I wanna begin by saying that it is a blessing and an honor to be able to preach the word of God to you this evening. And it is a fearful privilege as well, because not only do I stand here having to give an account before God Almighty, but it's also a particular blessing because of the love that I have for this church. And y'all have made it very clear to me how much y'all love me. And so I don't say this often enough, but thank you. If you have a copy of the Word of God, I invite you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter eight. My goal this evening is singular, and it's simply that Christ would be glorified and that your heart affections would grow for him. I've titled my sermon Wisdom of Christ, and I've chosen this title carefully. I did not title it The Wisdom of Christ, as if wisdom is something that Christ merely possesses, or as if wisdom could be counted, or wisdom could be compartmentalized in our relations with Jesus, but I have titled my sermon simply Wisdom of Christ, that we might take the word of positively. I want us to understand this as wisdom, which is to say Christ. And so my central thesis tonight is this. Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom in a manner fit only for the Son of God. He is the capital W Wisdom by which all wisdom is known. Colossians chapter 2 tells us of Jesus. concerning him in whom are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So I've chosen tonight to tackle all of Proverbs 8, and I understand that this is a rather large text. I think sometimes it's appropriate for us to look at large texts. I don't think this is too much, and I think it's actually appropriate that in order to understand the individual verses of this chapter, we must grasp the argument as a whole. I'm going to be a little bit of a troublemaker tonight and read out of the King James. So Proverbs Chapter 8. Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear, for I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth. and write to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy in the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding, I have strength. By me, kings reign and princes decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet he had not yet made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth. When he established the clouds above. When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of man. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. Well, let's bow our heads in a time of prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that you have spoken to us in a manner that is most clear. We thank you for the wisdom that you've granted us in the book of Proverbs. We ask, Lord, that as your gospel is proclaimed, as your word is preached, Christ, we've magnified, Lord, that you would be most delighted in the proclamation of your word. We ask that it would go out with power. We ask that your Holy Spirit would be among us, convicting us of sin and righteousness. And we ask, Lord, simply that we would love you and that you would continue to love us. And Lord, we pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. For those of you that know me, you know that I work at UPS. And working at UPS, I'm able to basically put in headphones and listen to hours worth of podcasts and e-books every day. And one of the podcasts I've been listening to quite a bit has been the Stories are Soul Food podcast. And basically, it's just two guys sitting around talking about what makes a story good. And they're mostly talking about either books or movies. Their central thesis is that what makes a story good is that it's basically just an analogy of the great story, the grand narrative of our world. And so our timeless tales tend to be stories of either the battle between light and darkness or maybe it's about finding and fulfilling one's purpose in life. man-made stories become enjoyable when they echo the story that God is writing in history. And so all stories are ultimately analogies. And this seems to make sense, at least to me, the more I think about it. We are, after all, supposed to think God's thoughts after him. We mirror and reflect our creator in the creation of our creations. But when it comes to the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, We no longer speak in analogies. We no longer compare him to the great story because he is the great story. He is not a representative of the perfect man or a mere figure of divine humility, but being very God of very God, he is actually the standard by which we measure all things. As the word of God says, for in him, through him, and to him are all things. Today, when I speak of wisdom and wisdom's relationship to Jesus, understand that I am not speaking as an analogy, but I'm speaking absolutely. Jesus, the eternally begotten son of God, is that wisdom by which all other wisdom is known. So that's the main theme I want to develop tonight, and I want to flesh it out under three headings. First of all, the identity of wisdom, who is wisdom. Second of all, the character of wisdom. And third, the call of wisdom. I've kind of already played my hand in saying that I believe that Jesus is the wisdom spoken of in Proverbs chapter 8. And I believe that in order to rightly see that Jesus is this wisdom, we need to first of all look at the New Testament witness. The New Testament is key to seeing Jesus in this passage. And particularly what I'm referring to here is verses 22 through 30. So the word Messiah, Christ, or the phrase Son of God, it doesn't appear in this text. I still think that it nevertheless necessarily speaks of our Lord. We believe and we confess that every word of scripture has been breathed out by God, penned by men as they were led by the Holy Spirit. We confess the veracity of the whole Bible. So we're not just solo scriptura Christians, we're also tota scriptura. We believe the entire Bible at all times. So since we believe the entire Bible, and we further believe that the Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament, we also believe that the New Testament serves to illuminate the Old Testament. So let's look briefly at the New Testament witness to show how it can shed light upon this chapter. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 24, we have a rather explicit verse. The second half of the verse says, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So we have this crystal clear verse that identifies Jesus as wisdom in the New Testament. If we were to consider another verse, John 14, 6, where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, we understand this as Jesus isn't just saying, I am a way, or I am true, or I am living. But we understand that this is so much more. He's making a claim of divinity. He's saying he is the way, the truth, the life. So too, I think it is appropriate and necessary that we understand versus Corinthians is saying, I am wisdom. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So we understand that Jesus is truly God and truly man. He is the God-man. He is Emmanuel, God with us. This also brings out the concept of the Holy Trinity. We believe that God does not change between our Testament, yet he does progressively reveal himself and his will. If nothing else can be said about the Old Testament, The one thing that it's absolutely crystal clear, unambiguous about, is that there is only one God. Deuteronomy chapter six, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Or if we wanna look at Isaiah 43, before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. And the New Testament is likewise completely consistent with this, further revealing the distinct persons of God, the personal subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So within this one simple God, we have a plurality of persons. And we can find this manifested in a couple of texts. One might be the baptism of Jesus. At the baptism of Jesus, we have God the Father speaking from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The second person in the Trinity, Jesus actually being baptized. And the third person, the Holy Ghost, descending like a dove out of heaven. We also find that in Matthew 28, we do baptisms in the name of the Holy Trinity, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity has always been true, maybe not as manifestly obvious in the old as it is in the new, but it is still there. Consider, for example, Genesis chapter one, where God says, let us make man in our image after our likeness. God uses plural pronouns because he has a plurality of persons. Therefore, I believe it's absolutely correct for us to say that we have a Trinitarian Bible, not just a Trinitarian New Testament. So when our Trinitarian Bible speaks of the Son, He is and has always been the Son. The Father-Son relationship is not new to the New Testament. It didn't come to be at the Incarnation, but it has always existed from eternity. Now we have, at the beginning of John's gospel, we know that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. So we do know that there's certain Trinitarian texts. But there's other texts that refer to Jesus as the only begotten son, the big one being John 3.16. Jesus is the only begotten son of God. This language is important, and it's important for understanding the text before us, because this eternal begetting language is important. The Nicene Creed, which all historic Orthodox churches confess, says in part, we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made. And this creed was written not as a result of philosophical speculation. It wasn't because certain men got carried away. It wasn't because the emperor just had this fantastical idea. But it was scripturally based. This language of being eternally begotten does not diminish this divine nature. Scripture is very clear. The son is co-equal in majesty, in being, in honor with the father. This in no way diminishes the divine nature. a time when the Son was not. But when we speak of Jesus being eternally begotten, there's a real sense in which he is of the Father. So if we were to consider what Jesus says in John 5, verse 26, Of course, there's a tension here. How can we say begotten, not made? There is a tension. There is a sense in which this is incomprehensible. How can something outside of time, how can the father be of the son? I think there's a sense in which this is fitting for our incomprehensible God. And we must acknowledge that if this is difficult to understand, and it certainly is, it is nevertheless scriptural. The phrase father and son are not arbitrary titles. They do mean something. Perhaps it is fitting for us to do maybe more of a deep dive into this. There was a book put out, I think maybe three years ago, called Retrieving the Doctrine of Eternal Generation. It's a very good intro for this topic. But keeping in mind with what I've said so far, let's go back to our text, Proverbs 8. We find in verses 30 through 31, speaking of wisdom, then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. So we find that personal things are being done here. Rejoicing is not something that an abstract concept would do. It's something that a person does. Many theologians have asked throughout the history of the church, what was God doing before the creation of the world? And I suppose there's a couple of different valid Responses to this, but the response, the answer that this text gives us is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were delighting in each other. They were delighting in each other. They were rejoicing in each other with how glorious they were. They were worshiping one another. Wisdom here is not an abstraction. It is given personal qualities of love. Wisdom here can also not be a creative thing. For example, verse 27, he was there before the heavens. He was there before anything was created. Wisdom in this passage cannot also be understood as a divine attribute, for that's impossible given verses 22-25. It talks about being possessed, being set up, being brought forth. This is eternal begetting language. In light of this proof, again, I just wanna go through what some of these verses says. Marching through verse 29, it talks about being possessed, being set up, brought forth. It actually says brought forth twice in verse 24 and 25. Wisdom has to be identified as Jesus Christ. There is no other way that we can understand this. This is a statement of, similar to like what that Psalm says, where it says, the Lord says unto my Lord, So, since wisdom has now been identified as the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's now turn our attention to the very beginning of this chapter, starting at verse 21. And this section I have called the character of wisdom. And another way we might consider this is to ask the question, what is the heart of Christ? Or what does Jesus want you to know about himself in this passage? And I've found five major doctrines to extract from these verses. So the first of these is his omnipresence, or him being everywhere simultaneously, and his universal call. And we'd find that in the first four verses. So while the gospel is presented to us only through special revelation, wisdom, on the other hand, is presented to all men through general revelation. You know, we know what is right and wrong through the things that which have been made by God and also has been implanted upon the human heart. In verse 1, it says that wisdom cries. So God is omnipresent, and his voice cannot be dampened. It cries out. So at best, rebellious men, when they rebel against wisdom, they can only pretend not to hear his voice. But the fact remains that wherever one runs, it's impossible to escape God. We can't go anywhere and say, I didn't know that wisdom was something else. Wherever one runs, not only do we encounter God the Father, but we encounter the triune God. We encounter wisdom, we encounter the Son wherever we turn. So whether in the high place that this text speaks of, and high places would be important places like the church where wisdom is regularly emphasized, or by common places, you know, where wisdom is basically ignored, act like it's not a thing, Wherever we go, wisdom is there, and we cannot escape the reality that God is present. And it's for this very reason that if you seek after folly, if you ignore God or you invent new, false, or novel forms of wisdom, you deny not only God the Father, but you deny His ever-present Son. God does not condemn unjustly, for He cries out to you, and He puts forth His voice and understanding. And so, children of God, the application would be simply incline your ear to him. He is quick to grant wisdom to all who ask him for it in prayer. The second doctrine I wanna pull out, we would find in verses five through nine, and that is the perfection of his law. We should not assume ourselves to be wise. Do not assume yourself to be wise. It's rare that somebody would admit, I'm not wise. I'm the stupid person. I'm the foolish man in Proverbs. Nobody ever admits that. But the thing is, the wise recognize their need for increased wisdom just as those God has forgiven recognize their need for continual forgiveness. Not that God hasn't forgiven them, but we still ask God in prayer, forgive me for doing this, forgive me for sinning, for lying, for blaspheming, whatever it may be. And it's just like as Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Proverbs 9, which is the next chapter in verse 10, tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. The Lord Jesus is truth, and he can only speak truth. And further, Jesus speaks only of excellent things. You know, things like how to have peace with your brother, how to prosper in this life, and of course, the pinnacle of his ministry, how to be reconciled to God. The command in verse six is here, along with a promise in verse nine, that to the spiritually minded person who hearkens unto the Lord, wisdom is to be plainly found. And so our fallen nature aside, the book of Proverbs is one of the easier books in the Bible to understand. Its truths are rather straightforward. There's virtue in hard work, adultery is a sin, we ought to live for God's glory, et cetera. Wisdom does not carry with it the notion that only the really smart people or the intellectually elite or those who are most studied can grasp it. That's not the case. Wisdom is available to all who will call upon it. In the words of Jesus, it is the poor and the meek that will inherit the kingdom of God. And wisdom is for all people, is easily grasped. Again, fallen nature aside, we need God's help, however, to embrace it. Our third doctrine that we have is God's desire for your holiness. And we see that in verses 12 through 13. God's desire is for your holiness. And Leviticus 19, of course, says, you shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy. God gives us directives for what holiness looks like. And it's not only to see falsehoods as evil, but also prideful attitudes when truth is learned. How many of us become puffed up when we learn wisdom? That's not wisdom, that may be knowledge, that may be tidbits of information, but that's not wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One should drive you toward humility. And the Spirit of Christ is grieved when you do not reflect the meekness of your Lord. Verse 12, my version says that he finds out witty inventions. I think most versions that I saw online, verse 12 says he finds out discretions. It's a little bit ambiguous as to what this word means. In Proverbs 12, 2, this phrase is also used, and it's used in a negative sense. It's translated as wicked devices. So that verse says, a man of wicked devices will he condemn. So whether we want to translate this word in verse 12 as a morally neutral idea, like discretions, or if we want to treat this as a sinful heart inclination, The thrust of this is that wisdom transcends everything. There is not a single thought in anyone's mind. No one here has a single thought that is not accepted from the gaze of God. He knows your deepest, darkest, and most sinister thoughts, your most secret sins. He knows most intimately. And the thing is, he has not sent you to hell for it. He went to the cross to be crucified for you, knowing full well the sins that you have. And we ought to praise him for that. His desire is for your holiness. It's not through the law that he has granted that, it's through the gospel, it's through forgiving you and giving you a new nature. Our fourth doctrine is his omniscience, his all-knowingness, and his desire to communicate this. And we find this in verses 14 through 16. So these verses speak of his counsel, his sound wisdom, his understanding, and his strength. One of the titles of the Messiah in Isaiah chapter nine is wonderful counselor. And he absolutely is. You know, when Christ was first presented to you, when you first heard the call of the gospel of grace, The offer was to forgive your sins. And certainly our reconciliation with God is the high mark of Christian benefits. There is nothing greater. But being adopted into the family of God, you soon learn that there is so much more to Christianity. And it wasn't, there's so much more law that I didn't know about before. That's not the case. There were so much more deeper promises that you didn't realize. So Jesus not only grants you forgiveness of sins and a new heart, but he also leads you and he counsels you and he instructs you on how to live life abundantly, on how to not sin, on how not to be enslaved anymore. And this guidance is not by a difficult and heavy yoke, but it's by sending his Holy Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity to live within you and to strengthen you and to guide you Again, not by dragging you, kicking and screaming, but in a loving manner in which you delight to follow God's ways. And then our fifth and final doctrine is in verses 15 and 16. And this is about—never mind, we're not there yet. Verses 15 and 16. We find Jesus's role in governance, and it's always a little bit of a risk to talk politics, but I think it's good sometimes. Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Romans 13 verse one teaches us that there's no authority but from God, and those which exist are established by God. As such, all governments owe allegiance to the Lord Jesus, and may be said to be righteous if and only if they govern in a manner that Jesus would approve of. Wisdom involves himself in politics according to verses 15 and 16. Therefore, politicians will be held accountable to how well they ministered, and you will be held accountable for your political involvement or lack thereof. And so the question is, are you being wise in this area? Are politicians being wise in this area? And when I say wise, I mean by the only true wise standard, the Christian standard. Many of you, and I include myself in this, many of you get your political views and cultural commentary from heretical and non-Christian conservative resources, and we need to be more careful as to what we listen to online, because a Christless conservatism is a dangerous thing. At the very best, at the very best, it takes the wisdom of Christianity without giving our Lord any due credit. Their end is never the glory of God, It's never about advancing the kingdom. We may have similar short-term goals, but we do need to be careful. I am skipping verse 17 through now. I think that will be how I conclude, but let's continue on to verses 18 and 19. This is the fifth doctrine, the immense value of wisdom. We can also see this idea presented in verses 10 and 11. 10 and 11 talk about I'll just read it. Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice. Gold for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Jesus Christ is better than rubies. He's better than silver, gold. He is far superior to all the riches of the world. And verse 11 says he cannot even be compared. So we can't just say Jesus is better than gold. but he's on just such a different level that you cannot compare the two. This is why Jesus asks in Matthew chapter 16, what does it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? This world and everything in it is complete rubbish compared to Christ. He is most precious and excellent in all of his ways. What words can rightly tell of his majesty and beauty? How can one like myself accurately preach his worth? He is God, he's infinite in worthiness. And if I were to go on for the rest of my life, I'd only be able to scratch the surface of how valuable he is. Perhaps it's suffice to say for now, just the words that are proclaimed to God in Revelation chapter four, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. And this is our wisdom. This is the Christ Jesus whom we worship. Next, I want to talk about the call of wisdom, and that will conclude in verses 32 through 36. In verses 32 through 35, we have words of encouragement, and then our very last verse in this chapter, we have a solemn warning. So let's begin with the words of encouragement, verses 32 through 35. I'll read it. Now, therefore, hearken unto me, O you children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. So if I have failed in all else today, I do have comfort in this one thing, that in hearing these words of Holy Scripture, the spirit of Christ is working right now in your hearts. Hear what he has said to you today. His desire is to bless you and to continue to bless you. And his instruction is this, keep his ways, seek his face and cling to the cross of your salvation. In verse 34, it talks about blessed is the man that heareth me. Because there is such a blessing to wisdom, to those who are students of wisdom, disciples of wisdom, Proverbs should therefore be regularly studied. It's a fountain of wisdom, and God promises to bless those who read it. And what does this blessing look like? What does it mean to be blessed by wisdom? We all know the blessing of salvation, but if you consider that there are also, in a sense, worldly blessings, what do these blessings look like? I mean, look around you. Look at our church. Look at our families. Look at how many wonderful testimonies we have of God's favor. We are a spiritual congregation. God has blessed us. He's blessed us. He's also planted quite a number of smart, healthy, successful people in this church. And the reason I phrase it like that is this is not the prosperity gospel, but there's a real sense in which God has built a general promise of prosperity to those who seek after wisdom. Wisdom generally begets temporal prosperity. But specifically this verse, this chapter in verse 35, speaks of the particular blessing of life and favor. Whoever seeks the Lord shall find him. And if you're here today and you're feeling backslidden or unworthy or maybe you're in a dark spot with your spiritual quiet time or whatever it looks like, run to Jesus. His arms are wide open. You will not find condemnation at His feet, but you will find favor and blessing and life eternal. Verse 36, this is our word of warning. There are some here this evening that do not have peace with God, but have only a carnal wisdom which does not descend from God above. And this strange wisdom, this foreign wisdom that does not proceed from the mouth of God, and his son Jesus Christ is, according to James chapter three, it is worldly, sensual, and demonic. And this word of waywardness is given to you so that, in the words of verse 36, you will not wrong your own soul. Do not end up in hell. Little ones here, children, your parents have been praying for your salvation. They want you to know the Lord that we speak of. They want you to know the wisdom of Christ. In no uncertain terms, I want to ask you, do you desire death? Our text says that those who hate wisdom, who do not care much about Jesus, they love death. Jesus doesn't want you to go to hell and that's why He presents this good news to you. Seek Him early, young ones. Seek Him now and you will find Him. Confess your sins and lay down your guilt at the feet of Jesus. He promises, as an absolute promise, that He will love you everlastingly and grant you wisdom if you come. Our pastor reminded us this morning about the deceitfulness of sin and do not be hardened through it. Don't treat this just as another, oh yeah, he talked about Jesus and how I need to be saved again. Don't harden yourself through that. It'd be so much harder to reconsider the offer next time. We're not playing games with this. We exhort you, come, repent, believe. Today is the day of salvation. Come to Jesus tonight. And we know that the gospel is not just for the spiritually dead, but it's for the living. The gospel is for us. It's for the church. It's for those that Jesus died for. And so, fellow Christians, you must seek God's face. For in his loving kindness, he loves those who love him. And so Reformed Baptist Church of Louisville, know that Jesus loves you. He loves you with an undying wisdom. He went to that cross because of you. He loves you immensely. So what I wanted to get out today is that wisdom is the person of Jesus Christ. Behold our risen Lord. He is the king of wisdom and he is worthy of worship. Let's bow together in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your glorious gospel. We thank you for wisdom. We thank you for the truth of the gospel. And we ask, Lord, that These words would not be just faint passing words, but Lord, that they would pierce us to our heart, that we would truly consider who Jesus is and that he is wise, that he is wisdom itself. Lord, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for the book of Proverbs. And we ask, Lord, that you would make us disciples of wisdom, disciples of Christ, that we would grow more in the wisdom and knowledge of our salvation and our savior. Lord, please be with us today and continue to grow us in our love for you. And it's all in the matchless name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.