Proverbs 8
Let’s give our attention to God’s
Word. This is Proverbs 8, verses 1 to 36. Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise
her voice? On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads, she takes her stand. Beside the gates in
front of the town, at the entrance of the portals, she cries aloud. To you, O men, I call. My cry
is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence. O fools, learn sense. Hear, for
I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is
right. For my mouth will utter truth.
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of
my mouth are righteous. There is nothing twisted or crooked
in them. They are all straight to him
who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. Take
my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice
gold. For wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. I, wisdom,
dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The
fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance in
the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel
and sound wisdom. I have insight, I have strength.
By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just. By me princes
rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love
me and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are
with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better
than gold, even fine gold, and my yield better than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness,
in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love
me and filling their treasuries. The Lord possessed me at the
beginning of his work. first of his acts of old. Ages
ago I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were
no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been
shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth. Before he had
made the earth with its fields. or the first of the dust of the
world. When he established the heavens, I was there when he
drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the
skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep. when
he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not
transgress his command. When he marked out the foundations
of the earth, then I was beside him like a master workman. I
was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing
in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. And now,
O sons, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my
ways. Hear instructions and be wise and do not neglect it. Blessed
is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting
beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who fails to find me injures
himself. All who hate me love death. Amen. This is the word of the
living God for us. May he write its eternal truths
on our hearts, in our minds, and we put it into practice in
our lives. You know what the term personification
means? I know you do because you grew
up watching cartoons, right? You watched Bugs Bunny, who could
talk, right? You say something about the warm
sun smiling down on you and filling your life with warmth. We talk
about our puppy dogs, don’t we? I have one, I do. We think they’re
little people sometimes, and sometimes they are, given the
privileges they have these days. When I was coming along, a dog
was in the backyard hooked to a chain and had a barrel turned
half sideways, and that was a dog’s life. Now the dog Well, the dog
sleeps on the couch and sleeps in the bed. They’re first world
animals. But we understand personification,
right? It’s attributing human traits
to something that is not human, whether it’s the sun or the moon
or the puppy dog or the bunny rabbit on the cartoon on Saturday
morning. Well, here personification applies
to wisdom. Wisdom here is personified as
a lady, and it’s in direct contrast with the other woman we’ve seen
in Proverbs. There’s lady wisdom, we’ll see
tonight, but in recent weeks, we’ve seen dame folly. We’ve
seen the adulteress. We’ve seen the woman who is not
wise, and instead of offering riches and life, she offers death
and destruction. And so what we see tonight in
this chapter of Proverbs is a woman or wisdom personified as a woman
who cries out to all, to one and to all, offering them all
the riches of a wise and gracious life. So we wanna look at this
section of Proverbs from four perspectives. There’s gonna be
the call of wisdom, or the lady wisdom is going to plead for
all who will hear to hear and receive her wisdom. Then we’re
gonna look at the value of wisdom. What can wisdom do? Then the
third thing, we’ll look at the source of wisdom. Wisdom was
there before creation. And then we’ll look at the blessedness
of wisdom at the very end. If you were to put an advertisement
out offering free merchandise, we’ll just say Chick-fil-A and
Mevin. Chick-fil-A and Mevin’s gonna give free sandwiches on
Tuesday. They’re not, but Tuesday noon
to two. Don’t you think people would
show up? Yes, the line would be long, it would be very long,
not just the normal lunch people who were there and didn’t know
they were giving away free sandwiches, but people love free stuff. Raise your hand if you like free
stuff. Everybody, good, 100%, a few of you didn’t. Well, that’s
okay. We will get in line for free
stuff. Why aren’t the lines at church doors? spilling out into
the street. Why are we not having a parking
problem? When we have a passage like this
saying, wisdom is readily available, fully available, and it will
give you the best life possible. And it’s free. It’s what God
used when he made the world and everything in it. And it’s fully,
readily, freely available to you. Why isn’t that freebie? with a line full of people out
the door, down the road, up the street, and so on. Something
for us to think about. Oh, we love free stuff. We get
the line out the door, we salivate over it, but we have empty churches. We have busy Sundays. Any of you just go towards the
shopping mall on Sunday. Some of you, I know, live out
past the University Way. You probably drive down University
Boulevard. The parking lots of the shopping
center is absolutely jam-packed. even before church is over. We
have empty churches. People have busy Sundays. People
are filling up their lives with work, with money, and with stuff.
But their lives, according to the scripture, are very empty.
What we’re going to see at the end of this passage is a blessing,
a beatitude. Blessed are those who find wisdom. They get life in favor. Now this
word is not used, but we’re going to see cursed are those who don’t
get wisdom. Their life is full of injury
and ends in death. So let’s pick our way through
these verses, starting with verses 1 through 11, the plea of wisdom,
the call of wisdom. And I want you to think about
the call of wisdom in light of the call of the adulterous woman
that we looked at in recent weeks. The adulterous woman hides in
the shadows. The adulterous woman selects
a single prey. It’s as if she finds, she sets
her eyes on the idiot, right? How does a lion hunt? Does a
lion go after the strongest animal? No, it goes after the one that
they know they can catch, because if they catch it, they can eat
them, right? But they don’t want to have to
try to outrun the fastest. They go for the weakling. And
that’s what Dame Folly, the adulteress, does. She hides in the shadows
and she goes after the one that is dupable, so to speak. But it’s very different, you’ll
notice, with Lady Wisdom. She cries aloud in the center
of the town, at the crossroads, in the center of the street.
She says, come one, come all, come simple, come wise, come
rich, come poor. Her call is general and it goes
out every which way. Verse one says, does not wisdom
call, does not understanding raise her voice? She’s on the
heights beside the way. She’s at the crossroads where
she takes her stand. She’s beside the gates in the
front of the town. She’s at the entrance of the
portals and she cries aloud to you all men I call. My cry is
to the children of man. Simple ones learn prudence. Fools
learn sense. Here for I will speak noble things
from my lips will come what is right for from my mouth. I will
utter truth for wicked as an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are
righteous. There’s nothing twisted, nothing crooked in them. They’re
straight to him who understands. They’re right to those who find
knowledge. Take it, take my instruction instead of silver. Take my knowledge
rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels.
And all that you may desire cannot compare with her. During tax season, I feel sorry
for those poor souls. They have to wear the Statue
of Liberty outfit. And then they have to hold the
sign and flip it. And it’s usually cold January, February when those
people start. That’s the worst job to get.
I think that’s a really good job for kids that you want out
of the house. Take them over to the Liberty
Tax Service. But we don’t really have the sandwich board. town
crier anymore, do we? People that wore the sandwich
board front and back announcing something, here ye, here ye.
But that’s the picture we ought to have. And Lady Wisdom here,
what is she peddling? She’s not a snake oil salesman. She’s not selling fool’s gold.
She’s not Tom Selleck on television selling reverse mortgages. Or
have y’all seen, they’ve upped the ante on the Medicare ads.
You need to get everything you’re entitled to. It’s as if you’ve
been getting skimped on. So you need to sign up for the
right Medicare plan so that you get all the benefits you are
entitled to. We get car dealerships, have
your emails, you got your Black Friday emails coming through?
And Belks, and Dillard’s, and Best Buy, and Target, and everybody,
they’re pouring the emails into your inbox. Black Friday, Cyber
Monday, we’re extending Black Friday, which used to be one
day long, it’s into Wednesday now. And don’t forget, they started
Black Friday back at Halloween. There’s always stuff being sold
to you. But Lady Wisdom is calling and
she is peddling something that is more precious than silver.
It is greater than choice gold. It is far better than jewels.
Nothing being peddled in this world can compare to what wisdom
is offering. You could say it another way.
What we’re selling here, in our church is far better than anything
that is offered in this world. And so there’s the plea of wisdom
or the call of wisdom. Look now at the value of wisdom.
Okay, we’re gonna sell you wisdom. Come get it. Well, what’s it
gonna do for me? All right, that’s what we wanna
know. If I buy this vacuum cleaner, if I buy this life insurance,
if I buy this car, what’s it gonna do for me? What am I gonna
get for my money? Good question. Let’s pick up
at verse 12. The Lady Wisdom says, I wisdom
dwell with prudence. Notice all these words. I find
knowledge and discretion. Then she goes on in 14. I have
counsel. I have sound wisdom. I have insight. I have strength.
Go back to verse 13. She gives a negative statement.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance,
and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. So what is she
peddling? She’s peddling wisdom. But the benefit is prudence.
The benefit is knowledge. The benefit is discretion. The
benefit is counsel. The benefit is sound wisdom.
The benefit is insight. The benefit is strength. And
what do these things specifically do? By me, kings reign. How about that? By me, rulers
decree what is just. By me, princes rule. By me, nobles
and all who govern, they govern justly. I love those who seek
me, and I love those who seek me diligently. They also find
me. Two things to think about in
this little section, the benefit of wisdom. Do we pray? I know
we’re praying that the right person will win or the wrong
person lose, that kind of thing. I know that’s what your prayers
are, but do you pray that the ones who are in office, whether
you like them or not, that they fear the Lord, hate evil, avoid
pride, avoid arrogance, and that they reign, they decree, they
govern by wisdom and not foolishness. That’s quite a prayer request,
isn’t it? We could pray that for our sheriff
who has mobs over in Graham all the time. We could pray that
for our city council that seems to be going back and forth in
liberalism and progressivism and just small town, little town
progress. We have that on our county council
from time to time. We have it in, what was the recent
race? There was Radical Ricky, who
I think won. Racket, Radical, Ricky, Ricardo,
not Ricardo, that’s the television show. You can tell what’s been
said in our house. Hurtado, yes, versus Steve Ross,
a fiscal conservative, that kind of thing. You know, we may like
one over the other, but eventually one gets in the office. And maybe
we wanna pray that Radical Ricky is not so radical, that he’s
wise, or that so-and-so is not being bought off. but doing what
is right for the people that put him in office and so on.
So what are the benefits of wisdom? There are lots of benefits, but
one of the great benefits is that those who rule by it, it
goes well, it goes well for the people. So that could be a prayer
request. But what about our heart’s desire? Verse 17 is a great example. Is our heart’s desire to love
wisdom and to seek her diligently. A couple years ago, I was pretty
tired. I think it was early on here,
if I remember correctly. I was pretty tired from church
strife. Is that a good way to put it,
you too? Pretty tired from church strife. So I’d go home, and I
had the choice of picking up my iPad and drowning my sorrows
in Netflix, which is what I usually chose, I’ll tell you that. I’m
not the hero of the story. Or I could have picked up my
Bible. or my little devotional book or my table talk. And I
think this is a good example of what we face. What does our
heart desire? I mean, it’s nothing wrong with
watching Netflix, right? Just in moderation. But what
does our heart desire just to get lost in a story? Or do we
want to read the word and seek the Lord and diligently seek
wisdom? That’s a choice we struggle with,
isn’t it? The electronics have taken over our minds, our time,
and our world. But what does he promise? What
are the benefits to us? We saw the benefits to rulers. We’re
not rulers, so what are the benefits to us? Well, verse 18 tells us,
riches and honor are with me. Enduring wealth, righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold. My yield is better
than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness.
I walk in the path of justice. And I grant an inheritance to
those who love me and fill their treasuries. When I was a kid,
I used to measure the way people lived by the dollars they had.
And I remember one time saying to my dad, the so-and-sos are
rich. And he gave me the little dad
talk. Well, they may be rich in money,
son, but there are many other ways to be rich. And, you know,
you hear that little speech and like, yeah, dad, but money is,
you know, looks more fun to me. But how about wisdom? Do you
know people with money? And they ain’t got a lick of
sense. Yeah, you laugh. Do you know people with wealth?
They’ve accumulated, but they couldn’t walk through life wisely
if they tried. And so one of the great ways
that we can be wealth, one of the great ways we can leave a
heritage to our generations is through wisdom and her benefits. She grants an inheritance to
those who love her. She fills their treasuries. Well,
the third way to look at this passage, you find in verses 22
to 31, the possession of wisdom. And isn’t it funny how God works? Today on the day we read Genesis
1 in the morning service, we read John 1, 1 through 5 and
had a sermon on it. We have here Proverbs 8, 22 that
speaks of something before creation. It’s funny the way the Lord works
at times. It says, the Lord possessed me,
that’s wisdom, at the beginning of his work, the first of his
acts of old. Ages ago, I was set up at the
first, before the beginning of the earth, when there were no
depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding
with water, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills,
I was brought forth. before he had made the earth
with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When
he established the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle
on the face of the deep, when he made the firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned
to the sea its limit so that the waters might not transgress
his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him like a master workman. I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. Here’s a trick question
for you. What’s the first thing God created?
Now you know the answer. It’s wisdom. Wisdom was made
and then it worked alongside him. Like the shop helper, the
craftsman, the carpenter’s aide, Wisdom was there side by side
as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit created
this world. Here’s an interesting way to
think of this section, these verses 22 to 31. We watch TV
commercials, right? And we see a famous person who’s
a spokesman. While I put your financial future
in jeopardy, I buy gold from Rosman Capital, right? You see,
y’all watch the, yeah, some of y’all are still watching Fox
News, I can tell, getting converted. But the spokesman is somebody
we trust. Somebody I know and love dearly
wants to get a reverse mortgage. And I said, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. You worked too hard to get that
house to pay for it. You don’t want a reverse mortgage.
Well, Tom Selleck. says they’re okay. I said, Tom
Selleck is back from 1982. He wore short shorts and drove
a Ferrari. He’s Magnum PI and that’s where it stops. He is
not a financial expert. Do not second mortgage your house
because Tom Selleck says so. But that’s how we operate, right?
Well, Tom Selleck says so or was it Sally Struthers, you know,
used to do all the Commercials on TV, you know, who was it? I’m dating myself. But who was
the gal Mary Lou Retton. What did she eat for breakfast?
Wheaties. What did Michael Jordan eat for
breakfast? He ate Wheaties, too. So why should you eat Wheaties?
Because they eat Wheaties. Yeah, she does arthritis medicine. Yeah, that’s right, because she
aches. She aches from the 1980s. That’s right. But here you have
God himself, in a sense, as the spokesman. I possessed wisdom
in my hand when I made the world. Wouldn’t you want it, too? Isn’t
that pretty simple? Why wouldn’t you want to possess
something that is freely offered, which God had and used when he
made the world and everything in it? You have no rebuttal to
that, do you? It’s a very fascinating thing
to consider. God is the spokesman selling
wisdom. We ought to say, okie dokie,
I’ll take two. I’ll have it all. And so he possessed
wisdom before creation. The final thing we want to take
a peek at is the blessedness of wisdom, 32 to 36. Y’all remember
a beatitude, right? Blessed are the poor in spirit,
blessed are the mourn. There’s beatitudes all through
the scripture. Well, here there’s one in verse 32, verse 33, verse
34. Now, all sons, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my
ways. Hear instruction, be wise, do not neglect it. And then here’s
the blessed word again. Blessed is the one who listens
to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. Whoever finds me finds life and
obtains favor from the Lord. But he who fails to find me injures
himself, and all who hate me love death. Let’s pray together. Lord, we pray that your word
would reach deep into our hearts and give us a love and a pursuit
of wisdom, a pursuit of knowledge and righteousness and instruction
and discretion and all these blessings and benefits that will
make our life so wonderful in this world. Lord, keep us from
having hard hearts. Keep us from failing to find
wisdom, injuring ourselves, and ending up in death. We ask for
your help and grace in Christ’s name. Amen.