody read 14:12 to me. “There is a way that seems right to man, but at the end of it is the way of death.”
There is a way that seems right to man, but the end of that way is death. Now, it doesn’t just mean physical death, but I think eternal death. We actually think we know what we’re doing. We’re navigating very well, thank you very much, but we’re not. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.” And so, we’ve got this wide paved road, and pride just feeds it, doesn’t it? I know what I’m doing, I know what I’m doing. There’s a way that seems right. But then there’s these problems that keep popping up, and wisdom is gonna say here, I’m just gonna laugh at you, because I told you what was going to come of it. Because you would not check your own understanding at the door, because you trusted in your own ways and did not lean on the Lord, because of that, all these things have happened to you.
And so… this is the rebuke, in my opinion, that you have to pay at the beginning in order to have the way of wisdom. Basically, you don’t know what you’re doing. Let me instruct you. And that’s what He’s saying, Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. What does it mean to acknowledge Him in all your ways? Basically, I need you, Jesus, to tell me what to do. I need your help. Or else I’m gonna mess it up. And that takes humility. Doesn’t it? And that’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, spiritual beggars, for theirs, and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven.”
You’re just gonna come in day after day and say, Teach me Jesus, I don’t know what to do, teach me and teach me. And he does, and that’s the beauty of salvation, He gives you an indwelling Holy Spirit to be your teacher and your guide. Listen to this in Isaiah 30:20, “Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it.”
Isn’t that great? Do you know how many non-Christians are looking for advice, watching TV shows, advice shows, call-in shows, reading columns, ’cause they don’t know where the way is, and they don’t have anyone saying, walk in it, but we have the indwelling Spirit and we have the scriptures, and the way is clear ahead of us saying, This is the way, walk in it. Isn’t that a blessing? Life gets complicated, and in effect, wisdom is standing here like a woman kind of noisy woman in the street saying, Follow me and I’ll take you to good things if you’ll only listen. And so wisdom makes an appeal, very loudly, expresses some regrets about the fact that she’s not being followed.
Now, look over in Chapter 8. Says the same thing again, wisdom is personified, beginning at verse 1. It says, “Does not wisdom call out, does not understanding raise her voice on the heights along the way where the paths meet, she takes her stand beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call out, I raise my voice to all mankind, you who are simple gain prudence, you who are foolish, gain understanding. Listen, I have worthy things to say, I open my lips to speak what is right, my mouth speaks what is true for my lips to test wickedness, all the words of my mouth are just. None of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning, all of them are right. They are faultless to all who have knowledge. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies and nothing you desire can compare with her.” ” Stop there. So wisdom is in effect saying, Here I am, listen to me, pay attention to me, she’s out kind of aggressively in the streets. Same thing as Chapter 1.
Now, look at Chapter 9, does the same thing. Chapter 9:1. “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out its seven pillars, she has prepared her meat and mixed her wine, she has also set her table, she has sent out her maids and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come in here,” she says to those who lack judgement, “Come eat my food and drink the wine, I have mixed, leave your simple ways and you will live. Walk in the way of understanding.” ” Stop there.
So here, in effect, wisdom has a beautiful house that she’s made, and she’s laid out a sumptuous feast, and then she sends out messengers in the street saying, Come and eat the best of meats and the finest of wines. Just invites, it’s just a wide proclamation for anyone to come and enjoy a good life. But look at the next verse, verse 7, “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults. Whoever rebukes a wicked man, incurs abuse.” Have you ever experienced this? You try to share something with somebody and this is what you get in return? Well, this is the mark of foolishness.
The question is, have you ever done it? That’s the real question. Somebody just wants to try to help you out and what comes out, we call it in our family, the viper, it’s inside us, it’s like a snake, and it comes out and goes…ssssss… Like that, Oh, it’s ugly. And there’s only one way to kill the viper, starve it. Death by starvation, ’cause every time you give it a meal, it gets bigger and stronger. You know what I’m talking about? And what is the meal that the viper likes? Pride. Pride, right? Every time you feed it, boy, it just ate and got a little stronger. I want my viper like a little earthworm, [chuckle] said of one of those big boa constrictors inside me.
But that viper needs death, we need to kill it and it’s within us. It’s that pride that says, I know what I’m doing, leave me alone. And so we respond, we don’t accept criticism well, we don’t take the rebuke, we don’t take the correction, we do it our own way. And so wisdom says, Look, this is something I’ve noticed by the way, all your messengers going out in the street to invite people to come to my banquet, this is what you may find when you invite them: Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults. Whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse, Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still, teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. Verse 10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do you see that? In effect, this is evangelism, isn’t it? It’s somebody going out in the streets and saying, repent, turn away from sin and come to Christ, turn away from your own ways, they’re leading to destruction. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death. Turn away from it. And what are you going to get? Well, you’re either going to get a wise man or a fool listening to you, and if you get the fool, what are you gonna get in response? Persecution.
They’re gonna be all over you. Why? Because you’re saying they need a savior, they need something other than their own ways, but a wise man becomes wiser still. Well, up to this point, we have seen basically Wisdom aggressively pursuing us, right? I mean, she’s out in the street, in Chapter 1, she’s out in the street again, in Chapter 8, she’s spreading a banquet, she’s sending out messengers everywhere. It seems like wisdom is readily accessible, isn’t that true? That’s what we’re getting from Chapter 1, Chapter 8, Chapter 9. Wisdom is everywhere and easy to get to. But now look at Chapter 2, beginning at Verse 1, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Now, what is the image here? Basically, you need to kinda go out and look for it, you need to search for it as for fine treasure. You need to kinda get your pick and your shovel and go in the mine and dig it up.
It implies almost like it’s kind of hard to find. Have you noticed? Chapter 2 seems somewhat out of sorts with Chapters 1, 8 and 9. I don’t think it is. We’ll talk about that in a minute, but in effect, you need to search for wisdom as for fine treasure. For silver and for gold and rubies, it’s got to be valuable to you. Gotta look for it, be hungry for it, searching. And notice again, the writer of Proverbs here, Solomon, basically tells us what wisdom you’re gonna find. Verse 5, “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” That’s basically what we’re finding.
Now, we’re gonna get really nuts-and-bolts-ish. Is that a word? I don’t know. We’re gonna get very practical in our looking at everyday life, and that’s good. We wanna know how to balance the checkbook and whether we should give to this or that, or whether we should go into a business deal or arrangement, or how we should deal with various temptations that come our way. We wanna get into the nuts and bolts of everyday life and Book of Proverbs is great for that. But the bottom line is, you’re gonna find God in all those details. That’s what you’re gonna find, you’re gonna find the ways of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He says it again.
Alright, well, how do we reconcile, then? We’ve got the image of wisdom being readily accessible, easy to find around everywhere, making a feast, spreading a banquet, sending out messengers, you can’t turn around, but you bump into her. She’s everywhere. But then in Chapter 2, you’ve gotta search for her like fine silver. How do you reconcile these two? Yeah? (audience comment) Chapter 2 addresses the priorities of your heart, Herbert said, But Chapter 1, 8 and 9, what God has made available. He’s lavished it for us, hasn’t He? And it’s not a small amount. It’s right here. 31 chapters of Proverbs, and that’s just one of 66 books in the Bible. It is here. This is the feast, isn’t it? It’s a banquet spread and it’s right there. Right on your shelf, right available for you, the answers were in there.
I really believe any problem in your life, you can trace it back to some way that you stepped off the wisdom clearly articulated in Scripture or just in the book of Proverbs. If you only knew. It’s there. But the fact is you’re going to miss it unless you’re really looking for it as for fine treasure and silver, do you see what I’m saying? It has to do with what kind of heat your heart has to be up to in order to accept the truth. You’ve gotta get up to a certain level of desire and yearning and hunger, or else you’re not gonna look and you’ll be one of those ones walking right by her in the streets, and you’ll never find her.
So what is it that creates a yearning for wisdom? Well, I think one thing, maybe the sting of sin, don’t you think? When you sin and it hurts and you start having mess in your life, troubled relationships, maybe husband or wife, parent, child, or employer, employee or with your neighbors, some problems. Or you’re having trouble in your finances. Trouble physically in your life, not getting enough sleep or other things, you begin to say, Boy, sin is causing me some trouble, and it creates a certain hunger in your life for the answers. And then all of a sudden the Lord starts to give you a good word. It’s called The word of wisdom, and it comes through a passage of scripture, and you started saying, “Wait a minute, that’s perfect, it’s what I’ve been looking for all along.” And then you start getting hungry and you start to search for it as for fine treasure.
I think that’s what happens. Sin is causing all the hurt in your life, and mine too. It’s the enemy, and the answer is the wisdom of God, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Now, the rest of Chapter 2, the writer basically unlocks the benefits of wisdom: knowledge of God and His protection.
In Verses 5-8, it says, You’ll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. The Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Verse 6, by the way, there is no other source of wisdom. It’s God or it’s no one. It’s God or it’s foolishness. Isn’t that true? Either God gives it or it’s foolishness. So the Lord gives wisdom. In Verse 7, “He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.” This is talking about success in your life and protection in your life from the enemies. Isn’t that what you yearn for in your life? Success in the things you’re doing, and protection from the enemies that surround you? God is making that available to you. And he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair, every good path. Look at that, Verse 9, you’ll know the way to go, you won’t be confused and say, What should I do? I don’t know what to do, I’m overwhelmed and discouraged, I don’t know what path to take. Verse 9, “You will understand what is right and just, and every proper path you’ll understand it.”
Verse 10, “For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” I like Verse 10 and compare it back to Verse 23 of Chapter 1. If you had responded, 1:23 says, “If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you.” Think about that, I would have poured out everything I know to you. I’d be a teacher, I would never run out of things to say. I would have poured out my wisdom to you.
Okay, back to Chapter 10, Verse… Chapter 2:10, “Wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” That’s everyday life. And then in Chapter 2:12-15, we have protection from the evil man, and then in Verse 16-19, protection from the evil woman. There’s a comprehensive protection here, and then finally in Verses 20-22, a summary, thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous, for the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the unfaithful will be torn from it. It’s a good life, it’s a life of wisdom, it’s a life of blessedness.
And what is the one thing we need for it? We need to accept the rebuke, don’t we? We need to basically accept that we’re simple and we don’t know what we’re doing. We need to stop relying on our own ways. And that is hard to do.
I wanna finish tonight in 2 Corinthians Chapter 1 with the Apostle Paul’s experience. 2 Corinthians 1:8 and following. Here, Paul is talking about one of the hardest times in his life, a terrible time of persecution. “We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We are under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life, indeed in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death.” Now, look at this, “but this happened, that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.”
Are you telling me, Paul, you had to go through all this to learn the lesson of Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding? Yeah, it’s that hard to give it up, isn’t it? It’s that hard to say, God, I don’t know what I’m doing, I trust in you. Lead me, I lean on you, I rely on you at every moment, and if you don’t help me, I will surely fall, and if you don’t guide me, I’ll surely go astray. It is that hard, and Paul said, I had to go through this to learn the lesson, to not rely on myself, but on God who raises the dead.
So how do we become wise people? Ask for trials and persecutions, difficulties and distress? Whether he gives you the bread of affliction or not, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. God prepares your heart for wisdom, and then all of a sudden a feast that’s delicious. God spreads out a feast and every area of your life is sanctified to his wise ways, and you don’t have to taste the bitter fruit of sin any longer. Won’t you close with me in prayer?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time we’ve had tonight. And looking at Proverbs and the value of Wisdom, I thank You for Chapter 1, 8 and 9, which makes it so clear how aggressively wisdom is seeking us out to find us. Father, we thank you for that, we thank you that she’s out in the streets making herself available, we thank you that she’s calling to us, and that She spread a banquet for us and inviting us, enticing us to a wise and profitable life. But father, we know from Chapter 2 that we need to search for it as for hidden treasure. We need to yearn for it, and we need to pay the price of listening to wisdom’s rebuke, namely that we don’t know what we’re doing and that we need God to teach us and lead us. Father, make us all spiritual beggars that we might walk in your ways. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Good night, God willing. We’ll see you again next week. Thank you for coming.
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street” …Andy explains the personification and the cry of wisdom as seen in Proverbs chapters 1-3 and 8-9.
– Sermon Transcript –
Why don’t you open to the Book of Proverbs, we’re gonna be looking this morning… Or this evening at Proverbs 1, 2, and 3, and also a little bit in Chapters 8 and 9. But before we do, let’s turn to the Lord and ask him for help. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We’ve had in your presence a day in your house. We’re grateful O Lord, for the fellowship we’ve had with one another, it’s very precious to us, O Lord, to know that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who take a genuine interest in our welfare. Take a genuine interest, O Lord in our lives. They’re praying for us and caring for us, and who would, if needed, bring resources to bear into our lives as your Spirit directs. We thank you for sweet fellowship. Thank you that we hold in common certain truths that we’ve gotten from your Scripture, which are equally precious to each one of us.
And so, when we see each other, there’s automatically a smile and a connection from one to another, because we’re all children of God by your spirit. We’re grateful for that, and I thank you for the time of worship that we’ve experienced together O Lord, there’s nothing like it Lord throughout the week, the time we have in your house O Lord on Sundays to sing praises to you and to pray and to lift our hearts to you, and to focus on you and to acknowledge your greatness. And Lord, it’s refreshing to us because the world is offering us all kinds of counterfeit treasures and distractions and allurements that are designed by Satan to take our minds off of you so that you somehow seem less valuable, or less satisfying, somehow prompted we are to wander away from you to other things, and we ask your forgiveness for this.
We’re grateful that on Sunday we can be restored, our view can be lifted up and we can see you again. And we thank you for your precious word, which gives us the faith that we need to see you as you really are, and to see the world as it really is. Father, we thank you for the wisdom that comes from studying your scripture, and now as we turn our hearts to that wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, we pray that you’d open it up to us, O Lord. As spiritual beggars, we ask you again to teach us Lord, we’re ready to receive from you. So instruct us by your Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
This evening what I would like to do is talk about the cry of wisdom. In which wisdom is personified as crying out to us and beckoning to us to come follow her. We see wisdom personified three times, Chapter 1:20-33, so please turn there, that’s where we’re gonna start this morning… Or evening. That’s the second time I’ve done that. Is it evening or morning? I’m not quite sure. Sunday has an amazing effect on my brain, all you have to do is talk to my wife, there’s not much left of me mentally at the end of this day. But at any rate, if I say morning, alright, you know I mean evening. The rest of the way, I’ll set on that. Would that be sufficient? Alright.
So we’re looking at Proverbs 1:20-33. We’re also gonna take a look at Chapters 8 and 9 to look at this call. Now, wisdom is personified here as a woman out in the streets beckoning to us to follow her, alluring us and enticing us to follow in her ways. And it’s a phenomenal thing when compared with Chapter 2 as we’re going to see. Wisdom is personified, is available, accessible, enticing, satisfying, and available for any who will seek with a pure heart. Let’s begin at Verse 20 and look through to Verse 33 and see what Solomon says to us. Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares, at the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. In the gateways of the city, she makes her speech.
“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you, but since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand. Since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I, in turn, will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will look for me, but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the wayward-ness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm.”
In verses 20 and 21, Wisdom is making an appeal. She’s crying aloud in the streets, she’s not silent. Neither is wisdom hidden in the halls of academia, for PhDs, or for kings, or for doctors, or for specialists. Wisdom is personified as out in the streets, basically begging for an audience. It’s an interesting thing here. Wisdom calls aloud in the street and raises her voice in the public squares, at the head of the noisy street, she cries out, in effect saying, wisdom is available for anyone. It’s there for you. If you just reach out. And as Wisdom is calling out, reaching out in everyday life, in effect saying, I’m available for anything you’re going to face, this basically unfolds the whole themes of the Book of Proverbs.
Now last week, we saw that there’s no… Almost no area of everyday life or practical life that’s not covered in the Book of Proverbs. Isn’t that true? You all perhaps have some favorite Proverbs that you’ve memorized. I like one that’s very useful. A gentle answer turns away wrath. Isn’t that powerful? In other words, somebody comes to you and they’re distressed with you, and just to respond gently with humility, can end that controversy before it even starts. But all of you have some other ones. The point is that there’s no area of life that’s not covered by the wisdom that God offers, reaching out. But along with it, wisdom offers not just a beckoning or an invitation or an appeal, but also somewhat of a complaint. Look at Verse 22. “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you, but since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I, in turn, will laugh at your disaster.”
So there’s a complaint here, and what is the complaint that wisdom is making? They’re not paying attention. They’re rejecting her, as she reaches out there, basically loving their own ways. It seems no one wants to listen to wisdom, because as you look around in all the areas of life that Proverbs is dealing with, the workplace, the home, family relationships, dealing with money or time, labor, any topic addressed in the Book of Proverbs, we see foolishness abounding, don’t we?
We see it around us, and sadly we see it in us, and so wisdom has a kind of a complaint against us. In effect she’s saying, How long is it gonna go on like this? I’ve got everything you need. If you’ll just turn. How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? So, she addresses three types of people here, the simple… These are simple people, it doesn’t… There’s nothing wrong with the simplicity in one sense, but these are people that should know better in effect. The simple means people who know nothing or are untrained neophytes in effect. And then there’s scoffers or mockers. This is somebody that hears the truth and hears the wisdom, but rejects it with a laugh, thinks of it as humorous really. It’s a joke in a way. And then there are the dullards or the fools. Now, we said last time that we were going to have two escorts through the Book of Proverbs, one is the wise man and the other is the fool.
Now, in the Book of Proverbs, a fool is not just somebody who doesn’t do well on a test, it goes a lot deeper than that. A fool is somebody who has a serious moral problem. Basically at heart, they do not fear the Lord. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So they do not have a right relationship with the God of wisdom, they’re in rejection of His wisdom. In effect, they’ve turned the whole thing around and they are wise and God is the fool. That’s the way they look at it. And so, basically, the foolishness runs right to the heart of their relationship with God. They don’t fear the Lord, and then it plays out in all these arenas, doesn’t it? The fool does this, the fool speaks that, the fool does the other. So it plays itself out in various ways, but at heart, it’s a spiritual problem. And they all have one trait in common, they hate wisdom, and they love foolishness. They hate wisdom and love foolishness.
Now, Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon entitled ‘Treatise on Religious Affections’, said that true religion, in the end, consists in affection. Affection, passion. Basically, religion comes down to what you love and what you hate. I’ll show you what I mean. Look over at Hebrews Chapter 1, take a minute and turn there. In Hebrews Chapter 1, the writer to Hebrews is speaking of the superiority of the Son of God to angels, and Jesus Christ is superior to every created being. He Himself is not created. There was never a time that He did not exist. And here, God Himself, the first person of the Trinity, the ancient of days, from Daniel Chapter 7, is speaking to the second person of the Trinity, fascinating chapter. And he’s speaking words of scripture to Him and He’s speaking straight from prophecy. Basically saying, The Father says this to the Son, the Father says this to the Son. So we’re kind of listening in on a conversation from the Father to the Son, and the intensity and the passion is strong.
And this is what he says in Chapter 1:8, “But about the Son, he says, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever. Do you see that? Look at Verse 8, about the Son, he says, well, who says this? God the Father. And who is he speaking about? God the Son. And what does he call him? Well, he calls Him God, Your throne, O God, isn’t that amazing? God the Father calls God the Son, God, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. Look at the next Verse though. “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” This is what Edwards meant when he said, True religion consists in what you love and what you hate. It’s not enough just to love, we have to love and hate, why? Because there’s evil in this world, isn’t there?
We can’t be ambivalent about evil, we have to hate it. And we can’t be ambivalent about good and wisdom, we have to love it. And because, according to this Verse, Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness, God loves him and sets His throne above all others. That’s how the logic of the Verse works. Go back to Proverbs 1.
What I’m contending to you is that as you grow in spiritual maturity, as your character develops, it’s going to be developing along lines of love and hatred, isn’t it? Not just love, and certainly not just hatred, but love and hatred. You’re going to love righteousness more and more, and you’re going to hate wickedness more and more. You see how it is? ‘Cause, that’s the way God is. And so in effect, what’s going on here in Proverbs 1 is that the simple, the mockers and scoffers, the fools, love what?
They love wickedness, they love their simple ways, they love anti-wisdom. They’re not ambivalent about it, mind you, they enjoy it. This is what brings them pleasure, and they continue to love their simple ways, the ways of un-wisdom when they should have loved wisdom. This is the core issue. And so, therefore, wisdom speaks regretfully as we already read in Verse 23, “If you had responded, if you had responded to my rebuke,” isn’t that amazing? If you had only listened to me, you would not be in the bind you’re in right now. [chuckle] And you know the funny thing is, we get in binds, don’t we? Sin leads us to interesting places in our lives. And you wonder, how did I get here? What series of decisions did I make that led me to this place that I’m in now?
And if you just would take the time to unravel it, and if you knew the Book of Proverbs thoroughly, wisdom would say, I told you. I told you. I told you, if you’d only listened, we wouldn’t have gotten in this problem. And so, wisdom is in effect out in the street saying, please listen to me, I don’t want you to get there where you are. If you had only listened to my rebuke, etcetera. Now, very interesting what she says. If you had listened to my rebuke. Note this word is in here three times. If you had listened to my rebuke, it says in Verse 23. And then again it says in Verse 25, “Since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I will laugh at you.” And then again, it says in Verse 30, “Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways,” etcetera. What is a rebuke?
Correction. Strong correction. Yes. There’s correction and then there’s rebuke, so it’s a correction with a stinger in it, isn’t it? I mean, there’s a kind of a sting to it, and wisdom is in effect offering a rebuke. And we’re gonna find out, we’re not gonna look at it tonight, but kind of one of the keys to being a wise person is how you handle a rebuke. Isn’t that true? How you handle a correction. How, when somebody comes to you and says, brother or sister, I see this in your life and it’s going to cause X, Y, and Z, please stop. How you respond to that shows whether you’re a wise person or a fool. If you become prideful and defend yourself, it’s a certain thing. If on the other hand, you listen and respond and accept, then you’re wise. And so, the path of wisdom is a way of listening to rebukes according to wisdom. Now, what is the rebuke? I think there’s a key rebuke right at the start of the Christian life.
Look at Chapter 3:5-7, this should be familiar to you. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” There it is. That’s a rebuke. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. But keep going, Verse 7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil.” It’s the same thing, don’t think of yourself as knowing what you’re doing, [chuckle] ’cause you don’t. And that’s the same thing, all of us basically need to come to wisdom, humble and open like a child and say, teach me because I don’t know what I’m doing.
And that’s kinda hard to take, isn’t it? I mean, after all, we’re such and such years old, we’ve been at this for a while. Things are kinda going along, and yeah, we have some bumps along the way, but I mean, it’s going, isn’t it? And so, we in effect have to turn our back on our own wisdom, our own ways, and say, I don’t know what I’m doing, and that’s a little bit hard to take, isn’t it?
Look over at Chapter 12:15. Somebody read this for me. Big, loud voice, Herbert. But read it in English. You can read it it in Spanish, it’s International Sunday, so you can go ahead and do that.[chuckle] It’s 12:15, right?
Okay. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.”
The way of a fool seems right to him. It seems like it’s going all right, doesn’t it? But is it? Is it? And so, the kind of entry rebuke that wisdom gives us is, you don’t know what you’re doing. [chuckle] You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re going to mess it up if you lean on your own understanding. Check your understanding at the door and come in ready to learn and we will be fine. And then even stronger, 14:12, somebody read 14:12 to me. “There is a way that seems right to man, but at the end of it is the way of death.”
There is a way that seems right to man, but the end of that way is death. Now, it doesn’t just mean physical death, but I think eternal death. We actually think we know what we’re doing. We’re navigating very well, thank you very much, but we’re not. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.” And so, we’ve got this wide paved road, and pride just feeds it, doesn’t it? I know what I’m doing, I know what I’m doing. There’s a way that seems right. But then there’s these problems that keep popping up, and wisdom is gonna say here, I’m just gonna laugh at you, because I told you what was going to come of it. Because you would not check your own understanding at the door, because you trusted in your own ways and did not lean on the Lord, because of that, all these things have happened to you.
And so… this is the rebuke, in my opinion, that you have to pay at the beginning in order to have the way of wisdom. Basically, you don’t know what you’re doing. Let me instruct you. And that’s what He’s saying, Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. What does it mean to acknowledge Him in all your ways? Basically, I need you, Jesus, to tell me what to do. I need your help. Or else I’m gonna mess it up. And that takes humility. Doesn’t it? And that’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, spiritual beggars, for theirs, and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven.”
You’re just gonna come in day after day and say, Teach me Jesus, I don’t know what to do, teach me and teach me. And he does, and that’s the beauty of salvation, He gives you an indwelling Holy Spirit to be your teacher and your guide. Listen to this in Isaiah 30:20, “Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it.”
Isn’t that great? Do you know how many non-Christians are looking for advice, watching TV shows, advice shows, call-in shows, reading columns, ’cause they don’t know where the way is, and they don’t have anyone saying, walk in it, but we have the indwelling Spirit and we have the scriptures, and the way is clear ahead of us saying, This is the way, walk in it. Isn’t that a blessing? Life gets complicated, and in effect, wisdom is standing here like a woman kind of noisy woman in the street saying, Follow me and I’ll take you to good things if you’ll only listen. And so wisdom makes an appeal, very loudly, expresses some regrets about the fact that she’s not being followed.
Now, look over in Chapter 8. Says the same thing again, wisdom is personified, beginning at verse 1. It says, “Does not wisdom call out, does not understanding raise her voice on the heights along the way where the paths meet, she takes her stand beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call out, I raise my voice to all mankind, you who are simple gain prudence, you who are foolish, gain understanding. Listen, I have worthy things to say, I open my lips to speak what is right, my mouth speaks what is true for my lips to test wickedness, all the words of my mouth are just. None of them is crooked or perverse. To the discerning, all of them are right. They are faultless to all who have knowledge. Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies and nothing you desire can compare with her.” ” Stop there. So wisdom is in effect saying, Here I am, listen to me, pay attention to me, she’s out kind of aggressively in the streets. Same thing as Chapter 1.
Now, look at Chapter 9, does the same thing. Chapter 9:1. “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out its seven pillars, she has prepared her meat and mixed her wine, she has also set her table, she has sent out her maids and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come in here,” she says to those who lack judgement, “Come eat my food and drink the wine, I have mixed, leave your simple ways and you will live. Walk in the way of understanding.” ” Stop there.
So here, in effect, wisdom has a beautiful house that she’s made, and she’s laid out a sumptuous feast, and then she sends out messengers in the street saying, Come and eat the best of meats and the finest of wines. Just invites, it’s just a wide proclamation for anyone to come and enjoy a good life. But look at the next verse, verse 7, “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults. Whoever rebukes a wicked man, incurs abuse.” Have you ever experienced this? You try to share something with somebody and this is what you get in return? Well, this is the mark of foolishness.
The question is, have you ever done it? That’s the real question. Somebody just wants to try to help you out and what comes out, we call it in our family, the viper, it’s inside us, it’s like a snake, and it comes out and goes…ssssss… Like that, Oh, it’s ugly. And there’s only one way to kill the viper, starve it. Death by starvation, ’cause every time you give it a meal, it gets bigger and stronger. You know what I’m talking about? And what is the meal that the viper likes? Pride. Pride, right? Every time you feed it, boy, it just ate and got a little stronger. I want my viper like a little earthworm, [chuckle] said of one of those big boa constrictors inside me.
But that viper needs death, we need to kill it and it’s within us. It’s that pride that says, I know what I’m doing, leave me alone. And so we respond, we don’t accept criticism well, we don’t take the rebuke, we don’t take the correction, we do it our own way. And so wisdom says, Look, this is something I’ve noticed by the way, all your messengers going out in the street to invite people to come to my banquet, this is what you may find when you invite them: Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults. Whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse, Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still, teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. Verse 10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Do you see that? In effect, this is evangelism, isn’t it? It’s somebody going out in the streets and saying, repent, turn away from sin and come to Christ, turn away from your own ways, they’re leading to destruction. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death. Turn away from it. And what are you going to get? Well, you’re either going to get a wise man or a fool listening to you, and if you get the fool, what are you gonna get in response? Persecution.
They’re gonna be all over you. Why? Because you’re saying they need a savior, they need something other than their own ways, but a wise man becomes wiser still. Well, up to this point, we have seen basically Wisdom aggressively pursuing us, right? I mean, she’s out in the street, in Chapter 1, she’s out in the street again, in Chapter 8, she’s spreading a banquet, she’s sending out messengers everywhere. It seems like wisdom is readily accessible, isn’t that true? That’s what we’re getting from Chapter 1, Chapter 8, Chapter 9. Wisdom is everywhere and easy to get to. But now look at Chapter 2, beginning at Verse 1, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
Now, what is the image here? Basically, you need to kinda go out and look for it, you need to search for it as for fine treasure. You need to kinda get your pick and your shovel and go in the mine and dig it up.
It implies almost like it’s kind of hard to find. Have you noticed? Chapter 2 seems somewhat out of sorts with Chapters 1, 8 and 9. I don’t think it is. We’ll talk about that in a minute, but in effect, you need to search for wisdom as for fine treasure. For silver and for gold and rubies, it’s got to be valuable to you. Gotta look for it, be hungry for it, searching. And notice again, the writer of Proverbs here, Solomon, basically tells us what wisdom you’re gonna find. Verse 5, “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” That’s basically what we’re finding.
Now, we’re gonna get really nuts-and-bolts-ish. Is that a word? I don’t know. We’re gonna get very practical in our looking at everyday life, and that’s good. We wanna know how to balance the checkbook and whether we should give to this or that, or whether we should go into a business deal or arrangement, or how we should deal with various temptations that come our way. We wanna get into the nuts and bolts of everyday life and Book of Proverbs is great for that. But the bottom line is, you’re gonna find God in all those details. That’s what you’re gonna find, you’re gonna find the ways of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He says it again.
Alright, well, how do we reconcile, then? We’ve got the image of wisdom being readily accessible, easy to find around everywhere, making a feast, spreading a banquet, sending out messengers, you can’t turn around, but you bump into her. She’s everywhere. But then in Chapter 2, you’ve gotta search for her like fine silver. How do you reconcile these two? Yeah? (audience comment) Chapter 2 addresses the priorities of your heart, Herbert said, But Chapter 1, 8 and 9, what God has made available. He’s lavished it for us, hasn’t He? And it’s not a small amount. It’s right here. 31 chapters of Proverbs, and that’s just one of 66 books in the Bible. It is here. This is the feast, isn’t it? It’s a banquet spread and it’s right there. Right on your shelf, right available for you, the answers were in there.
I really believe any problem in your life, you can trace it back to some way that you stepped off the wisdom clearly articulated in Scripture or just in the book of Proverbs. If you only knew. It’s there. But the fact is you’re going to miss it unless you’re really looking for it as for fine treasure and silver, do you see what I’m saying? It has to do with what kind of heat your heart has to be up to in order to accept the truth. You’ve gotta get up to a certain level of desire and yearning and hunger, or else you’re not gonna look and you’ll be one of those ones walking right by her in the streets, and you’ll never find her.
So what is it that creates a yearning for wisdom? Well, I think one thing, maybe the sting of sin, don’t you think? When you sin and it hurts and you start having mess in your life, troubled relationships, maybe husband or wife, parent, child, or employer, employee or with your neighbors, some problems. Or you’re having trouble in your finances. Trouble physically in your life, not getting enough sleep or other things, you begin to say, Boy, sin is causing me some trouble, and it creates a certain hunger in your life for the answers. And then all of a sudden the Lord starts to give you a good word. It’s called The word of wisdom, and it comes through a passage of scripture, and you started saying, “Wait a minute, that’s perfect, it’s what I’ve been looking for all along.” And then you start getting hungry and you start to search for it as for fine treasure.
I think that’s what happens. Sin is causing all the hurt in your life, and mine too. It’s the enemy, and the answer is the wisdom of God, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Now, the rest of Chapter 2, the writer basically unlocks the benefits of wisdom: knowledge of God and His protection.
In Verses 5-8, it says, You’ll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. The Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Verse 6, by the way, there is no other source of wisdom. It’s God or it’s no one. It’s God or it’s foolishness. Isn’t that true? Either God gives it or it’s foolishness. So the Lord gives wisdom. In Verse 7, “He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.” This is talking about success in your life and protection in your life from the enemies. Isn’t that what you yearn for in your life? Success in the things you’re doing, and protection from the enemies that surround you? God is making that available to you. And he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair, every good path. Look at that, Verse 9, you’ll know the way to go, you won’t be confused and say, What should I do? I don’t know what to do, I’m overwhelmed and discouraged, I don’t know what path to take. Verse 9, “You will understand what is right and just, and every proper path you’ll understand it.”
Verse 10, “For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” I like Verse 10 and compare it back to Verse 23 of Chapter 1. If you had responded, 1:23 says, “If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you.” Think about that, I would have poured out everything I know to you. I’d be a teacher, I would never run out of things to say. I would have poured out my wisdom to you.
Okay, back to Chapter 10, Verse… Chapter 2:10, “Wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” That’s everyday life. And then in Chapter 2:12-15, we have protection from the evil man, and then in Verse 16-19, protection from the evil woman. There’s a comprehensive protection here, and then finally in Verses 20-22, a summary, thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous, for the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the unfaithful will be torn from it. It’s a good life, it’s a life of wisdom, it’s a life of blessedness.
And what is the one thing we need for it? We need to accept the rebuke, don’t we? We need to basically accept that we’re simple and we don’t know what we’re doing. We need to stop relying on our own ways. And that is hard to do.
I wanna finish tonight in 2 Corinthians Chapter 1 with the Apostle Paul’s experience. 2 Corinthians 1:8 and following. Here, Paul is talking about one of the hardest times in his life, a terrible time of persecution. “We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We are under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life, indeed in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death.” Now, look at this, “but this happened, that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.”
Are you telling me, Paul, you had to go through all this to learn the lesson of Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding? Yeah, it’s that hard to give it up, isn’t it? It’s that hard to say, God, I don’t know what I’m doing, I trust in you. Lead me, I lean on you, I rely on you at every moment, and if you don’t help me, I will surely fall, and if you don’t guide me, I’ll surely go astray. It is that hard, and Paul said, I had to go through this to learn the lesson, to not rely on myself, but on God who raises the dead.
So how do we become wise people? Ask for trials and persecutions, difficulties and distress? Whether he gives you the bread of affliction or not, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. God prepares your heart for wisdom, and then all of a sudden a feast that’s delicious. God spreads out a feast and every area of your life is sanctified to his wise ways, and you don’t have to taste the bitter fruit of sin any longer. Won’t you close with me in prayer?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time we’ve had tonight. And looking at Proverbs and the value of Wisdom, I thank You for Chapter 1, 8 and 9, which makes it so clear how aggressively wisdom is seeking us out to find us. Father, we thank you for that, we thank you that she’s out in the streets making herself available, we thank you that she’s calling to us, and that She spread a banquet for us and inviting us, enticing us to a wise and profitable life. But father, we know from Chapter 2 that we need to search for it as for hidden treasure. We need to yearn for it, and we need to pay the price of listening to wisdom’s rebuke, namely that we don’t know what we’re doing and that we need God to teach us and lead us. Father, make us all spiritual beggars that we might walk in your ways. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Good night, God willing. We’ll see you again next week. Thank you for coming.
