20260104 Proverbs 1:1-7 Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you again

for this time that you've given to us week by

week to come together to worship and to praise

and to hear from you. We pray now as we attempt

to open your word this morning that you have

accompanied that word with the power of your

Holy Spirit, that you'd enable me to proclaim

all that you've given, that you'd enable us all

to hear and to receive that which you have for

us this morning. that we would apply it to ourselves,

that we would appropriate it into our own lives.

We ask again for the loss that they might be

found of you this morning, that you would have

mercy on some who were yet in their sins. And

we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I arrived

at the Roberts this morning, and it's my intention

Lord willing, of course, to be here for a few

weeks as we look at various Proverbs. So it's

a book of wisdom. And this morning we're going

to look here at the first chapter, about the

first six or seven verses of the first chapter.

Solomon is going to tell us about wisdom and

he's going to tell us really the purpose of his

writing all of these proverbs and that is to

depart wisdom. So we need to know obviously what

wisdom is and so on and so forth. But before

we look at the proverb I want to look at Job

and read what Job has to say about wisdom. So

in chapter 28, chapter 28 beginning at verse

12, but where shall wisdom be found and where

is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not

the price thereof, neither is it found in the

land of the living. The depth saith, it is not

in me, and the sea saith, it is not with me.

It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver

be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be

valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious

onyx. or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal

cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall

not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall

be made of coral or of pearls, for the price

of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia

shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued

with pure gold. Whence then cometh it? Wisdom.

And where is the place of understanding? Seeing

it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept

close from the fouls of the air. Then down to

23, God understandeth the way thereof and he

knoweth the place thereof. And in 28, and unto

man he said, behold, The fear of the Lord, that

is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding.

So that's Job's view of wisdom. That's Job's

and dare I say God's view of the importance of

wisdom. It's above price. So the question for

us is, how do we value wisdom? Have we considered

the fact that wisdom is available to us? Have

we considered the fact that we lack wisdom? It's

a very important topic in the scriptures, and

we all are familiar with the verse quoted there,

that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of

wisdom. But that's the beginning. What does that

even mean? Well, wisdom... is to be found in

Jesus Christ. Wisdom is to be found in the gospel.

The gospel of God is the wisdom of God, the scriptures

say. Jesus Christ is wisdom. And the respect,

the fear, the respect that we have towards God,

toward Jesus Christ, toward the gospel, and toward

ourselves as we live before a holy God. determines

really the state of our minds, the state of whether

we have any wisdom or not. So it's the first

sermon of the new year. So as I normally do,

I ask questions concerning the new year. And

so the first question that I've already asked

is what do you think of wisdom? What value do

you place on wisdom? Are you willing to pursue

wisdom? Are you willing to give it the place

that it is above Christ? Are you willing to take

the stance of Job in your understanding of wisdom?

Is that important? Is it that important? Is it

that important for us to have the wisdom of God?

You know, the world talks about resolutions at

this time of the year, but do you have any goals?

Have you got before God and prayed and thought

and considered what would God have me to do this

year? How can I improve myself this year? How

can I better show my love to the Lord this year?

What changes do I need to make this year? How

can I make progress? in my confirmation unto

the Lord. How can I gain more and more assurance

of my standing before the Lord? All of these

questions are valid. Do we ask any one of them?

Have we been convicted of any sin that we need

to repent of? We always say the Christian life

is a life of repentance. Is it? Well, I ask you

to consider. I know I fall far short in many

areas and I repent in many areas and I hopefully

you do too. That's what we are meant to do. We

are meant to be confirming ourselves unto the

Lord with our repentance and our receiving of

the forgiveness from the Lord. Well, all these

things take wisdom, folks. You can't answer these

questions without wisdom. You can just go barely,

barely down the road, like so many other Christians

do, and you don't have to face these questions.

But again that shows your real opinion of wisdom

it shows your real opinion of how You are going

to love the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is

wisdom you despise wisdom you despise him If

you say I don't need it you call him a liar If

you say I have enough Your contrary description

So let's read these verses and see if we can

just, probably very briefly this morning, look

at wisdom. So in verse two of the Proverbs, to

know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words

of understanding, to receive the instruction

of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity,

to give subtlety. to the simple, through the

young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man

will hear and will increase in learning, and

a man of understanding shall attain unto wise

counsels, to understand a proverb and the interpretation

of the words of the wise and their dark sayings."

That's why he wrote the book. Those are five

reasons there, and they're five truths of wisdom.

So we just want to take a quick look here. What's

Solomon talking about? Well, he wants us to attain

wisdom. What is it? Simply put, the simplest

way I can put wisdom to you is to a proper application

of the knowledge you possess. That's wisdom.

When you can apply what you know, you are a wise

man. If you can't make an application, then you

don't know it. You only think that you do. To

make an application of knowledge. What does that

tell us about knowledge? You've got to have knowledge,

folks. You've got to know the Word. You've got

to know God. You've got to know Jesus Christ.

You've got to know the Holy Spirit. You don't

only know him intellectually, you know them personally.

You know these truths to be personally true to

you. You've appropriated those truths into your

life. And you're wanting to spread it out. You're

wanting to spread the word, spread the love.

You're wanting to tell about it. You're wanting

to demonstrate it by your life. You're wanting

to demonstrate it by how you treat your fellow

church members. What you think of one another.

Do you love your church members enough? To think

that how I act is going to have an effect upon

them That's making an application folks God put

us here He put us all together to love and to

help and encourage one another You know that

have you applied it How have you applied those

are the questions If you're not asking questions

in the Christian life, folks, you're missing

it. We always ask questions. We always ask ourselves

questions. We talk to ourselves. If we don't,

we're not making any progress. We're not right.

God does not have the opportunity that he should

have to be in our lives unless we're talking

about it to ourselves. What do you think about

when you're by yourself? What do you think about

when you're driving down the road? Well, these

are some of the things that you could be thinking

about. To answer the question in the most basic

form, you show your love to one another by showing

up for the meeting. It's not hard. Nothing should

keep us from the meetings. And I don't mean Sunday

morning. I mean Wednesday as well. I mean the

women get together for prayer on Mondays. There's

a women's ministry meeting. There's a men's ministry

meeting. We have prayer first thing on Sunday

morning. We have prayer first thing on Sunday

morning because we think that's important. We

think that is the proper way to start off a worship

service. imploring God on behalf of one another

and for His glory. We think that's an application.

We think that's wisdom. We know God wants us

to pray. We know He calls us to pray. He tells

us so. He tells us that the apostles continued

steadfastly in what? Well, one of the things

was prayer. We think prayer is more important

than Sunday school. Let's be blunt about it.

Everybody has Sunday school first. Well, I mean,

I'm not going to argue about it, but I am going

to stand firm in my belief that prayer is far

more important than Sunday school. Amen. Thank

you, brother. To know wisdom and instruction,

to perceive the words of understanding. So we

have here then, what? Discipline or instruction.

Character and discipleship. I don't know what

words exactly you have in yours particular Bible,

but discipleship is a disciple in its most literal

understanding is a learner. That's what the word

means in the original language, a learner. So

are we learners? Do we want wisdom? Well, we

have to be learners. So another question we could

ask you in the beginning of the year, what have

you learned? What new thing have you learned

in the past year? And how have you applied it

to your life? Are we really disciples if we don't

ever learn anything? Well, that's a hard thing

to do. It's hard to be a disciple, a follower

of Jesus Christ, learning from Jesus Christ and

never learning from Jesus Christ. I mean, you

know, it's not ethereal. It's not up in the clouds.

It's everyday life. What are you learning and

how have you used it in your life? That's how

we should be talking to ourselves. And if we're

not doing it, we should start doing it. If we

want wisdom. Now before we go any further with

this, we know what James says about wisdom, right?

We know, those of you who lack wisdom ask God

for it. That's what he tells us, right? So all

of this use of the word that we're going to be

talking about today goes right along with the

praying, praying for God to use it in our lives.

We want wisdom. We're going to pursue wisdom.

It's priceless It's a treasure that cannot be

measured or possessed apart from God All these

wise men of the world they're fools That's all

they are they don't know God They can't be wise

give them too much importance. They've got some

good things to say, I'm sure of it. But it's

far more important to know God and to be in pursuit

of what God wants for us. A learner, a disciple.

Okay, well, I had thought I had a bio verse I

couldn't agree, but I know I do but I gonna have

to live it up So, excuse me Okay, Isaiah 65 verse

Isaiah 65:24

24, and don't try to turn there, just listen

please, and it shall come to pass that before

they call I will answer and while they are yet

speaking I will hear. Now that's God telling

us about our prayer lives. Is that the faith

that we have? Is that the confidence that we

approach God with? That verse that I just read

to you, Isaiah 65, 24. Well, are you wise? That's

how we pray, folks. That's how we approach God.

That's the confidence that we have in Him, not

in our prayers. It's the confidence that we have

in our God. He wants us to pray. He delights

in our prayer. If we pray for wisdom, is he going

to deny us? No, he's not. Well, what would you

say then? I've prayed for weeks for wisdom and

I'm not getting anywhere. What is that? How do

you explain that? Well, an old friend of mine...

explain it to me this way. Let God be true and

every man a liar. Did you get it? God said he's

going to answer our prayers. You're a liar if

you think that you can stand before me or anybody

else and say that you've sought something from

God that was legitimate. a legitimate expression

of a promise of God and He didn't give it to

you. You're a liar. That's all. You never really

pursued anything. That's harsh. That's hard.

I know. But we have to face the realities. Again,

it's not ethereal. It's not... It's hard work

to pray. It's hard work to get before God. You

have to want it, you have to desire it above

all else. What's going to be the situation that

you find yourself in in this new year? Just more

of the same old same old? In verse 3, to receive

instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment,

and equity. All that means is you're going to

inquire the necessities to live a prudent Christian

life through wisdom. That's all it means. There

is such a thing as a Christian worldview, a Christian

life. There is such a thing as living out the

truths of Scripture. And wisdom will supply that.

Wisdom will give us that. That's godly wisdom.

It's not worldly wisdom. In verse four, to give

subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge

and discretion. This is probably one of the most

important verses in the Bible, but... Nobody

knows it. To give subtlety, prudence, would be

another word. You probably have prudence. What's

that mean? Prudence. Well, if you're looking

at, what is it? The, the, the, the, the horses?

Yeah, thesaurus, yeah. It's watchfulness is one

of the words that would come up, or prudence.

Watchfulness. The simple. What's a simple? It's

not a mental condition. It's just somebody that

lacks knowing, lacks knowledge. They're ignorant.

Ignorance is not a bad word. If you say somebody's

ignorant, you're not saying they're stupid. They're

just ignorant. They don't know enough. They don't

have the knowledge that they need to do what

they want to do. They're simple. But the thing

about a simple person is they don't want to be

simple. Because they're not stupid. They're not

mentally handicapped. They want to progress.

The simple. But they lack knowledge. And this

knowledge here in this verse, as I said before,

this knowledge is not simply head knowledge.

This is a knowledge that is relational. And that's

why the simple want to know more. They have a

basic knowledge. of God. They're saved, in other

words. They're saved men and women. They have

a desire to know more of that one that loves

them so much. That one whom they've decided to

follow. They're a disciple. They're a learner.

But they're simple. They don't know everything.

They don't know hardly anything at all. Are they

in a bad way? Well, they're not in a bad way.

Because they're not going to stay there. That's

what the verse is telling us. It says that wisdom

will give watchfulness to the simple, to the

young man, knowledge and discretion. Discretion,

I guess I should... look at an alternative to

that word. But discretion simply means that you're

able to decide. You're able to make a decision

between one thing and the other. You're able

to plan. You're able to purpose out your life.

Discretion. You can tell good from evil. But

the simple. Everybody is welcome to this knowledge,

this wisdom. Everybody is welcome in the University

of Jesus Christ. You don't have any pre -courses

to take. You don't have to qualify. You don't

have to have a certain IQ. You don't have to

have a certain education level at all. Everybody

is welcome. That's the greatest news you could

hear. God wants you to progress. He wants to

give you wisdom. Do you want it? Are you dissatisfied

just floating along? Do you want to have a life

and live a life that is more and more glorious

to the Lord Jesus Christ? For all that He's done

for you, for all that He's done for us. Shouldn't

we be striving after Him? Shouldn't we be striving

to live a life that is pleasing to Him? Shouldn't

we be less worried about ourselves and more about

Jesus Christ? That's wisdom, folks, when you

can begin to submit yourself to Him. Because

that's what's doing right. That is watchfulness.

Am I doing this for my good? Am I just worried

about how I'm going to look, how I'm going to

progress? Am I doing this for my kids to benefit

me and my kids? Or am I doing this to benefit

and to bring glory to God? Those are the questions,

more questions, more questions. Wisdom, wisdom

will give us the answer and everybody qualifies

to receive it. Do you want it? Will you pray

about it? Will you pursue it in the Word? Do

you have a desire to know more about Lord Jesus

Christ? Do you have a desire to have a better

understanding of the Trinity? Whoa! Probably

not many of us are in that position. Some of

us may be, but that's glorious pursuit. It's

under attack today, but I don't even know about

it. But it is. So -called Christian scholars.

That's another topic. We want wisdom. We want

to pursue these things. And as a matter of fact,

in the next verse, it says, a wise man will hear

and will increase learning, and a man of understanding

shall attain unto wise counsel. What is that

telling us? Well, they're telling us that everybody

has got to be a learner. Everybody. Everybody

learns. Everybody increases in wisdom. Everybody

who's a Christian, that is, and is a desiring

God, and desiring a deeper relationship with

the Lord Jesus Christ is ever learning and progressing

in that pursuit. We never arrive. To understand

the prover and the interpretation, the words

of the wise and their dark sayings. So, in other

words, it's a progression. To dig into the Trinity

is a progression. You may not be ready for that,

but that's what wisdom will do for you, enable

you to pursue your desires. of a deeper knowledge

of more wisdom a better relationship living a

better life before god that's what that requires

wisdom wisdom requires knowledge knowledge requires

the word you have to be in the word and when

we pursue those things god is right there Helping,

instructing, guiding, directing, leading us onward.

It's a glorious thing, folks. I want you to understand

what the Bible is telling us here. God is revealing

Himself in this way to know God. To know God

is salvation. It's what the Bible says. It's

a strong one, really, to convey the delight,

the joy that's involved in pursuing wisdom. It's

not like anything else. It's not like academics.

It's not like going to school. It's relational.

God is revealing himself. God is making us wise.

God is enabling us to be more like Jesus Christ.

Is that a wonder to anybody? That that would

even be possible. Do we know ourselves well enough

to be astonished with that truth? How can I be

more and more like Jesus Christ? How is that

possible for me? I'm too much of a sinner. I've

still got too many rough edges. I still mess

up. But it is possible. And that's what God wants

me to pursue. And it's a joyous pursuit of God.

So that's the importance of wisdom. It governs

all of our lives. The less amount of wisdom we

have, the more we're going to mess up. That's

all there is to it. And when we mess up, we're

going to repent. And when we repent, we're going

to be forgiven. And we're going to amend our

lives according to what we have just learned

and experienced. That's Christianity. There is

no other. And that's a glorious thing too. So,

live up to your knowledge. Apply what you know.

Gain wisdom. Gain knowledge. Improve yourself

before the Lord. Have a desire to improve yourself.

And do it. So then we read here the very first

proverb here in verse seven. The fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools

despise wisdom and instruction. So there you

have it. The fear of the Lord, the respect, the

acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Lord.

The respect and love that we have to Him is the

beginning of knowledge. Most people in this room

have that beginning. Most people do. So we're

all good there, right? We can expect more. Because

we've started. We've made the first step. God

has brought us to Himself. But fools despise

wisdom and instruction. So all those people that

are running around thinking that they're Christians,

to be blunt, they're all thinking, oh, holly

jolly, I'm a Christian. I walked an aisle 20

years ago. I'm all good. But they've never taken

a step forward. They're the same person they

were when they were created or when they were

converted. What are those people? they're fools

they don't want wisdom and they make no effort

to receive it so they obviously they're not in

christ jesus right it said that's what it said

the fools despise wisdom and instruction christians

don't despise wisdom and instruction they love

it they eat it up they go forward So let's go

forward this year. Let's make great strides.

Let's have confidence in God. Let's know that

He's going to hear us and answer us before we

even get done speaking. Right? Let's do it. Let's

apply ourselves. Let's learn. Let's grow. Let's

honor God more and more. Let's delight in Him

more and more. What a wonderful year it's going

to be. as we seek the Lord and serve him with

all of our hearts. Amen.