Studies in Proverbs: Lesson 6 (Prov. 1:6) | Paul Washer

welcome back to our our study of proverbs today we're going to look at verse six chapter 1 verse 6 I wanted to get to it in the last lesson but there's just so much there that we decided to go ahead and do a separate class on it so let's read once again through proverbs 1 1 through 7 it won't be drudgery the more you've read it the more you listen to it the more it will have an impact on your life remember we've got to get these things in our head and in our heart so verse 1 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 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction now we're gonna go to the Lord in prayer but I also want you to pray ask God beg God cry out to God that he give you wisdom he give you insight not just for this class but for for everything every time you sit down and read the Word of God or listen to your elders in the church preaching or your parents teaching you let's pray father thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with these young people and I pray dear God that she would bless them bless them for your sake bless them for the sake of your son for his glory and good pleasure but they be useful servants of Christ that they would love him and follow him and trust in him alone for salvation Lord please help us know in Jesus name Amen all right so let's look at verse 6 to understand a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles now the word understand here means to see to perceive let me give you an illustration when I had more time back when I was younger I would I would go hunting I would deer hunt turkey hunt things like that and I would always hunt with this friend of mine Darrin Robin and he wore glasses and so his vision wasn't that great as a matter of fact when we were in broad daylight or out where the Sun was really shining it's like I could see better than he could but when we would be in the forest oftentimes we'd hunt together and he stopped me and he'd say that deer it's right over there and I would look and I would look and I would look and I honestly couldn't see it and he would say no it's right there and I mean I would try I really would but I just couldn't see it and then I discovered that when it gets darker I don't see as well also I found out that he's not as colorblind as I am so the brown of the deer stood out from the green background but for me it really didn't so so you see that's the way it is a lot of times when you're when you're studying the word of God we're truth blind or application blind and we need to constantly be crying out god show me this show me this point it out to me let me see it and perceive it and not not just see it but perceive it's worth its importance from a life I mean guys look this is a life and death thing we got going on here if you're a Christian you're in enemy territory you're behind the lines and there are a lot of dangerous things and the only way to navigate it is by seeing and you and I don't see so well so we need to diligently study the scripture but we also need to diligently pray God opened my eyes how many times in the Book of Psalms do we see our hear or read of David doing that very thing even the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians there are two very important prayers in which he's basically saying let me see let the people see so we we need to perceive we need to understand the value of what's being taught us you know kings and prophets and wise men waited to hear the things that we now hear and didn't they never heard we're very privileged people to have a Bible we need to study it now he says to understand a proverb we've already talked about what a proverb is but we'll go through it again it's it's inspired it's in the scripture so it's it's the inspired Word of God and yet it has the its it's the type of literature that I can best define as you know the observations of wise men in different categories so that they speak in in generalities the book of Proverbs as I've said and I want to iterate over and over it's not saying if you do this you'll be rich if you do this you'll always prosper if you do this you'll never have problems that's not what it's saying but what it's saying is generally if you see a person who's very diligent in their labor that they're going to prosper economically generally there are exceptions and there are exceptions in our lives in which we will go through times of trial a person who does not get angry quickly is probably going to get in a lot less altercations fights then someone whose anger flares up swiftly but that doesn't mean that a person who's very patient won't at times enter into conflict and so it sumo Proverbs a general rule of life that if you follow a certain pattern you're going to see certain consequences so unable to understand the Proverbs if you read through this whole book and you go as you should go and say I don't understand this and I don't understand that well you have to understand it so that's when you cry out Lord open up my eyes to perceive it and show me how to apply it so a proverb and then a figure this can be dealing with something like what Jesus taught when we talked about his parables it is a story or an illustration and within it is found usually not not every word is teaching a specific truth but a general principle or truth out of that story and we need to be able like a miner to go in there listen or read dig a little bit and find the jewel that the teacher is wanting to show us and then the words of the wise now when he says the words of the wise this is an opposition and opposition means that basically he's repeating himself the words of the wise have to do with the Proverbs and the figures so he's saying he's emphasizing ly look you need to perceive what a proverb is you need to perceive what a figure is when it's in the scriptures you need to know these words of the wise you need to understand them now he's going to go on and says understand a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles now this word riddle can refer to even poetry but it's primary in a saying that is difficult to understand very difficult to understand and requires that you and I work now I have known people who were I know they did not have an exceptional IQ at the University and yet they made exceptional grades a lot of times they they were more outstanding than than others who had a terrific IQ and what made the difference work work the brilliant person started studying two days before the test the person who realized that they were limited in their high q-- started studying two weeks before the test and because of it they were able to go through the information over and over and over again and as they did things would come to the surface it's like a chop a cow chewing it's good now if you're not a farm boy or a farm girl maybe you don't know what that means but a cow will chew up grass swallow it it has four stomachs swallow it and then bring it back up again chew it some more and swallow it bring it up against chew it and swallow it and what they're doing is they're getting every drop of nutrient out of that grass and you see that's what we have to do many of the things in Scripture not all of them but many of them can be difficult to understand they really can and and you and I need to work work work did I mention that we need to work we need to work a lot because again this is not about just as some preachers preach this is not about just getting your best life now even though the book of Proverbs will aid you in having a very fine life this is about eternity and this is not just about pleasing ourselves or pleasing our parents even though there's nothing wrong with either one of those things necessarily this is about pleasing God honoring God honoring God's son and what he's done for us okay now I want to take some time and I want to go from here for a moment and I want to talk about this thing about being diligent and about well recognizing to whom much is given much is required if you have a Bible sitting in front of you you are very very privileged if you've been raised in a home where your parents are asking you you know to watch this this video on proverbs or you've being carried to a church to hear the preacher you're very very privileged to be able to sit under teaching to be able to have a Bible to study one of the reasons why work in missions more than anything else is because there are people who don't have that privilege you see I know that I'm privileged I have all these books I have Bibles I have godly people around me who know the Lord but there's so many people out there who don't and so if you do have the privilege then take that privilege in order to honor God in order to work and labor so that others might have the same privilege now I want us to look at Matthew chapter 13 Matthew 13 and I want you to look at something Jesus is talking about here it's parables we're going to see some unusual things that seem hard to understand but they become clear when we understand them in their context so look at look at verse 10 of chapter 13 of Matthew and disciples came to him and said why do you speak to them in parables why do you teach them in these stories that are hard to understand and jesus answered them to you and has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been granted for whoever has to him more shall be given and he will have an abundance but whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him therefore I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear nor do they understand in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says you will keep on hearing but will not understand you will keep on seeing but will not perceive for the heart of this people has become dull with their ears they scarcely hear and they have closed their eyes otherwise they would see with their eyes hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I would heal them but blessed are your eyes because they see in your ears because they hear for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear did not hear it no look at verse 13 Jesus says now this is our Lord the Lord of love compassion always demonstrating the the greatest abundance of mercy to those around him during his three years of ministering he says in verse 13 I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear nor do they understand and that just at first reading he said that doesn't sound right it looks like he would do everything in his power to help them to understand what you need to see is the problem isn't with our Lord the problem is with those who refuse to hear now in order to us to get a good understanding of this I want you to first realize that in many cases and I'm going to show you a few he says the disciples understood but the crowds didn't but when you read the entire book of Matthew read chapter of the entire chapter 13 and chapter 15 you begin to see something the disciples didn't understand either they really didn't and so what was the difference the difference was this the great multitude heard Jesus speaking difficult things to understand in their heart was exposed they didn't care oh if he was multiplying bread or something like that that they could eat loaves and fishes well they were they were all about hanging around but when he began to teach difficult things they just didn't care they didn't seek we don't see the multitude coming to Jesus and saying well let me put it this way the multitude and the disciples both of them did not understand what Jesus was teaching but look at the difference the multitudes walked away and the disciples came to Jesus and said you must tell us you must explain to us we must know Peter said you alone have the words of life explain this to us you see that makes the big difference in every thing doesn't it it really does when you read the book of Proverbs and you say to yourself this is kind of hard to understand or I'm tired or I'm sleepy or have other things to do do you know what's happening your heart is being exposed you are privy to the very wisdom of God the very wisdom of God is laying there in your Bible but your heart is being exposed because you're saying I simply don't care I don't have that much time I'd rather do other things and there's nothing wrong with doing other things there's nothing wrong as a young person with going out and playing and being with friends and and diversion there's nothing wrong with that but your priority must be knowing God and if you read the Bible and you say this is I just don't understand it well yeah neither do I many times neither does anyone when they first start but here's the question do you recognize that this is a matter of life and death do you recognize that in the scriptures alone you have wisdom do you see any value in the words of God so that you would say to yourself I must know I must know I always tell my children this you know the Bible says it's full of treasure that wisdom like jewels in abundance and then I'll asked him I said you know if I told you there was a hundred pounds of gold buried somewhere in our backyard you would get a shovel and a pickaxe and you would dig all day and all night for months to find that great quantity of gold or I could say the same about jewels rubies diamonds whatever if I told you it was there you dig through solid rock but something far greater than gold far greater than rubies or jewels is in the Word of God and no you're not going to open up this Bible and from the very beginning understand everything but you must you must understand now I want you to look at at chapter 13 let's look over at verse 36 then he that is Jesus left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him and said explained to us the parable the parable of the tares of the field do you not see where's the multitude this guy he says things difficult to understand but look at the disciples show us Lord we must know now go on over to chapter 15 I want to show you something chapter 15 verse 15 chapter 15 verse 15 of Matthew again Peter says explain the parable to us jesus said are you still lacking an understanding also now here comes Peter and he just says please explain to us what this means and look at Jesus response to our modern sensibilities this seems really hard doesn't it are you still lacking an understanding also if you came to someone a Bible teacher or your mom or dad you said explain this to me and they said are you still lacking and understanding are you still so hard-headed you can't get what I'm saying now what would you do I know what most people would do they would they would be offended we have become like a raw nerve we're so sensitive that if anybody even looks at us the wrong way we're out the door and pouting and there'll be a hundred people rubbing us on the back and telling us that that other person had no right to be so mean to us look we need to stop this stop with this this silliness of being so sensitive that we can never see what's really going on Jesus is not being unloving he's not being unkind he's simply seeking to show Peter and the others look give yourself to this give yourself sit in a field wake up in the middle of the night and a Night Watch whatever it takes I don't care what you have to do stand on your head but you need to get this and you need to work at it and you need to stop being lazy isn't it amazing we can give so much time to watching television or I don't know playing some video game or in some meaningless conversation and no not all conversations are meaningless and yet it seems like we get so tired when we come to the Word of God and there's something we don't understand and yet rarely seek it out my dear dear young people listen to me you know in the old language of is gird up your loins you know wrap your your robe or your mantle around you and be ready to run and to fight and to struggle because it's in the Word of God that we find life because there we find Jesus Christ and finding Jesus Christ there he teaches us how to live all right well be back with another lesson hopefully next time until then study proverbs study the entire counsel of God's Word and god bless you you

Channel: HeartCry Curriculum

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Keywords: Paul Washer, Gospel, HeartCry, Proverbs, Bible, Bible study, Scripture, Bible course, Bible lessons, curriculum, wisdom

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Length: 22min 26sec (1346 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020