Our GPS for Right Living

Well, there's a certain kind of person that I've found myself more and more over the last several years

just very compelled to be around.

This type of person seems to navigate his or her life just extremely well.

This person is not free of trials and tribulations.

In fact, maybe they have more than your average person,

and yet they seem to just have this fluid ease about the way that they deal and interact with life.

It's just really compelling for me.

You know, there's been many people recently on this pulpit, and we have leadership in this church,

people that just, I want to be around because they do life in a certain way.

And what's interesting about this is it doesn't require being a certain age.

Young and old can qualify for this.

Rich and poor, really scholarly academic types,

and the simple-minded people who just kind of, you know,

maybe they're not a brilliant scholar,

but yet they can still possess this type of life that's so compelling.

All shapes and sizes of people possess this kind of life.

And we could probably describe it in any number of ways.

There's a lot of ways, resourcefulness, certain giftedness of living,

maybe according to the world more of a street smartness,

full of common sense, full of life experience.

We're compelled to be near them, aren't we?

We want to know what they have.

We want to know what their secret is to living life in a way that just seems to make things go easier, smoothly.

They roll with the punches, you could say.

We want to know what is that secret?

How can they make this crazy, chaotic thing called life seem so easy?

How can the trials and tribulations they have encountered not render them unstable,

ineffective, bitter, fearful, anxious?

Well, friends, I think the common denominator in all of these people is wisdom.

But not just any kind of wisdom, right?

There's plenty of people in the world who are great businessmen and make tons of money

because they're wise in a certain business sense of that word.

There's salesmen that can push a product with such ease and grace

that you're lining up to buy that vacuum.

You can even be a wise thief, right?

If you have enough knowledge to not get caught and to get the things that you want and steal them,

you can be wise in one sense.

But that's not the wisdom I'm talking about this morning.

I'm talking about biblical wisdom.

This wisdom we see always has to do with righteous living.

It's a from-above wisdom, as James calls it, that is first pure and peaceable, gentle, open to reason,

full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

It's a wisdom whose source is the Lord, and it's one-directional from Him to His people.

It's a wisdom that is to be received by grace.

I believe that it's this wisdom that the Bible teaches that allows God's people to navigate life well,

to live rightly before the Lord.

Now, this wisdom is the major concern of the book of Proverbs.

I invite you to open there this morning.

Let me read just the first introductory verses of chapter 1 to get us kind of a grounding for where we're headed,

and then we'll spend our time in the second chapter of Proverbs.

But this is how Solomon opens this book of wisdom.

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.

To know wisdom and instruction.

To understand words of insight.

To receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness, justice, and equity.

To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.

Let the wise hear and increase in learning.

And the one who understands obtain guidance.

To understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So we can now flip over to chapter 2,

and let me just say that we find in the first several chapters up through chapter 9 of Proverbs,

a lot of lectures from a father to his son,

teaching wisdom, instructing his son the way to go.

So parents, I think immediately you can relate to this urgency, I imagine.

In knowing that your children are going to go out into a world that's full of disorder and disarray and sin and wickedness and brokenness.

And you feel the urgency.

You want your children to know wisdom.

You want them to know the way to go.

So that they will be upright.

So that they will live their lives well.

You can feel the desire present in this passage from this father,

concerned with his own son's well-being.

You want to see your children walking rightly with the Lord, making good decisions.

That's the emotion I think we see as we come to this text.

But it's not just for fathers to sons or mothers to daughters or parents to children.

It's not just to show us how a parent should instruct a child.

It's not simply for the young in the room.

No, this passage is here for all of God's people.

This is the emotional and urgent appeal of a heavenly father to his spiritual children.

As God's children, this is the appeal I think that God makes for us today as we come to this passage.

It's this.

Since wisdom is so valuable, you should make it your priority to acquire it in abundance.

Stockpile it for a rainy day.

There's no expiration date of wisdom.

Invest your spiritual disciplines to cultivate it in your lives.

Gift it generously to other people so that they would be blessed too by wisdom.

Again, since wisdom is so valuable,

you should make it your priority to acquire it in abundance.

So let me read this text for us and pray and then we will dive in to see what it says.

This is Proverbs chapter 2.

Proverbs 2 · chapter mention

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding,

yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity,

every good path.

For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Discretion will watch over you.

Understanding will guard you,

delivering you from the way of evil,

from men of perverted speech,

who forsake the paths of uprightness,

to walk in the ways of darkness,

who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil.

Men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

who forsakes the companion of her youth

and forgets the covenant of her God.

For her house sinks down to death

and her paths to the departed.

None who go to her come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

So you will walk in the way of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will inhabit the land

and those with integrity will remain in it.

But the wicked will be cut off from the land

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for this morning.

We're so grateful that Your Word instructs us.

Father, I pray that we would all leave here

desiring wisdom more

after what Your Word instructs us to do this morning.

God, would You feed Your people.

Graciously be with us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So to go through this passage,

we're really just going to follow the Father's logic

in instructing His Son.

Along the way, we're going to see

the conditions of this appeal He's making,

and then we're going to see some benefits of that,

and then we're going to see the Father's conclusion

based on what He knows to be true.

So conditions, benefits, conclusion.

The conditions we see right up front,

verses 1 to 4.

Notice all the ifs.

If you receive my words.

Verse 3, if you call out for insight.

Verse 4, if you seek it like silver.

The Father's saying,

there's effort involved in what I'm trying to tell you.

My son, you've got to put forth some work here.

I think the progression kind of goes like this.

First, there needs to just be a desire.

We should ask ourselves right up front,

do I desire wisdom?

Is it in my heart of hearts to yearn for this good thing,

this biblical wisdom that instructs me

how to live rightly before God?

The Father makes the appeal in verse 2 saying,

making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding.

See that?

It's listen to these instructions.

Listen to my words.

And He calls them commandments,

not because He's a mean kind of dictator father,

but He's received them from the living God.

They're God's commandments.

Through the Father to the Son.

Make your ear attentive to wisdom,

inclining your heart to understanding.

Stretch out your heart.

Desire wisdom.

And we see in verse 3 that there's a progression.

Now it's, yes, if you call out for wisdom.

Hear wisdom.

Where are you, wisdom?

Wisdom, I need you.

Raise your voice for understanding.

Oh, give me understanding.

Then it goes on even further in verse 4.

Seek it.

Right?

If you seek it like silver,

search for it as for hidden treasures.

See, wisdom is valuable.

It's like silver.

And at this point,

he's probably not saying the second best metal,

like, so then there's silver,

but then there's gold.

No, he's probably saying,

here's the most precious thing I can think of.

Seek it like that.

Seek it like silver.

It makes me think of Indiana Jones.

I've been thinking about these movies a lot this week.

You've got this,

Harrison Ford plays this archaeologist.

He's this professor at this university

where the students don't seem to be the brightest bulbs in the drawer.

And it seems like he does that

so that he can kind of sustain this side hobby of his

of seeking these artifacts.

Right?

And he's being chased by Nazis and tanks

and, you know,

all these crazy animals,

lions and these other guys with guns

and everybody wants him dead.

And he's trying to get these artifacts.

Right?

And he's even willing to face his most deepest fear.

Snakes.

There's a point where he gets lowered down

into the pit of these vipers.

He hates snakes.

He says it over and over throughout these movies.

It's kind of corny.

But he says,

I hate snakes.

I hate snakes.

But he's willing to go into a den of snakes

in order to find these religious artifacts.

That's the picture I think this proverb gives us

when we want to kind of capture

what it means to seek wisdom.

Seek it like that.

Seek to obtain it like that.

With ears.

With a heart inclined towards it.

With a mouth that cries out for it.

With arms and legs and eyes that search for it.

That's the conditions

of acquiring wisdom.

Of obtaining it.

You've got to put forth the effort.

You can't be the couch potato looking for it.

I feel it right, young people in the room,

to mention this.

That you're in a really good time of your life

to determine

to seek this out.

I think there's many of us

who would be able to say

with a hint of sorrow

that I wish I would have found wisdom sooner.

I wish I wouldn't have waited so long

to get right with this.

Don't let it slip by.

You've got it right before you.

You're in a great church.

You've got good parents.

You've got a lot of people that love you.

This is instruction for you.

So now let me keep moving us down here.

We come to verse 5

and we see the first of three major benefits

of seeking wisdom.

If you seek it,

if you incline it,

you're not understanding.

If you call out,

verse 5,

then

you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

Well,

I thought we were just talking about wisdom.

Where's this knowledge of God stuff coming from?

Where's this fear of the Lord coming from?

What I find interesting here is

that if you're not seeking wisdom

in the right place,

you're never going to find it.

That's what this says.

You can't go to the world.

You can't turn on the news.

You're not going to search Wikipedia

and find the wisdom

that the Bible wants people to have.

You have to go to the source.

See that in verse 6?

For the Lord gives wisdom.

Benefit number one,

theological benefit.

God gives wisdom

to people who seek after it.

Real wisdom.

Lifelong wisdom.

Righteousness.

And justice and equity.

Good wisdom.

So you see that obtaining wisdom

is a spiritual endeavor.

You cannot find it apart from God

no matter how much you want,

no matter how much science

may tell you otherwise.

You cannot find true wisdom

apart from God.

I find it so amazing.

We see what this tells us here about God.

Here's the benefit.

If you seek wisdom,

you'll learn the fear of the Lord

and then look who God is in this.

It's glorious.

Verses 6 through 8.

For the Lord gives wisdom.

From His mouth come knowledge

and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom

for the upright.

He is a shield

for those who walk in integrity,

guarding the paths of justice,

watching over the way

of His saints.

This is a really good God.

He really loves His people.

To do all of that

for those that incline their ear

to wisdom,

who search it out.

Friends, this is a God

worth worshiping,

devoting our lives to.

He's glorious.

He's really, really good.

I find it helpful

to imagine just for the briefest moment

the alternative

if God did not impart wisdom.

Where would we turn?

There's no wisdom trees

in our backyard.

We can't buy it

at the local 7-Eleven.

The old dead philosopher

isn't going to tell you

how to get it.

God must give wisdom.

The biblical wisdom

that leads to right living,

God alone provides.

I want to help us

with a commentator

who has defined

this fear of the Lord.

I think it's just so helpful.

This is what we're talking about

in verse 5

when it says,

understand the fear of the Lord.

He writes this,

the fear of the Lord

is the reverent confession

and reverential acknowledgement.

Here's the content of that.

That Yahweh

is the creator

and sustainer

of all life

and the true giver

of wisdom.

It's a confession

and acknowledgement

that God has wisdom

and he gives it.

He's the only one.

He goes on,

this fundamental confession

anchors the possibility

of coming to understand

all other elements of wisdom

that accrue

and to enjoy the blessings

that accrue from its possession.

So if you don't fear the Lord,

if you don't confess him

as the majestic creator

of all things,

forget about it.

You're not going to find wisdom.

Only the sustainer of life

knows all things

and can give it.

knowledge of God

is kind of similar to that.

It's not simply

an intellectual knowledge

that is being talked about

in verse 6 here.

Again,

it's this personal intimacy,

this relational knowledge

that leads again

to right living,

excuse me,

right living,

carrying out God's desires

for our lives.

There's one final benefit

that we see here

in 12 to 19.

Kind of got dual figures in it,

but it's all under this heading

from verse 12,

delivering you from

the way of evil.

Oh, excuse me,

I skipped over something.

Back up.

Forget everything I just said there.

Second benefit.

See in verse 9,

it's a practical benefit

for obtaining wisdom.

If you're seeking wisdom,

verse 9,

then you will understand

righteousness

and justice

and equity

every good path.

I don't know about you,

but life's hard.

Life's confusing.

Life's messy.

I need something

that's going to get me

to understand

every good path,

how to navigate

the complexities

of this life.

I need it.

I desperately need it.

If we're honest,

we all do.

That's what it says

if you seek wisdom,

if you prioritize

obtaining it in abundance,

you will understand

righteousness

and justice

and equity

every good path.

Why is that?

Why will pursuing wisdom

lead to understanding

every morally good path?

Again,

just like in the theological benefit,

we have our answer

in what follows

verses 10 and 11,

because wisdom

will come into your heart.

Knowledge will be pleasant

to your soul.

Discretion will watch over you.

Understanding will guard you.

That's why you'll understand

every good path,

because you'll have wisdom.

It'll be in your heart.

And knowledge,

that'll be pleasant too.

This seems to me

to be conversion language.

Language that's speaking

of a spiritual awakening

wrought by God.

I don't know how wisdom

will enter my heart

unless God,

the source of wisdom,

puts it there.

And I don't know

how knowledge of Him

and His good purposes

and His righteousness

will ever happen

unless He changes my heart

to desire those things to.

And I love what it says

after that.

I love it.

Discretion will watch over you.

Understanding will guard you.

Did you see that there's a connection

with verse 8?

We see God as a shield

and He's guarding

the paths of justice.

He's watching over the way

of His saints.

And then verse 11,

discretion will watch over you.

Understanding will guard you.

See, the writer here

makes no qualms

about saying,

God will guard you

and wisdom will guard you.

Because ultimately,

they're coming from

the same origin.

It's the same source.

God gives wisdom.

God guards.

He's making a very close connection.

You can't have

this practical benefit

of wisdom

without the foundational

and supreme theological benefit.

If you don't have God,

again,

you can't have morality.

You're not going to know justice

unless God instructs you in justice.

These benefits are closely linked.

You can't divorce them

from each other

and expect that you're

on the path of living

and on the way of wisdom.

So now,

now benefit 3

in verses 12 to 19.

It's the benefit of deliverance.

It's actually,

it really butts up against

verse 9

and this every good path

because not only is that

in a positive light

but then this,

this other benefit,

this delivering you

in verse 12

and you see that

same thing again

in verse 16.

So you'll be delivered.

The benefit of wisdom

is that

you'll be saved

from really bad,

destructive people

in the way of evil.

I remember

a men's meeting

at Crossway

a few years back

where the speaker

said these words

and they've stuck with me

because I think

they're sobering reality

of something

that's really,

really true.

He said this

almost at the outset.

You're only

one bad decision

away from

ruining your life.

It's hard to

wrap my mind

around that

and I don't want

to accept that

maybe sometimes

but

but these verses

here

they seem to

they caution

us

against something

that we need

to really

take heed of.

The benefit

of deliverance.

You see again

this dual purpose

there's evil men

in verses 12 to 15

and then you've got

this strange woman

in 16 through 19.

These evil men

notice that the first thing

said about them

is they're talking too

but their speech

is perverted.

It's not the speech

of good words

and insight

it's perversion.

These men go from

speaking a certain way

to acting a certain way.

They reject

paths of righteousness

to walk in ways

of darkness.

That's bizarre to me.

If you give me

the choice

between a lighted path

that has

no trip hazards

that has a

cleanly swept

ground

or you

give me a path

that's full of

darkness

and trip hazards

and

boogeymen

who go

thumping the night

I'm taking

the lighted path.

These guys

reject it.

They reject it.

They're morally

reprehensible

in their speaking.

They forsake wisdom.

They choose folly.

And by choosing

the paths of folly

they become folly.

See that

in verse 15?

Their paths

are crooked

and they themselves

then are devious.

They're bent

themselves

because they choose

bent paths.

It's all rooted

in a bad heart.

They've chosen

folly

and they rejoice

and shout joyfully

to do evil.

New Testament

I think would

call them

the people

the enemies

of the cross of Christ

in Philippians 3

where Paul says

that their God

is their bellies

they glory in their shame

and they have hearts

and minds

set on earthly things.

Same category

of people.

So I think it's

for this reason

that

wisdom has to

come into our hearts

to deliver us

from men like this.

There's many paths

of evil

but there's one way

of evil.

It's a way

that we cannot

turn to.

I think it's obvious

that we can

not take too much

time to reflect

and come up

with any number

of people

and philosophies

in this world

of ours

that endorse

this type of living

rejecting paths

of uprightness

for darkness.

The Father's appeal

is

Son,

stay away

from those.

And we see

similarly now

this strange woman

who appears

in 16 to 19

ESV says

forbidden

and adulterous.

You can see

probably there's

some footnotes

strange foreign woman.

Why is she strange?

What's foreign

about this woman?

Is it because

she's

Syrian

and not

an Israelite?

I don't think

that that's

what it's

speaking about

but morally

foreign.

She's

ethically

strange.

She in the same

way has

a speech

but her words

are not

perverted.

They're smooth.

They're flattering.

They're slick.

They make ears

feel nice.

This word

smooth

I find interesting.

It's taken

from the same

word that's

used to describe

the five stones

that David

picked out

of the brook

to sling

at Goliath.

Really good

that stones

are aerodynamic

and slick

and smooth.

Really bad

when people

have words

that are smooth.

They're deceitful.

They're ruinous.

Notice in verse 17

that this woman

is forsaking

the companion

of her youth.

Her spouse.

she's forgetting

the covenant

of her God.

She made vows

to her husband

in front of

God

and she's

forsaking them

in order to

welcome

this

adulterous

relationship.

But notice

her end

and notice

the end

of those

who go

with her.

For her house

sinks down

to death

and her paths

to the departed.

None who go

to her

come back

nor do they

regain the paths

of life.

It's a scary

situation

friends.

It's a way

of evil

that has

men and women

on it

who are

interested

in

choosing ways

that reject

God's goodness

His righteousness.

People who

at times

may be a lot

more compelling

to associate

with than we

may admit.

Avoid it.

wisdom

delivers you

from these

people.

Wisdom

delivers you

from the

way of

evil.

I think

it's helpful

in talking

about this

adulterous

briefly to

remind us

all

of Jesus'

words

in the

Gospel of

Matthew.

He says

that if you

even look

with lust

in your

heart,

you set

your eyes

on a

woman with

lust

in your

heart,

you've

already

committed

adultery.

First and

foremost,

it's a

hard issue.

Wisdom

delivers

from the

flattery

and the

seduction

of adultery.

So basically

in these

benefits,

we've seen

the progress,

the essence

of this

is get

wisdom

so you'll

know every

good path

so that

you'll be

saved from

evil.

Finally,

we look

at the

summary of

the Father's

instruction,

verses 20

to 22.

Let me

just read

these for

us.

So you

will walk

in the

way of

the good

and keep

to the

paths

of the

righteous.

For the

upright will

inhabit the

land and

those with

integrity

will remain

in it,

but the

wicked will

be cut

off from

the land

and the

treacherous

will be

rooted

out of

it.

There's

two ways

displayed here.

Only two.

The way

of moral

uprightness,

integrity,

wisdom,

the way

of wickedness

and treachery

and folly.

Proverbs

is not

ultimately

concerned about

who's going

to live

and who's

going to

be thrown

out.

I don't

believe.

It's much

more concerned

about who

will live

and who

will die.

I think

that's what

we see here

in verses

21 and

22.

The

righteous,

the

upright,

they'll

live.

The

wicked,

treacherous,

they'll be

cut off and

they'll be

rooted out.

They will

die.

That's why

wisdom

ultimately is

so important

because it's

a life and

death

situation

that we

face.

So why

seek wisdom

and devote

the effort

to it?

Our lives

are at stake.

Our lives

are at stake.

So we've

looked at

this father's

appeal to

his son for

wisdom.

It's not

son get

wisdom.

It's not

club him over

the head and

dumb kid get

wisdom already.

It's an

appeal, it's a

persuasive

argument.

He says,

you've got to

put forth

effort, you've

got to go get

wisdom my

son.

You hear the

emotion, the

urgency in my

voice.

You see the

benefits of

wisdom.

You see what

comes your way

when you seek

it and you find

the fear of the

Lord and you

know every good

path and you're

delivered from

this evil

and wickedness.

Friends,

wisdom is

priceless.

We cannot

esteem it too

highly.

We cannot

gather too

much of it.

It's not

going to weigh

us down.

It's going to

lighten us.

It's going to

free us to

live life well.

So let me

encourage you,

prioritize it

well.

Prioritize your

life so that you

might acquire

wisdom in

abundance.

It's that

valuable.

It deserves

that much of

our thinking

and our

lives.

I just have

three brief

points of

application to

close here.

First, I

realize that

there may be

some in this

room who do

not have a

relationship with

this God who

gives wisdom.

And maybe

you've been

hearing this talk

on wisdom and

you are compelled

to say, well,

wisdom sounds

pretty good.

My life doesn't

seem to work

out very often

and I don't

know how to

navigate things

and I seem

to be walking

this path with

evil men or

with this strange

woman.

Let me encourage

you then, my

friend.

Go to the

source of

wisdom.

Humble yourself

to fear the

Lord.

He will give

you a new

life, a new

heart.

New hope and

an ability to

live your life

with wisdom.

That's what

Jesus did when

He hung on the

cross.

He secured

wisdom for

His people.

He's good.

He's so good.

You can trust

Him with

everything and

you can bank

on the fact

that if you

come to Him

and you bow

your knee to

Him, He will

give you

wisdom.

You will know

how to navigate

this life and

you will be

welcomed into

the next.

with open

arms.

For those of

us brothers and

sisters in this

room, let me

just ask you

this question.

Will you

today prioritize

or reprioritize

the obtaining of

wisdom and

abundance?

this?

It's for the

sake of your

families,

marriages,

friends,

your coworkers,

your neighbors,

those people that

you haven't even

met yet.

For the sake of

the Lord,

tells you how to

live rightly

before Him

and before man.

Will you

prioritize it

today?

That's what this

text persuades us

to do.

Just one final

practical way that

I think we can do

that this morning.

I've been looking

forward to for a

while now the

resuming of our

sermon series on

the Sermon on the

Mount.

We have in this

scripture from

Matthew 5 through

7 the very

words of wisdom

incarnate.

Jesus tells us

how to live

rightly as

kingdom citizens.

And when we get

back there,

friends,

let's together

purpose to

listen to His

words,

to hang on

them,

to find life

in them.

He tells us

that the one who

obeys Him,

who listens to

His commands,

is the one who

builds his house

on a rock.

The one who

forsakes it

is build his

house on sand.

There's wisdom,

there's folly.

Jesus has the

words of wisdom.

Embrace them

because they have

life.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

we thank You

for so kind

of a text

that would

call us

to love

and adore

and pursue

wisdom

with all of

our lives.

And we thank

You that You

didn't just

command us,

but You laid

out these

benefits for

us and You

told us what

ultimately is at

stake.

God, for each

of us,

would You grow

our desire for

wisdom more

and more

for a lifetime.

Particularly,

Lord, those

young people

who have an

opportunity to

live most of

their lives

from here on

out with

wisdom.

God, would You

just make it

possible to

acquire wisdom

from Your

mouth.

Give us

understanding,

we pray.

In Jesus'

name, amen.

Amen.