Well, we know we've come to the end of the three rounds of speeches. Job has been sitting now for quite a while, I'd imagine, and his friends have been taking turns at giving speeches, and Job in return, and much has been said. But in all this debating, one thing that they constantly, one focus that is the key to this whole debate is the subject of wisdom. Certain things are happening in Job's life. That's fact. It's observable. They can see it. They have knowledge of what is going on there. But they need to establish the reasons. And this is what they've been trying to do. And this requires wisdom. And, well, frankly, his friends have shown a very big lack in the subject, or in the area of wisdom. Job has been battling to understand why a good person, a righteous person as himself, has been suffering to such a degree. He recognizes that he needs wisdom to understand this. But like himself, they've all been suffering, or they've all been Battling to understand what's going on here, and they've all been trying to show themselves as the wisest one in these speeches Now we know the reason for Job's severe suffering. We know that job is a Illustration God is using him to show Satan and ourselves Something very important. We know that A real believer in God will worship God even when there's no immediate blessing coming from it. A real believer will worship God even during times of trouble and suffering. And real believers are not in it for what they can get from God. That's one of the key illustrations or the key points that God wants to bring out of this book to Satan and to ourselves, but Job And his friends, we know, aren't aware of it. Yet, we must be reminded that the great lessons from Job come from his point of view and the viewpoint of his friends. In other words, although we know why Job's going through this, we not only can read very clearly text or monologue or speeches that were happening in heaven that he had no idea, but we have the full book to be able to read as many times as we want. There's no misunderstanding here, but as we read through the book of Job, we must always remember that the view, as we look at these men discussing this, is a viewpoint unlike our own. They're unaware of what's happening, and this is where we get our best lessons from, from their viewpoint. Now, Job had spent the last chapter agreeing that the wicked do suffer. He wanted to make sure they understood he's not oblivious to this. He's very much aware that the weaker do suffer, but it doesn't answer his question. It doesn't answer the question. Why is suffering? We know this. Now Job wants his friends to consider that maybe true wisdom, God's wisdom was beyond their comprehension. Now, because of the change in the tone and the topic and how this chapter appears in the book of Job, there are some scholars And I'm always hesitant to call these guys scholars who query whether Job actually wrote this, maybe somebody added it in afterwards, and so on and so on. But there's no reason why you need to think like that. Job was, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote exactly what God wanted him to do, whoever wrote it down. I really seldom ever have to worry or want to get involved in these high criticisms. But I mention it just because in case you see it mentioned maybe in some of your commentaries. There's no reason why we need to think anything other than this continued as normal. So, the key question that needs to be asked in this book and will be asked is in verse 12 of chapter 28. And that verse says, but where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Let's pray. Lord and Heavenly Father, as we continue the study in our book of Job, Lord, we pray that you'll just continue as always to give us understanding of your word. Let us hear your word clearly. Let us understand it. And as we consider its application, its meaning to us, Lord, help us to do that through the Holy Spirit. And Lord, make us wiser because of this, as we always seek for wisdom. in the matters of life. Lord, let us hear what your message has to say about the subject today and let us be better off for it for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. So before we get to verse 12 and before we answer this question, where can wisdom be found? There's another question we need to answer first of all, and that is what is wisdom? What is wisdom? Now, the first mistake people make in answering this question is believing that wisdom is knowledge. A lot of people know a lot of things, and people incorrectly then believe that these people are wise. Let's look at Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They were very knowledgeable folk. They knew a lot of things, but they proved through these discourses, they proved through all these speeches, that they didn't have true Godly spiritual wisdom Now wisdom cannot be found without knowledge that is true and as Charles Spurgeon Correctly states he says wisdom is the right use of knowledge Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. He continues to say To know is not to be wise many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools of for it. There is no fool so great a fool as the knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom." we see this often don't we as we look at our videos the main subjects of our videos has been ever the debate between creationism and evolutionism all right we know that and I hope you guys aren't getting bored on that subject because the more we repeat the more we get to understand these things the better equipped we will be in Bringing this bringing this debate to those that we work with and live with and study with and wherever the case might be. But as we see all these scientists, well-learned men who have great big titles behind their name, who have spent many, if not most of their adult years and much of their children years, they've been studying something or other. They know a lot. They've been seeking out as much information as possible. Yet, with all this knowledge, they are trying to do what? Most of these scientists, anyway, creationists, evolutionists, sorry, they're trying to disprove that God exists. And so they're trying to take this knowledge and apply it for the wrong reason. And therefore, they are the greatest fools. And this isn't my words. The words of the scriptures say that, don't they? The man who says there's no God is a fool. So despite all this knowledge, they're fools. And the same is true of us. If we apply knowledge incorrectly, as we see Job's friends doing as well, we're not wise, we're foolish. See, wisdom does not only come from knowledge we've acquired, but what we do with this knowledge and how we gain the experience from it. Wisdom is defined as having or can be further defined as having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment, especially so as to know how to act. Now, in the first few chapters of the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, we see that wisdom is the perspective from which a person deals with the issues of life. Being wise, then, can be seen as the ability to make good judgment in matters through a combined use of knowledge and experience. Now, of course, this definition is vague and subjective as it does not determine what good judgment is, nor does it say where this knowledge comes from. And this is where the problem arises. When the wrong source of knowledge is used and good judgment becomes relative, not absolute, then wrong decisions are taken. Now the scriptures speak of a worldly wisdom and a spiritual or a godly wisdom. Each type of wisdom is found in different places from different sources. And this is one of the key thoughts in Job's argument, Job's speech in chapter 28. Where does our wisdom come from? Where does godly wisdom come from? Now, just to take you back to 1 Corinthians, in chapter 3, verses 18 and 19, the apostle Paul says, let no one deceive himself. Don't deceive yourself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. We deceive ourselves when we choose to follow the world's wisdom rather than God's wisdom. Remember this passage in 1 Corinthians is talking to believers. It is one thing for an unbeliever to use the wisdom of the world and what he's gained from following and knowing things from the world. It's one thing for an unbeliever to do this, but it's a completely different thing for a believer to do the same. To take the wisdom that he's gathered from worldly things and Use that to determine his actions, to make decisions in his life. He's deceiving himself and he's becoming a fool. See, we deceive ourselves thinking that we are wise in this age. We are wise with human wisdom. That on our own, we have everything necessary to make wise decisions. And I think this applies to Job's friends. They were taking everything they observed, that they had around them, all the worldly things, and they were using that in an attempt to be wise in the matters of what Job was going through. And instead of being wise, they were showing themselves to be fools. So if wisdom is the perspective from which a person deals with the issues of life, then we cannot deal with the issues of life from a worldly point of view. And if we do so, will be very much spiritually immature. We abandon worldly wisdom when we stop allowing the flesh and the world to determine what is right and wrong or good and evil. We need to replace these with the essential influence of the spirit and the word of God. In the eyes of the world, a person becomes a fool when they become a Christian. I know we've heard that many times. They think religious people, and maybe there are a lot of foolish religious people, but as Christians classified as religious people, we're considered to be fools, leaving fact for fiction, leaving fact for issues of faith. Yet ironically, it is when we give up the wisdom of the world that we truly become wise. See, spiritual wisdom comes from obeying God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. And this is what Job was doing. And as we will see as we continue to the end of the chapter, there's more we can learn about this. So that's an idea of what wisdom is. And in answering the question, where can wisdom be found? We first need to understand some other points Job is making in chapter 28. So let's go back to the text, Job chapter 28, verse 1. Job says, surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is smelted from ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches every recess for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people in places forgotten by feet. They hang far away from men. They swing to and fro. As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the source of sapphires, and it contains gold dust. That path that no bird, sorry, that path no bird knows, nor has the falcon iron seen it. The proud lions have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountains at the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams from trickling what is hidden he brings forth to light. What Job is saying there in his poetic language is that man will mine for precious resources no matter where these resources are found. We know that people mine for resources under the sea. They Look at the bottom of dams. They go under the thickest slabs of ice in the Antarctic. They go into the middle of the desert and they dig deep into the earth looking for precious resources. This is the point that job is making it where people do not normally tread where people do not normally go. Man will go to look for these precious resources. where normal people and animals that are above the earth would not see, man will go to look for these precious resources. And they will happily endure terrible and dangerous conditions in their pursuit of these valuable resources. They will dig up mountains. They will go underground, bearing the discomfort that comes with that and the danger that is in there. They will hang from ropes as they let down great big holes in the ground to get down to these precious resources. They'll endure all of this for the sake of acquiring the gold or the ore, the oil, whatever they're looking for. They are prepared to work hard and long to find what they're looking for. But all of this is for material wealth. All of this will not bring them wisdom. All those efforts, all manly efforts, will not provide any wisdom. And as this passage will make clear, wisdom is a far greater value than any earthly resource we can find. Yet so few work anywhere near as hard to dig the depths of the word of God for true wisdom. We don't have to travel to the outer parts of the world to seek for this great treasure. It sits within easy reach. Man will dig through solid rock in search for these resources, but so few will even break open the cover of the Bible to even look for a small piece of true spiritual wisdom. One author writes, the Word of God is like a deep mine filled with precious treasures, but the believer must put forth effort to discover its riches. It takes careful reading and studying, prayer, meditation, and obedience to mine the treasures of the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit of God is willing to assist us. Why are we so negligent when this great wealth lies so near at hand? You know, while valuable physical commodities can be found through human effort alone, and man has made some very clever machinery and processes to extract as much as they can all over in different environments, as much as they can gather all these resources through human effort alone, spiritual wealth, and godly wisdom cannot be found by human effort alone. We'll see more of this later in this chapter. So wisdom cannot be mined. As much effort as man digs into the ground and looks for these resources, in that exercise they will not find true wisdom. But wisdom can also not be bought, cannot be bought from verse 12. But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me, and the sea says it is not with me. It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it. Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry or fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The top pairs of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. This is the first time wisdom appears in this chapter. And it's a rhetorical question implying that it cannot be found. And no one knows where understanding dwells. So if wisdom cannot be found in the depths of the earth through the process of mining, then where is it? And this question is asked again in verse 20. Where is it to be found? But Job only gets to answer that in verse 23, and we will get there later. So firstly, Job wants his friends and all of us to recognize that wisdom is extremely valuable. Now, precious metals and precious stones are often used in scriptures as symbols of wisdom. And to quickly look at that and how the author shows the value of wisdom, let's just turn over a few pages to the book of Proverbs, chapter two. It might be more than a few pages, but it's very close by. Proverbs, chapter two. And we'll see what the author of Proverbs has to say in the first nine verses concerning the value of wisdom. Proverbs chapter two. Proverbs chapter two verse one. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the path of justice and preserves the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path. You know, if we were to value wisdom as much as the author of Proverbs, then we would seek after it with as much enthusiasm as man seeks after gold and diamonds and oil. But the problem is we value resources and money more than we do wisdom. But the scriptures is always showing you the value of wisdom. You know, in the society we live in, people believe that anything can be achieved when you have enough money. Governments want more money. Their excuse for service lack of service or more crime or whatever the excuse might be. Often you'll hear the excuses that don't have enough money to deal with this. The answer to many people's problems, they believe, is having more money. More money will solve their problems. More money will deal with whatever issue they might be dealing with. And that's how we get caught in that We get caught up in that, don't we? We think that money will solve our problems, and we don't really want to seek for more wisdom, because how's wisdom gonna solve our problems? Money will solve our problems. But wisdom is way beyond more valuable than any resource in the earth, including money. While a certain amount of money is necessary to survive in modern society, money is not the do-all. and be all that the world says it is. One scholar writes, it's good to enjoy the things money can buy if you don't lose the things that money can't buy. It's good to enjoy the things money can buy if you don't lose the things that money can't buy. So wisdom is so valuable it cannot be bought. No person with a big bank account can go and buy wisdom. No resource, no matter how valuable we think it is on earth, can be swapped for wisdom. It's more valuable than anything else around us. The problem is that man does not know the true value of wisdom. They will seek most anything else but wisdom. And wisdom doesn't seem to matter to most. Or they believe that they have enough. wisdom, they're wise people on their own. And all they need is more, more money, more resources. Now wisdom doesn't come cheaply or easily. It requires much effort to get spiritual wisdom. And we cannot simply read a book or listen to a cassette or sit here in church and just, the wisdom will be just, you absorb wisdom. It requires effort to become more wise. And then in verse 20, Job again reiterates that wisdom cannot be found. Wisdom cannot be found. He says, back in Job 28, verse 20, he says, from where then does wisdom come from? And where's the place of understanding? Verse 21, it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and death say we have not we have heard a report about it with our ears See this is a short a short section But the point is clear needing that neither the living nor the dead can find wisdom It is not theirs to find or to possess It's not wisdom is not laying about that can be stumbled upon and all of a sudden you have this wisdom It is hidden from all eyes and cannot be stumbled upon accidentally by man alone. Now, scientists spend billions of dollars each year in the pursuit of knowledge for the purpose of being wise in their own eyes, unfortunately. They send huge, intricate satellites up into space to dwell around the universe that sends back all this information about what's out there as they're trying to understand more about how this universe was created and what keeps it ticking. They send, they go down into the depths of the earth as far as they can, trying to gather as much information as possible. Every year, billions is spent or is given to the budgets of scientists and the scientific institutions for them to dig out more and more information, more and more knowledge. that hopefully will make them wise to the way the world was created and how it continues and where we're going and where we came from. And people are okay to spend all this money because there's no very little return on this investment. And people are prepared to spend all these billions because people also want to know. They also want to be wise. They want to know where we came from and where we're going. But they're ignoring the source of all wisdom. They're ignoring the source, the one who can tell them all that, because they refuse to believe in God. They're going to be disappointed. Because as much as they discover out there, it's not going to point them away from God. It's going to keep pointing them to God. And because they refuse to see that, they will continue to be fools. So finally we come to the final point and the answer to our question. Where does wisdom come from? Where do we find wisdom and understanding? Verse 23. Destruction and death say sorry verse 23 God understands its way and he knows its place For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heavens To establish a weight for the wind and a portion of the waters by measure When he made a law for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt then he saw wisdom and declared it he prepared it indeed he searched it out and to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding. Now firstly, Job states that wisdom is from God. It is not found in man. It is not found in man's creator for intellectual powers. It is found in the creator of all It's found in God alone. It matters not how high you travel or how deep you dig. No matter how far you go out into the universe, you will not find wisdom except by finding it with God. In the Proverbs that we read earlier, it says in verse 6 of chapter 2, for the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. See, for 24 chapters, Job and his friends have discussed God's wisdom, but have come nowhere near to discovering the truth. Job wants to make sure his friends understand why they cannot answer this question. It is divine wisdom that is needed to answer the questions that God has. It is unavailable to them. It's God's wisdom that is necessary to answer these questions. And we're again reminded and drawn back to the verse in Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 29. It says the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. God is the one who reveals as much as he wants us to know. And we got to trust in him in many times because we will not know As much as we're proud and want to think we can know everything, we cannot. We'll only know certain things, what God chooses to reveal to us. Not only about creation, not only about what's around us, but about our situations, about the reasons why certain things happen in our lives. He won't give us detail on many occasion. Now, Job in this chapter brings out that God is not only creator, he's also omniscient. He knows everything. And with such perfect knowledge comes perfect understanding and therefore perfect wisdom. Now, in poetic form, Job gives some evidence or examples of God using this wisdom as he adjusts the pressures of the wind and measures the amount of water in the atmosphere. He controls all these things. Now, predicting weather is a science that many pursue. for often very good reasons. The better we can predict the weather, the better our crops can be, the safer people can be, not being in the way of storms and so on and so on. But it also makes someone very, very rich if they can predict the weather accurately. But only God has the wisdom to do this. We might be able to observe all sorts of shifts in air pressure and so on and so on. And with that knowledge, we try and predict what the weather will be tomorrow and what the temperatures will be. And sometimes there's a form of accuracy. But many times, we realize that what was predicted and what happened are completely different. But God has all that knowledge, obviously. Not only is He omniscient, but He determines all the rules. He determines the law for rain, the path of the thunderbolt. It's all determined by the all-wise God. Now, scientists are amazed at how perfectly things exist and stay at the right proportions and amounts. As they gather more and more information from around us, they realize how perfectly everything seems to work together. that if the Earth's alignment was out just a point of a degree to the moon, then everything would be thrown into chaos. If the law of gravity wasn't exactly like it should be, then things would be, we'd be in big trouble. If the amount of water in the atmosphere was to change, who would know what devastation would come from that? And all these different laws and things that exist around us, if they were just to change, Things would get out of whack and we would be in great trouble. This is all evidence, according to Job, that God possesses the wisdom. He puts all these things in place. It's more than just knowledge. It's wisdom. He's the right one and the only right one to possess this perfect wisdom. And then Job goes on to verse 28. And he says to man, he said, behold, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Now he gets to the crux of matter. Now if we return to the very first verse of Job, because as you read verse 28 of chapter 28, your mind's drawn back to verse 1 of chapter 1. Well, it should be. So if you flick back a few chapters, and we look at the man Job. because he's just said something very important about wisdom and how you're going to get wisdom. The attitude one must have to be wise. And in verse one of chapter one, it says, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright and one who feared God and shunned evil. Verse 28, He says, behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil or to shun wickedness is understanding. Job is the man that God is describing to us as the wise one. He is the one with wisdom. He is the one who is doing what is necessary to understand certain things and to apply the knowledge he has of God to be wise. You know, for chapter after chapter, Job has been asking a lot of things, but one of the things he's been asking for is God to defend him. God to stand up, to appear, and to prove to others that he's right and they're wrong. And yet throughout this whole book, unbeknown to him, God has been doing this in such great detail, including showing to us all that he is, Job is the wise one. And I just wonder, we know that in the book of Job, in the history that was happening there, he didn't get to know about certain things. But now that he's in heaven with the Lord, I wonder if he knows about the book of Job. I don't know, it's interesting to dwell on these thoughts, because there's certain things you obviously can't be aware of what's happening on earth, because I can't imagine you'd be happy in heaven knowing what's going on in earth, but that's another story. This whole book of Job, which is for eternity, is the greatest defense of the man Job. And although it created such bitterness in his life while he was going through this suffering, God was defending him and is defending him for eternity. And I just wonder if Job at some point would just, ooh, wow, you know, I don't know. I'll ask him one day. So what is the fear of the Lord? I know the subjects come up many times, but the fear of the Lord first again, or again, we must be reminded that this fear is not a paralyzing fear, but a fear that energizes us. A fear that shows itself in a loving, loving reverence for God, who he is, what he says and what he does. And this fear will result in you obeying God. walking in His ways, serving Him, worshiping Him with loyalty and wholeheartedness. You know, to fear God is to submit to Him and obey Him. Submission and obedience. Do you fear God? Or maybe I should ask, how much do you fear God? How much do I fear God? So if you want wisdom, we must not only fear God, we must obey His commandments. We know that wisdom is using knowledge to come to the right decisions and do the right things. This is the obedience side. Knowledge is simply not enough. It's not just about knowing the Word of God, it is doing the Word of God. You know, you cannot learn to fly a plane simply by reading a book, as is with most everything else. You have to practice. You have to put what you read into practice. And the same is true of spiritual knowledge. You cannot simply just read the Word of God. You have to apply it. You have to obey it. You have to use it. And when you use this knowledge, as you obey it, and you put it into your own life, and you put it into the context of other people's lives, you become wise. As you actively pursue knowledge from the Word of God and actively do what the Word of God commands with reverence and fear for God, you'll gain that much needed wisdom. You'll become wise to the things of this world and you'll know how to respond to the difficulties in life. Respond in a way that is honoring to God, especially when it comes to the area of suffering. Job is not the only book that links wisdom with the fear of God. We know that. The fear of the Lord appears in the beginning of the book of Proverbs, at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. It's in all the wisdom literature. As wisdom is God's, it stands to reason that fearing God, the owner of wisdom, will be where we find wisdom. But we must not get confused about the need for knowledge. Remember that knowledge, like wisdom, belongs to God. There'll be times when we simply do not know everything, and there'll be certain things we have no idea about, but wisdom should make us still trust in God, even when we don't know what's happening in our life or what the future holds. We will still trust and obey Him. See, we lack this fear when we constantly and repeatedly question him and do not act in obedience. We've said this before from the pulpit, but sometimes our greatest disobedience can be staying in prayer. Because if we continue to just pray about something and do nothing about it, we are acting in disobedience. We must act even when sometimes we're not sure. of why things are happening. We must follow in obedience to what we do know is right. We must always live according to His standards of holiness, honoring God and hating sin, no matter what the consequences. Now, Job was trying to do this in his life. No matter what the consequences, he was trying to fear God and hate sin. It doesn't matter if you lose your job. It doesn't matter if you get shunned by the world, if you fear God and obey Him. and He will bless you in this. So let's conclude by again asking the question, what is wisdom? It's not just knowledge. It's about knowing how to use knowledge. That is wisdom. Wisdom is defined as having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment, especially so as to know how to act, how to do, how to obey, how to react to the things that come along in your life. In the context of suffering, the more we know from the Word of God, and the more we apply that to our life, the greater our wisdom and understanding will be on the subject. Man searches for riches in all the wrong places. We must be careful we don't do the same. True treasure is wisdom, and that comes from studying and applying the Word of God. Studying the Word of God and obeying the Word of God Comes from God in him alone. We won't find wisdom without him Not true spiritual wisdom We cannot be wise like God But as we revere God love him and obey him will become wise in him and This wisdom will keep us making the right decisions for his glory As we become wise in Him, we will recognize that there are things that we will never know and never understand. We will learn to leave the unanswered questions to Him while we continue to trust and obey in perfect submission to Him. Let's close in prayer. Lord and Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. Lord, it gives us a challenge today as we understand that wisdom is of true value. Yet we also confronted with the fact that many times we don't look for wisdom. Our biggest pursuit is in other treasures that we think of more in value, but there is nothing more valuable than wisdom. And wisdom is only found in you. It is found through the knowledge and application of your word as we seek to obey you, fear you and obey you. And Lord, let us take up that challenge as we consider our lives and consider how much do we fear you? Or how much do we not fear you? How much do we shun evil? How much do we pursue evil? So Lord, we ask that you challenge us, convict us where conviction is necessary. Lord, encourage us to continue looking in your word, studying your word, meditating on it, and applying it to our lives and obeying it. So Lord, as we continue to do this, bless us and help us to become more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.