Proverbs 3: The Marks of Wisdom

Wisdom Literature and the Fear of the Lord

All right, we're good. Okay, we're looking into, we're continuing along in our study with wisdom for life as the overall title for this series, and so I just wanted to review a couple of things with you.

Remember that Proverbs is wisdom literature, which means it is distinct from all of the other types of literature, and because the purpose of the book is to make one wise, and one of the things that we see, and this is from past sermons, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

If there's any hope to be wise in this life, you have to start with the fear of the Lord. One of the things that makes Proverbs so unique is that it uses many different types of literary devices, and it'll use them in such a way that you are using poetry, parallelisms, and all kinds of other devices, metaphors, similes, and figures of speech, which makes it a little bit more difficult to interpret, and a lot of people go into Proverbs, and they look at it as though these are hard and fast promises and things, and that's not necessarily the case.

The wisdom in Proverbs is giving you generalities, and you'll see that even, because some of the Proverbs is like long life, if you honor your mother and father. Well, there are people who honor their father and mother who don't have a long life.

These are general principles, not hard and fast promises, and so you have to be careful. So the text for this morning, we're into Proverbs chapter three, and I'll read these through. Well, you know what, I'm not going to read them through now, because we're going to look at each one of them individually.

Proverbs three verses one to eight, okay. I've titled this three marks of wisdom, because in this chapter of Proverbs, we find that there's three specific things through the first eight verses, and the first one is this, that a wise student is a willing student, okay.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. Why would Solomon put that in there? Because people have a tendency of forgetting what their parents tell them, and remember in Proverbs as well, when you see my son or my daughter or a father saying this, it's pretty much for anyone who's in authority.

It's specifically for parents and for children to obey their parents, but there are other people who stand in authority figures, and the Bible usually categorizes them in the same categories as a father or a mother, all right.

So that's, it begins with that verse. Now notice the antithetical parallelism. I'm not going to get into what that is again. We went through that in a previous lesson. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.

That's, remember, that's just two ways of saying the same thing, a positive way and then a negative way. That's why it's called antithetic parallelism. So to be willing to learn is a step towards wisdom, all right.

It's foolishness to reject instruction, and I bet everybody here knows somebody who in a classroom setting who just refuses to be taught, you know, is through disruption or whatever it is, and by the way, let me add something here.

While this is specifically for young people, you can be a professor and still be guilty of this, thinking you know it all, you know, just because you're an adult and you've experienced a lot and you know how to teach doesn't mean that you have nothing left to learn, and that's a very important point that Proverbs points out.

This is not just for the young, although primarily for the young. The best teaching in the world is wasted on unwilling ears. If you're not willing to listen, if you're not willing to learn, you can have the best instructor in the world and it's not going to do you any good.

The Rewards of Listening and the Covenant Promise

So the wise student is promised rewards, all right, and again, these are generalities. They're not hard and fast promises, but he's promised rewards. Look at what it says. For length of days and for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Now again, this is a general statement, and if you look throughout life, it's pretty much true, okay. It's a recurring theme in Proverbs. We saw it in the first chapter, he who listens to me shall live securely and shall be at ease from the dread of evil.

Notice in Proverbs 1 .33, listens, and remember in listen, in biblical terminology, listening is more than just the auditory function of the ear, all right. Listening means heeding, obeying, you know, putting into practice what you've learned, and that's a general theme in Proverbs as well.

Proverbs 2 .21, for the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it. Those are just two. I could go on. There's probably about a dozen or more verses in Proverbs that give the same type of instruction.

Notice the upright. Who are the upright? Those who listen, those who hear the word of God and obey it, okay, and look at the correlation with the commandments, all right. Now remember what we just saw.

This was wisdom. Look at Deuteronomy 5 .16, which is a restatement of one of the commandments. Honor your father and mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be prolonged and it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Notice, so you have a command, and then Proverbs is saying, you know what, not only is it a command, but it's wise because of the benefits that come. So now the promise to Israel was that obedience to the commands meant long life, prosperity, and security in the land.

Look at that there. Whenever you see that phrase in the Old Testament, 99 of the time it's referring to the land of Israel. There's some very specific promises, and you'll see this when you get into the prophecies and the eschatological portions of Scripture.

When you see the land, think Israel, all right. Now in the New Testament, that promise is expanded because the land was only a part of the promise of God to his covenant people, and it was a precursor, all right.

Look at how Paul restates this in the New Testament, for the promise to Abraham or to his descendants was that he would be heir of the world, was not through the law, but through righteousness and faith.

Notice now it's the heir of the world, all right. Notice how the scriptures have a unity in thought when you approach them from a biblical hermeneutics perspective, okay. In other words, always keep in mind all the promises to Old Covenant Israel were precursors, were shadows of the greater truth in the New Covenant, and it's unfortunate that so many people, so many pastors break up the scriptures into dispensations, and you wind up with a disjointed mishmash of teaching that sometimes even seem apparently contradictory, all right.

So of course, even the temporal blessing of living securely in the land is a foreshadow of the greater blessings in the New Covenant, okay. Remember what, if the first covenant was perfect, we wouldn't have needed a new covenant, all right.

The Old Covenant was there as a foreshadow to demonstrate the need that man had for the grace of God. So, and also, don't forget the broad meaning of peace in the Old Covenant. Everybody's familiar with the Hebrew word shalom, all right.

What it meant was social harmony, prosperity, health, safety, and to be right with God. So the word shalom was more than just to be at peace with your enemies, all right. First and foremost, it was peace with God, but it had this broad connotation.

So that's why you would always see the Jews greeting one another with shalom and leaving one another with shalom, because it has such a rich meaning to it. And sometimes in English, you know, the translations, yes, it means peace, but it means oh so much more than physical peace, all right.

We see this also because that's the essence of the Aaronic blessing. Remember in Numbers 6, 24 and 26, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace, shalom.

So notice that's that blessing that Aaron was to pronounce upon the people, and you have to look at it in that greater connotation of what that really means. And this is where wisdom literature really comes in.

Kindness and Truth as Inseparable Virtues

Do you want to experience all these blessings that God has for you, all right? You have to be wise. Second mark, remember the first mark, all right, was a wise student is one who is a willing student.

The second mark is a wise student doesn't separate inseparables. Look at verse three, do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, all right, so you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.

Notice how in Proverbs almost always there's a blessing is tied to the admonition, okay? So what are the inseparables here? Kindness and truth, all right? Notice what it says, do not let kindness and truth leave you.

So what is kindness? Well, one of the best ways to look at kindness is one of the manifestations of love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. Remember, love is kind, all right? Kindness is generosity, kindness is compassion and mercy, kindness is forgiving, kindness requires discipline.

It's not always easy to be kind, all right? You ever experienced that where you're trying to be kind to somebody and they're just making it impossible? So it takes discipline. In fact, you guys remember when I did a sermon in the book of John and we came up to kindness and I mentioned R .C. Sproul, that was his desire.

He had made the statement once that he says, I would love to have on my, somebody asked him how he would like to be remembered when he's gone, and he says, what I'd really like to see on my tombstone is he was a kind man.

That's how highly he thought of this concept of kindness. Well, now he's passed away, guess what's on his tombstone? He was a kind man, okay? It's not always easy to be kind. All right, what is truth?

The Hebrew word used to actually means amen, all right? It means your yes is your yes and your no is no. It means freedom from falsehood. It means accuracy, not bending the truth, okay? It means honesty.

It means more than technical truth. I guess our car salesman will eliminate it here, won't they? Ah, never mind. But notice, I mean, so there's a lot in the context of that in the gospel of John. I mean, extensively we've looked at truth, so I'm not going to expand upon it here, but this just gives you an idea, and this is not, these few comments about truth, this is not the sum total of what truth is, but you get the idea.

It's more than being technically correct, you know? If you're intentionally hiding something by by an eloquent use of words, that's dishonest, you know? It means keeping vows even when it hurts. Psalm 15, for the man of God swears to his own hurt and does not change.

So kindness and truth go together. That's one of the major points there, and too often one is sacrificed, you know, for the other, and this is one of the areas that we have to be careful of in our debates, in our evangelism, and in our apologetics, is that we don't sacrifice one for the other.

I'm sure you've all seen in debates where, you know, you're on the side of truth, and you just go tenaciously and tear the other guy up. Where's the love? All right, and then on the other side, you've also seen somebody who's trying to be kind, and they don't even, and say that they sacrifice truth, you know, because they don't want to hurt somebody, you know?

I mean, sometimes it's not that easy. I mean, you know, your wife comes up, does this dress make me look fat? No, it doesn't. You are fat. No, see, I can say that because my wife isn't, but just in case she ever hears this.

No, but you get the idea. You have to be careful, you know? We joke about things like that, but bring it over into everyday life situations, and it's very easy to fall in. Oh, no, no, that's fine. It's okay, when really, you know, it's not, okay?

Truth told in arrogance is unacceptable, you know, and that's exactly what this is saying. If you look at Jesus, except when he was pronouncing curses upon those hypocrites who were leading people astray, he always dealt very kindly.

Look at the woman by the well. How's it be? Like a glass of water, and every time he deals with somebody, it's in kindness, you know, and he gets to the truth, but not at the sacrifice of kindness and vice versa, all right?

Compromising the truth to be kind is also unacceptable. You can't just, well, I don't want to hurt their feelings, so I'm going to tell them that, oh, yeah, you know, that's wonderful what you're doing.

No, if they're doing something wrong, they need to be told, but kind. Like, there's two ways. There's two ways of telling somebody they got bad breath, you know? Would you like a mint? It's the kind way, you know?

The other way, it's, you know, say, Charlie, but you're in on your old socks again, you know? It's got to be careful, okay? Kindness and truth are inseparable for the Christian. Ephesians 4, 15, notice, speaking the truth in love, Paul says, you are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ.

Notice, speaking the truth in love, and by the way, that whole fourth chapter, everybody should know, that's putting off and putting on, you know? So, but right in the middle of it comes in with speaking the truth in love.

Style is important. Yes, it's important how you say something is just as important as to what you are saying, all right? Attitude is important. People will see right through your attitude. What is your motivation, you know, for telling them, all right?

Some people just like to pick out things that people do wrong, you know? And so, we have to be careful. So, the merging of these two concepts is a consistent theme in the book of Proverbs. I'm giving you just one or two here.

By loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord, one keeps away evil. Notice again, loving kindness and truth, and if you go through the scripture, you'll see them linked so often.

The importance of being both kind and truthful is seen even in the language. Look at what it says. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. What's the impact of that? Bind them around your neck.

Tie them so you're not going to lose them, all right? Look at the second one. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Notice the permanence. These are things that have to be learned and ingrained so that we don't stray from them because it's so easy to go off on one side or the other.

Remember, the Christian life is like walking down a road, and you can fall off into the ditch on either side. The middle ground is almost always somewhere in the middle is right, okay? Truth at the expense of love is wrong.

Love at the expense of truth is wrong, and somewhere in the middle is where you'll find the biblical mandate. So, the results of keeping kindness and truth together, you will favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.

Favor, good repute with both God and man. Now, again, here's where you have to be careful. These are the natural results of being kind and truthful, not guaranteed. Sometimes, you can tell somebody the truth in the most loving way, and they're still going to smack you upside the head because man is sinful.

He doesn't always want to take it, all right? So, again, these are general truths. Now, when it doesn't work, don't forget your reward will be in heaven, all right? Blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake, right?

Trusting the Lord Instead of Human Understanding

Remember why? The prophets suffered the same, and great is your reward in heaven. So, whenever one of these promises is withheld on earth, you're going to fourfold in heaven. Third mark of wisdom, all right, is trust in the Lord.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight, all right? The wisdom of God, notice this, the wisdom of God, trusting in him, is placed at odds with man's understanding.

You'll see that, how often do you see that in our world, where man says, this is what's right, and it's directly opposed to what God says. I mean, it's just, it's so often that it's staggering, all right?

The apostle Paul said, we need to take every thought captive. We need to bring our understanding of things into captivity to the word of God, all right? You cannot trust your thought process outside without an outside objective standard, because left to ourselves, just what we think, we have our own natural propensities and proclivities because of our depraved nature, and they will certainly take us down a path of following our emotions and whatnot, apart from the word of God, whereas the word of God is meant to keep your emotions in check, and lead you in the path of righteousness.

Okay, so trust in the Lord is in opposition to your own understanding. We're still talking about trusting in the Lord. The only infallible standard is the word of God. You can go, you ever have a difficult problem when you go to five different guys, and you get five different answers as to how to answer the problem, you know?

Some of them are good, some of them are not so good, all right? The only way that you can have an absolute infallible answer is by going to the word of God, because his word is infallible. So here's another point.

If your understanding is in opposition to the word of God, trust God. The wisdom of God is placed at odds with man's understanding. We went through this, didn't I? Somehow I had a duplicate slide. Sorry about that.

How far does this go? In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Now, what does that mean? That means that in all your ways means there is no sphere of life that this principle does not cover.

Now, no, the Bible is not a textbook on science. It's not going to tell you how to separate, you know, water into hydrogen and oxygen models. It's not going to do that. But it's going to, for life in Godliness, it has all the answers.

Whom shall I marry? What shall I do for a living? Where should I live? Where should I go to school? All of those types of questions. Yes, the principles are contained in, not in detail. It's not going to tell you, yes, go to, you know, New York University.

It's not going to tell you that. All right. But it will give you the principles for determining what is the best college for you to go to. It's all in there. And if you just go through and follow, you have to look for it.

Once again, there's a reward for obedience. What does it say? Things will go better for you. That's what it means. You know, we'll make your path straight. Okay. So, we come down to the conclusion. Three principles are followed by a summation.

Okay. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Okay. Simple. That's, if you look at what these three marks say, that's what it's saying. Turn away from evil. Fear the Lord.

And you're not, and don't think that you've got all the answers yourself. The person who thinks they have all the answers themselves is a very, very poor student and will wind up in trouble. And then the benefits are repeated.

It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. And again, that's more than just physical, you know, and remember in the old covenant, which things were mostly material, the blessings were material, were all foreshadows of the covenantal blessings of the new covenant, which the priority is the spiritual, but not to the exclusion of the physical, but there's a priority.

Okay. And we'll get into that, you know, more so. The priority is, you know, what shall a prophet of man if he gains the world and loses his own soul? Right. But that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to do things that are right in this physical world.

And that's something that we have to always keep in mind. Questions?