WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.400 So, we are looking at the book of Proverbs on Sunday nights in a series, and the book 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.839 of Proverbs is all about wisdom. 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:14.040 What is wisdom? 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:17.960 Wisdom is the skill of a life lived well. 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:20.879 It's making good choices. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:25.359 It's knowing what to do, we've said, when there are no rules telling you what to do 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.560 at every moment of life. 00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:31.719 And the assumptions of the book of Proverbs are that there are things you have to know 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:33.519 in order to have this wisdom. 00:00:33.519 --> 00:00:38.280 You have to be in relationship with God, you have to know who you are as a creature, you 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:43.879 have to know the world as it's created that it has a moral fabric, that there is a moral 00:00:43.879 --> 00:00:46.879 order to the world, a moral dimension to it. 00:00:46.879 --> 00:00:51.679 And so that means that your decisions matter, and that's fundamental to the idea of wisdom 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:57.320 in the book of Proverbs, that your decisions really do matter because you're a moral person. 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:03.240 So, that means because your decisions matter in all of life, that wisdom applies to every 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:04.319 area of life. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:10.040 You can be a wise academic, a wise technician, a wise artist, a wise public officer, a wise 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:15.240 diplomat, you can be wise at waging war, you can be wise custodian, a wise mom, a wise dad, 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:21.719 a wise minister, or you can be a fool in all of these areas. 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:24.439 And that's fundamental to the book of Proverbs. 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:32.120 But tonight we are asking how does knowledge play into this question, this idea of wisdom, 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:36.239 how does knowledge, knowing things, relate to wisdom? 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:39.079 And we're chapter one, verse seven. 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:43.439 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:49.719 Derek Kidner is probably one of the best Old Testament commentators who's ever lived. 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:56.000 He read a little book on Proverbs and he says that this verse is the motto of all of wisdom 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:01.879 literature in the whole Bible, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:04.239 So we're going to look at it in reverse order. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.799 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:11.360 We're going to look at it and say the concept of knowledge, what does he mean by beginning, 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:13.599 and what's the fear of the Lord? 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:15.800 So first, knowledge. 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.319 What's knowledge? 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:19.319 What's knowledge? 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:20.959 What does it mean to know? 00:02:20.959 --> 00:02:26.919 Now, basically, if you read any psychology or philosophy or even theology or anything 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:34.919 like that, traditionally throughout history, people have divided up the human mind or human 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:38.479 faculties or abilities into three domains. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:41.400 And this will be familiar to you because you have them. 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:44.439 The first one is the human will. 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:46.639 So everybody has, every human has a will. 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:47.639 And what's a will? 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:51.519 A will is simply that part of you that has the ability to want things. 00:02:51.519 --> 00:02:55.639 It's the part of you that can love, that can desire. 00:02:55.639 --> 00:03:03.479 So for instance, when I decided to marry my wife, I might have said something like this. 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:04.479 I think I did. 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:05.479 I surely did. 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:07.839 I said, I want to marry her. 00:03:07.839 --> 00:03:10.479 That's me exercising the faculty of my will. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:11.479 My will. 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:17.039 And then secondly, everybody recognizes you also have emotions. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:21.239 So not only do you have the ability to want things, you have the ability to be emotive. 00:03:21.239 --> 00:03:22.239 And what are emotions? 00:03:22.239 --> 00:03:28.199 Emotions are longings and feelings, happiness and sadness and joy and all these types of 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:29.199 things. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:32.719 So when I came to marry my wife, I said, I want to marry her. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:34.519 That's me exercising my will. 00:03:34.519 --> 00:03:35.519 Why? 00:03:35.519 --> 00:03:36.519 Because she makes me happy. 00:03:36.519 --> 00:03:37.519 Right? 00:03:37.519 --> 00:03:40.159 That's me exercising my emotive ability. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:41.159 Right? 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:42.159 Will and emotions. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.319 And then thirdly, you have an intellect. 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:46.319 You have a mind. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.239 You have the ability to know things, to know facts, to know about things. 00:03:50.239 --> 00:03:53.280 This is the place where you have logic, where you think, where you determine, where you 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:56.120 make decisions. 00:03:56.120 --> 00:04:04.400 So when I came to marry my wife, I knew that she had brown eyes and basically brown hair. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:09.840 It's a little bit black, but basically brown. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:10.840 I hope. 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:11.840 Man, I hope. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:14.680 This is going to be bad. 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:19.840 For instance, let's say that I was going to go right before I was going to marry Heather 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:24.000 and I was standing there and Derek lives in Jackson, Mississippi in this illustration. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.199 He's in the room with me and I say, I'm going to marry her. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:28.360 I want to marry her. 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:29.360 She makes me happy. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:33.079 That's me exercising my will and my emotions at the same time. 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.160 And Derek says, well, point her out to me. 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:38.680 And I said, she's the one over there with the blonde hair, the blue eyes. 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:41.160 She's about five foot one. 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:42.160 Right? 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:43.960 And he went over and said, congratulations. 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:47.439 Look, if you know my wife, you know what would happen. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:51.839 I would get slapped in the face because that's not the facts. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.639 She doesn't have blue eyes or blonde hair and she's not five foot one. 00:04:55.639 --> 00:04:57.560 She's five foot seven. 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:05.839 And you see the faculty of knowledge, your ability to know facts is a basic presupposition 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:11.839 of your ability to want things, to desire things, and to have emotions about them. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:16.119 You have to know something about something if you want to want it, love it, desire it, 00:05:16.119 --> 00:05:19.199 or have any type of emotion about it. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:22.239 Now what do we mean by knowledge then? 00:05:22.239 --> 00:05:29.199 Today in modern world, typically when we think of knowledge, what we mean is knowing stuff, 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:32.159 knowing about stuff, right? 00:05:32.159 --> 00:05:37.839 Knowing facts, knowing about cars and geography and science and playing trivial pursuit. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:39.039 That's knowledge, right? 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:45.200 It's knowing facts about things, but the Bible, the Bible is different. 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:50.680 In the Bible, this word for knowledge that appears here is not simply about knowing things. 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:56.000 It's not simply about knowing facts, but in the Bible, knowledge is holistic. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.400 You could call it deep knowing. 00:05:58.400 --> 00:06:02.439 It's whole, it embraces, in other words, it embraces all of who you are. 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:06.759 Your emotion, your will, and your ability to have an intellect to know facts. 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:11.680 It embraces knowledge, the concept of knowledge in the Bible is about all of who you are, 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:13.800 not just about simply knowing facts. 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.439 That's the modern way of thinking about it. 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:20.279 And there are multiple terms throughout the Old Testament for the word knowledge, but 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:25.560 this little Hebrew word here that gets translated knowledge is little term, daat. 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:30.240 Sometimes the Bible will even say things like this, that the heart knows. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:32.759 It's not even the head that knows, but the heart knows. 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:36.839 The knowledge for the Bible is much more deep-seated than just your intellect. 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:38.959 It embraces all of who you are. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:43.920 And sometimes people express this biblical idea through the difference of knowing reality 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:46.120 and knowing truth. 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:48.120 What does it mean to know reality? 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:58.439 If I was to ask all of you in an exam, find your body's kinetic energy. 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.079 What would you do? 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:02.560 Well you know the equation to find kinetic energy. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:03.560 All of you do. 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:07.959 The equation to find kinetic energy is E equals MC squared, right? 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.000 Einstein's famous equation. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.879 And I could give you some numbers, you could plug it in and you could figure out your body's 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:15.759 kinetic energy. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:17.519 That's knowing reality. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:18.959 That's knowing the fact. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:21.120 That's knowing something about the world. 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:23.959 Something that's a fact about the world, knowing reality. 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:32.719 But if I take you to John 17 and I say, do you know God? 00:07:32.719 --> 00:07:34.239 Right? 00:07:34.239 --> 00:07:35.239 What would you say? 00:07:35.239 --> 00:07:38.000 Do you see the difference? 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:43.120 If I take you to John 17 and read the passage, the knowledge of God is eternal life. 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:44.959 And you say, yeah I know God. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:46.799 God is a spirit. 00:07:46.799 --> 00:07:53.439 Infinite, unchangeable, eternal, and his being, wisdom, power, justice, goodness, mercy, and 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:55.519 truth, I think, what's Mr. Catechism? 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:57.719 I got that right. 00:07:57.719 --> 00:07:59.800 Then I would say, no, no, no, wait. 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:02.879 That's a definition. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:05.720 That's just knowing about God. 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:08.480 Do you know God? 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.720 Or is God just a concept for you? 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:12.879 Do you grasp, do you see the difference? 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:19.120 The idea of knowledge in the Bible is not simply knowing about reality, it's deep knowing. 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:27.360 In other words, it's personal, it's relational, it's holistic. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:31.560 In other words, knowing anything in the Bible is answering this question, where does it 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:33.360 come from? 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:34.600 Why does this exist? 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:37.679 And how should I relate to it? 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:43.480 It embraces all of who you are when you answer those questions. 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:49.159 Human beings are called to know themselves, to know God, and to know the world in this 00:08:49.159 --> 00:08:50.159 way. 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:54.560 In the very beginning, in Genesis chapter one, one of the first commands that God gave 00:08:54.560 --> 00:08:58.639 us was to till the ground, to till the ground. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:02.720 And theologians throughout history have kind of said, look, this is shorthand for telling 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:08.360 human beings that they are to know the world through culture making. 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:12.720 So to till the ground, in other words, to cultivate the ground gives you the image of planting, 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.399 of sowing, of being a farmer, of raising up crops. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:21.120 But the word culture simply comes from the word cultivate, to cultivate, to till the 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:25.519 ground, to be like God, like an artist that goes into the world and knows the material 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:29.920 world in such a way as to make something of it, to create society. 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:33.519 Now, if I said, what is culture? 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:39.600 A lot of people oftentimes will think of classical music or something like that, and that's 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:41.320 high culture. 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:43.600 classical music and going to art museums. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:50.360 You might think of pop culture, Taylor Swift, Drake, and McDonald's, all of which are on 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.800 a similar scale of quality. 00:09:53.800 --> 00:09:55.560 But that's pop culture. 00:09:55.560 --> 00:10:01.680 But culture, biblical idea of culture is directly related to the biblical idea of knowing things. 00:10:01.680 --> 00:10:06.520 And it's this, that human beings are called to relate to this world in such a way that 00:10:06.520 --> 00:10:07.520 you cultivate. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:12.600 You cultivate the ground, vegetables, and livestock, you cultivate artifacts, you produce 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:17.799 goods, you build houses, you build church buildings, you worship, you cultivate institutions, 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:20.000 family, government, schools. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.600 You're called to know things in this world so relationally that it's the same idea as 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:27.439 culture making. 00:10:27.439 --> 00:10:29.360 God created you to be like this. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:31.879 The notion is to be a steward, to be a steward. 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:39.519 And so what Proverbs 1-7 is saying about knowledge is that your relationship to God is the beginning 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:44.039 or the ground of the way you relate to everything else in the world. 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:45.840 The way you relate to everything else in the world. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:50.679 Okay, so that's the idea, that's the idea of knowledge in the Bible. 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:56.519 Second, what does a passage mean by beginning? 00:10:56.519 --> 00:11:00.919 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:05.000 So beginning. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:10.719 When you run, if you run a race, if you enter into the 100 meter dash, there's a beginning 00:11:10.719 --> 00:11:12.559 point of the 100 meter dash. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:14.000 It's the starting line, right? 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:19.599 And when they say 3, 2, 1, go and you hear the gunshot, you leave the beginning point 00:11:19.599 --> 00:11:21.360 behind you, right? 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:25.240 And you try to get to the end point as fast as possible. 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:29.120 And the better you are at the 100 meter dash, the farther away you get from the beginning 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:30.879 point the fastest. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:35.039 That's not what this word beginning here means. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:38.559 So when it says the fear of the Lord, your relationship with God is the beginning of 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.120 the way you know everything else in the world, the way you relate to everything else in the 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:43.120 world. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:46.200 It's not saying that the fear of the Lord, your relationship to God is something that 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:48.399 you leave behind. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.600 It's a starting point that you then leave behind. 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:55.919 Rather, it's more like saying the fear of the Lord is the ground that you run on as 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:58.759 you try to relate to everything else in the world. 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:05.360 It's like running a race and it's the ground that you're standing on. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:17.000 And this is so anti-modern because what the author here is saying is that knowing God, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:22.600 having a relationship with God, of faith, is critical if you want to truly know anything 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:26.000 else in the entire world. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:32.320 And that's incredibly anti-modern because in the modern world, reason functions wholly 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:36.399 separately from faith in the public square. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:42.559 So in the modern contemporary world we live in, when we enter into the public square, 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.919 it's the domain where faith is no longer allowed. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:49.679 But reason is the primary tool that we use to know anything else. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:54.559 So Peter Atkins puts it this way in a little book called On Being. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:13:00.759 He says this, the scientific method is the only reliable way to know reality, the only 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:03.719 way of discovering reliable knowledge. 00:13:03.719 --> 00:13:09.799 And Richard Dawkins, he's more popular, expands on this in the God Delusion, everything we 00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:14.119 can know about the world can only be accomplished through science. 00:13:14.119 --> 00:13:17.639 Everything we can know about the world can only be accomplished through science. 00:13:17.639 --> 00:13:25.159 In contrast, he says, religious faith is a persistent false belief held in the face 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:29.759 of strong contradictory evidence. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:34.039 Proverbs is saying the exact opposite. 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:36.759 This verse is saying the exact opposite. 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:44.240 Gerhard von Rydt, he's one of the best commentators on this book from the middle 20th century, 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.360 and this is what he says that this verse means. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:54.080 Faith is not only not opposed to reason, but it constitutes its possibility. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:59.720 Faith is not only not opposed to reason, but faith constitutes the possibility of reason, 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:02.080 of knowledge in the world. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:06.560 And he goes on, to know anything rightly and ultimately means to know it in the light of 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:08.600 God. 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:13.080 To know where it came from and to know why it exists. 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.800 Not just to know the raw facts about it, he says. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:23.599 So in other words, beginning is saying this, your religious faith is the foundation from 00:14:23.599 --> 00:14:27.240 which all your reasoning proceeds. 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:28.839 That's the point he's making. 00:14:28.839 --> 00:14:33.519 Now what does this mean? 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:41.279 This means that every single person has faith as the foundation of all their beliefs about 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:42.759 the world. 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:49.039 Every single human being has faith as their foundation of belief about the world. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:50.039 Let me give you an example. 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:57.559 It's a pretty popular phrase that you'll hear in the 21st century, that an individual 00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:02.319 should be free to choose what is right and wrong for them. 00:15:02.319 --> 00:15:06.200 Every individual, each individual should be free to choose what's right and wrong for 00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:07.200 them, right? 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:08.480 You've probably heard that phrase. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:12.000 But look, this is the premise underlying a notion like that. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:17.759 That's only true if there's a foundational belief that there is no God, that there is 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:20.759 no God up there to hold you accountable. 00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:24.679 It can only be the case that every individual should be free to choose what is right and 00:15:24.679 --> 00:15:25.679 wrong for them. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:30.919 If God doesn't exist, if there's no God transcendent above you that can hold you accountable for 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:37.159 right and wrong, you see, underneath every single idea about the world, underneath every 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:43.679 single decision in life is a decision, a determination about religious faith, about whether God exists, 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:47.319 about whether he's there, about whether you're going to be held accountable by him, about 00:15:47.319 --> 00:15:49.559 whether you should submit to him or not. 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:53.799 Religious faith, in other words, he's saying, is the foundation of the way you relate to 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:57.439 the rest of your knowledge about the world. 00:15:57.439 --> 00:16:06.799 In other words, what this passage is telling us is an absolute no to compartmentalization 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:10.039 in life. 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:15.279 In other words, life is not like a stack of dresser drawers. 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:20.919 A lot of times we treat life like a stack of dresser drawers and you have religious 00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:25.559 faith in one compartment and then all the other activities in your life in each drawer 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:32.199 and you open each drawer at a different time on each day and you treat each activity separately. 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:38.240 That's called practical atheism. 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:44.320 It's functioning with compartments in your life where God only occupies one of them. 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:48.640 It's being a practical atheist, just living life in such a way that God doesn't actually 00:16:48.640 --> 00:16:54.240 matter to all the other ways you try to relate and know the world. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:00.840 C.S. Lewis, he tries to get at this point in a little essay called Meditations in a 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:02.519 Tool Shed. 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:10.200 It's not very well known, but he imagines, imagine that you're standing in a pitch black 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:16.920 dark tool shed and crayons, what's that sound? 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:24.640 You're standing in a dark tool shed and you're trying to find tools but you can't see anything. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:30.799 The door is cracked and there's only a few little light rays coming through the door. 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:34.759 How do you find the tools? 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:38.639 How do you navigate the pitch black tool shed? 00:17:38.639 --> 00:17:42.879 The first thing that happens to you is that you realize that there are a few light rays 00:17:42.879 --> 00:17:44.680 coming through the door. 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:46.639 You look at the light. 00:17:46.639 --> 00:17:49.159 You look at the light rays themselves. 00:17:49.159 --> 00:17:52.440 In the light rays you see that there are specks of dust floating around. 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:55.799 I can even see them right now in these lights that are coming down on my eyes. 00:17:55.799 --> 00:17:57.879 You see specks of dust floating around. 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:04.640 What you do is you realize that light reveals, light exposes the darkness. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.720 The only possible way that you're going to see a tool in that tool shed navigating in 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.520 the dark is if you do what? 00:18:11.520 --> 00:18:16.560 You have to actually move over to where the light is piercing through the door and stand 00:18:16.560 --> 00:18:21.440 where the light is crossing just by your eye and let the light sit at your back and through 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:27.800 the light look for tools in the tool shed. 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:36.319 In other words, are you a practical atheist or do you see the whole world, every aspect 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:40.159 of your life standing in the light of God looking outward? 00:18:40.159 --> 00:18:41.159 You see? 00:18:41.159 --> 00:18:43.599 What is he getting at? 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:49.879 In other words, is your relationship with God, Proverbs 1.7, your core identity, your 00:18:49.879 --> 00:18:55.759 ground, your principle, your beginning point that shines light on every other thing that 00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:00.960 you try to do in this world, on all of your relationships and all of your knowings and 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:02.879 doings. 00:19:02.879 --> 00:19:05.519 That's what he's saying here in Proverbs 1.7. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:09.440 That's what Paul's getting at when he says, in everything you do, do it all for the glory 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:10.440 of God. 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.799 Okay, so that's second, beginning. 00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:16.759 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:22.799 In other words, your relationship with God is the ground of your relationship to everything 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:24.079 else in the world. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.079 Okay? 00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:31.559 So, thirdly, let's talk about that relationship to God, the fear of the Lord. 00:19:31.559 --> 00:19:38.519 Now, Tom preached a really good sermon on this a couple weeks ago, but we'll come back 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:44.559 to this kind of concept again and again. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.039 What does it mean to fear the Lord? 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:49.759 The fear of the Lord. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:56.640 Ereha Von Rad, the same commentator, he says that you can't treat fear of the Lord like 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:59.440 you might do other phrases to understand what they mean. 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:02.799 That's break down each word and say, what does fear mean? 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:03.799 What does of mean? 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:04.799 What does Lord mean? 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:06.160 Then put it back all together. 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.759 It would be like asking, what does the word butterfly mean? 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:14.319 You might be a very excellent trained philologist and you say, well, I'll tell you what it means. 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:18.319 You take the word butter, you take the word fly. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:22.759 And I know what butter is, butter is churned from cow's milk. 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:24.919 It's a spread on toast. 00:20:24.919 --> 00:20:27.720 It's delicious and fly. 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:30.240 Flies are insects, right? 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:32.679 And they're a particular annoying at this time of the year. 00:20:32.679 --> 00:20:34.839 And so what's a butterfly? 00:20:34.839 --> 00:20:40.639 It's clearly, it's a flying insect that especially is attracted to butter, right? 00:20:40.639 --> 00:20:44.359 That would be the same thing that would happen if you try to take the phrase fear of the 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:47.599 Lord and break it down into its parts and understand it. 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:48.599 Okay, it can't be done. 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:50.240 You got to treat it as one word. 00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:51.240 The fear of the Lord. 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:55.079 It's a singular concept in the Bible. 00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:58.559 And the reason you can't break it down is because fear, the word fear for us doesn't 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:01.599 mean exactly what fear meant in the Old Testament. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:08.359 Fear for us means timidity, shaking in your boots, scared. 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:09.359 Don't hit me. 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:10.359 You know, that's fear. 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:15.319 Don't, don't, Martin Luther before the Reformation talked about how he misunderstood fear of 00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:17.960 the Lord and he was always walking around thinking that he was going to get struck by 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:20.399 a bolt of lightning for his sins, right? 00:21:20.399 --> 00:21:23.039 That's the way a modern person would think about fear. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:26.319 But that's not what's getting at here. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:31.559 In the lie on the witch and the wardrobe, Lewis gives a fantastic little phrase to the 00:21:31.559 --> 00:21:33.359 mouth, mouth of Lucy. 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:38.759 Lucy's asking about Aslan, the Christ figure, the God figure in the lie on the witch and 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:39.919 the wardrobe. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:46.440 And she asked this, is Aslan safe? 00:21:46.440 --> 00:21:50.480 The character says no, of course not, but he's good. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:57.000 And so there is a slight aspect of terror before God, but that's not what's being talked 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:58.000 about here. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:21:59.000 And here's why. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:06.200 Look, Deuteronomy 10, 12, to fear the Lord your God and to love him with all your heart. 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:08.400 To fear the Lord your God and to love him with all your heart. 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.160 Now the second phrase in that passage explains the first. 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:15.200 To fear the Lord your God is to love him with all your heart. 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.680 And to love somebody with all your heart isn't to be scared of them all the time. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:20.000 It's not about being scared. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:28.160 Or this one even more, Psalm 134, with God there is forgiveness, therefore I will fear 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:30.160 you. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:34.840 Now you don't typically, you're not typically scared of someone who has forgiven you. 00:22:34.840 --> 00:22:36.720 With God there is forgiveness. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.519 Therefore I fear you, it can't possibly mean timid and scared. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.640 Has to mean something, it's not being scared. 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:43.559 And this is what the fear of the Lord means. 00:22:43.559 --> 00:22:44.960 This is what Tom told us. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:53.160 The fear of the Lord is all wonder and joy before the greatness and majesty of God and 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:58.880 His works that rearranges your entire life. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:03.519 It's all fear, it's all wonder and joy before the greatness and majesty of God and His works 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:10.200 that rearranges your entire life. 00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:15.400 If you read any psychology at all ever, if you took a psychology 101 class in college 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:21.839 or something like that, it's a pretty common notion that you can tell what you love most 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:25.519 by asking what you fear most. 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:27.759 What do you fear most? 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:31.839 And your answer to that question will also be the same thing as what you love most because 00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:34.639 what do you fear losing the most? 00:23:34.639 --> 00:23:36.679 What do you fear losing the most in life? 00:23:36.679 --> 00:23:38.879 And that will tell you exactly what it is that you love. 00:23:38.879 --> 00:23:42.919 And that's one of the ways to get at your idols, to expose your idolatry. 00:23:42.919 --> 00:23:47.639 And if it's not, if the answer to that question is that if it's not God, then that means God 00:23:47.639 --> 00:23:53.599 simply functions like a concept and aspects of your life. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:59.079 God is a concept for parts and compartments of your life. 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:04.319 In other words, idolatry is practical atheism. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:06.000 Idolatry is practical atheism. 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:09.639 The fool says in his heart there is no God, Proverbs 14.1. 00:24:09.639 --> 00:24:15.599 In other words, the fool, it's trying to know who you are, what the world is, navigate through 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:21.720 the tool shed of this life apart from the existence of God at your back, shining His 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:25.079 light rays down through your eyes onto the world. 00:24:25.079 --> 00:24:27.159 That's foolishness. 00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:35.720 Instead, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge. 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:43.360 This means your relationship with God is so at the core of your identity that every single 00:24:43.360 --> 00:24:51.120 thing you feel, you want, and you know in this world is done in the light of God. 00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:58.559 Is that you, that your relationship with God is so at the core of who you are that every 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:05.359 single thing you do in life, what you feel, what you want, what you know is motivated 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:07.719 by the existence of God? 00:25:07.719 --> 00:25:13.199 No, of course it's not. 00:25:13.199 --> 00:25:17.239 Of course that's not you. 00:25:17.239 --> 00:25:19.239 That's none of us. 00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:25.240 You see, none of us truly have the fear of the Lord as the beginning of all our knowledge. 00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:29.240 Do you at every single moment of your life see your life participating in the mission 00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:30.240 of God? 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.480 No, you don't. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:38.279 That's fundamental to our sin nature. 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:42.759 This is a pretty popular illustration that kind of floats around. 00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:46.920 I first heard it from Tim Keller, but he got it from Elizabeth Elliott, so everything 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:48.319 does not go back to Tim Keller. 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:52.240 It at least goes back to Elizabeth Elliott. 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:59.679 She says this, if the distance between the Earth and the Sun, 92 million miles, was only 00:25:59.679 --> 00:26:06.879 the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the Earth and the nearest star, the Earth to the 00:26:06.879 --> 00:26:14.599 nearest star besides the Sun, would be a stack of paper 70 feet high. 00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:21.519 And the diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high. 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:29.079 And our one little galaxy would be like the size of one speck of dust sitting on the entirety 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:35.559 of planet Earth amongst other galaxies. 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:41.039 And if God holds all that together by the word of His power at every single moment, is 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:48.119 this the kind of person that you ask into your life to be your consultant? 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:54.359 Is this the kind of person that you ask in your life to stick in your Sunday compartment? 00:26:54.359 --> 00:27:02.200 Or is your relationship with God the motivating factor for all of your knowledge? 00:27:02.200 --> 00:27:08.519 What are consultants or people that we bring into our life pay to tell us something, and 00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:12.879 if we like it, then we keep them around, and if we don't, we dismiss them? 00:27:12.879 --> 00:27:18.200 Is this the kind of person that you keep in your life as a consultant? 00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:26.359 And if it is, then that means more often than not that God is simply a concept for you. 00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:27.680 God is abstract. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:33.039 You know about God, but you don't know God. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:34.240 What does it mean to know God? 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:41.400 It's like saying to someone, what does it mean for God to be abstract? 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:45.640 It's like saying to someone and trying to describe to them the sweetness of the most 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:51.720 perfect strawberry in all the world if they've never tasted a strawberry. 00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:53.039 It's impossible. 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:54.359 You can't do it. 00:27:54.359 --> 00:28:00.480 But grasping God, knowing deep knowledge of God, true knowledge, the type of knowledge 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:05.839 that's being talked about here, it's tasting that perfect strawberry. 00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:09.319 It's not just telling somebody that honey is sweet, it's tasting honey for the first 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:10.319 time. 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:11.319 It's grasping hold of it. 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:13.839 It's tasting its sweetness. 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:20.880 And so here's the message of the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 20 verse 6 in closing. 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:28.720 Who can say, I have made my heart pure, and I am clean from my sin? 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.400 And answer, nobody. 00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:33.839 Who can say I have made my heart pure and I am clean from my sin? 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:38.120 Who can say that everything I do in life is motivated by my relationship to God, by my 00:28:38.120 --> 00:28:39.120 fear of the Lord? 00:28:39.120 --> 00:28:40.120 Nobody. 00:28:40.120 --> 00:28:41.120 Nobody. 00:28:41.120 --> 00:28:50.519 Three times in Genesis 1 to 3, the very beginning of the Bible, this word knowledge is used. 00:28:50.519 --> 00:28:51.680 It's brought up. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:58.559 And it's first used in Adam and Eve's relationship to God, that God knew them and that they knew 00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:02.079 God. 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:03.319 That's, it's deep. 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:06.000 It's personal knowledge. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:11.679 That's why the Bible also uses the word, the same exact word, knowledge to describe sexual 00:29:11.679 --> 00:29:12.679 relationships. 00:29:12.679 --> 00:29:14.879 Adam knew his wife. 00:29:14.879 --> 00:29:17.000 This is not simply knowing about things. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.039 This is a different type of knowledge. 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:22.519 God knew Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve knew him. 00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:24.480 That's the first time it's used. 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:28.440 But the next time, the next time the word knowledge is used in the Bible. 00:29:28.440 --> 00:29:38.000 The very second time is that after Adam and Eve's sin, it says that they knew their nakedness. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:42.039 Now we've just figured out, no, it's not simply knowing about. 00:29:42.039 --> 00:29:47.440 It's not simply knowing the fact of, because Adam and Eve were naked the whole time. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:52.200 It's not as if they all of a sudden sin and said, oh my, I'm not wearing clothes. 00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:53.880 I forgot to put them on. 00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:54.880 That's knowing about. 00:29:54.880 --> 00:29:55.880 That's knowing the fact. 00:29:55.880 --> 00:30:00.280 But what does it mean that they knew their nakedness in the same way that God knew them 00:30:00.280 --> 00:30:01.680 and they had known God? 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:02.680 Same word. 00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:05.040 But now after sin, they know their nakedness. 00:30:05.040 --> 00:30:07.840 What does it mean to be naked? 00:30:07.840 --> 00:30:14.280 It means that your identity has been exposed. 00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:21.400 That the knowledge of God that was a friendship just moments before they ate of the tree now 00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:26.480 has become the knowledge of nothing but a judge. 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:31.400 They exchanged the relationship of friend for judge. 00:30:31.400 --> 00:30:38.320 Thousands of years later, Jesus Christ would come to this world to image God, to make God 00:30:38.320 --> 00:30:40.320 known. 00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:46.680 And in Matthew 27, when he was on the cross, they ripped his clothes off of him. 00:30:46.680 --> 00:30:49.759 They took away his robe and they gambled it. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:54.160 He was completely and utterly naked on the cross. 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:56.000 And he had to be. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.759 Why? 00:30:57.759 --> 00:31:07.519 Because he who knew no sin, who had no deep core identity of sin, you see, had to become 00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:09.079 sin for us. 00:31:09.079 --> 00:31:18.879 His nakedness was the physical outworking of our core identity that we know sin. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:27.520 He became what he knew not, sin, so that in him you might know God for the first time. 00:31:27.520 --> 00:31:32.040 And the knowledge of God is eternal life. 00:31:32.040 --> 00:31:40.160 And it's only in that knowledge of God that you can then go on to know the world rightly, 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:42.880 correctly, that you can have true knowledge. 00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:52.720 As you come to the table tonight, do you compartmentalize Jesus Christ as your Sunday consultant? 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:58.520 Do you compartmentalize Jesus Christ to be your Sunday consultant? 00:31:58.520 --> 00:32:04.680 Or do you stand in the world like you stand in a dark tool shed with the rays of the light 00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:11.280 of God emitting through Jesus Christ as your very eyes to see the world, to know the world, 00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:15.359 to act into the world? 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:16.720 Let's pray. 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:25.839 Father, we ask now that as we come to the table of you, our Lord, that we would repent 00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:32.799 of the ways that we have not let our relationship with God be, with you be the navigating factor 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:36.879 in the way we know everything else, relate to everything else. 00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:41.320 We repent, Lord, and we ask that you would give us joy and forgiveness as we come to 00:32:41.320 --> 00:32:42.320 your table. 00:32:42.319 --> 00:33:09.319 Amen.