(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, in Proverbs chapter number four, the verse that I wanted to start out with is in verse number seven where the Bible reads, wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding. What that means there when it says the principle thing, it means it is the number one thing. It's saying wisdom here is the number one thing. Wisdom here is the most important thing. That's what it means by principle. Now, go back to Proverbs chapter one if you would and I want to preach tonight on the subject of the book of Proverbs and why the book of Proverbs is so important. Now, the way the book of Proverbs is laid out, in the first nine chapters, God is just begging and pleading with us from chapters one through nine to be smart enough to understand how important this book is, to understand that getting wisdom is the most important thing that you can get in your life and that everything else that you want, all the things that you desire in life, everything that you need to succeed, wisdom will give it to you. If you can get wisdom, you'll get everything else. That's what he explains in the first nine chapters. Now he gives us a lot of Proverbs and a lot of good advice in the first nine chapters, but a lot of the first nine chapters is just explaining to us how critical it is that we get wisdom and how important it is that we get wisdom. And then chapters ten through twenty-nine are just giving us all that wisdom, I mean just giving us proverb after proverb after proverb, just wise statements, just things to live by, things to incorporate into our lives. They have to do with family, they have to do with business, they have to do with church, I mean they have to do with every area of life. And then of course chapters thirty and thirty-one are a little bit different. They kind of stand alone as a closing to the book. Look at chapter one if you would in verse number one, the Bible reads, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction. So he's giving us the purpose of the book. What is the purpose of the book of problems? So that you can know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment, and equity. What do those words mean? Just judgment, equity. Basically knowing what is right in any given situation. Knowing who is right and who is wrong and what is right and what is fair in a given situation. He says to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. So that right there should tell you if you're a young man, this book should be a huge part of your Bible reading and Bible study. Boys, young men especially, but young ladies as well, need this wisdom. You say well why is it addressed to the young? Why is the book of Proverbs not addressed to the old? Because you'll be so much better off if you learn the things in the book of Proverbs when you're young. See a lot of the things that the book of Proverbs teaches, old people know these things but they learn them the hard way. And if you're wise, if you're smart, you'll learn these things when you're young just by reading the book of Proverbs. Not having to live the life. Because let me tell you something, more than any other book, the book of Proverbs is something that you're going to see proven true over and over and over again in your life. I mean you say, well what's the evidence that the Bible is true? What's the evidence that the Bible is the word of God? That's what the atheists or the agnostic will ask. I want to see the evidence. You want to know the evidence that the Bible is true? The book of Proverbs. Because the book of Proverbs is filled with hundreds and hundreds of clear instructions on how to live your life. And when you follow these instructions you succeed. And when you disregard these instructions you fail and that proves that the Bible is the word of God because God is right about everything. And the older you get and the more you come back to the book of Proverbs you say, God was right. The Bible was right. Every time. And the Bible is all that way, but the book of Proverbs just really stands out as being that way. So he says in verse 5, a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. You see a person who is wise is a person who wants to hear and they want to learn more. You see the wise person comes to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night because they are hungry for knowledge. They're hungry for information. And they don't go to a church that makes them feel good, oh no. They go to the church where they learn the most because they're on a quest for knowledge. They desire instruction. They want to attain unto a wise counsel. They want to get advice. They want to be told, you know, what is the truth and they want to understand not just the easy parts of the Bible, not just the simple basic milk of the word, no they want to understand the words of the wise and their dark sayings. They want to learn more. They want the advanced truths of the Bible and so that's why a wise person wants to listen to as much preaching as they can, listen to the Word of God as much as they can, read the Word of God as much as they can, find someone who's willing to instruct them and get that instruction. Not just any instruction, not the instruction that causes thee to err from the words of truth and from the path of righteousness, but the instruction that comes from God's Word. Not the instruction of the heathen, but the instruction of the Bible believing godly soul. He says here, the fear of the Lord, verse 7, is the beginning of knowledge. So if you're a person who desires knowledge, you need to understand it needs to come from a God-fearing source. But let me say this, if you're a person who does not desire knowledge, you are a fool. Now when we say the word fool, you might not understand it that well just because in 2013 we don't really use the word fool that much and we don't really use it the way that they use it. Today we would say you're an idiot. I mean isn't that probably the modern day equivalent to what the Bible means when it says fool? I mean if we just say you are an idiot, that would be like saying you are a fool. You know, you're dumb would be another way to put it. He said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They don't like to be instructed, they don't like to be taught, they don't like to learn new things. He says in verse 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. So he starts out right away saying you know two of the people that are going to teach you a lot in your life are your parents, and if you're wise you'll listen to their instructions. You will hear what they have to say. Go to chapter 2 verse 1. He says, my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. What does it mean to apply your heart? Have you ever heard somebody say about a student in a school, you know he's just not really applying himself. Have you heard that? Or someone gets a new job and you say well hey, how's so and so doing at his new job? It just doesn't seem that he's applying himself. What does it mean to apply yourself? It means your heart is in it, and it means you're giving it everything that you've got. You care about what you're doing, and so you're putting effort into it, you're putting energy into it, and he says here that you need to apply your heart to understanding, meaning that your goal, you're striving to understand. You don't just come to church and say oh this sermon's too complicated, or you know I read the Bible and it doesn't make it, no you're like I need to understand this, I need to figure this out, and I'm going to make an effort to figure it out. He says you incline your ear unto wisdom, you apply your heart to understanding. Verse 3, yea if thou criest after knowledge. What does crying mean in the Bible? Well it doesn't mean weeping, weeping is what the Bible means when tears flow. When he says crying he's basically saying screaming out or crying out, yelling. He says if you cry after knowledge, and then look, see how crying is defined in the next phrase, and liftest up thy voice for understanding. You know you think of a baby, because the Bible says that we as believers, he says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow their body. Newborn babies have a very strong desire for milk from their mother, and what do they do? Don't they cry after it? Don't they lift up their voice? I mean look, if you don't feed a baby, isn't that what they're going to do? I mean they have this, this, and if they don't get it, it'll just be, ah, ah, ah, ah. I mean they just shrill, just shrieking, you know, why? Because they have a very strong desire, in fact it's all they want. They don't care about anything else. Try to offer them any toy, offer them Xbox, offer them PlayStation, you know, offer them any toy from the baby aisle. They don't want any of it, they want one thing. They want that milk. And God said, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow their body. I mean just, it's just a consuming passion, it's just all I can think about, I just must get knowledge, I must get the word, I must learn. I mean it's pretty serious when he says, cry as after knowledge, lift up thy voice for understanding, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Verse 4, if thou seekest her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasure. You know, what if you knew that there was a treasure buried somewhere, nobody else knew about it, and you had that treasure map, and I mean you know this is hid treasure, this is silver, this is gold, this is millions of dollars. What kind of effort would you put in to excavate that treasure? Would you just say, yeah I've had that treasure map sitting around and you know I've just been busy. You know how it is. I get busy. I mean I'm going to get out there one of these days. I mean is that how you'd be if you had this map and the treasure's there? And maybe it was a little complicated but you knew the treasure was there. Wouldn't you get whatever education you needed and you'd find whatever experts, you'd probably be out there all night digging. You'd set up floodlights and you'd dig all, I mean you would not rest until you found that treasure. Why? Because it's important to you. Why? Because money is something that you desire in those quantities. I mean if I told you do x, y, and z to receive a million dollars, you'd be willing to do a lot. I mean you'd be willing to work pretty hard. You'd be willing to go through some serious suffering for that kind of money. But he says you need to seek for her, meaning wisdom, as for silver, and search for her as for hid treasures. And then look at verse 5, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So let me ask you this, is the knowledge of God something that's always just really easy to find? Just right there, just really easy to understand the fear of the Lord? No he said you're going to have to hunt for it, you're going to have to crave it, you're going to have to desire it, you're going to have to go searching for it, you're going to have to cry out for it. And you know there are many times I have cried out to the Lord for wisdom and begged God to hear me and to answer me and to give me understanding and knowledge and wisdom. You say why? Well let me ask you this, have you ever cried out to God for anything? But wisdom is the principle thing. So if you're going to cry out to God for anything, it makes the most sense to cry out to God for wisdom. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and it braid not and it shall be given him. You say well so okay great, you know when I pray God doesn't always give me what I ask for. You know I asked him for a new car, I asked him for a new job, I asked him for, you know, whatever and God didn't answer my prayer but wait a minute. You know here's one prayer God's for sure going to answer, a lot of things that we ask for God knows that that's not what's best for us and we don't always get everything that we want because sometimes we ask and receive not because we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts. But if we ask for wisdom we know that this is a prayer God's going to answer. See certain prayers God says well you know you better, if you keep my commandments and do what's pleasing in my sight I'll answer you. But when it comes to wisdom it says you give it to all men liberally and it braid a thumb. Ask for wisdom, he'll give you wisdom no matter who you are. And you say well oh great that's not what I wanted. That's not what I want to ask for. But see you'll understand as I read these scriptures that when you get wisdom you get everything else. And let me show you that. Remember what Solomon prayed for? God said ask me whatever you want and he said give me wisdom, give me an understanding heart. And God said you know what I'm going to give you wisdom and he said I'm also going to give you everything that you didn't ask for. You didn't ask for money, I'll give you money. You didn't ask for the lives of your enemies, I'll give you the lives of your enemies. You didn't ask for length of days, I'll give you length of days. And here's the thing, if you get wisdom you get all those things anyway. And let me show you that in the Bible as we go on here. He says, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Verse 6, for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. So where are we going to go to find wisdom? The Word of God. It's going to come out of the mouth of the Lord. Look at verse 9. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity ye every good path when wisdom enterth into thy heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul. Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. Jump to chapter 3. Look at verse 13. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that geteth understanding. You say, man, I just want to be happy in life. He says you'll be happy if you find wisdom. Verse 14, for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. He is more precious than rubies. Gold silver rubies? But wait a minute. He says, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared under. Basically just name anything. Gold and I mean what's gold per ounce right now? 1600 bucks, 1700 bucks. One ounce of gold is 16, 700 bucks. He just says just think of gold, silver, rubies. And just anything else you can imagine, whatever fancy car, fancy house, fancy boat, just imagine all the wealth imaginable. He says everything that you can think of, none of it can even begin to compare with the value of wisdom. I mean if there were a way to buy wisdom, what if there were a way to spend money and buy wisdom? You know, let's say you were to pull out 1600 dollars or 1700 dollars and buy an ounce of gold, but would you pull out 1700 dollars and hand it across the counter to get some piece of wisdom, some piece of knowledge? You don't even have to pay for it, it's all right here in the book of Proverbs. And if you're smart you'll read it, it's free. But the merchandise, if it's better than the merchandise, this book is way more valuable than gold, silver, precious stones. And let me tell you something, when you lay hold on knowledge, when you lay hold on understanding and wisdom, it'll be worth more to you than all the money in the world. Let me just kind of break this down to you in a simple way, because he says often in the book that wisdom is better than money, it's better than gold, it's better than silver, it's better than rubies, it's better than any of these financial things. And he even says that wisdom will give us riches, and if we have wisdom, he's saying getting riches will be no problem if you have wisdom. Getting the money. Now look, should we live our lives to be rich? No, the Bible says labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. See the wise person's goal in life is not even to be rich anyway. But if they wanted to, it's right there, it's possible. Let me explain it to you this way. What if we were to take a successful businessman, right? And we're going to take that successful businessman who's spent the last 20 years building a business, and he has a great big income, he has all kinds of nice clothes, nice houses, nice cars, he's just a very wealthy man, in fact he's a millionaire. And you know, there are people that started out just as an ordinary guy, and they've built businesses and made that kind of money and made millions of dollars, right? So let's take that guy right now and let's just take away everything he has. Let's just, like the book of Job, I mean just take away everything he has, to where he doesn't even have two nickels to rub together. Let me tell you something, that man in 10 years or so would be back where he was. It's true. I mean, why? Because he knows how to get there. Because he has wisdom. Now I'm not interested in that, I'm not interested in becoming a millionaire, I'm not interested in being rich, I'm not interested in having fancy cars and fancy houses and fancy boats. You know my car has 329,000 miles on it, and it's broken down right now. It broke down for the first time. I mean, I can't, you know, and you know you're tempted to get mad or, oh man, why is this happening? But then it's kind of like, okay, my car has 329,000 miles on it and it's never broken down, ever. I mean, this is the first time my car broke down. Can you really get mad? You know what I mean? Because it should have broken down a long time ago. So I'm in a rental car. But the thing that I'm saying is that that guy would get back where he was because he knows how to get there. How did he get there? With his mind. And what's in his mind? Knowledge, wisdom, understanding. Now it's the wisdom of this world, you know, it's the knowledge of this world. It's not necessarily a spiritual wisdom. But the Bible says that the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. So there is a wisdom of the world. It's foolishness with God because God paves the street with gold. He doesn't care about being rich. But I'm just explaining to you that the same thing that knowledge and wisdom and understanding can do for that guy who wants to be rich and give him the power to be a millionaire and then to lose everything he can be a millionaire again. Why? Because he knows how. That's the same knowledge that God will give you to succeed in the things that you need to succeed in. Which, our goal, none of our goals should be to become rich. But what is our goal? To live a life that's pleasing to God, to succeed. But look, we want to be married, we want to have children, we want to raise our children, we want to have a godly home, we want to have godly children. We want to win souls to Jesus Christ, we want to live a clean life, we want to prosper and have good success in our lives. How are we going to do it? Wisdom will give us everything that we want. You say well I just want to be happy. Well happy is the man that findeth wisdom. And so what I'm saying is whatever your goal is, whatever you want, you need to understand that that goal is going to be achieved by reading this book and especially by reading the book of Proverbs. And if you're a young man or a young lady, if you're smart, you'll go home and read this book and then you'll read it again and again and again. And many people read the Proverb of the Day. And what they do is they take the book of Proverbs because it has 31 chapters in it. Whatever day of the month it is, that's what Proverb they read. So today's the third, so you read Proverb 3, you know, and then tomorrow you read Proverb 4. And many people, in addition to reading the New Testament and the Old Testament throughout the year, they read the book of Proverbs every day. And if you're reading the book of Proverbs 12 times a year by reading it one chapter per day, you're going to have a lot of wisdom. And especially if you hearken unto the things that are written therein and you implement the things that are written therein, you will succeed. I mean you will have a lot going for you. But let's keep reading this. It says in verse number 16, I mean think, just let these words sink down into your ears. When it comes to wisdom, verse 16, length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honor. I mean God's saying wisdom just has these things, just to hand them to you. Here's honor, here's riches, here's length of days. I mean everything that you desire is given to you through knowledge and understanding and wisdom. And yet people will go to a church where they learn nothing week after week. Where they hear the same thing week after week and don't learn anything. Why? Oh well, I have more friends there. Well, you know, I'm too offended at so and so at the church. You know, if you're smart, wisdom will be the principle thing in your life. Oh, I'm too busy to read my Bible. You know what, you're busy spinning your wheels. You're busy making money and putting it in a bag with holes. You're busy failing in your marriage, failing with your children, failing at your business, failing in your soul winning. Why? Because the Word of God is going to give you wisdom that will give you all those other things. You're going to die young because you don't have wisdom. Length of days will come with wisdom. You see, there are so many things that I've learned that I wish I had learned sooner. You know, when you get to be older, and I'm not saying old like old old, because I'm only 31 years old, I'm still a young man, you know. But let me say this, as you get older you start taking care of your health better. You start thinking about the food that you eat and you start thinking about the lifestyle that you live. But you know what, when you're young you don't have that wisdom. And then you look back and say, oh man, why didn't I take care of my teeth? Why didn't I eat healthy food? You know, or maybe you made mistakes in child rearing and now your children or teenagers are grown and you're saying, oh, what have I done? You know, and it's just like, don't you wish you would have had the wisdom sooner? Well this book will give the young man wisdom. Because the old men have wisdom usually, because if nothing else, just from the experience of life, they've picked up a lot of things of just, you know, hey if I push the button the light bulb comes on and they figure out the cause and effect of life and they understand, hey, this doesn't work and this does work. And you just have time to learn more. You know, I've talked to somebody that just seemed like they knew about every subject and I say, man, how do you know about so many subjects? And they say, well, when you get to be my age you'll know about more subjects too. Because age gives that experience. But here's the problem. When you get the wisdom at age 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, a lot of areas of your life it's too late because you've made mistakes that cannot be undone. And you'll wish, why didn't I learn this as a teenager, as a young person? Man, if I had my life to do over again I would do things so differently. But if you're young, it's all right here. You can avoid all those pitfalls, you can avoid all those mistakes by doing two things. Number one, reading the book of Proverbs and number two, praying for God to give you wisdom. Or be a fool, ignore the Bible, ignore the book of Proverbs, go out, eat, drink and be merry and do what you want and ignore this and run your business the way you want, be an employee the way you want, handle your money the way you want, you know, have relationships the way you want, raise your kids the way you want. And then someday you'll care and you'll say, oh man, what do I do? You would be a lot smarter if you're young to just read it and understand it now. Listen to the preaching now, read the Bible now, pray now, begging God to give you wisdom. Not gold, not silver, not rubies, they are worthless compared to wisdom. You can't even compare the two. It'd be like if I compared gold to dung and said, you know, what's the relationship of the price of a pound of gold to a pound of dung? You'd say that's stupidity, it can't be compared. What's a pound of dirt compared to a pound of gold? What's the ratio there? It's stupid, but he says that's how it is with gold and wisdom. You can't compare it, it's just no comparison, it doesn't make any sense. Verse 17, her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retaineth her. Chapter 4, hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding. Verse 5, get wisdom, get understanding, for get it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth, forsake her not, she shall preserve thee, love her and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the secondary thing, is that what it says? No wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting and understanding, exalt her and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. I mean he says look, cry after it, love it, desire it, buy it, embrace it. It's everything. Verse 13, take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her for she is thy life. What does that mean there? Whenever I read that verse I always think of the same thing. I think of when a dog bites onto a chew toy and you know some dogs they bite onto a toy and they won't let go of it and you know one thing I like to do with, I think it's my mom's dog that I do this with, what's my mom's dog's name? Rosie. So my mom's dog Rosie and she has these really slippery floors at her house and this dog Rosie, it's like a half Boston terrier, half bulldog, something like that and you know she has this toy and I have the dog fasten onto that toy with it, you know the dogs love to bite onto a toy and I just like to slide it all over the floor and the dog's just sliding around and it just won't let go. And many dogs, and I'm not recommending this, I know this might sound cruel, but you know sometimes I've taken a rope toy like that and just lift a dog off the ground, it's just like, and it's just hanging, it's whole weight is hanging, who knows what I'm talking about? Just hanging by it. It just will not let go. Now look, he says take hold, so take fast hold of instruction. Basically when you find instruction, just grab hold of it, don't let it go because it's your life. Basically he's saying hold onto it for dear life, hold onto it as if your life depended on it. Picture this, picture the rope ladder hanging down from a helicopter. You're hundreds of feet in the air hanging from that helicopter. How tight are you holding on to that ladder? You know, hold onto it for dear life. What is instruction? You know what instruction is? It's someone giving you wisdom. But you know a lot of people when you try to give them wisdom, they say I don't want to hear that, I don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear it. You know the Bible is there and it's there to instruct you. Sink your teeth into it, hold onto it for dear life. It's your life, your life does, not like your life depends on it, your life does depend on it. He says take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her for she is thy life. Verse 20, my son attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings, let them not depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart for they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. Chapter 5 verse 1, my son attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding. Now I like the term bow thine ear because you know what it shows? It's saying be humble enough to listen, because what is bowing? I mean if I bow I'm showing humility, right? I am basically deferring to someone else. If I bow down before someone I'm basically deferring unto them. And he's saying, and you know what, it's a humble act to bow before someone. And he says right there, bow thine ear to my sayings, because some people are too proud to listen to wisdom, to listen to knowledge, to listen to instruction. You know what, they think they know everything. And because they already know everything, what do you teach the guy who knows everything? And so they need to bow their ear and be humble enough to get the wisdom that they need and to get the information they need. He said that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. Look at chapter 6 verse 20, my son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother. Notice he didn't say forsake not the suggestions of thy mother. He didn't say keep thy father's preferences. He said commandments. He said the law. Verse 21, bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. I mean this is your life's companion, wisdom. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You know what reproofs are? Telling someone that they're wrong. Someone telling you that you're wrong or telling you an area that you can improve or telling you something that you don't know is the best thing anybody can do for you and if you're smart you'll love it, you'll seek it. Other people will bristle, how dare you tell me. He says in verse number 24 one of the things that it will do for you, it will keep you from, to keep from the evil woman and from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Verse 1 of chapter 7, chapter 7 verse 1, my son, keep my words and lay out my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live. And my law is the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Say unto wisdom, thou art my sister. Say that's a weird thing to say to wisdom. And call understanding thy kin's woman, that they may keep thee from the strange woman from the stranger which flattereth with her words. Look at chapter 8 and chapter 8 is just the whole entire chapter is God just pleading with us. Please get wisdom. And you say well what is wisdom, what does it mean to be wise? Well there are a few different things, there are three different things that we see in the book of Proverbs. We see knowledge, we see wisdom, and we see understanding. Knowledge is information, right? Knowledge is when we gain information and when we read the book of Proverbs we're gaining a lot of information that's critical information, that's important information, that's helpful information. The whole Bible is giving us information. I mean isn't this a book filled with information? It could be measured in kilobytes if we wanted to. How many kilobytes of information are in the Bible? I don't know. How many megabytes? I don't know. But the thing is the Bible's got information, but then understanding is when not only do we receive information, but when we receive that information and actually comprehend what it means. I mean we understand it. There could be information that I know, like for example I know that E equals MC squared. Who knew that? Who already knew that E equals MC squared? Who understands that? Okay smart aleck, no I'm just kidding. Of course we've got a few people that understand it. Different people understand it to varying degrees. Because there's understanding and then there's understanding. But that's another sermon about the theory of relativity. I'll preach that next Sunday, no I'm just kidding. No I probably never will. But basically there's a difference between knowing something, so I can know, hey, E equals MC squared. I know that to be true, but wait a minute, do I understand that necessarily? And then what is wisdom? Wisdom is when I take that understanding of the theory of relativity and I actually apply it to my life. Now let me ask you, have you applied it? No he hasn't. So he has knowledge and understanding, but he lacks wisdom, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, let me explain it to you this way, if we looked at a person who knew a lot but didn't understand it, probably not doing them a lot of good, right? But what if we looked at someone who knew a lot and understood a lot but isn't doing it? And then they keep doing stupid things, would you say that's a very, he's a very wise person. Because every time I talk to him he knows so much about every subject, in fact he understands the Bible so well, as he just disregards it, as he goes to the bar and gets drunk and just lives a stupid worthless life, would you say he's wise? Because the wise man doesn't just know what the Bible says, he doesn't just understand what the Bible says, he does what the Bible says. We look at his life and he's doing it, he's putting it into practice. He is using E equals MC squared to succeed in life. He's making a nuclear bomb or something, I don't know what to do with that. Is that what you do with it? No. What do you do, build a time machine with it? How is it applied? What do you do with it? A power station? What? A power station? A power station? Worm holes? What? You build a worm hole into another dimension? You know, nobody here, the Salt River Project uses it? I don't know. I knew Einstein did something with the nuclear bomb and I knew he did E equals MC squared, but I don't think the two have anything to do with one another. In fact, I'm starting to doubt, the more I talk about this right now, I'm starting to doubt whether E really does equal MC squared. I'm not really into science. I'm not really a science guy. Some of you like science. I don't really like it. Honestly, I just don't like it that much. I think science is great if that's what you like, but it's just not my thing. But in verse 1 of chapter 8, because if we're going to talk about wisdom, let's understand it. And that's what wisdom is. When I know something, I understand it and I live by it and I'm succeeding because I'm doing what the Bible told me to do and it's working for me. Verse 1, does not wisdom cry? So not only should we cry for wisdom, the Bible says wisdom is crying out to us. Understanding put forth her voice. She standeth in the top of high places. By the way, in the places of the past, she cries at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, unto you, O men I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand wisdom and ye fools be of an understanding heart. Let me ask you this, if you're a fool today and if you lack understanding, is it just too late for you? Well, I'm just kind of a dummy. That's the way it goes. No, God is saying here that the simple can become wise. That the fool can become of an understanding heart. Think of verse 6, hear, listen, wisdom is saying, for I will speak of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things, for my mouth shall speak truth and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing for a word of perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understand and right to them that find knowledge. What does it mean to be plain? It means it's just, it's like plain English. I mean, once you understand, it's simple is what it says, oh, that's easy. Receive my instruction and not silver. And knowledge rather than choice, gold, and you know what some people do? They choose money over wisdom. Instead of spending their time in church, instead of spending their time reading the Bible, sometimes they'll forsake church, forsake the Bible, and go out and get a really good education so that they can make lots of money. They're choosing gold and silver instead of wisdom. Missing out and working a second job instead of going to church and missing church so you can work a second job. You know what? The money that you're making is not going to replace the information that you're missing out on. And you say, well, but Pastor Anderson, I can download the sermon. I don't have to show up. I can download the sermon. And you say, I can just listen to the sermon, but you know what? God gives wisdom. And you know what? God looks at certain people and he says, I'm not going to give you wisdom. I'm going to give you ears that don't hear. I'm going to give you eyes that don't perceive. I'm going to give you a heart that doesn't understand. And God gives to a man that is pleasing in his sight wisdom. And the one who is not pleasing in his sight, he will withhold knowledge. He'll withhold wisdom. You say, well, doesn't God just want to give everybody wisdom? He'll withhold it. The person who pleases God, God looks down on them and says, you know what? I like you. I'm going to give you the most valuable gift that there is. I'm going to give you something that's more precious than gold, silver. I will give you wisdom because I like you, because you're pleasing in my sight, because you are an obedient son. I will teach you these things. He said, wisdom is better than rubies, verse 11, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I wisdom. So this is wisdom talking to us, wisdom personified. I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth, I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me. Do you see how it can become too late to start looking for wisdom? And that's why you need to look. Now when you're young, seek me early and find me. He said, I love them that love me. People love wisdom. They love to learn. Have you ever known people that say, man, I just love to learn. Do you love to learn? If you don't, you're a fool. If you love to learn, you're going to be wise. Because if you love wisdom, wisdom loves you. If you despise wisdom, you won't have any of it. Verse 18, riches and honor are with me. Yea durable riches, meaning riches that last and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold than fine gold and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. That means money, possessions. And I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from, look at these two words, from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was. Now let me ask you this, where else does the Bible use the term from everlasting? Does anybody know the reference? Micah 5 2. It says that Jesus Christ was from everlasting. Now it's interesting that we hear about wisdom being from everlasting and being with the Lord before any of his works of old. Why? Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So that's what we see here with wisdom, because the Word of God is wisdom, and God is wisdom. Wisdom is the personification of everything that God's Word teaches us, and it existed before the world began, because in the beginning was the Word. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains, abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundation of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him. And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth. And my delights were with the sons of men, now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door. So how often do I seek for wisdom? How often do I read my Bible? How often do I open the book of Proverbs? How often do I seek and search and long and cry out for wisdom? Every day it's what I'm looking for. He says, Who shall findeth me? Findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. He says in verse 1 of chapter 9, Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. She hath set forth her maidens. She crieth upon the high places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn and hither. As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. Wouldn't you be a fool to turn down an invitation like that? All these oxen and fatlings are killed, all kinds of meat and steak and roast and drinks and food and just an exquisite banquet, and you're just invited to just come and freely feast and gorge yourself upon the bounty that's there every day. And yet many people just walk right on by it and turn on the TV. They walk right by it and they, oh, no thanks, I'm going to drive through McDonald's as you turn on the TV, as you turn on the movies, as you open up People magazine. No thanks, I'm going to go down to the Purina Chow supply house, the animal supplier, I'm going to go buy some cans of dog food because everybody knows that dog food has to be made for human consumption. Did you know that? Dog food legally has to be edible for humans because people do eat it. There are people who eat it so by law it has to be edible for humans. So I'm going to go down and get a can of dog, I'm going to get that little cat food that, you know, you put it in the little glass dish and it comes out in the shape of a can, then you cut it, feed it with a golden fork to your little feline. I'm going to go down and eat a can of dog food. I mean this whole feast is being offered to you, no thanks, I'll have Burger King. No thanks, I'll have McDonald's. You know, you're basically just passing up this nutritious, great tasting, exciting feast just to eat junk. He says forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding, verse 6. Jump down to verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied. I mean, look, does anybody want to die young? I don't. Well, by wisdom your days will be multiplied. The years of thy life shall be increased. And here's the final verse of the night. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. But if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. You know what God's saying in that verse? He's saying, you know what? If you're smart, you'll listen to me, begging you for nine chapters, listen to me. Seek wisdom. It's more important than your job. It's more important than all the things that you're trying to achieve in your life. What do you want in life? You want education, you want money, you want friends, you want popularity, you want power. wisdom is everything. And he's begging you to take heed to that. And at the end of it all he says this, he says, you know what? It's no skin off my back. You're the one who's going to fail if you don't listen. At the end of the day, you right now are making the choice between life and death, success and failure. And he's saying, you know what? You're wise, you're wise for yourself, and if you scorn, thou alone shall bear it. You know what? I'm going to seek wisdom. I'm going to stay with the Word of God. I'm going to scream and cry out to God for wisdom. I'm going to beg Him for knowledge and understanding, and I'm going to lay hold on every bit of instruction I can that's a right instruction. I'm going to bite onto it, I'm not going to let go of it, and let me tell you something. I'm going to be wise and I'm going to succeed. And if you choose to reject the truth, and if you choose to reject the Word of God, and if you choose to reject wisdom, you're the one that's going to fail. I'm not going to fail. And let me tell you something. This is the most important choice you've ever made. Are you going to be a fool or are you going to be wise? You can't be wise without reading this book because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You cannot be wise without listening to instructions. You must follow God's program for wisdom. And if you're smart, you'll start reading the book of Proverbs every day, especially if you're young and are inexperienced in life. See, the older you get, you start looking at the book of Proverbs differently. I remember reading the book of Proverbs a lot when I was young because I knew, hey, this is a book written to young men, I'm a young man, I should be reading this. And plus, I remember when I was a teenager, there were times when I was a little bit backslidden. And you know, if you're backslidden, listen up right now. This part of the sermon is for you, oh backslidden one, oh person who is not interested in spiritual things. You're like, oh, oh, what? But here's the thing, when I was kind of backslidden as a teenager, I knew I was supposed to read my Bible every day. And you know, you hear this preaching that says, hey, read it until you get something out of it. And I just always knew, if I flip open the book of Proverbs, I'm going to get something out of it right away. And then I can say I read my Bible and I got something out of it. And I remember just as an immature, foolish, backslidden teenager, I'd either flip open Proverbs because I knew I could just get a quick little nugget, something to chew on and say I read the Bible. Not to say to anyone else, I just wanted to say that to God, you know, because I cared what He thought. Not enough to do any serious reading apparently, but you know, I had to get back to my video games and my music and my friends and, you know, my TV show. But I, you know, I got to read the Bible a little bit here. You know, I read the book of Proverbs, I just read one little nugget. Or I'd go to the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and just go to the red letter. I knew I'd get something good if it was the red letters, you know, where Jesus is talking. And you know, you'd get something quick. But let me tell you something, other times I spent time seriously reading the book of Proverbs as a teenager, other times when I was doing right. And I would spend a lot of time reading the book of Proverbs because I knew, hey, this is a book I should read. And I've just always enjoyed reading the book of Proverbs. But as a teenager you read it differently because as a teenager it's all theory because you haven't really lived life. And so when you read the book of Proverbs as a teenager, you're reading him tell you about stuff that you don't have experience with. He's telling you about, you know, interaction with women, he's telling you about your wife, he's telling you about your kids, he's telling you about your job. You might not even have a job yet. You definitely don't have a wife and kids yet. And you know, he's telling you about business, he's telling you about financial debt, and you're reading all this stuff and you don't really have any experience with it, but you just make a decision, well, this is what I'm going to do. And it's so much better to make that decision in advance. You know, I mean, I didn't decide when my first, when my son was born, I didn't just decide, okay, what do we do, you know, what do we do when he disobeys? I didn't wait until my kids get to an age where they start disobeying and doing wrong. What do I do? Is it timeouts? Is it a spanking? I knew I was going to spank my kids when I was a kid because I read it in Proverbs. That's just one example. You know, and I remember, I remember the first time that I went anywhere with my wife, before we were married. We weren't married. We barely knew each other, okay? This is two weeks before we got married. That's another story. But anyway, you know, we barely knew each other. And I remember we went to Marine World Africa USA in Vallejo, California. Who's been there? Anybody? Bay Area guy? No? Have you been to Marine World? One time? So why did I have to point to you before you admitted that? Why didn't you raise your hand when I said, has anybody been there? So Chris has been to, it's cool, isn't it? So when I first went there as a kid, it was only animals. Saw animals and acrobats and stuff like that. But then they started having roller coasters and it became that. So I took my wife there and we were on our way to Marine World, Six Flags, Marine World. And we stopped at the grocery store in Vallejo and I remember it like yesterday, barely knew my wife. This is like one of our really early first conversations. We barely know her and I'm preaching to her why children must be spanked. Because we stopped there to buy candy. Talk about a lack of wisdom. We're going to spend the day at this theme park, Marine World, and I have a backpack and back then I used to just obsessively carry a backpack with me everywhere I went. I never didn't have my backpack with me, always had a backpack. So I have my backpack with me and I just had sour straws in it. I used to love sour candy. So bad for you to just eat all this pure, refined sugar all day. But you know, I'm asking my wife, and of course she wasn't my wife back then, we barely knew each other, but I was like, what kind of candy do you like? You know, let's put some candy, you know, I like these sour straws, you know, or whatever. And the whole time I'm preaching to her about how you must spank your children, okay. And she didn't even, I mean, because she was coming from where she was taught that spanking is wrong. You know, so I'm quoting to her the proverbs of spanking. You know, why? You need to learn these things when you're young before you have kids. Before you get in the situation, you need to know the wisdom. And by the way, you know, if you're dating, that's a good thing to talk about anyway because, you know, these are things that matter. You know, if she's just like, well I'm just not going to spank, then it's like, see ya. But anyway, when you're young it's theory. It's all future to you. And you have to just accept it by faith and just believe, well this is what God says is going to work, I'm just going to do it. When it comes to money, when it comes to business, I mean, and you say, well what subjects are covered in the book of proverbs? What subjects are not covered? I mean, everything's in there, it's all there. But when you get older, and I'm not saying that I'm all the way there yet, but as you get older, I'm in the process of growing older, you transition to where a lot of the stuff in proverbs, it's not as much, oh wow, this is what God's telling me to do, I guess I'm going to try that, or I'm going to implement that because by faith I believe it's going to produce the desired outcome. It starts to be retrospective of just, yep, yep, seen that, yep, yep, that does always happen that way, yep, sure enough. And the older you get, the more of proverbs just becomes an affirmation of just stuff that you've actually lived and seen and understood, and it's just wow. And it becomes an amazing book. Just the accuracy of it is just unbelievable. Get wisdom my friend, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father thank you so much for giving us the book of proverbs, you've given us the whole Bible, 66 books that can give us all this great knowledge and understanding and wisdom. But Father thank you specifically tonight for giving us the book of proverbs. Help us to be smart enough to read it, and God please help us to understand it. Give me wisdom Lord as I read it. Please give me wisdom rather than gold and silver, and help me to understand it and help me to spend my time reading it, and help everyone who's here to be smart enough to do the same. Help us all to grow in wisdom and in knowledge and in understanding. In Jesus' name we pray.