I'm turning this evening to the book of Job chapter 28 and verse 12. Job 28 and verse 12. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Friends, my subject this evening is the quest for wisdom, the search for wisdom and we'll be trying to answer these questions. Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? You don't need me to tell you, friends, that we live in an age in which we are just flooded with information. Information overload is the age that we live in. Knowledge is readily available at our fingertips. We want to find the answer to almost anything. All we need to do is Google it and within seconds you have a plethora of answers which are presented before you. Today there's no need as it was in times past for the family to huddle around a wireless, and for the younger ones, that's a radio. You're probably thinking wireless is something else, but it's a radio and everyone needs to huddle around it. That's the only device that they had in the home to get the latest news at a particular time, on a particular day. and it was before my time, but that's how they used to do it. But now, today, almost every member of the family, they have their own device and they can read whatever they like and they can listen and watch those news clips on demand whenever they choose. You don't have to sit together, you don't have to choose a particular time. It's available to you 24 by 7 and you want to find out what's happening in your home country in Africa, you want to go into Asia and China, or you want to go to Timbuktu, wherever you want to go, you can find that information about anything. And what's the latest which is happening there? The classics, the books that are so famous, the literature, most of them are online now for free. You don't have to buy them. Bookshops on our high streets are fewer than ever before. And now everyone is using soft copies and downloading and purchasing stuff which is available online on these online bookshops. And you can have it on your electronic device. Well, in a matter of seconds, you can have it with you. You don't have to go to the shop, and you don't have to do all these other things, which made it a little bit difficult. But in a matter of seconds, you can have it. And everyone is being encouraged now. If you want to write a book, you can add to that wealth of knowledge. Yes, you can write a book. You go ahead, you do it, and every man and his dog is writing a book, as it seems, or aspiring to write a book. You can't keep up with it all. All this knowledge seems to be just so much. Sometimes you think about, whoa, whoa, stop. But it's just coming at you from all sides, notifications on our mobile phones, and news feeds, and must-read articles that are specially chosen for you, and the things that you're interested in. And the way that technology works today, they're able to find out and detect your interests. And they're able to give you those particular articles and present it before you. And you say, you must read it, it says to you. And you do read it. And your time goes sometimes a bit too much reading these things which appear on your browser's home page. And the list goes on and on and on, isn't it? Knowledge abounds. And people have more of it than they have ever had before. But for all this, friends, for all this knowledge that abounds in our world today, still we have to say we lack wisdom. Wisdom is missing. And there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge just fills our heads with information. Knowledge is just information gathering. But wisdom, wisdom is better. Wisdom teaches us how to live. Wisdom teaches us how to live in the right way. And despite all the information that is available at man's fingertips, he still doesn't know how to live. He still doesn't know how to die in a peaceful way. He still doesn't know how to be happy. The quest for happiness, he's still seeking after it. He still hasn't found it. This is what wisdom teaches us. This is where wisdom, if we have it, leads us to. Wisdom is preferable. Our knowledge is good, we're not decrying it, but it's better to have wisdom. This book of Job is all centered around Job and his sufferings. You know if you've ever read it, But Job, he lived a long time ago, a very long time ago. Exactly when, we're not too sure. Certainly before Christ, that's over 2,000 years ago. Some people say 1,500 years before Christ. That would make it 3,500 years ago. That's a long time ago, isn't it? And what were the people like in those days? Probably thinking, well, they were a bit, you know, not so intellectual as we are today. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, friends. Look at, as we read this chapter, it's actually talking about man and how he goes to great lengths to find precious things and how he makes great effort in order to find silver and gold. Verse 1, surely there is a vein of mine for the silver and a place for gold where they find it. Even at that time, man knew how to mine for silver and how to smell gold and how to refine it. Even over 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago, he knew, I'm not going to read every verse, but it goes on to say how he knew how to dig and to dig and to dig deep into the earth in the search for those precious metals, which he used not only for adorning themselves, but also for life there. He knew how to build shafts going deep into the earth, tunnels in the mountains. That's not a new discovery. It was all the way back then, they were doing all these things. He knew how to dam streams. He knew how to uncover the riverbed in his quest for those precious metals and stones and treasures that are difficult to get at. But he got at that through hard work, through effort, and through putting himself in great danger, he was able to do these things. He is ingenious in this. And through his effort of his to search and to mine, he discovers many things. It says even here, that even in verse 7 and 8, that even the birds haven't gone to the depths of the earth as man has done, nor have even the lions penetrated the depths to which man has gone to. It's something man has gone a lot further than even the animals. You see, friends, this is good for people today to hear these things, because then they were doing these amazing things, and many, many moons ago, they were not uneducated people, they were intellectual people, obviously, isn't it? And that's humiliating for modern man. That's humbling for modern man because modern man thinks, well, advances only come in his age and in his time. And it's his generation that has brought about the great advances that we have today. We are more advanced than our forefathers here, he says. We're able to do wonderful things now, and he sort of, maybe he doesn't say it, but he sort of despises those generations from a long time ago and says, well, you know, they were dull, they were stupid, they were, we're intellectual, we're so much better than, we know, we're so much wiser and knowledgeable than they are. They couldn't do it, we can do all these things. That's, but when you read this, it's not true. Oh, they could do so many things. Oh, yes, they could. And we are only just building on their achievements, really. And that should bring man down a peg or two, isn't it? Instead of lifting him so up, it should humble him to his true position. But man was exerting all that effort and using all his ingenuity in his quest for precious metals. But where is wisdom to be found? Where is the place of understanding? It's the same today, really, we could say, isn't it? Man is doing some terrific things today just as in that day. Yes, he has advanced. Yes, we can say the world today is nothing like it was in Job's time. And we have to admit, and we do not deny, and we're glad even to say that man has made some terrific discoveries. We're glad of it. who's not thankful for the advance in medication and medicine, the anesthetic, the painkillers you can buy, you can take for your migraine and so on, in a matter of minutes your pain is gone, the vaccines to keep our children and ourselves safe, the keyhole surgery, the x-ray machines and so on, the scanning that's done and so many other things that have advanced in medical science. We're thankful for these things. We're glad. There's technology as well, things that we used to read about in our science fiction books, and we thought that would never happen. It's all made up. It's all lovely stories, you know. But now it's happening. Who would have expected you could do video calls with somebody on the other side of the world and not hardly have to pay anything for it? And it's more or less free, isn't it, these days? And you've got so many other things which are happening. You've got live transmissions. You can watch the World Cup wherever it is in the world. It doesn't matter. You can see it at home on the box, or the Olympics, or other great sporting events. It's right there for you. Who would have imagined such things? Oh, no, the visits to the moon. Oh, they've been to the moon again. It's an everyday thing, isn't it? No. It doesn't make even the headlines of the news that a man has gone to the moon. He's been there before. And there is that advance. Now they're talking these days and probably will, they've got so many other things that they're working on. Space travel. You can go up to space if you've got enough money. You'll be able to make it there as well. Self-driving cars and the lot. And these, no doubt, will come and take place. Today, you can fly from Hong Kong to London in a matter of hours, just over 12 hours, and you're there in a different country, a different culture, a different food environment, and so on. And what used to take weeks and weeks before, and you had to go by ship, probably, and that would take ages. Well, now you can do it in hours. Such advances, friends, no doubt knowledge has increased, and I for one am happy it's increased, with all these discoveries and inventions. I certainly don't want to live in an era, I wouldn't have liked to have lived in an era without anaesthetic, for one, and there are other things. These discoveries, we have to say, are tremendous, yet for all this, man is still just as unhappy as he ever was. It hasn't made any difference to his happiness state. He's happy, he's still striving after happiness. His inventions have improved the world around him, but he doesn't know how to improve himself. He reads many self-improvement books, but it never really helped him internally, inside. He knows how to do things quicker, faster, easier, but he doesn't know how to find peace for his conscience. His conscience is troubling him. Guilt is troubling him. He can't find ease for his conscience in spite of all these things. He doesn't know how to live with himself. He's struggling with himself. He doesn't know how to handle life's problems, what life throws at him. He can't handle it. He's struggling with these things. He can go to the moon and back, he can go to Hong Kong and back, but he can't manage his own self. This is his problem, friends. He doesn't know how to be content. He's still discontent, it's still troubling him. He's never happy. He always wants something else, something more, which other people have, perhaps. He doesn't know how to have a happy marriage. A husband and wife, how do you do it? He's still asking the question. How do you do it? I don't know. So many broken families today. So many broken relationships today. Man doesn't know all the advance and knowledge and all these other things. He still doesn't know how to have a good relationship with his wife, to have a happy family, how to be at peace with myself. He doesn't know how to be at peace with God. All these are elusive to him, our friend. So what's the use, really? Sometimes you think, well, you can go from here today, from A to B, a lot faster than you could ever do before. But if you haven't got peace in your soul, what does it matter? Isn't it better to know, have peace in your soul? That's what we need, isn't it? That's what we need from the Lord. We need God to show us how we can attain even this. Look at verse 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof. That's the price or the value of wisdom. Man, not only does he not know where to find it, and he doesn't know where is the place of understanding, but he doesn't know the value of wisdom. If he gets wisdom, he gains understanding. It will bring him into a better place, but he doesn't realize it. He thinks the valuable things are the things of this world, the material things. He thinks that if I have a lot of the material things in this world, then I'll be happy, then it'll be well, then everything will be wonderful. But he doesn't realize the value of having this wisdom from God. To discover wisdom, friends, to possess it is to have peace, and contentment in our souls. This wisdom, if we have it, it addresses man's deepest need, his deep need for satisfaction, his deep need for rest in his soul. You know the famous words of Augustine, He said this, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee, in God. That's what we're like. The quest for peace, the quest for rest in our souls, in our minds. Oh, if we could only have this. We go everywhere else but to God. Restless. Peace with God. right relationship with him, our friends, to discover the value of wisdom. It brings us into a better place, a far better place than we are in our unconverted days. And he goes on to say, you can't buy this wisdom with gold. You can't buy it with money or with price. It's free and it's worth more than jewels and worth more than all the gold and silver in the world, worth more than pearls. worth more than the rubies. Her price is above rubies. There in verse 18. Wisdom is better by far. In other words, friends, it's much better to have wisdom than anything else, materially speaking. Oh, friends, the blessings of having wisdom. I hope I've whetted your appetite a little bit for it. so that you want it and you desire it? Perhaps you're asking these questions, but where can I find it? Where can I find this wisdom? What is it, this wisdom that you're talking about? How can I get it? Those are good questions to ask. I'll tell you where you can't find it. You can't find it by your own searching, as it were, and by your own digging, as these miners do. Look at verse 13, the second part. Man not only doesn't know the value of wisdom, but he says, neither is it found in the land of the living. You can't find it in this world. Verse 14, the depth, the sea says, it's not in me. And the sea says, it is not with me. They don't know where wisdom is. Verse 21. seeing it is hid, wisdom is hid from the eyes of all living. Even that it's concealed from the philosophers and the politicians and those who are perhaps the great men of the earth. From all living, it says. It's concealed from them, it's hidden from them. They don't know where it is. You can't find it out. Well, where's the answer? Where is it then? Where is it? Tell me. Oh, verse 23. God answerth, understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. Wisdom is found in God. Wisdom is found in him alone, the all-wise God. The location of wisdom is in God. And it's teaching us, dear friends, that man needs revelation. That man cannot, by all his searching and all his deep efforts that he puts in to try and find out the answer to life's problems, he cannot find these things, true wisdom, because it's in God and He alone gives it. The starting point is in Him. And it's saying man needs revelation. Man needs God to reveal it to him. Man is entirely reliant on God to reveal truth. Friends, we must come to this point in our lives. We come to that point where we see the limited value of worldly knowledge, good as it is, helpful as it is in other areas, but in this, in how to live my life, in how to find the Lord, in how to be at peace with Him and have a right relationship with Him, it doesn't tell me these things. and we come to a place where we realize, I need more than earthly knowledge, and we long for spiritual understanding and a spiritual wisdom, and we cry to God for it, cry out with all our hearts for this wisdom to come from Him. We read that wonderful promise, we read it in James chapter 1, if any of you lack wisdom, Let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, liberally, and upbraideth not. He's not going to scold you. You ask him for wisdom, he'll give it to you. He won't scold you. He won't tell you off for asking such a thing from him. He delights to have you here, you asking for such a thing. Oh, friends, if you ask for such wisdom and cry to him for it, you will be led to Christ. He will lead you to Jesus Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But what exactly is this wisdom? What is it? Verse 28. And unto man he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Friends, the only way to find wisdom is through the fear of the Lord. That doesn't mean I come before God cowering before Him, I'm afraid of Him, come with fear and trembling before Him. That's not what it means here by the fear of the Lord. No, it means simply I come and I humble myself before God. I recognize that he is my creator. I recognize that he is my king. I recognize and acknowledge that he is God overall. I recognize who he is and I humble myself before him. I lower myself in his presence who is so great and almighty. I acknowledge before Him my need. I see that wisdom is in Him and in Him alone. And I cry out to Him. I acknowledge my need of wisdom. I acknowledge my need of pardon from Him. And I acknowledge my need of a new heart and of conversion and of life from above. I come in this humble way before God. That's the beginning of wisdom. That's how we attain wisdom. It begins, dear friends, in bowing before the Almighty and acknowledging that all that He says and does is true, and entrusting in Jesus Christ, His Son, the one whom He has sent into the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal, everlasting life. And we believe in that. We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came from heaven and died on that cross, taking upon himself the penalty of all those who trusted him, the sin, the punishment that they deserved placed upon him. And we trust in that savior whom God has provided. That's the wisdom. That's how we begin to be wise. That's how God will bring us into that place where we know peace in our souls, where we know life, where we know how to handle life, where meaning and purpose comes back into our life. This is the starting point. A humbling of ourselves before the Almighty God. Wisdom is departing also from evil, a turning from our sin, a repenting of our sin, and a turning to God. You have this wisdom, friends, and you will have far more than even a university professor has with all his degrees and doctorates. If he doesn't believe in Christ, you have far more knowledge than he does. you have something far better. You have this wisdom in God, but you gain an insight into yourself, why the world is as it is. You'll gain an understanding of this world, of what God is doing, God's purposes in this world. You'll gain an understanding in the things that are to come. You will have a life that transcends, we can say, mere knowledge. Oh, friends, you'll find in Christ, in God, what many are still searching for in life, that purpose, that meaning, that peace, and hope, the longing for these things, to discover the meaning of life. You find it when you find this wisdom from above. Cry to the Lord for it, friends. Ask him to teach you. Ask Him to show these things, make them plain to you. He will hear your cry. Let's pray together. Our Lord and our God, we thank you once again for the things that you teach us. We again are unable to discover these things by ourselves and how we need you to reveal them to us, how we need you to unveil them to us, that we who are blind may be able to see and may be able to grasp. Oh Lord, be pleased to enlighten us. We desire to have that wisdom that is from above. that is perfect and pure and peaceable. And Lord, we desire to be brought into a state of peace with you through the Saviour, and also to be at peace with ourselves, be able to live at peace with other people. Oh Lord, bless us in these things. It may be our experience. Oh Lord, bless us each one. We ask in Christ's precious name. Amen. Let's close by singing our final hymn, which is number 367. Happy the man who finds the grace, the blessing of God's chosen race, the wisdom coming from above, the faith that sweetly works by love. 367.