WISDOM

Introduction

Well, good morning. If you’re visiting with us, we’re glad that you have chosen to be worshiping with us here at South Bumby. You are our honored guests, and we’re just so delighted that you have chosen to worship with us today. And if you are our members here at South Bumby, we’re going to welcome you again to another study of What Saith the Lord. As I look out, I see there are a number of people here this morning who are mothers and grandmothers and such, and those who have been with us through thick and thin, through our ups and downs, and for our mothers we thank you. There are also many who are here this morning whose mothers are no longer with us, for they have gone the way of all the earth.

And for their example that they have given us, we remember them and treasure their memories in our hearts and remember the things that they instructed us in years gone by to help us understand how to live our life, how to be good examples, and how to focus on the wisdom of the Lord. This morning, what I’d like to talk about this morning is wisdom, the idea of taking facts, taking knowledge, taking information that we have about certain things in the life that we live, and then applying that to place an understanding and to place a recognition of the facts that we have learned through life that we live and understanding those biblical principles that we have learned from the most treasured book of all, the book of books from the King of Kings, the Bible.

1. Do Not Forget My Law, Mercy and Truth

If you will take your Bibles and go with me on a journey and turning your scriptures to the book of Proverbs, looking at Proverbs chapter 3, a familiar book to us that gives us information about wisdom. And we could give all sorts of nuggets of wisdom all throughout the scriptures, from the Old Testament to the New Testament. But I figure this information that is found in Proverbs chapter 3 is guidance for the young. And for those who are here who are younger, who have mothers and fathers that have taught them in the ways of the Scriptures, I hope these words will help you. He begins in Proverbs chapter 3 by explaining the importance of law. He says, My son, do not forget my law. That’s so important.

But let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace, they will add unto thee. When we look at wisdom, Proverbs 3, 1 through 2 gives us the information that helps us understand if we remember the doctrines, the healthy teachings of the Scriptures, we will do well. We will be ones that understand the greatest book of all. And our parents that instruct us, if they’re in the Lord, he says in Ephesians, talking about children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. If we follow after the law that our parents try to teach us, in so much as they are in the Lord and they try to teach us from the law of the Lord, then we will be gaining such great information.

He says, My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace they will add unto thee. When we recognize that, that is so important.

He says, Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart. He gives the illustration that we only uh we only need to recognize that the scriptures are where we gain our wisdom from. And that’s where we gain our truth. When you want objective, a hundred percent truth, it comes from the will of the Lord. And the wisdom that we find in the scriptures comes from God. But he also says, in the truth that he gives, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so you shall find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. If you want to recognize how to live in such a way that God and man will be well pleased with you, you don’t just uh tell just the truth all the time.

You always tell the truth, yes, but you also have mercy. You also have that element of care towards others. James says in James chapter 2, my brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. Obviously, we need to hold the faith of the Lord in truth, but then he says in verse 2, for if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and then there should also come in a poor man with filthy rags, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit up here in a good place and say to them, poor man, you sit down here at my footstool, have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

He then says, Listen, my beloved brethren, hath God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him? He’s saying, You’ve got to show mercy. You’ve got to show recognition that some people they have faith and great abiding faith, and it’s not just about whether they have fancy clothes or lots of money, it’s about their faith in God. He says, You’ve dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts. The poor people aren’t going to do that, only the rich. He says, Do they not blaspheme the noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.

But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. When someone comes into our assembly and they visit with us, whatever clothes they’re wearing, whether they are of a suit or a tie or not, they are still valuable to God. All of them are important to God. And it’s vital that we recognize, we don’t say, Well, J.R., you’re wearing a suit. You sit up here. Oh, you’re wearing shabby clothes. You sit down there. We gather together to honor God. Jesus didn’t have a suit. Jesus had one coat, one garment that he wore over his clothes, and they cast lots for it and divided their uh their monies to try to catch it at his crucifixion. We need to recognize from Proverbs 3, verses 3 through 4, that we let not mercy and truth forsake them, and that’s the thing we bind around our neck.

2. Trust in the Lord With All Your Heart

If we have fancy clothes and we want to wear them to church services to show respect to God, fine. But we need to make a very clear designation and distinction and important point, and that is that we don’t show partiality to others. He says here also in Proverbs, he says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. That is beautiful. Do not be wise in your own eyes, he says. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It’ll be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. When we recognize that, I think of one guy in the Bible who he honored the Lord with all his heart.

He leaned not on his own understanding because he didn’t understand, but because of that, because of his acknowledgement of that, he was one that shows us an example, and that’s Job. If you’ll turn in your scriptures to Job 2 and look at Job 2, and then we’ll look at another verse. But he says in Job chapter 2, Job had everything going for him. Everything was just dips on the top of his game, and then a whirlwind came, his children died, his flesh was torn, he had sores all over his body, his life just got turned upside down, things weren’t going for him very well. It was not looking good. And his wife, I don’t really think was necessarily being evil, but they had to have a conversation as to what’s going on.

And his wife said to him, I think an honest question. He says, Job, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Job, do you? Why don’t you curse God and die? Just say, I’m up with this. This is the end. And he turns to her and says, Will you speak as one of the foolish women speak? Shall we indeed accept good from God? And shall we not accept adversity? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. In all his ways, he acknowledged him. And God directed his path. He was not wise in his own eyes. He had no book of Job to read from to get that portion of information about Job. He feared the Lord and he departed from evil. And what was it?

Health to his flesh and strength to his bones. If we fear the Lord and depart from evil, it may not mean physical strength to our physical bones, but in a spiritual way, if we are not wise in our own eyes, if we’re not proud and pride filled, but we are humble and careful to make sure we try to be a meek and lowly before the Lord, it will be strength to our bones one day, because one day we’ll take off this veil of flesh, we’ll no longer be in this challenging body that we have the ages and decays, and we’ll fly up to heaven, and we’ll live in a body that does not decay, that live forever in heaven with God. And it will be strength to our bones in a new glorified body.

But in the literal way, in the physical way, it says of Job that the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than from the beginning, for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Kiesa, and the name of the third, Karenhapak. In the land there were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived one hundred and forty years and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations, so Job died old and full of days.

I don’t know if that happened, but I do know that Job was healed, and it doesn’t indicate in the text anywhere that he left his wife or his wife left him. They both had doubts about their faith. They both had doubts about God, but they stayed together, and after all their children died, they got together again and had more children. And that skin disease didn’t transfer from them or from Job, that is, to the kids. It says they were beautiful. They didn’t have blemishes, and he had blessings. The world that we live in sometimes teaches that if you do one thing for the Lord that you’ll be blessed with just as much money or just as much blessing you believe and you’ll receive. That’s not in the gospel.

That’s not part of the gospel. But here in this context, God can do what he wants to do. And he gave this illustration for us to help us understand that if we trust in the Lord with all of our heart, it’ll be health to our flesh. And even if it’s not health to our physical flesh, he gives us this illustration through Job that helps us understand things will work out. He says, Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It’ll be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. I appreciate the reading and the study that we had just a little while ago with Greg Klein. He doesn’t know that a lot of what he talked about is what we’ll talk about as well.

3. Honor the Lord With Your Possessions

Thank you, Greg. That’s very good. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. That’s wisdom, guys. He’s basically saying if you put God first, he’s not going to forget about you. He’s not saying if you put God first, that if you give God a hundred bucks, God will give you two hundred bucks. That’s not what he’s saying. But what he is saying that is if you honor the Lord with your possessions, you take your car and you say, I’m going to treat this with respect and care and make sure I use it for the Lord’s glory and not go get drunk or go to bars or nightclubs, but drive to church services and go help the infirm or help the widows and the needy.

That if you honor the Lord with your possessions, he’s going to watch that and value that. For the all-seeing eye is of the Lord. And he takes watch on the just and the unjust, keeping watch on the good, and recognizes if you’re doing good with the things that are your possessions. But then he also says, honor the Lord with the first fruits of all your increase, so your barns will be made plentious. The idea of honoring the God with the firstfruits is like as if you’ve ever had uh a plant and it grows uh a crop, whether it’s a little plant or a bunch of crops, it’s whatever shows up first. I uh I don’t want to pick on Ryan. I don’t want to do that.

But he’s quite a gardener, he’ll grow tomatoes and uh the first fruits are his. That’s mine. I grew that. That’s his first fruits. Uh, if I’m gonna grow uh a plant and I’m the gardener and I own the garden, I don’t go sell what I first get a pick myself, right? So he’s basically saying in this context here, you honor the Lord with your first fruits of all your increase. You don’t think of God as like on the back burner, you don’t think of God as a thing down the road to uh contribute to his cause. I’ll give something to his charitable cause of the church. No, it doesn’t work that way. We basically say when we’re setting forth a budget, when we’re setting forth uh our own uh designations or uh allotments of how we’ll give as Christians today, we give as we have been prospered.

Notice, even with Proverbs 3, he doesn’t say, even back then, you give what you can’t afford to give and then uh be put in in in a sad situation. He says you honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruit of all your increase. That’s what he says. He doesn’t say you honor the Lord with all the things you don’t have. Notice carefully what he says in 2 Corinthians. Well, actually, we’ll just read 1 Corinthians 16 2, a familiar verse first, and then continue on to 2 Corinthians. He says, as he hath prospered in 1 Corinthians 16 2, you give to the Lord as he hath prospered. So it’s based on increase and not decrease. But in 2 Corinthians, and I love this passage, he says, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

4. Do Not Despise the Chastenings of the Lord

So let each one give as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work, as he is written, he is dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Don’t be fearful to obey the commands of the Lord. He doesn’t demand a tithe, but he does demand that you select him first. My son, do not despise the chastenings of the Lord, nor despise his correction. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects, just as the Father and the Son and whom he delights in. Correction. Sometimes people have got to give us information to help us change.

And we can’t say, well, that information they gave to help me change, I don’t want to change. I don’t want that advice.

That doesn’t make any sense. I want to do things my way, always, always my way. Well, God gives us points where we need to be corrected. I mean, if we look in the scriptures and he says, do not lie to one another. And we’ve been telling white lies all our life, well, don’t lie. If he says things like, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may dwell long in the land. Honor mom and dad, kids. If that’s what he says to do, just do it. And if you’re not doing it, you need not despise his correction. You need to realize he’s giving you information that help you be better, help you improve, help you do well.

And so in this context, I think of someone who is a preacher. And the preacher says to another preacher, did anybody give you any comments after the sermon? Go, yep, good sermon. Yep, good sermon, yep, good sermon. And one person said, You know, did you consider? And it’s like a piece of information you got wrong in the sermon. There’s two ways you can handle that. One, you can get really mad at the person and say, why’d they have to critique what I said? Or two, you could apply what they said, try to focus on what they said, and make yourself better in the presentation. Make yourself better, not you as you, but as you as developing the information that you’re giving to those that you’re speaking to, because it’s a serious thing.

Let not many of you be teachers, for you shall know that if you’re teaching, you shall incur a stricter judgment. And so if people are course correcting with us, we don’t need to despise their chastening or their their correction that they’re giving us. Elders are sound in the faith and strong men, mighty in the scriptures. Even the deacons, it says, have been tested because they’re mighty in the scriptures. And so if we’re growing up in the faith and there comes times where we’re standing before the assembly giving lessons, young men, don’t think bad or down or discouraged about information that improves. Course correction should make you think, oh, I can do better. I’ll improve, I’ll do a better job. But now we add another layer to this.

He’s not talking about people in the context. He says, do not despise the chastings of the Lord, nor detest his correction. And it is in those times that we do not always know particularly when or how the Lord is correcting us, because he doesn’t make it known with a big loud speech from heaven, hey, I want you to understand that this is what I am doing to change. So we have to recognize that when things in life are challenging and we don’t know why certain things are feeling like we’re being corrected. Recognize that if it is the chastening that’s from the Lord, we need to respect that. And now we recognize another passage of scripture that comes right in the middle of this proverb. And we think about God for a moment.

5. Happy Is the Man Who Finds Wisdom

God in the scriptures is used in masculine terms. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Father, God. For he is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. Okay? That’s masculine. He’s a king, not a queen, he’s a king. For Christ the Lord, our Savior and only potentate. I don’t know that word. That’s a prince. The prince of peace. That’s a masculine term. But here in this particular passage in Proverbs 3 13 through 18, he talks about the application of wisdom and he uses a feminine term. He uses the term she or wisdom or lady wisdom. The idea here of a lady, someone who’s classy, someone who is of great worth, someone who is valuable. And young people, particularly the fellows, when you are trying to decide someday who you might date and marry, look for someone who applies and indicates by their life these terms of someone who is wise.

Looks alone won’t save. Looks alone actually don’t save at all. God looks at the heart, it’s the heart God looks at. And he says in 1 Peter that what is very precious in the sight of the Lord is a gentle and quiet spirit, for the Lord looks not as man looks at things. Nevertheless, he says, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the prophets of silver, and all the things that you may desire cannot compare with her.

Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Verse 18.

Money isn’t going to be in heaven. Okay? But wisdom will. Wisdom has proceeds. I looked up the word proceeds to give a really technical definition. I don’t know if you’re like me, but sometimes technical definitions come to the mind right away, sometimes they don’t. But this is the one I found. Proceeds are worth obtained from events or activities. Okay, go with me here. Worth obtained from events and activities. Being a good parent, being a good listener, being a good friend. Wisdom proceeds are worth facts and worthy facts that teach us how to be a good parent. How to be a good listener, how to be a good friend. Wisdom’s proceeds are better than the profits of silver or the things round about us that might gain gold.

When we look at what we need to do, wisdom teaches us what to do. God gives us the information on parenting and listening and being a good friend. And he says so many things we could apply. I could begin, but then I would not end. But yet I will begin and try to make it brief. When you look at the idea of being a good parent, you have so many good examples in the Bible of those that applied wisdom. Paul said to Timothy, he says, I remember Eunice, and I remember Lois. I remember your grandma and I remember your mom. They had great faith in the Lord. They served the Lord and they taught you the ways, the mighty ways of the Old Testament scriptures. They were there for you.

And I recall to memory those things that they taught you. So guard the trust from that which you’ve been given and committed to understand the will of the Lord. He also teaches us to be a good listener. In James, he says, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. We’ve got to be really quick to listen, really slow to speak, and when it comes to wrath, take a deep breath and back away. We don’t want to be given to wrath. Think about how patient God has been with us through the years.

Everybody? Well, everybody won’t be saved, but he wishes they could. He doesn’t really want anybody to be lost. It’s not his desire for that. When you look at hell, it was prepared for the devil and the angels of the devil, the evil ones, that is. But then when we look at wisdom, we see God cares about us and helps us know that her proceeds are better than the prophets of silver. Lady wisdom, nothing compares with the wisdom of her. He says here in uh Proverbs chapter 4, a way that the Lord applied wisdom himself in the creation of the world. He says in verse 19, carefully, we’re just looking at Proverbs 3.19 and following. He says, The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens.

By his knowledge the depths were broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When we look at God, he made a very orderly earth. So orderly that even when man follows God’s order, God’s order saves better. What does that mean? Anybody hear the story of the satellite? It was like circling the globe because it didn’t make it all the way to Venus, but somehow we had some sort of orbital in the sky. And I sold someone, I said, Well, it’ll probably land the ocean. Why is that?

God already cares about us. What do you mean? Three-fourths of the earth are water. What else? Well, it’s so little that we get thousands of asteroids that fall through our atmosphere each day. It’s happening right now. Am I scared of that? No. Why? Because I believe in God. Why? He made it so orderly that we’re safe every day. In the event that we wanted to think that we could die at any given moment, God could if he wanted to. But when we see how he founded the earth and made everything so orderly and systematic, any closer to the sun, we’d burn up and fry. Any further away and we’d freeze and die, not try to be poetic and rhyme. But I did. But anyway, so we look at that and we say, what’s the point?

God cares. By wisdom he founded the earth, by his understanding. Every little thing is by the Lord’s will and wisdom. Even the dewdrops, the significance of the dewdrops, and how that’s how the grass grows, and that’s how things work in the nighttime in the daylight. It’s amazing. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, the underwater crevices that create the paths of the sea. I don’t know how to do that, but he does, and he did, and he does that for our grace. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. They will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. You want to talk about the gospel to someone who’s an atheist or an agnostic or who doesn’t believe? Just start quoting all the facts about the ocean.

Say, you know, you don’t have to stay on this earth alone, the ground to find out about the Lord. You could, but go out in the nighttime sky and look up how all those stars chart how to go north, south, east, and west on the nighttime sky. It’s a map. God made a nighttime map. I mean, that’s pretty significant thinking about the randomness that could have been, but the choice of him to not make it random. That’s his wisdom. And when you lie down, you shall not be afraid. Yes, when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. That’s what he says right there in the passage found in verse 24. Then he says in verse 25 through 26, do not be afraid of sudden terror nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

We’ve had some scary things happen in our lifetime. You don’t have to fear.

6. Do Not Withhold Good

Now, if you’re not in that amount of confidence, you need to pull up your life where you can be in that amount of confidence. Do not withhold good from those whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say unto your neighbor, go and come back, and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you. Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells by you for safety’s sake. Do not strive with a man without cause if he’s done you no harm. Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways, for the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but his secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just.

Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due when it’s in the power of your might or your hand to do so. A lot of homeless people that live in Orlando. They’re all over. There’s a lot of people that are transient, uh, that ask for money or food or help. And what do we do? We just go, roll up the window. They might get us. Well, we could do that, but rarely do they do that. I I keep, and I’m not trying to be prideful here. I know others do this too. I keep, you know, scripture verses or food in the glove box. And when someone’s holding up a sign says needs help, roll down my window, reach in the glove box and give them some food.

Rarely do they say, get that away from me. One guy once said, Well, I don’t usually ask, but that’s my favorite. He went just like that. He was he looked for, he was looking for money, and he goes, That’s my favorite. I didn’t know what I had. I just bought something from Little Debbie and put it in the car. But to him it was his favorite. He’s like, Well, thank you. Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due when it’s in the power of your hand to do so. Don’t say unto your neighbor, Oh, go, I’ll give you that later when you’ve got it. Well, who’s my neighbor? Well, I think we just established that. The good Samaritan, well, uh, is my neighbor my next door neighbor, my friend, my enemy?

Who’s my neighbor? The one to whom you need to be neighborly to? That’s not a technical definition. No, but that’s your neighbor. But when you look at who your neighbor is, but then again, let’s layer this a little bit. The Proverb writer gives all sorts of information about neighborliness and things like that, specific to your local neighbor, to the one that dwelleth right beside you. He says all sorts of proverbs about your neighbor. One of them is very important. Seldom set foot in thy neighbor’s house, lest he grow weary of thee and hate thee. What does that mean? Well means don’t be a nosy, overly burdening neighbor. But it doesn’t mean that you’re not neighborly, because over and over throughout the Proverbs he says, Be ye hospitable, be lenient and nice to your neighbor.

Don’t strive with a man. He’s done you no harm, don’t start fussing with him. Don’t devise evil against your neighbor. That neighbor’s got loud music. Well, that neighbor might one day become your Christian friend or brother in the faith. His loud music one day might be him knocking on your door and going, Can you guys have some one of those singing things in your house where everybody’s singing? He might join you. So remember that. Be kind to your neighbor. He’s dwelling by you for safety, recognizing that if you are serving the Lord, he recognizes you as one who maybe is doing something that will one day help him. But nevertheless, he says, Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways. The perverse person is an abomination to the Lord.

His secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just. That doesn’t mean God hates everybody that’s wicked, and because he hates them, he’s going to punish them. That’s not what it means. Because we recognize from the scriptures, God made it clearly in the Sermon on the Mount, He sends rain on the just and the unjust. So sometimes the unjust get many, many blessings. And we ask, why do the wicked prosper when I am suffering? We ask that. But that’s not the point. The point is, in a general way, by general cases of life, if people are doing wicked things consistently, evil, lawlessness, they’re going to be brought low. I know of a family situation, who the parents had like 10 kids.

Eight of them were, maybe two were really good, but the other eight were really, really living wicked, and they all died before they were 60, essentially. Why’d they die before they were 60? They were drunk, they were smoking stuff they shouldn’t, and they died early. Why? Was the Lord blessing them? Well, the other two that didn’t do that live longer, and some are still alive to this day. Why is that? Well, they made a choice to follow after things that would be strength to their flesh and health to their bones, and not things that would tear them down. Some wisdom from Solomon, I think is found there. He says, Surely he scorns the scornful, but he gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.

Conclusion

Those are the things I’d like to mention this morning regarding wisdom. And we’ll just repeat the chapter, and then the lesson will be yours. My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart, and so you shall find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

It’ll be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions with the first fruit of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not despise the chastenings of the Lord, nor detest his correction, for whom the Lord loves he corrects, just as the Father, the Son, in whom he delights. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the prophets, and are gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire. Can’t compare with her. Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her. The Lord by wisdom found in the earth, by understanding he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths were broken up, and the clouds drop down their dew. My son, let these not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they will be life to your soul, and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. Yes, you will walk safely, and you will not be afraid when you lie down. Yes, when you lie down, your rest or your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and keep your foot from being caught.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come back, and tomorrow I will give it, when you have it with you. Don’t devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwelleth by you for your safety’s sake. Don’t strive with a man without a cause if he’s done you no harm. Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways. For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but his secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just. Surely he scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.

I could not think of a better scripture to present this morning in a more timely way than what we need in our society. The wisdom from the Lord, depicted as a lady of great worth, value, and importance, and one who gives unto our souls the information that Solomon wrote by the inspiration of the Lord to teach us in the ways that will help both the youth, the aging, and the old recognize with great worth, value, and importance the value of wisdom. Did God give a plan to be saved? Absolutely. Did God give a plan to help us know how to get to heaven? Absolutely. God says, essentially, when it boils down to it, listen listen, I know you’ve heard invitations, many of you for many times.

When God boils down the invitation to come to Him and become a child of God, it really hinges on something John 1 hints at, and that is for grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Yeah, there was an Old Testament law that came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Wasn’t that what we just studied about wisdom? Don’t forget my law, but let your heart keep my understanding. Don’t forget my law, keep what I say. And God says there is law, it comes through Jesus. It is a law of grace and truth, abiding in what he wants you to do, and then being gracious and having mercy with it. And so remember that in this invitation that we’re about to give, obedience to God’s law and grace is vital.

And Jesus gives the law of grace and truth. A law that’s based in faith, belief, repentance, confession, and baptism. Romans 10 17 says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the law, hearing by the word of God, believing in Jesus is the next step one must take in order to be saved. You can’t have faith and believe if you’re an infant. If you’re a little baby, you might cry, you might coo, you might call out, but you don’t have faith. You’re innocent. You haven’t done anything, you don’t have belief, you’re learning. But those that are of age, of an accountable age, need to have faith in God, belief in God, and repent of their sins. Once again, a baby hasn’t done any evil. There’s nothing a baby needs to repent of.

And in Acts 2 37 through 38, we learn of people that repented, who recognized that they were, they were guilty before the Lord. They had crucified the Lord of glory. And they interrupted Peter’s sermon and the rest and said, What shall we do? And he said, Repent. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall be saved. But repent. He tells them, change. And then they needed to confess the Lord Christ. In Acts 8 37, we have an example of that, where the Ethiopian says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. And then based on that, we need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Mark 16, 16, repent, be baptized, to be saved.

So if you would like to become a Christian, I want you to know assuredly, this is the plan of salvation. You may hear all sorts of things in all sorts of places in all sorts of ways. But every instance of conversion in the book of Acts included belief and baptism for salvation. So if you want to become a child of God, won’t you come while we stand and sing?