A Father's Plea

Amen. As we take our seats, Let's open once again to the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs Chapter two, Proverbs Chapter two. So we continue in our series the Gospel according to Proverbs Proverbs chapter two, and last week we looked at the father's plea as we saw beginning in the first few verses of chapter two, Solomon responding to what essentially was a sermon from Wisdom and responding by making a plea to his son. We continue that plea today as Solomon expounds even further on what he means. Let's look beginning at verse one. Will concentrate on verses six through eight, but we'll start back again verse once. We can put this in context. My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline 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. A text for to day. 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. Am In Well, if you remember, on last week, we looked at this plea in those first five verses, and we saw that essentially, after this sermon that was preached, this call to repentance from wisdom, Solomon says to his son. He pleads with his son first to hear wisdom, and secondly to seek wisdom, thirdly to treasure wisdom, and that in hearing and seeking and treasuring he would find the knowledge of God. Essentially he would find God. And here he continues and explains what he means by that last point. We want to drill down on that last point, this understanding of the fact that when we seek, and when we hear, and when we treasure wisdom, that we find God. But why do we find God? How is it that we find God as a result of doing this. In order to do this, and in order to understand the significance of this plea and why he drills down here, it's important to understand what Solomon is trying to do for his son. What Solomon is trying to teach his son. There is a difference between teaching a son obedience and teaching a son wisdom. We must teach our children to obey Amen. Ephesians six makes this very clear. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother the first commandment, with the promise that it may be well with you and you may live long in the land Verse four. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We are obligated to teach our children to obey. One of the greatest warnings that we find in scripture is this warning to the priest Eli for not having disciplined his son. Our children must be taught to obey. However, our children must be brought beyond obedience to wisdom. Obedience teaches children to do what we tell them, to respect and respond to our commands and directives, and that's necessary. Wisdom, however, teaches our children to do what God demands by means of Again, how have we defined wisdom by means of the righteous application of true knowledge? There is a difference. Obedience relies on our presence and our authority However, wisdom is what they have when no one's watching, and long after we're gone. Obedience comes from fear and reverence. However, wisdom comes from godly character forged over time. Obedi udients will serve our children while they are under our roof. However, wisdom will serve them well long after they've departed from us. Must we teach our son's obedience? Absolutely, and Proverbs it has no shortage of teaching on that amen. Proverbs talks about the row of correction, the rod of correction, as a tool to teach obedience. It's very important. However, we cannot end there. We cannot stop there. Obedience is not an end in itself. Obedience is a platform from which we can then go beyond it to teaching wisdom, the righteous application of true knowledge. If all we teach is obedience, we actually cripple our children because they don't know what to do when there's not someone there telling them. What to do. And if all we do is teach obedience, we fall into those traps. Remember the two traps the enemies of the Gospel. Enemy number one is legalism, and one of the things that we do for our children, or do to our children, when we teach obedience and not wisdom, is we drive them toward legalism because if all we do is teach them do what I say, do what I say, and never get beyond that to teaching them to think well, to reason well, and to be wise and seek God's wisdom, then they go throughout their life looking for where. The rules are. This is why when our children get to that place in their lives where they're finally reaching maturity, it's interesting in those teenage years and those adolescent years. Anybody who's dealt with teenagers or raised teenagers, there's this phase where a child is still in that obedience phase and not quite in that wisdom phase. And the questions that they ask always have to do with where the boundaries are. Well, is it a sin? If well, how far can I go before? Well? Will I go to hell? If that's legalism? Those are the questions of a legalist who is not being wise, a legalist who does not want to be wise. I don't want to exercise wisdom. I just want the rule. And once I know where the rule is, then I can go beyond that and feel good about myself because I've kept the rule. If you can't say amen. You got to say ouch. I say that this is where teenagers are, But there are some in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have never gotten beyond this place. And we just want to know where the line is so that we can get as close to it as humanly possible and still feel like we're okay because we haven't violated the rule, even though our hearts are far from it. Is this not what God's problem was with Israel? These people approach me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Was this not the problem with the rich young ruler? Oh, I've kept all of that from my youth. Actually you haven't. This is what legalism gets us. But remember that other enemy of the gospel. Legalism is an enemy of the gospel. Why because if we believe that we can be right with God by keeping the law, then we believe Christ died in vain. The other enemy, and the enemy that's more common when we use the Book of Proverbs, is the enemy of moralism. Moralism that sees Jesus merely as a moral example. Who's there to show us what it looks like to be a good person. This is the way we tend to use the Book of Proverbs. And interestingly enough, here is where legalism and moralism marry. Because what moralism does is it turns proverbs instead of being wisdom, it turns it into law, It turns it into rules. Do this so you can get that. And here's where legalism and moralism, and the lines between legalism and moralism become blurred because we use proverbs and try to find the principles in proverbs turn them into laws so that we can keep those laws and then expect blessings from God. Looking just out of curiosity at some sermons from proverbs, and I didn't want to use any particular sermons or anyone to use anybody's name, but I found some sort of stock sermons. There are places that you can go to find these, just you know, generic outlines for sermons. And there was one on seven proverbs that every businessman must know. And it was this sad, strange combination of legalism and moralism, pulling proverbs completely out of context, applying them to business principles and basically saying, you need to know this proverb because this proverb will help you do this in your business. You need to know that proverb, because that proverb will help you do that in your business. And on and on and on through these seven proverbs. No Cross, no Christ, no Gospel, and for many of us, no problem, because why would we look for Christ or the Cross or the Gospel in Proverbs. Well, if you've been here over the last several weeks, you know the answer to that. You know that Christ is the wise son of Proverbs. Amen. And you know that everyone apart from and outside of Christ is the fool and the scoffer. And we know that this wisdom that is to be found in Proverbs is the wisdom that is formed in us only when and if we are found in Christ himself, and that there is no shortcut to this, that the Gospel is the only way that you can rightly understand and apply and teach the book of Proverbs. This comes from a right understanding of who God is, and a right understanding, therefore, of what wisdom is. If all we think is that God is a super man, that God is like the strongest of the avengers who's finally made himself perfect, or if we just think that God is just a supercomputer and God just happens to have ultimate knowledge, and that we find wisdom in God because we've come to one who. Is like us. Folks. God is not like us. God is not a superversion of us. God is not a superversion of a computer. God is not who he is, where he is, and what he is because of knowledge that he has attained or acquired. God is not running for God. He's God. He's always been God, he always will be God. God does not acquire knowledge. God gives knowledge. God does not acquire wisdom. God is wisdom. And it's not until we understand that that we understand the Gospel. According to Proverbs, it's not until we understand that that we understand this Father's plea. Hence, we must not think of wisdom as something that God has attained and will teach us how to attain. But we must think of wisdom as something that God is. In fact, we'll see later that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is referred to at times as the Spirit of wisdom. This is why when we hear wisdom, and when we seek wisdom, and when we treasure wisdom, what we find is not just wisdom, but what we find according to those first five verses, so we find God himself why and how. That's the question that's answered here in this part of the text. Let's look beginning of verse six. First, the Lord himself is the source of all wisdom. That's why we find God when we find wisdom. That's how we find God when we find wisdom, because the Lord himself is the source of all wisdom. Verse six, for the Lord gives wisdom. A note that verse six begins with four or because so in verse five there is this plea. Verse five, Solomon says to his son, Listen, listen, see here here wisdom. Respond to wisdom. Don't just hear it, but seek it, go after it. Don't just hear it and seek it and go after it, but treasure it, go after it passionately, because there's nothing more valuable than that. And why do you do this? Because when you do that, you'll find God. How is it? How is it that you find God when you go after wisdom? Why is it that you find God when you go after wisdom? And the answer is in verse six four, the Lord gives wisdom. You can't find wisdom anywhere else, not wisdom as we've defined it. And understand, we're defining wisdom again as the righteous application of true knowledge, the righteous application of true knowledge. You don't get that apart from God. Remember who's making this pleamber, who's talking to his son. Remember that this is King Solomon. Who is King Solomon. King Solomon is the wisest king, the wisest man, arguably who's ever lived. First Kings Chapter four, verses twenty nine thirty. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breath of mind like the sand of the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt. By the way, when you say all the wisdom of Egypt, you're talking about all the wisdom of the wisest people that were known at the time, the most powerful people who were known at the time. Because of their wisdom and their knowledge, Solomon's knowledge surpassed that. One. Kings ten, twenty three, and twenty four. Thus King Solomon excelled all the king of the earth in riches and in wisdom, And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. God is the source of all wisdom. That's why when you listen and hear wisdom, and when you seek wisdom, and when you treasure wisdom, what you find is God, because God is the source of all wisdom. In fact, how did Solomon get this wisdom? This one? Let's look at together Second Chronicles chapter one. Look at Second Chronicles chapter one. How did the author of the proverbs, the one who collected these proverbs, the one who's using these proverbs in order to teach wisdom to his sons? How did he become so wise in the first place? What was it because of his genetics? Is because of to whom he was born? Is because of the people group from which he came? What was it because of his education? Was it because of the degrees that he held? Why? How is it that he became so wise? Second Chronicles, Chapter one, beginning of verse seven. And that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ask what I shall give you? And Solomon said to God, you have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place. O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people. For who can govern this people of yours? Which is so great? God answered Solomon, because this was in your heart. And you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you. Shall have the like. How did it happen? He sought God. He asked God, who is the source of all wisdom, And God, the source of all wisdom. Gave him wisdom. So as he. Gathers these proverbs and sits down in order to teach his son's wisdom, what does he do? He says to his son, First, here's this sermon that wisdom preaches, and wisdom is calling to repentance and warning of calamity. At the end of chapter one, and then Solomon makes a plea in these first five verses, and he says to his son, here, listen to wisdom as wisdom stands and preaches. Seek wisdom as wisdom stands and preaches. Treasure wisdom, because when you do it, you'll find the one who made me wise, because God is the source of true wisdom Proverbs three nineteen. The Lord by wisdom found of the earth by understanding, He established the heavens. Only fools seek wisdom apart from God. In Romans, chapter one, verse twenty one, claiming to be wise, they became fools claiming to be wise. They became fools. Why because they claimed wisdom apart from God. Because they believed they could be wise apart from God. You can no longer be wise apart from God. Then you can be zambiing apart from Zambia. Amen, somehow you got to get here. Somehow you have to get to God. Now you can find the kind of wisdom that man finds through general revelation. You can find the kind of wisdom that's out there through common grace. You can find the kind of wisdom that people will gain through living a long life and learning hard lessons. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the righteous application of true knowledge, and that kind of wisdom is God's wisdom, and you only get that from God himself. The way to wisdom, therefore, is through accepting the fact that we are fools apart from the wisdom of God. First Corinthians, chapter three. We've looked at that a number of times, and you can't. We can't do it. You cannot talk about wisdom rightly without First Corinthians chapter three, Without Colaussions chapter two, you cannot. And so we visit it again. First Corinthians, chapter three, Verses eighteen to twenty. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. It almost makes us way. If anyone thinks that he's wise in this head, let him become a fool. So the human command that makes no sense. Of course, it makes sense if you understand it. In First Corinthians Chapter two and First Corinthians chapter one. Actually he talks about the wisdom of men being folly versus the wisdom of God. God has rendered those things foolish. What he's talking about here is being wise in the human sense being wise in the sense of believing that you can have wisdom apart from God. If you think you're wise in that way, then become a fool. Acknowledge your foolishness. Acknowledge that you have no wisdom in the truest sense of the word. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile the meaningless before God Ecclesiastes two twenty six. To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy Daniel two twenty one. God gives wisdom to the wise and again. Remember, according to Colossians, Chapter two and verse three, it is Christ and whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, which means there are no true treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden anywhere outside of Christ. It is only in Christ. This means a couple of things. Not only not only is this a blow against worldly wisdom and earthly wisdom, this is also a blow against those who want to use the Book of Proverbs, apart from Christ, apart from the Gospel. Use the Book of Proverbs as though here are these principles that you can just rip completely out of context and use them and become the kind of wise that you can only become in God. No, you can't do it. You can't do it. You cannot divorce the wisdom of Proverbs from the wisdom that is found in Christ. Why because Christ is Solomon's wise son. That's why Christ is the personification and the fulfillment of the wisdom that we find in Proverbs. And therefore it is only when you are found in the wise Son that you are found as the wise son of Proverbs. Beyond that you are the fool. And that's all you could ever hope to be. You can go out and gain you know, master's degrees and PhDs and everything else, and you'll become what Grandma used to call an educated fool. Amen, because you can get there from here, not to the wisdom of God. It's like trying to get to the moon in your car. Amen. I don't care how much horsepower you have. That vehicle is not suitable for that journey. And the wisdom of man is not suitable for the journey to God. Only God was. God's wisdom gets us there. So if anyone lacks wisdom, where do you go? You go to God, James says in James one. Five. Secondly, not only is God the source of the wisdom. Again, remember we're answering the question why, But why is it that when you when you hear, when you listen to wisdom, when you seek wisdom and treasure wisdom, you find God. Why How is that? How is that true? Number one? Because God is the source of all true wisdom. Number two because God's word is the fountain of wisdom. Remember, when you're hearing and you're seeking and you're treasuring, what are you doing. Are you just closing your eyes real tight and hoping that wisdom comes in? No, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Amen. And so we're seeking God's wisdom through his word. Look at verse six again. Four From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Where from his mouth the mouth of God. God is the God who speaks, and we know him through his speech. In creation, God spoke the world into existence. He's the God who speaks. At Sinai, God spoke his law to his people Israel. We spoke to Israel in the kingdom through prophets, priests and kings. In the coming of Christ, God speaks to us as God the Man, the second person of the Trinity. And now God has spoken to us through the apostles, whom Christ gave to us. All of this put together for us in Hebrews Chapter two. Go to Hebrews Chapter two, Hebrews Chapter two, beginning of verse one. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. What is the Father's plea to his son. First Here here we must pay much closer attention to what we've heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord speech, and it was attested to by those who heard speech, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Don't neglect what you've heard. Don't neglect what you've heard. What is the opposite of neglecting what you hear, listening to it, seeking it, and treasuring it. Dc Because if we don't, and if you remember a few weeks back, wisdom is standing and preaching a sermon. And what is wisdom doing. Wisdom is calling for repentance and warning of the coming calamity? Calamity, what is the author of Hebrews saying? The author of Hebrews is saying, do you remember the calamity that came upon those who did not listen to what they heard? They didn't listen to what they heard, and they only had it in part. We have it in full. God himself having come in the person of Jesus Christ, and having given his word to and through his apostles, how much more should we listen and seek and yearn for Proverbs one, nineteen ninety eight. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies Proverbs nineteen seven. The law of the Lord makes the simple wise. That's his word, that's his word, that's his word. Hear and heed the father's plea, And the Father's plea leads us to a place where we find God. Why Because God first and foremost is the source of all wisdom. And his word. His word is the fountain of all wisdom. That's why hearing, seeking, treasuring leads us to God himself. Finally, the righteous are the recipients of his wisdom. The righteous are the recipients of his wisdom. Look at verse seven and eight. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. Verse eight. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Three identifiers there and again. Remember this is wisdom, literature, and in many ways this is poetry. That's another problem with turning proverbs into law. This is poetry. You don't you You know, if you read Blackstone's Commentary on the Law, you're reading something in Old English. Right, you read Shakespeare, you're reading something in Old English. But if you find a phrase that Shakespeare used that was also in Blackstone's Commentary on the Law, you probably shouldn't interpret it the exact same way in both documents. Amen, because the poet is not using the phrase the same way that the lawyer did. Yeah, this is the problem. Run and get your concordance. And you find a phrase that's used one way in Genesis or Exodus, or Leviticus. And then you find the same phrase or the same word in job or Psalms or proverbs, and now, all of a sudden, they must mean the same thing. Although over here we're talking about poetry, and over here we're talking about law. So when we come to the proverbs and read the proverbs as though they are law, we're already in gross error. This is not prose, it's poetry. So when we're reading poetry, one of the things that we look for is poetry, symmetry, repetition. And here there's a repetition three times three phrases, one the upright, two those who walk in integrity, and three his Saints. All three refer to the same people. Who are the upright, The upright are those who walk in integrity? Who are those who walk in integrity? His saints? Who are his saints? His saints are the upright who walk in integrity. Now be careful, because remember, remember the two great enemies of the Gospel. The two great enemies of the Gospel are legalism and moralism. And here's what legalism does with these verses. Legalism and moralism come and they say, okay, I'm gonna walk upright and I'm gonna walk in integrity so that i can be one of His saints. Again, you're trying to drive your car to the moon. You cannot walk upright if you're not one of His saints. You cannot walk in integrity if you're not one of his saints. This is about being found in Christ. That's the only way you get here. Again, that's why you can't divorce. You can't divorce the Gospel from the book of Proverbs. You can't divorce the New Testament from the Book of Proverbs. Only when we understand that Christ is the wise son of Proverbs, does things like this make sense. How do we become the upright? How do we walk in integrity? How do we become His saints. Through being? Why is it no through finding God and only. By His grace? This is only when we're found in the Wise Son of Proverbs, who is Christ himself. Fallen man cannot attain to this again. First Corinthians, Chapter one, beginning of verse twenty eight. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not to bring to nothing, the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God, And because of Him you are in Christ. Jesus, who watch this. Became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Do you see this? What does Christ become for us? Wisdom from God? And Christ, who becomes wisdom from God also becomes righteousness, sanctification and redemption. What does it look like when Christ is your wisdom and your righteousness, and your sanctification and your redemption. It looks like your upright. It looks like you walk in integrity, and it looks like you're one of His saints. How through being found in Christ two Corinthians five seventeen. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come, new things, like what this wisdom and this righteousness and this redemption? Again, the spirit who is ours? When we belong to Christ, who is the spirit who is ours? Well, it's the spirit of Christ. It's the third person of the Trinity. But according to Ephesians Chapter one, Verses sixteen and seventeen, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, father son, Holy Spirit, that God in Christ may give you his spirit. Who's what, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of wisdom. This is not just a New Testament idea. We find in Deuteronomy thirty four and Isaiah eleven the same idea. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This is the spirit of God. This is who God is. And it's only when we're found in Him that we're found in this wisdom. The Spirit also gives this wisdom. The Spirit is this wisdom, and the Spirit gives this wisdom. What we say it in Proverbs, God gives this wisdom. God is this wisdom Acts Chapter six and verse three. Therefore, Brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty, full of the spirit and wisdom. Full of the spirit and wisdom. Why, because wisdom comes from the spirit, because he is the spirit of wisdom. And finally, in first Corinthians twelve, for to one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge. According to the same spirit, he is wisdom, he gives wisdom. And so the father is pleading with his son, and here he is explaining his plea. Wisdom stands in the street, and Wisdom preaches. Wisdom calls for repentance and warns of coming calamity. Wisdom warns of the judgment that is coming on the scoffer, and that is coming on the fool. And Wisdom says to repent, to turn, And the father comes after reporting to his son. Here is the sermon that Wisdom is preaching, and the son says. The father says to the son, I plead with your son. Here, listen to wisdom. Don't just listen, seek it actively, seek it. Don't just sit there and let it go in one air and out the other. Seek it, pay attention, be careful. How do you seek it? Treasure it, Treasure it like there's nothing more valuable. Like you're a man who's digging through what you're hearing in order to find these nuggets, these treasures. Why, because when you do that, you find God. How How, Father, how do I find God when I find this wisdom? Because God is the source of wisdom. God is wisdom. There's wisdom found nowhere else. There's wisdom found in none other. God's word is the fountain of wisdom. Because God is wisdom. When he speaks, he speaks wisdom. That's why it's only the righteous who walk in this wisdom. It's only the righteous, the righteous, who are the recipients of this wisdom. And how do I become that? Father? You become that by fleeing from yourself, and fleeing from your sin, and clinging to the wise son of Proverbs, Christ himself, who is our wisdom, clinging to the wise son of Proverbs, who took our folly and are scoffing, and nailed it to the cross, buried it in the grave, and rose again on the third day with all power in his hands, and all wisdom and all might and all knowledge. Turn from your sin, from your sinful self reliance, Turn from believing that you can somehow find wisdom apart from Christ, repent, become a fool, and as a fool, throw yourself on the mercy of God, that your sin might not be counted against you. And an amazing thing happens. And the amazing thing is this, you become a fool and throw yourself on the mercy of God. Your sin is carried away as far as the east is from the west. You are found in Christ, who is the very wisdom of God, who gives you his Spirit, who is the spirit of wisdom. You become the upright who walk in integrity because you are one of His saints. This is the way to wisdom. Anyone who points you in any other direction has lied, because there is no other way and no other place to find wisdom apart from the wise son of Solomon, the wise son of Proverbs, who is none other than King Jesus. Let's pray our good and gracious and kind and wise God. We bow before you, confessing to be fools, apart from the wisdom that comes only from you. And in confessing to be fools, we do so in humility and gratitude, grateful for the fact that you have given us in your son, the very personification of wisdom, and beyond giving us your son, who is the very personification of wisdom, Your son has left for us your spirit, who is the very spirit of wisdom. And so we bow before you, the Triune God, asking you our Father, in the name of your wise son, and in the power of the Spirit of Wisdom himself, that you might form the wisdom of Christ in us, that we might be upright, that we might walk in integrity, and that we might be your saints. For we ask this in Christ's name and for his sake alone. Amen.