Good morning.
My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Shine Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.
A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're filling seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good,
they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad they can't have it,
which is why we come back week after week to look at what God has to say to us in his word
because we believe that God has something to say to everyone.
He has something to say to people who've been Christians their entire lives.
He's been something to say to people who've been Christians for a very short amount of time,
and he has something to say, a challenge, to people who are not Christians.
God's word gives us life.
We've been talking about a lot of different concepts about wisdom from chapter one.
At this point, hopefully you're convinced that wisdom is something you want.
Hopefully you're convinced that wisdom is something you need if you're going to walk well in this life.
And so that raises our next question here with chapter two, which is how we continue in wisdom.
One man puts it this way, that chapter two asks the question, how do we grow?
If we know that we need wisdom and now we want wisdom, how is it that we become wise people?
What we saw last week was negative, right?
It was a warning to those who won't listen.
This week in chapter two, it's going to be positive.
It's going to tell us what it actually looks like to be people who become wise.
And so it's with that that we're going to turn to Proverbs chapter two and reading the entire chapter.
I invite you to turn in your worship guide.
It's near the end of there.
You can turn in your Bible or your phone.
No matter where you turn, the importance is that we are here together in this chapter of God's word.
Now, I have not done this in probably a year or so,
but I'm going to ask you this morning to take a look and see if you can spot some words that are repeated frequently in this passage.
It's tempting sometimes when we read God's word to just kind of turn our minds off while we're reading it,
get to the end, and then we wait, you know, until the preacher says the first illustration.
And I get that.
It's a temptation for me as well.
But there's a word here that's going to be repeated six times,
and I'm going to challenge you to see if you can find it.
Also, it's not an article, right?
Don't tell me the word is the or a or an.
With that, we are in Proverbs chapter 2.
This is God's word.
Remember that God tells us in Proverbs chapter 30, verse 5,
that every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
And so that's why we read now, starting at chapter 2.
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.
Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding.
If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
Verse 6.
For the Lord gives wisdom.
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
Verse 9.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.
For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will watch over you.
Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,
men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
Verse 16.
So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.
None who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
Verse 20.
So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it.
But the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you again
that you have not left us alone as orphans in a merciless universe.
You've not abandoned us to our own devices to figure out how this world works,
but instead you have come and you've given us your word.
You've spoken clearly to us so that we would not be lost or confused,
but we would know the way to walk in this world.
We ask that you would do that now this morning by your spirit,
that you would help us,
that you would speak clearly to us,
and that we would hear and believe and know everything that you've written in your word.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you are a Star Wars fan of any sort,
you know that at the end of last year,
The Mandalorian came out,
which tells us the story after episode six.
It's about five years after the return of the Jedi,
so Darth Vader has turned good again.
It tells the story of a man named Din,
and Din's a bounty hunter,
and as a bounty hunter, he belongs to this group called the Mandalorians.
They're a tribe or a clan,
and this tribe or clan is from the planet of Mandalore.
And there's this phrase that they repeat over and over
that characterizes how they work as a tribe or a clan.
You all know what this is?
This is the way.
Yeah, over and over they say,
this is the way,
except it sounds more like this.
This is the way.
And it's something that they repeat to describe
what their pattern of life is,
the way that they live in the world.
And one of the things that's important for them as they live
is that they never take off their helmet
in front of a living human being.
And so they have this code that they live by,
this way that they walk.
They're loyal to it,
and they have allegiance to it.
And it's something that they love,
and this love also brings them great protection.
You know, for example,
that when Din gets into trouble,
he's rescued baby Yoda,
and there are other bounty hunters
that are coming after him.
Who comes to protect him?
Well, it's the other Mandalorians.
Because he loves the way,
the way also protects him.
And that's what we're going to see here
in this chapter about Proverbs.
We're going to see the love for the path
and protection by the path.
I told you to look out for repeated words.
There's actually many repeated words,
so I may have played a little bit of a trick on you.
But the word that appears six times is what?
Ooh, different answers.
Okay, wisdom potentially.
What I was looking for was the path.
The path appears six times.
We see it in verses eight and nine.
It's where it first shows up.
The paths of justice.
Verse nine, every good path.
We have it in verse 13.
So there's a good path and an evil path.
There are those who forsake the paths of uprightness.
The way appears, by the way, too.
So the word way, not six times, but it appears a lot.
The way of evil, verse 12.
We have verse 18.
This forbidden woman,
she has paths that go down to the departed.
Verse 19.
No one who goes down regains the paths of life.
So I've hinted at this theme before in the book of Proverbs,
and it's highlighted even more in this chapter.
There are two paths or two ways.
There's not three,
which is what our world often tells us, right?
There's three ways.
There's really wicked people,
really good people,
and really normal, average people.
Proverbs tells us, actually, there's only two.
There's people who fear the Lord and people who don't.
There is a path that we have to walk on in this life.
And so path and way here show up over and over again.
So there's love for the path that we see in this passage
and also protection by the path.
We see at the very beginning of this chapter,
similar to what I told you last week.
Remember, I gave you the illustration of the river guide
or the hunting guide
that illustrates for us what wisdom looks like.
Wisdom is like a guide offering to show us the way,
and all we have to do is listen and accept.
There's no charge or fee.
Wisdom doesn't charge us money.
We don't have to pay anything for wisdom.
Wisdom also gives us everything we need.
This guide is bringing along all the supplies.
It's like a fly fishing guide
who's gonna bring all the things that you need to fly fish.
It's like a hunting guide
who brings all the guns that you need.
That's what we saw last week.
At the end of chapter one,
we saw in verse 23,
I will pour out my spirit to you.
I will make my words known to you.
Wisdom gives you everything that you need.
That's the same thing we see here in chapter two,
the very beginning.
My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
yes, listen.
If you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
listen, the same thing we saw last week.
Verses six and seven,
the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth
come knowledge and understanding.
God's the one providing the wisdom.
He gives all the supplies.
He gives everything needed.
Verse seven,
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.
All you have to do is listen.
God provides all the wisdom.
And yet there's something added in this section.
There's a catch.
Verses three and four.
There seems to be something more than just listening.
If you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord.
And if you're listening carefully,
you might think,
wait,
I thought you told us last week
that all we had to do was listen.
Isn't this adding another obligation?
This sounds difficult and hard.
I thought it wasn't pulling ourselves up
by our bootstraps to get to wisdom.
I thought wisdom was going to give us
everything that we need.
The answer is yes.
And we still have to love it and want it.
Yes.
And we still have to love it and want it.
You can have a river guide
offering to take you fishing for free,
supplying everything that you need.
And if you hate fishing,
it doesn't matter how free it is.
You can have someone who offers to take you hunting,
supplying everything you need,
bringing all the guns and the ammunition,
knowing the best spots.
And if you hate hunting,
it doesn't matter.
Verse three and four,
you have to call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding.
You have to seek for it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures.
In other words,
you have to love wisdom.
It's not enough to just be offered wisdom.
You have to love wisdom.
Wisdom involves our hearts and our love.
That's, of course, the language that's used here.
What is it if it's treasure?
It must be something you really value.
You can't treat wisdom like treasure
unless you believe it is a treasure,
unless you love it.
It's an issue of the heart.
Verse two,
your ear has to be attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding.
Verse 10,
it has to be something that's pleasant to you.
Wisdom will come into your heart
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
You will love wisdom.
Wisdom is something that will taste sweet
and beautiful to you.
It's not just that someone's offering
to take you fishing.
It's that you love fishing.
It's your favorite thing.
It's not just that someone's offering
to take you hunting.
It's that you love hunting.
It's your favorite thing.
It's not just that wisdom is crying out
that we saw at the end of chapter one.
It's not just that it offers these things,
but that you love it.
Your heart wants wisdom.
There's a love for wisdom
that has to be true if we want it.
Remember, by the way,
we've seen this idea of love before in chapter one.
If you have your Bible with you,
chapter one, verse 12,
sorry, 22, chapter one, verse 22,
there's the challenge from last week to the simple.
How long, oh simple ones,
will you love being simple?
Not just a matter of listening.
It's a matter of our loves.
It's a matter of what our hearts want and desire.
And so our application is this.
We have to love wisdom
if we want to get wisdom.
We have to say yes
to the offer of wisdom from chapter one
and say yes enthusiastically.
Chapter two is asking us,
what is our treasure?
What is it that we seek after and want
more than anything else?
A righteous person,
a person who fears the Lord,
longs to know God
and follow after his ways.
Wisdom is a relationship,
not a strategy.
Wisdom is a relationship,
not a strategy.
We talked last week about many things
you can get from wisdom.
You can't be interested in wisdom,
though, just for what you can get.
It can't be a strategy.
It has to be something that you actually love.
Wisdom has to be something that moves your heart.
There are some things,
we know this intuitively,
just in the world,
there are some things that can only be had
if we love and treasure them.
Right?
This is how relationships work.
Think, for example,
if you're a young man
and you're interested in a young woman,
it would not be a good idea
for you to go to her
and say something like this.
You know,
I don't hate the idea
of spending time with you.
I haven't thought about you much recently,
but I lost my job,
so I just had a lot of time to think.
And I don't have a lot of hobbies,
so I just have a lot,
you know,
I have space.
So if you would like to spend time with me,
I'd be open to that.
Is she gonna say yes?
No, it's not a winning strategy.
Things that are relational,
that involve relationships,
can only be acquired through love and affection.
This is true,
not just in romantic situations,
but in our families and our friendships.
Wisdom is the same way.
Wisdom is a relationship,
not a strategy.
It's not a coincidence
that this book,
written to a young man,
presents wisdom as a woman.
She is crying out for relationship.
We have to love wisdom
if we want to get wisdom.
The man approaches the woman, right,
because he's interested.
He thinks it's worth the risk.
He thinks there might be some treasure there.
That's the successful strategy.
That's the same way with wisdom.
In the Mandalorian, by the way,
Din,
he's not just with the Mandalorians
because of what he can get.
Remember,
they rescued him as a child.
There's a relationship there.
There's history there.
There's a reason that he refuses
to take off his helmet.
It's not just a strategy.
It's a relationship.
That's the love for the path.
We also see in chapter 2
the protection of the path.
The path is similar to what we saw last week.
It's put positively here
rather than last week
it was put negatively.
The path offers real and present protection
from danger.
We see that in verses 7 and 8.
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
He is a shield
to those who walk in integrity.
What does a shield do?
Protects you.
Verse 8,
guarding the paths of justice
and watching over
the way of his saints.
There's a protection.
God is watching over and guarding.
Wisdom is watching over and guarding
people who love it.
Now this works in several ways.
You can think of a compass, right?
The fear of the Lord
shows us the way to go
when things around us are confusing.
It directs us
no matter what our culture is saying.
So it's a compass protecting us.
We could also think of it as
people in this world
being like kites
being blown around by the breeze, right?
If a kite is not tied to anything
it'll blow wherever the wind goes.
Wisdom protects us
by tying us down.
It creates limits.
It makes sure we can only soar
in certain areas.
And so wisdom's a protection
in those ways
but it's actually more than that.
Verse 10,
we're told that we will love wisdom.
Knowledge will be pleasant to our soul.
And it's this knowledge being pleasant
that serves as the true protection
and gives us two situations
as examples here.
First, this love
is going to deliver us
from evil ways.
That's verses 12 through 15.
This again is similar
to what we saw in chapter 1.
Remember in chapter 1
verses 10 through 19
we saw the temptation to violence.
There are going to be violent men
who come to you
and they're going to offer you things.
There's going to be unjust gain.
There's going to be opportunities
to become rich
at other people's expense.
There's a warning there
in chapter 1.
There's something even more than this.
What's going to protect you
from those offers?
It's going to have to be
your love of wisdom ultimately.
Someone comes offering you
an opportunity
to become rich
at other people's expense.
If your love of money
is greater
than your love of wisdom,
what's going to win?
Ultimately,
your love is going to be
what wins.
Worldview,
which people like to talk about a lot,
is knowing the right thing to do.
Love is actually going to
be doing the right thing.
Worldview,
we know God's commandments.
Love is what has us
actually keep those commandments.
In that moment,
when the temptation comes,
the question really is,
what do you love more?
These violent men,
verses 12 through 15,
are going to offer you many things.
They're going to offer you money.
They might offer you power.
They might offer you fame and wealth.
Those things will be very attractive.
It's your love that will protect you.
It's your love of wisdom
that will keep you safe.
It's your love that will allow you
to say no
even when the offer is tempting.
Same thing
is shown for us
in verses 16 through 19.
It's not just men
who will come
to offer you things.
Women here
will come and offer
this young man things.
There's going to be a woman
who is going to tempt him.
She's going to come,
verse 16,
with smooth words.
She's going to appeal
to his love.
She might flatter him,
tell him things
he's been longing to hear
for a long time,
filling needs
that he didn't know
that he had.
It's going to be his love
that protects him.
Now,
the temptation
to evil speech
is one thing.
The temptation
to sexuality
is even more powerful,
the temptation of sex.
We can have
the right worldview,
but if we're not
motivated by love,
wisdom
can't protect us.
Because,
verse 16,
she's going to offer
these smooth words,
right?
She's going to offer
experiences
and things
that we might long for.
And if we don't love
wisdom,
if we don't love God
and love our neighbor
at best,
we're going to try
to get as close
to the line
as we can
without doing
something wrong.
At worst,
we're going to realize
we love something
more than wisdom.
And wisdom
is simply a nuisance.
And so,
in the moment
of temptation,
wisdom will lose
and the forbidden woman
will win.
And so,
instead,
we have to love God
and love others.
If wisdom
is not a delight
to us,
if it doesn't come
into our heart,
verse 10,
if it's not pleasant
to our soul,
then verse 11,
it's not going
to be possible
for understanding
to guard us.
we have to love
the path
to be protected
by the path.
We have to fight
desire with desire.
By the way,
that's what we're going
to see later on
in chapter 5.
That's one of the solutions
that the author of Proverbs
gives to sexual temptation,
to fight one desire
with an even greater
and better desire.
And that is going
to be protection,
right?
Because the Father here
tells us what happens
if we love
the forbidden woman
more than wisdom.
Verse 18,
her house sinks down
to death
and her paths
to the departed.
None who go
to her come back,
nor do they regain
the paths of life.
Wisdom will protect
you from death.
By the way,
this gives us
an important point here.
As we think about
sin and temptation,
especially as we think
about talking about it
with our children,
children,
this by the way,
remember is a book
to children,
the book of Proverbs
that's written
to a young man,
an adolescent male,
it is good and right
to warn about
the consequences of sin.
The author of Proverbs
does that,
did that last week.
But if all we're concerned
about is the consequences
of sin,
ultimately wisdom
cannot protect us.
We cannot warn
just about the dangers
of disobedience,
but we also have to talk
about the fact
that we must love
the Lord our God
with all our heart,
soul,
mind,
and strength.
Remember,
worldview is knowing
what's right.
It's our love
that causes us
to do what's right.
In Deuteronomy chapter 6,
which is the portion
of the Bible
that talks about
training our children up
and raising them
to fear and know the Lord
all the time,
it tells us
in verse 5,
you shall love the Lord
your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your might.
It is love
for God
and his wisdom
that will guard us.
It's a greater affection
that protects us
from lesser affections.
And so we must love wisdom
to be protected by wisdom.
As I've been telling you
now many weeks,
Matthew chapter 12,
verse 42,
tells us that Jesus
is the great teacher
of wisdom.
He is greater
than Solomon.
And so Jesus
tells us some similar things.
He tells us
in John chapter 14,
verse 15,
if you love me,
you will keep
my commandments.
He tells us
in Matthew chapter 22
that the law
is summarized
in this way.
Love the Lord
your God
and love your neighbor
as yourself.
That's the heart
of what Jesus teaches.
When Jesus meets
with Nicodemus
in John chapter 3
and Nicodemus
wants to know
how can he receive
what it is
that Jesus offers.
He tells Nicodemus
you have to be born again.
And that gets
to one of the answers
that this passage raises
which is this,
if we have to love wisdom
to be protected by wisdom,
how can we love wisdom
more than anything else?
Well as we saw
last week,
Colossians chapter 2,
verse 3,
it's in Jesus
that we see all wisdom.
And so it's in loving Jesus
that we're able
to have new
and changed hearts.
That's what Jesus
is offering Nicodemus
in John chapter 3.
Unless you're born again,
unless the Holy Spirit
is part of your life,
unless Jesus is coming
and making a new creation
out of you,
you have no expectation
that your heart
will be changed
by love
to do
and know
what is right.
Wisdom
is not a strategy,
it's a relationship,
and it's a relationship
ultimately
with Jesus Christ.
He is the one
who gives us
new hearts,
hearts that love
him and wisdom
more than anything else.
And so Proverbs chapter 2
is not a chance
for us
to try to whip up
some kind of frenzy
where we can be
disciplined enough,
where we can have
a habit tracker
so we can keep track
of our wisdom practices.
But ultimately
it's a passage
telling us
that it's a matter
of the heart
and we as people
of the New Testament
know that it's only
Jesus who can
change our hearts.
And so our first step
is to pray to God
that he would send
his spirit,
that he would soften
our hearts,
and that he would
give us new hearts,
that we are the kind
of people who love
wisdom more
than anything else,
that we would love
the Lord our God
with our heart
and our soul
and all our might.
That's ultimately
what Proverbs chapter 2
points us to.
That is how we grow
in wisdom
and become people
of wisdom.
Of course,
the gospel tells us
that as we pursue wisdom,
it's Jesus who pursued
us first.
Romans chapter 5,
verse 8,
tells us,
while we were still
sinners,
Christ died for us.
And so our pursuit
of wisdom
only comes
after Jesus'
pursuit of us.
He is the one
who comes
and changes
hearts of stone
into hearts of flesh.
We come again
then this week
over and over.
The book of Proverbs
is pointing us
to Jesus.
He is the one
who has wisdom
come into our heart
and makes knowledge
pleasant
to our soul.
He is the one,
verse 7,
who's a shield
to those who walk
in integrity.
And he's the one
in verse 8
who watches
over the way
of his saints.
And so he's the one
who gives us
the love of wisdom
and he's the one
who gives us
the protection
of wisdom.
25 years
after the Mandalorian,
of course,
we're told a different
story in episode 7.
The Galactic Empire
has been defeated
and they've been
replaced by the
First Order.
The rebellion
is still working
but Luke Skywalker
has disappeared.
And Leia wants
to find him, right?
And RTD2
and BB8
have a map
to Luke
and so there's
this journey
to go find him
and at the end,
after all this work
to protect the map
and keep the map
out of their love
for Luke
and their love
for the rebellion,
they finally find him
on an isolated island,
right?
All they have
to do
is find Luke.
All they have
to do
is pursue him
because he provides
everything else.
In episodes 8
and 9,
he trains Rey
in the force.
He teaches her
what she needs
to know
so that she can
go and do battle.
He fights Kylo Ren
to buy time
for the resistance.
He lays himself
down so that
they can escape.
Luke,
out of his love,
battles for them,
right?
He protects them
from death.
He allows them
to live.
And then in episode 9,
The Force Awakens,
he gives Rey
Leia's lightsaber
and he gives
Rey his starfighter.
He gives her
everything that she needs
to return
and do battle.
All she had to do
was seek him out
and find him.
Luke gives her
what she needs.
He prepares her
and trains her.
And he also lays himself
down to protect
the rebellion.
Brothers and sisters,
all we have to do
is go after wisdom.
All we have to do
is love the path,
love Jesus Christ,
and we also
will be protected
by the path.
We will be protected
by Jesus Christ.
Please pray with me.
Our Father in Heaven,
we thank you
for your word.
We ask that you
would use it
in a powerful way
to change our hearts,
that we would grow
in our love
for you.
That you would
make wisdom
a treasure to us
in something
that's sweet.
We confess
that we can't do it
on our own
and that we need
your spirit
to do a new work
in our hearts.
And so we ask
that you would
do that now,
that you would
take our hard hearts
and that you would
soften them,
that we would be
eager for your wisdom
and your ways.
We ask these things
not because we have
earned them
or deserve them,
but we ask them
in Jesus' name.
Amen.