Studies in Proverbs: Lesson 3 (Prov. 1:1) | Paul Washer

well it's time for another lesson in the book of Proverbs so let's just get started and we will read in chapter 1 verses 1 through 7 you say we've done that many times we're going to do it many more times because the reading of Scripture as I taught you already is extremely important so let's begin the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David king of Israel to know wisdom and instruction to discern the sayings of understanding to receive instruction and wise behavior righteousness justice and equity to give prudence to the naive to the youth knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel to understand a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles now we come to the summation the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction all right let's go to the Lord in prayer father please please help me to explain your word and to pray that you would open up the eyes and the ears of the young people who are who are listening to this video that they would know Christ and in him find all wisdom in all life Lord help us in Jesus name Amen now there's one last thing I want to touch on in verse 1 and that is the fact that it uses the word King here and here we see the king of Israel David now both King David and Solomon were very very important figures in the nation of Israel very influential now I want to talk to you for just a moment about Authority right now maybe you're 12 years old and you say I don't have much Authority well one day you will have Authority maybe you will be an elder in a church or maybe you will be some sort of person in government or you will be the employer of people or that you will have authority as a husband and a father or you have authority as a mother over her children and so we're all going to be to some degree in in positions of authority and I want you to know to whom much is given Jesus said much is required the more authority we have the more we should walk in the fear of the Lord and walk with great caution because the things that we do depending on the authority we have the things that we do will have a great influence on other people now the Lord in his great wisdom he knew that and so he gave a specific rule to the Kings not just a one but every King in Israel was supposed to do this maybe it should have been considered their primary duty and that is what to be a theologian and you say hold it what do you mean King a theologian yes were all theologians you see it a theologian is someone who studies in order to know God all of us have some knowledge of God that doesn't mean that that knowledge is correct but even the Atheist has a certain knowledge of God he says God doesn't exist that's his opinion of God so we all have a lot of opinions about God about his nature and about his will but the problem is none of us can be sure that our opinions are true unless they line up with the word of God the scriptures that God has given us and therefore young person listen to me you're not just to read the book of Proverbs every day but you are to read the scriptures every day from Genesis to Revelation over and over again and yes there will be parts of Scripture that carry more weight but all Scripture is inspired by God and all scripture is important now young person turn with me for just a moment to Deuteronomy chapter 17 because I want to talk about this thing about wisdom and Kings and authority so if you go to Deuteronomy 17 when we go over to verse 18 now this is this whole chapters about the administration of justice particularly with regard to the king and it says in verse 18 now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests let me just point something out he's writing the law that would help him to to understand it to give him his own personal copy to read it but he's also doing it in the presence of the Levitical priests it was their responsibility to be teachers of the law you see no man is an island and Christianity is not a lone-wolf religion this is so very very important listen to me young person most time on television when you have a TV show about a family it seems like always the ones that are considered wise in the television show are the children and the parents who have lived maybe four times longer are betrayed as though they that portrayed as though they didn't know anything that's that's not biblical at all so every generation now has to rediscover truth or find some truth out there that no one's ever found before and again that's not biblical you know as a matter of fact it's it's probably the source of all evil in the world what do I mean Adam was given a command that he was to learn that command and live by it don't eat from this tree heed from this tree you'll die so he was told that he was never supposed to experience it in order to learn it he was told that you see God was saying this is my word trust me do not eat from this tree but the devil comes by where God had said learn and live the devil said live and learn go ahead and eat from the tree and you'll learn from it you see that's not the way things are supposed to be done very very dangerous application let me share with you if you tell someone this is now this is sort of a harsh illustration but you tell someone do not point a gun at yourself and pull the trigger even if you think it's unloaded never do that now that's you you hear that and you should take it to heart you don't need to experience it to know it's true but then you say no I'm young and I need to experience this for myself you can see how dangerous that can become you put the gun to your head well the story continues you've done a very dangerous thing and so so we're to learn from others now there's a thing that I want you to understand that everybody's teaching and coops including my own is is not the primary standard at all the primary standard is the word of God and that's why you have to study it all the time but yet at the same time there are people and you can see behind me I've got a lot of books from a lot of very old old men well most of them have already gone on to glory so I learned from them but I always compare what I'm learning to the scriptures I want you to do the same but here the king is you know he's the most important guy in Israel he's the big Authority but when it comes to this matter he needs to also submit himself to the counsel of godly men who have studied the scriptures okay now and it says in verse 19 it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes do you see that what you need to understand is the fear of the Lord is more than just an attitude of reverence it's more than just being disposed to to honoring God or treating it as a feeling but if you truly reverence the Lord it is going to be seen in your lifestyle and particularly in the in the manner in which you honor his Commandments through studying them and and obeying them so look at it he says it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life I need the Word of God just as much today 35 years after my conversion as I needed it when I was converted do you never outgrow the Word of God now goes on it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life have you ever considered the Word of God to be a companion a friend a guide well you need to if you're a Christian you have been given the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit as a guide is the guide but the Holy Spirit guides us through the word that he inspired do you see and if you will give attention to its word you can be assured that the Holy Spirit is going to guide you all right now that he may learn to fear the Lord his God do you know why some people don't fear God because they don't know him they don't know who who he is they think he's like some kind of maybe cosmic Santa Claus or an old grandfather that you can easily fool and they don't fear him because they don't know who he is he is a loving God and he is slow to anger and he's abounding and loving-kindness but he is holy holy holy and he is righteous in the same God who gives life kills the same God who pardons judges and you need to know this God in Scripture and the only way to do that is by studying the scriptures now he goes on he goes that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and how do we fear him by carefully observing all the words of his law and these statutes now again remember what I said Christianity is not just about rules or commands it's about a relationship of faith relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord but he himself said if you love me you'll keep my Commandments and so we need to we need to know this book to know the will of God in order to obey that will and let me share something with you his Commandments are a delight they are saving commands they are blessing commands they help us navigate through this very very difficult and dangerous world and without them well you're on your own and that's not a very good place to be so he says that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes carefully and let me ask you a question would you describe your daily life as being careful being careful to know God's Word and being careful to follow it is that the way you would describe your life I'm afraid many of us would have to say no it's it's the opposite of careful it's careless it's dangerous I have a friend of mine a very good Bible teacher by the name of John Schneider and I remember him saying this one time he said you know everybody today is talking about passion passion passion somebody ought to talk about caution and and that's what I want to tell you now the young person don't be paralyzed with fear at the same time no but there are decisions you're going to make throughout your life that will they will hurt you and they will hurt those around you if you're not careful if you don't do the right thing and that right thing is determined by the Word of God now verse 20 also look at this that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen you see when you get some authority there's something that can happen to you it's called pride arrogance you begin to think you're special and you begin to treat people as something less than you treat their opinions their needs their desires is something well subservient below your needs and desires and so whenever we have Authority you need to realize we need to stay in Scripture because in Scripture we learn that what do you have that you have not received from God as a gift and if it is a gift from God then why do you boast whatever you become in life you're supposed greatness young person listen to me it's a gift from God you're not above your brethren or your sisters in Christ or anyone you've been given authority to serve okay and to remain humble in your authority you need to study the Scriptures because it not only tells you about you it tells you about God the God that's over you as the ultimate authority and it also tells you about the great gift that God gave in his son to save you and that truth above all others the cross of Jesus Christ will keep you where you ought to be as your brothers equal friend servant do you see okay now we've looked we've looked at the king and we don't have a lot more time but we're gonna make our way back to proverbs really quick and we're gonna look at verse two at least we're gonna begin looking at verse two and so let's read it to no wisdom and instruction to discern the sayings of understanding now this is one of the things that the book of Proverbs is promising you promising you now you know a promise is no good if the character of the one giving the promise is not trustworthy and this is something that you need to see every promise of God is dependent upon the character of God we can trust the promise why because of the faithfulness of the one who gave it you know so many people tell me today they go you know brother Paul I need more faith I need more faith and I I say yes you probably do and so do I well how do I get it and you know they'll pray and ask for faith and that's a good thing we should do that but you see the more I know about someone then the more I can trust their promises are the more I distrust their promises the more I know about their character okay now you want to grow in faith grow not so much in your knowledge of promises that's secondary grow in your knowledge of the character of God and young person yes listen to me the greatest of all knowledge --is is the knowledge of God not even the knowledge of Proverbs of principles of wisdom but of who God is because if you know who God is you truly do you see him as he is portrayed in the scriptures then it won't be a difficult thing to trust him with with the most special things of your life okay what I'm gonna do something I always do let's go run some place else really quick I promise this is about proverbs but let's let's go to Jeremiah because I want to I want you to see something that a lot of people sometimes I'll quote this verse and people go where is that I've never read that before that's that's amazing look in Jeremiah chapter 9 okay Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 because we're going to talk about promises when we effective proverbs so we need to talk about the one who gave the promise because I want you to be able to trust him jeremiah 9:23 thus says the lord let not a wise man boast of his wisdom see there you go and it says and let not the mighty man boast of his might let not a rich man boast of his riches see these are the things that men boast about isn't it I know what I'm doing I'm strong I can lift more than you or I can beat you up or I have more money than all of you that's what men boast about today and God says this is silly it's just just beyond words silly I mean it says 24 but let him who boasts boast of this that he understands me and knows me we may be seeing a little bit difference between those two words we have to be careful because the Hebrew idea is to eat just one word on top of another - to really give emphasis but there's factual knowledge about God we're going to talk about this there's factual knowledge about God you need that the facts of who God is is he reveals himself in Scripture but then there's the idea of knowing God which is a personal intimate relationship no he said that understands and knows me that I am the Lord let me let me give you some news you're not the Lord and I'm not the Lord there is one Lord and God and Savior he's the Lord any exercises loving kindness loving kindness is almost like a word we had to make up the the Hebrew idea is so rich and so full he's just just abounding in in love and goodness and kindness but also justice and righteousness so perfect balance in the attributes of God that's the different characteristics of God it's a perfect balance okay he's a perfect God and he'll never act in a way that throws that off-balance even when he judges he's still a loving God and even when he loves he's still righteous one doesn't work against the other well if we have time we'll study that sometime now let's go on he says i am the lord who exercises loving-kindness justice and righteousness on earth for I delight in these things declares the Lord proverbs is important you know I've said that right we need to know principles but I've really got to nail this down with you more than the principles you need to know the one who gave them and who promises our gifts promises regarding those principles and then even more important than that you need to know the one who died for you who lived for you who died for you who rose again from the dead on your behalf the only one in whom there is salvation and ultimately he is the treasure trove of all wisdom the book of Proverbs and all its principles and everything are almost function remember I said like the law the law was like a shadow and the sacrifices were like a type of Christ that was to come a greater sacrifice well the book of Proverbs is almost like a shadow of the wisdom of Christ that what was that was revealed when he became incarnate that means he took on flesh and walked among us and taught and he exemplified everything he taught and then ultimately the greatest demonstration of God's wisdom you know what that is the cross or Jesus died that he was able to reconcile us to him now that took a lot of wisdom all right well god bless you we went a little over this time but we'll get back to proverbs in the next lesson so god bless you you

Channel: HeartCry Curriculum

Views: 62,889

Rating: 4.9802866 out of 5

Keywords: proverbs, curriculum, paul washer, lessons, heartcry, homeschool, bible, bible study

Id: x9V5WCVfqmg

Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020