The Foundation of Wisdom

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.

For gaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young.

Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.

For understanding Proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please take a seat.

Well, I was thinking this week, what's the most foolish thing I've done?

There's probably lots that could be there, but I think right up the top of the list is about 14-year-old me learning how to play golf at Bill Rose Oval, and I'm next to the cricket nets there, and I think I had like a bush club, like a five iron, learning how to play, that I've been lent by my mate, and I'm hitting balls, and then I saw, I finished up, and I remember that, I can remember this, it's in my memory, burnt in.

I was next to the cricket nets in the long grass, and I found a brown beer bottle, and I thought, see, I was 14, I was 11 years off my male brain being formed with any sensibility.

So at 14, I thought, how far could I hit this golf, this beer bottle?

Any guesses?

I don't know how I didn't cut everything in my, I hit it, and it just exploded, I just have this memory of the explosion being so instantaneous, just everywhere, and I just thought, you idiot, why did I do that?

But I've got memories of being 18 doing stupid things, 20, 22, when I reached 25, and then 20, 20, no more.

The brain, it was formed.

But I was talking to the young guys, I said, whoa, still got four years to go.

Be careful, guys.

Be careful, our brains aren't formed.

So many of us have done foolish things.

Yeah, we know that.

In the way we treat people, in the work environment, with money, with our resources, our gifts and talents, for fun, for frivolity, we've done things that we look back and we think, oh, no, no, that was actually really foolish.

Did you know, I'm sure you do, because we just read it, there's a whole book of the Bible written to the juxtaposition of folly, foolishness and wisdom.

And the authors of the Proverbs talk about wisdom as a she and folly as a she and that we should listen to wisdom.

So, the text we heard read was Proverbs 1, 1-7.

We're in a series we've just begun, Everlasting Wisdom.

So, Lord willing, we'll look at five of the Proverbs.

Probably most of them were written by Solomon.

At least 3,000 Proverbs come from King Solomon, which dates the Proverbs about the 10th century BC.

So, these are 3,000 year old teachings.

The book begins by stating the Proverbs are written for gaining wisdom, and instruction, understanding, and insight.

They're for guiding people, especially the young, in prudent behaviour, doing what's right and fair.

Proverbs guide.

They're there to be a guide for the journey of life.

So that the listener, the hearer, might actually avoid the pain of folly.

Because folly just doesn't score our test poorly.

Have you noticed folly brings suffering?

Normally, there is pain to be experienced when we do that which is foolish.

And then in these first seven verses, it wraps up with the introduction by saying, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So a massive truth there which we'll come back to.

If you take the time to read the 31 chapters of Proverbs, and some of our young adults have done this a few times, it matches, you know, the days in some of our months, and it can be a good thing to do.

But what you find when you read the Proverbs is some...

they're not always true, but they're normally true.

That's the whole thing with Proverbs.

Proverbs 28 verse 19 says, He who works his land will have abundant food.

He who works his land will have abundant food.

But the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

Normally true.

But some really hard working farmers suffer from drought, and they go hungry, and other people win $10 million lotteries.

So it's normally true.

Sometimes the Proverbs can contradict themselves.

In fact, they often do.

Like we have in our modern Proverbs, we say, Look before you leap, and he who hesitates is lost.

So wisdom, hard to find, because sometimes it contradicts each other.

We say, opposites attract, but birds of a feather flock together.

We say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.

Many hands make light work, too many cooks spoil the broth.

Are you getting the picture?

Many Proverbs are written as poetry in couplets, where there are pairs of successive lines.

So 8, 10, choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold.

9, 9, instructor wise man and he will be wiser still.

Teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.

Sometimes it's all about the contrast that's set up.

Proverbs 9, 8, do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you.

Rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

The contrast, 11, 24, one man gives freely yet gains even more.

Another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.

Like Shakespeare, you've got to get your head into it, don't you?

Proverbs, it's a real literary genre that you have to work at.

Proverbs often use graphic word pictures, 26, 21, as charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

Isn't that just a great, piffy bit of wisdom?

Other proverbs are just straight out truth that sort of smacks you in the forehead, in between the eyes.

23, 24, do not wear yourself out to get rich, have the wisdom to show restraint.

So you can wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Or 1430, a heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

How powerful.

Envy will rot your bones.

Proverbs have a way of cutting through to the issues.

Chapter 6, 27, can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

So is he who sleeps with another man's wife.

No one who touches her will go unpunished.

Or 1122, like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

So Proverbs are written by wise people, articulate people.

They have to be brief, pithy, clearly, with deep insight into the human condition.

For a bit of fun, here are some 21st century modern Proverbs written by some of the people who write them, country music singers.

Like, how can I miss you if you won't go away?

I would have wrote you a letter, but I couldn't spell yuck.

I've got you on my conscience, but at least you're off my back.

I don't know why that was Elvis, but every culture produces a few great minds, wouldn't you agree?

But wisdom and folly.

No one is immune from folly.

Here are some thoughts before we get to the real crux of today's message.

Age does not equal wisdom, would you agree?

Age does not equal wisdom.

It can.

It can.

We joked before about our brains not quite landing in wisdom until we're 25, but it doesn't mean that the 26-year-old gets suddenly wise.

Tragically, for many people who are, you know, putting money in poker machines as they get older, it doesn't always work.

Intellect and wisdom don't go hand in hand.

You can be smart and not wise.

You can have an IQ that's off the charts and not much wisdom.

Proverbs just continually tells us that if you stay a fool and don't find wisdom, it just keeps getting worse.

Like 1223, the fool blurts out folly.

Isn't this powerful stuff?

If you don't find a way of stopping being a fool, you just keep blurting it out.

The mouth of the fool feeds on folly.

Isn't that powerful?

1622, understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools.

1712, better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.

Wow.

Who's a fool?

Who are the fools around us that we need to be careful of?

Age does not equal wisdom.

Here's another thought.

We need proverbs because we're living at a time when there is an erosion of confidence in absolute truth.

Many of us find ourselves suffering from the pain of folly, of being a fool, because we've stopped believing that there is a truth that is above our thoughts.

The thoughts of a fool.

We don't know we're a fool, but many of us are foolish without knowing it, but it's really because we stopped believing in absolute truth.

John 1837 tells us that poignant moment where Jesus is before Pilate, and Pilate says, You are a king then.

And Jesus answers, You are right in saying I am a king.

In fact, for this reason I was born, for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

And then Pilate says, What is truth?

A good postmodern response.

What is truth, Pilate asked?

Who do you relate more to?

Jesus, who believed in rock solid absolute truth that he learned from his father?

Or Pilate, the jaded, cynical, unbelieving governor who says, What is truth?

Are you with me?

The pathway to foolishness, and any of us can go there, you know, you can be a Christian and have access to God's Word and have had access for decades, but if you don't put into practice, if you stop believing that this is the absolute, then the pathway towards folly is very easy to tread.

No one is immune from folly because we are marinated in a society which says age equals wisdom, there is no absolute truth, and the autonomous self is the highest court in the land.

If there is no absolute truth, I become the final adjudicator of what is right and wrong, the idea that I am the captain of my own destiny.

And then it's so easy to become a fool without knowing it because you're living in the potential of self-deception.

I've mentioned these, these are from Gallup, a Gallup survey in the States.

They're fascinating, a survey of 1 million high school seniors.

So this is a big survey, done some years ago.

Survey of 1 million high school seniors in the United States found that 70% thought they were above average in leadership, and only 2% thought they were below average.

Interesting, just picture of a million seniors, high school seniors, in terms of ability to get along with others.

So how do you go getting along with others?

A million students responded.

All students thought they were above average.

A million?

60% thought they were in the top 10%, and 25%, the quarter of a million, literally, thought that they were in the top 1%.

I mention that because I just think it's actually quite true.

It's quite obviously the case.

If you are the autonomous, supreme guide for yourself, there's a problem with self-deception.

And the last of these thoughts is, the supremacy of the autonomous self is not a good plan, and neither is a prioritization of the avoidance of pain.

So often, we avoid doing what is wise because we perceive that that path has pain down it.

Would you agree?

We avoid what is wise.

We avoid forgiving when we know we should forgive and engage in the process towards forgiveness, which is sometimes complex.

But we often don't do things that we know are good and wise because we fear the pain.

There's suffering along that pathway.

We begin relationships maybe with the people that we shouldn't because we want to avoid pain.

God's Word tells us to be generous with our time and money to give up doing certain things.

But how often do we just say it's just too hard?

We find ourselves in this wisdom vs.

folly moment.

It's true, isn't it?

At different stages of our lives, we are struck by the fruit of folly and we're like, what am I going to do?

What do I do now?

What would be the wise thing to do?

So, there is such a thing as truth to simply believe and debate.

We are not designed to be autonomous.

We are made to listen to God.

We are called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus and that will involve, sometimes, pain.

But on the other side of it is wisdom and life.

So, how do we live wisely?

Now, we come to the real key of this passage, verse 7.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That needs to be held in tension with chapter 9, verse 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

When you put the two together, you get this phrase that I think is worth remembering.

I remember hearing this sort of 25 years ago and it's just stuck with me as a profoundly true statement about life.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and knowledge rightly applied is wisdom.

And wisdom will lead you to life.

Amen.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Knowledge is not enough.

Knowledge has to be rightly applied.

And that leads us to wisdom.

And the life that is born, birthed out of the fear of the Lord, that gives birth to wisdom, certainly in Christ through the gospel, the knowledge of what he has done, and then applying that to my life and allowing its fruit to be repentance and faith, this is a truly wise response which will lead to life.

So, I can have a lot of knowledge maybe as a scientist, and clearly, I can just apply and use that knowledge to that which is unhelpful, even evil.

So, knowledge in and of itself is not enough.

It needs to be rightly applied.

1 Corinthians 8 says, we know that we all possess knowledge, Paul writes, but knowledge puffs up.

Well, love builds up.

Knowledge is not enough.

We need wisdom.

So, what's the actual starting point, again, for gaining knowledge which leads to wisdom?

Is it sacrificial good works?

The foundation, the beginning of everything that is good in this world that leads towards our theme, everlasting life.

What is that beginning point?

Is it gratefulness, gratitude?

Is it praise?

All these things are good, but the text tells us what is the foundational human response to the living God.

What is it?

The fear of the Lord.

Look, I've been talking to lots of people this last week and I have at different times in my life.

I have never found anyone that just says that first up.

The most important thing for a human being to have is the fear of the Lord.

It is the beginning of knowledge which rightly applied will be wisdom, which will lead to life.

And you might say, well, the fear of the Lord is not really the New Testament idea of life.

It's more the Proverbs.

It's quite enlightening to actually have a look, a little survey.

Just have a look.

We've been studying the Psalms and Psalm 112.

I'm just going to read this quite quickly.

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in His commands.

Sounds like the Sermon on the Mount, doesn't it?

Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, Psalm 31 19.

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for?

Who?

Those who fear you.

The goodness of God.

What about Deuteronomy 6?

Do you remember Deuteronomy 6?

6 verse 5, 6 verse 4, the Shema, the holy prayer, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

It's the most important prayer for the people of Israel.

But a few verses back before it, in verse 1, it says, now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you.

This is Moses to the people of Israel, the famous sermon, the first sermon, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess.

You're about to go into the promised land so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God.

I'm about to give you a whole bunch of commands, three sermons in fact, but the beginning of it all, for the generations that will follow is you must fear the Lord.

You must fear the Lord.

You know, we know about Pharaoh.

What was the problem with Pharaoh, the King of Egypt?

Exodus 5 2.

Afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.

But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?

And then later on we get the understanding of that response.

Moses said to Pharaoh, Exodus 9, but as for you and your servants, I know that you do not fear the Lord, your God.

Another one that is phenomenal in my sense, my understanding, Romans 3, 18.

If you've studied Romans, what is Romans chapter 1, 2, 3 leading up to 3, 21?

It is a full laying out of a watertight argument to say, they all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Like that actually comes in Romans 3, 23, but it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, we are all stuck.

And it finally comes to the end of that whole argument.

3, 21 is the righteousness of God is revealed in Christ.

But just before we get there, in capital letters in my Bible, it says in verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

That's the problem.

That's why the Saviour has to come because there's no fear of God.

What's the prophecy about Messiah?

What's he going to be like?

Well, Isaiah 11 says, A shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, the line of David.

A branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding.

It's interesting, wisdom and understanding.

The Spirit of counsel and strength.

The Spirit of knowledge.

And the fear of the Lord.

In fact, more than that, he will delight.

This is Messiah.

He will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Do you get the picture?

Go looking.

It is everywhere.

All the way from Genesis, through the Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles.

It is our essential response to God to fear the Lord.

So what is that?

Here are three ideas from Jerry Bridges' fantastic book called The Joy of Fearing God.

He suggests, it is, the fear of the Lord is, respect for God's infinite worth and dignity, reverential awe, it is admiration of his glorious attributes, it is amazement at his love, or admiration, amazement, think about it.

Or, that first one is physical, it is visceral, it is an acknowledgement of the dignity, the worth, the immense, uncalculable value of the living God.

I think it speaks of a falling to one's knees, a falling down.

I mean, the angels turn up and people all the time in the Bible fall on the ground because of their dignity, their worth.

But the God who they fall before, there is this immense reverential awe that in our day and age is almost completely gone from our worship.

What does it mean to give absolute dignity to the one who is of the greatest dignity?

He should be dignified.

Do you know what I'm talking about here?

The sense of reverential awe before God just because of who he is in the visceral existential sense of just, here I am in his presence.

But then there's the admiration of his attributes, which is very cerebral.

When we come and we go, what could I learn about this God who I sort of feel like cowering because of his glory?

I find that he's good.

I find that he's holy.

I find that he's creator.

I find that he's compassionate and merciful.

And then I give admiration to his attributes.

And I still fear the Lord.

And then there's an amazement at his love because that God who looks like he's so far away and is the most incredible being that I could learn about, who he is and what he has done, he became human inside a virgin's womb and grew up.

And God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

Remember what Jesus said to Thomas in John?

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

You've seen God.

So God who is worth just sort of unspeakable, reverential awe because of his dignity and his attributes that blow us away in the style of Revelation, of Romans 11, like how can I even comprehend who you are?

Yet I do know what you're like because you demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for me.

Hallelujah.

Love.

What manner of love has been lavished on me that I could be a shorter child of God because of your love demonstrated in Christ.

The reverential awe, the admiration for his attributes, the amazement at his love.

Do you struggle with sin, repetitive sin that's been hanging around for ages?

Can I encourage you, seek to fear God, fear the Lord because you can't defeat these things without the fear of the Lord.

Because a wise response to sin would be to access the grace that is available to us.

We're told all through the New Testament, there is grace that will empower us to say no to ungodliness, to look for the door when we're tempted to get out.

That's the wise thing, right?

Get away, run, flee sexual immorality.

All sorts of times we're told, do the wise thing, get out of there.

The beginning of that is the fear of the Lord.

And it's a fear that is not servile fear.

That's a fear of a slave, a servant going, oh, there's nothing but cowering.

It's filial fear.

It's the fear of a son respecting a father.

I mean, what do you say?

It's an interesting concept to discuss.

I think today's day and age is the only time pretty much in history where a son might say, why would I need to respect my dad?

We're on the equal playing level.

Like he just, he knows some stuff I know just as much.

I would suggest that is uncommon in history, would you agree?

That it's just so common that a son would say, I love my father, but I respect him just as much.

Why?

Because I'm his son.

And we're called to have that response.

And I would suggest that if you're struggling with sin, part of it might be that you've become too, and I've become too familiar with the grace of God that says, there, there, it's all good, no worries.

I'll never earn his favor.

I have his favor, but I need to come to him with fear and trembling as I work out my salvation, as Paul says, with reverential awe.

Have you heard that illustration about the centripetal force and the centrifugal force, and how it relates to the fear of the Lord?

So, you know, is it centripetal?

Yeah, centripetal force, imagine.

I would have done it, but I thought it's a bit dangerous.

So I have a rope and quite a heavy ball, and I get it out there, and I start swinging this rope.

Are you with me?

I don't want to keep being an idiot if you're not with me.

What's he doing up there?

No, there's a long rope and there's a heavy ball, and you know that feeling.

The centripetal force, for the scientists amongst us, is what's on the rope, and the rope has a force that's pulling the ball back in.

But there's also a centrifugal force on the stone or the ball that's making that ball want to fly away.

That's the fear of the Lord.

In the same moment that we worship him, if we have a reverential awe that is fitting of God, we should be pushed away.

We're pushed away like the ball with centrifugal force.

But we can't be pushed away because the love of God holds us and go, no, you can't go anywhere, I've got you.

Amen?

That's the picture of coming in going, Lord God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Oh Lord, but I'm a son, I have a father, I'm gonna run and jump in your lap like a kid and then I'll jump on your bed.

And then when you come in and say, hey, stop jumping on my bed, I will stop.

Because I honor you as my father and respect you, amen?

The fear of the Lord.

It's an awesome idea.

In Christ, our sin is forgiven when we put our faith in Him.

We have seen the glory of the Father, His dignity, His wisdom, and it took Him to a cross.

We have admiration for who He is, amazement at His love or at His worth.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

May we not be found to be the fool.

And the only way that we will do that is by the grace of God.

And another thing that we haven't talked that much about, community.

We need others to help us.

If I can't be humble, I'll never hear the voice of a mate, a brother, a sister say, hey, I think you're moving down the direction of a fool.

Really?

Yeah, I think so.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Knowledge rightly applied is wisdom.

And wisdom leads to life in Christ.

The band is going to come up and lead us in a song.

What song do you reckon Mel would have picked?

It's a song that has been around for a very long time, and it's all about reverential awe for who God is.

Lord, thank you for your word, and we pray that we might have the grace to come under it this morning and find the life you have for us in Christ.

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