Divine Wisdom for the Family, Part A

today on grace to you the book of proverbs is the book of wisdom and it begins by personifying wisdom as if wisdom is a person speaking if you do not know god if you reject god if you worship yourself if you mock sin you are a fool you may profess to be wise but you are a fool what in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel i determined to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified [Music] a wonderful opportunity while all the families are together to talk about what is essential for a family what is essential for a family and the most important thing the most essential thing in the life of a family is wisdom is wisdom and i want to talk about that from the word of god in fact i'm going to let heaven speak through scripture the words that you will be hearing in this message are the words of scripture with a little bit of comment from me in daniel chapter 1 and verse 17 it was said about the four young men who were taken into babylonian captivity that god gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom knowledge intelligence and wisdom in daniel chapter 5 again daniel is brought before the king and the king says now have heard about you that the spirit of god is in you and that illumination insight and extraordinary wisdom has been found in you what an amazing commendation i'm sure as parents we would love to have that be the description of all of our children extraordinary wisdom is found in you now when we're talking about wisdom we're we're talking about something that transcends knowledge if all of man's accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to 1845 were represented by one inch from 1845 to 1945 would be about three inches and from 1945 to 1975 would represent the height of the washington monument and that's 555 feet high inventor innovator and mathematician buckminster fuller presented his knowledge doubling curve in 1982 in a bestseller called critical path he argued that our acquisition of knowledge at the end of world war ii had jumped from doubling approximately every century to doubling every 25 years and he said it would continue to illustr to accelerate by 2010 nanotechnology had arrived and knowledge doubled every two years clinical knowledge every 18 months so on an average human knowledge they say right now is doubling about every 13 months that is up until this particular era when we are told that knowledge is doubling every 12 hours every 12 hours massive amount of information in spite of the fact that we live in a world of exploding knowledge that we can barely keep up with we are still described in the scripture as fools in romans 1 it describes humanity as professing to be wise but having become fools romans 1 says that men became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened essentially men are described no matter how much knowledge they have as fools the nations walk in an empty minded manner darkened with sin and ignorance so that they cannot understand divine truth they're left then to function out of that darkened mind and it shows up as sensuality and the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness the difference between non-converted people and believers is the difference between a fool and one who has true knowledge and wisdom wisdom that is from above the bible says that fools are ever learning ii timothy 3 7 ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth what a hopeless course that is let me say it again fools are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth there's a reason for that first corinthians 2 14 says but a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised they use words not taught by human wisdom human wisdom cannot ascertain the truth of god human wisdom is just another name for foolishness this is the pervasive universal reality that characterizes all human beings in fact going back to proverbs 22 15 it says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child we come into the world as fools it is part of being sinful it is part of being alienated from god separated from him now if we break that down a little bit and ask the question what characterizes or marks the fool and i'll show you what the scripture says number one they all reject god and i say that when referring to the true the only the one true and living god all fools reject god listen to what it says in psalm 14 the fool has said in his heart there is no god they are corrupt they have committed abominable deeds there is no one who does good the lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand who seek after god they have all turned aside together they have become corrupt there is no one who does good not even one and paul of course repeats that text in romans chapter 3. but the first characteristic of humanity the natural man is that he rejects god that's where his foolishness begins in psalm 74 couple times it says fools blaspheme god they reproach him every day in romans chapter one a very familiar familiar portion of scripture if you pick it up in verse 25 romans 1 speaking of the natural man they exchanged the truth of god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason god gave them over to degrading passion so they rejected god that's characteristic of human foolishness they reject god consequently a judgment fell and god gave them over god gave them over verse 24 in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them they exchanged the truth of god for a lie worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever for this reason god gave them over to degrading passions this is speaking of homosexuality their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error built in punishment for homosexual behavior and all of this verse 28 says because they did not see fit to acknowledge god any longer so god gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper what kind of things being filled with all unrighteousness wickedness greed evil full of envy murder strife deceit malice they're gossips slanderers haters of god insolent arrogant boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents without understanding untrustworthy unloving unmerciful and though they know the ordinance or commandments of god that those who practice such things are worthy of death they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them so here is essentially the characterization of every sinner in the world he is a fool she is a fool because they reject god and because they reject god because they exchange the truth of god for a lie because they refuse to acknowledge god as he should be acknowledged god turns them over to deeper and deeper levels of corruption sexual immorality homosexual immorality and finally a reprobate mind a depraved mind that can't function this describes a fool may be highly educated but as a fool nonetheless the second characteristic of a fool first they reject god and secondly they worship self proverbs 12 15 says this the way of a fool is right in his own eyes he who trusts in his own heart is a fool he is his own source and standard of truth his own source and standard of right and wrong he for all intents and purposes is god he makes the rules and this of course is idolatry and it is the universally common idolatry among all who reject the true god they worship themselves as if they were god there's a third characteristic of fools they reject god they worship self and thirdly they mock sin they mock sin proverbs 14 9 says fools mock at sin that is to say they have nothing but scorn for anything that defines their behavior as wrong corrupt or sinful they mock the whole idea of sin they mock the whole idea of transgression iniquity scripture describes fools and their mockery of sin by saying this they walk in darkness they cling to sin they are corrupt they are abominable they are self-sufficient self-deceived empty talkers liars angry lazy contentious hypocritical idolatrous and self-destructive no matter how much knowledge they have fools reject god worship themselves and mock the whole notion of sin as a result of that there's a fourth characteristic of fools they corrupt others they corrupt others proverbs 15 2 says the mouth of fools spouts folly and later in that same chapter it says that the fool's mouth feeds on folly they despise wisdom and instruction proverbs 1 7 and they make sure that their disdain for it is known by all those around them so that essentially is a description of the whole human race fools born into this world foolish that foolishness shows up in hating god worshiping self mocking sin and corrupting others into this world has come wisdom [Music] it has come to rescue fools if you look at back again to proverbs the book of proverbs is the book of wisdom and it begins by personifying wisdom as if wisdom is a person speaking if you look at chapter 1 and verse 20 wisdom shouts in the street she lifts her voice in the square at the head of the noisy streets she cries out at the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings how long oh naive ones will you love being simple minded and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge this is to say that god has revealed his wisdom in the world and wisdom is there crying in the streets to the fools god says look i put wisdom in the world it's crying out it's crying out from the scriptures it always has and men don't hear it they refuse they neglect divine counsel and god says the day will come when i will laugh at your judgment the day will come verse 28 proverbs 1 they will call on me but i will not answer they will seek me diligently because they will not but they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the lord this is characterization of humanity fools who refuse knowledge verse 29 they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the lord the chapter ends in verse 33 but he who listens to me shall live securely safely and will be at ease from the dread of evil fools die says proverbs 10 21 for lack of understanding and when it speaks about them dying it doesn't just mean they die physically it means they die spiritually and they die eternally and the irony of all of this is that fools think they're wise you can be the most educated person in the world you can have all the degrees possible from all of the elite institutions you can have phds but if you do not know god if you reject god if you worship yourself if you mock sin and you are a corrupting influence around you you are a fool you may profess to be wise but you are a fool if you call the gospel foolishness you are the ultimate fool the ultimate fool in chapter three of first corinthians verse 18 let no man deceive himself if any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age he must become foolish so that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before god for it is written he is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness and again the lord knows the reasonings of the wise that they are useless the reasonings of the wise are useless we live in a world full of fools fools in high places fools with degrees fools with education on the other hand the people who are wise are the people who believe in the true god and come to him through christ what did the apostle paul say in second timothy 3 15 he spoke of the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in christ the great statement speaking to timothy you heard from your family the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in jesus christ it is the people who have come to christ who are the truly wise people as believers paul also in first corinthians 2 says and this is so wonderful in verse 16 for who has known the mind of the lord that he will instruct him but we have the mind of christ that's astonishing to hear that statement we have the mind of christ what does that mean we know what christ knows how is that so because he's taught us in his word and he's given us the resident truth teacher in the holy spirit who leads us into all truth and brings this truth to clarity we have the scriptures we have the anointing from god the holy spirit we know the truth and because we know the truth we know the mind of christ because the truth revealed in scripture is the mind of christ we know how christ thinks about everything that the bible speaks about christ is to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption because we have the mind of christ and it comes because we believe the scripture do you remember on the road to emmaus jesus said to those disciples o fools fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken you're a fool if you don't believe what is in the scripture the book of proverbs then is the book of wisdom the book of proverbs gives us contrasts between fools and wise so i want you to look at the book of proverbs with me for a little bit and we're going to work our way through it and you're going to see 10 basic foundational regarding wisdom they all assume that you know the true and living god and that of course you know the true and living god through faith in his son if you are a believer then here are the foundational realities of wisdom that you need to know [Music] number one fear your god fear your god chapter 1 verse 7 the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction proverbs 9 10 the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding everything starts when you fear god and if you go through proverbs this is what you find for those who fear god they are promised prolonged life bless blessing upon blessing far beyond wealth they are promised an abundant richest richness in life and they are promised that they will never be turned over completely to evil those who fear god says the proverbs sleep satisfied avoid evil have confidence in the future are praised by others and have their prayers answered all of that because you fear the lord when i say fear the lord i don't mean you're terrified by him but that you respect him that you honor him that you give him glory that you worship him who wouldn't want to have a long life fully blessed and abundant life who wouldn't want to sleep satisfied avoid evil foresee confidence in the future receive praise and respect and have their prayers answered and end up in heavenly glory comes to those who fear the lord fear your god secondly wisdom in proverbs teaches us this very important lesson and parents this is a series of lessons that you need to make sure are embedded in your children's hearts secondly guard your mind wisdom says fear your god give honor to god and guard your mind which means remember the truths you've been taught hold fast to those things do not let them out of your sight out of your thoughts watch over your heart watch over your mind guard it with all diligence thirdly proverbs is very strong on this obey your parents obey your parents back in chapter 1 and verse 8 we read hear my son your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching indeed they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments around your neck they make you a delightful even beautiful lovely person obey your parents your father and your mother rather than listening to sinners in verse 10 who entice you and corrupt you and lead you as verse 19 says into violence and maybe even death obey your parents listen to them when they instruct you fourthly wisdom says select your friends carefully select your friends fear the lord guard your mind obey your parents select your friends chapter 1 verse 10. my son if sinners entice you do not consent if they say come with us let us lie and wait for blood let us ambush the innocent without cause let us swallow them alive like she'll even whole as those who go down to the pit some kind of gang going to do some murder we will find all kinds of precious wealth we'll fill our houses with spoil throw in your lot with us we shall all have one purse my son do not walk in the way with them keep your feet from their path for their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood indeed it is useless to spread a baited net in the sight of any bird but they lie in weight for their own blood they ambush their own lives stay away from those who are sinful who are wicked next week on grace to you work hard and in the book of proverbs we read things like this lazy people won't work sleep long waste time waste energy waste opportunity suffer hunger end up poor and fail to make a meaningful impact in life you want to be poor be negligent in your work you'll end up poor that's a basic principle

Channel: Grace to You

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Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: gkIq1Z1vB3U

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021