Proverbs 8 (June 23, 2024)

Proverbs 8 as a Call to Wisdom

Turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 8, we're continuing going through our summer series in Proverbs. And Proverbs 8 is a beautiful poem about wisdom. And wisdom is the point of the book of Proverbs.

It is about how to gain wisdom, which is the art and the skill of living well in God's world. And so let's just jump right into Proverbs chapter 8. I want to read the first 11 verses to start with. And what we see here in these first 11 verses is a call to wisdom.

Let's read. God's Word says, Does not wisdom cry out? And understanding lift up her voice. She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, beside the way where the paths meet. She cries out by the gates at the entry of the city, at the entrance of the doors.

To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O you simple ones, understand prudence. And you fools, be of understanding heart. Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things.

For my mouth will speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are with righteousness. Nothing crooked or perverse is in them. They are all plain to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.

Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. Amen. This is God's Word to us this morning.

What we see here is a call to wisdom. And these verses, they remind us of Proverbs chapter 1. Back in Proverbs chapter 1, there was another call to wisdom, where wisdom calls out to the streets. And again here in chapter 8, wisdom is calling out to the city.

And this really is set up in contrast to the chapter 7 that we looked at last week. It's set up in contrast to the immoral woman of chapter 7. If you remember last week, she was loud and rebellious in the streets, calling out with flattering words to young men lacking in understanding.

And here, wisdom is personified as Lady Wisdom, a graceful and dignified woman calling out from the prominent and important places in the city, the highest hills and the city gates. And this stands in contrast to the immoral woman and her dark alleys.

And so Lady Wisdom, see in verse 4, she calls out to all humanity, to men and the sons of men. And like the immoral woman of chapter 7, who called out to a young man devoid of understanding, Lady Wisdom also calls out to the simple ones and the foolish.

But rather than preying on those without understanding, like the immoral woman did, wisdom calls out to the simple and the foolish in order to make them wise. Verses 6 through 11 tell us of the excellencies of wisdom.

The Truthfulness and Clarity of Wisdom

We see that first, wisdom speaks truth. Wisdom speaks truth. See there in verse 7, for my mouth will speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. See, all the words of Lady Wisdom's mouth are righteousness.

Nothing crooked or perverse in them. Wisdom deals in the truth. And so if you want to be wise, and I hope you do, then you must deal in the truth. Nothing crooked nor perverse. Oh, that we would be a people who love the truth, who speak the truth, who listen to the truth.

For the truth makes one wise, and the truth sets one free. In our day, truth is under assault. Even the very notion that there's something as objective truth is viewed with suspicion. That's why we hear phrases like, my truth or your truth, which is nonsense.

There is no possession on truth. Something is either true or it is false, but it's not dependent upon anyone's subjective view. Something is either true or it is false, but it is not dependent upon whether one accepts it as true or not.

It just is. And truth is derived from God's Word, from God. So let us be done with any business of, well that's true for you, that's true for me, or not true for me. No. It's either true or it's false, and that depends entirely upon the reality of what God has said, and what God has done.

And so Wisdom's mouth speaks truth, and the wise today will speak truth. Verse 9 goes on to say that Wisdom's words are plain to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. So here's the thing.

I know there are some tough things in the Bible. There are some things that are less clear than other places in the Bible. Things that are hard to understand, but for the most part, as far as it relates to our daily lives, and how we're to obey God, and to live well in God's world, and live under His blessing, the problem is not that the Bible is not plain.

In fact, the Bible is often too plain. The problem, not with the Bible, but with us, the problem is that it's very clear, and it just doesn't say what we want it to say. We often don't want to obey it because of our sinful nature, and so we try to make it complex.

And so the classic example of this is the college freshman, who's a faithful high school student, he comes back at Thanksgiving after being away for a few months, and now all of a sudden he has a lot of questions.

Now all of a sudden he is, he's very skeptical of everything in the faith, and he wants to make things complicated, and the wise pastor will then ask him, what's her name, and how long have y 'all been sitting together?

Because the problem isn't that God's word is not plain. The problem is he wants to disobey it, and so he tries to complicate things to give him enough wiggle room for his desired sin. But to the one who has understanding, Proverbs says here, to the one who finds knowledge, wisdom's words are plain and right.

And so the question is not about God's word, the question is about our hearts. The question is about our hearts. Verses 10 and 11 then highlight the excellency of wisdom in contrast to material wealth.

And we see that wisdom's instruction is better than silver. Wisdom's instruction is better than gold and rubies. And in these two succinct verses, the writer strikes a blow both to crass materialism and creation denying aestheticism.

In other words, he does not deny the goodness of material wealth. It's not that gold and silver and rubies are dollars or bad. Rather, he assumes the worth of these things. He assumes the worth of gold and silver and rubies in order to make his point that wisdom is better.

His point is that gold and silver and rubies are not ultimate, and there are some things that are better than riches. And wisdom is better. Knowing how to live well in God's world according to his word and apply that in every situation, that's better than riches.

Wisdom is excellent. As we'll see in just a bit, it comes from God. And so the call to us is always to get wisdom. Verses 12 through 21 then show wisdom's effectiveness in the world. Let's read those verses together.

Wisdom in the World, Rulers, and Public Life

Verses 12 through 21 in God's word says, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence and find out knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance in the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me, kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me, princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.

Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I traverse the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of justice, that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, that I may fill their treasuries.

We see here that wisdom brings forth prudence, knowledge, discretion, counsel, understanding, strength. These are things that we want, right? We want these things in our lives. We want to cultivate these.

Thing is, there's no shortcuts, there's no workarounds. You will get true knowledge and discretion and strength from pursuing divine wisdom. You won't actually get it from any so-called wisdom derived from man.

So if we want to cultivate these attributes in our lives, we want to develop knowledge and discretion and counsel and understanding and strength, then we must give our ear to the call of wisdom. And where do we find it?

Find it in God's holy word. These things are written for our instruction, and God, by His Holy Spirit, uses His word to make us wise. And then we see the effectiveness of wisdom in the world, because armed with prudence and knowledge and discretion, counsel, understanding and strength, wisdom, through God's people, is effective in the world, as God's people rightly order and rule God's world and instead as His image bearers.

But we know that there are always snares. There's always traps. There's always ditches to fall into. Sin is always lurking around the corner, ready to pray, ready to pounce. We receive instruction here in these verses in Proverbs 8.

If I could skip ahead to Proverbs 9 for just one second, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Then in verse 13 here in chapter 8 says that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Therefore it is wise to hate evil.

See the first step to avoiding those snares, traps and ditches is to hate them. Now we've been conditioned that hate is bad. Love is good and hate is bad, we're told in the world. But if I could just be a grammar nerd for just one moment and quote another pastor, there is no virtue in an intransitive verb.

That is a verb with no direct object. In other words if I say I love or if I say I hate without any direct object, you have no idea yet if I'm being virtuous or not. I love feeding the hungry. Well that would be good, that would be virtuous.

I love putting poison in their soup. Not so virtuous. I hate tall people because I'm short. That would be bad. I hate pornography. That would be good. You see hate is not a bad thing. It just depends on the direct object.

It is good and it is right and it is godly to hate certain things, the things that God calls sin. And so wisdom is loving what God loves and hating what God hates. Verse 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

And the strength of your hatred of evil will directly correlate with the strength of your love for what is good, true and glorious. In other words we often don't hate sin and evil enough because we don't love holiness and righteousness enough.

And we don't see the threat that sin and evil poses to those things that we love. We don't see the threat that sin and evil poses to the things that are holy and righteous and good and true and glorious in this world.

And not hating sin and evil, what we end up doing is we normalize it. We domesticate it. We coddle it. We get close and familiar with it and when that happens our guard is down and the trap is sprung.

And so the call to you today is to cultivate your tastes. Cultivate your loves. Love the things that are good and true and glorious with godly strength and then learn to hate the evil that threatens it.

This is wisdom. Another area where we see the effectiveness of wisdom in the world is in rulers. Verses 15 and 16. Say by me that is this is wisdom talking. By wisdom. By me kings reign and rulers decree justice.

By me wisdom princes rule and nobles all the judges of the earth. You see the work of ruling and reigning and judging and doing justice in the world is all the work of wisdom. It is taking God's word and applying it in the world in very specific ways that deal with the public good.

It's the work of taking knowledge as revealed by scripture. It is taking knowledge as revealed in general revelation and applying it in God's world among people. Therefore those who rule must have wisdom.

I want to make three points here about wisdom and rulers and the first is that we should desire Christian rulers. Non-Christians can know many things by God's grace and natural revelation. It's common grace.

But even that knowledge is going to be corrupted by their sin and their sin nature. Their reasoning is darkened. True wisdom is found only in Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found or are stored in Christ.

And so if true wisdom is found only in Christ and rulers governed by wisdom which we see in verse 15 then we should desire Christian rulers. And then specifically under political conditions where we don't have a king like verse 15 is talking about.

We have a different set of political conditions like a constitutional republic which we still have on paper maybe not in reality. It's a conversation for another day. If we have that then we should desire that that political order be explicitly Christian.

And so we say down with secularism. It's a cancer and a curse. In our nation we have tried to pretend that neutrality is an option. That we can have a naked public square. That we can have religion that is privatized.

But we're just pretending because neutrality is a myth. We don't live in a world where that's possible. The world that we live in you're either aligned with Christ or aligned with the devil. We can have a nation that is ordered around Christ and his word or we can have a nation that is ordered around the various schemes of Satan.

Kings reign by wisdom verse 15 says. They will either reign by the wisdom of God or the perverted wisdom of the world. Our fathers in the faith knew this. They understood this. If you go read Christians from previous eras a couple hundred years ago you'd be scandalized by their beliefs on religion and politics.

But they had more wisdom than we do. They saw things clearer than we do. Especially in post war America. Americans have tried to develop a system where religion had no formal place in governance. And while we had enough Christian cultural capital in our nation to keep things going for a while we are now seeing the wheels falling off.

And we're seeing rival gods assert themselves. And so Christians need to be reminded that it is good to desire Christian rulers and explicitly Christian political order. Because what we see here in verses 15 and 16.

Rulers govern by wisdom. Rulers reign by wisdom. And true wisdom is only found in Christ. And so if you want the best conditions for human flourishing then you must have a Christian government. This leads to the next point.

While we do believe in a separation of spheres. A separation of the formal institutions of church and state. We do not believe in a separation of religion and state. We do not believe in a separation of God and state.

Rather all governments that God has ordained. The household or family. The church and the state. All of them are under Christ. All of them are ruled by Christ. And so fathers and pastors and presidents all report to King Jesus.

Therefore all including political rulers are obligated to obey Jesus and his word. And I make those two points in order to say this. That one of the schemes of the devil is in his war on Christ is to neutralize Christians.

For Christians to be timid in asserting the claims of Christ in every area. Every domain of human existence. For Christians to be timid in asserting the claims of Christ and in exercising their political will.

And so I want to encourage Christians. I want to encourage you. Gather here this morning. Exercise your will. Impress the claims of Christ into every area of life. We talk about it here at First Baptist.

We want to teach all of the Bible for all of life. We want to impress the claims of Christ into every aspect of life. And that would include the public square. This both glorifies Christ and it is also good for your neighbor.

It is good for the community. It is good for the nation. To be ordered according to Christ and his word. Because those things are true. It's true north. So do not be intimidated into being sheepish citizens.

It's not wrong to desire and work for an explicitly Christian government. Then third point here is this. Pray. Rulers govern and make judgments by wisdom. And so we ought to pray for those in high places.

We ought to pray for those in authority. That they might have true wisdom found in Christ. We're instructed in First Timothy chapter 2 by Paul. We're instructed to pray for those in authority over us.

That's why every Sunday in our pastoral prayer we pray for government leaders as a church. This morning we prayed for Traveler's Rest City leaders. And we pray for them because we want them to be filled with God's wisdom.

And we want them filled with God's wisdom then to rule, govern, lead accordingly. And in accordance with his word. Keep going in this passage verses 17 through 21. We then see the effectiveness of wisdom in the world through the effect of blessings that wisdom brings.

If you seek wisdom verse 17. If you seek wisdom you will find it. Verse 18 there are manifold blessings for those who get wisdom. Riches and honor. Verse 19 we see that riches are better than fine gold and choice silver.

Verse 21 we see that there's wealth in the treasuries. And so the call is to seek wisdom and you will find it. Seek wisdom and you will be blessed. This isn't some sort of get rich quick scheme or prosperity gospel nonsense.

But it is teaching that if you seek wisdom and apply it. If you cut with the grain of reality of how God has ordered and made and designed the world. Then it will generally go well for you. And God will bless you in the ways that he chooses.

And we remember that some of those blessings according to his word are much better than very fine gold. Verses 22 through 31 then tell us of the divine origin of wisdom. And really for this section I just want to read it and make a few brief comments and then spend the rest of our time on verses 32 through 36.

So let me read verses 22 through 31. God's word says, the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old. I have been established from everlasting. From the beginning before there was ever an earth.

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 I was brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep. When he established the clouds above. When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters would not transgress his command.

When he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was beside him as a master craftsman. And I was daily his delight. Rejoicing always before him. Rejoicing in his inhabited world. And my delight was with the sons of men.

Here we see that God is the fountainhead. The origin of wisdom. In these verses we see wisdom before the foundations of the world. We see wisdom with God. There in verse 30 and some would say here that we see that wisdom is God.

Some commentators see wisdom here as Christ. Regardless what we see for sure is that God is the fountainhead of wisdom. If you're going to get wisdom. If you're going to be wise. If you're going to have the art and the skill of living well in God's world and taking his word and applying it rightly in every domain of human existence.

Then you must go to God to get it. He's the only place to find it. And so I encourage you today. Go to God. Make it a habit of your life to go to God. Go to God in prayer. Go to God in his word. Go to God in worship on the Lord's day.

Commune with God. Live with God. Walk with God. And be wise. It's the only place to get wisdom. And then lastly we come to verses 32 through 36. Now therefore listen to me my children. For blessed are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction and be wise and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at my gates. Waiting at the post of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life. And obtains favor from the Lord.

But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death. Verse 32 begins now therefore. Having heard the call of wisdom. Crying aloud in the streets. From the highest hills. From the city gates.

Having heard the call of wisdom. Having heard the glory of wisdom. Having heard the effectiveness of wisdom in the world and the blessings of wisdom that come to those who seek it and find it in God. Therefore having heard all of that listen to me my children.

God's word says keep wisdom's ways. Do not disdain them. You see the contrast there? We either look to God and see his wise ways we look to God and we find that in the form of his commandments. We find that in the form of his word and we either keep those ways or we scoff at them.

We either keep his ways or we look on them with disdain. We either look to them with attention and watchfulness or we discard them with contempt. And the instruction is therefore having heard all of this listen to me.

Keep wisdom's ways and you'll be blessed. Keep wisdom's ways and you'll be wise. It is good to insist on obedience to God's word. It is good to insist on keeping what God has said. As I say often insisting on obedience is not legalism.

That's not stuffy religion. It's what Jesus calls it is love. If you love me you will keep my commandments. And what we see here in Proverbs chapter 8 is if we keep his commandments we will be blessed.

What does it mean to be blessed? What does that word mean? We see it often in scripture. It means to be happy and satisfied. To be merry. To have a deep and abiding heart. Deep joy and contentment. You want that life?

You want that deep and abiding joy? You want that happiness? You want that satisfaction? You want that acceptance? You want that contentment? God's word tells us how to get it. Go to God and get wisdom.

Keep his ways and do not disdain them. Love God's word and cherish it. Like we said last week let God's word have its full weight. Be eager to keep his word. Remembering that God is the one who made you.

God is the one who designed you. God is the one who designed the world that you inhabit. He knows what will satisfy your soul and he knows what will destroy it. And so love what God loves. Hate what God hates and keep his word accordingly.

And if you do verse 35 tells us you will find life. Abundant life. Life to the full here on earth and eternal life with God in heaven forever. You will find life. You will find favor it says. That is you'll find acceptance in God.

Approval from God. But here's the thing. If you will not heed wisdom's call. If you turn a deaf ear to her crying out from the city gates. Verse 36 tells us you do harm to your own soul. If instead of hating sin and evil you coddle it instead.

You domesticate it instead. You make it familiar and close. You kind of make friends with it instead. If you hate wisdom instead of hating evil. What God's word says is you will find death instead of life.

For all who hate wisdom verse 36 says love death. And so there are two paths before us as there always is. There's life and there's death. And the call is to run to God and live. To run to Christ and live.

To keep God's word and live. To love God's word and live. To seek wisdom and live. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven our simple prayer this morning is this. Give us wisdom. Teach us to love what you love and to hate what you hate.

Make those things clear to us. Lead us by your spirit into your word. Cultivate our taste. Cultivate our desires. Cultivate our loves in such a way that we love what you love and hate what you hate. Teach us to keep your commandments.

Teach us to live rightly in your world. Help us to know how to take what you say in your word and then see a situation in our lives with other people and all sorts of variables of a situation. And by your spirit help us to apply your word rightly in a way that is good for our neighbor.

In a way that glorifies your name. In a way that points to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus and following him and worshiping the triune and true God. Worth more than choice silver, fine gold or rubies.

Lord teach us to live in such a way that your name might be magnified and glorified here on earth. And that it may go well with us, with our families, with our community. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.