Proverbs Ch3v13-35 - The Blessed Life

[0:00] So Proverbs 3, verse 13 onwards. Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding.

[0:13] For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her.

[0:25] Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace.

[0:37] She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Those who hold her fast will be blessed. By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations.

[0:49] By understanding he set the heavens in place. By his knowledge the watery depths were divided and the clouds let drop the dew.

[1:01] My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight. Preserve sound judgment and discretion. They will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.

[1:16] Then you will go on your way in safety and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

[1:29] Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked. For the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

[1:42] Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, come back tomorrow and I'll give it to you, when you already have it with you.

[1:58] Do not plot harm against your neighbor who lives trustfully near you. Do not accuse anyone for no reason when they have done you no harm.

[2:10] Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways. For the Lord detests the perverse but takes the upright into his confidence.

[2:21] The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. He mocks proud mockers, but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.

[2:35] The wise inherit honor, but fools get only shame. Thank you so much, Mary.

[2:51] And good morning, everybody. So I think it's fair to say we all want the blessed life, right?

[3:06] In the Bible, blessed describes a person who is living life optimally as God intended, regardless of their circumstance.

[3:17] I'll say that again. Blessed describes a person who is living life optimally as God intended, regardless of circumstance. But I think it's fair to say also, we all have a different idea of what it actually looks like to be blessed.

[3:35] Is the blessed life the married life? Finding love with the man or woman of your dreams? Having companionship on life's journey?

[3:48] Or is the blessed life the successful life? Having a fulfilling career and a comfortable salary? Giving you the house of your dreams?

[3:58] Is the blessed life the family life? With cute little mini people who look just like you, wreaking havoc around your house? Little people to invest your life in?

[4:11] Is the blessed life the healthy life? To be free from pain? Able to enjoy your retirement well into old age? To travel, see the world?

[4:23] Or what comes to your mind? Whenever you imagine the blessed life? Now if you're young here today, you've still got your whole life ahead of you.

[4:38] You've got that picture in your mind of what the blessed life looks like. And in this speech, King Solomon, the author, he speaks as a father to his son about where he can find that blessed life.

[4:53] And to the son's surprise, it's not found in romance or money or the dream house or traveling the world. It comes from a place that your social media feed will never point you to.

[5:08] Look in verse 13. Blessed are those who find wisdom. The blessed life is the life of wisdom.

[5:25] If you get wisdom, you get the optimal life according to God. In fact, wisdom promises us a more blessed life than we could ever even dream up.

[5:38] Have a look at verse 14. For she, wisdom, is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

[5:51] Imagine for a second if you made a smart investment on some Google shares back in the 90s, right? And you sold them for a thousand times what you paid for them.

[6:02] That's nothing close to what wisdom will repay you. Look at verse 15. She is more precious than rubies.

[6:15] Nothing you desire can compare with her. Nothing. Not the guy or girl of your dreams. Not the house by the sea or the big money job.

[6:26] Nothing you desire can compare with getting wisdom. That's the case that the father makes to his son with his whole life out ahead of him.

[6:37] But it doesn't make any sense to him. Nor to us, does it? Because when we look around or take a scroll through the old social media, who's running after wisdom as the blessed life?

[6:51] No one. Why wisdom? Well, that's what the father is going to do in this speech. He's going to make the case as to why wisdom, getting wisdom, is the blessed life.

[7:06] Now, before we start, for those of you who aren't young in this room, anyone who's over the age of... Let me see. What age is my wife again?

[7:18] Plus one onto that. No, I'm kidding. I'm not going to put a number on that. I'll offend way too many people all at once. But, yeah, that's a very subjective word, isn't it?

[7:30] Young. But anyone who considers themselves not young anymore, you might be thinking to yourself, why am I going to listen to this text? Because it's directed to a young person.

[7:41] Well, I think you should listen, and this is why. You're probably at a stage in life where you went after the blessed life, but now you realize that those things you went after didn't give it to you.

[7:55] So for anyone who is weary of that endless search for blessing, hear God's word to you today. The search is over. It's wisdom. It's never too late to know the blessed life that God created you to live.

[8:12] So will you pray with me now that we would all take hold of that wisdom that God's offering to us? Let's pray. Father, we have run after many good things as ultimate things, which have left us empty in the end and not giving us the blessing that we sought for.

[8:33] So as we read your word now, open our eyes to see the blessed life that you made us to live and help us to take hold of it.

[8:45] Amen. Okay. So King Solomon is now going to make his case to his son. And here's the first reason he gives for why the blessed life is the life of wisdom.

[9:00] Number one, get wisdom, and it will be for you a tree of life with eternal yields. Look at verse 16. Long life is in wisdom's right hand.

[9:17] In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. How do we make it that?

[9:28] Okay. Now, if we apply the skill for living that Proverbs offers us, the chances are that we will live a longer life and have more money in the bank account, okay?

[9:41] Because you're more likely to stay out of trouble and to make better choices in general, okay? That's what happens when you live according to God's rules. But while this proverb is true, it's not the whole truth of Scripture, is it?

[9:56] It must be balanced with verses like verse 34, where we find that wise people, in God's eyes, are oppressed and are living in very humble circumstances.

[10:11] So for those people, in verse 34, God chose not to give them wealth, even though he considers them to be wise.

[10:24] So the health and wealth that wisdom promises must ultimately be in a different sense, and that becomes clear in verse 18.

[10:35] Read with me. She, wisdom, is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Those who hold her fast will be blessed.

[10:46] What an image here. A tree of life. Do you remember? The tree of life was there back in the Garden of Eden. It symbolized overflowing life that never ends.

[10:58] Adam and Eve could eat of that fruit in the Garden until they sinned, right? And God barred the way to the tree of life. Their physical bodies would die.

[11:11] But we see this tree again in Revelation, right at the end of the Bible, in the new heavens and earth to come. Listen to this. Revelation 22, verse 2 says this.

[11:23] On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

[11:34] This tree of life never runs out of fruit. What is its fruit? Eternal life in God's perfect presence, the new heavens and earth.

[11:45] All our needs satisfied forever. We will never want again. That's the permanent health and prosperity that wisdom promises us, surpassing any temporary health or wealth here on earth.

[12:01] So do you want the blessed life? Get wisdom. And then you will have the blessed life. Live out that life of wisdom.

[12:12] And the tree of eternal life is yours. But the father continues to boast of wisdom to his son. Next he says, Get wisdom, and it will create order in the disorder around you.

[12:27] Have a look at verse 19. By wisdom, the Lord laid the earth's foundations. By understanding, he set the heavens in place.

[12:38] By his knowledge, the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew. That is how valuable wisdom is. Can you see there?

[12:50] God created the world by wisdom. Think of how he did it. Genesis 1-2. Now the earth was formless and empty.

[13:02] Darkness was over the surface of the deep. Out of that chaos and disorder, what did God do? He created this exquisitely ordered universe by his wisdom.

[13:18] Just imagine how that same wisdom will create order out of the disorder in our situations if we were to apply it.

[13:29] Take just for an example, a toxic school or work environment. Where gossip is rampant. Okay? Imagine that. Now if you apply God's wisdom about pure speech to that situation, if you start speaking truth and love, if you start building others up with your words and not speaking behind anyone's back, that wisdom in speech begins to create order in the disorder.

[13:57] The culture begins to change. Wisdom will create order in every area of your life if you would just apply it. That sounds to me like the blessed life.

[14:09] Get wisdom and you get the blessed life. And here's the father's third pitch to his son. Here's the third reason why he should take hold of it. Get wisdom and it will protect you from all danger and fear.

[14:26] Even removing it from you. Listen to his appeal in verse 23 actually. He says, if you hold on to wisdom, verse 23, then you will go on your way in safety and your foot will not stumble.

[14:41] When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Now that sounds like the blessed life, right? Imagine laying down at night without a single fear or care in the world.

[15:01] How could wisdom promise us that? Well, it's true, right? If you live a life according to the wisdom of Proverbs, you're much more likely to stay out of trouble.

[15:15] Okay? You're more likely to be safe from harm. But we live in a disordered world which doesn't function the way God made it to. Sometimes people who act wisely get hurt.

[15:29] So we must balance this truth with other truth in scripture like Proverbs 24 verse 16 which says this, though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.

[15:45] So clearly wisdom does not promise freedom from danger and fear in this life. Rather, God must be promising a far superior type of protection to us here.

[16:02] And that is eternal safety with him. Have a look at verse 25 in your passage. He says, have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

[16:22] You see, this eternal safety is grounded in God being at your side protecting you forever.

[16:33] You know, some people think, if I have financial security, if I've got a good alarm system on my house and if I've got big gates up in my driveway, that's proper protection.

[16:50] How about living forever with God physically by your side in the new heavens and earth where evil cannot enter? That is the blessed life.

[17:03] Get wisdom and you get the blessed life. Live out the life of wisdom and all these blessings are yours.

[17:14] But there is one more blessing of wisdom. Get wisdom, the Father says, and it will make you righteous and blameless before God.

[17:27] How is that true? Well, in verse 27 to 31, we get this list of commands from the Father to the Son of how wisdom is going to work itself out practically in community.

[17:40] It's like the Father says, this is the way of wisdom, so walk in it. Do not go the way of the wicked. Why? Verse 32, he says why.

[17:53] For the Lord detests the perverse, but he takes the upright, or blameless, into his confidence. 33, the Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

[18:10] Here's the massive implication of that. God will accept you as righteous, as blameless, if you truly get wisdom.

[18:22] If you live out that life of wisdom, God will see you as being right with him, blameless of fault, the maker of the universe will take you into his confidence, blessing you with his closest presence.

[18:38] Talk about the blessed life. Think about that. And yet we wonder how can we get this blessed life that Solomon promises.

[18:55] The blessed life, as he said, is only for those who get wisdom, who live it out fully. And that's my big problem, and yours also. Because even when we try to get wisdom and apply what we learn in God's word, we all still fail so often.

[19:13] We are still quick to anger. We still speak of others behind their backs. We still take shortcuts at work. We still get pulled into lust and sexual sin.

[19:24] We speak and act foolishly. We are not wise in and of ourselves. So how can we be blameless or righteous before God?

[19:36] How can we inherit that tree of life? How can we experience order in the disorder of our lives? How can we know protection from danger and fear? It seems we qualify for none of these blessings as people who fail to live wisely.

[19:57] But that's where Jesus comes in. Because a thousand years after Proverbs was written, Jesus, the Son of God, became a man and lived as one of us.

[20:14] And he said of himself, just listen to these words of Jesus. He says, one greater than Solomon is here. Where Solomon failed, just like we have, to live a wise life, Jesus walked the way of wisdom perfectly.

[20:36] He personified wisdom. If you want to know what wisdom looks like, just look at Jesus. Paul says, in Christ, not Solomon, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[20:53] And yet, Jesus, who is perfect wisdom, was treated like a wicked fool. Like the wicked fools we've all shown ourselves to be.

[21:07] All of our perversity and foolishness was nailed to his cross. And he suffered the full force of God's just wrath against it.

[21:19] The people who walked by, what did they do? They scoffed at him. Satan laughed, scorned him as an abject fool. What happened three days later?

[21:33] He walks out of that grave, victorious over sin and death. He proved himself the wise one once and for all.

[21:44] he made that sacrifice for sin. He flung wide heaven's doors so that all who receive him could be forgiven of their sin and folly.

[21:58] They could be clothed in his righteousness, receiving everything that he deserved. Paul says again, he says, it is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.

[22:18] That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Paul says, if you receive Jesus, he becomes your wisdom.

[22:31] You see, getting wisdom is not only just a skill for living life well. It is that, absolutely. And we should apply it. Getting wisdom is ultimately receiving Christ, our wisdom, and everything he is for us.

[22:47] That is why getting wisdom is the blessed life. That is how wisdom is truly a tree of life to those who take hold of her.

[23:03] All who receive Christ, their wisdom, will inherit the eternal life that he deserved. we will eat the fruit of the tree of life and be satisfied forever with everything he is for us.

[23:20] Finding Christ, our wisdom, is the blessed life beyond our wildest dreams. And this is also how wisdom will ultimately create order out of all the disorder in this world.

[23:31] Because all of those who receive Christ, their wisdom, are welcomed into his new kingdom where he will make all things new again. No more sadness, suffering, or disorder.

[23:44] Only joy, peace, and love will dwell in that new creation. And it's all yours in Christ. Finding Jesus is the blessed life better than anything we could imagine.

[23:58] But not only that, that's how getting wisdom will ultimately protect you forever. Because if you're in Christ, God the Father has adopted you as his child, and you will live in the shelter of his presence forever.

[24:14] All dangers and fear will be removed. As death is destroyed, finding Jesus is the blessed life that we've always longed for.

[24:27] And lastly, this is also how getting wisdom makes you righteous and blameless before God. Because if you receive Christ, you are clothed in his righteousness.

[24:38] When God the Father looks at you, you are legally declared right before him because of Jesus. You're welcomed into his closest presence right now in a spiritual sense and in the age to come in a physical sense.

[24:56] We will spend eternity with God our King. Let me ask you again, do you have the blessed life?

[25:11] You know, the people around you, they may not think so. The world outside of Christ judges your blessedness by the car that's sitting on your front drive.

[25:25] the world judges your blessedness by the number of kids you have, or the people who love you, or your title and work, or your giftings, or by what your body looks like.

[25:42] This world thinks that temporary wealth and fleeting health are the blessed life, but they don't get it. They don't see the true reality, of what is really going on in this world.

[25:58] They don't see the unspeakably blessed life, which belongs to everyone who receives Christ their wisdom. We don't have the categories to understand how blessed we are right now, because of all that we have in Christ, and because of all that's to come.

[26:17] But we're dead wrong if we think our blessedness is based on the things we do or don't have in this short earthly life.

[26:31] Would you please turn with thee to Luke chapter 6. Luke is in the New Testament and the Gospels.

[26:48] Luke chapter 6 and verse 20. It's page 1034 if you're in the Red Church Bible. In this sermon on the plain, Jesus illuminates this blessed life that's only found in him.

[27:05] The life that this world doesn't get, doesn't see. He shows it to us. we're going to read from Luke chapter 6 verse 20.

[27:19] Looking at his disciples, that is, those who had received Christ as their Lord and wisdom, Jesus said to them, Blessed are you who are poor.

[27:36] What? How could you be blessed if you are poor? Jesus says, for yours is the kingdom of God.

[27:52] You are an heir of all of heaven. Talk about riches beyond your wildest dreams. You may be poor now for a short time, but you are rich because of your coming inheritance in Christ.

[28:08] Verse 21, blessed are you who hunger now. Why? How could that be a blessing? For you will be satisfied.

[28:23] Blessed are you who weep now. Weeping? How could that make you blessed? For you will laugh.

[28:35] A time is coming when tears will be no more. That means that as your tears flow now, you are blessed because they will be replaced with laughter.

[28:47] We don't know when that will happen, whether this life ultimately in the new heavens and earth, but that time is coming. Jesus says you're blessed. Verse 22, blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

[29:07] Has that happened to you? Have you been excluded for no good reason? Have you been treated unfairly, insulted, or even rejected because you decided to honor Jesus and live a life of integrity in your workplace or in your family?

[29:30] What Jesus says to you, verse 23, rejoice in that day and leap for joy. How can we do that? Because grace is your reward in heaven.

[29:48] Jesus says we have no idea the reward that awaits us in heaven. He is going to compensate us a thousandfold for any hurt or harm we have experienced in this life for his sake.

[30:06] Jesus says you are blessed right now in your poverty, in your illness, your grief, your pain, your suffering, if you belong to him because Jesus is making all things new and he's promised it all to you.

[30:23] See how in that text he keeps pointing us forward to the future, crying out, believe me. You have the blessed life if you have me. Even if it doesn't look like it right now, if you could only see what I can see, you'd know that what is coming is better than you could ever imagine.

[30:45] You have the blessed life even now because of what you have in me. So rejoice. As we finish, I've just got two questions.

[31:02] Number one, is Christ your wisdom today? The last verse in our passage says that the wise inherit honor, but fools get only shame.

[31:18] There's no middle ground here. It's black or white. It's wise or fool. It's either you've received Christ as your wisdom or you're lost.

[31:31] You're condemned in your folly and sin. How could you reject his invitation? Repent of your sin and trust him as your Lord and Savior.

[31:49] Run to Christ today. Take hold of him and don't reject him. Second question.

[32:01] If you do know Christ as your wisdom today, where are you looking to for blessing? Are you getting fixated on the temporary things of this world?

[32:20] Are those blessings bogging you down, tripping you up? Are you either obsessed with getting them or miserable and bitter because you don't? We need to say sorry to God for that.

[32:35] Because that's incredibly short-sighted. We need to turn to Jesus again. And when we fix our eyes upon him again, the things of this world are going to grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

[33:01] The blessed life is the life in Christ, our wisdom. Let's pray. Let's take take him.

[33:11] take him. take him. Let's take him. Let's we've heard the call to pursue wisdom ultimately in Christ and I'm going to leave a moment for us all to respond to him in the quietness of our own hearts O Lord Jesus we thank you for dying on the cross for all our foolishness so that we could know you as our eternal wisdom and enjoy the blessed life that you made us to live with you forever

[34:26] Amen We're going to sing a song now just to finish This is a song that helps us to fix our eyes on all that Christ is for us I especially love this part of the song And mine are keys to Zion City where beside the King I walk for there my heart has found its treasure Christ is mine forevermore And says this Come rejoice now, O my soul That's what Jesus calls us to do, right?

[35:14] For his love is my reward Fear is gone and hope is sure Christ is mine forevermore Christ is mine forevermore Amen Amen Amen Amen