As we look at a passage tonight about the wisdom and the great gain and glory and joy of wisdom. I wanna start with looking at Proverbs 14:33. It says 22 on your screen, but it's verse 33. I promise. Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.

This is a passage that describes the self evident nature of wisdom. You can see how wisdom is at work in a person's life because, first of all, wisdom rests on them. Even that word rest is a peaceful word, a tranquil word. When wisdom is in our hearts, it protects us. It gives us rest.

In the midst of a culture, in a world that is in turmoil, wisdom rests in the heart of man, of understanding. A person who is wise, who understands the times, has wisdom that marks them out, such that it's evident even when he's surrounded by fools. If a man who is wise walks into a group of 10 fools, the fools might act wise. The fools may have a lack of humility and the inability to know their own limits. Nevertheless, this proverb tells you that even a group of 10 fools would recognize the one wise person.

Wisdom in that sense is self evident. The fool on the other hand is always in conflict. The wise person is in a state of tranquilo. The wise person is relaxed. He understands the world.

He understands his his place in it. He understands the sovereignty of God, and that helps him stand out from the clamor of the world. And it's just evidence. Even in a group of fools, they recognize the wise person notice in this proverb even, the wise person, you know, he's looking at the foolish person almost with sympathy. The wise person is at rest.

The foolish person, his heart is always bubbling. Later on in Proverbs 14, it describes the bubbling of the foolish person's heart. The foolish person's heart is just never settled. It's never settled. Whereas the wise person has understanding, and it sets him apart in this world.

Proverbs 19:8, whoever gets sense loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding will discover good. When you discover wisdom, you gain wisdom, you keep your own soul. Notice the transition in Proverbs 19:8 from gets to keep. You get wisdom and you keep wisdom.

You get the kind of sense because you love your own soul. You keep that understanding and you discover what is good. There is this connection here between wisdom and what is good for your own heart and what is good for your own soul. Wisdom leads to good. That's the idea of Proverbs 19:8.

You have understanding. You have sense is the word in Proverbs 19. You have wisdom. You have that, and that leads to your own good. And so in a sense, wisdom is utilitarian, but you're not pursuing wisdom because you're utilitarian, although that wouldn't be a bad reason to pursue it.

You're pursuing wisdom because you love God. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. You love the Lord. The Lord is wise, so you also want to be wise. Tease the language of the New Testament.

You have the mind of Christ. When his spirit seals your heart, his book is in your lap. You have the mind of Christ. You recognize that wisdom is from God. It is through God.

It is applied to your heart by the spirit of wisdom. The spirit opens your mind to the word of God, letting you grow in godliness, growing in wisdom. And then you discover that as you grow in wisdom, lo and behold, it's actually for your good. Who knew? This is the kind of adage of of why should a kid try to get good grades in school?

So he or she doesn't get grounded, so they're eligible for athletics, so they can go to college, so they can they can do what? Well, the bottom line is they wanna pursue excellence because they understand, they learn the way the world works. And when you understand how the world works, life goes better for you. Life goes better for you. When you read the instructions before you build the IKEA thing, it works out better.

When you have to unscrew everything you've done in the first half of the building, which would be, like, three days. It takes, like, six days to build one of those bookshelves. Day three, you read the instructions, like, oh, I did everything backwards. Life goes easier. Now there's one sense in which you read the instructions first so that you save time and so that you get a better bookshelf.

But the bigger picture is that you read the instructions so that life goes better for you. You discover goodness. Wisdom leads to good. That's Proverbs 19:8. You have sense.

You love your own soul. So you keep understanding. You discover what is good. Wisdom is the pearl of great price that we're gonna see in Matthew 13 in a few weeks as we're going through the parables. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a man who discovers a treasure that's of surpassing value buried in the field.

He sells all he has to get the field. It is the pearl of great price. He goes away in his joy to get it. Deuteronomy 4:9, keep your soul with all diligence and you will keep your treasure. You guard your soul diligently, You keep your treasure.

And their treasure is your soul. It's eternal life. The Christian counts everything for as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is wisdom. Or Jesus says it this way in Luke's gospel. Don't fear the person who can only destroy the body.

Rather fear the person who having destroyed the body can cast both body and soul into hell. There is great gain in godliness. Your life goes well as you pursue wisdom, and your next life goes well because it's rooted in Christ. There's great gain in godliness. You discover what is good by discovering what is wise.

So discover wisdom, Solomon says, and you'll discover what is good for your own soul. You'll discover what is for your good. Now good is a very broad and generic word. One of my daughters is in a a writing class right now, and it's one of the words that's a banned word. She's not allowed to use the word good.

Use a better word, her teacher says. And I think, oh, Solomon would fail this writing class. But there is more specific words than good. There are more specific words than good. And in fact, I'll give you four categories of goodness that you encounter as you pursue wisdom.

First of all, wisdom is worth more than riches. Wisdom is worth more than strength. Wisdom is worth more than life. And wisdom is definitely, absolutely, categorically, a % worth more than a folly. Wisdom is worth more than all of those things.

And if you can't write them down all right now, we'll go back through them one at a time more slowly throughout the night. The first is that wisdom is worth more than riches. Wisdom is worth more than riches. Is there anything more basic than this? Proverbs sixteen sixteen.

How much better to get wisdom than gold? To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. The first few times I was reading Proverbs sixteen sixteen this week, I was reading it like a Calvinist. To get understanding is to be chosen. You understand God?

Oh, that means you're chosen by him to see him. But as I zoomed out a little bit, like, oh, no. It means if you have a choice between getting understanding or silver, choose getting understanding every time. Did you see in the news this week they're gonna audit Fort Knox? Oh, man.

Hardest hit conspiracy theorists. I hope they find spaceships there. So badly, I hope they find spaceships. You know what they won't find there, though? They won't find wisdom.

There is not wisdom to be found in Fort Knox. Wisdom is better and categorically different than wealth. Solomon understands this, doesn't he? He had the choice. When he became king, first Kings three, Solomon was given the choice.

Do you want a long life? Do you want world peace? Do you want riches? And what did Solomon choose? Wisdom.

That's a hard choice. You judge Solomon. Wouldn't it be better to choose peace over wisdom? Wouldn't it be better to choose riches than you could buy peace? Wouldn't it be better better to choose a long life than you don't have to worry about any of it?

Solomon chooses wisdom. And remember God's response to him when he chooses wisdom. He says, oh, had you chosen one of the other things, I would have given it to you. But since you chose wisdom, you get all of it. You'll have peace in your nation.

You'll have wealth. You get to receive all of it. That's the promise to him because of his choice. God blesses him. God is pleased with his choice of wisdom.

The Christian counts everything as lost for the surpassing value of knowing wisdom because wisdom is better than everything else. Everything in the world is vanity. We read this in Ecclesiastes eight tonight. Why do some people prosper and some people suffer? Everything else is vanity.

You can't understand. There's no point in searching out the ups and downs of this world, but what is evident from God and his word is that wisdom is the more important thing. The point in Ecclesiastes eight is you would think that the the godly person would achieve worldly success and worldly wealth, and it doesn't work that way. And you would just waste your time trying to figure out why some people get rich and others don't. Everything is vanity.

But the person who pursues wisdom, they find the most important thing. You can work all day and you can work all night for a paycheck and miss the purpose of life, which is wisdom, to find wisdom. And, of course, by the way, in Christ, hopefully you're thinking this verse, in Christ, the fullness of wisdom dwells. All of God's wisdom dwells in Christ. So another way of saying that life the purpose of life is to find wisdom.

Wisdom is more valuable than riches is another way of saying that Christ is more valuable than wealth. In him, the fullness of wisdom dwells. Colossians two three, in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Notice how Paul in Colossians two three even describes the wisdom of Christ as treasures. You find Christ.

You devote your time to studying Christ. You learn about Christ. You have something actually more valuable to you than treasure, than gold. Proverbs 17 verse 16. Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?

That's supposed to be funny. Like, what's the point of a fool having money to burn? He doesn't even know what to buy. Now you can't buy wisdom with money. Solomon's not suggesting you can.

You can't buy wisdom wisdom with money. But if you could, what would the point be of a fool having a bunch of money? He wouldn't even know which store to go to. He wouldn't be able to recognize wisdom if it was on the shelf. I think of this verse whenever I hear somebody graduating with $200,000 of student loan debt from an Ivy League school with a major in gender studies.

What good is it? People spend so much money to get a, quote, education that supposedly produces wisdom for them, and that whole endeavor smacks of foolishness. Schools can equip you for a career, which is is good and wise to be educated for a career, of course. But wisdom is found in God and in His word. And you can have advantages in this.

You can have advantages. You can be born into a Christian family that teaches God's word to you at a young age. You can have parents who love you. You can have a church that cares for you. You can have talent and skills that you can use for the kingdom.

And you can squander all of that and throw it away to pursue riches in this world. Think of how many people encounter Christ in some way, and they don't buy the field. They don't consider Christ more valuable than the riches that they want in their hearts. Remember Simon the sorcerer who had what appeared on the outside a saving encounter with Jesus? It's what it looked like on the outside, but then you peel through the layers, and the guy just thought that Jesus was a means to make more money.

Demas left Paul because he was in love with the world. I mean, that's a fistful of cash and no heart for the Lord. He has no sense. Proverbs 20:15. There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

This just says it so succinctly. You can spend your life pursuing gold. You can spend your life pursuing costly jewelry, But the lips of knowledge, if you have wisdom in your heart, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, if you speak wise things, that's more to be valued than gold. Your words can be prettier than your necklace. The godly person is adorned with an inward beauty, not an external beauty with gold and jewelry and whatnot, but an inward attitude that fears and loves the Lord.

That's true beauty. Beauty is better than riches. Wisdom is better than riches. Wisdom is more beautiful than riches. That which is more precious than gold is wisdom of God.

When gold becomes our hope, it becomes our ruin. How beautiful are the feet of those that bring good news, the scripture says. It's not because they bring you to earthly treasure, but they bring you to surpassing treasure, the knowledge of Christ. So wisdom is categorically better than riches. It sounds so, I don't know, self evident to say.

Of course, the Bible says wisdom is better than riches. It's just so hard to overstate how many people leave their devotion for the Lord to pursue riches in the world. People love this is the the seed that takes root for a hot minute, and then the love of the world chokes it out. People walk away from the Lord all the time because they love riches. They wanna pursue wealth.

They elevate work over Christ consistently. And it's sad because it shows just a lack of base level economics. Economics one zero one, the love of Jesus is worth more than your paycheck. People invert this all the time. Second, wisdom is better than strength.

It's better than riches, but it's better than strength. Our culture elevates youth. And because we're in our culture, it's hard for us to appreciate that. This is an anomaly in world history. The American obsession with youth is an anomaly where older people dress as younger people.

Older people pretend they're younger. They lie about their age. They want to be younger. Marketing groups target younger people because younger people have more disposable income because they have their parents' income. And older people, there's a phenomenon in American economics where older people will buy something if they think younger people are buying it.

It's just completely backwards. Our culture elevates youth. You've seen this as, you know, I won't even say the rest of that. Our culture elevates youth in so many respects that it is absurd. People who are older than Jesus was calling themselves young adults.

Proverbs 20:29. The glory of a young man is his strength, but the splendor of the old man is his gray hair. And this isn't dissing dissing young people here. It's merely making the observation that every age has its beauty. Every age has its glory.

Young people have a certain gifting. Their glory is their strength. That's what the the verse says. A young person's glory, he stands out as his strength. He hasn't had a lifetime to work.

He hasn't had a lifetime to accumulate wisdom. He hasn't had a lifetime to accumulate a legacy. He doesn't have grandkids who will rise up and call him blessed. So a young person, all he's got is what he's working with. It's his strength right there.

There's not much in the bank account. There's not kids at home. He's just what he is. That's the young man. His glory is his strength.

He can do things the old guy can't. He can do work the old guy can't. He can move things the old guy can't. He's just stronger. He can do things for the the Lord the old guy can't.

Paul makes this point in first Corinthians seven. The single person can take risks for Jesus that would be unwise for an older person to do. The single person can go on mission trips. The single person can do evangelism. The single single person can can just do so much more that a younger that an older person can't.

His glory is his strength. He can stay up late at night. He can get up early in the morning. He can do so much. A younger this isn't just confined to the church.

Although it's true in the church, it's true in the world. A younger person can do more things in sports. A younger person can just do much more because of his strength. That's why there's such joy in seeing younger people worshiping the lord because their glory is their strength. And when they use their strength to worship Jesus and to serve Jesus, it's such an encouragement to the the older saints in the body.

To see younger people worshiping Jesus fills their hearts with joy. In the same way a younger person's glory is his strength, an older person's glory this is fine. It's described here as gray hair, but you understand gray hair is gray hair standing for wisdom. The older person just knows more. The older person has seen the movie before and is less interested in it because he knows how it ends.

The older person has the wisdom of life. That's his beauty. And it honestly is worth more than the younger person's strength. It helps them win battles. Proverbs 21:22.

A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold with which they trust. Wisdom can conquer cities. You really see the power of wisdom at war. That's what captures our imagination about so many battles. The Trojan horse standing is the all time example of that.

It has such a ability to capture our imagination because you see just the shrewd act of wisdom being able to conquer a more powerful enemy. There's a sense in which wisdom and war is wisdom on full display. Wisdom is worth more than strength. It is worth more than youth. It is worth more than riches.

Thirdly, wisdom is worth more than life. Now to the human instinct, nothing is more precious than life. It's the most valuable commodity you have is your life, and yet wisdom is worth more than life. You pursue wisdom because it protects your life. Now if something's protecting your life, it's an elevated way of saying that it's worth more than your life.

Proverbs 16:17. The highway of the upright turns aside from evil. Whoever guards his way preserves his life. So much of Proverbs one through nine was talking about this. In Proverbs one through nine, it's a warning against sin and a warning against adultery because you're gonna get yourself killed.

And beyond just the fact that a jealous or a grief spouse might murder you, there's a basic fact that you're gonna wreck your life. And so it's a warning to you that foolishness and sin wrecks your life. And so if you pursue wisdom, it has the effect of preserving your life because wisdom is more valuable than your life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. You understand that.

When you pursue sin, it produces death. The free gift God gives you is eternal life, which is worth more than your own life. It's an eternal life that goes into the next era of history that goes all the way into eternity. That is more valuable than your earthly life, which is so fleeting. Proverbs 21:16, one who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead.

That's another way of saying, hey. Keep being a fool and see how much longer you have left to live. It's more than an idle threat to kids. You walk in the way of foolishness, you'll die. You'll die.

The way of life is narrow, and apostasy is real. The it's filled with, I mean, notice this proverb. It's people that are starting on the narrow path, that are walking on the narrow path in some sense, and they get off the path at some point. They're on the good the way of good sense. They're pursuing wisdom.

Maybe they were taught to pursue wisdom by their parents. Maybe they grew up around other believers or in the covenant community to use the Old Testament language. They're on the narrow path, and yet at some point they decide to diverge. They wander away from it. What's going to happen to them?

They're going to die. Their final resting place will be Sheol. The way to eternal life is narrow and apostasy is real. This is the Hebrew six kind of people. They tasted the heavenly drink, but they didn't drink it.

They got splashed by the water of God's kindness, but they didn't swim in it. They hung around Christians. They got the blessings from the church. They never became a believer themselves. They walked on the narrow path for a little while.

And this proverb should stand as a warning to you. There are those people that affiliate with the church for whatever reason, and they receive blessings from the church. People are nice at the church to them. They they buy them meals, and they hang out with them, and you have coffee with them, and they remember your name, and they pray for you. There are blessings, spiritual blessings from being with God's covenant people.

And there are so many people that taste those blessings. That's the language of Hebrews six. They taste them without eating them. They get wet without drinking, and they end up in Matthew seven. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

I never knew. And those people in Matthew seven, remember they say, lord, didn't I do this and didn't I do that in your name? And Jesus says, I don't even know who you are. They rest in the assembly of the dead. Proverbs 24.

This is a longer passage. You can even flip over to it because I don't know if it's the text. It's too small to read on the screen. But Proverbs 24, it's verses three through nine. By wisdom, a house is built.

By understanding, it is established. If you want a prosperous life, you build your life on wisdom. This is an appeal to the young person right here. We're almost back to the beginning of Proverbs where it's addressing the teenager again. You know, 14 year old, 15 year old, 16 year old, 17 year old, do you want a prosperous life?

It's less about your SAT score and more about your wisdom and godliness. So decide now at a young age. If you want a prosperous life, build it on wisdom. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with precious and pleasant riches. When Deidre and I got married, we lived in, I don't know, a 650 square foot apartment, and we couldn't fill it.

We didn't have enough stuff to put in it. We bought some cheesy futon thing that barely worked from one of our neighbors and wrestled it through our door. It was the only piece of furniture in one of the rooms. And later on, we started having kids. We moved to a house, and I remember when we walked into that that house in Granada Hills, we were blown away by how big it was.

And we thought, we don't where are we even gonna start? We don't have furniture to put in here. And then we moved out here down in we live in Annandale, just around the street from here, and we have we have a pretty cool house. Like, it's an Annandale kind of house. I just don't picture, like, a McMansion or anything, but it's a it's a house.

And walking in it, again, we were like, how are we we don't have anything for the for the basement at all. What are we gonna do? Our basement was empty for, like, the first few years of us living there. We had, like, some again, a cheesy couch we bought on Craigslist that was broken, and that was the thing in our basement for forever. But now we're like goldfish.

We fill our ponds. You know? We fill the size of our tank. Now we're like, oh, man. We gotta get rid of some of this stuff.

Where are all the Legos going to go? I won't throw them away without asking. I promise. Your house just fills up. This is the image that Solomon wants you to have in your life when you're a young person.

Right now, young person, you've got an apartment. And you think, I don't I can't even fill it. You're going to grow. And as you grow, your house should grow, and new rooms should be added on. And as the new rooms are added on, what are you gonna fill it with?

Psalm is asking you to plot out your life in terms of wisdom. Develop categories of wisdom in your life so that as you grow older, your house doesn't stay the same size. The young person, to keep the analogy going, the only room in their house is the gym. All they have is strength. But as they grow older, they have to start building out their house in wisdom with precious and pleasant riches.

That wise man will be full of strength, and the man of knowledge enhances his might, but it's not the kind of strength the young person has. Notice what it says. By wise guidance, you will wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. So Solomon's switching now to now he's he's going from the talking of the teenager, like you need to treasure wisdom. Your glory is gonna fade, but your glory has to be in wisdom and it will grow stronger.

Now he's talking not to the warrior who's gonna win the war, but to the king who will direct it. The young guy, man, be strong in battle. The older person, surround yourself with wisdom, and your army will win the battle. And just that basic reality of gaining wisdom rather than wealth and strength. Solomon, look what he says in the next verse.

Wisdom is too high for a fool. You put that kind of fool in a position of authority, he's not gonna open his mouth. He might find himself as an officer in the military, but he's just gonna punt everything up. He's not gonna make any decisions. He's the fool at the gate.

He's the guy who's and the image of the gate is that, you know, the people the older people in the city would take turns at the gate judging. When it's the fool's turn to judge, he's not gonna render a verdict. He's gonna say come back tomorrow because he doesn't know what to do. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

I mean, you wanna wreck your life, be a scoffer, devise folly, you'll be disregarded at the gate, then nobody will respect you. But if you pursue wisdom, you have something more valuable than life. Proverbs 24:13-14. My son, eat honey because it's good. The drippings of a honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

Know that wisdom is such to your soul. This is a world without candy stores. The candy in Deji and Reese was the honeycomb. So let's modernize this. My son, eat Skittles.

Eat Skittles. Not that weird new green flavor they have, but the rest of the Skittles, eat them, enjoy them. They're so sweet to your mouth. Do you understand that wisdom should be like that to your soul? Find it, then your life will prosper because wisdom is more valuable than your life.

Notice the end of it. Your hope will not be cut out cut off, and there will be a future for you, he says in verse 14. If you find wisdom, it tastes good, and it is better than life. This provides the contrast that wisdom is worth more than folly. More than folly.

And we'll get back to Proverbs 26 in a second. Let me give you a few verses to get there. Wisdom is worth more than folly. For example, Proverbs 17:12. Let a man meet a she bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

She bears I don't know if there's a better way to translate it. Just bear, I guess, but I didn't do the ESV here. A bear robbed of her cubs is gonna be angry, I imagine. Don't come between a bear and her cubs. It's like backpacking one zero one.

Oh, that's always struck me as an odd piece of advice to give because whenever it happens, the bear's on one side, the cubs are on the other, like, it's too late. Anyway, don't do that. It would be better to do that though than to come between a fool and his folly. Fools do not give up their folly. They cling to their folly.

Their folly is worthless, and they will not let it out of their hands. They love it so much, and they're dangerous. A fool holding onto his folly is so dangerous. Proverbs 22:5. Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked, but whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.

This is the life of the foolish person. Everything's hard for them. Making their bed is hard for them. Going to work is hard for them. Keeping friends is hard for them.

Having good relationships with their family, hard for them. Paying their bills, hard for them. Everything is hard for them. The way is like it's surrounded with thorns. That's not the way God designed your life to be.

God designed your life to be on a narrow road that didn't have thorns on it. And yet the fool goes off the path of God, goes away from the way God made the world, and finds himself ensnared every which way. The person who guards his soul will stay away from the fool and the crooked person. And the crooked person is wondering, why is everything hard? Because you're in a thorn bush.

And that leads us to Proverbs 26. You can flip there. I'll put it on the screen, but, again, I don't know if the font is legible. Proverbs twenty twenty six. It is Proverbs 26 verse four is where this passage on your screen starts, answer not a fool according to his folly.

Yes. You'd be like him. We've referenced this verse many, many times. Don't argue with a fool. It's not worth it.

That's the point. Do you notice how little it's valuing the fool? It's not worth arguing with the fool. It's just not worth it. So what if you win an argument?

You're gonna be like the fool yourself. Proverbs 26 verse five, answer the fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. So here, it's just a statement of love to the guy. The first half of the proverb is don't do it because it's not worth it. Second half of the proverb is okay.

Maybe do it because you're trying to help him. It's probably not gonna work. I've mentioned this before, but these two proverbs are identical in the Hebrew. There's no, like, mystery about how one can be true, how they both can be true at the same time. They're identical in the Hebrew.

It's just that the first one has the word low in it, the word not. That's the only difference. Don't do it. Next proverb, do it. So wisdom is knowing when to apply which proverb.

Wisdom is knowing how to enact in these. And there's a sense in which they're both through. I'm thinking through apologetics right now, how you defend the Christian faith. Presuppositional apologetics is Proverbs 26:4 That's where you you tell the person you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not gonna respond to your antagonistic questions about God because you're a fool, and I don't even want to indulge this conversation and repent. Proverbs 26:5 is more classical apologetics. Like, let me reason with you and show you all the proofs about God so you don't think you're as smart as you think you are. And they're both true. Proverbs 26:6, whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

Well, that escalated. Send a message by hands of a fool. You may as well cut off your own feet. I remember one day at soccer practice, I sent one of the soccer players over to the to the the middle school team to get a a middle school player I wanted to practice with. He didn't come back.

Like, he's just right across the field. What happened to him? I look over there. He's playing with the middle school kids. I thought of this proverb.

I may as well cut off my own feet. You can't send a fool on your message. It's to your own harm. That's how little a fool is worth. You give a fool a simple task.

Take this message to that person. It's going to hurt you in an extreme way. Proverbs 26:7. Like a lame man's legs which hang useless is a proverb in the mouth of fools. A fool can memorize a proverb.

It's amazing. They can memorize a proverb. They don't know how to use it. They can learn scripture. They don't know how to say it.

They don't know what circumstance they say it in. They don't know what to do with the proverb. It's just hanging there useless in their mouth. Useless in their mouth. Like a lame person's legs, the fool can't even use scripture the right way.

It's completely useless. Just because he knows a proverb doesn't mean he possesses the wisdom to use it. Proverbs 26 verse eight. Like one who binds the stone in the sling is one who gives honor to a fool. So think about that for a second.

The sling is supposed to it's a slingshot. It's supposed to shoot the stone. What does the fool do? He ties the stone to the sling so it doesn't fall off when he pulls it back. You catch the picture?

Because you know if you used a slingshot before, do they still make those or sell those? Are they illegal in the Commonwealth? I don't know. A slingshot? But you remember slingshot, you put the rock in, you pull it back.

It takes you a few tries because it's frustrating for the little kid. They pull it back and the rock falls out. So the fool simply ties the rock to the slingshot. Completely pointless. That's like trying to honor a fool.

You're looking for something honorable in the fool, something. He's in the image of God. He's got that going for him. It's like tying a rock to the sling. That's what giving honor to the fool is like.

It's such a almost a pointless existence. Proverbs 26 verse nine. Like a thorn that goes in the hand of a drunkard is is a proverb in the mouth of fools. This is another image of our Proverbs. Like I said, we're running out, we're on the final approach here in Proverbs.

Like a thorn in a drunkard's hand. A thorn is supposed to hurt you. Alright? You stick your hand into a bush to grab something, you hit the thorn, it's supposed to hurt you. And that's because God made the world covered in thorns to keep you on the path.

As we saw earlier, the fluid makes everything hard because they end up in the thorn bush. The thorn is supposed to hurt you. The The drunk person doesn't get hit by the thorns because the alcohol anesthetizes them. They don't they don't feel it. It doesn't mean that he's actually drunk in this proverb.

It just means a fool the intoxicating effect of his foolishness is that he doesn't feel the pain that a wise person would feel when he does something dumb. A wise person does something dumb and goes, ouch. I won't do that again. The fool does something dumb and doesn't feel the pain. That is what it is like giving proverbs to a fool.

It's the same image as the lame legs. He might have the the words in his head, but he does not know how to use them because he's not broken by the law. The fool does not allow the wisdom to break him. A wise person looks at wisdom and says, oh, I need to grow in this area. I need to grow in that area.

I need to apply this in my life. A wise person can interact with the law. In that sense, it convicts them, but not the fool. The fool looks at the law and remains unbroken. He looks at wisdom and shrugs.

Proverbs 26:10. Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or a drunkard. An archer, you're shooting arrows every which way, is like one who hires a a fool to do a job. You know, you hire the homeless guy to paint your house and he steals your stuff. Who could have seen that coming?

That's the image here. But the archer here, it's more a picture of somebody who's in a position of authority. You have 20 people who work for you. One of them quits. You need to rehire.

And you hire a fool, and you put him in. What's gonna happen to the other 19 people? It's like you just put a guy with Molotov cocktails going every which way and dumped him with your 19 hard workers. You're like, hey. Good luck in there.

That's what this proverb says. He's gonna wound every which one. How foolish. Proverbs 26:11, like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Nobody knows if the dog likes the vomit.

We're imagining that his body is rejecting it, hence the vomit, but dogs are dumb, all due respect to to dog owners in our midst. I'm just saying. I know you used to own a cat, Alex. I'm just so sorry. It went the wrong way for you, man.

This proverb is quoted in two Peter two twenty two compared to believers who apostasize. Believers who walk away from the faith. They abandon the faith. Like a dog, it returns to their vomit. They were walking in the path of sin.

They had an encounter with Christ. On the outside, in a superficial way, they associated themselves with the church again, and they kept on the narrow road for a minute. But like the dog goes back to his vomit, he remembers where it is. This is the fool. And he goes back to the folly.

He can't break himself of it because he doesn't love wisdom. And this little section ends in verse 12. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than him. A person enamored with himself forfeits all the blessings of wisdom.

A fool is almost impossible to help, but the person who is wise in his own eyes is beyond even what help a fool could have. A fool could at the very least say, hey. I'm a fool. Would you help me? And he would say, I'm glad to help you.

But a person wise in his own eyes, they won't even receive that kind of help. They think they have it all together. Well, that's the picture of wisdom. It is better than riches. It is better than strength because it's better than life, and it absolutely is better than folly.

If that's true, why do so many people reject wisdom? And the answer is they reject wisdom because they reject God. And that's described in Proverbs 19 verse three. When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages at Yahweh. People blame God for their lack of wisdom.

They say, God put me in this situation. God did this to me. They blame God, and their heart rages at God. They suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness, and then they get angry at God when they're convicted by it. God says don't walk in that way because there's thorns.

They dive into the thorns and then yell at the Lord for putting the thorns there. They rage at God because they don't value wisdom. So, again, at this point of Proverbs, it's worth remembering what this book is doing. It's a parent's advice to their child, to their teenager probably, saying don't end up like this. Don't let your heart rage against Yahweh.

Now you're you're young. You're not wise now. Young people are not wise. So you're young and you're not wise. Don't get mad at the lord.

Instead, love the Lord and devote yourself to the pursuit of wisdom, and you will find blessings beyond measure. Lord, we're thankful for the pursuit of wisdom that you've laid out in front of us. It is better than life. It's David who said the glory of God is evident everywhere in the world, and yet the word of God is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. We know there's much wisdom to be found just in studying the world, and yet how much sweeter is the wisdom that is found in Christ?

How much sweeter is the wisdom found in the word? I know it's a Sunday evening service. I know those that are here wanting wisdom for the most part. So we come to you in faith, desirous of wisdom. We haven't arrived.

As I think of those who are here tonight, I know many who have led lives of wisdom. Their lives are marked out by wisdom. They are a blessing to others because of their wisdom. I'm so thankful for them. I pray their hearts would be filled with the joy that comes in knowing they have lived their lives pursuing wisdom, which is worth more than everything else.

I know there's many young people here tonight. I pray that their hearts would be filled with longing for this kind of wisdom. As they're finishing high school, they would look at the world in front of them and set their course in life towards wisdom, that they would pursue that above everything else, that they would not compromise, that they would use their strength to glorify you, that they would use their youth to glorify you, and she'd be honored to the way they pursue wisdom. And there's many here tonight that are that are in between. So, Lord, for them, give them hearts that are repentant about sin and an eagerness to experience wisdom in front of them.

Lord, make us wise. We know that true wisdom comes in Christ. We're thankful for Him. You've given us His mind. You've given us His word and you've given us His spirit.

We have everything we need for life and godliness here in the word of God sealed in our hearts. As John says, because we have the spirit of wisdom, we don't need anyone to teach us. We have your word. We have your spirit. That is enough.

So help us grow in wisdom. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. And now for a parting word from pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today or if you wanna learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church.

If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to tms.edu. Now if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Immanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service. But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church. Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.