All right, we are working through a book called Choose Better about ethical decision making For those of you who are visiting today, it's a book by T. David Gordon, Five Biblical Models for Making Ethical Decisions. And thus far, we have covered the first model, which was called the what model of ethics? Imitation, great. The imitation model of ethics. And we have covered the second model, which was called the what? law model of ethics. The imitation model asks the question, does this decision enable me to emulate God or cultivate human traits that reflect His image? The law model asks the question, has God in Holy Scripture commanded or prohibited this behavior? Alright, so these different models ask different sets of questions when we approach ethical decisions. The imitation model was much more comprehensive and worked from meditation on theology proper, or the doctrine of God, to ethics. Gordon says it restores doxology to ethics because when we worship God, we become like him, we want to imitate him. The imitation model focused on what humans were created to be. The law model is much more self-explanatory and focuses on specific actions or eliminating certain behaviors that God either prescribes or proscribes in His Word. It is easy classifying ethical decisions from the law model in some sense because has God said, I can do this? Has God said that I can't do this? All right, so now today we come to the third model, which you probably have in your notes from our first session. What is the third model of ethics? Somebody said it. Wisdom, yes. All right, the wisdom model of ethics. What is wisdom? Gordon says in his book, wisdom is the capacity to observe the true nature of things, and therefore to understand what works and what does not. And he gives an example at the beginning of this chapter. He says, there are no commands in scripture dealing with the use of digital technology. And yet, digital technology fills our lives, doesn't it? He says, does this mean that every decision we make regarding such use of technology is equally wise, equally productive, or equally humane? And the answer is obvious in the asking of it. Of course not. There are myriads of areas in which the Bible does not give us a direct command And because of that, it is necessary to inculcate wisdom along with the other models of ethics. So that's what we're talking about today. The benefit of the wisdom model is that it especially inculcates the idea of meditative thought in the Christian life. It's possible if you just have the law model that you would be left immature in your biblical decision making. It can have the tendency to produce a list of do's and don'ts. The law model can. But the wisdom model inculcates a sanctified human reasoning process called contemplation. Thinking before we do something is extremely important from the biblical position. So the wisdom model promotes, Gordon says, the contemplative life, a life of frequent reflection, A life that is increasingly impossible, he says, in a media-saturated environment where our tools constantly alarm and distract us. What he means by that is they're constantly chirping, constantly beeping at us, taking us out of the realm of meditative thought and contemplation about the way that we're living our lives. to dealing with what might be called the tyranny of the urgent. I have to handle this, I have to handle that. When I wake up in the morning, I think about what I have to do in ten minutes. And sometimes I neglect to think of the broader questions that I should be asking about my life. Alright, so what is the biblical basis for the wisdom model? Well, first, the wisdom model is not disconnected from imitation, and it is not disconnected from the law models. Remember that there is an interpenetration of these models together. It is wise to keep God's commandments. In keeping them, Scripture says, there is great reward. So it is wise to keep God's law, to learn His commandments, and to desire to live in light of them. That is a good thing. Also, as we think of the imitation model, Scripture tells us that God is most wise. And because He is most wise, what should we want to do? We should want to imitate God in His wisdom. So to learn wisdom is to imitate Him. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 1. Notice that Solomon gives us the reason why this book has been compiled. What's the first purpose for which Proverbs was written? It says, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion, a wise man who comes to the book of Proverbs will hear and will become more wise, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel as he looks into this book of Proverbs. to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. And then turn forward to Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5 through 9. Proverbs chapter 4, verses 5 through 9. I love this. The first rule of wisdom is get it. Get wisdom. All right, first principle of that? Fear God. As it says at the end of that section in Proverbs 1, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. So this is what it says in Proverbs 4, verse 5. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will preserve you. Love her, wisdom being personified as a woman, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. And in all you're getting, get understanding. Exalt her, wisdom, and wisdom will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory she will deliver to you. All right, wisdom is precious. That's what Proverbs says in Proverbs 8, verse 11. Look there at Proverbs 8, verse 11. Would someone read that for us? Proverbs 8, 11. For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. All right, we live in a culture that is saturated by love of money, don't we? But scripture says in Proverbs 8, verse 11, wisdom is better than most precious jewels. All right, so it's saying that it supersedes the value of what is most precious to many of our fellow citizens today, which is getting ahead and getting as much money as possible. If you desire one thing, it is desire wisdom. That's what Proverbs says. Alright, we also find that the Psalms inculcate the same idea. For example, if you turn over to Psalm 90. Psalm 90. This is the only psalm that we have from the pen of Moses in the Bible. He says, Paul's going to call God the Eternal King in our text today. Now Moses turns, having seen an entire generation of Israelites die in the wilderness because of their sin. He begins to reflect on the reality of the fall and the reality of that generation that came out of Egypt dying. You turn man to destruction and say, return, O children of men, for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past. And like a watch in the night, you carry them away like a flood, they are like asleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up, in the morning it flourishes and grows up, in the evening it is cut down and withers. Why? Why is human life so brief? Why is there such a thing as the brevity of human life? Verse seven, for we have been consumed by your anger and by your wrath, we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. We can't hide our sins from you. For all our days have passed away in wrath, we finish our years like the letting out of a breath, like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only what? Labor and sorrow. Why? Because God cursed humankind at the beginning with labor and sorrow because of sin. For it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger, Moses says, for as the fear of you, so is your wrath. And this is the teaching that is inculcated by Psalm 90. So teach us to number our days. Why? That we may gain a heart of wisdom. That is what we need to do in light of the brevity of human life. Teach us, Lord, what the brevity of human life means so that we can gain a heart of wisdom that we don't have naturally. Psalm 111, verse 10. You don't need to turn there, but let me just read here from Psalm 111, verse 10. And I just want to note this for those who are taking notes. Wisdom and understanding are frequently paired in Scripture. He talks about this in the book in 1 Kings 4, 29. Job 12.12, Proverbs 2.6, Isaiah 11.2, Daniel 1.20. Wisdom and understanding are always paired together. And as we approach the New Testament, we also find the necessity of inculcating wisdom. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12. This is Paul commending us to think about our life, to think, okay, I might be lawfully able to do something, but is this the best thing for me to do? 1 Corinthians 6, 12. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. with the implication, not all things are helpful for me. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. And then in 1 Corinthians 10.23, 1 Corinthians 10.23, he says the same thing. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things, what? Edify. All right, and then finally, in the book of Hebrews and James, we find specifications for wisdom. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight And, he says after that, and the sin which so easily ensnares. He's adding to the thought of every weight, and the sin that easily ensnares us. Lay aside every weight, anything that's encumbering to you, and lay aside the sin that so easily ensnares. There's a distinction that he draws between those two things, although that is debated by commentators. I think that's the right translation of the text. All right, James 1, 5, and 6. Finally, this is our last text that we'll look at, at least in this section of the Sunday school. If any of you lacks wisdom, all of our hands should shoot up, right? Yes! Hey, that's me! If any of you lacks wisdom, what should you do? Let him ask God, who gives to all liberally. That means he gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. All right, that's the biblical basis for the wisdom model. And then David Gordon begins to speak about the wisdom model and human nature. The wisdom model and human nature, and this is what he says. The human has the ability to observe. Dogs are not thoughtful about what next year is going to bring, are they? But the human has the ability to observe and to learn from observing, he says, that choices have consequences. Some of these consequences accord with God's purpose and his will, others do not. Some consequences contribute to health, others do not. Some consequences accord with the natural order, others do not. And we have the ability to observe and to see that. He says, while the wisdom model considers behavioral consequences, it also considers the natural order itself, a natural order that ordinarily has certain consequences that accord with nature. And he gives the example of a son living with the father in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs commends that a son listen to his father. Why should a son listen to their father? Well, for one reason, because the father is older, he says, because the father is more experienced than the son, and because the father is more savvy in life than his son. But he says, even so, wisdom is not so pragmatic or sheerly pragmatic, since the son should realize that it is just, it is right, to honor one's father, we know this by nature, rather than to spurn our father or our mother. He says, a truly wise son recognizes that honoring his father is part of the very fabric of the social order that God has created. Very important. I'm going to erase this so I can write more up here. So how should the wisdom model function in our lives? That's what he gets to next. The wisdom model, he says, are you ready for this? The wisdom model allows for honest differences in practice. No, everybody's got to be like me. recognizing we will not always think or act monolithically. The wisdom model recognizes that some things may be proper for one person or family that may not be wise for another person or family. And he gives the example of observing particular days religiously. Right? So Romans 14, right? Some celebrate the day, they celebrate it to the Lord. Some don't celebrate the day in a religious fashion. And Paul says, let everyone be convinced in their own mind. Let's not have this threaten the unity of the church. And I have to say, I'm happy that we are a part of a church where some people celebrate Christmas and other people make the choice that they're not going to celebrate Christmas. And that's okay. No one is judged for doing so, and no one is judged for not doing so. And we still all get along. How is that possible? It's because of the blessing of the Lord, isn't it? So this shows a healthy sense of doctrinal agreement in central issues, that is, confessional issues, and a healthy sense of wisdom in knowing what secondary and tertiary issues are that should not threaten the life and unity of a church. And when a church gets bent out of shape by tertiary issues, you know that there is a problem more at the root of the church's life, some issue that needs to be dealt with. Another great thing about the Wisdom Model is that it recognizes that the fallen world we live in means that not every situation is monolithic and that different situations demand different responses. And Gordon highlights the Proverbs that are found in Proverbs 26, verses 4 and 5. Turn there in your Bibles to Proverbs 26, verses 4 and 5. Some people say this is a patent contradiction in the Bible, and they don't understand how Christians can't see that. But this is what it says in Proverbs 26, 4 and 5. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. But then in verse 5, it seems to say the opposite. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. So what gives? How are we supposed to understand this? As I said, many people say this is a contradiction in the Bible, and this makes no sense. We say this makes total sense when you take into account the nature of life and the different situations that we find ourselves in. This is what Gordon says. The wisdom model teaches us to consider the effect of our answer to the fool. So it doesn't just say, like the law model, just answer a fool according to his folly. No, he says, the wisdom model teaches us to consider the effect of our answer to the fool. On the one hand, we don't, by our silence, wish to leave him wise in his own eyes, thinking that his statement is true or reliable. But on the other hand, we don't wish to adopt his manner and standard of reasoning, according to his folly, lest we ourselves become foolish. Taken as law, then, this passage from Proverbs 26 is manifestly contradictory in its advice, but taken as wise counsel. there is no conflict at all. Alright, so there are a ton of areas where the Bible does not give specific direction to us as individuals. Here's a list that he gives in the book. Should I remain single or should I marry? If I think I should marry, Should I wait to meet someone, or should I pursue meeting someone online? It's becoming a lot more common today. Who should I marry within the biblical prescriptions? Should I take a job, a new job, or stay in my old one? Should I go to college? What kind of medical treatment should I seek? Should I vaccinate my children? How much can I trust the CDC? Some of you are like, not at all. There are people out there who trust the CDC. Some of them are Christians. Just got to be aware of that here. All right. That is funny. It was a visceral reaction. It's like, did you go through the COVID years? What clothing should I wear? Alright, there's biblical prescriptions for clothing, but there's still a great leeway in what kind of clothing I should wear. Which form of transportation should I use? How much should I exercise? How should I educate my children? Should I send them to public, private, Christian, homeschool, tutoring, self-taught, classic or modern education method? Should I smoke a cigar? Should I drink wine? How much dessert should I eat? When should I retire? Should I retire? How much vacation time should I take? When should I permit my children to date? What kind of music should I listen to? What kind of media should I consume? How close should I be to unbelieving people? What type of discipline do I apply to my children? How and when is it applied? And I thought of my own situation when we were in North Dakota. The Bible doesn't say when to close a church plant. This model, I erased it, this wisdom model helps us, when should we close a church plant? This is what he says, we have to answer the lion's share of these questions. But none of them can be answered exactly by a biblical proof text. To be sure, he says, one occasionally, isn't this true, encounters individuals who think that some of the above can be answered through biblical law, but we are usually not persuaded that they have understood or applied the law correctly. The fact is, we cannot answer many of life's most important questions, such as marital or vocational choices, by reference to biblical commands or mandates. Instead, we ought to answer these important questions by wisdom. Wisdom. He says where one does not recognize the wisdom model, new laws can quickly be made to apply to contexts where the Bible does not expressly speak. Sometimes pastors can fall into that trap of going in the wisdom direction and then thinking that the wisdom direction is actually law. But it's very important to recognize that the wisdom model helps us to answer many of these questions. Any attempt to supersede God's express command to get wisdom is a problematic thing. Proverbs 4, 5, and 16, 16 say, get wisdom. And there's a lot of evangelical Christians today who want God to give them a so-called word of knowledge where this is emphasized. First of all, we have a problem with sola scriptura. Right? But where this is prized, there will be a correspondent lack of the inculcation of wisdom that God tells us to get in life. Thinking, he says, that I will receive special revelation is a faulty understanding of the Christian life. and an illegitimate desire for religious experience that we simply will not have and should not expect. Because if the apostles did not receive specific revelation for things that were fundamental and important to the life of the church, we cannot expect that God will give a special revelation in regard to what job we should do. My point, he writes, is that the perceived need for this leading arises from a Christian subculture whose depreciation of the wisdom model has left us without any direction for making life's difficult decisions. Because of this, we must recognize, he says, that gaining wisdom is a process that begins and will not end until our lives are completed. He says, we should constantly throughout our lives be reflective, contemplative, and thoughtful. We must constantly speak with, or he says, even better, listen to those who are older and are more experienced or learned than us and be taught by them. We never know beforehand which of their observations or our own will equip us in the future to answer some specific questions correctly. And he gives a very funny illustration here. I laughed at this. on page 60. So this is after he says, you should listen to those who know better than you do. He says, perhaps a counterexample would be apt. I met a Christian several years ago who was roughly my age, a scientist by training, an active churchman. As we chatted, he asked if I had been writing anything recently, and I indicated that I had nearly finished 500 pages on Galatians. a book that grew out of my doctoral work over 30 years ago as well as my teaching the Greek text at graduate school and college for most of the time since then." In other words, he's saying, I am an expert on the book of Galatians. He says, this individual then took 20 minutes to explain the book of Galatians to me. Have you ever had that happen? Say like, oh, I'm an electrician. And the person goes on to explain a whole bunch of stuff about electrical work. That's never happened to me, because I'm not an electrician. But that would be a correspondent example. He then took 20 minutes to explain the book of Galatians to me. Like, if I just said that I spent time writing a 500-page work on Galatians, maybe you should have said, Well, tell me some of the things that you learned about Galatians, right? I mean, he says, I think the scriptures have a four-letter word to describe such an individual, a word that begins with F and ends with an L. In other words, a fool, right? That is what a person who speaks when they should ask is. All right. So the wisdom model is contemplative wrestling, and we need to ask. right questions. How do we do that? How do we ask the right questions? Well, we need to start with this, he says. Does the Bible, especially wisdom literature, address the matter I am seeking to know generally? It's good to know the general principles of Scripture so that you can apply those general principles to specific circumstances. For example, the Bible tells us about labor. It tells us about the necessity of working hard, Proverbs 19.15, Ephesians 4.28. What about our relationships with other human beings? The scripture provides us a great amount of instruction about how we are to live inside human relationships, marital relationships. Proverbs 21.9, 19, 27, 15, 1 Corinthians 7.11, Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, Titus 2, 1 Peter 3. There's a lot of general principle stuff in the Bible that can guide us as we approach a wisdom issue. The Bible talks about how parents should relate to their children, and how we ought to relate to unbelievers. It tells us about ecclesiastical relationships, how we should relate to those within the church. It talks about how we should live in our labor relationships, our vocational callings, Ephesians 6, Colossians 3 and 4, and Titus 2. How should I raise my kids? We should first go to the general principles of Scripture, child-rearing. And he asks this very important question. Do the Scriptures teach any principles about child-rearing? Which do the Scriptures commend more, self-expression or self-control? You guys know the answer to that. 1 Corinthians 9.25, Galatians 5.23, and 2 Peter 1.6 talk about the necessity for the inculcation of self-control. Proverbs says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. So if I know that, I need to imbibe knowing that so that I can act accordingly in the way that I raise my children. He says this, do the scriptures teach that children, apart from discipline and training, are naturally wise or naturally foolish? I love questions where it's just answered when you ask it. Do the scriptures teach that corporal punishment is always wrong or sometimes right? Proverbs 13, 24, 22, 15, 23, 13 through 14 will help us answer that question. If we say corporal punishment is always wrong, or because it was applied wrong by my parent, therefore I'm not going to do it. That's not being led by the general principles of Scripture. What does the Scripture tell me about food and drink? Food and drink are approved gifts of God to be received with thanksgiving. They can be overindulged in. Should we receive them with thanksgiving? Yes, we should. We often tend to focus on overindulgence of wine or liquor, as the Bible does too, but food can be indulged too much as well. Sin of gluttony. What about human speech? What does the Bible tell us about how we should talk to other people? It condemns certain uses of speech outright. Tailbearing, gossiping, rumors, slander, tearing down others, angry outbursts. These are ipso facto wrong. How should we use our speech? How does the Bible tell us to use our speech? To wound or to heal and to build up? Proverbs 10.31, 12.18, 15.2-4, and 18.21 will tell us the general principles of the Word. How should speech be used in the worship of God? Ecclesiastes talks about not being hasty to speak when you come into God's presence. How does Scripture teach us to pray? So those are the first questions. Settling the general principles of scripture and letting those general principles then work into specific applications. If one of your children calls another children a jerk, it's a really good time to say the Bible tells us that we should not have angry outbursts. All right, second type of questioning. Does the nature of created reality commend one choice over another? Does the nature of the world as God has created it commend one choice over another? And he gives the example in the book that a commonwealth, of which we are part, we are part of the American commonwealth, an American society. He says a society has interest, and monogamous opposite-sex unions, called marriage, that produce thriving children and good citizens who can serve their country well, build a better future for their children, serve God, practice their religion, and pay taxes. Now, I'm extrapolating some of the principles that he gives from the book. That's not a direct quote. But he says, he says, commonwealths have interest in monogamous opposite-sex unions, which are called marriage, that produce thriving children and strong families. And he draws the application from that. Same-sex unions, or so-called marriage, are contrary to nature. And he says in the book, we would still know that even if Paul had never written Romans 1. We would still know that. So an application from that is we should know that the United States has zero interest in the promotion of same-sex unions at all. What about this? Does the nature of creative reality command one choice over another? What should a person who wants to become a carpenter do? Somebody who wants to go into carpentry, who is good with their hands, what should they do? Well, this is what he says. A budding carpenter should heed the counsel of an experienced carpenter. That's just the nature of created reality. You've done this job longer, therefore you can teach me how to do it. A less experienced hiker should listen to the advice of a more experienced hiker if she wishes to have a safe and pleasant time in the woods without getting eaten by a bear. Wisdom always seeks to understand the true nature of God's order and to act in a manner that respects that order. Thirdly, he says, can you learn from a multitude of counselors? Yes. Biblically, we read that the fool trusts in his own wisdom and opinions. So what should we do? He says, solicit a range of opinion. Solicit opinions from those whom you know differ from you. Like ask someone, why did you decide to vaccinate your kids? Maybe don't ask that question. Number three, solicit opinions on people who are experienced in general. There's a real thing called experience and expertise in life is the reason that we go to doctors. Number four, solicit opinions from people who are experienced in the area in question. Number five, solicit opinions from people who are successful or have recognized they are unsuccessful. That's a good one. So when I was thinking about, you know, is this a wise thing to make the decision to close the church plant down, I reached out to people who had had the experience of being in churches that had failed from that perspective. and they were able to give me wisdom that they gained through that process that helped me and the elders at Community Baptist Church, of which I was one, make that decision. Here's another question. Are there wisdom sayings that are true even though they're not found in the Bible? He says, Benjamin Franklin may not have been a Christian, but that doesn't mean that he was always wrong. So there's truth in proverbial statements in our culture, and we should not reject them simply on the basis that they're not found in the Bible. There's a reason why people say the early bird gets the worm. Here's another one. Are there patterns in human history you can learn from? History, he says, can teach us a great deal. Just because a historical occurrence is not found in scripture does not mean we cannot learn from it. You can learn a lot about human nature, he says, from reading Shakespeare. All right, are there patterns in your own life that you have found successful or unsuccessful? There's a place for asking, will this work? And if I pursue this, will I actually follow through with it? Personal experience is a big test case for wisdom, because we learn by trial and error. Some of the best things for a student in school is to make a mistake that a teacher can correct. He also says, is the decision under consideration timely? How quickly do I need to make this decision? Which of the choices will help me most in the future? How about this? Am I diverting responsibility that God has given me in not making this decision? Will this decision, if I say no to it, be a lost opportunity? And he compares Westminster Larger Catechism 145, which speaks about speaking the truth unseasonably. This is possible to speak the truth in a time that is unseasonable or to speak the truth to a malicious or wrong end. There are occasions, he says, when the truth ought to be withheld. For example, don't cast your pearls before swine. There's a time to speak, there's a time to shut the mouth. Alright, so those are the types of questions that the wisdom model asks. Very helpful for those of us who are Christians to look at those questions and to say, how can I inculcate more of a wise life? But here are the challenges to the wisdom model that we face. today. And it's really good when we're thinking about the wisdom model to think what positively can, what negatively actually, can inhibit my inculcation of wisdom. Are there challenges to this? And David Gordon says yes. One of the challenges for the wisdom model is just the sheer dominance of the law model. He says, in an understandable and commendable effort to guide life by biblical standards where the scriptures speak, there has been an unnecessary tendency to depreciate the natural and human wisdom that God has given to us as image bearers. And where such wisdom is depreciated, guess what? This is a wise statement. It is less likely to be cultivated. All right, so even the sheer dominance of the law model can inhibit our pursuit of wisdom. All right, he talks about technology inhibiting our pursuit of wisdom, that we live in a technological world. Technology prevents us from looking at the character of a person before we take their advice. How well do you know the people who are giving you advice from YouTube? It's interesting that many young men, I mentioned this last week, who listen to Jordan Peterson have no idea how Jordan Peterson lives on a weekly basis. Is he a moral man? The advice one receives in oral cultures came from an individual whose wisdom could be assessed, Gordon says. Was this person the town drunk? And I probably shouldn't listen to what he says. Is he the village idiot? Is he the venerable saint? Is she modest and charitable or is she wanton and debauched? And Gordon makes the point that authors have noted that if we did know the life and character of certain people, we would never listen to what they say. He says Shelley, Rousseau, Marx, Tolstoy. If we knew the way that they lived, we probably would not read their books or say, you know, I think that's someone I want to get wisdom from. Another problem of technology is that it constantly interrupts us. We are bombarded all day long with sounds, images, and slogans, all of which prohibit us from being alone with our thoughts. And this militates against developing a concentrated attention span and will require conscientious, dedicated effort to, he's being metaphorical here, to exercise the electronic demons from our personal environments. Youth culture. Says we prize in our culture physical strength, athleticism, slender bodies, and non-gray hair. I know, I got some too, so. There is absolutely nothing wrong with gray hair. And if we were dedicated and devoted to the pursuit of wisdom, we would know that that's true. Gray hair does not always equal wisdom, but there is wisdom with those who have lived long. Youth culture idealizes the very moment of human experience that the Bible characterizes as foolish. Youth culture will always tend to prefer those traits associated with youth to those associated with age, like slowing down, getting advice, listening to wisdom. All right. And then finally, he says the fast pace of life. Fast-paced life. We stock our lives with so many things. And he says, wisdom requires time for observation and reflection. Thinking about what others have reflected about on their experience requires cultivating the ancient skill of sitting still, alone, without interruption of any sort, to think about life. Those are what mediates against the cultivation of wisdom in our age. Alright, here are a few more things. Cautions about wisdom literature. These are very, very important hermeneutical points that some people misunderstand when they believe that proverbs equal promises there's a hermeneutical problem. That's not true. We have to understand that. Proverbs provide guidance, and at least much of the time, not direct imperatives. Now, there are imperatives in Proverbs. Listen, my son, is an imperative. But here's an example that Gordon gives from the book, from Proverbs 14, verse 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. So Proverbs 14 verse 7, go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. Well, then we're just going to have to dislocate ourselves from society because we're living in the midst of a whole bunch of fools, right? No, Gordon says the point is that we should not expect to find the highest degree of wisdom from a fool and therefore when searching for knowledge we should go to wise and knowledgeable people. So we have to understand that Proverbs provide guidance, they are not direct promises. Alright, what about Proverbs 9.17? Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. In other words, I don't just want to cherry pick one of the verses of Proverbs and act like I can know it without understanding the context. Wisdom literature often speaks from a fool's perspective. We have to know the context in which it is speaking. Proverbs do not give us legal guarantees. Proverbs 15 verse 1, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Is it not true that there are some people who will not be pacified no matter what? Even if I speak as softly as possible to them, they will not turn away their wrath. So in this proverb, a soft answer is being commended. Why? Because of its tendency, Gordon says, to cool the argument. But that does not mean that it will always be so. Because some people are so incorrigible, nothing you say will change the way that they are going to respond. And you're probably guessing that at some point I'll get to Proverbs 22.6. train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. So if your child departed from the good way, there's probably some issue with the way that you parented your child, right? Be careful. Be careful about bringing condemnation where God's Word does not condemn. If a child goes astray, Gordon says, should we read that as a glaring parental failure? Maybe and maybe not. But we should not read it absolutely as a glaring parental failure. The point is that a person's habit of life, he uses the word habitus, but it just means habit, is formed from childhood. Therefore, parents should be aware of the importance of early training that a child receives. and of the tendency that the early training a child receives to depart from that. Again, we have a commendation, and we have the tendency of where an action goes that is being highlighted in Proverbs 22, verse 6. All right. Commending certain behaviors is good because behaviors do have typical consequences, but they cannot guarantee anything. And if you think that's true, just read the book of Ecclesiastes, right? All right, wisdom literature is also designed to be memorable. But that does not always mean that it is literally true. For example, Proverbs 22.7, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. Gordon says, the individual who borrows money for a conventional mortgage in the 21st century is hardly a slave to the mortgage banker, especially in a country where bankruptcy laws are so lenient. Now, there's a question about whether they should be so lenient, but that's the reality. We live in a country where bankruptcy laws are so lenient. So the individual who borrows money in a conventional home loan is hardly a slave of the one he is borrowing from. He says, borrowing places the borrower under obligation to the lender. That's the point. Therefore, borrowing should not be done lightly or inconsiderately. One should not over encumber oneself with financial obligations. That is the point of what Proverbs is talking about when it says the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. All right, this is the last thing, the command or commend distinction. All right, the law commands. Often what we have in the Proverbs is wisdom that is being commended instead of commanded. Not always, but oftentimes wisdom commends in areas where we would prefer to command. And we should not step over the line into thinking that where we have given advice, if the person does not follow that advice, they have broken a command. So he closes by saying, remember that advice, commendation, is advice. Or maybe that's my extrapolation of what Gordon says at the end of this chapter. Alright, there's probably time for one or two questions, which I will take at this time. Any questions? Comment? Yes, please. Yeah. Hm. Yeah. That's good. Thank you for sharing some of your personal testimony of how helpful the Book of Proverbs has been. It's an extremely helpful book, isn't it? Isaac? Yeah, I was going to say, kind of on the same thing, isn't it a huge help to and how to rightly confess our sins? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I just, I just didn't know that this was gonna happen. That's a great point. It can be a great way of unburdening your conscience and giving you clarity where you really ought to confess. Sometimes people perhaps feel guilty where they've made a stupid error, but how were they possibly supposed to know that that error would lead to that place? There's a distinction between a mistake and a sin. Proverbs is consistently talking about the simple, who are just inexperienced. in life's game, as it were, if we can call it that. Yes, sir? In relation to what Isaac's saying, because some things are just foolish and a mistake, we shouldn't go seeking out some sin where there is not any. I think some of us may have the, I mean, me, has the tendency to go, well, that was foolish. Where did I go wrong? Did I sin in something? We don't need a, like you said. keep upon ourselves more and more guilt over there. Yeah, absolutely. Don't heap yourself on guilt for that which enables you to gain more experience in life. I mean, feel legitimately that you need to confess sin where it's been committed. But recognize that when you're young, You just don't know certain things. How foolish! Alright, let's bow our heads and pray. Father,