WWUTT 1314 Understand the Fear of the Lord (Proverbs 2:1-8)

Love, justice, good, bad, right, wrong. The world has definitions of these words, but we shouldn't understand them according to what the world says, but what

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Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we continue our Old Testament study, and we just recently began a study in the book of Proverbs.

If you want to open up to Proverbs chapter 2, I'm going to begin by reading the whole chapter here.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the

Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom.

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of His saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.

For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you.

Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perseverance of evil, men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her

God. For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.

None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it.

But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

We are still reading this from the vantage point of a father instructing his son, moreover, the king instructing a future king,

Solomon to the prince, Proverbs 2 .1, my son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, now, just because this is from a father to a son, that doesn't mean that daughters can't benefit from this, right?

That women can't glean from the wisdom that's being shared here. After all, all of us who are in Christ, we are sons and daughters of the most high

God. We are children of God through the adoption that we receive by faith in Jesus Christ.

So we all benefit from the wisdom that comes from the father. When the apostle

Paul addressed the churches, he would refer to them as brothers. That wasn't just talking to the men and excluding the women, but it's a word that is translated to include the entire brotherhood of the saints, all of us who are siblings together in Christ Jesus.

It's not very politically correct anymore to refer to mankind, you know, men and women together.

Even that word woman means out of man, for she was taken out of man, according to Genesis chapter two.

Whenever we use words like this, we're not just talking about only men, but we're including men and women together.

And so just as we are all adopted children of God, we can all receive these instructions from the father to his children,

Proverbs 2 .1, my son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, as we talked about just yesterday, going through Romans chapter 10,

Jesus said to his own disciples in John 14, 15, if you will love me, you will obey my commandments.

So treasure up the commandments of God, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.

Remember what I said about wisdom, that that knowledge is just information. It's facts, but wisdom is applying that knowledge.

I read this quote from Charles Spurgeon, wisdom is the right use of knowledge to know is not to be wise.

Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.

But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. And so this is the instruction that we have here.

Make your ear attentive to wisdom. Don't just learn knowledge, learn how to apply that knowledge.

When it comes to learning this information, we can all be students to learn things, but don't become independent on the application of that knowledge.

So you can think that you're being humble by letting a teacher teach you things, or you can open up a book yourself and discover things, but you're also going to need that teacher to help you know how to apply the knowledge that you have learned.

And that's what the father is attempting to help the son do here in Proverbs 2.

Make your ear attentive to wisdom, not just learning knowledge, but even how to apply that knowledge and inclining your heart to understanding.

Remember what we read yesterday about Israel in Romans 10, 19, Paul says, but I asked, did

Israel not understand? They heard the word of God, but they did not understand it.

And this was to the destruction of many. So we gain not just knowledge, but we gain an understanding of that knowledge.

What does this mean? How does this apply? That's understanding. That's wisdom. Verse three, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, we are told this in James chapter one, verse five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask

God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him.

So raise your voice for understanding Proverbs two, four, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

I think I've made this connection with you already, but in Colossians chapter two, we read that in Christ verse three are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Everything that we could ever want to know about God or even about us, the promises of God that are given to us in Christ Jesus.

We know these things in Christ and how do we open up these treasures that we may discover them by opening up our

Bibles and reading it. If you seek it like silver, the, the knowledge, the understanding, the wisdom of God and search for it as hidden treasures, verse five, then you will understand the fear of the

Lord and find the knowledge of God. Remember we began

Proverbs by reading in Proverbs one, seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction. As many of you probably know,

I worked in Christian radio before I became a pastor and I was sharing the truth of God's word on the radio before it was my job to preach it from the pulpit and, and so for teaching the truth of God's word,

I've received any number of threats over the years for the things that I have said, I have told people,

God's word says this. If you're living your life this way, then you are in sin, repent, or this might happen to you.

And I've had people call me or write letters or send emails and they've threatened me and they've said, don't say that anymore.

If you keep saying that, then this might happen to you. I even received a threatening letter from a former member of my church a little more than a week ago.

Somebody that we had to discipline. They're still harassing me, but I'm simply not going to be bullied into not preaching the truth of God's word.

That would be foolish of me to do that. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

They don't receive it and they don't give it. I don't fear anything of man. I fear

God. As it says in Matthew 10 28, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Now as we read in first John four 18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

So if perfect love casts out fear, then why are we supposed to fear God? And why is fearing

God the beginning of wisdom and knowledge? Well, this is not fear as in we're afraid of being judged by God, but it is a reverent fear of God.

We don't have fear of God, of being condemned by God. Let me put it that way.

All of us will actually stand before God in judgment. Whether you are a sinner or a saint, you are a saint by the imputed righteousness of Christ.

So every one of us stands before God in judgment. We read about the great white throne of judgment in Matthew 25.

You have the sheep and the goats that are separated out before Christ on his throne. The goats go on his left, the sheep on his right.

Those who are on his right will enter into the kingdom prepared by the father from before the foundation of the world.

But those on his left will go away into eternal punishment. So everybody stands there at the judgment before the judgment seat.

Those who are in Christ enter into glory. Those who rejected Christ and did not do the will of the father, they will go into eternal punishment.

So we don't have to fear that condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus for as it says in Romans 8 .1,

there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But we do have a fear of God that is a reverent fear.

It is a respect for God as you might have respect and a reverence for your father on earth.

If you had a good relationship with your dad and he was somebody who loved you and showed affection to you and told you how special you were to him.

He also demonstrated his love for you by punishing you when you did wrong. And so whenever you were faced with some kind of a temptation, you would, you would think about that.

You were like, well, I don't want to disappoint my dad. I don't want to disobey my dad and then incur his wrath that he gets the switch out or he pulls his belt or something like that.

Right? So you feared punishment from your father. It didn't mean that he didn't love you or you didn't love him, but you had that reverent respect for your dad that you might not fall into punishment.

And so we have that fear of God as well. He is perfect and he is righteous and he is holy and we are not.

God owes us nothing, but it's by his grace and his mercy that he has shown love and affection for us.

Romans 5, 8, God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If you ever want to know if God loves you, look at the cross by faith in Jesus Christ.

We have the love and affection of our father who is in heaven, but there's still, there still must be that reverent fear, that great respect for him being the one who sits enthroned over all creation, the one who is perfect and blameless and never does wrong.

And when it comes to learning about the, uh, the justice and righteousness and equity that we're reading about here in Proverbs 2,

God is the one who has established these things and we learn these things from him. So that reverent fear of God means that we come to him for wisdom and knowledge and understanding.

He is the one who grants it because he is the one who established it. As we learn these things about God, we understand the fear of God.

What does it mean to have a fear of God? That's an understanding we must have according to Proverbs 2, 5, and we find the knowledge of God.

Verse six, for the Lord gives wisdom. Once again, James 1, 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, ask of God.

He gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him.

We may discriminate against others for any number of reasons. God does not discriminate. He gives generously to all without reproach for the

Lord gives wisdom from his mouth. Come knowledge and understanding. So once again, how is it that we learn these things from God about God?

Where, where do we go to unlock the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that we find in Christ by opening your

Bible? This is our treasure box. Verse seven, he stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity. When we were going through the

Psalms, we read a number of times about how God is our fortress and our shield and one who blesses the upright.

In fact, that's Psalm 710, my shield is with God who saves the upright in heart.

What does that mean to be upright? Well, the word literally means to stand up straight, but as it applies to a spiritually, it's a person who is righteous, who is honest, who is just and full of integrity.

He's not crooked. He's not all hunched over and scheming. He's not ashamed of something.

So like refusing to meet eye contact with people, this is one who stands with confidence because our confidence is not in ourselves.

It's in Christ. And I'm not talking about a physical, physically standing up straight with confidence and people who have a hump in their back, therefore are, are crooked, sinful people.

And that's, that's not the understanding at all. But as a person who stands up straight is one that you would look at and has confidence.

It would be a, a healthy person, someone who is strong. So you would say the same of a person spiritually that they are upright when they are honest and full of integrity.

They say what they're going to do and they do what they say. Their speech and their actions are consistent.

So it says in Proverbs 2, 7, he stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity. I love that description of he stores up sound wisdom for the upright, meaning it's there for the taking.

And those who are honest, who desire God, who want to walk in his righteousness, they are the ones who are going to find that which

God has stored up for us for our benefit. And again, we gain all this wisdom from God when we learn from his word.

And we also listen to the instructions of others. We listen to pastors and teachers, our elders, those who guide and instruct us, those who discipline us, those who care about us.

Hebrews 13, 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, 1, imitate me as I am of Christ. So we've been given all these wonderful examples for us to follow those who instruct us and guide us.

As it says in Colossians 3, 16, encouraging and admonishing one another with all wisdom, correcting with goodwill.

And so we have in Proverbs 2, 8, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

The word saints means those who are sanctified, who are being grown in holiness.

We are increasing in maturity in the knowledge and wisdom of God as we study his word and we apply these things.

So we guard the paths of justice, that which God has said is just and right.

And whenever we instruct a person in the way, whenever we correct somebody who is walking in sin and bring them back to the path of righteousness, that's guarding the paths of justice, that we may do what is just and right.

Calling out sin and wickedness and shining a light on that which is good and righteous and watching over the way of his saints.

So we're not just guarding the path of justice, that which God has said is just, but we're also ensuring that the saints are walking on that path.

So watching over the way of his saints, those who are being sanctified, those who are walking after Christ and pursuing this knowledge and wisdom of God.

Now we end a sentence there at the conclusion of verse eight, and that I think is where I'm going to stop today because where we're at in time,

I'll wait to finish chapter two next week. But we go on in verse nine to read, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.

Still talking about these paths that we are to walk, which God has marked and he has defined.

And so we know the right way that we should go when we read his word.

I've already quoted from Hebrews 12. Let me, I'm sorry, I've quoted from Hebrews 13. Let me go to Hebrews 12 verse one.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, talking about those who have gone before us and set for us examples and taught us well, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

We have this, this path of sanctification described as a running lane. Let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us. Think of even like a modern day track. If a runner, a sprinter is running down that track and he starts looking to his left or his right, how accurate do you think he's going to be in staying in his lane?

If he takes his eye off the goal, he could possibly step out of the lane and commit a foul and be disqualified.

So as the runner must fix his eyes on the goal, so we must setting our eyes on Jesus, thus the founder and the perfecter of our faith.

How do we know wisdom and understanding and instruction and knowledge, integrity, justice, equity, every good path?

How do we know the way that we are to go? Look to Christ, make him your focus today.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness and your grace. Forgive us our sins and let us look not to ourselves, but let us look to Christ and then in the way that he sacrificed for us, how can we sacrifice for others, showing the love of God to other people who are around us, help us to pursue integrity and righteousness and justice as you have established these things, not as the world defines them.

They've got their own definitions of love, their own definitions of justice. We're not seeking what the world says about these things.

We want to know what God has said in his word. Grant us wisdom, Lord, that we may know your way and keep us walking upright in it today.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. This has been When We Understand the

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