So we continue through these first few chapters of Proverbs and looking at the great benefits of finding the wisdom of God. The huge benefits. The more you think about it and you think about your life and the directions and the different twists and turns and how God's wisdom has come. and guarded and delivered you. That's what we're talking about this morning. It's easy to begin, so if you turn to chapter two of Proverbs, it's easy to, as you begin to grow up, to assume you know how things work and that you know how to look after yourself. You don't need to be taught how stupid we are. In my younger years, I often didn't think about what I was doing. And I suspect my mother wondered whether I would survive childhood, the number of mishaps and accidents I suffered. And later in life, I became a bit more practical, surprise, surprise, to my family. But even then, there was the day I was working for an air conditioning company during my holidays at college and found myself under a pile of broken jiprock. after having fallen through the ceiling of a chemist shop and bringing half of it down on top of me. Another time I rode off my second car in an accident that could easily have taken me out, split second. That would have been the end of John Dunkley. Somehow along the way I became a little more confident, so much so that when we needed to build onto our house, because of our growing family, I took the project on myself. And very quickly I began to think that I knew more than I did. I often went ahead without really thinking about what I was doing. I assumed I had the wisdom needed for the job. But then my wife, who rightly assumed that I knew less than I thought, would examine what I was doing and ask, why are you doing it that way? Or sometimes simply, what are you doing? because that's the way you do it. That's how I used to respond. But over time I learned that that was, what was not obvious to me was obvious to my dear wife. There was another better way of doing it. And it was not the way I was doing it. And that's very humbling when you're a young husband trying to prove that he knew what he was doing. The extension to our house went up without a major disaster, but to this day, there's evidence of an overconfidence in my own wisdom. I got two secondhand doors for two bedrooms, and they were lovely doors, but they were different heights. So what I did is I carefully measured them and carefully built the door frames, each to the height of the different doors. So to this day, I've got two door frames that are different heights. Some of you are having to think about that, but to my wife, it was obvious. What are you doing? Well, it was too late. It was done, and it's there for all time. It's easy to assume that we have all the wisdom we need to navigate life. Now, I'm not talking about building houses. I'm talking about the project of life, and we're all involved in that, whether we feel we're up to it or not. The prophet Jeremiah said the way of a man A woman is not in himself, it is not in man to direct his own steps. We are not self-standing. So just as I benefited from the practical wisdom of my dear wife, so we desperately need the wisdom of God to navigate life's pitfalls and temptations. And it's not easy to remain humble and teachable. What happens when God examines our lives and our actions and our hearts when we hear the Father saying, John, what are you doing? Why are you doing it that way? What needless pain we bear when we stubbornly refuse to receive the wisdom of God, when we don't run to the Father and cry out for His wisdom and insight. So Proverbs 2 tells us that if we do three things, then we'll gain wisdom. So there are three ifs in these first few verses. And it's a son, sorry, it's a father addressing his son. My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commands. If you call out for insight and raise your voice for insight. If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure. You see those three ifs. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. This father knew by experience that God rewards those who diligently seek him. Jesus said, seek and the Greek is seek and go on seeking and you'll find. Knock and the door will be opened. Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you. It's not futile to go after God with all your heart. Don't let anyone or anything discourage or distract you in your desire to get wisdom. Go after it like you're searching for hidden treasures. Most quests for treasures involve discovery. I'm thinking of, you know, some pot of gold. Someone's given you a mug. Lasseter's gold. They're still searching for Lasseter's gold. There's always discouragement, setbacks, obstacles, often what appear to be impossible odds. But the treasure hunter doesn't give up, does he? He will not be put off because he believes the reward will outweigh any difficulties along the way. Is that how we diligently search after God and his wisdom? Now there's no guarantee that for all that pain and effort real treasure will be discovered except in the movies. They get it eventually. In real life most quests for hidden treasure end in failure. But not this quest in Proverbs 2. If you search for wisdom and insight and understanding with the same kind of tenacity, it will not end in futility. You will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So where does this quest begin? By receiving the words of your father. By treasuring up a father's commands. Now how easy it is not to listen to your father. Well, there's hardly anyone here I'm talking to. There's a few. Yes, there are. Josie's kids. You listen to me? Listening? How easy not to actually. These kids listen to their father and their mother, and I've seen it. And you can see it shaping their lives. But often young people think they know more about their parents and when it comes to navigating technology, my kids certainly know more than me and I run to them. But real life is more than navigating the latest technology. Parents should have something worth passing on to their children. If your father or mother really know and love God, then what they pass on is worth treasuring. They won't be perfect. but by God's grace they will have gained some insight into the ways of God that could pay huge dividends in your life. Blessed is the young man or woman who doesn't switch off when a mother or father is sharing the wisdom that God's taught them over many years. Treasure it, recognise its value. This is for your good. They're telling you how to live and how to get the most out of life, how to avoid the mistakes maybe that they've made. that will lead you to regret. And that wisdom's more valuable than anything this world can hold out to you. And not all young people have parents who can pass on words of life. I know many men in prison whose parents mostly taught foolishness by example and by word. So we shouldn't take for granted the blessing of growing up under godly parents, and if we're parents, the responsibility of passing on God's wisdom. If you haven't got godly parents, find significant adults that are worthy of your trust and listen. Some of my most treasured teachers are sitting on my shelves at home, and I run to them. And now you can listen to podcasts and wonderful wisdom. No excuse, hey? Verse two, incline. I'll just say this, this past year has been, it has been the hardest year of my life. And mainly battling with side effects from treatment. And there've been days when I, well anyway, God has given me a scripture, a word of wisdom that has got me through another day, lifted my heart, lifted my eyes, shown me a way to deal with this. Without the wisdom of God, I don't know where I'd be, to be honest, at the end of this year. I don't think I'd be standing up here and proclaiming God's word with a good heart. It's delivered me from being disheartened and depressed and hopeless many, many times. So this is solid stuff and sometimes we don't know what we need until we're in that situation when we need it. So verse two, incline your heart to understanding. If your heart is in something, you will be in it. If your heart is not in something, no matter how hard you try to stick at it, eventually you'll throw it, you'll give it up. So we need to ask the Father for a heart to understand and a hunger for his wisdom. Give me an undivided heart that I might fear your name, the psalmist cried. You know, a divided heart is like trying to ride two horses at the same time in opposite directions. It don't work, that's my wisdom. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And again Jeremiah, speaking of the New Covenant promise, I'll give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them. So from your heart, with all your affections, give yourself to know wisdom. Don't be quiet about gaining insight and understanding. Call out for it. Raise your voice. Don't be dulled into silence by the noise of the world. Don't let the world's disinterest in the things of God shout you down. The stakes are too high to miss out on the wisdom of God. And having cried out for insight, listen for his voice in the scriptures, in prayer, in the church, in the sharing of God's people. Eugene Peterson said, a Christian congregation is a group of people who decide together to pay attention. So if you really take heart to what you're taught, if you shout out for understanding, and if you search for wisdom like someone mining for Bitcoin, then you won't be disappointed. If you diligently go after God wholeheartedly, you'll be rewarded. That's what this passage is saying. Then, if, if, if, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Now that's no small thing. To fear and know God is life. It's crucial for life, but it is life. One day we'll know that so clearly that we'll never have doubt again. But meanwhile, we've got to encourage you to say, this is life to know and to fear God, because we're so stupid. I'm so stupid. So here's a father who knows what his son, his daughter, really needs more than anything. If he or she is going to navigate this life safely and fruitfully, and his first concern for his son is not that he achieved top results at year 12, or become a top sportsman, or score a well-paying job, or enjoy the status of a professional career, that's not where he's firstly going. His greatest desire, this father, is that his son might fear and know God. And that would be a worthy goal for his son or daughter above any good and worthy thing that she or he might achieve. That fearing and knowing God shape and sharpen every other desire for God's glory in his kingdom and in the enjoyment of all that he gives to his children. And so there's no loss here, is there? It's only gain. So what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process? So is that, as a parent, is that what my deepest desire is for my children? Those who had magnificent homes, particularly in Malibu, They've just gone up in smoke and they may be wondering whether they've misplaced their security and hope in life. Every crisis or tragedy brings us back to the question of who or what have we put our hope in? A durable hope needs a durable object to trust in. Only God is durable. Everything else is temporary and so uncertain. So we're talking about you will know the fear of God and the knowledge of God. This is durable. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We've heard that. And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. That tells us that to know the Holy One is to know the fear of the Lord. So now we're talking about what it is that we come to when we receive God's wisdom. We actually come to know the Holy One. You ask Isaiah, remember Isaiah chapter 6? He was in the temple, had a vision. He saw the Lord high and lifted up and his glory filled the temple, the seraphim, you know it all. And he was undone, wasn't he? He knew the, wow, did he discover the fear of God. But then he discovered that this holy one who lives in a high and holy place also lives with him who's broken and can try to revive the heart of the broken. And boy, he got revived, didn't he? So the fear of God wasn't a crushing thing for him. In the end, it was a reviving, wonderful way to go forward. It was good news, not bad news. If you want to know You want to know something of the fear of God, just read Isaiah 40. And behold your God, holy, transcendent, almighty King, the source of true wisdom. He is a God too great to fail us. Years ago when our family were making a difficult decision to go to the country, and one of my daughters was really struggling, Hannah, with the decision, and in struggling, With me as a father leading us in that path, she struggled with God. And one night, she told me God came to her in the night, and she was overwhelmed by the holiness and by the majesty of her God. She loved God. She believed in him. But for a while there, she was holding her heart, heartening her heart, really. Well, that night it got melted. And she said, Dad, wherever God says where to go, I will go. Not out of guilty fear, but of a new clean fear in God. One hindrance to going to really knowing the fear of God is getting caught up in the fear of man. The fear of man is a snare. It's a trap. But the one who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. If we're constantly worrying about what others think, if we're constantly worrying about trying to please everyone, We will not know the fear of God and we'll get ourselves into all kinds of strife. Another foolish hindrance to knowing the fear of God is a foolish self-confidence in who we are and what we've attained. What did Jeremiah say? Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, his worldly wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his strength. I've been going to the gym all year. I can't build anything because I've got nothing in me that helps build now. No testosterone. You need it, lads. But I'm maintaining. I'm doing well. I'm proud of it. Except it says here, don't boast in your strength. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in all the earth. That's something to boast about, that you know God. All the things this world boasts in, can't compare with knowing God. The one who finds such wisdom is rich indeed. If we would run to him, listen attentively to his word, then we would discover that the Lord, verse six, gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He loves to give wisdom to those who search for it diligently. Not to say, oh Lord, help me, and then forget our prayer. and go on with our solutions. Now this doesn't mean that we will know everything that God knows. It doesn't mean that we will be as God so that we don't need him. How absurd, God is God and we are not. What it means is that we'll be given all the understanding we need to navigate through life in a way that honors and glorifies God and brings us into the most enjoyment of his will and purpose. There are things that we need to leave in his hands. We'll not be given the answer to every dark and difficult thing. We're called to trust and rely on Him when we can't see the way forward and to understand when we can't see all that He's about. We need to just let it go and trust Him. But we should not doubt that the Father loves to give us all the wisdom we need to love and trust and obey His will, and that'll be enough. The sacred things belong to God. The things that are revealed are for us to do them. So he stores up sound wisdom for the upright. We don't have to be clever to attain God's wisdom. A little child can know more than some clever theologians. That's amazing, isn't it? We just need to be straight with God. If we are upright, straight, he'll be straight with us. If we're real with God, he will be real with us. If we are humble and teachable and don't give up, He gladly gives us wisdom. And the payoff is huge, the benefits of finding true wisdom. Verse 7b, he's a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. You put into practice the wisdom of God, you'll be looked after. You won't fall for unjust and corrupt ways. There's plenty of snares along in life. I've navigated a few snares. And I tell you, I needed to listen to God. And if I listened more carefully, I would have saved myself from a lot more pain than I needed to go through. You'll see through the scams, the lies, the deceptions of this world. You won't be so easily conned into dead end paths that promise much and deliver little. You'll understand righteousness and justice and equity in every good path. And that's how you'll live and that's how you'll work. And people will be glad they know you. and they'll trust you for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to you. You'll be like the wise man, not the foolish man in the Jesus story. It was the one who heard his words and put them into practice who was like the wise man who built on the rock. You know, the wisdom of God is not just a few biblical ideas and clever theology floating around our heads. It's truth lived out in everyday life. Christ's teachings put into practice. So when the pelting rain, the floods come up, you're on the rock. You're like a man who built on a rock. You're not like that fool who built on the sand, who knew a lot about what Jesus said, but didn't put it into practice, never put it into action. So when we take his word, his wisdom into our hearts, when we let it shape how we respond to what life throws at us, it proves pleasant to our souls. I can think of many times when I've been hammered by trials and temptations, tested by dangers and snares. I'm genuine. I'm not blowing it up. I can tell you stories from my work at the Mission. God was there, and when I felt overwhelmed by the storm and unable to keep my head above the waves, just when I'd been at my wit's end, God has come to the rescue. Word of Scripture, an insight into God's ways, a command or a promise has come into my heart, and I've believed it, I've received it, and I've found it pleasant to my soul. And it's been life-changing. I remember a word in my marriage when we were going through a really tough time early on, and one night the Lord spoke to me as clear as I could ever, anyone could speak to me. The strength of your marriage, John, is not based on how much you feel your wife loves you, but on my command to love your wife. That word, which is consistent with scripture, has kept has guarded, has delivered my marriage for the last 44 years. And I tell you, sorry, I cherish my wife more than ever. It's one of the sweetest things in my life now, is my marriage and what Margaret means to me. I could have lost it. if I'd stopped loving her through the hard times. So, get to know God. And you can have a confidence that no matter what you face in life, no matter what temptations, what dangers, what seductive lies are put before you, you will have all the wisdom you need to safely navigate life without being shipwrecked along the way. Verse 11, discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you, delivering you. Can you see what this fellow's saying to his son? You get wisdom, you'll get to know God and you'll be delivered. You'll be guarded through life. He's not saying at this point, guard your heart. There's plenty of scriptures that speak of that. He's telling us what God will do, what wisdom will provide in the way of full deliverance. You'll be delivered from evil men, perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness, verse 13, who walk in the ways of darkness. You'll be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress and her smooth words. Being delivered from evil men in their corrupt scheming and from the evil woman, the seductive adulteress who can destroy marriages. Those two dangers were real then, and in so many cultures around the world, they would be two of the clearest dangers that face people. They are actually in our culture too, but we don't realise it. But what I'm saying is there are cultures where you're surrounded every day by lies, by seduction, by danger, by temptation. This is, what was given here was so clearly to the point. How do young men guard their lives from such soul and life-destroying traps as these? Find this wisdom of God. It will be life-saving. The wisdom of fleeing sexual immorality in whatever shape or form it takes has not changed. The need to let God's wisdom protect you from every form of sexual perversion is as critical today in the church as it ever was. Pornography, every other form of sexual perversion, it's there on the internet. Easy as that to get. And it's no less a marriage wrecker than open adultery. God's wisdom unmasks the lie and shows it for what it is. Listen to this wisdom. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife. You lend out costing a lot more than you bargained for. You lose more than you gain. When you look to get outside of marriage, what God intended to be got inside of marriage, you'll pay a price. It'll bring more pain and harm in your life than you could ever imagine, and I know brothers who have gone that way. Drink water from your own cistern. Running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the public squares, let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. You know, the best way to stay faithful in a marriage is to love your wife. to not let your love grow dull, to not take her for granted, but to cherish the woman God has given you. Let your fountain be blessed and delight yourself in the wife of your youth. You know, it takes a lot of grace and love every day to navigate marriage, that love that covers a multitude of sins, not just your partner's, your own. But when we put into practice such wisdom, we are delivered from a great deal of pain and sorrow. There are huge dividends to finding wisdom, not just in this area, the sexual area, but in the area of money and status and all manner of foolish temptations. God's wisdom will shape your appetites, developing you a taste for what's good and true and pure and a distaste for folly. It'll enable you to see through all the illuminates of evil. It'll protect you from foolish choices you otherwise could make. But it doesn't mean there won't be troubles and some nasty falls along the way. It doesn't mean we won't get bruised and be knocked around along the journey. It doesn't mean that we're always delivered from experiencing painful assaults of the world and the flesh and the devil. Sin still wars against our soul and wars aren't enjoyable. What it means is that whatever suffering we go through will not be because of our own stupidity, because we fell for the lie and relied on our own cleverness rather than leaning on Him. What we're guaranteed is not a trouble and frustration-free existence. We're not guaranteed an easy storm-free journey. What we're guaranteed is deliverances along the way and a safe arrival home. Jodie Tata Erickson, 56 years as a quadriplegic. And her main ordeal is not being a quadriplegic, but the pain that she endures that comes upon her. She said, he doesn't deliver me from pain, but in my pain. He doesn't deliver me from pain, but he delivers me in my pain. And the wisdom the father has taught her, that has delivered her from depression and despair, she says this, he, God, permits what he hates to accomplish something that he loves. He permits what he hates, sickness, death, sorrow, in order to accomplish something that he loves. Ultimately shaping our image into the image of the son for our great good and his great glory, to share an eternal destiny in a new creation. Nothing can be compared to that glory to come. So there is pain, we do have troubles, we do fall, afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair. Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity." We need to learn to live, lean on him, get up again, instead of relying on ourselves. We need to not get stuck in our past. Failure is not final. We need to Learn how to fail forward. One of the most startling of God's ways, according to J.I. Pack, is that God uses even our sins and mistakes to bring us to a deeper dependence on him and a greater distrust of ourselves. And he delivers us. We might fall seven times, but it's God who picks us up again and again. He dusts us off. He gets us on our way. The final verse, it talks about verse 21, the upright will inhabit the land, but the wicked will be cut off from the land. For them, in that day, that was the temporal promise of the blessing of the land. If they obeyed God, they'd experience all the blessings of his covenant promise and the rich future in the land. But for those who rejected it, only loss and regret and shame for the wicked. So there's a great payoff, that's what Proverbs 2's saying, a great, you'll get there, you'll enjoy the inheritance. But Israel history shows that didn't, they stubbornly refused and eventually they lost the land, cut off from the land. See we need a greater wisdom than even they had here. to deliver us from our stubborn willful hearts, and that wisdom is Christ. He's the wisdom of God. In him are all the riches of wisdom and knowledge. What he did for us was considered foolish by the world, but it's the wisdom of God. He gave us a new heart, a heart with an appetite for his wisdom and will. He frees us to cry out for his words as we begin to learn that these are true riches. and our taste for God matures, he shows us more of his hidden wisdom, his plans for us to share, not just in a temporal inheritance, but in an eternal inheritance. You listen to 1 Corinthians 2.9 as we finish. He says there's a wisdom for those who are mature. What no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. If we lift our eyes to what God has prepared for us, the wisdom of this world will be shown as utter foolishness. It's all transient. Mel Gibson, after losing his mansion in LA fires, he said this, I've been relieved of all my stuff. I've been relieved of all my stuff. Interesting. Yeah, we don't have to fight over the stuff of this world or compete with the gifts God's given us. We've got nothing that we haven't received from God. All that we have is from heaven. And if we have little, we are still rich beyond comparison. All things are yours. All things are yours. The present, the future. Death. Life. It's all yours. And you are Christ's and Christ is God's. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to him. Trust in him and he will act. Wait patiently for him, the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. I read that psalm after putting a contract on a block of land at Little Hampton, panicking, FOMO, fear of missing out. We saw it one day, same day we signed the contract. Act in haste, repent at leisure. I preached up the river land, I drove back and sat in that block and I read Psalm 37, those verses, fret not. Stop looking at what others have got. Stop panicking. Trust me. And I sat in that block and slowly realised this was not where we were to live. And I was able to just let it go. God eventually gave us a wonderful place to live. And we'd just seen how God's purpose was right. But I needed to let go of my wisdom and just receive his. And I had great peace when I cancelled that contract. The one who trusts will inherit, not just something here, but eternally. That's a good place to stop. Let's pray. Our gracious, dear Father, majestic God, Holy One, Creator of all things. Father, you are greater than your creation. And you are the one who gives all that we need. And this morning we are thinking about your wisdom and knowing and trusting you. May this word, your word, work deeply in our hearts Free us, filling us with peace and confidence. What an adventure, dear Father, to walk with you through life, to see what you will do, and then one day to share in that glory. Bless you, Father, for all your mercy and grace. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.