PSA 3:13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed. 19 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; 20 by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew. 21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; 22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.
When I think about wisdom, one of the first things I think about is Solomon. He is credited as the wisest man that ever lived. Some might question how wise he was....1 KINGS 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
Well, God warned him!!! If we read on, we see that Solomon began to worship things other than God. His wives lead him down a bad path and he suffered for it. See, even the smartest guy in the world can get derailed by "love". Wise? Solomon had all those "ites"...Moabites, Ammonites....and 700 mother-in-law "ites"! Whew! But that’s not what I want to concentrate on today.....may be another sermon of it’s own! Today I want us to look at wisdom....most of us need more of it!
Our text says that you are blessed if you can find wisdom and understanding. So just how do we find wisdom? PROV 8:1 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? Wisdom is calling for us! Are we listening? Most of us are too busy talking! What was that your Mom told you about the reason you have two ears and one mouth? Sometimes it’s just plain wisdom to shut-up! Let’s go to what the Bible says about wisdom.....JOB 28:28 ’The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’
So we plainly see that fear of the Lord is necessary for wisdom....but what exactly is "fear of the Lord?" Is it to be afraid of God because we are scared of what might happen to us? Well....yes. HEB 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we should be very afraid of falling under God’s wrath....but even more, we should seek to gain favor in God’s eyes, and we do that by knowledge and wisdom.
PROV 8: 13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Here is our definition of "fear of the Lord". Do you hate evil? If you don’t, then you must not have any fear of the Lord. Are you filled with pride and arrogance? I’m not talking about just being concieted, I mean like being too proud to admit when you are wrong. None of us likes to do that! If we are too proud and arrogant, then the Bible says we don’t fear the Lord. What about evil behavior? "Hey, Pastor...I’m not evil". Didn’t say you were....I just asked about your behavior. How about your speech? "well, I don’t curse". Is that the only kind of perverse speech it’s talking about here? How about gossip? How about speaking negatively to your family or friends? If you do any of that, then God can see that you clearly must not fear Him.
So now we’ve got the "fear of the Lord" issue defined for us. That is the beginning of wisdom. See, we’re half-way there already. That means we are half wise now, right? On the other hand, it means we’re still half....shall we say...not so wise. If we read the whole of PROV 8, you can see a good definition of wisdom. It tells us that wisdom is more precious than silver and gold. It also tells us that wisdom is so important that God uses it.....PROV 8:22 "The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; 23 I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. 24 When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; 25 before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, 26 before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. 27 I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, 28 when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, 29 when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. 30 Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, 31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.
WOW! God uses wisdom! If it’s good enough for God to use, then we surely need and should want more of it! As a matter of fact, we see that it is absolutely necessary for us to have wisdom. Still talking about wisdom here in PROV 8:35 For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. 36 But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death."
So where do you fit in? Most of us are still harming ourselves, unfortunately. We understand now that we need wisdom...more than we thought! How big a mess have you ever made that could have simply been avoided if you’d have used a little wisdom? Ever look back and say "boy, that was stupid....I should have been smarter than that!" I do it too often!
Wisdom has to be accompanied by knowledge. ECC 7:12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. Want to preserve your life? Get knowledge! How do you get knowledge? PROV 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Sound familiar? Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Those things are the beginning...it’s only a start. If you want to nurture your knowledge and wisdom and understanding....READ YOUR BIBLE!!! EVERYDAY!!! That’s where you will gain knowledge, and in turn.....understanding and WISDOM!
But the FIRST thing is....FEAR THE LORD. If you really fear Him, you are like me....I’m scared to do anything that is outside His Will. From experience I can tell you that if you don’t fear God and you do things that are outside of His will, bad things happen. Did you ever notice that? Whenever you remove yourself from God’s protection, Satan has a field day with your life! My fear is that I don’t do enough for God.....even though I know that I was saved by the free gift of grace, I still feel such an obligation to God. I owe Him everything...and probably so do you.
Do you fear God today? Think about it. Do you fear God enough to seek His wisdom? Or do you just fear that you may get "caught" doing something you shouldn’t be doing? The Bible says fools despise wisdom and discipline. I WANT God to discipline me when I’m wrong...cause I want to do what’s right! Because I.....fear God!
