The Tree of Life & Wisdom, Pt. 2

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Is Protestantism Heresy? Pt. 3 - The Pope | Collision w/ Jeff Durbin

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If you would open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, Proverbs chapter 3, starting in verse 13,

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Proverbs 3, 13. Hear now the word of the living and the true God.

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Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.

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She is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire can compare with her.

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Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

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She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed.

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The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding he established the heavens.

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By his knowledge the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. My son, do not lose sight of these.

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Keep sound wisdom and discretion and there will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.

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Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid.

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When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes.

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For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray together as his people. God, please bless the word today that comes forward into your church.

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We pray that you would bless by your spirit, that you would convict us, show us where we're off, where we stray, heal us.

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I pray that you would, Lord, by your spirit through your word, teach all of us today.

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I pray that, Lord, you would do so getting me out of the way. And that your people would remember your word and be transformed by your word and not the words of a mere man.

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May Christ increase, may I decrease, in Jesus' name, amen. So last week, we talked about Proverbs 3 .13

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-18. And rather than summarize the entire message here,

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I think it's important for you to go back and listen to that because I believe this is a solid look at a section.

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And what I try to make the point of last week is that wisdom here is personified as a woman, beautiful, and it's personified in such a way, she's personified in such a way as to hold it up for you to look at her, to gaze at her beauty, to gaze at her benefits.

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It's being held up. No demands are being made of you. So there's no challenging words in terms of, you know, this is not the right way, do it this way.

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My son, do this. It's just being held up. Wisdom is beautiful. Wisdom has benefits.

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Wisdom will make you happy. And it's just being held up. This is wisdom. It's God's wisdom.

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And so we're seeing wisdom on display, and God's sort of showing her off and telling you, this is what wisdom will bring you.

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This is what she's like. These are the benefits of wisdom. This is the happiness of wisdom. That's what's happening in this section.

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And what I talked about last week was verse 13 and 18, our bookends, that talk about the happiness of wisdom.

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So back to it, just so you can see in terms of wisdom personified and the blessings of wisdom.

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It says, blessed, verse 13, is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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In verse 18, she's a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed.

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We talk about the beatitude, the blessing, the happiness of wisdom, that pursuit of happiness that every image bearer of God has.

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You're not going to escape it. You won't escape it. God made you because he is the happy God to be happy in him, to glorify him, to enjoy him.

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Image bearers of God can't escape being what they are, in God's world. You can't escape it. And though you try to muddy it, though you try to distort it, though you try to exchange it, you're not going to escape that instinct in all of humanity to be happy.

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God is a happy God. We talked about that verse in the New Testament. And so we have here wisdom giving you that beatitude that here's the blessing, here's the happiness of wisdom.

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If you find her, she is a tree of life, you're going to be happy. This is what wisdom brings.

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Jesus, who is wisdom incarnate in that Sermon on the Mount, gives the beatitudes.

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Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed, blessed, blessed. There's these bestowals of happiness upon, happiness from God, I believe, upon those who are this and that.

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And happy is the one who finds wisdom. It's bookended there. Wisdom is personified as a woman.

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And the blessings and the beauty of the woman come to us by way of saying her gain is better than anything you can imagine.

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Silver, gold, precious jewels, you really can't compare anything to her.

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So all your desire for riches and investing in things with great gain in return, that can't be compared to what you'll get from pursuing the wisdom that is from above.

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God's wisdom. Wisdom is being held up to you. Look at wisdom. She is beautiful.

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She will make you happy. She will give you long life. That's what's being said here.

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Wisdom is something to gaze upon and be in awe of. She is beautiful.

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And what is said about her is she has two hands. And what she's holding here is long life in one hand.

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And scripture, I said, is consumed with this theme of life, life versus death.

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From the very beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible to the ministry of Jesus, it is life, life, life, eternal life, because that's our plight as human beings.

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Death enters into humanity because of the curse, because of the fall itself. And so scripture, this redemptive story from God, his love letter to us, is talking to us about life.

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The beginning of the Bible, life. The end of the Bible, life. The middle of the Bible here, we have Proverbs.

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And we have wisdom being displayed as a tree of life.

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That's the glory of wisdom. Her ways, one hand is life. The left hand has riches and honor, the benefits, the beauty, the glory of wisdom, pleasantness, paths of peace.

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There's so much in Proverbs about a path where there is stumbling and there is darkness.

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And wisdom gives you a path where there is peace, where there is pleasantness, where there is light.

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Always a contrast. There is death, there is life. There is stumbling, there is standing.

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There is not being ensnared. And the end here, verse 18, those who hold her fast are called blessed, happy.

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So there's the review. In verse 19 through 20, it says the Lord, Yahweh, by wisdom founded the earth.

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By understanding, He established the heavens. By His knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.

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Again, no demands are being made here, right? There's not the challenging ethical principle smacking you in the face, right?

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Challenging your mind and your heart and looking inward at your behavior. Oh no, do I do that? Do I live that way?

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It's not happening here. It's just being held up so that you can see its glory. Look, here is life and pleasantness and peace and happiness.

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And by the way, this is how God founded the earth, by wisdom.

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This is the first mention in Proverbs where wisdom is associated with creation itself, that creation story.

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The next part where wisdom is gonna be associated with creation is actually a couple chapters later.

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Go look, Proverbs chapter eight. It comes again.

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Proverbs eight, verse 22. It says, the

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Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old.

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Ages ago, I was set up at the first before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths,

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I was brought forth. When there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills,

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I was brought forth, before He had made the earth with its fields or the first of the dust of the world.

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When He established the heavens, I was there. When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when

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He made firm the skies above, when He established the foundations of the deep, when

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He assigned to the sea its limits so that the waters might not transgress His command, when

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He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him like a master workman, and I was daily

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His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

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So there it is again. Clearly, it's something God wants us to understand that before He actually created everything, the heavens and the earth, before He laid the foundation, before He made all this spectacular stuff, it was wisdom there at the foundation from the beginning.

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It is a powerful thought because it's highlighting the beauty and the power of God's wisdom.

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You see, what's being displayed to us, what we're supposed to pay attention to here as wisdom is held up and the blessings and the beauty and the benefits are being shouted to us, this is

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God's wisdom, wisdom from above. What's supposed to awe us is the complexity and the rhythm of creation.

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They're displayed here in Proverbs 3 to vindicate the glory of God's knowledge,

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His understanding, His power, and His wisdom. That's what's happening here. God, let's be simple, ready?

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God knows more than you, okay? He's more powerful than you, He's all -knowing.

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God is God. He's the only wise God. And before there was ever creation, there was the knowledge of God, there's the understanding of God, there's the beauty of God, there's the power of God, there's the wisdom of God.

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And the point here being told to creatures who sometimes can't even find our car keys, right?

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We can't even hold our own lives together, our days together. We forget names and places and stories and things.

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We can't put things together. I mean, I'm the kind of guy, there's certain things that I can do,

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I'm gifted at it, I have gifts, and certain things that I'm not gifted at, like fixing anything at home.

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When things break at home, I have to call real men to come over to help. Whether it's toilets, whether it's cabinets or whatever, my wife has a lot of grace for her husband because there are gifts that I do have and she understands gifts that I do not have.

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I can't even fix basic household things, right? That's me as a creature, that's my lack of understanding, my lack of knowledge.

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The point being made here to creatures is here's wisdom, my son, don't let it depart from you.

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Wisdom was there from the beginning before God made anything as complex with so much rhythm, the symphony that He made, wisdom was there,

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God's wisdom. That's the point. It's a vindication of the glory of God's knowledge, understanding, power, and wisdom.

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And it's something that can't be missed as hard as you try, as much as you might be a rebel against God and you try to suppress

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God's knowledge and you say, nope, I don't wanna think about God, I don't want God in my knowledge,

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I will not obey God. As much as you try to live that life, you can't escape it.

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I've mentioned before, it's one of my favorite moments, the film Collision where Christopher Hitchens debates our friend,

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Pastor Douglas Wilson. There's a, I believe the end of that movie, they caught a moment, a candid moment between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson in the limousine while they were traveling from one place to another.

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And Hitchens, I think he might've been having one or two in the pub before they got in the car, so he was a little loose and maybe said some things that he wouldn't normally say out loud,

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I don't know. I've never heard him say it any other time. But one of the things that he mentions that is the hardest thing for the atheist to overcome from his perspective, it's just inescapable, the hardest thing to overcome is the fact that all of life, all of creation, everything, there is so much machinery here and so much mechanically happening and so much that has to work together in a symphony, he says that the one thing that's hard to overcome is that all of life is on a razor's edge.

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One degree to the left or to the right and life isn't possible.

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One degree to the left or to the right in almost everything, every system, from your cells to your organs to your eyeballs to your sexual organs.

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The complexity there is astonishing, the wisdom, the understanding of God. Then you move its way out from the human being and the human mind and you get into the complexity of the world and it's mentioned here in Proverbs chapter three, it's the thing that Christopher Hitchens said, it's the hardest thing to overcome because all of life is on that razor's edge.

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Everything, there's such a symphony, such a tuning to it, such a power to it, you just can't avoid it.

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He says the hardest thing to overcome. Now that's not Christopher Hitchens' problem. It wasn't his problem.

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It was sinful rebellion, but he still, as this hardcore atheist, knew he couldn't escape the order, the rhythm of creation, the symphony of design going on, that wisdom all around us.

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And Proverbs is holding that up to you and I, the creature. My son, look at her.

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This is how God did it before the world even began. It was in wisdom that God did this. God is wise.

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He knows more than you. He's not a creature like you. He's God, he's the creator.

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This is what God is like. This is what God is like. When we're talking about wisdom in scripture, we're talking about this is the way

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God is, right? Wisdom isn't standing above God. Wisdom isn't something that God is appealing to outside of himself.

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God is the only wise God. That's in the doxology of Romans 16 at the very end.

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The only wise God. This is what God is like and wisdom is now being displayed. Look at her.

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Look at this wisdom creature. Does that appeal to you? Is that convincing to you?

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Is it convincing enough that your ways are not right? That you are limited and he is infinite?

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He's not like you. And this is the wisdom of God. Not only the blessings of wisdom, this is what you get, the beatitude of wisdom, the happiness of wisdom, but God, by wisdom, founded the earth.

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By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.

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Here is sort of an old ancient Hebrew divinely inspired word that just points out the simple thing that you and I need for survival.

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One of the mechanics of the world. And that is the water cycle.

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Just the water cycle. Look at this. You are fully dependent upon this. And here's the thing.

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No matter how advanced you get in human reason and systems and science, you are still gonna be fully dependent upon the water cycle.

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And you didn't do that. And it is powerful and it is glorious. There is the micro, the smaller level.

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There's the macro, the overarching things. And this water cycle is a powerful thing being highlighted to stupefy you.

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You see, you have to think, when you think about the water cycle being described here, and God, in his wisdom, founded the earth.

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By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew.

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Just if you start at the bottom level at just water. I can't do an entire explanation now on just water itself, but water itself is so complex and powerful.

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It is so precise that it does exactly what we need it to do so that we can get our hands on it.

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And so it can be in different forms. So that sea life can survive in it.

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And so that it actually can evaporate and come over and drop down the water to water our food so that we can survive.

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There's this cycle. There's this rhythm. There's this symphony happening. And the author of Proverbs here is highlighting that to the creature.

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God did that in his own knowledge, with his own wisdom. That was there first. He knows more than you.

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He's smarter than you. He is wise. Pursue God's wisdom.

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That's what's being said. If you think about the complexity, it's not just in how this comes up and then goes over and drops down.

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It is complexity at the molecular level that is just perfect so that you can drink it, so that it can actually rise and it can fall.

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But you also have other orders that are taking place. For example, you can talk all day long about the complexity of that water cycle.

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How it rises up and how it falls down. How it gives us the food and life is just in this cycle.

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But you can go further than that and think about this, that the water cycle is what it is, yes, but it is only what it is because it's in a symphony.

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Each thing in a symphony is complex and difficult as it is.

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So each instrument you can hear all by itself and each one took skill, each one takes understanding and each one may be complex and beautiful all by itself, but when it comes together, it can fill your eyes with tears.

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You feel it in your chest, you feel it in your throat because it becomes a symphony and the water cycle itself being highlighted to creatures about God's wisdom is one aspect, but you can go beyond that and say, well, that's one thing, the complexity of water,

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H2O and the water cycle, but guess what? It goes beyond that in God's understanding and knowledge and creation because if the moon was just a little closer or a little farther away, life isn't possible.

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If we were a little closer or a little farther away from the sun, life isn't possible.

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Each thing has its own order and mechanics, but it works together in this glorious symphony and so what is the writer of Proverbs saying here to sinners like us, to creatures like us, it's saying, son, there's like a kneeling down, son, don't depart from this.

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This is the happiness of wisdom. This is the fruit and the blessing of wisdom and here is the glory of wisdom.

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It's God's wisdom. It's God's wisdom. It's a powerful thing.

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We could talk about this for days, but if you look at what God is saying here, it's actually mentioned somewhere else besides Proverbs chapter eight in Proverbs.

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In Proverbs chapter 24, go there. In the same vein, in the same way,

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Proverbs chapter 24 verses three through four, you see wisdom being associated again with building.

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Proverbs 24 three says, by wisdom, a house is built and by understanding, it is established.

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By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches and so wisdom here is being compared to a foundation building a house.

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Same idea. Wisdom is what God had there at the foundation when he built the world.

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In Tremper Longman's commentary, he makes a point and I think it's actually, it was interesting.

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The language has already been used in Proverbs to this point. Wisdom, competence, knowledge is actually the same.

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They're the same things that are referenced in other places in Scripture in reference to building things and creating things.

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I'll give you just one example so you can spend time on this and think through it. I think it's actually a good point to observe.

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If you look at Exodus chapter 31. Exodus, that's to the left. Exodus 31, one of the first five books of the

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Bible. Exodus 31. Those same words and concepts are used here in Exodus 31 verses one through three in reference to the temple.

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So again, we have wisdom from God. We have wisdom, competence, knowledge at the foundation of the building of the world, the creation of the cosmos and the building and the construction of the temple itself.

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The Lord said to Moses, see, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the spirit of God with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship.

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So you have these same concepts in terms of building and creating, wisdom, knowledge, competence, all there in God's cosmos building and the construction of the temple.

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There's another example you can check out later for the Theology Nerds, Solomon's Temple, 1

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Kings 7, 14. But again, let's highlight this. Wisdom here in this proverb is being displayed.

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No demands are being made. It's just beauty to behold. Just check her out.

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We all understand this in terms of when you go to an art show and you see something that is beautiful, that's supposed to just inspire awe.

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Or one of the things, I think it's one of the most beautiful things in the world is Trinity College in Ireland, in Dublin.

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Trinity College in Dublin. It's a powerful thing to behold. What's that?

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The book room, yeah. So when you go into this place, you can take tours there. Doesn't take long at all.

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You just, it's a quick walkthrough. You go into this place, and one of the things I love the most about it, as soon as you walk in, is the smell, right?

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The smell itself. But when you walk in, it's amazing to see a bunch of humans that go from just daily living their lives, just doing whatever, not paying much attention to what's around them, to walk into a place like this, where just the structure awes you, the beauty of it.

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And it's just a library, but it's gorgeous. It's kind of, it's breathtaking. And there's so much to it in terms of the smells and the colors and the beauty of it all.

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It's one of those things where you just, human beings just go into it, and they just stop, and you stare at this place.

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Churches used to be like that. Old school churches. If the Lord ever gives us the ability, I'd love to build a church like that.

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Something that speaks to the creative power of God, the glory of God. But they used to be like that. The kind of things that you would just stop and look and say, this speaks to God's wisdom.

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This speaks to God's understanding. This speaks to God's own creativity. It's the sort of thing we all understand, and that's what's happening with wisdom here.

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She's being propped up for you to look at her. Gaze upon her, be in awe of her.

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You're just required to look at her. You're just required to be in awe. No demands are being made. However, this isn't the only place in scripture, actually, it happens quite often like this, where God's wisdom is being portrayed and argued before creatures to basically silence you, to close your mouth.

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You know the famous scene, right? Job's interview. My wife's favorite book of the

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Bible is Job, which I think makes her weird. It's funny, I think it's amazing that it's actually her favorite book of the

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Bible, because it's such a deep and a complex book. It's a gut -wrenching book in many respects.

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Here you have a man's life that is just filled with trial and tribulation and suffering, and you have all these people around Job that are trying to fill his head with their own answers.

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You know, maybe it's happening to you because of this. Maybe it's happening to you because of this. And they're giving him such bad advice.

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And so you're just reading this sort of record of bad advice from people.

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And then it gets to the place in Job, and it's actually a larger book. It gets to a place in Job where Job has had enough.

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He's kind of broken now. The trial and the suffering and the pain of this life has paid its toll now.

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And now he's in a place where he kind of wants to interview God. He kind of demands an interview with God.

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And so he comes to God, he's like, I have some questions to ask you now. And so you know the famous scene, right?

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Where he demands the interview of God. Well, I want you to see it. I want you to see that this is an argument that God has made before to creatures to shut you up.

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In Job chapter 38, God finally answers

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Job. He responds to him, kind of, right? Kind of.

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It says in Job 38, verse one, then the Lord answered

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Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

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Dressed for action like a man, I will question you and you make it known to me.

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Don't you love it? Job's like, I have some questions. I want to sit down. I want an interview with you, God.

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I want to give you some challenges and I want an answer from you. And what's God basically saying here? All right, first I have some questions for you.

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Or how about we do it this way? I'll ask you some questions first, creature. Where were you?

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Don't you love it? Where were you? When I laid the foundation of the earth.

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There it is again. What's Proverbs say? How'd God do that? By his wisdom.

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By his knowledge. By his understanding. And so his answer to the creature, who just can't quite understand how

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God could just mess this whole thing up. He must be out of control now. He, creature, comes to God.

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I want an interview. And God says, okay, I'll ask some questions first. And he says this, where were you? Where were you?

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When I laid the foundation of the earth. Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?

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Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk?

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Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

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Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said, thus far you shall come and no farther.

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And here shall your proud waves be stayed. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?

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That it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal and its features stand out like a garment.

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From the wicked their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea?

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Or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

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Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare if you know all this.

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There's again, here's God the wise God saying to the creature, are you wanna ask me some questions? Okay, let me ask you them first.

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Where were you? Do you have any understanding creature of how

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I do all this? How I laid these foundations? What I do all the time?

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Can you understand any of these things? Did your wisdom compare? Can you hold all this together?

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And so the question coming from God is where were you? Do you have this knowledge? Do you have my understanding?

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Do you have my wisdom? You are the creature. And what's

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Job's, does everyone know? How does this conversation end? What's Job's response after God lays this smack down of the created order and God's holding all things together.

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As he lays it on Job, Job's response is to say what? He just covers his mouth.

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He says, I've spoken too soon. I can't contend with the Almighty. And that's the point.

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That's the point. You can't contend with the Almighty. You are not wise like him.

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He's the only wise God. And he says to the creature, this is wisdom.

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This is wisdom. Here's the happiness. Here's the pleasantness. Here's the peace.

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And here's how I did all of this. Can you understand this? Where were you?

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And so wisdom is being propped up as beautiful look at her, gain from her, pursue her.

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The point, you're the creature. This is God's world. He's the only wise

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God, Romans 16, 27. Now, Proverbs 3, verse 21.

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I'll let you get there. It says, my son, there's again, father -son relationship.

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Once again, throughout the Proverbs, my son is like a father talking to his child. My son, do not lose sight of these.

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Keep sound wisdom and discretion. And they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.

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Another way to say this, when it says, my son, do not lose sight of these, is don't let them slip from your eyes.

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Don't let this slip from your eyes. You see, here's the point. And I think this is probably, for me, the most important part

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I wanted to get across of the message today. I think it's the substance, it's the foundation.

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Because you can talk all day. You can talk a lot of game about wisdom and knowledge.

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You can give theological answers all day. And I think this is the core. Don't let it slip from your eyes. Don't let it slip from your eyes.

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Why? Because you live in a world, I believe, where it's easy for wisdom to slip from your eyes. You see, it's easy as Christians to talk a good game, to walk through those doors, to put on the

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God face, to have all the right theological answers. As a matter of fact, I'm not talking about anybody here, but I've met some people in all my years of being a believer, and I wasn't raised in the

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Christian church. I've met some people who profess faith in Jesus and have a lot of theological knowledge, and I would never want to have dinner with them because they are some of the meanest, rudest, coldest, unforgiving, bitter people.

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Why? Because they got a heck of a lot of knowledge, but they have no wisdom. They have no wisdom.

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It's easy, again, to talk a good game about wisdom, to have all the right answers, but here's the point.

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Don't let it slip from your eyes. Keep your eyes on wisdom. Don't let it slip.

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Don't be distracted. Don't lose sight of wisdom. Why? Because it's work in a fallen world.

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You and I have to contend in this fallen world with sinful people, with a spiritual battle, with spiritual hosts of wickedness.

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There is a spiritual war going on. You contend with all that on the outside, but don't forget, you have to contend also with what's on the inside.

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Your own sin, your own pride, your own failures. You're besetting sins, the things that you're dealing with.

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There's a war going on, and so it's my son don't let it slip from your eyes.

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Keep your eyes on wisdom. It's easy to preach.

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You have in the Bible an answer key to the test, the theological exam. It's just too easy to let go of wisdom, so it's a daily, it's a daily putting on Christ.

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It's a daily submission to God's wisdom. It is not just daily.

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It is hour by hour. It is minute by minute. It is second by second, because you're gonna have, and I'm gonna have so many moments where you're completely tempted to abandon

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God's wisdom and to fall right into the sin. For example, you can talk a good game about not meddling in a quarrel that's not your own.

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That's godly wisdom. You can talk a good game about not answering before you have all the evidence and all the sides and what scriptures say.

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One person's case sounds true till another one comes to examine them. You can talk all that wisdom and you can give the right answer on the test, but on Monday, when the people you love and are closest to you themselves start to fall into gossip, start to fall into slander, right?

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Start making accusations. Start embracing bitterness. Or when people start to try to draw you into quarrels that are not your own.

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Whatever the case may be, whatever the failure and the lack of wisdom, there's where it's easy for you to lose sight of wisdom and let it slip from your eyes.

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Because again, you can give all the right theological answers, but on Monday, when you have to have your eyes set on wisdom and now you have a lack of wisdom around you, or you're being lulled and sucked into actually living that way, that's where this has to connect.

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This is where you have to be challenged. Because it's easy to fall into a lack of wisdom, gossip, bitterness.

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You see, even the best of saints, even the strongest, the most mature, even the best of saints still have to follow this truth from God.

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What? Do not lose sight of these wisdom and discretion.

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Because even the best of saints will at times feel justified in sinning back, right?

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In other words, live in a fallen world, someone sins against you, what's your human, fallen, sinful response?

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Someone sins against me, what am I gonna do? Sin back, right? Get revenge. We justify ourselves constantly.

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Even as believers, we love Jesus, we love God's people, but we justify our sin because we say, well, this person sinned against me, and so we feel justified in taking down their dignity, saying horrible things about them, spreading lies about them, or responding with our own arrows.

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We walk without wisdom. It's easy to lose sight of wisdom, so it is day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, it is submission to God's wisdom,

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His ways. Don't lose sight of wisdom. The text says, wisdom and discretion.

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Now, I tried to copy this, because I thought it was good insight, just on this section. Good commentary on the words wisdom and insight, but I brought the whole book instead.

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This is from Tremper Longman's commentary, just this little section here, I thought it'd be a blessing in terms of the words here, wisdom and discretion.

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It says, he warns his son against letting his focus move away from the way of wisdom. He must be diligent in his cultivation of resourcefulness and discretion.

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He says, we've already seen the word resourcefulness, the word for wisdom here, before this occurrence, and have agreed with Fox that it may be defined as, here it is, an inner power that helps one escape a fix.

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In 2 .7, it is likened to a shield, because it protects ones from the vicissitudes of life.

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If a problem arises, then the recipient of God's wisdom will have the wherewithal to deal with it.

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We've already encountered the word discretion before as well. The Hebrew word discretion also has a shadow side, as in 3032, where it means something like shrewdness.

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In the positive context, however, it denotes thinking through the consequence of an action, and choosing the most effective way, as the ability to think for oneself, and to keep ones own counsel, is especially valuable in withstanding temptation.

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It's discretion, it's thinking about, here's the thing, here's the problem, here's the temptation. Discretion is thinking about the consequences, having the right response to it.

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And so scripture says, do not lose sight of these, keep sound wisdom and discretion, and there'll be life for your soul, and adornment for your neck.

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There it is again, cast out to creatures who have to deal with death, to creatures who have to deal with the issue of life itself, the promise here of wisdom is that they will be life for your soul, and adornment for your neck.

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See, you won't sully yourself with bootleg jewelry and sin.

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You won't sully yourself when you walk in wisdom. It will enhance your beauty.

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It'll be like a beautiful necklace around your neck that enhances your beauty when you keep your eyes set on wisdom.

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In verses 23 through 25, now the benefits, more benefits. Then, you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.

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If you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the

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Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Oh, one more thing, sorry, let's go back.

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Just remembered, I wanted to say this to everybody. Wisdom will also guard you when you keep your eyes on wisdom.

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Sorry, I forgot about this. Fixed on wisdom, godly wisdom, God's knowledge, God understanding. It'll guard you from the failures that lead to destruction that are gonna be talked about here in a moment.

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When you walk in wisdom, keep your eyes fixed on wisdom, you'll be able to also see through the lack of wisdom and lack of understanding all around you.

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Just take one example from this week. Student loan forgiveness. A person who has their eyes fixed on God's wisdom.

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A person who has their eyes fixed on God's wisdom will not fall into the pit of walking in a way that is a lack of wisdom.

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Yeah, I'm gonna talk about it. Because it's important as Christians, you talk about things like this.

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If it's the conversation of the day, we have rulers who are making decisions about money and people's lives that are gonna affect us.

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You see, when I think about the issue that's before us where somebody says, hey, we're trillions and trillions of dollars in debt.

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Hey, this isn't even real money that we have here. Hey, we're just printing notes what are essentially debt for people.

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When I think about a situation like that, eyes set on wisdom, recognize

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Proverbs 22, seven, says that the borrower is a slave to the lender.

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Right? So Godly wisdom says the borrower is a slave to the lender. We think about the situation we're in now where somebody says, hey, we don't have money.

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We're actually in debt. All this money is fiat. It's not based upon gold or silver or actual money.

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But what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a problem that certain people have of debt and we're gonna forgive it.

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And my response as a Christian is, oh, I like forgiveness. Forgiveness is great. Forgiveness is something that God has done for me and God did it voluntarily.

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I didn't deserve it. God did it and he laid his life down willingly. So I love the idea of forgiveness.

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You're gonna forgive all the debt? Right. How so? Well, what we're gonna do is we're gonna raid the treasury.

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I thought there's no real money in the treasury. No, there's not. But what we're gonna do is we're gonna pretend like there is money.

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And we're gonna take the debt that other people owed and we're actually gonna do something with it.

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We're gonna give it to your children. Now, godly wisdom will look at a situation like that, eyes fixed on wisdom and say, the borrower is a slave to the lender.

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And we recognize now that we have a situation, wisdom will pay attention to things like this, where we actually have a transference of debt upon your children, my children, our grandchildren.

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So now we've taken somebody that they say is a victim of debt and we've now created a host of other victims.

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The borrower is a slave to the lender. Godly wisdom, godly understanding will look at God's word as the standard and look around at the world around us and say, wait a second, this isn't wise.

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Wait a minute, this isn't understanding. Wait a minute, this isn't real knowledge. This will actually hurt people.

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This is not wise. Eyes set on wisdom will actually filter the world around us through the word of the living

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God and make decisions accordingly because what takes place in the world if you live in such a way where you are not following God's wisdom?

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Well, the text says, then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble.

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So what does it mean if you are not walking according to godly wisdom? You're not secure and you're gonna stumble.

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If you lie down, you'll not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do you not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes?

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For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. There's more benefits here.

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Not stumbling. Sleeping sweetly. Not being afraid.

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God keeping your foot from being caught. Here's the reason. Because when you live and I live in God's world in a way that lacks wisdom and is a sin against God, a sin against his law, there is the consequence that is inevitable.

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It's inevitable. You can't escape it. Think about it in terms of human relationships and intimacy, sexuality.

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Somebody says, well, I don't wanna live according to God's design. I mean, apparently these parts fit and these bodies were made just for each other.

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But I don't wanna live that way. I don't wanna live according to God's rules and his standards. I'm gonna live my own way.

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I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna seek pleasure the way I want to. Well, I challenge you.

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I'm not gonna say it from this pulpit today. I challenge you to look into the physical damage that those lifestyles actually display consistently.

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The damage, physical damage to the body, what it does to a person when they don't follow

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God's ways, when they won't walk according to his wise counsel. There is only stumbling.

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There is only fear. There is only being caught. And so we all recognize this.

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You can't put sugar in a gas tank and expect to go very fast, right?

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Do you ever hear the stories of, you know, not anybody in this room, but the women who say,

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I just put the diesel in because I thought, you know, I thought maybe it was good for the planet. It was a green handle, right?

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I can't understand why it's not working, so I called my husband. That's sort of a thing, right? You recognize like, well, you did it in a way that is against the design.

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It's not gonna work that way. It can't work that way. It has a particular function. Or try driving a car from the back seat, right?

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Now, maybe you could find some way to get it to function, but what are you gonna need to do?

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You're gonna have to add stuff, like maybe a broomstick or something, right? One hand on the broomstick, one hand broomstick, and like, you know, and eventually, you're gonna get a mile down the road and you're gonna hurt somebody.

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You're gonna hurt yourself. Why? Because you're going against the design and eventually it's gonna break down. It doesn't work. There's a collision.

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You can't operate in God's world, apart from his understanding and knowledge and truth and wisdom without getting hurt.

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And so wisdom is displayed. Here she is. Here she is in all of her glory. Here's the happiness and wisdom.

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Here's the beauty of wisdom. Here are the benefits of wisdom. Pursue wisdom because outside of wisdom is a different path where you are not secure, where there is fear.

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We all recognize it. And I think, you know, it's one of the things that makes like a good show so fun to watch.

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Like, if you have a show, and I'm not encouraging you, everyone go watch, but the show that's super famous right now,

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Better Call Saul, right? Why does everyone like to watch that show? Because the story is a story of consequences, right?

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This guy is just such a buffoon. He keeps doing such foolish things, such dumb things, and eventually there's reckoning.

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There's reckoning for people around. There's reckoning in his own life. And it's fun to feast on shows like this, to tell a story like that of a person making bad choices.

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It's not supposed to work that way. You're not supposed to pursue those things. You're hurting people, and there's nothing but consequences all around.

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It's like watching a train wreck. You're like, it's going to come crashing down.

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You can't live that way. And wisdom is being displayed here as giving you the benefit of security and sweet sleep.

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Because when you live in God's world, apart from God's ways, you are going to crash and burn.

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You're going to be destroyed. That is a promise. It's God's world. You can't escape it. Now here's,

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I think, my favorite part. And this is the summary. Verse 26,

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For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. You see,

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I agree with other commentators on this passage that this is actually the key.

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It's the heart. It's the foundation to stand on. Because there's a temptation in all of us.

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Have you felt it? Tell me if you have felt it. You're getting principles from God's word, principles of wisdom, principles of knowledge, principles of understanding, this way but not that way, this path but not that path, light versus darkness, life versus death.

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And it's principle, principle, principle, and they're all from God. And the temptation, I think, from all of us is to do what?

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Is to do what man -made religion does, and that's to start now saying, well, the principle is everything, right?

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And we start sort of like patting the principle around every part of our lives and just focus on the principle, focus on the principle, focus on the principle.

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It's all principle, principle, principle with no relationship. No relationship.

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It's just law. Religion doesn't. Man -made religion doesn't.

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Let me give you the list of principles. Follow these principles and you'll be happy. You'll do this.

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That's not the point here in Proverbs. The anchor here is this. This is personal.

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It is relational. This is intimate relationship with God, that wise

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God who created all these things, who is the wise one.

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This is intensely personal. It's not merely principle. It is personal. You see, there's no way,

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I believe, to even love or long for this wisdom apart from Jesus Christ.

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You have to have a new heart. You have to have a new mind. You have to have eyes that love to see

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Jesus and his wisdom. And listen, sinful people who are in rebellion to God don't love

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God's wisdom, wanna pursue God's wisdom from the heart. They might be able to pad their life with principles and laws, but there's no longing in their hearts because there is no new heart.

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There's no relationship there. And apart from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, all of this meaningless upon a person who is still in rebellion to their creator.

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So first and foremost, this is intensely personal. It's a father to a son.

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And the only way that we can have that relationship that is personal with God is through reconciliation and peace with God through Jesus Christ.

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You're the sinner, I'm the sinner. He's the righteous one. He is perfect. He lived righteously, blamelessly.

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He died for sinners and he rose again from the dead. And the call is peace with God. The call is relationship.

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This is a safe time to say that. It's relationship. It's father to son.

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Father to child. And so that relationship with God first and foremost has to be healed through redemption, through forgiveness that is only in Jesus Christ through faith as a gift.

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But notice in the text here, how does it end? It says, for the Lord, Yahweh, will be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being caught.

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It's not just principles. That's dead religion. This is a relationship. It's intensely personal.

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Can I just end? I wanna end the thought in this. The text lands there.

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The Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

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We could sit here for days, days illustrating from God's word, the passion that God has for his children, the love he has for you, his children, his promises.

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God's not just saying, here's principles, do these things. It's attached intimately to him because God is your confidence.

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He is the one that's gonna keep your foot from being caught. Like, for example, Isaiah 54, 17.

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No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

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This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the

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Lord. These moments where God expresses his truth and his love for his people.

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2 Thessalonians 3, 3. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

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Psalm 46, 1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

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Deuteronomy 31, 6. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them for it is the

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Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

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Psalm 91, 1 through 16. He who dwells in the shelter of the

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Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my

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God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

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He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

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You will not fear the terror of the night. There's that theme again. Nor the arrow that flies by day.

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Isaiah 41, 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your

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God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

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Proverbs 18, 10. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.

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Psalm 138, 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.

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You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand delivers me.

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That's, by the way, confidence and permission that you can risk submitting to God.

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You can risk walking in godly wisdom. Why? Because God says that it is him.

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He is the one that's gonna preserve you. He is the one that's gonna deliver you. He's gonna preserve your life.

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He's gonna stretch out his hand against the wrath of his enemies, your enemies. You can risk walking in wisdom when it feels like it's not safe to do so, when you have enemies that are against you, enemies encamped all around you.

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God says, I'm your strength. I'm your deliverer. I'm your refuge. I am gonna hold back those enemies.

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Psalm 32, 7. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble.

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You surround me with shouts of deliverance. Psalm 5, 11. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.

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Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

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2 Samuel 22, three through four. My God, my rock in whom

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I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior.

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You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies.

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Psalm 121, seven through eight. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

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Romans 8, 28. And we know that those who love God, for those who love God and all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

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This is Pastor Luke's favorite, I think. Exodus 14, 14, famous scene, right?

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The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent.

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In other words, God's gonna fight for you. Shut up and watch, right? Don't you love that?

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God's gonna fight for you. Just be quiet. Check it out. Watch, watch this. I love it. Proverbs 35.

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Every word of God proves true. He's a shield to those who take refuge in him. Psalm 57, one.

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Oh God, be merciful to me, for in you, my soul takes refuge.

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In the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass.

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Psalm 27, one. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall

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I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 18, 30.

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This God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

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I have three more. And I wish we could do this the whole service because these are promises from God.

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Psalm 34, seven. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

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Psalm 91, seven. A thousand may fall at your side, 10 ,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

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Psalm 34, 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

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There's the anchor, because that's the God we worship. If you love Jesus, that's your

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God. That's what he's like. Those are the things that he said to his people through his word.

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That's what God's like. And so here we have wisdom, her beauty, her beatitudes, her benefits put on full display.

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And we're told to look, be in awe, gaze upon her, keep your eyes fixed on her, lay hold of her.

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She's this tree of life. And the very end, we have the anchor. It's intensely personal.

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What is it? Yahweh will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

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You see, when you walk in wisdom, in this relationship with a living God, the only wise God, this is a walk with God who loves his children.

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And he is your confidence. He is your strength. He is your shield. You and I have the permission, the confidence to pursue wisdom, to fix our eyes on wisdom.

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Even when everything in us seems to want to resist that pursuit, we have the confidence to pursue wisdom.

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When the arrows are coming, when the sin is abounding, we have the confidence to pursue wisdom because in the end, what is our confidence?

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God is our confidence. He's gonna keep your foot from slipping. He's your shield. He's your strength.

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So there's your permission, saints. There's your permission to pursue wisdom. There is your hope and the benefit and the blessing of sleeping sweetly and having a life of pleasantness and peace.

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It doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, and you know this. I'm not instructing you on this.

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It doesn't mean that in a fallen world, there aren't gonna be difficulties and hurts and pain and sickness and disease and even treacheries that you have to deal with.

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It means that if you walk in wisdom, you will experience the life, the pleasantness, the peace, the protection, the security, the life, the tree of life of God.

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You will. When you take your foot off the path of wisdom, there is where you stumble.

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There is where there is darkness. There is where there is brokenness off that path.

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And so brothers and sisters, for the glory of God in Christ, don't lose sight of these, wisdom and discretion.

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There'll be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Let's pray.

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I pray God, you bless the word that went out today for your glory, for your kingdom. Lord, allow us to walk in wisdom, to keep our eyes fixed, to not let our eyes slip from it.

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Lord, would you allow us, as your people that you've saved, to have a passion and a longing for your wisdom in our lives.

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You've redeemed us, you've forgiven us, you've saved us, you've promised us eternal life.

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We have you forever, you have us forever. Help us to lay hold of this tree of life.

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Help us to fix our eyes. And I pray Lord, that it can be said of us that these are your people who love and long for your wisdom.

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Help us to encourage one another and spur each other on as we pursue your wisdom in our lives.