Route 66: Proverbs - The Pursuit of True Wisdom

Good evening, family.

It's always a challenge and an honor to stand here and to open the word of God with all of you.

To stand here and to open the word of God with all of you.

And Proverbs.

I did not even realize that I volunteered for this until four weeks ago and Micah reminded me that, oh yeah, it is Proverbs, july 28th.

Well, that's been my life for the past 10 years or so where my calendar has not been kept and I'm forgetting more things than I can remember.

So that is the season of life that we are in, then again.

So for four weeks of time, I spoke to Pastor Doug about Proverbs and he has given me some pointers, and that's wonderful, and it's such a wonderful book.

And let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we bow before you this evening, father, as we seek to understand your wisdom from the book of Proverbs.

Father, we pray that you would, your Holy Spirit, would, shed light on this wonderful, wonderful portion of the scripture and enlighten our hearts.

Father, for your glory, and Father, we pray that everything that is said tonight, father, will serve to honor you and Father, use it for your glory.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Last night I went to get my haircut barber shop next to our house.

This barber is an Indian man and I was talking to him about his you know whereabouts and where he was born, and he asked me about you know my whereabouts and where I was born and this man and he after he's, you know saying everything, and he said this you know, for the past 30 years or so, I have made choices that were unwise, and he was lamenting about his life and he was lamenting about how his life turned out and he you know, he was lamenting about how his work did not produce success and he has been working all this while without finding much success at all.

And and he was, and there was a despair in his voice.

And after that we continued the conversation and he asked me you know, he sees me walking around the neighborhood with my ear headphones on and he asked me what are you listening to?

So I said I listen to some songs and I listen to the Bible to.

So I said I listened to some songs and I listened to the Bible.

And his face lit up and he started saying I have listened to everything, all the religious books, and I have listened to Hinduism.

I have listened to this and Bhagwan Rajneesh.

He brought up and he said I want to listen to the Bible.

Would you send me?

Is there an audio Bible, audio version of a Hindi Bible?

I said, yes, there is an audio version of Hindi Bible.

He requested he begged that I send it to him.

He has listened to everything and that is one thing that he has not listened to listen to.

So I was thinking you know how this conversation, how it went from his disappointment in his life and how he did not make wise choices, to you know him asking about the book of books, and it was, yeah, we were, I was pleased and we were praying for him last night and I would urge all of you to remember him in your prayers as he listens to, as this brother listens to, the scripture.

So if we look at the wisdom literature, you know Pastor Doug preached from a book of Job and you have the Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs and Psalms we heard of Brother Parker preached from last week, and in Ecclesiastes is the same lament that we see again.

What I heard from this person yesterday, it is all vanity.

And the book of Ecclesiastes I don't know if I don't think we covered that right, it's not yet been preached on.

Okay, and in the book of Ecclesiastes, the author, he's lamenting about how things were supposed to be and how God designed us to be and how things turned out.

And in that he starts saying you know, the men come and men go, the earth stands forever and man was supposed to be an eternal being forever.

And man was supposed to be an eternal being.

Unfortunately, touched by this curse, man became a temporal being and the stage that he was supposed to be on it continues on and on and on.

And he was lamenting about that.

And you know most of the.

If we consider all of our lives and if we look at the totality of our lives and our existence here, and the thing is we, you know, at some point we will lament about.

You know so many things Just like that person was lamenting about.

And here in Proverbs, see, the thing is goal of wisdom, literature.

Is God intended for humanity to prosper?

And this, especially in Proverbs, it is what we see.

Here is the word proverb typically refers to a short, clever saying that offers wisdom in some way, saying that offers wisdom in some way.

While this book contains hundreds of proverbs, most of them are found in the center of this book, and there are.

You know, if we consider the structure of this book, from chapters one through nine, there are about 10 speeches about wisdom, 10 speeches about wisdom, and you have the Proverbs 30 and 31, and in 30 we hear from Agur and his wisdom and in 31 we hear from King Lemuel.

And if you ask most people to define wisdom, particularly in reference to knowledge, they will say that knowledge, this wisdom, had to do with knowing.

Knowledge is particularly in reference to knowledge.

They will say that knowledge this, you know, the wisdom had to do with knowing a lot of knowledge is knowing a lot of facts, and the wisdom involves the ability to use that knowledge in useful ways.

So, according to dictionarycom, the definition of this word is you know.

The wisdom is the applied knowledge.

When Bible speaks about wisdom, it means far more than what we usually understand wisdom to be.

And in the 21st century BC, the people, when they understood wisdom, they understood it like this it is almost a universal search to learn, by observation of the world and human experience, how the creator designed the creation to function and then ordering one's behavior in accordance with that plan to achieve life as it is intended.

I think they have it.

They have a much deeper understanding of wisdom than we do Right Than we do Right.

And Solomon Wrote the book of Proverbs and most of it anyway.

When we go to 1st Kings, third chapter, we see the story of Solomon Having a dream.

Solomon becomes the king and he has a dream and in that the Lord asks him to make what he wants.

And he asked for wisdom.

And the Lord granted him wisdom and everything else.

And he wakes up from that dream and he says if you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands, just as your father David did, I will give you a long life along with all these things.

And in 1 Kings 4, 29 to 33, he says Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind.

Like the sand that is on the seashore, solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he is wiser than all men.

And he says he also spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005.

And he spoke of trees.

He spoke of cedar, that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that grows on the wall.

He spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish.

He was the first botanist and biologist, it looks like, and he collected.

Not only he wrote his own proverbs, but he collected a lot of other proverbs as well.

Solomon's writings became the source of Israel's wisdom literature.

The Hebrew word chokmah means more than knowledge.

It says it is applied knowledge and this can be applied to all created order.

These are the principles and the order God built into the universe With all the wisdom and experience.

Solomon penned these proverbs.

This talks about the way generally things work in the universe.

After observing so many things, after living for such a long time, this is how the universe is, and let's read Proverbs 1 through 7.

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, for learning, wisdom and discipline, for understanding insightful sayings, for receiving prudent instruction in righteousness, justice and integrity, for teaching shrewdness to the inexperienced, knowledge and discretion to the young man.

Let a wise person listen and increase learning and let a discerning person obtain guidance For understanding a proverb or a parable, the words of the wise and their riddles.

And the seventh verse the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and discipline.

This is the seventh verse.

We see this theme is repeated again in Proverbs, chapter 9.

Proverbs 9 · chapter mention

The main section of this book is chapters 1 through 9.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

As I said, there are 10 speeches from father to son.

The father tells the son that he should listen to wisdom and cultivate fear of the Lord.

Talks about a life of virtue, integrity, generosity.

All of these will lead to success and peace.

Father wants the son about folly and evil, about short-sighted, selfish decisions and pride.

All of this will lead to ruin and shame.

And you have the Solomonic proverbs in chapter 10, for the first verse, through chapter 22, 16, you have proverbs by solomon and after again 25, 1 through 29, 7, you have solomon's proverbs and the remaining are 22, 17 through 24, 34.

These are the proverbs by other wise men.

And chapter 30, as I said, these are the sayings of Agur.

Then in chapter 31, we have sayings of King Lemuel this we all know.

To describe a virtuous woman, proverbs 31 is always quoted, and in chapter 31.

Verses 10 through 31.

That is how many?

22 verses Describing a virtuous woman.

And here this is an acrostic.

What is an acrostic?

Every verse begins with Different Hebrew letter, from Aleph to the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

So it says about the wisdom of this virtuous woman.

When somebody, a Hebrew poet, writes this as an acrostic, that means as we have exhausted the alphabet, so have we exhausted the subject.

And again in Proverbs 9, 10, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

In other non-wisdom literature of the Bible there are this is, that is, about 61 other books.

God always gives his revelation to a person who writes it down in the Bible, who can then say with authority does say the Lord.

This is how all the prophets and Matthew, mark and John and Paul and Peter and everybody who wrote that's how they did it.

In wisdom literature it works a little differently.

The general revelation of God's wisdom that is woven into his creation and the universe and the observed patterns by wise men are recorded in the wisdom literature as proverbs.

For instance, proverbs 10.1,.

A wise child brings joy to his parents.

This is not necessarily always true.

It is almost.

Usually it is true, but not necessarily always true.

As an example, a child who was born in Garden City, new York, miraculously is found by God and you know who I am talking about.

And when he tells his parents Dad, I want to invest my life on a mission field, turning lost people to Christ.

Obviously, their parents have so many ambitions towards their son.

That proclamation by Kevin Cooney did not bring joy to his parents.

But wisdom, literature, by definition, describes the way world generally runs, and sometimes these exceptions do happen.

If we try to understand this book logically, one could conclude erroneously that one's highest goal should be pursue what is virtuous and avoid what is vile, and thereby achieve success.

If the success is the goal of this pursuit, then that pursuit will come short of what is intended.

There are many books written about this precise thing from the principles that are outlined in Proverbs.

Apply these principles from Proverbs and achieve success in life.

If we get only that from this book, it would be a shame, because that only leads one in the pursuit of moralism.

If we want to understand this book, we must understand chapter 1, verse 7.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The term here, the phrase here, is the fear of the Lord, and we use this right.

We talk about being a God-fearing person.

See, the thing is in every culture in humanity this thing, about this definition of this God-fearing person, especially coming from a Hindu culture.

Okay, and this is very highly regarded.

You know God-fearing, the fear of God, and you know for a Hindu, you know to be good is to take care of others and to be, you know not to.

I mean all these virtuous things that are described in Proverbs.

I think a God-fearing person in a Hindu culture will always try to do, try to follow that.

And the thing is, unfortunately, for the most part, when people use this phrase of being a God-fearing person, all they mean is to be a moral person.

There are many God-fearing, moral people whose goal it is to live a good and a moral life and not harm anyone and to give to the poor, and in almost all the world religions it is a virtue to do all these things and in some religions it is a requirement also.

Well, this is not what the book of Proverbs is referring to when it says it is the fear of the Lord.

It is not referring to someone who does not know God, to someone who does not have A saving, covenantal relationship With God, and it is not referring to Someone who lives their life Outside God and yet acknowledges and recognizes.

The thing is, you know if some people don't we see that, see this on television always and you know when they.

When we talk about God, yeah, we have.

Everybody agrees that there is this power out there and who is controlling or who they revere or who they you know they think is running the universe.

But that understanding lacks a relationship with God.

And the thing is, if you lack relationship with a God, how do you fear such a?

What does this even mean?

The fear of God?

Many God-fearing, moral people whose goal it is to live a virtuous life and to earn favor with God.

And if we read Proverbs just like that, as a set of moral principles, a set of rules, we will always come short of the intended purpose of this book.

So, god fearing person, this is not what the book of Proverbs mean.

When we read this, we come to understand that this fear of the Lord is this reverence of God.

Reverence for God is actually the evidence of a covenant relationship with him.

We understand who God is and we fear and revere God and serve God because we know who God is.

It is not an outward acknowledgement that God perhaps exists out there somewhere, but what he says is the fear, the intimate knowledge, the reverence that is coming from the intimate knowledge of God.

That is the beginning of knowledge, beginning of knowledge.

So, as I said in Proverbs, book of Proverbs covers everything from economics, from romance, from relationships, from the society, how kings ought to behave, how the society is supposed to be, everything it covers the whole gamut.

And when we look at economics, you know, when there is so much that we have heard of so many companies which have gone belly up because of the misbehavior of its leadership.

Yes, the thing is definitely the work produces prosperity and, as according to book of Proverbs and God intended for the humanity to flourish.

But if you take shortcuts and there is ruin, and that is what we see.

There are examples of that in our society.

We see that in so many examples here in our society and also here we see, as we continue from verse 8 and forward Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and don't reject your mother's teaching, and for there will be garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck.

My son, when, if sinners entice you, don't be persuaded if they say come with us, let us set an ambush and kill someone, let us attack some innocent person just for fun, let us swallow them alive likeol, while like those who go down to the pit.

What he is referring to here is a heart of folly.

This is not how friends entice friends.

This is a hyperbole.

This is not.

This is a hyperbully, this is poetry.

And in this he says when the problem is, you know, when you see, you know from the beginning when we are, when the universe is touched by this curse, from the beginning everybody is trying to, everybody is trying to enslave somebody else.

And that is what we see here in every society in the world.

And here it says avoid the path of the violent.

And yes, there are certain truths, universal truths, that happen and there are some exceptions.

But here the instruction to the sun it talks about avoid some things like plague.

And here it is cautioning against this heart.

Don't even go, don't even entertain the thought of setting foot into such paths, because their feet run toward evil and they hurry towards to shed blood.

It is useless to spread a net where a bird can see it, but they set an ambush to kill themselves.

This is how thing is.

Suddenly he is talking about hunting for birds.

It is not hunting for birds.

What it says is when the bird is seeing, if you set out a net and bird will escape.

But here these people.

If the heart is overcome with wickedness and foolishness, they set a trap and a snare for themselves and they fall in it and they are killed.

Such are the paths of all who make profit dishonestly.

It takes the lives of those who receive it.

And we just go back to the theme verse.

The fear of the knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding, knowing God and through that knowledge, having an awe of his person and his glory, his character.

That is what is the fear of the Lord.

And the book of Proverbs is referring to the books written on this subject do not emphasize this part and that success can.

And they say that success can be achieved without the fear of the Lord.

And in his book, michael Horton, christless Christianity, he talks about Donald Gray Barnhouse.

When he preached a weekly sermon which was broadcast on CBS radio, barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, he was speculating what happens if Satan takes over a city.

Satan takes over a city and he says he speculated that all the bars in Philadelphia would be closed, pornography will be banished and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other.

There would be no swearing, children would say yes, sir, no ma'am, and the churches would be full every Sunday where Christ is never preached.

Did you get that?

The thing is, when we look at proverbs like a list of things to do, as a list of laws that we need to follow, that leads to legalism.

And if we look at these as moral principles, and that leads us to moralism, both of which, in both of which, there is no gospel.

So that's what Pastor Barnhouse, who was the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and this is the perfect city Any one of us would be longing to live in, but where Christ is never preached Is it possible to achieve success without the fear of the Lord and without the knowledge of the Holy One?

Yes, more than likely.

If all these principles are followed, the success can be achieved, but with that success, we will be living in the city that DJ Bond has described.

When we look at the book of Proverbs, it has two main stories.

One is the story of two sons, one wise and one foolish, and over and over again we hear about these two sons, the wise one and the foolish one, and it is also a story of two women, lady Wisdom and Lady Folly.

Wisdom is personified as a woman and Folly is personified as Folly.

And the Lady Folly is a harlot.

These are the literary tools used in this book.

And here is the lady wisdom crying in the streets.

And in Proverbs 3, 18, it says, those who embrace wisdom embrace life.

Moreover, the horrible truth about the lady folly is she is murderous.

The lady folly is she is murderous.

And chapter 9, verse 13.

Folly is a rowdy woman.

She is gullible and knows nothing.

She sits by the doorway of her house on the seat at the highest point of the city, calling those who pass by, who go straight ahead on their paths.

Whoever is inexperienced, enter here.

To the one who lacks sense, she says stolen water is sweet, the bread eaten secretly is tasty, but he does not know that the departed spirits are there and her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

She invites people for a dinner and they never come out.

So this is not a story, not just a story about successful, achieving success in business or anything else.

This is not the story of successful businessmen, this is a story of.

This is a matter of life and death.

This is a matter of knowing God or not knowing God.

This is a matter of knowing God or not knowing God.

This is a matter of being right with God versus being an enemy of God.

This is the matter of being saved or being lost.

So how do we study the book of Proverbs in this light?

You know there are so many, yes, there are so many Proverbs that are so wonderful and universal truths, like in Proverbs 25, 6, in Proverbs 28.

It talks about a destitute leader.

Destitute leader who oppresses the poor Is like driving rain Driving rain that leaves no food.

The one who reject the law Praise the wicked, but those who keep the law pit themselves against them.

So there are in the first nine chapters.

There is this there's ten speeches about wisdom and from father to son, and there are some loosely said proverbs from chapter 10 through chapter 29.

But these proverbs must be understood in the context of the first nine chapters.

See, the thing is, you know wherever in the Bible when we talk about you know, do not take words out of it.

You know out of context and talk from it.

But here, here in the Proverbs, there is a temptation from you know, from you know from chapters 10 through 29.

You know, these are wonderful, wonderful Proverbs, but these Proverbs must be understood from the vantage point of the first nine chapters, and the key verse in those chapters, key verses in those chapters, is the fear of the Lord Is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One Is understanding.

And also so how to study Proverbs.

I'd like to, before concluding, I'd like to give you a few points here.

The first point is this is not a list of do's and don'ts.

And if it is a list of do's and don'ts, and if it is a list of do's and don'ts and then it becomes, if we look at these as laws, as I told you before, that leads to legalism.

And second, these are not moral principles to be followed to earn God's favor.

That leads to moralism.

All these proverbs must lead us to the realization that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

See, you know, if I just told you this is the story of two sons, one is wise and one is foolish.

And it is not like, by instruction, by instructing, in these proverbs, and you know, expecting our, our sons are even us, to become wise is that is not the, that is not the goal of this, this book and the.

And what we need to understand is this is the fourth point Christ is the wise son of the Proverbs.

In Colossians 2, 1 and 3 we see, for I want you to know how greatly I am struggling with you for those in love this year and for all who have not seen me in person.

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, christ.

In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.

So the recognition that Christ is the wise son of the Proverbs, you know, we don't.

By following these Proverbs we do not become, you know, the wise son of the Proverbs.

But as God is forming this wise son of the Proverbs that is Christ in us and as he is bringing us into the conformity, into his image, that is how our life must be transformed and that is how that is a daily pursuit and that is how we must instruct our children and must instruct ourselves from the book of Proverbs and five pursuit of riches and success without the knowledge of God will lead to pride and does not address the heart of folly.

Proverbs 3, the Lord's curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

He mocks those who mock but gives grace to the humble.

And in James he picks it up in two places.

Again, god raises the proud and gives grace to the humble.

And if this Pursuit of moralism and pursuit of legalism will lead us to for us to be, you know, to play one-upmanship with our neighbors or with ourselves or with somebody else, and which leads to pride.

And here it says God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble.

And Proverbs 16, 18, it says pride comes before destruction, the proud and he gives grace to the humble.

And Proverbs 16, 18, it says pride comes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

And here Christ's wisdom is described like this in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26 onwards Brothers and sisters, consider your calling.

1 Corinthians 1:26

Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, god has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing to bring to nothing, what is viewed as something so that no one may boast in his presence.

It is from him that you are, in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and this wisdom is personified and it is in Christ Jesus and Christ for us.

He became the wisdom of God and he became our redemption and our righteousness and sanctification.

And this is the message that we need to get from the book of Proverbs, because the book of Proverbs, the wise son of Proverbs, is Christ Jesus himself.

Ultimately, the gospel implication of Proverbs is that Christ is our only hope.

Here in Proverbs 28, it says the one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

And where do we find mercy?

We find mercy at the foot of the cross.

We find mercy In the wise son of the Proverbs who is Jesus Christ.

And we find mercy In the redeeming work Of Christ Jesus on the cross.

And if we can be wise if we can be wise with our pursuits and Christ has died in vain and if we think by following these principles we will become closer to God.

That is the folly that we must avoid.

Yes, this is, I think.

Once we know, once we understand it is the wise son of the book of Proverbs is the Christ Jesus himself, then our reading of my perspective and I think my way of reading Proverbs has changed completely.

And may God bless each one of us with divine knowledge and wisdom from above and may form this Christ in us, the wise son of the Proverbs in us, in an increasing measure, on a daily basis.

Thank you,