let's look at Proverbs 8 verses 12 down to the end of the chapter and let me pray for us before we read a couple portions out of the Proverbs. Father we lack wisdom and you have said in your word if anyone lacks wisdom let us let him come to you and And ask you for it and to believe that you give it and we do come to you tonight and we ask that you would Fill our minds and hearts with the wisdom of your word and the wisdom of your son We pray that you would open our eyes to see him and to hear him We pray that you would instruct us that we might walk in the ways of righteousness and uprightness we pray that you would forgive our sins Lord for they are great and many and We thank you for this time we have together. We pray that we would leave this place built up and that our understanding would be deepened and our love for you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would be enlarged and strengthened. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright Proverbs 8 beginning in verse 12. I wisdom dwell dwell with prudence and find out knowledge and discretion The fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogance and the evil way in the perverse mouth. I hate Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding I have strength by me kings reign and rulers decree justice I By me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I traverse the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of justice, that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, that I may fill their treasuries. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old. I have been established from everlasting. From the beginning, before there ever was an earth, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world, When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master craftsman. I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men. Now therefore listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors. Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death." Now turn over to Proverbs 16. We're going to look at verse 6. Proverbs 16, 6. There we read, in mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity. And by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Now finally, turn over to Proverbs 30, verse 4. There at the end of the book we read these words Who has ascended into heaven or descended who has gathered the wind in his fist? who has bound the waters in a garment, who has established all the ends of the earth. What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you know?" Last time we were together, we looked at the Psalms in Redemptive History, and we looked at that challenge, that difficulty of understanding the Psalms. And some of the difficulty with the Psalms came about because you have different genres In the Psalms, they're not all the same poetic style or structure. You have different historical settings, some of which we don't know. You have some things that are prophetic, some things that are typological, some things that are experiential. And so you have all these different elements in the Psalms and we saw how that can sometimes make the Psalms difficult to interpret Christologically and we went especially to the Apostles and how they interpreted the Psalms in almost every case Christologically to show how Christ is the substance of the Psalms. And I think when we come to the Proverbs, really wade now into the water of wisdom literature, we find that these two are very difficult with regard to Christology, with regard to Christ and the Proverbs. Very difficult, not for the same reasons as with the Psalms. With the Psalms, we saw those complex nuances and variations in the Psalms. The Proverbs are a lot more monolithic The difficulty with the proverbs are it's hard to find the context a lot of times for the proverbs because they're not all interconnected. I think there are general themes in which they're organized. But in one sense, every proverb, every couple of proverbs stand or fall on their own. And so while there are not a lot of different genres, it's very, very difficult to understand the immediate context of the proverbs, how they work together. And then add to that the fact that they are proverbs and there's something enigmatic about them. The Bible everywhere talks about proverbs being like riddles. Psalm 78 says that too. I'll speak in dark riddles, I'll utter a proverb. And so they are wise sayings but they are often veiled in very figurative language or metaphorical language. And again, I think that the fact that they are almost soundbite wisdom in the Bible makes them very difficult to understand how they're related to the person and work of Jesus, organically, how they fit into the whole thing. And yet I think the fact that they lack something of a narrow context, even though I do believe they have a context, several chapters clustered together. There are unifying themes. I think that actually should make it easier for us to set them in their covenantal context of the canon. So their place in the Bible, and we should at least be able to say they're in the Bible. They're related to the redemptive work of Jesus in some way. I may not know how, but I can say I know that. They are not just general good advice for people. Now, it's possible that an unbelieving general in the army could read the Proverbs, could apply them in a secular worldview kind of way, and benefit from that. But that's not why God gave them. And I think that there are little clues in the Proverbs. I mean, the very fact that he's speaking to the covenant people, there are 10 father to son talks, which is a very covenantal thing. about godly fathers instructing their sons. You also have, actually, with the adulterous woman, a surprising little clue that these proverbs are functioning within the covenant community because she comes, the adulterous woman comes to tempt the man by saying, my husband's away, I've paid my vows. which is a distinctively Israelitish covenantal language. She is a churchgoer. She has paid her vows to God. And God is telling the young man, avoid the adulterous woman in the church, not just the pagan Moabitess. wearing their Moabitess perfume, but the Israelite women who are immoral. And so all of these little clues, and there's so many of them, tell us that this book is a richly covenantal book. Add to that the fact that it's being written during the period of the Davidic covenant. That means that, again, as I said before, everything in our Bible written from David on falls under the umbrella of the Davidic covenant era. And that means all that revelation, everything God's revealing, is somehow related to the Davidic covenant and the promise of a king who's going to establish the kingdom of God. Ultimately, he's going to be Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the son of David, who's going to bring God's kingdom, subdue the enemies in our hearts, our wickedness, and establish his righteous rule in his church, which is what he does. And so all of the Proverbs fall within that covenantal structure. And that, to me, is the biggest thing as we enter in on this. Because it would be very easy to say, well, God's son is mentioned in Proverbs 30, verse 4. That's about Jesus. And in Proverbs 16, 6, atonement's mentioned. That's about Jesus. And Proverbs 8, it seems like this preexistent one with the Father who is wisdom will come to this later. That sounds pretty clearly like Jesus, as all the old writers took it to be. It'd be easy to do that, but what I want to say is that the whole of the Proverbs, not just those that are so glaring that you would have to be spiritually blind, not even to give assent to the fact that that's speaking about Christ, but that all the Proverbs are in some way or another related to the personal work of Jesus. Let me say this, though, before we come into this, that I would be doing you an enormous disservice if I told you the Proverbs don't have rich application to you. As with the rest of the scriptures, obviously the Proverbs are there so that you become a wise believer. That's why they're there, not just for you to stand back and say, oh Jesus is wonderful and he was the wise man. All of those things are true and all of those things are going to enable you to become a wise person. which is the goal. We don't want to skip Jesus, but we don't want to say this is not here. This is here for you and me to dig deep into so that we become wise, godly, righteous people. But that's only going to happen in Jesus Christ. That's only going to happen because of the Lord Jesus. It's not going to happen because I read a proverb a day. Remember the general. You may benefit from that, but you're not going to be biblically wise, biblically righteous, biblically godly, except that you're redeemed and you have the spirit of Christ and the work of Christ affecting his wisdom in you. And so we're going to talk about how we kind of approach this. What I would say is there's two ways I want us to approach the Proverbs tonight. The first is from Law and Gospel, and the second is I want to give you four kind of principles, I think, ways that we can understand how the Proverbs are related to the person and work of Jesus. So Law and Gospel, and then four ways in which they're related to the person and work of Jesus, and there's going to be overlap here. When I was in seminary, I would read through the Proverbs very, very often, and at some point it hit me that it was so obvious, and I don't know why I didn't see it before, that the Proverbs are functionally an exposition of the Ten Commandments. You find a lot in there about adultery. You find about dishonoring parents. You find things in there about gossip and slander. That would be the 9th commandment. You find things about covetousness and greed. That would be the 10th commandment. You find things about honoring the Lord with your first fruits. That would fall under the 2nd and the 4th commandment. You find things about a brightness and truth that would fall under the third commandment and speaking truthfully about God and his name and and his revelation You find all these different expositions and I really do believe that the Proverbs are an exposition of the Ten Commandments Now, if that's true, then we have to understand the uses of the law in redemptive history. And the Apostle Paul makes it very clear that if you're an unbeliever, then the law has a pedagogical role. It's what we like to call sometimes loosely schoolmaster. If the nun in Catholic school comes over and pops your hand with the ruler, she is the schoolmaster. She's telling you to straighten up and obey. It doesn't change your heart. It is pedagogical. And the Apostle Paul is going to say the law made sin exceedingly sinful, and the law is our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ, and the law shows us our need for a Savior, and that God has contained all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all, and that the law came in to give the knowledge of sin. And so the law is a mirror to show us how sinful we are, especially when we're unregenerate. But even as believers, even as those who have been born again, the law still has, at times, in part, that sort of pedagogical use to it. I want to read to you guys something from the Westminster Shorter Catechism and then Confession that I think is so helpful. Larger Catechism 97, they ask, what special use is the moral law to the regenerate, to believers? The Ten Commandments, what use is that to us? And they say, although they that are regenerate and believe in Christ are delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works, so that they are neither justified nor condemned, yet, beside the general uses common to them with all men. It's of special use to show them, and this is what I wanted you to hear, how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, enduring the curse thereof in their stead and for their good. So the Puritans are going to say, even for the believer, there's a sense where the law, the Ten Commandments, continue to show us how much we are indebted to Christ for keeping it for us and taking the curse for our violations of it. In the chapter on chapter 19 on the law of God, what they'll say actually, is that the laws of great use to believers, in that it's a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly, discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives. So as examining themselves thereby, they may come to a further conviction of humiliation for and hatred against sin, and a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience." So what they're saying is, when you read the Proverbs, if you're an unbeliever, it should only bring conviction, it should drive you to Jesus. When you read about the wise and the foolish man, you should say as an unbeliever, I am the foolish man, I need a savior. You should not read the Proverbs if you're an unbeliever and say, I'm the wise man. As a Christian, so often when we read the Proverbs, we know we're convicted. When I read the Proverbs about a man of knowledge spares his words, Nick Batzig is convicted of not sparing my words. That means I need a savior. And so they continue to show us our failings, whether it's anger or lust or pride or greed or dishonoring the Lord with our possessions, whatever it is, they continue to have this law function in showing us our need for Christ. and then also how we ought to live and what we ought to pursue as those in union with Jesus, which we'll come to. But I wanted to say there is a sense where the Proverbs have a massive expression of law in them, and that's good. We don't want to revolt against law. We want to say, God is revealing his will. I as a sinner need that. I even as a redeemed sinner and a saint need that. for conviction of sin. Now, how do I know that I'm right about that? Well, nestled in the middle of the Proverbs, in Proverbs 16, 6, we read earlier, In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity. So, if I'm reading the Proverbs, and I'm reading about the wise and the foolish man, the righteous and the unrighteous man, and I think, I'm the wise man, I'm the righteous man, and I come to Proverbs 16.6, in mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, well then, if I'm not saying, I'm the iniquitous man, as well, as a believer, and completely so as an unbeliever, I need atonement, then I'm missing the point of the Proverbs. So I actually think Proverbs 16.6 is massively important because it is a clear statement that we need an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And clearly that leads us to the gospel. I think the gospel is everywhere in the book of Proverbs. That's one big place. That's the big centerpiece, the first part of Proverbs 16.6. I think also the gospels in the Proverbs in that the Proverbs will often talk about the righteous and righteousness. Now you have to follow me on this because this is not easy. I'm giving you big kind of interpretive principles tonight. We're not going into really fine. These are the big principles for the whole book. You'll find the word righteous, righteousness all through this book. And I think the first thing anybody has to do when they're reading is, you know, they have to ask, how am I to be a righteous man? Where does this righteousness come from? And the Bible answers that question everywhere. We would be foolish to take the book of Proverbs out of the canon of scripture that answers that question everywhere, that we have a righteousness outside of ourself. But I think in Christ, imputed to us and also imparted to us from him, justification and sanctification from Jesus. But I think also the Proverbs kind of give us these clues. Turn to Proverbs 12.3 and let's look at Proverbs 12.3 and 12.12. Somebody read those two verses to us. Proverbs 12, 3 and 12. Alright, the root of the righteous will never be moved. Now go on, read verse 12. The root of the righteous bears fruit. Okay, twice we are told that our righteousness has a root And I think you have to ask, what is that root? Is it good godly upbringing? No. Is it personal endeavor? No. Is that the root of your righteousness? No. Because lots of people had godly parents and they didn't turn out righteous. Lots of people had desire to establish their own righteousness, Paul will say, in Romans 10. And they don't have the root of righteousness. Jesus is the root of righteousness. It's at the point of the whole book of Romans. It's why Romans and Galatians are in the Bible. He is the root of the righteous. The righteous end up being like trees of righteousness because we have a righteous root who keeps us, who is Christ. I think that has to be Christ. So you have these little clues all through the Proverbs where if you start asking the question, what is the root of righteousness? I think the answer you have to give is the Lord Jesus. There are also other themes, I think gospel themes that you find in the Proverbs that I'm not going to spend a lot of time on, but start looking for those things. And you always want to ask yourself the question, as we just did, what is the root? And then where are you going to get that answer? Are you going to get that answer by sitting around and saying, well, I think it's, or are you going to go to the Bible and the rest of the canon is going to tell you what that is before and after? How did Abraham have righteousness? He believed. What did he believe? He believed God's promise of the Redeemer. He trusted in the Christ to come. Jesus said, Abraham saw my day. He saw it and was glad. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater treasures than the riches of Egypt. They trusted Christ. They had righteousness by faith from Christ. Now, We'll come back to this. They had both imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness. So we want to be careful there. We as Protestants could err in saying you only get imputed righteousness and that's it for justification and a right standing before God, which is massively important. But the Proverbs, when they talk about righteousness, they're generally talking about you doing righteousness. So there's also an imparted righteousness and sanctification that you get from Christ. Christ in 1 Corinthians 1.30 is said to have been made wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption from God the Father for us. So that would be one of those texts where we'd go to to help us interpret the Proverbs. So there's gospel, there's law in Proverbs, there's gospel. With law, there's also blessings and curses, aren't there? If you walk righteously, you'll live. If you choose folly, you'll die. Just like in the law, and that's showing us our need again, because we've all walked in folly and darkness and foolishness. We all deserve death. We're all under the curse by nature and under the curse of the law. and Christ had to come, and we'll get into that now. So there's law and there's gospel. That law functions both as schoolmaster and as guide for believers. Now, here are the four categories I wanted to give you tonight that I think are so helpful. They've really helped me. I hope they help you. The book of Proverbs is obviously about wisdom. I mean, it opens with that. The idea of wisdom runs throughout the whole thing. And I think if we categorize, every proverb can fall under one of four categories in relationship to Christ. Either wisdom personified, wisdom fulfilled, I got to look. I know it. I just couldn't think of the word exemplified. Wisdom exemplified. And the last one is wisdom provided. So I think every proverb, everything in this book can fall under one of those categories with regard to its relationship to Christ. Wisdom personified, wisdom fulfilled, wisdom exemplified and wisdom provided. So those would be the four. So wisdom personified. I think this is the big one. We read Proverbs 8. Wisdom is given a personification there. I wisdom dwell. I wisdom was with him in the beginning when he made the world before the sons of God rejoiced. And I rejoiced with him in his inhabited world that he created. What I would say is that God is wisdom. This is not just general, practical, good advice. God is wisdom. The wisdom of the Proverbs is God's wisdom. God doesn't have wisdom, he is wisdom. That's a massively important theological truth. God is his attributes. He doesn't have holiness, he is holy. He doesn't have power, he is power. He doesn't have justice, he is justice. He doesn't have grace, he is grace. I am gracious, he says. He doesn't have wisdom, he is wisdom. So God is wisdom. The wisdom we're called to receive from him in Proverbs is his wisdom. And when wisdom is spoken of in Proverbs 8, there seems to be a distinguishing of personality which has led all the old Reformed authors, almost without exception, before the Enlightenment, to say clearly Proverbs 8 is Jesus, the eternal Son of God, speaking in Scripture by His Spirit. That He was with His Father in the beginning when He made the world, He was rejoicing with Him. Modern commentators are going to debate that a lot because of the pronouns used and whatnot. But I think you have such a long lineage of reform tradition saying, look, Jesus is the wisdom of God. Why would we not take it that way? Now, where would we go to prove that from the New Testament, that Jesus is wisdom personified? There's a couple of places. Perhaps John 17. I'd like to do just one thing. If I could have everybody turn to Luke 11 49 and then keep your finger there and we're going to compare it with Matthew 23 34. And this is one of the most amazing things in the Gospels. I saw this as a young Christian. I think Jonathan Edwards was the first to point it out, and it blew me away. Luke 11, 49. And Matthew 23, 34. Start in Luke 11 first. And notice there in Luke 11, 49. Jesus says, and back up to 48, he's disputing with the Pharisees. And he says, in fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers. He's talking about the Israelites in the days of the prophets for they killed them, the prophets, and you build their tombs. Therefore, the wisdom of God also said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of them they will kill and persecute." So Jesus says here, there is somebody called the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of God said, I'm going to send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they're going to kill and persecute. Now turn to Matthew 23, the parallel passage, verse 34, 23-34, and notice there, Therefore, Jesus says, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. In Luke, Jesus says, therefore, the wisdom of God says, I'm going to send you prophets and apostles, you're going to kill them." In Matthew, Jesus says, I say, I'm going to send you prophets and apostles. Who is the wisdom of God according to Jesus? Jesus. Jesus calls himself the wisdom of God in Luke 11. That's amazing. He speaks of himself almost in third person as the wisdom of God. Now, the Apostle Paul is also going to tell us in 1 Corinthians 1, and turn over there to the last passage on this issue. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 24. Notice this. Paul says, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So the Apostle Paul explicitly, Jesus calls himself the wisdom of God. The Apostle Paul calls Jesus the wisdom of God. Jesus is the wisdom of God. I'm going to go with the old reformed writers and say Proverbs 8 is about Jesus. That that's the pre-incarnate Christ, the son of God speaking about himself. Now, so I think when we talk about wisdom personified, we have to say that that God is wisdom, Jesus is God, Jesus is the wisdom of God, the wisdom of the Proverbs is personified by him. Now, I think you also see that in the fact that when God is spoken of in Proverbs 30, the son is mentioned. Isn't that interesting in that in Agar's proverb, he says, what is his name? What is his son's name? If you know. And so when the God of wisdom is spoken of, the son of the God of wisdom is spoken of. So I would say that's the first category to look for when you're reading through the Proverbs is wisdom personified as Paul and Jesus will tell us later in him. Let me read to you what Jonathan Edwards wrote on this. He said, he says, Christ is called the wisdom of God. If we are taught in the scripture that Christ is the same with God's wisdom or knowledge, then it teaches us that he is the same with God's perfect and eternal idea. They are the same as we have already observed and I suppose none will deny, but Christ is said to be the wisdom of God and then all the passages we looked at. How much does Christ speak in Proverbs under the name of wisdom, especially in the eighth chapter? So what Edward says is wisdom personified as Jesus being the wisdom of God, whenever wisdom speaking calling out to the young men. That's Christ calling out. That's the Redeemer. That's the Son of God saying, I'm wisdom, find me, get me, get life. Get me, get life. Get Jesus, get life. I don't find that very hard. I'm surprised how many modern reformed, even reformed scholars struggle with this because if you're reading again the Proverbs in light of redemptive history and the fulfillment of all things, I don't see how you can't do that. Secondly, wisdom fulfilled. Now, this is super important because we have to always ask the question with everything in scripture is how is this promise fulfilled? Now, the Proverbs are laden with promises, lots of promises. For instance, Proverbs 11.30 and 13.12 speak of the tree of life. The tree of life is held out. Somebody read 1130 to us, and somebody read 1312. All right, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Now somebody else read 1312. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. A desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Now, there's only three places in the scriptures where the tree of life is spoken of. In the garden in Genesis, in the consummation in glory, I think it's a symbol for Christ himself, the reward. He is the tree of life for the healing in the nations. Adam forfeited that by his disobedience. Christ opens the way by his obedience. This is Romans 5, 12-21. He's the second Adam. He opens the door to the tree of life through his work, through the fulfillment of all he does and his sufferings for us. So I think in the Proverbs when that's setting that out. There's there's a perspective Foretaste of a restoration and the question is how is that going to be fulfilled? Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire accomplished or fulfilled is a tree of life now those are more Metaphorical usages of the tree of life then prophetic in a sense, but they still capture the idea of there's fulfillment and consummation there's reward and everywhere in the Proverbs there are these sort of perspective focusing on what's to come. And I think in that sense we have to ask about wisdom fulfilled. Again, Proverbs 16.6, in mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity. Well, when that was written, atonement had not been fully provided. It was typically provided in the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. But there was still a waiting for fulfillment. The wisdom of God in mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity. And so there's a casting forward that you ought to be asking, how will this be fulfilled? How do these promises and these expectations come to fulfillment? And obviously they come to fulfillment in the saving work of Jesus. So I think there's other themes that you can find. Another one, and this is a big one in the idea of fulfillment. When you've read through the Proverbs, how many of you have noticed all the Proverbs about the king? There's a lot of Proverbs about the king. Remember, this is written during the period of the Davidic covenant. and the establishment of God's kingdom. And listen to some of these. Take away the wicked from before the king and his throne will be established in righteousness. Proverbs 25.5, the king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever. Proverbs 29.14. Now, we can say in a lesser degree that was true of any godly king in Israel, but in an ultimate sense, that's only true of Jesus who fulfills those proverbs. He brings wisdom fulfillment in his redemptive work. He is the king who speaks to the poor with truth. He is the king that removes all wickedness. Now, here's one, and you've got to hang with me. If we read the Proverbs and we should be able to say, I have been the fool, and yet the wise man's promised blessing, the question should be, if I've been the fool, how do I get blessing? Now, you could answer that and say, well, I need to become the wise man, which is true. But that's not the answer the Bible gives, first and foremost. The Bible is that He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That the just suffered for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3.18. 2 Corinthians 5.21. He became a curse for us because we were cursed, that we might get the blessing of Abraham. So in a very real sense, all the Proverbs setting out the wise and the foolish thing are looking for fulfillment. And while you have to be careful with this, Christ becomes the fool. This is 1 Corinthians 1. The wisdom of God is foolishness to men in that sense. But also he is treated as if he were the greatest fool and unrighteous and ungodly man that ever lived. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. So even the Proverbs with those two paths, and as we put ourselves in, we have to put ourselves in the foolish path, which the rest of the Bible does. by nature is only fulfilled in us becoming righteous people and wise men and women in that he suffers for us. He becomes the fool for us. He's treated as the unrighteous for us. He's constituted unrighteous. He doesn't actually do unrighteousness, but he is constituted unrighteous and foolish. So I think we have to do that. So that would fall under wisdom fulfilled. And I think there's lots of other ways you can see that in the Proverbs. Third, very quickly, wisdom exemplified. And I'll be quick here. If I asked you, Who's the wisest person you know? Somebody might say my dad. I doubt anybody at our church would say my pastor. But maybe if they were having a bad day, they might. Somebody might say my husband or my wife or one of my pastors when I was a kid. But the answer we should really give is Jesus is. Who's the wisest person you know? Jesus Christ is the wisest person you know. He was man. He was Israelite. Yes, he's God, but he was also man. And as a man, he learned and he grew in wisdom, Luke tells us. And when we look at his interactions, especially with his enemies, but even with his disciples, that we see the wisdom of the Proverbs exemplified in him. So not personified in that he is wisdom in his divine nature, but exemplified in the outworking of his earthly life and ministry, that he is the wise man. Everything he does, think about this. If you want to know what it looks like practically, somebody said to me recently, I know the Proverbs are so great, but how to apply them is the hard part. And I said, I agree. But it would help if we looked at Jesus a lot more His interaction so the scribes and the pharisees and the Sadducees come to trick him And I think the greatest demonstration of this though all the proverbs are fulfilled are exemplified in him So you could read any proverb and think about how is that? Exemplified and what I know about Jesus in the gospels the biggest one for me that I love is Proverbs 26 5 and 6 where it says do not answer a man according to his folly lest you be like him and answer a man according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes. If you take those and look at how Jesus deals with his enemies, it's amazing. They'll come to trick him and he'll be like, let me ask you a question. The baptism of John, is it from heaven or men? Well, if we say from men, he'll say, then why don't you, the people stone us. If we say from God, he'll say, why don't you believe me? And so Jesus knows how to exemplify wisdom perfectly. A man of knowledge spares his words. He did not open his mouth. He was silent. He didn't answer her. And you see how the righteous are bold as a lion. That's a proverb. The righteous are bold as a lion. Jesus was bold as a lion. So I'll just move on from there, but that's a big one. How are they exemplified in Jesus? The fourth, and this is really the one that you probably rush to when you read the Proverbs, is wisdom provided. How do I become a wise person? And that's, I mean, this is the, for us, the cash value, but all the others that we've talked about are behind this. They're supporting it. There is no how does wisdom get provided to me without Jesus Christ and everything we've just talked about. That's why we do these lectures. There is no you becoming a wise person apart from that happening. Him being wisdom personified, him being the one who fulfills all wisdom and righteousness, him being the one who exhibits it and exemplifies it. Now the Bible says in him, We have wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. So by union with Jesus and faith with him, putting ourselves in his word, mining it, keeping the things we've heard in mind, going to him in faith, crying out to him for wisdom, because we're united to Jesus, he gives us of his own wisdom. He imparts it to us so that the wisdom I need It's taught in the Proverbs is in him and this is taught. This is really amazing. This is taught in Colossians 2 Where Paul says in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that means whatever you embark on in life marriage, parenting, job, studies, whether it be biological, whether it be analytical, whether it be theological, whatever it is, the whole world is his. Remember, he created it all. He was there, Proverbs 8, creating it. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. He reveals it in his word. He establishes it through the gospel. And this is what Matthew Henry says. I love this. He says, Matthew Henry says, the treasures of wisdom are hidden, not from us, but for us in Christ. The treasures of wisdom are hidden, not from us, but for us in Christ. He's reflecting on Colossians 2, 3, I think. And so that means when we go to the Proverbs then, And we hear about the man that flees from the adulterous woman, and we hear about the husband who loves his wife, and we hear about children that honor their parents, and we hear about one who loves his neighbor with his tongue and with his money. We can know, okay, in Christ, that's for me. That's what Christ wants for me. That means even though I fail and I have to go back to be forgiven, I can be pursuing those things, I must be pursuing those things, and we receive the grace and the strength and the power for those things in Him, and only in Him, not by, I'm gonna do better, I'm gonna try harder, this time I won't use my tongue that way, but Lord Jesus, give me grace so that I don't use my tongue that way. Because He said, and I'll close with this, in John 15, five, without me you can do nothing. That means without me, you can do none of the wisdom in the Proverbs. I'm going to stop there. I know that's a whole lot for y'all, but is that helpful? Is it helpful? Okay, questions or thoughts, pushback? Me too. I mean I think it's really been, I think it's been ignored in a lot of circles where that's not been, but I don't know how you can't do that when you go to the New Testament and see, unless it's just a book that's outside the canon that they just put in there for good practical advice. So I've been working on this for years. There are a couple good books that have probably just picked things up along the way. And the books I would recommend, Nancy Guthrie actually, which our women are working through, has a great book called The Wisdom of God Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Literature. So I think, I don't know what all she says in there. I've kind of looked through it, but she has helpful stuff. I wrote a blog post at the site that y'all can go to. I have resources there. Ray Ortland Jr. just came out with a book called Proverbs, Wisdom That Works. It's pretty good. It has a lot of Christ-centeredness in it, but it's not quite what we did tonight. This is just stuff I've picked up as I've gone along. But there's other resources that I put on that post. Puritans have been huge for me. They're very Christ-centered. You know, Manton and Edwards and Thomas Brooks. You'll find I'm using the Proverbs in a very gospel-centered way a lot. Yeah, because those get taken outside of that context all the time. And like I said, just sort of the general approach. To the general, yeah, this is life application. Apply wisdom to James 1.5. I think it's the same thing as Proverbs. It's what wisdom is, not just knowledge. It's knowledge and action, right? Is that not more to do with Jesus Christ? I just thought about that. Well, the truth as it is in Jesus. That's what tonight would be about the truth. And that means more than just Jesus. It's the truth as it is in Jesus. So he's the source. He's the fountainhead. He's the one that gives it and enables us to get it and is it. But that obviously includes all the truth as it works itself out in every sphere of life. Right. It's not just. let's just talk about Jesus, but then how he enables us to, I mean, we want to be wise and godly people, right? So, other questions or comments? Yeah, that's interesting because you find all the kingdom stuff, for instance, in the Proverbs. So lots of stuff about the king and the king establishing righteousness and the king dealing with wisdom, the king himself having that wisdom, which I think is absolutely predictive of David's son, which is what the whole Davidic Covenant's about. Your son's going to sit on the throne forever, who is Jesus, the greater Solomon. Solomon himself having the wisdom as the king, right? He asked for wisdom as the king to judge The comings and goings of the people because the king needs wisdom Jesus is our king. And so I think that's partially why that's all there also interesting I'll just say this as an aside because I didn't like this years ago and and I've come to understand it now there is a sense where we have to read the Bible as How would Jesus have read this as the covenant keeper? You can't exclusively do that, but you do have to say he was an Israelite, he searched the scriptures, he sat at the feet of his father perfectly. Isaiah 50 says, Jesus says to his father, you awaken my ear to hear as you give me the tongue of the learned that I may speak a word to him who is weary, in season to him who is weary. So he, as a man, needed the revelation of God. As the son of God, he didn't, in his divine nature, in his human nature, he needed that. And that's some of the mystery of the incarnation. But there's a little verse in Galatians where it says, the promises of God were given to Abraham and to his seed, not of many, but of one who is Christ. Galatians 3.16. So it says all the promises of God given to Abraham were given to Abraham and to his seed who is Christ. So we can at least go there and say the promises God made to Abraham were God the Father making them to the son of Abraham who was going to fulfill it. I think in the same way we can say as he comes to fulfill the Davidic covenant and establish the kingdom, those proverbs are written to and about him and then about how that's going to affect his people in him. And I think that's all the wisdom literature. So we'll come to the Song of Solomon in the weeks ahead and Ecclesiastes and they all have unique features, but all of them kind of fall under that rubric of the Davidic covenant. Is that helpful? Whereas under the Abrahamic you have more of the land promise and The seed promise, the inheritance, right? Those are kind of the promises under the Abrahamic. And you see them surfacing in the revelation in Ruth, for instance. Ruth would fall under the Abrahamic administration and the Mosaic. And what was the big issue in Ruth? She was going to lose the what? The land, the inheritance. right? And Boaz was going to be the redeemer of the inheritance. And so you see the organic connection there where they all kind of carry on, but the Proverbs, the wisdom literature, and the prophetic ministry really come in the context of the kingdom, the Davidic covenant.