What is Wisdom (Part 2 of 2)

Now, this passage doesn't say knowledge and wisdom, but if you look at what it's talking about here, you hear the word, that's learning the Word, that's knowing the Word. Somebody tells you this is what God says, then you've just learned that.

You just learn, okay, this is what God wants me to do. And if you do that, you hear it, you understand it, but you don't go out and apply it. James says it's like someone who looks in a mirror sees the way he is, sees that his face is messed up, he has chocolate all over his face and he's only half shaven, his hair is all messy and says, oh wow, that's terrible, and then walks away and doesn't do anything about it.

That's the kind of person you are. What's important here is that we not only hear the Word, but we do it. Not only have knowledge, but we apply wisdom and do what God wants us to do.

So having knowledge does not necessarily mean you have wisdom. So I talked about that, this lesson called what is wisdom? Let's answer that. What is wisdom? .2

here. So how do we get to that? Well, I kind of gave a definition of wisdom is putting knowledge into practice, but what is it in the Christian life here? So, first of all, wisdom finds its existence in God. Wisdom starts with God.

We can't go anyplace else and find true wisdom. A couple verses, proverbs 319 and 20. Another reader Lynn go ahead.

So here we have wisdom, understanding, knowledge, all in the same passage, which is kind of cool, we just talked about that. But by wisdom the Lord founded the earth. So when did the Lord have wisdom? This was before the earth was even founded.

Wisdom dwelt with God, right? This is before anything was created. God already had wisdom. Wisdom starts with God.

Before any of us existed, God had perfect wisdom. Look at another passage, Proverbs 822 through 26. Another reader ted, go ahead.

Beginning of this way before the works of old I have established never last from the beginning and there was no depth before the hill. And this chapter eight is wisdom being personified and talking. And at this point in the passage, wisdom is speaking say the Lord possessed me wisdom at the beginning of his ways before anything else.

And it goes through and talks about some of creation. It continues on after these verses, talking more about different parts of creation. But before anything was created, God had wisdom and God had perfect wisdom.

It's by his wisdom that he was able to create everything the way it is. Wisdom starts with God. Warmer passage, Romans 1133.

We'd like to read Bethany. Go ahead, nice and loud. The depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

It sounds like that God has an abundance store of wisdom, right? Dr. Dan talked about in his passage all these superlatives that were added on. This is kind of the idea here the depths of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge.

So where does wisdom start? Wisdom starts with the Lord, starts with God. And if we want to find wisdom, we need to start there by knowing who God is and what his will is. So what is wisdom? Wisdom finds existence in God.

Second thing, wisdom, and this is going to surprise everyone, I'm sure is the opposite of foolishness. Does that surprise anybody? Okay, good. So it's opposite of foolishness.

I'm just going to read a couple of verses out of here because again I listed verses where wisdom and foolishness are often paired up in Scripture. Here Proverbs one seven says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. You see, there's one side where the fear of the Lord brings knowledge and wisdom.

But the fool who's the opposite doesn't accept these things, doesn't look for the fear of the Lord, doesn't accept that knowledge and wisdom. Proverbs 1433 there, wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, but what is in the heart of fools is made known. So here there's even a difference between the heart of a wise person, the heart of the fool.

They're opposites. They're on different lines of the spectrum here. And again, like I said, there's plenty of verses in Proverbs.

I don't think this even a full list, a few in Ecclesiastes that give a comparison between someone who's wise and someone who's foolish. So the opposite of foolishness is wisdom. Wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord.

Letter C there. Okay, now I'm going to need a reader. Job 28 20 through 28.

Nathan, go ahead. From where does wisdom come from the eyes of all living? We have heard the report about it with our ears. God understands its way and he knows its place.

To establish a weight for the abortion, for the waters, by men. When he made a law for the rain, then he saw wisdom and declared, behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. So we could use this verse in point A also because it talks about that.

Where is wisdom found? Well, it's found first in God. He's the one who possessed it. Even says by his wisdom he made the rain work the way it does and the thunderbolt work the way it does.

And it took wisdom to do that. But then in verse 28 it says to man, how can man know this? And if you look at the beginning of the passage, it sounds like, well, it's really hard to find. Wisdom is hidden from the eyes of the living, is concealed from the birds of the air.

Nobody has it. So where do you find it? And the answer is, wisdom starts at the fear of the Lord. Behold the fear of the Lord.

That is wisdom. We're going to talk about the fear of the Lord in just a little bit. Actually, that's what we're talking about.

Now I lost my place. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom and depart from evil is understanding. So the fear of the Lord, again, we're going to see that it's connected oftentimes with this idea of departing from evil.

And that's connected with wisdom, because if we know what's right, we know what's true. We know how to make the right, true, holy choice. It's going to lead us away from evil and lead us to choose the good thing, right? So they all kind of go together.

Here another passage, Psalm 111 ten, another reader, Matthew. So beginning of wisdom again starts with the fear of the Lord. And it goes on to say, again, kind of like the last passage, a good understanding have all those who do his commandments.

If you're doing what's right, you understand. You know what the right choices are. So wisdom and understanding going together and the fear of the Lord and doing what's right.

Proverbs 910. Olivia here it talks about the fear of the Lord is the beginning, wisdom and then the knowledge of the Holy One. So knowing God and fearing Him seems to be what brings us knowledge and wisdom.

And then Isaiah 33 six, I saw someone else raise their hand over there. Go ahead, Elizabeth. So wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times.

This is what's going to keep you in place. This is what going to keep you solid in life and on the right path at the end. The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

How does this happen? It's by the fear of the Lord. That's what the treasure is. So what is the fear of the Lord? This is a tough question.

You get different answers from different people. And there's kind of let me give you the word here. And like Dr.

Dan, I don't like to use Hebrew a whole lot, but fear here, I gave you the Hebrew word, it's yada. It means fear or terror. You can see definition two.

There is a terror, an object of terror. And then definition three is fear of God. Reverence piety.

So you have these concepts and oftentimes you'll get two answers for what is the fear of the Lord? Is the fear of the Lord actual fear actually being afraid, actually being terrified? Or is the fear of Lord having to do with being in awe and holding Him in reverence? I'm going to answer yes. I think it's both. So first of all, fear, terror, I think there is a fear or terror that belongs in the fear of the Lord.

And part of it is that I know that there's consequences to the thing I do. That's a wise thing to understand. Why do people not drive wherever they want on whatever side of the road they want? Why do they not crash through people's yards.

A lot of people would like to drive like that, right? Well, part of it is there's a fear of consequences. There's a fear of actually being injured if you're on the wrong side of the road. There's a fear that if you drive through somebody's yard, the police are going to come and find you and say, look, you were on somebody else's property, you need pay for that.

So there's a fear of consequences. The same is true with us. That's a wise thing to understand that God takes account of our actions.

That even as Christians we will stand someday before God and have to give an account of what we've done. And understanding that may say, you know what, I don't want to do what's wrong because I don't want to face the consequence God has for me. That's not a bad thing.

A verse that talks about fear is Hebrews 1030 and 31, Bethany, vengeance is mine. Here specifically, it's talking about consequences. Vengeance is mine.

What's vengeance? That's paying somebody back for something they've done, right? And God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. Then he also goes on to say, the Lord will judge his people. Not saying the Lord's going to judge unbelievers or sinners, he's going to judge his people.

So there's consequences. There's a fear of, okay, I'm going to have to stand before the Lord. He could be taking vengeance on me for something bad I've done.

He could be judging me for something bad I've done. And then verse 31 here says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Well, how is it fearful? It's because there's judgment there because there's consequences, because God is sovereign over those things, because God is in control of these things and he's going to have an account be given to him of the things we've done.

And so that's a fearful thing, standing before a holy, righteous God and saying, god, this is why I didn't do what you wanted me to do. It's a fearful thing, but there's also an awe and reverence. And this was a little harder to think through a little bit because the Bible doesn't use on reverence this way so much because it uses fear.

But looking at these verses in Proverbs here, you can see that there's a desire to know God, to reverence Him, to worship Him, to hold Him in high regard. And that's why I think this is getting at here. So Psalm 34, eight through twelve.

Judy, go ahead. Blessed is the man shall not last. I will teach you many days that he may be good.

And look at this. This passage talks about the fear of the Lord here, but it doesn't talk about the fear of God's judgment, doesn't talk about fear of punishment. It talks about fearing the Lord in response to the good things that he's doing.

It even starts out taste and see that the Lord is good. See that the Lord is good. Fear him because he is good.

Hold him in reverence. Blesses a man who trusts Him. It goes on to say, there's no want for those who fear him.

Fear the Lord because God provides for you, god gives you what you need. Hold him in reverence. Because of that you don't lack any good thing.

And then verse twelve, who's the man that desires life and loves many days? God is the one who can give us life, who can extend our days. And the idea here is, if we're fearing Him, he can do that. He will do that.

And so it's for reverence, for the good things that God has done and awe for what he is doing. Proverbs two, five through six. Another reader.

Caleb, go ahead. So here you fear the Lord and the results are knowledge, understanding from God, that's a good thing. That's not something to be afraid of, that's something to be terrified of, that's something to say.

God's so good that as I fear Him, he gives me a knowledge of who he is and understanding of what he wants me to do. We hold him in reverence. Proverbs three, five through eight.

Five and six are probably very familiar. Go ahead, Nathan. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge Him. He shall direct your path. Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Be help to your flesh, strength to your bones. Three benefits there, when it talks about fearing the Lord, he's going to direct your path, he's going to give health to your flesh and he's going to give strength to your bones.

These are good things. Again, these are not things to be terrified of, these are things to be thankful to God for, to hold Him in on reverence for. So I think both of these are true, that fear can mean being afraid, and there's good reason for that.

But fear is also being in awe of who God is and what he's done for us. So the fear of the Lord we understand, begins with understanding who the Lord is. That's the fear of the Lord.

So what is wisdom? Wisdom finds its existence in God. Wisdom is the opposite of foolishness. Wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

What is wisdom? And I put this in here, knowledge seems to precede wisdom. Ephesians 117 must read Lynn. Go ahead.

If you look at this verse, the knowledge of Him seems to be something that actually precedes the wisdom and understand wisdom and revelation here talks about. So the first thing, you know who God is, and then you develop wisdom by knowing who God is and what his will is for you. So that seems to be a logical and if you think through it that is logical, you need to know the truth.

Before you can apply the truth, you need to know what's right and wrong before you can choose what's right and wrong. So knowledge does seem to precede wisdom, which tells us that we need to know God. We need to find time to understand who he is and what he wants for us.

One last thing here. Wisdom is knowledge applied, rightly? So this is my definition. What is wisdom? Wisdom is knowledge applied, rightly? When we take knowledge and we apply it in the right way, that's what we're looking at.

James 313. Caleb, go ahead. Second show by.

So who is wise and understanding among you? The person that's showing good conduct? The person that's doing what wisdom indicates to do. That it's. The person whose works are done in meekness of wisdom.

Your actions show that you're wise. If you have a lot of facts and you don't do it, you might be a smart person, but you're not being very wise. It's by doing what you know is true, what is right, that makes you wise.

So wisdom is knowledge applies, rightly .3 here, and we're making pretty good time. How do we get wisdom? How do we get wisdom? I found four definite ways in the Bible, and there may be more here, but these, I think, are good ones to start with here.

So how do we get wisdom? Number one, we ask for it. Isn't that nice? We can ask for wisdom. I had a birthday recently.

I actually asked for some things for Father's Day, and I gave them a long list and they didn't get everything on there. So when I got the birthday, I got more stuff that I asked for, which was awesome. So you ask for stuff, you can get it, right? Well, God wants us to ask for wisdom.

Proverbs two, three through six. Somebody read Jonathan. Go ahead.

So what does it mean to cry out? What does it mean to cry out? They're not asking for yeah, this is just to cry out. To speak out. To say, I want discernment.

It's something I desire. Please give me discernment. What is lifting up your voice the same idea, right? It's saying, I want understanding.

I want discernment. I want understanding. And then if you seek her as silver, you search for her as hidden treasure.

You will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God, for the Lord gives wisdom. Well, who does he give wisdom to? The people in verse three who are crying out, who are lifting up their voice and asking for it. The Lord wants to give wisdom to us for his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

So we need to be asking for wisdom. James one five through eight. This is probably if I said you need to ask for wisdom, this is probably where most of you would go to.

Who would like to read Eric? Go ahead. I think that was misplaced there yep. I was wondering where that went because when I was formatting my notes, all of a sudden one of my points disappeared and it was gone.

So I retyped it in apparently with different words, and that's apparently where it got cut and pasted to. So you can cross it out here. I want to look at verse five for a moment.

We're going to come back to six through eight in just a second. But if any of you lacks wisdom, what does the Bible say you should do? Ask God. If you lack wisdom, go to God, ask for wisdom.

And what does it say God will do? He's going to give it to you and not just a little bit. So that okay, you got a little bit, you better ask for more. No, he gives it liberal.

He gives abundant amount of wisdom without reports it will be given to Him. God's not going to say, well, you should have been wise already. Why have you been so foolish all along? Now you're asking for what? No, God's willing. He wants to give us wisdom. He wants us to come and ask Him of it.

Colossians one, nine and ten. Bethany, go ahead. I pulled in this verse because not only can you ask for wisdom for yourself, but guess what? As Paul's doing, you can ask for wisdom for other people.

So we can pray, hey, I pray that everybody at Northridge Church would have wisdom. That's okay, you can do that. God wants us to pray for wisdom.

So a couple of points on this. There needs to be a desire to receive wisdom. In fact, it looks like from Proverbs two three through six that not only do you desire to it, but you're going to put the work in to find it.

So it's not just that you ask for wisdom and God plops it in your head and you're also a super wise person. You got to put some work into it. But if you ask and you're willing to put the work in, god's going to give it to you.

There is an acknowledgment that wisdom comes from the Lord. I think we read Proverbs 319 already, Ecclesiastes 226. Who would like to read that? Are you raising your hand, Olivia, or is your hand being raised for you? So God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight.

The idea that wisdom comes from God. Here Daniel 220 through 22. Go ahead, Matt.

So here it starts off by saying wisdom and might are his. And then it goes on to say that he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge of those who have understanding. So God is the source of this.

God is the source of where our wisdom comes from. Ephesians 117 says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. Again, God would be giving this to us.

So we see that there needs to be desire to receive wisdom. There is acknowledgment that wisdom comes from the Lord. And number three, there must be faith that God can give wisdom.

This is where we go back to James One where it talks about that if you ask for wisdom, you have to ask in faith, you have to believe. And it says here without doubting. And it gives this idea of the ship that's tossed to and throw by the storm.

And if you're not asking in faith, you shouldn't suppose you're going to receive anything from God. So there has to be an element of faith in asking also. You need to desire it, you need to work for it, you need to acknowledge that comes from God and you need to have faith that God will give it.

So how do we get wisdom? We ask for it, how else? By submitting to the Holy Spirit. Isaiah eleven, one through three. Nathan there shall come forth the rod of Jesse.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of the Spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge by the sun, nor decide by the hearing of his ears.

Dr. Dan pointed out in the passage he was reading that certain words were capitalized and that helped us to know who the passage was talking about. You notice in this passage there's several words capitalized here, rod, branch, then a lot of hymns, right? So this is talking about Jesus Christ, and it talks about that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, which is the spirit of wisdom and understanding.

So where do we get wisdom? It's when we're submitted to the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our example in this, but also talks about this for us too. One Corinthians 212 through 13.

Who would like to read? Ted, go ahead. So the Spirit who's from God that is given that we might know first of all the things of God, and then also, you see by application, Paul is saying, I speak in wisdom and not in man's wisdom, but wisdom that the Spirit of God teaches us, comparing spiritual with spiritual. So you see here that both knowledge and wisdom of God and who he is, what his plan is for us, what he desires us to do.

His commandments come because of the Spirit. Daniel 514. And this is testimony from Nebuchadnezzar.

So even the evil king Nebuchadnezzar recognized something here. He says here, I have heard of you that this Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. So Daniel had a reputation that he had understanding, he had wisdom, but he also had a reputation that the Spirit of God was dwelling in him and that was the reason why it came about.

So by submitting to the Holy Spirit, we can have wisdom. Letter C here. How else, how do we get wisdom from God's word? Colossians 316.

Who would like to read? Judy, go ahead. So here, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. This is not just from casually reading the Word of God, this is by submersing yourself in the word of God, letting the word of God dwell to live in you and that by that God will give you wisdom.

So we need to be putting work into knowing God's word. Two peter 314 and 16. Another reader, Jonathan, go ahead.

Looking forward to these. So this is one of the passages oftentimes that's used to talk about how the scripture talks about that the writings of Scripture. Is Scripture the proof that the word of God is the word of God.

Because it talks about here that Peter is addressing Paul's writings and calling them scripture at the end here. But if you look here, Paul according to the wisdom given to him. So what's in scripture? It's wisdom.

It's wisdom that Paul was given and given by God. So God's wisdom is there in scripture and we need to be in God's word, we need to be submersed in it, we need to be spending time in it. We need to be knowing God's word.

And that's the only way we can figure out what God is like, what's right and wrong, what's good and evil, what's holy and unholy that we can know wisdom and we can make right choices. So from God's Word and then letter D. I put this in here because you'll see a lot of in Proverbs here.

But listen to those with wisdom. How do you get wisdom? Well, listen to those who already have wisdom, right? Proverbs one, eight and nine. Bethany, you want to read again it so here the instruction is to a son, listen to your father, listen to your mother because it's going to benefit you, it's going to be helpful for you.

Now this is where I'm going to talk to anybody who is a child of a parent, but especially some of the younger people. And I can talk about this because I was back there at one point in time. At times you think your parents have no idea, you think they don't know what they're talking about.

They're making strange advice that you don't understand and you don't get because it's just not logical to you. Well guess what? There's wisdom in what your parents have done because they have been there and they're not giving you this advice. They're not giving you this instruction just to make your life more difficult or to make you more unhappy or so that you can't go out and do what you want to do.

They're giving it the advice to you because they've learned over the years, they've acquired wisdom and they want to share it with you. Now, sometimes human advice is bad because we're human and we make mistakes. But especially if you have parents that love the Lord, that love the word of God, that spend time in it, that study it, that know the word of God and are giving you advice based on the word of God, you better be listening to that because God's given that to you.

And we're going to see in a second. It's not just from parents, it's from other people. If they are wise people and they're giving you wise advice, that's a good source of wisdom for you.

Learn that. A couple more passage, proverbs two, one and two. We read already.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, apply your heart to understanding. Again, a plea for his son to listen. Proverbs four, four through seven.

Another reader, Bethany, go ahead, let your heart get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget your and she will preserve you. Love her, therefore get wisdom. And at all you're getting.

So he, again, this is the author probably was talking about. His father said to me, let your heart retain my words, keep my commands and live. It's a good thing to listen to people that have wise advice for you, whether you like to hear the advice or not.

You look at this plea here. Get wisdom, get understanding. And he goes on and on.

This is important, this is something that's necessary for you as a younger person. Seek out wisdom, get wisdom, listen. Proverbs 13.

One says, a wise son heeds his father's instructions, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. You want to be a wise son or daughter, listen to your parents. That's what the Bible says here, right? The scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

And they get in trouble. As you see in Proverbs, a couple of our passages, proverbs five, one and Proverbs 23 20. And then one more passage, Proverbs 1921.

Last reader, Caleb, had his hand up earlier, so I'm going to give it to him. So again, this kind of a general, listen to counsel, receive instruction, someone who's wise pay attention to them, they might just know what they're talking about, and especially if they love the Lord, especially if they love God's Word, especially if they're doing what's right and living the right way. Listen to them.

And if you don't like what you hear, that's fine because it might be something you need to change and I need to get right with the Lord. So how do we get wisdom? We ask for it, submit to the Holy Spirit, we get it from God's Word and we listen to those with wisdom. So that's my introduction.

What. Is wisdom. Like I said, next week we're going to look at some practical applications of wisdom from Proverbs, looking at different areas in life, and we'll do this over the next few weeks and hopefully learn some things about what God wants us to do in the decisions we need to make.

So any thoughts or questions before I close? I like to do this in Sunday school. We don't usually do this during the sermon, but there's not okay, I'll go ahead and close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we praise you Lord.

We thank you for this time of your word. We thank you for the wisdom your word offers, Lord. Help us to be diligent, help us to be desirous.

Help us to be believing that you can be the One who gives us wisdom, Lord, and that we would seek it out however we may, that we may make right choices and do the right things before you, that we may be blessed by you as Your Word says, and that we may please you in all things. Lord, we thank you for this time in this Word. I know that this is just as much a lesson to me as anyone else, Lord, and I pray that you would just help me to take the words that I talked about and just put them into practice in my life.

Lord, we do thank you for this time together, the fellowship we have in Christ because of his sacrifice for us. We pray that you'd help us to walk in an upright and perfect way before you. In Jesus name, amen.