Sermon - The Tree of Life & Wisdom

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If you would open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3,

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God's book of wisdom from above, divine wisdom. Every Sunday I'm reminded as I walk up here of the story of a covenanter in Scotland.

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The covenanters were Christians, hardcore Presbyterians actually. Such a rich blessing, a wealth to the world with their communication of Scripture.

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And there's a story in Scotland of one of these covenanters when they were being persecuted and they were being slaughtered literally because they were saying no king but Christ and the king does not have control over the church and the king cannot dictate the worship of the church.

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Those are two distinct spheres. And one of these covenanters was dragged from about two blocks away, was dragged after being condemned down this cobblestone street which we actually walked down in Scotland.

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And even when you go there today, it looks the same way essentially as it would have when this covenanter was brought down.

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So after being dragged down the street and being brought up on this platform, people were reviling the covenanter and making fun just like with Jesus and saying all manner of evil things against this covenanter.

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And this is a covenanter pastor, a preacher, a teacher. And while they were just sort of rejoicing and delighting over his demise and all that was going to happen to them, people were questioning, aren't you afraid of what's about to happen to you?

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You're about to be killed here up on this platform in front of the entire public. And he said, every

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Lord's Day, I have more fear walking up to the pulpit than I do at this moment at the end of my life.

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I'm more afraid of those few steps walking up to that pulpit. And I'm reminded as we get into the book of Proverbs and specifically this section of just that, you're handling divine wisdom.

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And these are some powerful truths. And it's hard for me as a minister of the gospel, as a pastor, as your brother to say,

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I'm going to be able to really communicate the glory that's here. But I say that because I want all of us, including myself, to allow these words from God, these are divine words, words from God, to challenge us and to transform us as a people.

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You heard me mentioned before that we need to be rigorous in our standards as Christians, more rigorous than I think many of us are used to in this generation where we're not the kind of people that don't care about what does

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God say in his testimony? What does his word say about himself, his nature, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, salvation?

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We need to be rigorous. If God says something, we need to make sure that we're handling the word of God faithfully.

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Amen? Yes. But one of the things I've tried to communicate as your brother, as we go through this series, is that a theological rigor is important.

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It's essential. But so is a commitment to wisdom. Wisdom. You can know a heck of a lot of things and be the kind of person that doesn't live wise, doesn't live in such a way that is pleasing to God.

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And that's, I think, what we'll see here in this section, Proverbs chapter three, starting in verse 13,

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Proverbs 3, 13, here now, the word of the living and the true God, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She's 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.

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Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

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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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Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you, Lord, for your word. I want to thank you,

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Lord, for the glory of the gospel and the forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ. Lord, we do not deserve you.

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And yet we know you, or rather are known by you. We love you because you first loved us.

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Lord, you've saved us. You know our names. You chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and you've given us your word.

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You speak to us. And so God, we ask as your people, Lord, that you change us, renew our minds, give us,

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Lord, a passion that we can only get by your spirit. For your word, for your truth,

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Lord, grant to us the ability, Lord, to hear your word, to let it be rooted up within us and to live lives of wisdom that bring glory to you.

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Let it be in the center of this assembly, a tree of life, wisdom from above.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So here we are again, Proverbs chapter 3. You've seen this and you'll see it.

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It's a frequent thing that's happening here. Wisdom is personified as a woman. Wisdom is personified as a woman with the blessings of happiness, life, riches, honor, pleasantness, and peace.

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See, what's interesting about this little section here, and you'll note that I actually cut it in half. We're not doing the other section.

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We'll do that next week. In this section between 13 and 18, 13 and 18, there's no demands made.

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You notice that? You see that a lot in Proverbs. You know, we've already been there, the first three chapters. You'll have the option of one path versus the other path, the call to stay away from this path, to stay away from the scoffer and the fool and all the rest, but there's demands that are made as you read the book of wisdom.

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God is giving you wisdom and there's demands made. Live this way and not that way. In this case, wisdom is simply exemplified.

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She is shown to us for what she is and what she offers. There's no demands made.

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It's just God telling us more about wisdom. Clearly, God cares about this wisdom.

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I mean, I challenge you, read through the book of Proverbs. It won't take you very long, and try to count how many times the word wisdom is used.

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Understanding, knowledge, wisdom. This book is full of that testimony of what wisdom is and what wisdom will do, and so this is wisdom personified.

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No demands are made. She's simply described for what she is and the great gain that she offers.

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Now, notice how the description starts. So you have verse 13. This is following, by the way, what we did last week.

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It's following not to despise God's discipline, not to be weary of his reproof.

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God loves his children that he corrects. All right? So receive that.

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Correction from God, reproof from God is proof of his love for me. So when he corrects me,

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I'm not illegitimate. I'm a child. I'm a son. I'm a daughter of God. And so then it goes into, and here is wisdom.

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Here's what she like. Here's the great gain of wisdom. It says, blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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The one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding, blessed. And then verse 18, she is a tree of life.

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That's a big one, by the way, because that's how the Bible opens up with a tree of life. She, wisdom, is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.

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You grabbing hold of that tree of life, that's what she is. She's a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.

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Those who hold her fast are called blessed. So 13 and 18, verses 13 and 18, what's it say?

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It starts and ends with this, blessed, blessed. Well, what's that mean?

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We use that word a lot today. In different contexts, it could mean different things. Blessed could be set apart.

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Blessed could mean a number of things. But in the text, blessed means happy, happy.

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So think about how it starts. Wisdom, God corrects the children he loves. And here's wisdom.

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And here's the benefits. Happy. Happy is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gains understanding.

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She's a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called happy. And so this starts with that pursuit of happiness, joy, and pleasure.

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And it's interesting because as you focus in upon this book, Wisdom for Above, and you're getting these words from God about how to live, how to have divine knowledge, and then actually work that out, have skillful living.

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You get all this, and you have promises here of happiness, joy, pleasure.

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And I think it's interesting because it's a natural human instinct. We're all image bearers of God.

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And image bearers of God have a natural instinct. Like it's embedded in their souls.

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Like it's something they're supposed to reflect out into the world. An instinct to pursue happiness, joy, and pleasure.

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It's actually, I would argue, in many ways, something that we were made for.

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Happiness, joy, and pleasure. How many of you guys know our confession? It's Westminster Confession and the 1689

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London Baptist Confession of Faith. We have the same thing. And the old way is, what is man's chief end?

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What is man's chief end? That's the old way of saying it. And so we say it in our church body as we do the confession, as we do our catechism.

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We say, what is our primary purpose? And it is what?

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To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the verse we memorized with that, who remembers it?

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There you go. David, yell it out so everyone can hear it. There you go.

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In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forever.

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It's interesting. That's the first part of our catechism, right? What is man's primary purpose?

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To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

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I mean, it's at the very heart of the Christian faith and message. Happiness, joy, pleasure in God.

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And all humans have that instinct to pursue happiness, joy, pleasure.

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And the problem with our world is that we are so estranged from God, so rebellious to our creator that we can't help being his image.

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That's what he made us to be. We're living in God's world and this world runs by God's rules.

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And even though we try to rebel against our creator, we will still instinctively pursue pleasure, joy, happiness, all those things.

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That's just instinctive to us as image bearers of God. The problem is a problem of sin. So what do we do? What do we do?

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Is that we don't want God's knowledge. We don't want to know him. Romans 1 says that we don't want to know

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God. We don't want him in our knowledge. And we don't want to actually obey God and to live according to his wisdom.

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We don't want it. And so we go our own way. And so what do we do? We destroy the very core of our humanity.

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We distort our own humanity. We lie about ourselves. We lie about others. When we pursue joy and happiness and pleasure, we find ourselves groveling.

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We find ourselves looking around in the trash heap of the world. We find ourselves being satisfied with bootleg pleasure, bootleg joy, fictions.

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I mean, the whole problem of drug and alcohol addiction is just a pursuit of the things you can only have in God.

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It's a pursuit of the things you can only have, truly be satisfied with in God. We're pursuing peace.

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And so we go to this substance or to this thing. We're pursuing joy. So we go to this substance or this thing.

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We're pursuing intimacy. So we go to sexual relationships that are broken and to people.

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And we idolize things above God. We worship falsely.

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We go elsewhere. And we do it, honestly, at the core of it all is because there is this instinctive desire to worship because you're in God's image.

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And there's this instinct to pursue happiness, joy, pleasure, delight, because you can't escape it.

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You're made in God's image. And God is happy. And here you have wisdom personified before everybody.

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No demands are made. It's just personified. And this is what wisdom is. And here's what wisdom offers.

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We don't want God's wisdom, so we give up what? Happiness. We give up peace.

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We give up riches. We give up honor. We give all those things up because we don't want God's ways.

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And God is telling you as a son, pursue this wisdom.

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This is what you get with wisdom. It's a promise from God. Our problem is the problem of sin.

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We've got the wrong pursuit. And here we have happy is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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

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Now, I just want to emphasize this because I think it's something we miss often. I mean, how many times have you heard, you know, the ways we describe some

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Christian congregations, the frozen chosen, right? Chosen by God, frozen, you know, sort of like emotionless, joyless, all those sorts of things.

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And oftentimes the world may even express the life of a Christian. Like, well, if you pursue

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Christ and you pursue that, if you go down that road, you're going to give up all these pleasures of the world and all this happiness.

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But in reality, the way that scripture describes the experience of the believer, it's the experience of being happy, blessed.

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And wisdom is described here as giving you happiness. And that's because God is, are you ready?

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This will sound almost Sunday school -ish, but I can give you proof from scripture. God is the happy God.

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God is the happy God. How often do you hear something like that? Like, we often hear, like,

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God is love, right? God is full of mercy. God is truth. God is just.

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God is unchanging. We always praise God for His attributes every Lord's Day as the church body.

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You hear about those attributes of God and the way that God is, but we don't oftentimes emphasize the fact that God is described in His word as the happy God.

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He's happy. And He calls us, as we pursue Him and salvation in Him and wisdom, to be happy.

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And I told you I'd show you, so if you haven't seen it yet, go to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1

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Timothy chapter 1. Now it's a rough little section, to be honest.

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1 Timothy chapter 1 in verses 10 and 11.

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It's actually, it's a pretty potent section about the law, about the law being good.

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There's a lot of talk about here and here about the lawless and the disobedient, the ungodly and sinners. You have talk here about murderers and those who are sexually immoral and practice homosexuality.

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Enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. In verse 11, it says, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the...

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And the translation here is the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

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And that word blessed means happy. And so read it again.

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In accordance with the gospel of the glory of the happy God with which I have been entrusted.

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God is described as the happy God. God promises,

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God's promises end in happiness. So as you read

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Proverbs about wisdom personified, and what wisdom will give us the great gain of this wisdom, godly wisdom, we can see that it's happiness.

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And it's not new to scripture. You know these verses. So just remember them.

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Matthew 25, 23. What's going to be said from the master to the servant in Matthew 25, 23?

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What's he say? Enter into the what? Joy of your master.

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Are you looking forward to those words? You should be. I am. Enter into the joy of your master.

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So there's words from Jesus about what we have as God's children as expectation. These are where God's promises end.

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God says, enter into the joy of your master. In John 15, 11.

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In 17, 13. The Lord Jesus tells us about the joy that we share and have in God.

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It ends in joy. In Jesus' most famous sermon. It's by the way, the most famous sermon in the history of the entire world.

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Matthew 5. The Sermon on the Mount. Have you ever heard it preached like this?

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Because this is what it means. Matthew 5, verse 1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain.

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And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. This is the Lord Jesus. Here's what he says to his people.

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He says, he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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You know this, right? Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek. Now read it with the way that we would understand the word.

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Happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

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Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they should be satisfied.

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Happy are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Happy are the pure in heart for they shall see

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God. Happy are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Happy are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

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He says, ready? Rejoice. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.

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For so they persecuted the prophets who are before you. Happiness, reward, heaven, all of that.

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This is where the promises actually aim at happiness and joy and reward for the people of God.

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That's how Jesus preached that famous sermon. You see, God is happy. God is happy.

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And through the gospel, he aims to make us happy. In verse 13 of Proverbs chapter 3.

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Go there again. In verse 13, it starts with blessed.

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Again, happy is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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It's used in Job 517. Happy is the man whom God reproves.

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It's used in Psalm 1 -1 as the opening of Psalm 1 -1. Happy is the man, who knows it?

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Who knows it? Happy Jesse. Happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

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Happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. So this is something that is thematic.

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It's through and through. It's through and through. Jesus is declaring happiness upon those who know

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God, who are the meek of the earth, who are persecuted. God is a happy God.

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Verse 13, as wisdom is personified, happy. Happy is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding.

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It is through scripture. Read it. It's throughout. The blessings of God, the happiness of God upon his people.

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You see, we're unhappy. We're unhappy because we pursue happiness in substandard things.

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Can we all admit it? Me too. All of us. Our hearts are natural idol -making factories and they are never idle in making idols.

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Who said that? John Calvin. That's some powerful insight. It's true about the human experience, right?

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And so we're instinctively, as image bearers of God, trying to pursue the happy God with these blessings of happiness.

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But the problem is we find ourselves satisfied constantly in substandard things. Things that will not actually provide real, actual, divine happiness.

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We're happy. We're pursuing happiness in better bodies. We pursue happiness in better toys.

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Not wisdom, not instruction, not understanding. My happiness will be found in the bigger bankroll, in the better body, in having more toys, in having a better wardrobe, in having fancier cars.

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You see, here's the thing. These are not in themselves bad things. You can use all these things for the glory of God.

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Each and every one of these things. You can use them for the glory of God and you should. But the problem is that we think that the substance of our happiness, our blessedness, is going to be found in the toy, in the better body, in the bigger bankroll, in the better wardrobe.

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We think that. The problem is, is that these things are all fleeting. They're all fleeting.

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They're all get rust on them. They'll all get destroyed. They all go away. That's not the substance of happiness.

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God doesn't intend for these things to be the source of our happiness and our joy. Happy, the verse says, verse 13, happy is the one who finds wisdom, who gets understanding.

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Happy are those who find wisdom. Skillful living from divine truth. Here's divine truth and wisdom is the ability to actually apply and to live out that truth.

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Not just say it. Not just be able to check the list and to pass the theological exam.

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Wisdom, divine wisdom is the ability to actually live it out. Skill in actually accomplishing it.

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Happy are those who find it. Happy are those who gain a divine understanding. In verses 14 through 15, here's what it says.

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For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.

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

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I always think I've learned this. I'm always, we're always being sanctified on this side of heaven, but I've learned this.

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My walk with the Lord, it's important to, when you come to the text and there's something cutting and there's something just powerful and profound, to take the time to actually let that set.

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Ask yourself, do I really believe it? Do I really believe it?

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Here's the word from God. Wisdom from God has more gain and is to be more desired by us and pursued by us than silver, gold, or jewels.

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Silver, gold, or jewels. Can we be honest? We don't think like that.

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Not really. We know it in the abstract. That concept is true. That wisdom from God is more valuable than anything else in the world.

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Nothing can compare to the value of wisdom from God. You take all the money, the crazy loads of money that are being made right now with the click of a button on Amazon.

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Isn't it crazy? Every moment it's piles and piles and piles and piles of money and it's global.

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It's like out of control production of cash flow. It is just coming more and more.

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And the text says here that God's wisdom is to be more valued than even all that money, that cash flow that seems almost unending.

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It's unending. You see, verse 13 tells us about the happiness of wisdom.

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Verses 14 through 15 tell us about the profit. So there's the happiness of wisdom and then there's the profit of wisdom.

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What can I gain? I want to know. What do I gain from this pursuit of wisdom?

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If I grab hold of her, what do I gain? And the promise is that, well, the profit is better than silver, gold, and jewels.

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As a matter of fact, here's the word from God, the divine word from God, the one who created everything in existence.

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He says nothing, you can compare nothing in your experience with the value of this wisdom from God.

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Nothing. Silver and gold and precious jewels can't even be compared.

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Think of it. Think of the biggest pile of money. Nothing can be compared. Nothing at all. It's interesting when you think about the value of things and metals and objects and you think about like the enormous amounts of money that you can make with investments.

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And I think most of us are thinking that way a lot now. Like many of us are kicking ourselves constantly and have moments of deep depression and sadness over Bitcoin.

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Right? I remember my friend on a mission somewhere talking my ear off for about four hours or more years ago about Bitcoin.

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And it's this stuff and it's like in the computer world and it's, you know, it's not real. It doesn't really exist.

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It's just like out there in the computer realm. It's kind of, it's sort of an immaterial abstract concept.

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It's not really fixed on anything. There's nothing guaranteeing it. And it's called Bitcoin and you need to buy a bunch of it because it's going to go up like crazy.

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And my thinking, I'm thinking about the word of God and like money has to have real value. It has to be fixed and all.

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It has to be real. It has to be firm and fixed and it has to have real value to it. It can't just be fiat currency.

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That doesn't work. And so I just sort of scoffed. I was like, yeah, that's, you're telling me people are actually going to give away thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for something they can't even actually hold in their hands.

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That's bunk. That's hogwash. It's never going to happen. And then, and then, and then one

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Bitcoin worth what? $65 ,000 or something like that.

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You've got guys are like, yeah, I bought 10 ,000 Bitcoins in 2011 or 12 or whatever. I'm just sort of sitting on it or someone that's like, yeah,

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I bought a pizza once with a hundred Bitcoins or something. And you're like, what? Right. And you think you kick yourself.

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You're like that. First of all, it seems totally worthless, but man, if I can go back in time and shake myself and buy all the

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Bitcoin you can get in on this, don't think, just do it.

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And then pull it all out. You'd be a multi -billionaire for something that doesn't even really exist.

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So you think about investments in that way, like value, and you kick yourself constantly. Like for instance, you might look back at the housing crisis took place in 2008, right?

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2008. How many of us have kicked ourselves with that housing crisis happened? And there's all these homes left and you had all these homes that were up for foreclosure and sale.

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How many of us kicked ourselves like, man, if I could just have just done that over again and bought like four or five houses and then just flipped them in 2022, right?

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I'd be a millionaire. You think about all the ways like, oh, I wish I had that. You know what I'm saying?

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You think about all the investments that could have been. And you're like, oh, I wish I had that.

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I wish I could do that again so I can invest in that because there was actually value in that. And I didn't see it coming.

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I should have done it. There was a famous, it's actually my favorite. I don't watch the Antiques Roadshow a lot.

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But I have been known to. And there's a, there's a, you got to see this one. If you get a chance afterwards, go pull this one up.

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It's on YouTube. Look up a Rolex watch Antiques Roadshow. First of all, the dude looks like a character.

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He looks like, like from the Grateful Dead or something like that. He, um, he's standing before the guy, the

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Antiques Roadshow. And the guy's like, okay, tell us about what you got here. And it's a Rolex watch. It's a Rolex watch.

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We all know the value of Rolex watch. These things can go for tens of thousands of dollars or more.

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And this guy, during the time of Vietnam, he was in the Air Force and he was actually stationed in Thailand.

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He was in Thailand. And so, you know, at 1975 or four, whenever he did this, you know, he wasn't making much money.

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I think he was making between like three and $500 a month or something like that in the Air Force. It wasn't a lot. Inflation has changed a lot.

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And while he was in Thailand, he, he had noticed that pilots in those days used to all wear

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Rolex watches. And so he was in Thailand and he had the opportunity to buy a Rolex watch, an

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Oyster Rolex watch. So he's in Thailand. He buys this Rolex watch for $345 .97,

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still had the receipts. He never wore it. He just bought the Rolex watch. It had the sticker still on the back of the watch.

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He has the receipt for it. He has all the goodies with it. And he basically just put it in a safety deposit box for like 30 or 40 years.

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Just left it in there. He only went to take it out a couple of times just to stare at it and then put it back. He brings it to the

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Antiques Roadshow. He paid $345 .97 for it. And this guy at the

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Antiques Roadshow tells him about how special this is. It's a special edition Oyster Rolex watch.

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And you haven't even worn it and the sticker hasn't worn off because you never put it on and you've got the receipt and all the original stuff.

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He says that this watch would go at auction for between $500 ,000 and $700 ,000.

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Now, when you hear a story like that, doesn't it make you mad? You feel that as a human?

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You're like, I want that watch, right? $345, you're like, man,

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I wish I could find an investment like that, right? If you just go back and tell yourself or tell your parents, hey, buy the

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Oyster watch. $345 .97, $700 ,000 in the year 2020.

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Buy Oyster watches, right? It's a massive investment and return.

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But the point is that you hear stories like that and you and I realize as you hear them, you're like, I gotta get in on that.

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I gotta find something like that. I gotta find something that has value like that. You've got weird guys, weird guys and gals that just go around deserts and beaches with equipment and look like lunatics with antennas off their head, like beep, beep, beep.

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Everyone else is having fun and they're like, I'm trying to find something of value. And they're just beeping along the beach, being weird, but looking for something of value.

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Because we all recognize these things are, they have great return. And that's the point of Proverbs chapter three.

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It appeals to what we understand a need for, gain. Gain, value.

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And the point here is wisdom is saying, blessing to you, blessing, far more value than silver and gold and precious jewels.

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As a matter of fact, it's more valuable than anything. Nothing can be compared to it. That's how wisdom is personified.

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And in verse 16, it says this, long life is in her right hand.

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In her left hand are riches and honor. And again, this is an interesting section because no demands are being made.

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Remember that, take that in. No demands are being made here. You're just being told, this is wisdom and wisdom here is personified as having long life in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.

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Scripture is consumed with this theme, the theme of life.

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I mean, actually, if you could take sort of like six things, things you could just hold in your hands, the concepts in scripture that are like these, these are the truths that are driven from the beginning to the end.

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This concept of life is what scripture is consumed with, the theme of life.

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So for example, if you read Genesis chapter two, verse nine, you read about God creating and then what happens?

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He places in the garden, in the center of the garden, he places a tree in the garden. Tree of what? Life. And there's also the tree mentioned, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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But our Bible, the word of God, his revelation of history, his redemptive story starts with what?

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A tree of life. That's where the story begins. It's consumed with it. So in Genesis, we have this tree of life and then we have at the end of the

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Bible, the tree of life. Go to Revelation quickly, the book of Revelation. If you didn't know, that's the last book.

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The book of Revelation, chapter two, verse seven.

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Look what Jesus promises to a real church, real Christians existing in the first century.

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Here's the hope he gives them. Listen, verse seven, chapter two. He's he who has an ear.

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Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers. I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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There it is again. Beginning of the Bible, life, tree of life, end of the Bible. We have Jesus promising to his people this promise.

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I will grant you to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. You have, of course, so many mentions.

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We could belabor this over and over and over. John 14, six. Jesus says what? I am the way, the what?

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Truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. Life, life, life.

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That's the predominant theme in scripture. That's what you and I will be rejoicing about for all eternity is the eternal life that God has given to us.

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That's the dominant theme in scripture. John 14, six. John 6, 35. Jesus says that he is the bread of what?

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Life. He's the bread of life. In Deuteronomy 30, verse 15,

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God says to his people, you have to choose this day between life and good and essentially death and destruction.

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So you have the path of life, peace, pleasantness, or death and destruction.

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In the text, we're told that wisdom brings with her long life.

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It's in her right hand. And in her left hand, there are riches and honor.

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Now it's clear, and this is very important. It's very clear that the riches that are being described, given by wisdom, here personified again as a woman, you grab hold of.

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These riches are far more than material. Go back to Revelation again.

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Revelation chapter two, again, keep reading after verse seven, the promise of the tree of life, verses eight and nine, and to the angel of the church of Smyrna, write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.

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I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.

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And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Here, Jesus is comforting a church of people who are enduring great tribulation.

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They're enduring difficulties and trials. And he says, look, I know your poverty, but you're rich.

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I already told them your poverty, you're poor. These are poor people. And he says, but you are actually rich.

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Clearly, God's promise of richness and wealth surpasses the material, those material blessings, although it can sometimes include those blessings.

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In James, go to James, James chapter two, the

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Lord's brother speaks about the same thing. Riches are not merely the material.

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In the section of chapter two where James is chastising people for showing partiality, for showing one person is more important than the other person, the rich versus the poor.

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In James chapter two, verse five, it says, listen, my beloved brothers, has not

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God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?

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So you could be in legit poverty, real poverty, actual poverty.

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And God says, you're rich. You are rich. Beyond comprehension, you are rich.

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James is saying here, you're showing all this partiality between the rich and the poor. And don't you understand?

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Don't you realize that God has called these who are actually poor to be rich in faith?

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Rich, they're the actual wealthy ones. You're treating these materially wealthy people as more important, but these are the actual rich people among you.

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They're the real rich ones. They're the ones inheriting the kingdom. And so the promise of wisdom here is not only life, but it is riches and it is honor.

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It's more than material. You see, you can have, and I think we all recognize this, you guys can probably feed me stories right now.

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You probably know some stories. You can have all the riches in the world and no peace, no pleasantness, and no happiness.

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Just look at Johnny Depp. That was a grenade.

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We'll see how long it takes to go off. You can have all the money in the world and still not be happy.

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How about this? In our own experience, last 10 years, just think about what's close to us.

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And like, well, oh yeah, I know that story. How is that? How does that, how does that happen? Remember that famous chef?

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Super famous. Got everything he wanted in that world.

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Respect, honor, accolades, his own TV show,

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Money, Anthony Bourdain. You ever watch his show? So cool stuff, like what kind of a job?

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Listen, what kind of job is that? To travel around the world, to eat the best food, and to sit with some interesting people in different locations and continents.

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How'd you like that life? To make millions of dollars eating the best food around the world.

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That's riches. From a material perspective, that's riches, right?

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It seems like you got everything going for you. He killed himself. He committed suicide.

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Didn't make him happy. Didn't bring him peace. All the physical riches and well -being in the world won't necessarily make you happy.

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Or this was really sad for me because I grew up, it's one of the first things I remember watching is like Popeye. The original

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Popeye movie with Robin Williams. Remember that? If you haven't watched that yet, you haven't lived yet.

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It's old school, right? But I remember being a little boy and just watching over and over and over that VHS tape of Popeye with Robin Williams.

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And so I just thought he was the coolest person. He's this famous comedian. He's obviously given to the world so many interesting movies and moving pieces of art and all the rest.

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I'm not condoning everything he ever did. But my point is this. Here is somebody who had everything they wanted. They were just, their life was filled with material wealth and riches and respect and honor from others.

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And what did, what happened in the end? He killed himself.

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He killed himself. Because the pursuit of all of those material blessings will not actually bring you peace.

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It will not actually bring you honor. There are actually no real riches there. It's more than material.

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And wisdom has, in her hands, long life, riches, and honor.

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Honor, this is big. This is probably one of the most important parts of the sermon for me. Honor. When you lay hold of her, it's not just life and riches and pleasantness and peace.

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It's honor. Wisdom will give you honor.

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This is important in particular. And you have to call out your own when there's failures.

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You should. Do you agree? Like when we're, when we're blowing it, we have to just fess up to it and say, yeah, okay.

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You're right. Let's repent of that. Let's fix that. Let's move forward. In the reformed world, there's so much that is a blessing in terms of a rich history of doctrinal study, some of the greatest works in the history of the church about grace and salvation and the trinity and all that.

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We have that rich blessing coming from that era of the reformed church where there were, you know, big battles going on over like the precision of grace and the precision of the authority of scripture.

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We have so much that's rich heritage, a rich heritage. Lots of knowledge.

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But if we confess to it, if you can see what often happens between reformed camps and believers, you'll see oftentimes there's not a lot of wisdom.

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It's not a lot of wisdom and hearing each other, having a soft answer, refusing to hear accusations about others without all of the proof and all of the evidence, accusing others, all of that, a true deficit of wisdom.

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And what does that bring? What does it bring when you have a deficit of wisdom? Not honor, but dishonor.

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You don't leave behind a legacy of honor. You leave behind a legacy of dishonor when you don't lay a hold of her.

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Wisdom, no wisdom, therefore, no honor.

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You see, when I say honor, wisdom will bring the benefit of honor.

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What am I talking about? The honorable record of not planning evil against people,

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Proverbs 3, 29, the honorable record of not fighting for no reason with people who have done you no wrong,

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Proverbs 3, 30, the honor of being the kind of person that keeps far from the adulterous person,

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Proverbs 5, verse 8, the honor of being the person that is not lying about people,

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Proverbs 6, 17, the honor of not being prideful, Proverbs 6, 17, the honor of not running to do evil,

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Proverbs 6, 18, the honor of not being a person who sows discord,

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Proverbs 6, 19, the honor of having a gentle tongue,

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Proverbs 15, 4, the honor of being a person who uses equal weights and measures and doesn't show partiality, the honor of waiting to answer until you have all the facts,

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Proverbs 18, 13. You see the honor that's left? The honor, wisdom, when you lay hold of her, there is life, riches, and honor.

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That kind of honor. I think as I was reflecting, it's providential,

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I reflect on my friend, Dr. Kenneth Talbot, who went to be with the

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Lord just this week. I was thinking about him because, well, a number of reasons, obviously.

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I love him, I'll miss him, he is doing really well right now, but I was thinking about this because of the life that he lived as an example of wisdom leaving riches and honor.

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This morning I got to watch the service of his church. It was very moving, obviously painful to watch.

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There were tears shed as his church tried to hold together a worship service, but now they're missing the man who poured into their life and gave so much of himself for so many years to these men.

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It was hard for them to hold themselves together, it was hard for them to speak. They were in the middle of prayer and they would just break out crying.

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And I was thinking about this legacy of honor that wisdom actually gives to you.

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I was thinking about in light of Dr. Kenneth Talbot, he was a man who was a godly, godly man.

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A man who invested himself so much in other people. A man who was rigorous.

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I'll tell you, you probably maybe have seen this week, I put it on Facebook as a memory of Dr. Talbot. When I went to go for my

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Master's of Divinity and Pastoral Ministry, I had to do an oral examination.

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Now, oral examinations are often difficult and, you know, often hours long.

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But when Dr. Talbot told me we're doing oral examination, he didn't exactly tell me how long it was going to take.

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And so it actually took three days. Three days. And the very first day, he told me to show up at 8 a .m.

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And that very first day, we started right at 8 a .m., guns blazing. Dr.

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Talbot opened this big fat book, and I'm not kidding with you, a big fat book.

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And it was page one. And he just grilled me and asked questions and challenged and all the rest.

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And I remember that it was around 4 p .m. And the only time I was allowed to get up was to use the bathroom.

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And I was so losing my ability to concentrate, I had to finally let him know, Dr. Talbot, we haven't taken a break and we haven't eaten yet.

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And he's much older than me and dealing with a number of health problems. And he said, oh, yeah, that's right.

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He said, we should make some time for that. He said, but we got to get back to it because we haven't really begun yet.

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And that was 8 a .m., 4 p .m., I'm younger than him. And he had more dedication and more discipline and just he wanted to pour into others.

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And the amount of knowledge in this man's head, I mean this sincerely, it was astonishing.

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Astonishing how he was able to appeal to moments in history and this fact and these verses.

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It was a very difficult oral exam to do with someone who knew so much.

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But that wasn't the thing that was the most impressive about Dr. Kenneth Talbot.

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What was most impressive to me and to the men and women who knew him was his wisdom.

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His wisdom, his ability to actually mediate conflicts between others, his unwillingness to divide over petty issues, his commitment to the essentials.

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As a matter of fact, there were a few moments in the oral examination where we were hitting some spots of disagreement between the good doctor and myself.

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Dr. Kenneth Talbot is a hardcore, pipe -hitting, 110 -proof Presbyterian.

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I mean, he's more Presbyterian than John Calvin, okay? I mean, he's Presbyterian. And I'm a

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Reformed Baptist. And there were a few moments when we came to some stuff where we had to do oral examination where I was like, we're about to get it on, right?

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And so we would have moments where we would have dispute. Or when we got into the area of philosophy and apologetics,

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I knew that he wasn't going to agree with where I was on philosophy and apologetics because he comes from a different camp.

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And I knew when it was sitting down for philosophy, we're about to go round and round. And we did. For about four hours, he would ask me a question,

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I'd give an answer, and then we would start going at it. Not in a mean way. He would just challenge and I would challenge back.

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He would challenge, I would challenge back. And the glorious thing about this wise man is as committed as he was to his beliefs and as much as he wanted to sharpen and to challenge, as soon as it was done, he was smiling, he was hugging me, he was loving me.

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He was a wise man. And everybody who knows him knows that he left behind this richness and this honor.

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I was reflecting today on a life of wisdom and seeing a man who actually pursued as a godly man, not just theological rigor, but godly divine wisdom.

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And his church that he left behind was these men that are so in love with the truth, in love with God's church.

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They are the kind of men that are so balanced and willing to love and serve alongside other brothers.

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He left behind, I was watching today in the service, I was thinking to myself as I was praying over and meditating on the service today to bring to you as the people of God, I was thinking about the rich, the wealth that he left behind in the world in so many people's lives.

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And here's the deal. He left and he finished his race with honor.

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Honor. Because you could say about Dr. Talbot, as a man of God, he pursued wisdom, not just knowledge, wisdom in his life.

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And it left a legacy of honor. I'll finish with these thoughts.

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By the way, I was in Texas for like a quick turnaround trip, and I said that at the end of my message.

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I said, let me finish with this thought, and everyone started laughing. And these are people who aren't even members of my church, so I don't like that.

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The text says, by the way, sometimes when

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I say I'll finish with this thought, I'm talking about, I'm talking about, I'm talking about the point that we're on.

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There might be three points more to go. I'm finishing with this thought on this point.

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Okay. Verse 17, her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

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There are tissues just flying out of here like confetti right now.

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There you go. Okay. It's distracting. Pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

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Living with her yields the fruit of peace and reward.

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Think about that. I just gave you a list of things, right? From Proverbs, wisdom, right?

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Like the person who answers before they have the whole story, that's a fool. Hear both sides, right?

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Don't actually plot evil against somebody. Don't lie. Don't cause division. Don't live like that.

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Well, she's personified as actually having ways that are pleasantness and all her paths are peace.

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Why? Because that's what wisdom does. That's what it comes with. What are the consequences of wisdom?

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Pleasantness and peace. Pleasantness and peace. You see, when you live pursuing her godly wisdom, you don't live in such a way where there are now consequences to follow sinful, unwise behavior.

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You and I can rest at night and sleep with peace and pleasantness when we've been holding on, laying hold of wisdom, pursuing wisdom, because there's no consequences except for good and godly consequences like life, riches, honor, peace, pleasantness.

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That's what wisdom brings. Living upright, pursuing godly wisdom, leaves pleasantness and peace.

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

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Now, this is big. This is big. It really is. As I said, the Bible begins with a tree of what?

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Life. And it ends with a what? Tree of life in the city. Garden city in the beginning, tree of life.

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End of the book, redemptive history, we have garden city and tree of life. Genesis 2, what do you have?

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A tree of life in the garden. Adam, in that historical narrative,

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Adam is separated and he is alienated from God and he is kept from the tree.

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He's cast out of the garden. Tree of life, life -giving tree, Adam is separated, he's cast out.

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In Revelation 22, let's read it together. In Revelation 22, verses 1 through 5, here's what's described.

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Verse 1, then the angel showed me the river of the water of life.

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There it is again. Bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the

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Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree.

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The tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

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We don't have time to unpack that glorious section of Scripture right now, but just to emphasize this, wisdom is personified as the woman who is the tree of life.

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The Bible begins with the theme of the tree of life, Adam is separated from it, he's alienated from God, he's kept from the tree of life, the end of the redemptive story is a tree of life, yielding fruit, healing the nations, life, life, life.

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When Bonson spoke on this section of Scripture, he had some good insight I wanted to share with you.

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He said this, he said, Adam lost what? In the garden, with that tree of life.

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What did he lose? Adam lost length of life. Agreed?

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Adam lost honor. What he did was dishonorable.

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What he did brought pain upon all creation, so he lost his honor.

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Adam lost riches, right? There's just this abundance in the presence of God, this abundance in the paradise of God, just yielding fruit, yielding fruit, yielding fruit, and one of the parts of the curse in the fall was what?

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Now he was going to have to work the ground with the sweat of his what? Brow. He would toil.

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He had to fight and he had to work for this stuff to produce, so now he loses riches. It's not producing as much.

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He lost the pleasantness of paradise, and he lost peace with God.

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He lost peace with creation, and he lost ultimately peace with others. Now there's sinful strife, and there's backbiting and slander.

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There's brokenness, and there's murder, and there is theft. So Adam loses life, honor, riches, pleasantness, peace.

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What is the promise of wisdom in Proverbs chapter 3? You will have the tree of life, and you will get riches and honor and life.

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You will get happiness, pleasantness, peace, all those things. So here we go.

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Proverbs chapter 3. Book ends. The beginning of the story of God's redemption is a tree of life.

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The end of the story of God's redemption is a tree of life. Beginning and end of the story.

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And in the middle, what do we have now? We have wisdom given to us as a tree of life.

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So if you're hungry, if you want peace, if you want life, if you want pleasantness, if you want riches, if you want honor, if you want happiness, then what is the call for us?

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Lay hold of wisdom. Lay hold of wisdom. Pursue wisdom. Because through the gospel, through the good news of Jesus Christ, we have redemption.

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We have the gift of eternal life, the freedom and the grace of God, to be reconciled to God, to have peace with God.

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And that's only through the perfect life and death and resurrection of Jesus. And it is only through faith.

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But if you've been reconciled to God, if you've turned to Christ to live, and you trust in him as Savior and Lord, you have the gift of eternal life.

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And though that beginning of the story is a tree of life, and the end of the story is a tree of life, in the middle of the story, the people of God, who are called sons, are instructed to lay hold of wisdom.

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Because for the believer, she is the tree of life. She brings riches and honor, life and peace and pleasantness, and ultimately, happy.

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Happy are those who lay hold of her. Happy are those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called happy.

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Brothers and sisters, this is where it's found. These are the words of God. May God allow us to gain wisdom, and it starts somewhere.

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If you say, okay, Pastor Jeff, I want to start. I want to start, and the answer is

01:01:31

Proverbs 1, 7. What's it say? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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You want to gain her? Start with the fear of God. Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the words that went out today for your glory, for your kingdom.

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I pray that you would grant to us a hunger, a desire, a love for wisdom.

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Give it to us as men, women, boys and girls, children, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives.

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Lord, grant to us your wisdom from above. In Jesus' name, amen.