You have noticed, I'm sure, that the theme of wisdom comes
up every once in a while in my sermons. That's because gaining wisdom is
important. Well, this morning I'd like to look at that topic again. I'm going to
ask a question. And the question is not complicated. It's the question, 'Why?'
Why is it important to do the hard work of gaining wisdom? And I hope that it's
clear that pursuing wisdom does require hard work. But just to make sure you're
persuaded I'm going to quote from Proverbs, a book of the Bible especially
devoted to the topic of wisdom.
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.
Did you notice the verbs? Receive, treasure, making
attentive, inclining, call out, raise, seek, search. Those words make it clear
enough that pursuing wisdom requires effort. It requires work. So, why should
you do that? Why should you do the hard work of gaining wisdom? That's what I'd
like to look at this morning.
As I've told you before there are lots of ways to answer a
'why' question. Here's one answer to our question: We work at gaining wisdom
because the Bible tells us to. That's true, but it can become a really lousy
motivation. Someone motivated by that just might be like the kid who's cleaning
up his room because his mother told him to. He's doing it, but he hates it. Not
good. So, I'm going to offer different answer.
Before I do, though, I need to clarify something. My answer
might sound selfish. To be selfish, to think only about yourself, is wrong. It
is sin against God and against your neighbor. But there is a way to pursue
self-interest that is fine, that's not being selfish. The Bible assumes that
wanting good for yourself can be a proper motivation. Jesus told a group of
people if they wanted their thirst for life satisfied, they should come to Him.
The motivation there is self-interest. People are to come to Jesus so that
their thirst is satisfied. My answer to our why question is going to be an
appeal to self-interest.
You should do the hard work of gaining wisdom because you
will benefit as a result. That, by itself, sounds obvious. And, on one level,
it is. But it will lead to some things that are not obvious, though they once
were. Let's continue with another question.
How will you benefit from doing the hard work of gaining
wisdom? For one thing, you will distinguish yourself from so many other people.
And, as a result, you will find favor with God. You'll remember that I talked
to you about that during Advent. Mary found favor with God. That happened
because she distinguished herself from those around her. And because Mary found
favor with God she was rewarded. If you find favor with God you will, likewise,
be rewarded. Gaining wisdom will be rewarded. Self-interest.
There is, however, the flip side to that coin. And this is
something that isn't talked about much. It isn't obvious these days. What
happens to those who do not distinguish themselves like Mary did? What happens
to those who are not finding favor with God? Well, what's the opposite of
favor? One word that fits is displeasure. That might sound a little familiar.
It was in a verse that I used last week. God is speaking to Israel in the
desert.
According to the number of the days
in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall
bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.
So, what happens to those who are not finding favor with
God? They experience God's displeasure. Or to say all of that differently, God
is either blessing you or He is cursing you. There is no third category.
When I thought about this week's sermon I wasn't quite
planning on taking this direction. I have to say that I was a little surprised
that when I started writing, this is what came out. But I thought about it, and
I really think that it's accurate. God is either blessing you or cursing you.
The choices that you make have consequences. By your choices you will make God
smile at you or frown in your direction; encourage you or oppose you. This will
make more sense if don't think about it in terms of things that make a big
splash. Remember, it's all about lots of little steps. So, in little ways, God
is either blessing you or cursing you. In little ways, He is either encouraging
you and doing things that will help you along, or He is opposed to you and
standing in your way.
So, we have an answer to our question, 'Why do the hard work
of gaining wisdom?' We do it out of self-interest. We do it to gain God's smile
and to avoid His frown. We do it to be blessed and not cursed. Every choice
results in doing the hard work of gaining wisdom - or not. Your choices, the
little choices, matter.
One response to what I just said might go like this. 'When
you talk like that you make God seem so dark, so demanding. And that will make
people fear. You don't want to motivate people by fear, do you? You want to
motivate them by love. Life motivated by fear just won't work.' Well, I have a
couple of thoughts about that. The first is this. I actually do want to
motivate you by fear. The Bible does that. 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' The
fear of God is a primary motivation for doing the hard work of gaining wisdom.
Fearing God, something out of style these days, lies at the heart of following
Jesus. It shows up throughout the Scriptures. And the reason is clear. Listen
to Hebrews.
And no creature is hidden from his
sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give
account.
We are all accountable to God. All those choices we make are
reviewed by God, and not just later but now. Being aware of that accountability
- and that God will either bless or curse in response - leads to the fear of
the Lord. So, I actually do want
to motivate you by fear.
However, it needs to be the right kind of fear. And this is
my second response to that comment. Once again, let me remind you that Satan
hides his lies by mixing in a little truth. A life motivated only by fear will
not work. That's true. Fear - the kind of fear that God is calling for - can be
and needs to be the kind of fear that has been mixed with love. The God that we
fear loves us, and He is the one whom we love. The fear remains. We are
accountable to God. We are aware that there are consequences to our choices. He
will bless or curse based on what we do. Those are facts of reality. But all of
that is tempered by the fact of love. This fear is not the fear of a slave who
is owned by a harsh master. It is the fear of a child who knows that his dad,
who loves him deeply and whom he loves deeply, expects to be obeyed. He knows
that there will be consequences if his dad isn't obeyed. So, with this
fear/love mixture he obeys his dad. Love affects fear.
The same is true the other way around. Fear affects love.
The love between God and us isn't this sentimental, syrupy thing. It is a love
that understands reality. God loves us, but He will not deny His character. He
blesses those who choose to work at wisdom, and He curses those who don't. And
we know this about Him so our love for Him is a love that is aware of the kind
of God that He is. Yes, He blesses and He curses, but we know that He'd rather
bless than curse.
So, our love for Him is tempered by our fear and our fear of
Him is tempered by our love. So, God is the great and mighty One, the One who
judges us all. At the same time, He is the God who has bled for us. It isn't
love or fear. It must be both. Or it will be neither. It will, instead, be one
of Satan's counterfeits. It will be a counterfeit of a biblical fear or a
counterfeit of a biblical love. There's a lot of this fraud going around. And you
don't want to have anything to do with it.
Here is one result in the life of someone who gets this. The
Gospel becomes very dear. It's in the Gospel that this fear and love come
together. God is the God to whom we have to give an account of all of our choices.
And yet, this holy judge promises forgiveness to all who repent of their
foolishness, to all who turn away from it in order to do the hard work of
gaining wisdom. This holy judge promises forgiveness to all who believe in
Jesus and come to Him for change. And seeing that repentance and faith, this
holy judge who should curse us, blesses instead. This is living in light of the
Gospel. What word should we use to describe it? How about 'wisdom'?
I want to tell you why I preached this sermon. Our text is
made up of two parts. There is the 'if' section of the text, 'if you receive my
words and treasure up my commandments' and all the rest. The second part of the
text is the 'then' part, the promise of the text.
… then you will understand the fear
of the Lord and find the knowledge
of God.
One reason for this sermon is so that you might grow a bit
in your knowledge of God. I want you to see Him more clearly because He is the
most important factor in your life, in all the little choices that you will make
tomorrow, and the next day and on and on. I want you to see more clearly that
He is the God who really does bless. But to get that you need to see more
clearly that He is the God who really does curse. Remember Israel in the
desert. Or, maybe better, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). He is the God to whom
we must give an account. I want you to see God more clearly as the strong God
that He is. He isn't this weak deity who lets everyone get away with murder
because He loves in some sickly way. Not even close. He is your judge. He is
someone you need to fear. I want you to see that more clearly but from the
perspective of the Gospel. It is this strong, principled judge who suffered on
the Cross for us because of His love for us. Fear and love.
A verse that has been a favorite of mine fits here.
… the people who know their God
shall stand firm and take action.
The days are upon us when you need to know your God so that
you can stand firm before and take action against the wicked forces confronting
us. I want that for you. That's why I preached this sermon.
So, what do you do now? Well, you need to do the hard work
of gaining wisdom so that you will know God. The 'if' part of the text tells
you what to do. Again listen to the verbs.
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.
Those verbs tell you what to do. But let me offer a little
advice on how to proceed. Think small. Americans think too big and aim for the
stars. As a result, we too often find ourselves frustrated because of our
failure to hit the stars and make a big splash. Think small. Remember, lots of
little steps. Regardless of what you do, you will not make a profound change in
yourself by the end of the month. You might be able to notice something by the
end of the year, but even then it probably won't be anything huge. But that
doesn't mean that nothing is happening. You can accomplish a little thing and
take a little step by the end of the week. Think small.
So, thinking small, what does doing one of those verbs look
like? Just one. Maybe that's what you should spend some time considering. How
do you do just one of them? Maybe that's how you will do the hard work of
gaining wisdom.