Well, one of the things I know is that I don't play golf very well, but I also know that when the sun is setting on the golf course, you've got to get the game over fast. So I'm going to make sure we're not trying to put it in the dark tonight. So nine o'clock is coming. We're going to do it. Let me just say just a little bit about this wonderful book that's out there. There's lots of stacks of them. This book is a story of the world's greatest reformed seminary. I'm not biased at all. It's just a fact. It tells about the early history and the distinctives of Westminster Theological Seminary. I hope you'll take one and get to know a little bit about a school that was started in 1929. We have over 5,000 living graduates serving in over 66 countries around the world. And that we have about eight hundred students right now that are on four campuses. In fact, one of the co-host pastors is now one of our Westminster guys studying at our London campus. And one of the elders here, therefore, has a son that's part of Westminster. Another family here happens to have a newlywed that's at Westminster, a daughter that married one of our guys. So we're Westminster's moving in down here in the Carolinas. So watch out. We're letting you know we're here and we're here to invite you up to Philadelphia and learn more about reform theology. But at any rate, we hope you'll get a copy of this book. And I'd like to be able to say that everybody who comes to Westminster learns to play golf and preach like Sinclair Ferguson. But that's not the case. So we don't want to oversell. You just you just become a better golfer and a better preacher. But, you know, you learn to love the Lord like Sinclair does. That's one thing that's for sure. When you get into his word and it begins to influence your heart and life. The glory of Christ becomes profoundly part of who you are, changes your life. And so I hope you'll get to know Westminster a little bit better. And tonight I want you to turn with me briefly then to Proverbs 31. Now, this is an opportunity for all of us to think, well, are you women out there the best wives you ought to be? And here's the standard you better measure up to. But you know what? That's not the way we ought to read the book of Proverbs. Every proverb, whether it's talking about a male or a female, about a leader or a follower, is giving us an exemplar. And from that, if we are wise, if we are people that are filled with biblical wisdom, we say, well, what does that truth mean for me? So tonight, as we are trying to find the virtuous bride of Christ, we as men need to be saying, well, what is the wisdom here for me? We, as people who are redeemed, need to say, what do I learn about salvation? And as we who are members of the Bride of Christ, the Church, we might want to ask the question, what do we learn about the Church of Jesus Christ from this text? We hear the reading of God's Word now, Proverbs 31, verse 10. And as you follow along with me, please remember that each verse is now giving you an alphabetically ordered poem in the Hebrew language. If you could read this in Hebrew, you would discover that the Hebrew alphabet is followed. You might be saying from A to Z. Each one is the next letter in the alphabet. Let's listen. A wife of noble character who can find she is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm. All the days of her life, she selects woolen flax and works with her eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark. She provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it. Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously. Her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable. and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hands, she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed. She is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes a seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity. She could laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Many women do noble things. But you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. Let's just pray. Lord, would you bless now the reading of your word and help us to see its glorious, variegated truth? and allow it to touch each of our hearts and lives, regardless of whether we're adults or children or whether we're male or female or whether we're married or single. But may we see that wisdom always seeks to be incarnated for Lord Jesus. You are the embodiment of all wisdom and you fill the human being and you've come to fill us with your spirit and your truth. And this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we've all been hearing about eHarmony.com and some of us are saying, wasn't that around? Why wasn't that around when I was young? There were no computers when I wrote my dissertation for Dr. Ferguson long ago. He's my second reader. I owe him a debt of gratitude. After all these years, he passed me with all the mistakes in that dissertation. No computer, no Internet. No eHarmony.com, we had to do it the old fashioned way. You know, is that the right woman? You know the song, matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, catch me a catch, matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a perfect match. And so really, as you're looking at Proverbs 31, it's trying to say to a young man, look, if you're going to be really wise, you've got to get matched up with a wise woman. And so this is really a story about finding the right kind of life. If you're going to be wise, you're going to have a wise wife. And so as we look at Proverbs 31, that is its historical sense. But I want us tonight very briefly to look at four thoughts. The first one we will do a little more extensively and the others will do much more briefly, so don't get scared when I'm at point one and I'm almost out of time. I told you we're going to get the putt done before the sun sets on nine o'clock. OK, the first point we want to look at is the structural context of Proverbs 31 and discover that sometimes when you understand the literary structure of a text, you actually will be spiritually nurtured. That may not seem evident, but biblical literature is inspired and the form and shape that it takes is actually teaching us if we will notice it. Secondly, we should notice its marital context. It's not just a literary passage. It is a didactic text. It is designed to teach a young man how to choose a godly woman to be his wife. So the sages advice. must also be noted, along with the author's poetry. But there's a third thing we want to see here, and that is there's a Christological aspect of this text. No, this is not the gospel in the sense that we understand it from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. It is not Isaiah 53, where we have a messianic declaration of what's going to happen. But did not our Lord Jesus say that whenever you read any text in the law or the prophets or the writings it teaches about me? Have we ever asked the question, what do we learn about Christ when we look at the virtuous woman? And then fourthly, along with the structural context, the marital or didactic context, the Christological context, can we learn something here tonight about the church? Because is not the church The bride of Christ, how might Jesus have read this text as a bachelor, wondering who is going to be his bride and what would she be like? Is that stretching our ecclesiology just a little bit too much? Maybe, maybe not. I'll let you decide later. Let's take a look at our first point, then I said I would spend a little bit more time here on the structural aspect of Proverbs 31. You remember that the book of Proverbs begins with a praise of the pursuit of wisdom. All the points of wisdom and its variation is how we find in chapter one and here at the end of the book, it's about a man who is married, a woman and a woman who is filled with that wisdom, blessing her family. Those who study biblical literature would call this, here's a good theological word, an inclusio. It is like saying from sea to shining sea, it's like from saying from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, it means everything from the beginning to the end and everything in between. This is what it's all about. And it's trying to say that as a young man, the climax of wisdom is when it enters into your family. And into the one that you marry. To a young woman, the climax of wisdom is when you become a woman of wisdom and you bring that to your home. So let us notice, then, the impact of this framing of the whole book. But notice that this conclusion of Proverbs 31, therefore, is a climax. It is, if you will, the ultimate expression of everything that's been said. Because as we read through the book of Proverbs, we will discover that gender matters. Wisdom is called a she. And folly is called a she. The female is both the wise and the foolish, and the young man is reminded as he comes to the climax of this nurturing of life and wisdom, the one you marry. will ultimately reflect what you've learned. It is the climax of wisdom. Notice, thirdly, as we've already noted, it is an acrostic of wisdom. If we were good Hebrew students, we could go through this text and see A, B, C, D, E, all the way to Z in the Hebrew language. Why is an acrostic put here? Because it's a way of saying that this is the A to Z, the Alpha and the Omega. From soup to nuts, the all in all of wisdom is found when it shows up in the family and a woman who fears the Lord. It is the ultimate. And the acrostic is saying every letter of the alphabet leads us to the wisdom of God when it's found in a woman who brings that wisdom into her home and a wise man pursues that kind of lady. Another thing we learn structurally is the idea of a chiasm. Now, you may not know what a chiasm is, but if you think of the letter X, OK, and you think about how an X goes in to a point and then the bottom leg comes out right in the middle where the two lines cross is an interesting, important idea in literature. So if you begin to look at a text, it will make an idea and at the end it will have the same idea paralleled. And then you'll see another one that will go like this that will be paralleled and another one that will be like this. And then there'll be one point right in the middle that's not duplicated. That is the critical point that you can't miss. And you know what that one is? It's the one that says, and her husband is praised in the gate. It's saying that the power of a godly woman inevitably impacts the family and the husband. with which he is with. I like the man who says, I'm the head of my home. And the wife says, yes, and I know I'm the neck that turns the head. And there's a lot of truth in that. And every husband that has a godly wife has to step back and say, thank God for the power of her influence. There's a structure here that we need to see. And, you know, it's interesting, there's even a canon of wisdom that is not evident at all unless you've had some opportunity to study this and it's more broad commentary context. And that is that in the original canon or biblical books of the Hebrew Bible, do you know what book comes immediately after Proverbs? Not in our canon. It's not in our order of scripture. You might be able to guess this. It's the book of Ruth. The very next book in the Hebrew Bible, after it concludes in Proverbs with this praise for the godliness of the woman, is a woman who is called the very thing that starts this text. Who can find a virtuous woman? In Ruth chapter three, Ruth is called a virtuous woman, a valiant woman, a woman who fought the good fight of faith in her home and family. Yes, there is a gender of wisdom, of wisdom, the woman wisdom, the woman folly. And as we look at this whole introduction of structure, maybe I could put it this way. All of us know two words in the English language, you've heard of a person who is a wise person. Sometimes we call them a person who loves philosophy. The second part of that word philosophy means the love of wisdom. Philosophers are not always wise, but you know the word wisdom, and you also know a person who is foolish. We have the word moron for that. Have you heard that word moron? Pretty foolish. Have you ever noticed how the word sophos and moros come together? Anybody out there sophomores in school? I didn't see any hands go up. Don't be embarrassed. You know what a sophomore is a sophomore on? It's a person who is. Exposed to a little bit of wisdom, enough to be foolish. There's a reason you don't want a first year medical student doing open heart surgery on you. He might be able to name every part as he cuts it out inappropriately. OK, so we don't need that, right off it goes. No, you see, wisdom. And foolishness come together in human life and the structure of the book of Proverbs is designed to say you can't just get a little bit of wisdom because you'll become a wise fool. And that is the problem with all of us, isn't it? We know a little bit of the Bible enough to be dangerous. The book of Proverbs structure in all of these elegant ways I've given you is saying through and through, you must find the richness of wisdom until it permeates your heart and your life and your family. In fact, we need to invent a new word. How about the word Morosaphon? The foolish person who's really wise. The person who says the foolishness of Christ is the wisdom of God. It's foolishness to man, isn't it? The folly of women learning how to honor their husbands, men who are so committed to one woman, they're going to be with them for a lifetime. Husbands and wives trying to raise their children to pass on a faith that's archaic and old fashioned and irrelevant and out of step with the culture. Yes. Because when we are fools for Christ, we are the wisest of men on the face of the earth. The book of Proverbs, the whole structure is to teach us to be fools in the world's eyes, but wise in God's eyes. And then we have wisdom indeed. I would love to be able to preach all those points, but I can't. Now, let me tell you the last three points much more rapidly. If you really want to study the structural context. of Hebrew, you have to come to Westminster. I'm sorry, you just can't do it from the pulpit. You gotta sign up and have a real Hebraist teach you these things. I can only scratch the surface. I'm just a mere president, not a Hebraist. Okay, the second thing we want to look at is that this text actually teaches us an awful lot about what A family ought to look like we don't have time to do it, but there's three main points that are taught in this text versus 10 through 12 actually give the value of this wise woman. This woman has great value. Her general worth is inferred from her scarcity. Who can find someone like this? The ideal is so great that she is like a ruby. How often do you go kicking stones on the ground and find a ruby? It just doesn't happen all the time. And yet, the Bible is specializing in turning lumps of coal into diamonds is the pressure of the Holy Spirit comes to work upon sinners and turn them into those that reflect the glory of Christ. Her worth is seen in her family and her husband. Now, it's interestingly, secondly, in verses 13 to 27, the large body of this text, there is a description of her activities. It will describe her cottage industry. It'll talk about her social achievements. She is quite a remarkable woman. After all, she is an ideal, someone that we ought to aim at. We may not be able to reach this, but something to accomplish. And we don't have time to study them all. But what I do want you to notice as you study this text, we notice what's spoken of most often are her hands and her arms. And her heart. Not her physical appearance today, As in the past, the erotic elements of the feminine were highlighted as the most important. Those that are touched by God's wisdom know that that's secondary. That God is calling us to have something that lasts for eternity. Charm is deceptive. Beauty is temporary. But a woman who fears the Lord, she will have the praise of God. And she will impact those that are in her family. The sages advice is speaking to our culture that is so bodily conscious, so physically focused, so sensual in nature and say the wisdom of God says, look within first, for that is the greatest beauty. And that other beauty that is of the body, which is God's creation. Let that be for your home, for that's where God intended it to be, not in the marketplace, not in the street. This is a sacred inner sanctum that belongs to the glory of God's family life, for the marriage bed and for the home. Well, there's a rich context. I'd love to preach that. I don't have time tonight. The structural context. where we see the poetry of the author calling us to the praise of wisdom and the woman that impacts the home. The sage's advice in the marital context is he tries to teach the women that there is a praise that comes to the woman who focuses on the importance of her family and bringing wisdom there, even though she is dramatically busy in the world, that the family does matter. Thirdly, I said I would say something briefly tonight about the Christological context, the redemptive aspect of this. How does Jesus Christ fulfill this text? Where do you see the cross in this? How do you see the work of the Messiah? Well, I find it very simply put in verse 10. A wife of noble character. Who can find? The answer is you can't find that. There are no women that can be like this. If you want to read a really pessimistic statement, do you remember what it says in Ecclesiastes? Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 28. I don't think I've ever heard a preacher preach a sermon on this. Remember what it says? In my searching, I looked around and I studied a thousand men and I found one who was upright and not one woman. Oh, that would be hard to preach on a Sunday morning, wouldn't it? Do you have the courage to preach that with my brother Sinclair? Once, that was right after, right before he left his last pastorate, right? The universality of sin everywhere. And the pessimism is trying to say, they're an unrighteous, no, not one. And that pessimism says, you know, think about the woman who's always nagging her husband, she's like a dripping faucet, the writers of the Proverbs says. Would you see a golden ring in the snout of a pig? In this day of nose rings, you know, that's an interesting thing. That's a proverb out of the Proverbs. It says a beautiful woman without discretion. A beautiful woman without wisdom is like a hog with a gold ring in her nose. That's a proverb. There's a lot of pessimism here. A man's heart, masculine heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Where is the gospel in this text? A virtuous woman, who can find her? We can't find her. But I want you to know in every church I visited, in every church I've served, I have seen what is impossible. I've seen women who are virtuous, who are filled with praise to God, who are making a difference in the lives of their children and in their husbands. And sometimes when their husbands are so sinful that they've abandoned the home, that they're there caring for the children and nurturing them and the love of Christ and teaching them to praise God in all situations. That's a miracle that does not happen by the human heart. The reason that the church has so many virtuous women is because Jesus Christ became sin for us, the one who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness and wisdom of God in Christ. Do you remember how Colossians says it? The fullness of God and all of his wisdom dwells in Christ in bodily form. And so we come then to my last point. What about the ecclesiastical context or the corporate sense or the communal sense of this passage? How might Jesus have read Proverbs 31 as a bachelor? He was looking for a virtuous wife, and I was prompted to think this way by the first president of Westminster Seminary, Dr. Edmund Clowney, who's gone on to be with the Lord and He once asked the question, how did Jesus read the Psalms? Jesus sang the Psalms, but he sang them differently than you and I do, because they were about himself, about his own ministry. And there's this wonderful line of Dr. Clowney that says something like this. Jesus sang the I Psalms alone. So that he might sing the we Psalms with us. And now you got to think about what that means, and then he said, you know, Jesus read the Psalms and saying them differently than we do, but so that he might be in solidarity and redemption with us. How might Jesus have looked at this text? Well, he would have known that God made the male and female. And God said, it's very good. And it's not good for a man to be alone. Jesus knew that he needed to be in fellowship in the home and a family. And God had appointed a bride for him. But who could be the bride of Christ? Who could be the virtuous woman that Jesus would embrace? Who could be the woman that would be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh? Who would be that woman with whom he would become one flesh? Who would be that woman with whom he would be naked and unashamed? How would Jesus have read this text? Well, he knew if he was to find a woman who was filled with wisdom. She would have to come from within himself. Because he was the fullness of all wisdom. He knew that if there was to be a wise woman that could not be found on the face of the earth, that she would literally have to be a second Eve, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, that Christ would have a bride that would have to be made without spot and without wrinkle and would be the valiant woman of wisdom that he would create by his own grace. And of course, we know. When Paul says in Ephesians five, I show you a great mystery. I'm not talking about men and women when it says a man shall love his wife and lay down his life for her. I'm talking about Christ and the church. You know, our union with Christ is eternal. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. If we have wisdom, we realize that wisdom is in Christ. We realize that our redemption is in Christ. We realize that we, as members of the body of Christ, belong to him from eternity past. And in the arranged marriage of redemption in history, God has brought about the engagement of Christ in his church. And we await the great wedding supper of the lamb when the church triumphant, having been filled with the wisdom of Christ in this world, will finally be united with him. And so, as I conclude tonight, I thought I might try to read this text, perhaps how Jesus might have read it. I can't prove that he read it this way, but as I read it this way, I wonder if we coming from different churches, but members of the body of Christ might say, Lord, may we as men and women, sons and daughters, married and single, be these kinds of people in the church since we are the bride of Christ. So listen, as I read the text again and with eyes of faith, let us see our church as a bride of Christ. In the eyes of Jesus, as he's looking for his virtuous woman. A church that will be the bride of Christ. With a noble character. I can't find her in this world. For there are none righteous, no, not one. But yet, if I find her, she'll be worth far more than rubies. In fact, I will lay down my lifeblood for her that she might be mine. I, her husband, will entrust myself completely to her with my plan. There will be no plan B. She will be my plan for all history. And as a result, My plan will be fulfilled. All the elect will come in and I will not lack one sheep, one purpose of God. Someday, because she will have no spot or wrinkle, she will bring me good and not harm. All the days of her life in history, but perfectly in eternity, She will select from her creative energies the good earth and the power of its produce, and she will work with eager energy for my glory. She'll be busy in the world like a merchant ship. My church will find food from afar as she goes from sea to shining sea to reach those that belong in my family of faith. She'll even get up while it's still dark and the darkness of sin and the wee hours of the night so that she might bring the life giving food, the word of God to every member of my family and provide for my whole church staff and everyone who serves, whether male or female. She'll even consider buying property. that she might build buildings and have a harvest that will fill the vineyard with a crop that will come into the glory of my father. And she will do this not begrudgingly, but my church will have arms of faith strengthened by the grace of God to accomplish these tasks. She'll even be good with investing her money. It will be profitable and she'll work hard creating clothing for those that have nothing, whose homes have been burned and reaching into the inner city to take care of the poor and extending her hands to the needy through her diaconate. And when it snows, when the culture turns cold and stands against everything that belongs to the Lord, I know that she will take care of her covenant household. For she knows the family is for God's glory and his covenant is to a thousand generations. And so they'll be clothed in scarlet. For my blood will be upon them, cleansing their sin. But they will be able to rest in the bed of my Sabbath. They'll be clothed as a royal priesthood, as sons and daughters who are now in the kingly color of purple. And I, her husband, will one day be respected at the gate when I will have a name that's above every name and every knee will bow because these who are my beloved sons and daughters through my wife will have brought this message to the ends of the earth. And I will rule until finally death is triumphed. And I will take the seat over every king and every land and rule upon my throne. She will take these linen garments that she's dressed with and she'll make sure that this righteousness that I bring her is plenteous, available to the ends of the earth as she goes forth with the evangelistic method and message of Christ the Savior. She'll be clothed with my strength. in her time of weakness. She'll be closed with dignity when the world curses her, so that even though there are those who mock her, like the Father can, through the Messiah, laugh and scorn at those that oppose Him, so she can laugh in triumph, knowing that she cannot be destroyed. She will speak with wisdom and with faithful instruction on her tongue, because she will translate my word into every tongue on the face of the earth until everyone knows that word and it dwells in them richly. She will watch over the affairs of her household and not eat the bread of idleness. She will be busy for her savior until finally the last generation arises and will say, blessed be the holy Catholic Church, the bride of Christ that is triumphed over all the world for the glory of her husband, I, her husband, also on that day will praise her. I will say, you are beautiful to me. You are clothed in white. Your sins are forgotten. You have triumphed over all. There are many other organizations that I love who do so many good things in the world. I can praise them for what they do. But they never compare to you, my bride, the church. You are the noble one. You are more glorious than any university, than any government, than any hospital, than any school, because you created all of them and more. You are the beautiful one. And so, as we conclude, would not Jesus be saying to you, his church tonight, both men and women, since we all are the bride of Christ, Remember, the charm is deceptive. The allurements of the world, the beautiful things that turn our eyes away from Christ, it's fleeting. But a church who fears the Lord, who loves his word, that is the church that is to be praised today and will be praised on that day and will be given the reward. that she's earned by grace, for God crowns His own gifts with further grace. And on that day, her works will bring her praise in the city gate, when Jesus will look at you, His bride, and say, well done, my beloved. I will forever wear you as a seal over my heart. Not even death or strong waters can quench the love that I have for you. Well, we must conclude, what do we learn from this song, this proverbial passage? We're saying that wisdom is found in our women. And could I make a simple application? Women, when you let the world's culture squeeze you into its mold, You take away the glory of the man. That's what the apostle Paul says. Women are the glory of the man. Could I call you as holy women to say, I will be holy in this culture because I love Jesus Christ and I know the men of my church need to know that I want to be holy. And by my being holy, I remind them in their own sinfulness that they need to be holy too. Oh yes, we're Presbyterians. We're male-led, aren't we? But, ladies, you are the secret of the holiness of the church in every age. It has been always God's plan to have a bride that's holy and holy women create a holy church. Could I challenge you, ladies, to take this passage not as the impossible ideal, but as the spirit that you'll bring to the church to change your churches so that Jesus will look It is bride. So you're beautiful. I only have eyes for you. That's what the matchmaker has done. He's made a perfect match. As amazing as it seems, it's us. Lord, would you bless us with the truth of your word tonight? Thank you for the glory that we have in the gospel. Lord, how little we resemble these truths except by your grace. Would you pour your grace upon us? Grace upon grace. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.