Let's let's do Proverbs 4 verses 5 through 9 and verses 23 to 25 Proverbs 4 5 through 9 and verses 23 to 25 Now as you're turning there there's a I ask you also to do a survey if you get a chance to give me some feedback so we can make this class even better and one of the things I ask you and I don't think it's boasting is if if you think that you've you've done the work that deserves to be honored then let me know that, all right? That's not boasting. That's a request. And I think I already have one who deserves that mention, that honor, that certificate and that gift. But if you let me know whether you think you should be honored for your work, that would be great. All right, Proverbs 4, this is God's Word. We're going to read 5 through 9, and then we're going to read verses 23 to 25, okay? Verse 5, get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will keep you. Love her and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. And now verses 23 to 25. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you." All right, thus ends the reading of God's Word. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your grace to us. We thank you that you are the self-existent, infinitely holy and majestic King. of kings and Lord of lords, we thank you that you are the king, invisible, immortal, the only wise God. And to you be glory forever and ever. Amen. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our wisdom. We thank you for his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension as wise man, as wisdom incarnate. And we thank you for Jesus Christ as wisdom exemplified. We pray that your Holy Spirit would come now and help us to continue to redeem us by the blood of Christ from folly, from mocking, from scoffing, from being simple, and help us to be wise, insightful, prudent, reflective, and to get the insight that we need. We know that you promise that Whenever we ask for wisdom, you are faithful to give us that wisdom we ask for. And so we ask for it now in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first thing I want you to note about wisdom is that it's a matter of both the heart and the mind. But like all things in the Bible, the heart is the central matter. It's getting at the heart. It's filling the truth with the heart. It's about what we love, the Bible tells us. It's about what we think is important. As Proverbs 4.23 says, that to guard the heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life. And the very fountain of life comes from the heart, so we guard our hearts. You may remember that in the ancient Greek philosophy, Plato thought that All the actions of men came merely from their thinking. And then Aristotle, as typical of him, took issue with this and said, no, our thinking is influenced by our actions. Plato said, our actions are influenced by our thinking. Aristotle said, no, our actions influence our thinking. But both of these men were on to something. Both of them were right. But the thing that they missed often was what the Bible focuses us on with regard to wisdom, and that is it all flows from the heart. Now, what's most important is understanding the heart, that core center of our being that longs to be satisfied, that longs to love, that longs to worship, that longs to serve. And from the heart, as to nod at Plato, we have our thoughts come from the heart. Our words come ultimately from the heart. Our heart is what ultimately needs to be changed, that central control center of our souls that must first be fixed on God. To nod to Aristotle, our actions do indeed become habits and influence our thinking. So the book of Proverbs affirms that both Aristotle and Plato were right with regard to thinking and action, but that ultimately it It's a matter of the heart and so Proverbs 4 23 to remind us is Keep your heart with all vigilance for flow from it flow the springs of life So what we're in need of is not just merely as as Plato would think That we just need to to change the way we are thinking about things in order to change behavior or as Aristotle would say we just need to change our actions and then our thinking will come along and No, it's neither of those, although they're on to truth. No, what needs to happen is we need to have a transformed heart. That is, we need to have a wise heart. We need to live as we've been created to live. All right? And that's where our Greek philosophers came close but missed, as often was the case. All right, so I want to go over with you an outline by way of introduction that will help us because when we're looking at defining wisdom or the purpose of wisdom, one thing is we want to understand that we're getting at our hearts. We're getting at that which is core or central to our thinking, to our behavior, the control center of what we love, the control center of what we do, what our fathers have called the affections. The things that we love and how we live out that love for them. The heart has to do with ordering our affections or ordering our desires so that they not only honor God ultimately, but that they fit in in the creation that God has created. You have to fit in if you're going to be wise. So let's talk about this getting at the heart, but let's use our outline. And you may have had a chance to do it before class, maybe not, but let's do this together. Define wisdom. How would you define wisdom, someone? Okay, the fear of the Lord. Absolutely. The fear of the Lord is that beginning of wisdom. Good. Can't get better than that. What else? Things that would accompany that and highlight that. Yes, sir. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thinking God's thoughts after Him, causing our heart and mind to be in submission to Him, being teachable, being dependent upon Him for what we think and thus what we do. All right. Anything else that comes to mind? Who are the wise then? Yeah, we can answer that very easily. The wise would be described. How would you note a wise person? Can you tell a wise person just on the surface? No, not always. No, sometimes you can, I guess, if you get a chance. But what is it that reveals a wise person? Yes, ma'am. Yep. Yep, yep. There's a teachableness, there's a tenderness, there's a submissiveness ultimately to the Lord, there's a fear of the Lord. In one of the George McDonnell books having to do with Kirti, and I can't remember which one, it's not The Princess and the Goblin, it might be The Princess and Kirti, or it's the one with Kirti in the title. If you remember, one of the magical powers that Kirti has is that though on his journey when he agreed, when she, I should say, Kirti's she, right? If I remember, is that correct? Kirti's a she? Yeah, that's correct. Okay, so is that correct? That is correct. She's the princess, right? Anyway, I'm getting confused. Remind me. I'm sorry, the young man. Okay, so Kirti's the young man. Alright, it's been a while since I've read it. But the example is that Kirti has this power that when he meets someone, he doesn't just see the outward appearance, but when he takes the hand, He can tell what kind of person he's dealing with. No matter what the outward appearance, when he grabs the hand, he might feel a vulture's claw, or he might feel a baby's hand, or he might feel someone who loves and is warm. Does anybody remember that story? Yes, yes, all right, wonderful, wonderful. All right, so that's a good example. We don't always know from appearance, but wisdom, when we're with the person, we get a chance to know whether they're vultures or whether they're wise, whether they're fools, whether they're wise, whether they're scoffers, mockers, or whether they're wise, who are characterized and defined by wisdom. What is the goal of wisdom then? What is the goal of wisdom? Life. Good. That's an excellent way to say it. Life is, all through the Proverbs, we're taught that there's a great life of fullness. What else? Happiness. Okay. Yes. Blessed. Yes, often it's blessed. that way of speaking where Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of wisdom that he reveals. He starts it by saying, makarios, or blessed are those who are the poor in the spirit, or the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. He's basically defining the wise there, isn't he? By the way, the Sermon on the Mount is a great New Testament look at the interpretation of Proverbs. Because in it, you have the blessedness, you have the life, you have the fullness that he's saying comes with obedience through a changed heart. And he ends with showing two ways, the way of building upon the rock or the way of building upon the sand. So he's being a wise preacher or a preacher of wisdom. So the goal of wisdom is life, it's thriving, it's flourishing, it's what the Old Testament uses in the word Shalom. peace. It's more just a peace of mind, but it's a whole self, an embodied soul, unified kind of living before God and others, thriving and flourishing in shalom peace. So there's an inner and outer aspect, but it's always ultimately from a changed heart. And how is wisdom linked to one's relationship with God? Excellent. Excellent. To start right where we should in helping us oftentimes is starting with the beginning of Calvin's Institutes. There are two main parts of wisdom, the good and sound wisdom that we should always remember, a knowledge of God and a knowledge of ourselves. Good. All right. What else? How is wisdom linked to your relationship with God with regard to the heart? We know that wisdom's not just getting our thoughts in order merely, right? And we know it's not just merely getting our behavior right merely, is it? It does reveal our heart. Yep, yep. And it's the true heart that God transforms is so that we will acknowledge him first and foremost in our loves, in our affections, in our desires, in our service, in our worship, in our adoration. Good. Absolutely. That's right. We cannot change our heart. We must submit to God for a change. We must ask him for that change. Very good. So God gives us transformed hearts in order to be wise. And ultimately, so that wisdom comes out of a relationship with him, right? Comes out of a relationship with him. That wisdom of walking with God. So it goes back to that very important verb that is used throughout the scriptures that we remember from Moses. Remember in Deuteronomy 10, 10, 12, and 13 about what does the Lord require of you, but to walk in all his ways. Or as the New Testament, we'll use that more fully in Christ by saying walking in the Spirit is the same thing, right? So walking with God in relationship is the wise life. And so that's why the fear of God, right, is the beginning of wisdom. But we need our hearts transformed to truly fear Him. We tend to fear men more than we fear God. Paul has an argument in Galatians 1, you may recall, where he's saying, if I feared men, I wouldn't be a gospel preacher. In other words, there's only two ways or two options. One, to fear God or to fear other men. And he says, if I was trying to please men, I'd fear men. But as it is, I fear God. In other words, I preach the gospel because I want to please God. and that's the fear of the Lord in action there. What are the two paths in life that reveal a way of wisdom? What are the two paths? Okay, good. You can summarize it in several ways. One is, yes, fearing God or fearing man. Our transformed hearts that getting at our heart, that guarding our heart at all costs is recognizing when we fear men more than we fear God, all right? And learning to grow out of that, learning to grow up into God and to fear Him more. That is to acknowledge His majesty and His power, to be in awe of Him as a Heavenly Father. Yes, ma'am? The fear of man? Yeah. Amen. Amen. That's right. Yes. Yes, we do. It's getting back before the fall. Wisdom is getting back to the way of that relationship we had before the fall in learning to fear only God and to keep his commandments. Good. Excellent. What's other two ways? Speaking of Sermon on the Mount, as a wise preacher who's speaking wisely and he's preaching wisdom, how does the Sermon on the Mount end? Okay, so he shows where we're living, whether we're built, our foundation of our lives, whether it's on rock, on Christ, or on something else. And he talks about two ways. There's one that leads to life and one that leads to death. That's particularly where Jesus is stressing the wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount. By the way, Jesus is going up on a mount to interpret Moses, right? as the one greater than Moses, he's going up on the mount to show what Moses intended in the fullness of himself. So when you read the Sermon on the Mount, read that in mind, and you'll see all that Moses wrote, you'll see that Jesus is just focusing it on himself. Yes, absolutely. That's the path. That's it. That's the path that Jesus is on to when he says, when he's looking back, when Moses in Deuteronomy 29 to 34, somewhere in there, a couple of times, I think, actually says, choose this day, life or death. Joshua says, choose this day, life or death. I lay before you life or death. Choose this day whom you will serve. That kind of choice is those two ways. There are only two ways. And what are the two ways? Life and death. You could put it differently, right? You could put it as those who are covenant keepers in Christ or by faith and those who are covenant breakers. There's only two kinds of people in the world, really, covenant keepers and covenant breakers. There are those only two kinds, in Adam or in Christ. That's all. That's all. There's no in between, right? So those two paths. And one path is characterized as a broad way that leads to and a narrow way that leads to life. Many find the broad way that leads to destruction. You hear Jesus saying that there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death, right? You can hear him saying that when the broad way is full of those who think they're on the right path, but it leads to death, even religious people, even moral people, right? But the narrow path, what does he say about that? Do a lot of people find it? He says, few find it, actually, doesn't he? Few, few. So that is where we go back to our hearts, beloved, with wisdom and we hear the words of Jesus and we say, few find it, Lord. But let me be one of them that find it in you. So the next three, I want to wait until we have time to look at them together. We're going to look at, Lord willing, the Book of Proverbs, Book of Job, Book of Ecclesiastes in the next couple of classes. But just the next question, just of practical wisdom, do you listen? Even if you have more of a disposition to talk, Learn to be a good listener. And even if you have a disposition that tends to be silent, it doesn't mean you're listening. And it's oftentimes that silent people are just off in la-la land, an imaginary world. It doesn't mean they're there with you any more than the person who's talking all the time. But the talker just is more obvious, giving their opinion. So do you listen? That's a very important component, fruit of wisdom. That's how you know you're getting it, is that you're trying to listen more than you talk. How do you respond when corrected or admonished? Yeah, yeah, initially. It really squeezes out your heart. Wisdom helps you to see that you do fear men more than God sometimes when their opinion means so much to you that it tends to crush you. Think about it for a second. If that criticism crushes you too much, then it's because you're ultimately living for their favor or their pleasure. So that's how you can tell, beloved. That's how you can get wisdom and tell that you need to spend more time in worship and adoration and beholding the majesty of God in Christ is if your heart is giving yourself too much. to the pleasure of other people. And that comes out in the fact that when you're corrected or you're not received in the way that you think you should be, you're crushed by it. I'm not saying disappointed. We all can be disappointed. We can all be upset about certain things. But does it crush you? That's telling. All right? So helpful, very helpful. A component, a fruit, a very important fruit of wisdom is that we're learning to be admonished and learning to be criticized and learning to take sharpening, that we're learning that wisdom comes in counsel and we're not afraid to ask for it. Do you confess your sins regularly, daily? Why is that a component or why is that a fruit of wisdom? Absolutely. That's right. That you need more. Yep, good, good, good. Does peace or selfish ambition tend to rule your life? That's how you know you're on the right way is oftentimes that you can have peace even in the midst of hard circumstances, a peace that passes understanding. I'm not going to hell. My life is good with God. I'm thankful he's a forgiving God. I'm grateful for all of his blessings. There's peace to that. That selfish ambition is that you're tending to seek to rule your own life. So these are questions that help you to get at not only where you are on the road to wisdom, but how you're doing. Very helpful, aren't they? So which would you say? Selfish ambition is anti-wisdom, all right? It's the thinking of fools. Talking and expressing opinions rather than listening is the expression of fools. Thinking everything's all right with my life and living any way I want is the expression of fools, right? So all you're doing is asking. That's anti-wisdom. So let's just say it like this. We could put this on the board, but let's just do it together. Anti-wisdom is centered in self and pride, all right? And it tends to talk all the time. It tends to avoid criticism. It thinks more highly of one's righteousness and self than one should. We're always envying and angry at others. That's how you know you're a fool. Our world is made up of fools, and I see that foolishness in my heart. And if you see the foolishness in your heart, then the wisdom literature is designed by God's Spirit to help us to see it, and to bring out our repentance and to bring a return to the Lord and to desire a fear of the Lord that's really a freedom, a freedom of being set free from that bondage to folly. So it's not to oppress us or feel guilty, it's to make us run to the right path and more importantly, run to Christ and say, I need you, please forgive me. There's also an experiential aspect. So what has experience taught you about yourself and the world? What has it taught you about yourself? Because that's part of the wisdom experience is gaining wisdom through experience. That's why those who are wise tend to be older, but they're not often the older. There's a lot of older fools. And there's some who are wise beyond their years. We've used those phrases, right? That's an old fool, and that's a young person wise beyond their years. So wisdom doesn't take account of one's age. It takes account, what matters most is whatever age you are, are you living in relationship to God in Christ by the Spirit, learning from his word? The most important place to listen is to God's word. That's the most important place to listen, is always be teachable from God, that God would have the right to speak to you, that God would have the right to admonish and correct you, that God would have the right to tell you you need to be forgiven, you need to confess your sins, to convict you. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. And that God would have the right to show you that you're being selfish sometimes or that I'm being selfish. And then God has the right to show you First and foremost, the way that he wants your life to work through your experiences. It's not first and foremost your life, it's his, and he's given it to you. And in Christ, he's possessed us as his own, so we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. And the life I live now by faith, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. offer your up, renew your minds, offer yourself up as a living sacrifice. We are not our own. We've been bought with a price over and over. It's spoken to us that we've been purchased. We've been redeemed for the purpose of being wise before the world and of everything good we have that we've received. So that's wisdom. So we'll talk more about wisdom, but when you're talking about wisdom literature, it really is, it should be, it's the part of the writings that help us to know how to live the redeemed life in the presence of God. So, to put it in the way that we've been looking at it, the wise life is knowing the King, It is knowing Him through covenant grace, and it is walking with Him. It's knowing that you live your life before the presence of God. You live your life before the face of God. All right? And there's more to this, but the first phase, I would say, of these three are these, that The king is given, is revealed, so that we will have one who rules us, rules in wisdom, and who exemplifies wisdom. One who rules in wisdom and exemplifies wisdom. That's why Solomon is so important in redemptive history. as he was one of the wisest men on earth. He was not without sin. But the reason why the wisdom literature is often a father to a son, or more importantly, a king to his sons, or a king to his subjects, is because it's Solomon teaching wisdom from God as God's wise king. It's Solomon teaching wisdom from God as God's wise king. That's why Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs are to give us wisdom, to show us who ultimately rules in wisdom, who is Yahweh. The book of Job tells us who is the ruler over heaven and earth? Who is the sovereign one over my life, over heaven and earth? It is Yahweh. So the king rules in wisdom and the king exemplifies wisdom. And of course, Solomon falls from grace and makes the way for a greater, wiser king. Solomon becomes a fool and he fails to exemplify. The covenant the writings that were given part of God's covenant grace is that God gives us grace in the covenant to be wise, to transform our hearts, or to circumcise our hearts. If we're talking in the Old Testament, we're talking that God gives us grace through the covenant to circumcise our hearts, that our hearts will be set apart. If we're talking in New Covenant language, we're talking about being born again. Circumcised in heart is an Old Testament way of just saying, be born again. That's why it's commanded, both of it. You're in the Old Testament. You're commanded to be circumcised in your heart in the New Testament. You're commanded to be born again It's the same thing. It's to be regenerated to be made alive while you're dead All right, so there's covenant, but there's also, we don't want to miss it, there's writings. Have you ever thought of that? That the inspired writings, the writings, the wisdom is revealed to you so you can live it, so you can listen to it. You see, the writings, that's why they're given. Is that no matter whether you're living with God in the midst of you, like it was at the height of Solomon's glory, or whether you're living in a cold, dark, exilic place, ruled over by your oppressive, mean enemies, you can live wisely. That's what Daniel's all about, right? The first half of Daniel is... The second half of Daniel is to get us ready for the king, and that's how we're going to end this class, Lord willing. But the first half of Daniel is what? It's how to live wisely in exile. And so there's much for us to learn. When we're talking about daring to be a Daniel, we're talking about being wise. And so, the covenant gives us the writings. That's why Daniel's in the writings. That's one very important reason Daniel's in the writings and not with the prophets. Originally, that is. Because he's not only continuing the storyline that will... He's the to-be-continued episode before the coming of Christ. He continues the narrative, the storyline of Moses. And, so he's at the end. And, Daniel is a wise man in exile and then dwelling. God wants us to live before him. And we're talking here always when we talk about the dweller, talk about his power, his presence. We're talking about the things that form in us the fear of the Lord, his his pleasure. This is what heals us from the fear of man is that we want to do his pleasure. OK, lots of good stuff. All right, lots of good stuff to become wise. And the Proverbs teach us that that's the most important thing that we want to pursue is wisdom. All right, so let's talk a few moments. I'm going to talk from my notes for a moment. So, what is wisdom? I'm going to give a couple of definitions, and then I'm going to use some of my favorite teachers, a summary of them. Now, if you want to read more on wisdom, I'll tell you my favorite teachers of all time, and I'd love to tell you exactly what it is they've written in my notes. I've just benefited from them. We're always growing. Bruce Waltke, number one. Derek Kidner, number two. Crenshaw at number three and top of the list for a pop pastor, Pastor Keller, Pastor Tim Keller. You just can't get better wisdom than these four men that I know of. And Teller, if you want to listen to some excellent sermons that are free on Proverbs, you don't want to miss his sermon series on Proverbs. You can find it at Redeemer.com. Look up under free sermons, wisdom series. You will be blown away by how much wonderful wisdom you'll learn. So these men, if you want to read more, those are some exceptional wise teachers that you want to sit at their feet and learn from them. All right. So what is wisdom? Who are the wise? Let me say it like this. The wise ultimately are realists who adjust to the way things are. They're realists who adjust to the way things are. They particularly have a skill in fitting into God's good creation. They have a skill of fitting in. They're not trying to be square pegs in round holes. They're not trying to live in God's universe on their own terms. Fools try that. They're not people who try to live according to what's right in their own eyes. Those are fools. And so the wise understand themselves as those creatures who live in their creator's world. Creatures who are dependent upon a Creator and must follow His instructions. Creatures who are dependent, who live in their Creator's world, who must follow their Creator's instruction. And the three main primary wisdom books we'll be looking at in the next couple of weeks, Lord willing, are Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. And toward the end, there it is, under Wisdom Literature, I'll summarize each of the books for us. Let's go over the goal of wisdom. The goal of wisdom ultimately is, and we answered this, the ultimate goal of wisdom is the glory of God. It's to live as one's created to live. So if you think about it, it's going back before the fall, back to creation. It's back to creation. God hasn't changed his creation order. Sin has marred it. Sin has disordered things. That's the tendency of what sin does. It poisons. It disorders, right? It mars. It contaminates. But order is what was in the original. Created to be dependent upon God. So, living to the glory of God and getting to wisdom is asking this kind of question. How was I created to live? How was I designed by my creator before my sin, before sin came into the world, independence on my creator? How was I created? How was I designed to live as a covenant creature, independence upon my creator? And so here's a summary of what we're talking about. Wisdom is ultimately getting back to creation. That's why in wisdom literature, you'll hear things with regard to righteousness or justice, balanced weights and scales, honesty, truth, speaking truthfully, and then letting a handshake be enough, letting a word be sufficient to bind relationships together. That's what we were created for. Understanding the way nature works. learning from the writing spider that there's a design to everything and that everything is beautiful, beautiful in the way that it's been created. Everything's unique and the design all has the same end, which is the glory of God. Looking at a spider in reflection and other things of creation bring wisdom. So wisdom is about getting back to creation. It's about Don't go over in your neighbor's house and start yelling. And if somebody just got up, don't be asking them a bunch of questions at the top of your lungs. That's just not wise. It's not the way they were created. We're not created for such things, you see. And so it's back to creation. That's why it's back to the original. It's back to the design of things. And so that gets us back to three very important things, doesn't it? particularly roles of men and women. Confusion of roles is not just sin and transgression against God. It's foolishness. It just doesn't work. It's folly. So confusion of relationships, male, female, one. yet different roles. It's getting back to Sabbath and knowing how important it is to have one day in seven for worship and service. How much you need one day in seven for wisdom, for the gaining of wisdom and to show that in the way you live your life and vocation. Wisdom has a lot to do with vocation. That's why when you look at the book of particularly of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes, you have a lot, and Song of Songs, you have a lot about relationships. Song of Songs is dedicated to the relationship, isn't it? Between a king and one he has condescended to have an affection for, a bride, all right? And a commitment to her and a wholesome love for her. Sabbath, just learning the importance of rest. and the rhythm of God through worship and service. It's all built in. All three of these elements were in creation. All three, I would argue this, and we'll do it another time, all three of these things are what is the definition for being a covenant creature. In other words, it's for everybody. It's not just for religious people. It's the way we were designed was with these three elements. Covenant creature, when you hear that from now on, you think that means a relationship defined by God, relationships defined by God, particularly marriage. It means Sabbath, and it means vocation. Remember, Sabbath got put away into chapter 2, verse 3 on accident. Right? You know, when they separate the chapters, you often, you remember, that's just men's work to help us with memory. It's very memorable, very helpful. If it had been still part of chapter 1, we would have gotten it better. But as it is, we hear about marriage, having dominion, rule, vocation, male and female, and then we end with verse 31, but it's chapter 2, verse 3 that says, God rested on the Sabbath day and made it holy. Very important to have that as part of the other two, because it's the design and built. It's how creation's built. All right. Vocation. I don't want to get into that. Vocation. Vocation, a lot about work, and especially in Ecclesiastes, right? about the meaningfulness of work? Does work have any meaning at all? It seems like we just study, study, study. Is there any end to study? No. Is there any end to writing a book? No. There's no end. Oh, I work, I work, I work. It's off to work. I go, I go, I go. Is there any meaning to this? There is. There is. Sin has affected it. Sin has messed it up. Sin's made it full of toil and thorns and thistles and all those things. Oh, that rhymed. That was kind of nice. So this is a good place then of looking, if it's back to creation, let's connect it then to the three main pieces of literature. Job tells us that the world we live in is a world well managed. It tells us that there is a sovereign God and that everything we experience is part of his purpose and plan. That's ultimately what Job is about, right? You open the curtains and you see what's going on in the sovereign heavenly sphere, and it's God who has the control of everything. It's God who defines Job's life, his experience, and it's God who ultimately brings good out of Job's terrible, horrible suffering. All right? So it's not a world upside down. It's a world well managed. Proverbs tells us that we can have lives that are well managed. That we can have something that God loves very much, and that is order. We can have well-ordered lives. We can have what the Greeks called the good life. They didn't find it, but they were on to it. Many people can have it externally, outwardly, and experience some kind of common grace and peace. Don't hear me wrong. If a man is faithful to his wife for many years and follows out, even if he doesn't have a regenerate heart, even if he's doing it for wrong motives, common grace is sufficient for him to have some certain amount of success in life. Someone manages their money well, right? Even if they don't have regenerate hearts, even if they're greedy, even if they take advantage of capital systems and oppress the poor, okay? capitalistic system and press support, they have some measure of success, some measure of blessedness. But the problem is they're on their way to hell. You got to make that clear. All right, and ecclesiastes is a life worth living in our relationships, in our vocation, in the way that we have a rhythm to our lives. That's how we could summarize those three books. And so that's why the writings are so important to the people of God, especially in the Old Testament, in preparing the way of the king, because the king was to rule in wisdom, the king was to exemplify wisdom. And so the writings give us that wisdom. The covenant gives us the grace to do these things, plus the writings give us the instruction. They give us the books. They give us the help so that here it is. You're in exile and you're being ruled over by a terrible people. And you're being oppressed and you're being persecuted and your loved ones are dying and they're taking your children and they're crushing their heads against the rocks. Your first question is, is this a world well managed? Where is God? It's the book of Habakkuk. Proverbs says, yes, it is. Well, I work all the time. Is life worth living? But it's not meaningless. The part of being in Christ and being renewed according to the image of God is nothing more than learning right relationships, Sabbath, and vocation in Christ. And seeing all of the wisdom that we need found in Christ, hidden in Him. Because being renewed in image is being the wise person who is ultimately Jesus Christ. He's wisdom incarnate, and He's the wise example. So, Jesus Christ is wisdom. That's why 1 Corinthians 1.30 will say that He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, right? He's our wisdom. That's why Colossians 2.3 will say that in Christ are hidden all the wisdom that we need. The wisdom in Christ is what we want. And that wisdom is both incarnate Word wisdom, that is, wisdom became incarnate. And don't let it throw you off that in the Old Covenant, wisdom is characterized by lady, lady wisdom, right? Chapter 9 of Proverbs is an excellent chapter we're going to look at, Lord willing, next week. But lady wisdom, don't let that throw you off. It's just, it's metaphorical, it's symbolic, it's typological. But Jesus is lady wisdom. I mean, don't let that offend you. He's a man, but... The point is that he's the ultimate fulfillment of lady wisdom. Jesus is wisdom incarnate, and he is the wisdom exemplified. We'll plug something more back in right here in this fulfillment phase, Lord willing, right toward the end. This will be the second or final phase. We'll look at that in just a moment. Let's do this, all right? So what is it, how can we live the good life? What is the wise good life? How can we live the good life of being well-being, shalom, the well-being, shalom, embodied, thriving, flourishing life that we were created to live? How can we get that? You want that? Who wants that? I want that. You want that? All right, good. You want the kind of life that even though sin has messed up vocation and relationships and Sabbath, all right, The rhythm of our work, the rhythm of our relationships, the rhythm of our week, everything's messed it all up. We can have it. We can be restored to it. Who wants it? Who wants it? Who wants it? Who wants going to work no matter what it is that you're called to do in whatever season of your life? to know that that work is given to you by God and it has purpose. Who wants that? All right. Who wants it that no matter how unhealthy you get, how many diseases, how many God-forbidden falls you have to go through, that they're all designed with a purpose and a plan of God? And who wants that? Who wants that? Everybody want that? And who wants that kind of knowledge to know that this world, this life that we live, can be ordered. and well-managed, that we can attain that, we can appreciate that, we enjoy that, all right? It's not a life without suffering. See, it would be easy to think that if you just had, and this is the importance of the canon, this is the importance of how God, through the Spirit, gave us the particular books He gave us. It'd be very easy to read through Proverbs and say, okay, I got life. All I've got to do is do these things, and I'll have a blessed life, right? Uh-huh. You say, my relationships will be in order. My life with God will be in order. I'll have everything together. I'll just do that, all right? And then, on the other hand, you have ecclesiastes and you say, OK, everything is meaningful. I know that God came in Christ beneath the sun to show the meaningfulness through death and resurrection. But now I got this. All I need to do is put in these principles, plug it in, put a little bit and I will have a good life at work, or my vocation, my calling. But what we're missing there is the balance. If you just have those two books, you are potentially setting yourself up for some kind of self-righteousness. You're potentially setting yourself up, potentially is the word, that if you follow this plan, these good things will happen to you, and then you can pat yourself on the back. You can almost use Proverbs in your memorization and completely look at no other books of the Bible. Say, I'll follow those. You can have seminars where thousands of people come and get the basic life principles through the Proverbs. And you can tell them all that if they follow that, all their children will be shining examples with smiling teeth, and everybody will be happy and holy. All right? You can tell them all that, and it'll be a lie. Because there's a book called Job. And the book of Job tells us in the canon that God is still sovereign over our lives and that the ultimate purpose of our lives is the glory of God. And that, yes, there is a life to be well-lived in Proverbs, and yes, there is a way of looking at meaning correctly under the sun, but there's also the purpose of suffering and acknowledging that God ultimately Why we are doing this we're ultimately seeking a relationship with God. So here's let me just put it in a different way And I'll take your question or your comment Proverbs could be used To rather than to have and possess of a better relationship with God. It could be to avoid a relationship with God it's a trick and that's why there's suffering to bring us back to our knees and to humble us, to realize that we're still fools in the way that our hearts respond. We still think too highly of ourselves. Obedience through suffering, Lord, and then our lives become more meaningful. And then the Proverbs take on a different, a more deeper element or layer of blessedness. It's not just about having everything together. It's that even when God in His sovereignty decides that some of those things are not going to seem to be working out. That's the tip. Seem to be working out like it was with Job. That he's in control. That he's got it. And that you're to trust him. So you see the importance of the beauty of the canon? The writings were put together so that we wouldn't just isolate ourselves and take just the Proverbs or take just the Ecclesiastes or take just suffering, take just Job, but that all three of them would balance our lives in harmony, focused on the triune God and focused in wisdom and humility before him, that he is the one who gives us a world well-managed, Job, Proverbs, a life well-managed through our understanding wisdom and pursuing it and understanding it, and Ecclesiastes, that it's a life worth living. It is. Very much so. Yes, sir. That is absolutely. Yeah, it's the element. The prosperity gospel is a way of doing Christianity without Jesus, even though they mention him. And why is that? Because Jesus over and over in his life said that the whole purpose of wisdom, the whole purpose of his being wisdom incarnate was to suffer. to wear the crown of thorns in order to get to the crown of glory, in order to give redemption and salvation. But it's missing, by his stripes we're healed also through our pains. It's not that he takes away our pains, he transforms our pains into the means through which he gets more glory and we get more healed. And they miss that. So they want to do life apart from Jesus. It's the same thing with anybody who would say, you know, they're going to give you a seminar on Proverbs and tell you all the good things to do. And if you follow them, God will bless you. It turns people into self-righteous people, tends to. It tends to put people in, try to control the Bible apart from the sovereignty of God. It tends toward a relationship of pride where one cultivates a comparative kind of narrative where they think of themselves more highly than they ought in comparison with other fools around them. and it takes their eyes off God. Remember, all false religion is, all error is, is trying to do the Bible or do even truth apart from Jesus Christ. That's all it is. You can hear a sermon every Sunday about Jesus and not hear Christ preached and your need for Him. You can hear a sermon about truth every Sunday and it makes you arrogant and self-righteous. if Christ is not preached. Yeah, it's true. All right. If Christ is preached, you're going to understand that there's a world well-managed, that there's a life well-managed, and that there is a life worth living because of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Do you understand that? You will not mature. You will not grow up in the truth. if you don't have Christ as the center of everything. It's true. It's true. And I'm not, you know, and that's not leaving out our Old Testament brethren, is it? Because they believed in the promise. They believed in the hope. Abraham saw his day and he rejoiced. Moses saw him who was invisible. That's how he didn't have the fear of Pharaoh in him. So every one of them looked to the promise. Joshua conquered through looking to the promise. The true believing Israelites conquered and made it through exile, like Daniel, because of the promises, because of Christ. Every one of them were wise because of Christ, who were regenerate. The fools were stiff-necked, hard-hearted, and had all the Proverbs memorized, but thought of themselves more highly than they ought, and couldn't stand it when they actually saw wisdom before their very eyes. It was Jesus Christ in humility and suffering. So it's a trick. Don't fall for it. It's a trick, I tell you, to teach truth and not preach Christ. And it turns people into potentially self-righteous people. Yes, sir. There you go. Christ and him crucified. I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Philippians 3. That in that aspiring after Christ is an aspiration not weirdly for suffering, but to receive the means through which God gives us, no matter what it is. There's a couple of scriptures to keep in mind. Acts 14, 22, Paul, when he goes back to strengthen the church, he goes back and he says that it's through tribulation that you'll enter the kingdom. Wow, can you imagine? Hey, Paul, thanks a lot. Preach a couple of series on that. Well, he did. And he showed it to them in their lives. And what did the super apostles think about him in 2 Corinthians? They thought he was an idiot. They thought he was a fool. He had to play according to their games to prove that his suffering did not mean that he lacked the favor of God. That's what's going on there. The super apostles, the prosperity teachers, were saying that a sufferer can't be a real apostle. Don't listen to him. We got a great plan for your life, your best life now. So very important that we aspire after God in Christ. And it's often, well, not often, it should be our expectation to suffer. Second scripture to keep in mind, Matthew 16, 24. What does Jesus say? The basics of Christianity. If anyone would come after me, what does he say? Let him. Some of you know that better than others. How is that? All right. So I got to teach that yesterday to some of you. That was great. So the basic of Christianity, deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow me. And that means going to the cross and to the resurrection and the life and finding life and resurrection in the cross. Again, I am crucified with Christ, but I still live. And the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Very important. So what is the wise and good life then? Let's do this in summary and then we can do more next week. I want to point a couple of scriptures in the remaining time. I just want to point out a couple of places where Jesus really shows his wisdom. First of all, what is the wise good life? Just summarize really everything we've talked about, right? So acquire wisdom and follow Torah. Torah, remember, is the broader teaching, not just of Moses. It does include Moses, but it means the teaching of Scripture. All right, remember that? Torah is often translated law, but it means so much more than law. It means all of Scripture. Cultivate fear of the Lord. Cultivate fear of the Lord each and every day. How might you cultivate fear of the Lord? And to take the pen and drive our own narrative of seeing ourselves or And it just produces in us a self-centeredness. All we're thinking about is ourselves. And you can't obtain fear of the Lord by being self-centered. You just can't. You have to begin to look out and see his majesty, his glory, look on his attributes, fill yourself with his theology, his word, the truths about his character, the truths of his person, the truths of his works. I was just told by a young lady yesterday who I'd been praying for specifically. She said that I was having a very hard day until I went to Psalm 77 and I remembered the works of the Lord. Now, that's a fear of the Lord. She could have ended that day with self-pity, which we sometimes do, a withdrawal of ourselves, you know, becoming self-centered, you know, more and more self-centered and withdrawn. But she found fear of the Lord. That's an example of fear of the Lord. Then, righteously suffer. Righteously suffer with patience. And as we'll learn from Job, that suffering does not necessarily mean that it is a specific discipline for some sin that you've committed. You should never think that way. We should understand, yes, that all Suffering is a type of, generally speaking, discipline. You understand that, right? I mean, generally speaking, anything our Heavenly Father does that is hard for us is to help discipline us, right? It's like the Father, get out there one more time and catch this pig. Get out there one more time and hit this ball. It's with the intention of good, not to hurt, but to help. Let's do that math problem one more time. That any, generally speaking, suffering, something hard, is from the hand of God to help us, to heal us from our sin, no doubt. But we cannot say that it's a specific discipline for a sin. We should never say that. We should ask whether it is, but we should never pronounce that it is. Does that make sense? In other words, if you see somebody troubled and having a hard time, and they're financially destitute, you do want to ask how you're spending your money. So maybe their sin's there. Maybe it is a discipline for that. But don't go there immediately. Don't just assume. It could be a person who's living out every one of the Proverbs, and just happens to be called to destitution at that time. to help them to trust in the Lord. Right? I've met destitute people who, I'm talking about people deeply in debt, who it is a consequence of evil, and I've seen some who it's not a consequence of evil. Have you? That's wisdom. That's wisdom. All right. So, righteously suffer with patience. There is a purpose and design in it. Don't ever forget that. There's a purpose and design in it. purpose and design in your suffering. And ultimately, it's to make believers wiser and more like Christ. And you know what? If suffering does cause us to, say, listen better to God's word, Well, that's all we'll say today. I do want to take you to two places where we see our three three very quick scriptures. Let's read Colossians 2 3 and then two places in the gospel gospels. Just to close with, actually, let's just do two places, let's do Colossians 2 3. I'll think about beginning next time with the other Colossians 2 3. Let's begin in verse two. He says that, well, verse one, because it's the struggle that Paul has. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you through suffering and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. Verse two, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. Verse three, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So it's in Christ that we understand our relationships, ultimately. It's in Christ we understand our Sabbath. It's in Christ that we ultimately understand our vocations, just to summarize. Look at another scripture in John 2. I believe I gave this to you in the email, but I think it's worth looking at just to see Jesus's wisdom. So, Jesus is our wisdom. He is wisdom incarnate. That is, He came to be wise in our place. So, He came, if you will, as a substitutionary life and death to acquire wisdom and follow Torah in our place. Does that make sense? We've got to have that gospel first. He came to cultivate the fear of the Lord by the Spirit. for himself and for us, and to righteously suffer with patience and experience resurrection. You've got to focus it on Christ first, right? All right. But the second thing, so his incarnation had that purpose of making sense of a world well-managed, a life well-managed, and a life worth living. Okay, everybody clear on that? But we always have to then go to the example as well. He's not only our Redeemer, Substitutionary redeemer in okay, but he's our example. And so here's an example of Jesus's wisdom in John 2 verse 23 It says now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing But Jesus on his own part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people He needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. I Right here is a wonderful, wonderful help for wisdom. The Bible tells us on the one hand that love always trusts, it always hopes, it always believes. And Jesus loved people, but he didn't trust the sinful nature. And you and I need to live that way in this world. Jesus is showing a picture of one who is shrewd as a serpent here. Listen, it's a big difference, wisdom would tell you, between trusting everyone and loving them. We love everyone. Love always believes, always hopes, always trusts, in that sense, our own or others. All right. That's wisdom. How do you do that? Together, it's something that when we ask God, he'll give it to us. In other words, though we know as Christians that most of ourselves, our own family, and the people we know are trustworthy, we know that their sin nature is not. And it can do all kinds of wild things on you. Who's had wild things happen in their own hearts that you didn't expect? All right, come on. If you're not raising your hand, you're not a Christian. Come on. I mean, we have all kinds of wild things that go on in our heart, right? And so that's very important to say You know, I trust myself to some degree but it's to be self-aware and that is a wonderful illustration of Jesus being self-aware loving people Being willing to lay down his life for them, but not trusting the sinful nature All right. All right. That's a that's that's our wisdom lesson today and next week Lord willing we will do We'll look at Proverbs more fully and Job. Okay, and All right, any questions or thoughts? All right, let's pray and we'll thank God. Our Father and our God, we are grateful and thankful for all your love for us, and we praise you for the Lord Jesus. We thank you for wisdom incarnate. We thank you for when we were fools, Christ the wise died for us. We thank you that Jesus is forming and shaping us to be Lady Wisdom, the bride that he will take to himself. And we thank you that we are your bride. We thank you as our Heavenly Father. All of the Proverbs are addressed by you, the King, through Jesus Christ, the wise, so that we could could be your adopted children and hear and listen and pursue wisdom. We thank you that when the Proverbs address my son, it takes on more meaning in Christ. Now all the wisdom, all the knowledge is revealed in him, so now we hear our Heavenly Father speaking to us in Christ, the words that we need to hear. We thank you that Jesus died for our folly, our scoffing, our mocking. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died for our desire to be religious or moral without his sacrifice. We thank you that he died for our self-righteousness. We thank you that he died so that we'd have new hearts and we could be wise. And we pray that you'd help us to live the flourishing, peaceful, thriving life in him this day. Help us, we pray. And all the church said, Amen. Well, beloved, one piece of homework. I forgot to live the fulfillment part, but you all know this, right? Let's do it real quick together, okay? So who's the king? Who's the king that came? Christ Jesus! Who's the one who came as a fulfillment of the covenant? Christ Jesus! And who is the one who dwells with us by his spirit and will dwell with us forever and ever in heaven? Christ Jesus! Woo-hoo! Gotta leave with Jesus. I love Jesus. All right, let's go. Oh, we gotta go now. All right, bye-bye.