Wisdom: It instructs, it leads
Wisdom Literature for application • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:22
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God’s truth (wisdom) delivered
God’s truth (wisdom) delivered
According to 2Pt1:3 we have all things we need for life and godliness, and part of the all things is wisdom. We have the recorded, spirit inspired wisdom before us and the Lord wants us to receive the wisdom for it will instruct us and lead us.
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
God’s given wisdom by the Spirit has been given, has been preserved and has been directed to be passed down (Deu6:3-9; 2Tim3:14-17)
3 “O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Teach, write, bind them, so they can be passed down. Wisdom is to be passed on, passed down.
14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Wisdom that is taught, written and passed down leads to salvation!
Wisdom is not cheap though, it comes with a cost (Pro23:23)
23 Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.
It takes effort to get it, and yes, time too, and it takes heart, we are to get wisdom and cherish it in our hearts, the price to wisdom is obedience, we are to obey for our own protection.
Notice how this passage flows tonight on how wisdom is displayed.
In this world there are two paths, two roads.
Path of the wicked, darkness (Pro4:14, 19)
Path of righteousness which is light (Lk1:77-79)
77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79 To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
So now may we look at our passage, broken down as.
Seek after wisdom (Pro4:1-13)
Avoid temptation and sin (Pro4:14-19)
Guard your life (Pro4:20-27)
Wisdom instructs: So seek it!
Wisdom instructs: So seek it!
Knowing God’s Word (knowledge) is not enough, we need to seek it, and seek it with purpose, to understand and to apply. Look at the instructions from the father in this section how he addresses embracing wisdom.
1 Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, And give attention that you may gain understanding, 2 For I give you sound teaching; Do not abandon my instruction.
3 When I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, 4 Then he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments and live;
5 Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 “Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding. 8 “Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her.
9 “She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty.” 10 Hear, my son, and accept my sayings And the years of your life will be many.
11 I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; And if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.
What do you see, what do you notice, what sticks out to you?
Throughout the Proverbs you will see wisdom portrayed as a beautiful woman who invites you to partake of her wonderful banquet, while folly is portrayed as an adulteress or a prostitute who tempts us to poverty and death. The one you love is the one who will control your life, so embrace wisdom and you will have
Security (Pro4:6)
Honor (Pro4:8) and
Beauty (Pro4:9)
Hindsight is 20/20 isn’t it? The Father taught the son, and now the son is the father passing on sage wisdom that was passed down from his father.
Remember; when young was taught (Pro4:1-6)
We see Solomon reflecting and imparting, may we learn from this and apply this too. A good New Testament instruction (Jam1:22)
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
He gave the instruction, what kind of instruction? - that was sound! and that it was for a purpose - to gain understanding, with instruction - to hold fast to it, to keep it, and to acquire wisdom and understanding.
We see a warning and an instruction, with a promise (Pro4:5-6)
What is the warning? (v.5, and in v.6) - do not forget, do not forsake
What is the promise (v.6)? - she will guard you, she will watch over you.
what is the instruction? (v.5, v.6) acquire wisdom, understanding and love her.
Look again at (v.7) at the wise statement.
7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
It is wise, to acquire wisdom and in all your acquiring, get understanding
So if it is wise to acquire, then look at (v.8-9) and see what it says
8 “Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her. 9 “She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty.”
Prize wisdom; she will exalt you (Jam4:10; 1Pt5:6)
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Humility and exaltation go hand in hand.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
Embrace her
By the seeking her, by prizing her, by embracing her we see the results
She will guard you, she will honor you
She will exalt you, she will give you garland of grace
She will present you with crown of beauty!
In (v.10-12) you see again the plea to listen, to apply, and the promise with the importance found in (v.13)
13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.
This now leads us to the second point.
Wisdom instructs: Avoid temptation and evil
Wisdom instructs: Avoid temptation and evil
Purpose of wisdom’s instructions is for application and protection and there is a warning in our next section, and it is good to adhere to warnings that are for our protection.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked And do not proceed in the way of evil men. 15 Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. 17 For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day. 19 The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.
Do not enter; do not proceed, do not pass (Pro4:14-15)
They conspire, they plan to take others down, they eat and they drink wickedness (Pro4:16-17)
On other other hand the way of the righteous is light (Pro4:18) as compared to darkness of evil (Pro4:19)
We need to take ourselves from the world, but we cannot let the world take us from God. We need to trust God and listen to His wisdom and apply that. (add in an illustration of trusting God and not tempting evil)
God wants to prepare us for the path of righteousness, the path of light. Augustine said this:
“Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.”
David said it like this, since always good to use scripture
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
So when Solomon says, acquire, to seek it is not for the curious; it is for the serious, the one who wants it has to put forth the effort to get it. God wants to lead, and He leads through His Word and empowered by His Spirit, so you can walk the right path. So be careful of the wicked path, don’t enter it, avoid it, don’t go near it, meaning don’t have a lifestyle that is there. God does not direct us into darkness but directs us to be light in the darkness. So hold on, do not let go.
13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.
For God is able to keep us from stumbling
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
Wisdom instructs: It will guard your life
Wisdom instructs: It will guard your life
More instructions but instructions with direction to check yourself. Check on what you allow into your life. This is kind of a personal inventory section. You want wisdom to guard you life? You need to apply it, so let’s check personal application.
20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them And health to all their body. 23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you. 25 Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
26 Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. 27 Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.
What do I allow my ears to hear? (v.20)
What I allow my ears to hear will ultimately impact my thoughts and my heart, so I need to give attention to what I hear. Listen and pay attention to wisdom.
We need to be able to discern God’s voice vs. that of the world (Jn10:3-5, 16)
3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5 “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
What is in my heart? (Pro4:23; Lk6:45)
23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
Look at what Jesus had to say about what we allow into our heart
45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
Whatever the heart loves, the ears will hear and the eyes will see the feet will lead you to it. So we need to guard our heart! speaking of heart we need to
Avoid a double heart (Pro12:2)
A heart heart (Pro28:14)
A proud heart (Pro21:4)
An unbelieving heart (Heb3:12)
A cold heart (Mt24:12) and unclean heart (Psm51:10)
What is in my mouth? (Pro4:24; Mt12:33-34; Tit2:8 and Col4:6)
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you.
Again you can look at what Jesus said:
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
What comes out our mouth should be beyond reproach
8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.
And it should be seasoned:
6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
Speaking of lips (mouth), Solomon addresses lips several times trying to impart wisdom
Beware of perverse lips (Pro4:24)
Beware of lying lips (Pro12:22)
Beware of flattering lips (Pro20:12)
Beware of deceitful lips (Pro24:28) and undisciplined lips (Pro10:19)
He who guards his lips , guards his life
3 The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
What is before my eyes? (Pro4:25; Heb11:10; Gen13:10, 12)
25 Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.
Have eyes like Abraham
10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Not like lot
10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.
We know how it turned out for Lot.
So what we allow ourselves to see may it be like this.
Set nothing wicked before our eyes (Psm101:3)
Turn our eyes from worthless things (Psm119:37)
May we fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb12:2)
Don’t look back (Lk9:62) or around (Mt14:30) for you may get detoured onto the wrong path
Finally in our inventory what is on our path (Pro4:26-27)
26 Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. 27 Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.
Your path will establish your way
So examine your path to see if it is of faith (2Cor13:5)
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
Wisdom, it instructs, it leads, it helps us examine, but when applied it promises to protect, it promises to direct and promises to perfect our path!
(Lead to invitation (invitation slide 1) (Invitation slide 2; before song) (exit slide; after song)