Father, bless our study in your word. Encourage us all, oh Lord, but especially we pray you will encourage women of God and young women, we pray, Lord, that you will encourage them and guide them, direct them through this study of this morning's hour. We thank you for it and ask that you will be glorified and we will be much edified in Christ's name, amen. I'd like to talk to you about the subject of adornments and adornment adds to the beauty. This morning I gave my wife a little, a colorful little butterfly pin. That's an adornment. I think she liked it. You say, no, that's a pretty outfit you're wearing. Or those are pretty pearls you have. Or your hair looks so pretty today. First Peter, when you think about passages in the Bible which speak about adornments, you would, I think, naturally go to a passage like First Peter 3, verses 3 and 4, which you don't need to turn to, which says, your adornment, there's the word, your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible quality of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. And then it says, in this way the holy women also in ancient times used to adorn themselves So that would come to mind, I think. Or another one that might come to mind is the 1 Timothy 2, verse 9 passage, where Paul says, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, with modesty, self-restraint, not with braided hair, gold, pearls, costly clothing. Naturally, those are the kinds of things that women wear, OK? And rather, by means of good works, as is proper for women professing godliness. So those are two really important passages, but I didn't want to preach on those today. I have another passage in mind. But basically, in those passages, you see in the first one, Peter is setting the standard. He's the standard for women of God. Your adornment must be. And in the other passage in 1 Timothy 2.9, he's just exhorting them and saying, now, adorn yourself. So this is the pursuit. So one is the standard. One is the pursuit. I'd like you to turn to Proverbs chapter three, because that's the chapter to which the Lord directed me this week. And I'd like to start by reading verses 13 through 22. And then after that, I'm going to go backward and read the first section, because that's the section we're most familiar with. That's the one that says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. So I want you to see the connection. But the passage that we're looking at is Proverbs 3, 13 through 22. How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who obtains discernment. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her produce better than fine gold. She is more precious than pearls and nothing you desire compares with her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and glory. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her pathways are peace. She is a tree of life to those who seize her. And all those who hold her fast are blessed. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By discernment, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps were split up, and the skies dripped with dew. My son, notice the change, my son, let them not deviate from your eyes, guard sound wisdom and discretion. So they will be life for your soul and grace for your neck. Obviously he's talking about the woman and the pearls, but he's not thinking that the son is going to have pearls, but we'll come to that in a minute. So This passage here that I just read is the development, interestingly, of the earlier verses to which now we'll look up in your Bible there to verse 3, the one we're so familiar with, where Solomon is telling his son in verse 3, Loving kindness and truth forsake you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good insight in the sight of God and men, in the eyes of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. So notice the tie here from verse three to verse 22. Notice the tie, the connection. from verse three to verse 22. In verse three, he's telling his son, do not let loving kindness and truth forsake you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then in verse 22, in this feminine form, he says, after speaking to his son, there will be life for your soul, grace for your neck. Notice the tie there, grace for your neck. In verse 22, he speaks about being grace for your neck, referring to like an ornament. And in verse three, he had said, bind them around your neck. So what is the connection between these two parts of Proverbs chapter three? Well, it's this. We can only trust the Lord, verse seven, you know this, when we are not being wise in our own eyes. Well, just figure it. Why would anyone need to trust the Lord if said person can figure everything about life out himself? I mean, fortunately, that's the way many people approach life, and it's easy to do that when you're young. When you have your life in front of you, it's easy to think that, well, I can figure everything out, right? And so he's saying here, you can only trust God when you're not being wise in your own eyes. What does it mean to be wise in your own eyes? Well, it just means that the person feels that he, she's smart enough and perceptive enough to figure most everything out and to carve out a path for himself or herself in life. And naturally, there is much planning that any young person needs to do with his life or her life stretching out in front. But if that person could only see that I need to trust the Lord and let God guide me, then that would put them on a really good path. So being wise in our own eyes about life doesn't leave much room for trust. Now, a qualification here, of course, is that Even when we're trusting the Lord, he does give us wisdom and perception. That's one of the points about wisdom is it's an ability, it's a skill to figure things out. But see the big difference there? If God gives you wisdom to know how to answer or how to deal with a situation or how to make a choice, which is something we expect, that's different from being wise in your own eyes. That's a fruit, that's a fruit of trusting the Lord. So you understand. that distinction. But the command then is just simply this, this beautiful verse in Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. It's a beautiful confluence of responsible living and trusting in the Lord at the same time. It's not arrogant, wise in your own eyes kind of life. You know, I can figure everything out. I don't need God. It's a nice, beautiful confluence of responsible living and trusting in the Lord. So all of that to say, when it comes to our passage in Proverbs 3.13, which talks about adornments, which talks about adorning your life, three initial observations follow with me. And these three initial observations, one, Trusting in the Lord here is portrayed as a woman putting on her beautiful adornment of the pearls of wisdom. It's like a picture. So you say, well, okay, God tells me to trust in him. What's that gonna look like? Well, God says, well, picture a woman putting on beautiful pearls. That's pretty attractive, isn't it? That's what it'll look like. He's saying, trusting in the Lord is portrayed here as a woman putting on a beautiful adornment of the pearls of wisdom. We'll call these pearls of wisdom. A second observation is, which I'll develop in a few minutes, that the man, because he's talking to his son, right? What's the connection? He's talking to his son. And he's talking to his son about a woman who adorns herself with beautiful pearls. What's the point? Well, I think the point is that the man sees this beautiful adornment and he wants wisdom for himself. I'll develop this in a few minutes. And the third observation is. The most obvious of all is that the Lord wears this adornment himself. When you see the Lord in all his majesty, according to Proverbs 3, verses 19 and 20, what do you see? You see God in all his majesty, founding the earth by his wisdom, establishing the heavens by his wisdom or discernment. By his knowledge, the deeps were split up and the skies dripped with dew. The Lord wears this adornment. That's the third observation. So therefore the son is commanded to, notice verse 21, the son, he's the one hearing all these things, Solomon's son, the son is commanded to guard sound wisdom and discretion so they will be life for your soul and grace for your neck, reminding the son here of the woman wearing the pearls of wisdom. And this wisdom is presented in the feminine form. That's why I emphasize the feminine pronouns there. And starting from verse 14, if you look at it, down all the way through verse 18, where, of course, you're looking at Hebrew poetry here, where you have two lines of verse. And the second line relates to the first line. Either the second line develops the first line, or it states a contrast in Hebrew poetry. But the point is that from verses 14 through 18, the feminine pronoun is used in every single line. That's 10 times. So why is wisdom portrayed in this feminine form? That's the question. Why not present wisdom in a masculine form, like, you know, a man who goes out there and builds a city, who starts a big company, an empire. But it's not presented that way. Well, I've thought about this before in my life, but I tried to give it some fresh thought this week. And so, I'll answer it with three responses. Why is wisdom portrayed in this feminine form or feminine call? One, because the essence of womanhood is feminine grace or gracefulness. The essence of womanhood is feminine grace or gracefulness. And this stems from a woman's basic identity as a created being. in the world order where God created man male and female, only two kinds, male and female. So this basic identity, if you're a woman, this is your basic identity that stems from your creation, just as a man's basic identity, I'm a man, I live in God's world, I am a man, goes back to the creation. So the basic identity of a woman stems from her creation in which she was created to be a servant and a helper. The man's basic identity stemming from his creation is leadership and authority and construction of the world around him. He names the animals, he gives definition to the world. The woman was made to be the helper of man and in this she finds her glory, not her shame or her degradation or anything like that. Although feminists have attacked this repeatedly and pummeled this on that basis, they are out of line, they are wrong, it is wicked. Because as other passages in scripture teach, that a woman in fulfilling this role of servant helper, not just in a marriage relationship, but just in general, in life, Whether it manifests itself, although I know there are male nurses, and that's great, no problem there. But I mean, whether that manifests itself in history as the tendency in the woman to want to show compassion and help people in their sickness, perhaps, OK? I think that's legitimate. But this is the first part of the answer. Why is wisdom portrayed in this feminine call? One, because the essence of womanhood is feminine grace and gracefulness. But there's a second reason. A second reason that is even more pronounced in these chapters of Proverbs 1 through 9. And the second reason is that man, or a man, man, a man, a male, by nature is drawn to a woman or to women. From the very beginning, it was not good for the man to be alone, so God created a woman to be his helper, a companion, answering to his needs. So there's something in that, and just about life in general, that a man, and that's part of the context of Proverbs, that's the problem. This is the snare that men fall into. They fall into this snare of being enticed by women. And so man is by nature drawn to woman. I'll state it in that general way. And he needs constantly to be aligned with the woman of grace. When he thinks about a woman, when he thinks about womanhood, when he thinks about femininity, he must always be sure that his eyes are set on the woman of grace, not on the boisterous, carnal and snaring woman of folly and temptation who was portrayed particularly in three places in the book of Proverbs passages that I'm not going to ask you to turn to because they are all warnings. They're all warnings. You can look at them some other time. Proverbs 5 and verse 3. Proverbs 7, lengthy section, verses 1 through 23. The detail would be kind of inappropriate even to read it in this setting. And Proverbs 9 and verse 13. These are all warnings. But I want to turn you to a few passages in Proverbs 1 through 9 and ask you to turn with me to them in which Wisdom is portrayed by the woman of wisdom calling out in a world of folly. The first one is in chapter one. You notice the first one is chapter one. And then there's a break between verses 19 and 20. So at verse 20, you read, wisdom shouts in the street. She, here she is, she, not he, gives forth her voice in the square. At the head of the noisy streets, she calls out. At the entrance of the gates in the city, she utters her sayings. How long, O simple ones, will you love simplicity and scoffers, delight in scoffing, fools, hate knowledge? Turn to my reproof. I will pour out my spirit on you. So here's the woman of wisdom. She's out in the public square. God's word is meant to be proclaimed. That's the idea. And calling people to a life of wisdom. That's what Jesus did. Jesus in his life, was the greater than Solomon who preached and not only was calling people to be saved, naturally, come follow me, but also showing them how to interpret life. And that's why he told so many parables and stories to help people to think about life. So that they would realize that the life that God has given me is precious. I don't want to waste it, you know? So, then you have Proverbs 8, where you have this call again, Proverbs 8, Proverbs 8, Proverbs 8, verse 1, you have, does not wisdom call and discernment give forth her voice at the top of the heights upon the way where the pathways meet? She takes her stand beside the gates at the opening of the city at the entrance of the door, she makes a shout and she's calling notice to men. There's, there's, that's what I was saying. She calls to men to you. Oh man, I call on my voices to the sons of men. Oh, simple ones understand prudence and old fools understand a heart of wisdom. Listen for, I will speak noble things in the opening of my lips will reveal upright things. And then you have Proverbs nine Proverbs nine verses one through five. Here she in this one. I love this one because it usually think of a man building the house. You know, he's the big construction guy and got his air nailers and he's framing the house and all the rest and all but it's not that way here. First nine wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her cattle. She has mixed her wine. She has also prepared her table. She has also sent out her maidens. She calls from the tops of the heights of the city. Whoever is simple, let him come and hear. To him who lacks a heart of wisdom, she says, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. And you would have to look at those three passages I mentioned, which are the warnings, to see the contrast. Because the ungodly woman, the boisterous woman, the carnal woman, the fleshly woman, she's out there calling too. And men have this struggle. So back to the three reasons why it's put in a feminine form. I already talked about how the essence of femininity is feminine grace. that feminine grace is attractive because it's an attraction to wisdom. And the third reason is that, generally speaking, historically and culturally, the adornments of jewels are part of femininity rather than masculinity. And I know that, especially these days, I could be pummeled by making that statement, but that's okay. I just said generally. speaking, historically and culturally, the adornments of jewels are more a part of femininity rather than masculinity. In other words, generally speaking, it's the women who wear jewelry. I mean, just look at the condemnation of the women in Isaiah chapter one for all their bangles and jewels and wristbands and ankle bracelets and all of that. He focuses on them. And that's the third reason why wisdom is portrayed in this feminine form. So to review, why is wisdom portrayed in a feminine form? One, because the essence of femininity is graciousness, a gracious spirit. Feminine grace. Again, 1 Peter 3, verses three through five. The holy women adorned themselves. Their adornment was a meek and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. It doesn't mean that there are wallflowers. It doesn't mean that there are mats to be walked on or anything like that. It's just talking about feminine grace. Two, feminine grace is attractive because it's true beauty. It's like beautiful jewelry. And thirdly, jewelry adorns this feminine grace. Now, it also doesn't mean It also doesn't mean that a man, in contrast, can be like a brute. So God wants the women to be graceful, gracious, meek, and quiet spirit. But men can be whatever they want. Now, it doesn't mean that at all. There's a corresponding teaching in scripture. Maybe someday I'll address it. I don't know. But there's a corresponding teaching in scripture. It doesn't mean that a man can be a brute, right-angled, abrasive, reckless, insensitive, rude. No, because there are ways in which men exercise this gracious way in their masculine calling. That's not the subject for today. So in the remainder of this sermon, I would like to open six things about wisdom as an adornment from our passage. And I'll give you the topics, we're just gonna go through them really quickly. Pearls, profit, produce, preciousness, pleasantness, and peacefulness. Here we go. So the first thing that we learn from our passage is about pearls. You see, verse 15. She, wisdom, is more precious than pearls. Proverbs 8, 11 says the same thing. Wisdom is better than pearls, and all desirable things cannot compare with her. Pearls are pretty valuable, aren't they? They're produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. There's an ideal pearl. Remember the pearl of great price that the merchant was looking for? There's an ideal pearl. It's perfectly round and smooth. The finest quality of natural pearls have been valued as gemstones, objects of beauty for many centuries. And because of this, the pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, something fine, something admirable, something valuable. Wisdom, as a feminine grace in particular, is that. It's very valuable. It's something that you would want. Of course, the gospel is the pearl of great price, too, right? And that's so valuable that you want to be sure that you will sell everything that you have, remember the parable, and dig up the field like the merchant does to find the pearl of great price. And there, the pearl of great price is the gospel. Here, the pearl of great price is wisdom. particularly wisdom as a feminine grace. It's so valuable that Job wrote a poem about it. Turn to Job 28 for a minute. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Job 28. Job 28, I love this chapter. These are two great chapters. Job 28 is about the desire for wisdom, and Job 29 is the passage where Job affirms his masculinity and his integrity, but in verse 12 of Job 28, it's a beautiful little poem here. It actually begins at verse one, but I'll just start at verse 12. Where can wisdom be found? Where's the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth. and that is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, it's not in me. The sea says, it's not in me. Pure gold cannot be given in place of it, nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot meet its worth. nor can it be exchanged for articles of glow gold, fine gold, coral and crystal are not to be mentioned. And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot meet its worth, nor can it be valued in pure gold. Where then does wisdom come from and where is the place of understanding? And here's the conclusion. Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon and death say with our ears we have heard a report of it. God understands its way and he knows its place. And in scripture he tells us where to find it. Of course we find it ultimately in Christ, who is himself the pearl of great price, who is for us the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But these pearls, pearls, the first point, They are a garland of grace for your head, Proverbs 1.9, and ornaments about your neck. Proverbs 3.22, they will be life for your soul and grace for your neck. Proverbs 4 and verse 9, she will give for your head a garland of grace. She will present you with a crown of beauty, pearls. The second thing we see is the emphasis on profit. Wisdom as a feminine grace is profitable. It says so in verse 14, her profit is better than the profit of silver. And naturally, there's profit in acting wisely. That's the whole point, profit. Is it worthwhile to pursue wisdom? Well, yeah, first, you can't be saved without some wisdom from God to know which way to choose. But after that, as far as living your life, wisdom is very profitable. The path of wisdom, For example, it helps us to avoid many unnecessary pitfalls and troubles. And Solomon talks to his son about those. And also on a positive side, it's profitable because wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. Look at sometime, not now, but Matthew 11 and verse 19, where Jesus was in this controversy with the Pharisees, and that's what he said. He said, but wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. In other words, you can argue all you want. It's the prophet in the deeds that shows you that this is truism. Third, produce. I'll just read the verses here. Proverbs 3, verse 18, she is a tree of life to those who sees her. You know the tree bears the fruit? The tree of life bears fruit. Go back to Genesis 2 and 3, remember? Here it is again, the tree of life. You see it again in the book of Revelation at the end. The tree of life to those who sees her and all who hold her fast are blessed. You want the tree of life to be part of your life. You want produce from the tree of life, verse 14. Her produce is better than fine gold. Proverbs 8 and verse 19, my fruit is better than gold, even pure gold. My produce better than choice silver. How can we relate this to the present age that we live in as Christians? Well, I think the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is the ultimate, in my teaching on the Holy Spirit, I call it the ultimate The end of the process in all of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is to produce that fruit. It's the product. The fruit is the product of His many ministries in our lives. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self-control. Fourth, you have preciousness. Wisdom is precious. Verse 15, she is more precious than pearls and nothing you desire compares with her. Chapter 4 and verse 8, so much so He says, prize her and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. And then she says in chapter eight in verse 17, I love those who love me. I love those who love me. And those who earnestly seek me will find me. Fifth is pleasantness. Chapter three, verse 17, her ways are pleasant ways. Chapter 24, verse four, by knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And finally, peacefulness. He says in verse 17 of chapter three that the adornment of wisdom brings peacefulness. All her pathways are peace. I just added this. I was sitting back there looking for some more verses here and there and I found this beautiful phrase in second Thessalonians three 16 just a little phrase. Peace in every circumstance. Wow, wouldn't that be great if we could have that, right? But that's what it says. Say, Lord, that's really hard, Lord. But that's what it says. Peace in every circumstance. That's what we desire. And the point is that wisdom has a promise of that. If you live wisely and if you pursue wisdom, there's a promise there. That's how you can find that. And then also the first Timothy 2 verse 2 where he's talking about praying, especially praying for rulers, people in authority, rulers, right, which causes a lot of agitation in the world, right, governments. But the goal there is similar. He says to be prayerful and be praying for these high officials in the state, in the government, in the countries, in the world, so that you can live a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. I probably could use a little more time to refine all the thoughts that have been going through my mind this week from this passage with the desire to bless the women of the church. So that's as far as I got with it, but I'd just like to close by urging you as a woman to trust in the Lord and wear the pearls of wisdom. And I want to speak specifically to some groups of people. First, if you're single, trust in the Lord. I know you're doing that. And you would say, pastor, I'm doing that. And I've been doing that. There's not much else we can say, but that God may just help you in your singleness to wait upon him in your longing. It's a, it's a good and a righteous desire. He will fulfill your desire. But you see, trusting in the Lord means you need to be wise. Now if you're single and you're not a converted single, you're not, you haven't trusted in Christ yet, oh, I don't know what else to say but just to plead with you, to urge you, as you have your life stretching in front of you and as you're thinking about maybe being married someday. Turn to Christ first before looking for the man who will fulfill all your dreams because You need wisdom, especially in choosing a mate. Yeah, God can work through our bad choices, and he's worked in many of us, right? We made a bad choice, we think we married the wrong person at some point in our life, but God is good, and he brings good things out of bad choices, but that's certainly not a good way to start. So if you're married, Well, you know all the challenges that come with marriage. They're always there. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talked about, you know, I want to spare you from trouble. Stay single. And it's not that he was demeaning marriage, but he was just being realistic about it. And yeah, we're one in Christ. We're one. We've committed ourselves for life. My wife and I have been married 46 years this year. And it's been wonderful. But yeah, we have struggles and difficulties. trip over each other still. So how are we to live? How is a wife to live? Well, just keep, and I'm not preaching to my wife here, believe me, but I'm just saying, feminine grace. You can probably accomplish a lot, women, if you're having struggles with your husband on some issue. You probably accomplish a lot more If you just take the gracious route and ask God for wisdom to know how to respond to your husband and how to make the most of a particular situation that you're in together. Thirdly, if you're married to an unconverted man, that's extremely difficult and yet you have many promises and you have some guidance from the Lord as to how to live in a situation like that. The one that seems to me to be the most promising and the most hopeful is 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 16, where he talks to women who have unconverted husbands and says, how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Now, obviously he's not saying that the wife can save the husband. What he's really saying is that, how do you know that God may use you to bring salvation to your husband? It's the same thing that Peter said in 1 Peter 3 and verse 1, when he said, to the women with, with unconverted spouses or unconverted husbands that they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives. And it's, it's no good. It's no, it's not useful. It's not helpful to say I've been doing that for a decade and nothing has happened yet. It may happen before one of you passes to before you pass to glory before your unconverted husband dies. So you just have to, it's like anything in life, you have to keep persevering. In marriage to an unconverted man and all the challenges that come with that. God gives grace to endure every day and he also gives you hope and he gives you, explains how you should be. And then of course for widows, Paul says in First Sympathy five in verse five, now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day. So there's a word here even for widows who only have the memory of years, decades with their husbands and they treasure that, but that's all they have. and the memory of him in the house and his things or whatever. And what does God call upon them to do? They're left alone. That widow fixes her hope on God and just continues and entreaties and prayers night and day for herself, for her world, for her family, for her children, her grandchildren. And she tries to channel her loneliness in all these ways that God has laid out for her. And that's good for her, that's therapeutic for her. And she herself being on that end of life spectrum knows. So there are many comforts, many comforts for the widow. And in the context of the church, the church comes alongside of the widow and encourages the widows and takes care of them and makes sure they have all their needs met. So as hard as it is to be a widow, There are many, many encouragements. And the point is that in each life situation for women, wear the garland, the jewels, the pearl necklace, the earrings of grace and graciousness. Let your gentle spirit shine forth, learn how to serve the Lord with feminine adornments and get the results you desire and pray for. If they're right, sometimes it's possible for a woman just as it is for a man to have desires that are completely unrealistic. But if they're right, that's the way to get your results. That's the only way to get results. Not by any carnal means. Just a few thoughts about wisdom in general. First, as we've been seeing, wisdom calls, it cries out. It's very graphic in Proverbs. It just shows you, as we've been talking about, this image of the woman crying, the feminine grace. And yet, according to James 1 and verse 5, wisdom is something that we seek, that we ask God for. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and he will give it liberally. So it's something we're constantly asking for. It's not a passive thing where we just wait for God to zap us with wisdom. It's something we seek for, we pray for. And as we've been saying, wisdom is an adornment. It beautifies. So adorn yourself with wisdom. Job 40 verse 10 is an interesting statement where it says, God says to Job, clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. There it's clothing. Clothing is an adornment too. Clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. And then finally, as I've mentioned, remember that Christ himself, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, is ours, or can be ours, and will be ours when we come to him in saving faith. Let's pray.