SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 1:1-19 (ESV)
DATE: 4-23-17
Are you a wise person? Let’s start off with a little audience participation. Go ahead and raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a wise person?
Now if you’re not wise, the next best thing is to be teachable? So raise your hand if you’re teachable?
Have you ever known someone who wasn’t teachable — they thought they knew everything about everything. They’re pretty miserable to be around aren’t they? They’re the kind of person you avoid having over for dinner, right? Because you know that every conversation has to end one way — with you agreeing with them — regardless if they’re right or not.
Now hopefully we can agree that all of us could use a little more wisdom. Because we’re faced with so many choices every day and — often — it’s hard to know what to do. It’s hard to know which choice to make.
SERIES INTRODUCTION
And with that in mind, today we’re starting a brand new series in the book of Proverbs. And what we’re going to do is look at what wisdom is and what it means to be a wise person. There’s a way of living that’s wise — as we’ll see — and a way of living that’s foolish. There’s wise living and foolish living. And I think all of us would rather be wise than foolish, so how do we go about becoming wise?
Well the book of Proverbs is a great resource in helping us gain wisdom. And after we look at what wisdom is today, next week we’ll see that wisdom isn’t hidden. Wisdom is available — it’s accessible — it’s like a person with a bullhorn screaming out for us to listen to her. And the question for us is “Will we listen to wisdom or will we go the way of a fool?”
And then we’ll finish out this series by getting very practical. We’ll see how wisdom speaks to things like our relationships and how we work and other areas of our life. So this is going to be a very practical series in helping us all to become wiser people.
So with that, let’s turn to our passage for this morning.
ANNOUNCE THE TEXT
If you have your Bible please turn with me to Proverbs chapter one. We’ll be looking at verses one through nineteen this morning.
And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do here at Gateway is let you ask questions. So if you have a question during the sermon, you can text your question into the number that’s on the screens or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
TEXT SETTING
And while you’re finding Proverbs chapter one — let’s talk about this book for a moment. The book of Proverbs was written to help us become wise. The goal of the book is for us to walk on the path of wisdom instead of the path of foolishness.
Now Proverbs isn’t the only wisdom book in the Bible — traditionally there are five books of wisdom in the Old Testament and there are some wisdom writings in the New Testament as well. So apparently God is trying to tell us something — actually He’s trying to tell us two things.
First, God’s telling us that He wants us to be wise.
And second, He’s telling us that we can all grow in our wisdom. Obviously some of us may be wiser than others, but none of us have arrived — none of us have graduated a PhD program with honors — when it comes to wisdom. We all have room for growth.
Now here’s the thing about wisdom. As a pastor, I often have people ask me, “How can I know God’s will? I need some advice on what’s the wise thing to do cause I’ve got two choices and I need to know which one God wants me to make.”
Usually, they want to know the pastoral secret to discovering God’s will — as if pastors have some sort of special access when it comes to knowing God’s will.
And people never like my response because I don’t have any different access to knowing God’s will than you do. In fact, you have the same book that I have when it comes to knowing God’s will and wisdom for life. And if you want to know God’s will — if you want to be a wise person — here’s what you do.
You become a wise person by spending years of training, and learning, and getting to know God and His Word better so you — almost instinctively — know what He wants you to do because you know Him and His Word so well. You see, the process in becoming a wise person is a slow — sometimes painful — process, but becoming wise is possible — even for you — it just doesn’t happen overnight.
And then after years of study, and years of learning, and years of reading God’s Word, and coming to church, and hearing sermons, and talking through spiritual matters with other Christians, and reading books about God and theology and the nature of man — when you’re faced with a decision — what you’ll do — is make the decision you believe is best and most honoring to God. It’s really that simple.
Because after all of the instruction, and learning, and training, and growing what will happen is that your mind, soul, body, and spirit will be conformed to God’s Word and His ways and His wisdom. And you’ll know — with pretty good confidence — what it is that God wants you to do. Because you’ll know Him and His Word better than you do right now.
So the book of Proverbs is written to help us become wise — to understand God’s will for our lives — so that we live wisely. So — then — what is wisdom?
Four things have been said about biblical wisdom. First, wisdom is practical. It includes what we call “common sense.” So wisdom is very practical for our daily lives.
Second, wisdom is intellectual. To be wise means we use our minds. We think. We see the words “understanding” and “knowledge” used often in the book of Proverbs.
Third, wisdom is about morality. Biblical wisdom will tell us what’s right and wrong — what’s fair and unfair — what’s good and evil — because biblical wisdom wants us to make the choice that most honors God.
And, finally, biblical wisdom is meant to draw us into the mysteries of life. There’re a lot of things about life that are mysterious — things aren’t always as clear as we wish they’d be — and biblical wisdom helps us to see the reasons why things are the way they are. It helps bring our broken world into focus.
Now something that you may find odd is that throughout the book of Proverbs both wisdom and foolishness are personified as women. There’s a woman in the book who’s called wisdom and a woman who’s called foolishness.
Now so we’re clear, that doesn’t mean that women are more wise or foolish than men, it’s just a way of making wisdom have some flesh and bones to her. It makes wisdom a bit more tangible. It makes her human like.
And we’ll see that wisdom is an equal opportunity teacher. She’s open to teaching anyone who’s willing to learn. She doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter what your race is, or age, or sex, or educational background — if you’re willing to listen — she’s willing to teach you how to be wise.
So wisdom is practical, intellectual, moral, and she brings clarity to the mysteries of life.
Now one last quick thing before we get to our verses. The book is called Proverbs — so what’s a proverb?
One of my Bible dictionaries defines the word proverb as “a short, memorable statement…used to give wise advice or counsel.” Another says that a proverb is “a short, popular saying that communicates a familiar truth…in an expressive and easily remembered form.”
So a proverb is a short, memorable, statement of truth.
OK. Now that we’ve got some understanding about this book, let’s jump into our verses. And what we’re going to find are three types of people who each respond to wisdom differently. There are three types of people in the world according to the book of Proverbs. The three types of people are the simple, the wise, and the fool. The simple, the wise, and the fool.
Let’s begin by looking at the simple. Here’s what you need to know about the simple.
MAIN POINT 1
“A simple person is someone who has much to learn.”
Now I know what you may be thinking, “Wow, Josh. Tell me something I don’t know. ” I never said that this was rocket science.
Look with me in verse one. And when you see a word in all caps, yellow, and underlined…go ahead and say those words out loud with me. In verse one we read…
“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, 3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; 4 to give prudence to the SIMPLE, knowledge and discretion to the YOUTH.” (Proverbs 1:1-4 ESV)
A simple person is someone who has much to learn.
Now don’t be offended by the term simple. It’s OK to be simple, but what you need to know is that everyone who’s simple has a choice to make. Which way will you go? Which path will you take? Who will you become — a wise person or a fool?
Now the term “simple” — here in our verses — is interchanged with the word “youth.” So what this tells us is that if you’re young, you’ve got a lot to learn — and that’s OK — some of us who aren’t so young still have a lot to learn. And wisdom is here to teach us what we don’t know so we don’t stay “simple” — or worse — become a “fool.”
So wisdom is here to teach the simple — and the young — how to become wise.
- Wisdom wants to help us think the right way about things.
- She wants to give us the ability to make plans that’ll work in our favor.
- She wants to instruct us in how to be fair with others.
So you can see that wisdom is an unbelievable gift to the simple and the young. She’s only here to help. So the questions the simple and the young need to wrestle with are:
- Will you listen to wisdom?
- Will you learn from her?
- Will you allow her to be your teacher so you gain insights for life?
- Or will you reject her and go off on your own path thinking that you know everything that you need to know about life?
The good news for the simple is that they aren’t a fool yet.
They have much to learn, but if they’re teachable, the simple are in a much better place than the fool — because the simple can become wise if they’re willing to learn from wisdom.
So that’s the first group — the simple — now let’s take a look at the wise.
What does it mean to be a wise person?
MAIN POINT 2
“A wise person is someone who learns.” A wise person is someone who learns. Look with me in verse five.
“Let the wise hear and increase in LEARNING, and the one who understands obtain GUIDANCE, 6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. And skip to verse eight. Hear, my son, your father’s INSTRUCTION, and forsake not your mother’s TEACHING, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” (Proverbs 1:5-6, 8-9 ESV)
A wise person is someone who learns.
I find it interesting that after the “simple” the next type of person brought up in our verses — is the wise. And get this, a wise person needs wisdom — and learns from wisdom — just as much as a simple person needs and learns from wisdom.
You see, a wise person is a teachable person — they’re a learner. And a wise person stays teachable — they never stop learning and growing in their wisdom and understanding of who God is and what His Word says.
Because a wise person wants to know what to do in any situation that life throws their way. They want who God is — and what His Word says — to be the filter for their every decision.
- Because they know that they’re a person who’s in a process of growth.
- They know they haven’t arrived yet — there’s still a lot for them to learn.
- And they’re humble enough to know that they’re not a finished product yet.
- And one thing the wise have learned is that they’re in need of guidance
And notice how a wise person submits him or herself to instruction. Meaning that a wise person acknowledges that there’s a higher authority over them. The fool — as we’ll see throughout this series — believe that they’re their own authority — but not the wise. The wise know that there’s Someone who possesses authority that they must submit themselves too.
Now let’s pause here for a moment — cause I want to let you in on a little secret about growing in wisdom. The more I learn about God and the more I read His Word — the more I realize what I don’t know. And when I look back — one thing that makes me cringe is how confident — more like cocky — my younger self was in his understanding of God and the Bible. And — of course — ten years from now I’ll probably cringe when I think of myself today — because my hope is that I’ll always be learning and growing and becoming more wise in my knowledge of God and His Word.
But you have to start somewhere. There’s not a microwavable option for gaining wisdom. It starts by reading the Bible through for the first time. And then the second time. And then a third. And a tenth. And a hundredth.
It begins by slowing down and studying the book of Romans. And the book of Genesis. And Mark. And Isaiah. And really understanding what’s being taught in the gospel of John and even here in the book of Proverbs.
But if you’re not regularly reading God’s Word — and if you’re not regularly studying God’s Word — then how in the world do you expect to grow in biblical wisdom?
Listen — nobody believes what’s in the Bible without reading the Bible. It just doesn’t happen. You can’t have a biblical worldview if you don’t read the Bible. You can’t have biblical wisdom if you’re not saturating yourself in the Bible.
And I get that some of us need to listen to the Bible because we’re not the best of readers. Go for it — listen away. But give God and His Word your full attention. Don’t multi-task when it comes to growing in wisdom. Focus. Study. Train your mind, body, soul, and spirit so that you grow in understanding who God is and His Word better. Because that’s the way of the wise. That’s the path of wisdom.
So the wise person is a learner. They used to be simple, but they’ve taken the path of wisdom and continue to grow in their understanding and knowledge of who God is and what His Word says.
Finally, the fool — what does it mean to be foolish?
MAIN POINT 3
“A fool is someone who is caught in a trap.” Finally, a fill in the blank you weren’t ready for. A fool is someone who’s caught in a trap.
Look with me in verse ten.
“My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”—15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18 but these men lie in wait for their own BLOOD; they set an ambush for their own LIVES. 19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the LIFE of its possessors.” (Proverbs 1:10 -19 ESV)
A fool is someone who’s caught in a trap — and it’s a trap that they’ve set.
Now the illustration is a bit strange.
The father’s worried that his son will run off with a gang or the mob or something. And my guess is that joining the mob hasn’t been that big of a temptation for you — especially since the Sopranos went off the air. So it’s easy to just read on through these verses without seeing how they apply to our lives.
But the warning here is about greed because foolishness and greed go hand in hand. You see, the fool — in our proverb— joins a group of greedy individuals. So we have to watch our definition of “fool” because “fool” — in the book of Proverbs — isn’t what we usually think of. When we think of a fool we probably think of the “simple” person we saw earlier. But the fool — in the book of Proverbs — is an evil, rebellious, greedy person. They don’t listen to Wisdom.
And this greed is a greed that traps them. In fact, the destiny for everyone who’s greedy is death — that’s what we see in verse ninteen — greed “takes away the life” of the one who’s greedy. The wise will listen to this warning from Wisdom, but the foolish will keep right on going as if they are an exception to the rule.
So what’s greed — because if greed leads to death — if greed is the path of the fool — then we should know what greed is.
One person has said that greed is a “desire that knows no bounds…[it’s a] desire so strong that it does not care what’s done to satisfy it or what harm it does to others.” And the scary thing about greed is that our culture breeds greed. Our culture breeds foolishness.
Think about every commercial you see or ad you view. What’s the point of the commercial or ad? To get you to so desire their product that you’ll do whatever it takes to get it, right?
And it’s not just commercials — TV shows, movies, books, and especially social media all contribute to our greed problem as they show us picture perfect families, the ideal husband or wife, the kind of home you’ve got to have for fulfillment, or the kind of friends that will make you significant…and these things are all producing greed in our lives.
Yet we can’t blame them entirely.
For the Bible says that if you want to know where greed begins you have to look inward to your heart. For greed and — in fact, all sin — begin from within our hearts. All culture can do is entice our hearts to chase after what it already desires — to go the way of the fool.
And notice how greed is described as a trap. And what’s the point of a trap? To catch something. And for a trap to really work, it’s got to be hidden. It’s gotta be surprising — and greed — like a good trap — is unexpected. You don’t even realize that you’re caught up in greed until it’s too late and the noose is around your neck and you’ve stepped off the ledge.
And because it’s a trap — and because it’s so powerful — greed can cause us to make all kinds of foolish decisions — decisions we live to regret for the rest of our lives.
And greed is the way of the fool. It’s a trap that catches a person even though it’s a trap that’s been set by their own heart.
And now we’re left with a question. What’s the difference maker?
- Why do some people — who are simple — become wise while others become fools?
- Why do some people focus their lives on learning about who God is and what His Word says while others take the path of the fool — the path of greed — that leads to death?
- Is there something that can help us avoid the way of the fool and ensure that we’re on the path of the wise?
- And the answer is yes. It’s this.
PROPOSITION
“Wisdom begins with fearing the LORD.” The starting point of wisdom is the fear the LORD. The fork in the road where the simple must choose the way of the wise or the way of the fool — is clear — it begins with a first step. And the first step towards wisdom is “the fear of the LORD.” In verse seven we read…
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. ” (Proverbs 1:7 ESV)
The path of wisdom begins with fearing the LORD. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but biblical writers don’t like to waste time — they like to get right to the point.
And here — early on in this book — the author gets to what’s most important: The fear of the LORD. And Proverbs doesn’t just begin with the fear of the LORD — it ends with it too. Proverbs 31:30 — the next to last verse in the book — says, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
And throughout the book of Proverbs we find this idea — of “fearing the LORD” — twenty-one times. You could call it the motto of the book. But what does it mean that the “beginning” of wisdom is the fear of the LORD?
One Hebrew scholar says that the word “beginning” means that the fear of the LORD is the “first and controlling principle” for all wisdom. Meaning that the “fear of the LORD” isn’t something that you learn and then leave behind to go on to more important matters.
“Fearing the LORD” is the filter for all of wisdom — it affects all of life — it influences everything for a wise person.
So fearing the Lord is obviously important — so what does it mean to “fear the LORD?”
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, but there are two kinds of fear.
The first is a negative fear — which is a selfish fear. And the second is a positive fear — which is a selfless fear. There’s a negative and positive kind of fear. A selfish and a selfless fear.
It’s been a few years now, but when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out — Christopher Lee — one of the actors in the series — told a story of when he was younger and got to meet J.R.R. Tolkien — the author of the Lord of the Rings books. And you need to know that Christopher Lee loved the books as a young boy, so when he ran into this hero of his, he said that he started to tremble — he said that he almost bowed on one knee to show honor and respect to this hero of his.
In hearing this story, someone said, “When you find yourself in the presence of somebody you so revere, you…just sort of tremble. It’s a positive fear. It’s not a negative fear. The negative fear is you’re afraid somebody’s going to hurt you because you distrust them.
A positive fear is you’re afraid you’re going to disappoint them, you’re going to dishonor them, you’re going to grieve them…because you love them so much.”
That’s what it means to “fear the LORD.” It’s the closest thing to “worship” in the book of Proverbs.
It’s the idea of not wanting to disappoint God by the way you live or the choices you make. It’s where you desire to live wisely by knowing Him and His Word because you know that the way of the fool will grieve the heart of the One you love. Do you see how different this kind of fear is?
Negative fear says, “God’s out to get me, so I better obey Him. I better make the right choice or He’ll strike me with lightning or cause me to be late to that important meeting or I’ll end up paying for this decision later.”
But positive fear says, “God’s not out to get me — He’s not out to punish me — He punished Jesus in my place — so it’s not that I have to obey God — it’s not that I have to live wisely — it’s that I get to live wisely — it’s a joy to obey God because I love Him. And He’s been so kind to me by showing me the wisest way to live — the best way to enjoy life — and the greatest way to honor Him.
CHRIST CONNECTION
And the only reason why a selfless fear is possible — the only reason why you and I can “fear the LORD” and not be worried about Him being out to get us — is because of Christ’s selfless act of love on our behalf.
Do you remember all of the blood in our verses? The fools go out to shed the blood of those they want to rob.
The greedy gang waits for anyone to fall into their trap so they can kill them. The fools are bloodthirsty — yet the trap is on them — because the blood they’re waiting to spill is their own.
And like the fools, we were all thirsty for blood — for Jesus’ blood — while He was here on Earth.
- We waited patiently until the opportune time and then we seized the moment and had Him crucified — His blood spilling out as the nails were driven in His hands and feet and as a spear was shoved into His side.
- We had no idea that the trap we’d set would turn on ourselves as we murdered the Son of God.
- For we found ourselves guilty of murder — guilty of killing God’s Son — condemned to eternal death because we foolishly crucified Christ.
Yet for those who believe in Jesus — for those who see in Christ not just a dying man, but a dying Savior — for those who see in Jesus the Wisdom of God and fear Him — who bow down in worship of Him — Jesus’ blood cleanses them of their guilt as He uses our trap — not to get us — but to rescue us from the path of the fool.
CONCLUSION
And when you believe that Jesus has done all of this for you — you won’t be simple — for there’ll be nothing you’d rather do than live wisely for Him — to live a life that fears Him — a life that worships Him.
And when we believe that Jesus has done all of this for us, we won’t be foolish either — for we’ll joyfully submit ourselves to His authority and His Word — because He’s a loving and wise King. He’s the Wisdom of God. And He offers knowledge for the simple, instruction to the wise, and freedom for the fool who’s caught in their own death trap.
You see, the only way to live not as the simple — nor as the fool — but as the wise — is by believing that God isn’t out to get you — because He got His Son in your place. And He’s not out to hurt you either — God hurt His Son in your place. And in spite of your flaws, rebellion, sin, and foolish choices — God’s out to save you — and to help all of us live wisely — because He loves us.
Let’s pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I pray that everyone who hears my voice will be receptive to what You’ve said to us through Your Word this morning. I pray that You’ll remind us often that “the fear of the LORD” is the beginning of wisdom.
Father, I ask You to give knowledge to the simple and youth who are among us. No matter our age, there’s much we don’t know. Help us to be teachable and to grow in our understanding of You and the Bible.
For those who are on the path of the wise, Father, I ask that You would continue to stir a desire in us to grow in our understanding of You and Your Word. May we be humble, acknowledging that there’s much we don’t know, but by Your grace — and instruction — much left for us to learn.
And for any who are on the path of the fool, I ask You to reveal to them the trap they’re caught up in — for it’s a death trap that will cost them their life. Father, may they find the freedom and wisdom that’s being offered to them in Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
BENEDICTION
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. May you grow in your understanding of who God is and what His Word says, so that you live wisely for Him. Amen.”
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.