Purpose of the Book

Recap of Background and Literary Form of Proverbs

0:04 Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, as we come to the second in a series of studies in this very unusual book, but in the pages of Holy Scripture, last Lord's Day evening we began our studies by giving some very fundamental and necessary background material to the book, and I confess that I'm always a bit uneasy when I have to be as academic as I had to be last week, but you see, you can't handle the Scriptures like it was some kind of a talisman, some kind of a lucky charm, and just dip in and snatch a phrase here, and dip in and snatch another idea here, because though it is the Word of God, and God Himself has spoken to us in Scripture, that Word comes to us in the literary passage. And therefore, unless we approach it like we would approach any other book, we're going to end up with great confusion. Now we approach it with certain attitudes that are peculiar to Scripture. You don't pray for the insight and help of the Holy Spirit when you read a novel. You read most novels written today, you ought to pray, if you have to read it,

1:26 for grace to keep your mind from being defiled, and probably if you pray you won't end up reading it in the book. The first place. But when you come to the Word of God, there needs to be the help of the Holy Spirit, therefore we pray. When we come to the Word of God, we come with reverence because God is speaking. But though there are these elements peculiar to our reading of the Scriptures because they are the Word of God, there are certain other elements that are common no matter what we read, and we must bring those to the Scriptures as well. And so we spent some time last week considering, first of all, the literature. The literary form of this book. It is the book of Proverbs. And a proverb is a pithy, catchy statement of a principle which covers many areas. The two advantages of a proverb are that a proverb attacks the mind with tremendous force, and then it attaches itself to the mind with great tenacity. And so the proverbs are a very helpful literary form of conveying truth because of their power. And so the Proverbs are a very helpful literary form of conveying truth because of their power. And so the Proverbs are a very helpful literary form of conveying

2:32 truth because of their peculiar power of attack upon the mind and their peculiar ability to attach themselves to the mind. And if you feel like I do, many times I feel my mind is far more a sieve than a container. And so if truth comes with some burrs on it that will help stick to the walls of that sieve, why, it's to our advantage. Then we looked at the author who is stated in verse 1, the Proverbs of Solomon. And those are the Proverbs of Solomon. And though Solomon is the principal author, he is not the exclusive author. We saw that in the last two chapters you have these men, Agur and Lemuel, who are brought before us, and then also the men of Hezekiah who copied out some of the Proverbs of Solomon. But though the human author is principally Solomon and secondarily several others, the concern for us should be that the author of this portion of Scripture is the same author as Solomon. And so the Proverbs of Solomon are a very helpful literary form

3:31 of Scripture. The Proverbs of Solomon are the same author of all of Scripture, even God the Holy Spirit. For we read, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So we are not encountering mere human wisdom. This is not sort of a poor man's Richard's almanac or almanac on how to make out all right in life. This is the counsel of God to his people. And the great theme of the book is true wisdom. And true wisdom in the book of Proverbs is never a mere intellectual thing. It is a moral and a spiritual thing. And this is announced, as we'll see in our study next week, in the first proverb of the book, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge. And so the theme of the book is to impart that knowledge which is unto salvation and unto godliness. And then we looked a bit at the outline of the book, and I'll not go over all that with you tonight, simply to say that there is a marked division in the pattern of the presentation in the first nine chapters and in the rest of the book. The first nine

4:42 chapters you have these extended contrasts between sin and righteousness in rather poetic verse, whereas beginning with chapter 1, chapter 10, verse 1, you have these one-verse contrasts of sin and righteousness in which there is no connection between each of the verses. However, in the first nine chapters you have paragraphs of thought anywhere from 13 to 15 in terms of how you divide them. Now, with that rather academic study behind us, we come tonight to consider verses 2 through 6, which have to do with the explicit purpose of the book of Proverbs. Listen as I read these verses. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness and justice and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion, that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels, to understand a proverb.

Solomon's Explicit Purpose in Proverbs 1:2-6

6:02 It is a wonderful thing when an author tells you in his preface what he intends to do in his book, when he states in no uncertain terms, this is what I hope to convey in my book, this is what I hope to accomplish. Now, Solomon explicitly, that is, without any veiled terminology, tells us his precise, precise, precise, precise, precise, precise, precise, intent in writing these words for us. And though this is not a very clever or catchy title to our study tonight, the explicit purpose of the book of Proverbs, what it lacks in cleverness, I hope it gains in accuracy, for that's exactly what verses 2 through 6 are. They are Solomon's explicit statement of his purpose in giving to us these proverbs. And I use the term explicit because the purpose is not inferred or hinted, but it is asserted in very plain terms. Now, to think our way through these verses, you will notice that there are two main divisions in the purpose of Solomon in giving to us the proverbs. First

7:23 of all, there is the explicit purpose in general which applies to all the people of God. That takes in verses 2 and 3. Then you have the explicit purpose specifically directed to three classes of people. You have the simple, the young man, the wise, and the understanding. So then, as we think our way through these verses, under the general theme of the explicit purpose of the book of Proverbs, we have two main divisions. The explicit purpose in general to all the people of God, the explicit purpose specifically to certain classes of the people of God. Now, I would remind you that the direction in both cases, in general to all of God's people, specifically to the simple, to the young, and to the wise, come as directives to people who stand in a relationship to God of covenantal, of a covenantal relationship. In other words, God is not speaking to the people of God. He is speaking to the people of God. He is speaking

8:32 to the people of God. He is speaking to the people of God. He is speaking to the people of God. He is speaking to the people of God. He is speaking to the people of God. He is speaking to those who have learned the first principle of wisdom as stated in verse 7. They have been brought into the fear of God. They have come to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, and they have a saving relationship to Him. All right, then, let's take up the first division. The explicit purpose of Proverbs in general to all the people of God. I would suggest that we take a look at the first division. It is the explicit purpose of Proverbs Yes, we have three things. First of all, verse 2. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding.

General Purpose 1: Filling the Mind with Right Principles

9:14 The purpose of Proverbs to all of God's people is, first of all, to fill the mind with right principles. To fill the mind with right principles. Notice, to know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding. Now, some have suggested that these words, wisdom, instruction, understanding, are all synonyms with very little difference of meaning.

9:49 But if there is a difference of meaning, I believe it would be in the following areas. We're going to spend just a moment or two seeking to define these terms. Wisdom, in the sense that it's used in the book of Proverbs, is the power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action. You remember the first test of Solomon's wisdom was that situation recorded in 1 Kings chapter 3, where these two harlots came before King Solomon?

10:20 Both of them claiming that the one living baby was their own, the other baby had died. Well, here was a situation in which Solomon...

10:29 Solomon needed wisdom from God. What did he need? He needed the power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action. And that's precisely what God gave him the ability to do.

10:43 For you remember, he said, all right, let's settle the argument. Somebody take the baby, hack it in half, and give a half a baby to each, knowing, of course, that the true mother would rather give up her child to another woman than see her child slain. So when one of the women said, fair deal, 50-50, and the other one said, forbid it, let her have the child, he said, that is the true mother. Now, what did he have in that instance?

11:07 He had wisdom, the power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action. Now, what about this word instruction? Well, it's an interesting word. It's the word translated elsewhere in the book of Proverbs as discipline and correction.

11:24 In other words, instruction is knowledge that begins to impinge... upon your life and your conduct.

11:33 It's knowledge that begins to slap your hand when you reach out for a forbidden object. It's knowledge that begins to say, hey, what are you doing?

11:44 Wisdom is the ability to perceive rightly and know the right course of action. Instruction is that aspect of understanding or knowledge in which there is this impingement upon the life. Now, the word discern, this means to separate...

12:01 in one's mind, to be able to distinguish between truth and error. So then, the purpose of the book of Proverbs to all the people of God in verse 2 is to fill the mind with right principles, that the people of God may know wisdom and instruction and may be able to separate and isolate words of true understanding. Now, this is tremendously needful because, you see, the mind is the place where the battle of heaven and hell occurs in the life of every believer and, we might say, in the life of every unbeliever.

The Mind as the Battleground and its Renewal

12:49 When the devil first came to our first parents seeking to seduce them into a course of disobedience, where did the attack come? It came upon the mind. The devil tried to get...

13:03 to get Eve's judgment into a place where it told her lies. Yea, hath God said thus and thus? And is this the reason? Is that the way you look at the thing in your mental perspective?

13:16 Well, let me change it.

13:19 And the scripture makes clear that the devil holds men captive in a state of sin as long as he holds the mind in darkness. Ephesians 4.18 speaks of the unconverted whose understanding...

13:35 His understanding is darkened. 2 Corinthians 4.4 The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. As long as the mind looks upon truth as error and error as truth and virtue as vice and vice as virtue, there will be no saving embrace of Jesus Christ.

13:55 A person does not become a Christian until he begins to view sin as sin really is. Until he begins to view Christ as Christ really is. Now what is true of the unconverted and what must happen for that man to become a Christian is true of the believer. He grows in grace as his mind more and more thinks rightly about God and about truth and about sin and about error.

14:23 So the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12.2 that there is to be this renewing of the mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect, the will of God. You will not experimentally know the performance of the will of God any more than your mind is being renewed. So then the book of Proverbs is God's way of filling the mind, of putting into the mind these right principles.

14:58 In other words, the book of Proverbs is God's way of answering the prayer of Philippians 1.2. Philippians 1.2.

15:05 Philippians 1.9-10a. Will you turn to that prayer?

15:13 As the Apostle Paul thinks of the believers at Philippi and is exercised in prayer on their behalf, what does he pray that God will give to them?

15:27 He says in verse 9 of Philippians 1, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in... Now notice, he's praying for the abounding of love within a church.

15:41 In a certain sphere. In knowledge and discernment so that ye may approve the things that are excellent or as the margin has it, you may distinguish the things that differ. You see what he's saying? He's saying I'm praying that you will be able to discern, be able to separate truth from error.

16:07 This is my prayer, that your love may abound in knowledge, and discernment, that ye may approve the things that are excellent. And a similar prayer is found in Colossians 1 and verse 9. For this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray and to make requests for you that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understandings. The same words used in Proverbs.

16:40 Proverbs. Wisdom, understanding. This was the focus of the Apostle's prayer. That the mind might be furnished with right principles, with right understanding.

General Purpose 2: Molding Life by Right Principles

16:53 So then, if this is the will of God for us, that as God's people our minds might be renewed, the book of Proverbs is a great instrument in the hands of the Spirit to accomplish that purpose. Then the second purpose, with reference to all the people of God in general, is, as it is found in verse 2, to receive instruction in wise dealing in righteousness and justice and equity. And what do we have here? Well, we have that which always follows the instruction of the mind.

17:27 The purpose of the book of Proverbs is to mold the life by these right principles. Not merely to inform the mind of the right principles, to know wisdom and understanding and knowledge, but, notice the emphasis of the words, to receive instruction in wise dealing in righteousness, that is, practical godliness, and justice and equity, doing what is fair. In other words, when you come into the circle of wise dealings, righteousness, justice and equity, you're in the arena of life. With men dealing with other men, dealing with sin, dealing with wealth, dealing with poverty, dealing with laziness, with graft, with loan sharks. There's something about loan sharks in the book of Proverbs, believe it or not. Harlots, slick business companions. In other words, he says, the purpose of imparting this wisdom and instruction and discernment to the mind is that the life might be molded in the arena where men live.

18:37 He's not concerned to make armchair theorists who can sit around and talk for hours about how to live. He's concerned that out there, where that young man lives, he'll be wise amidst the loan sharks. And as he has to rub shoulders with crooked companions and with harlots, he wants them to be wise with heavenly wisdom. He wants that young woman, that old man, he wants them to be wise in the arena of life where people live.

19:07 And so the second great purpose then of the book of Proverbs is to mold the life by these right principles. Now isn't that exactly what 2 Timothy 3.16 tells us? All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.

19:26 That is, to teach us right principles. But not to stop there. For reproof, for correction, for instruction in right living. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

19:46 It's appropriate and right that we should be caught up in the great concepts of the doctrines of grace in Ephesians in the morning and come jarring right down to the nitty-gritty of Proverbs in the evening. Because that's the world in which the Bible moves, and in which we, if we are Bible Christians, will move. We'll not despise the lofty flights of the doctrinal perspective, of Ephesians 1. The only thing that can support the kind of life directed, to which we are directed in Proverbs, is the truth of Ephesians.

General Purpose 3: Furnishing Understanding for Independent Insights

20:22 But the truth of Ephesians has got to lead us into the kind of life directed for us in the book of Proverbs. Then the third purpose of the book of Proverbs to all the people of God is found in verse 6. To understand a proverb and the figure, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. And what is this?

20:45 Well, I'm stating it this way. It is to furnish the understanding with greater ability to get its own independent insights. Now, there's a problem as to just where the thought of verse 6 should be attached. Some say it ought to be attached to verse 5.

21:05 It has direct reference to the wise men and what they may receive from Proverbs. Others say that it belongs, verses 2 and 3. And then no one else said this, but I was wondering as I pondered over it and read it and meditated on it for quite some time, if maybe it's not an introduction to verse 7. To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their dark saying, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

21:31 Would you see these mysteries opened up? Then start in kindergarten. And the kindergarten is the fear of the Lord. But after weighing all the possibilities, at present I feel that what he is saying is that the third purpose of the book of Proverbs to all the people of God in general is this, that if you understand the book of Proverbs, that understanding and the things you learn in coming to that understanding will furnish you with the tools of making discoveries on your own.

22:07 Solomon says, alright, there are other words of the wise and they have dark sayings, things difficult to be understood, but if you can begin to think through the content of what I have said, your mind will be furnished to be able to penetrate the mysteries of what others have said. And if that's the intent of God in that verse, then I think I see a New Testament parallel in Matthew 13 and 12 when Jesus said, after speaking in parables, the disciples came and said, why is it that you speak in parables? And he said, here's my reason. He said, to him that hath shall be given, but to him that hath not shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have. In other words, it's the person who has some measure of the wisdom of God who has the means of penetrating more deeply into the wisdom of God. And one of the most necessary things for God's people is to be furnished with the kind of understanding that enables them and gives them the ability to make independent insights, to be able to discover things on their own as they read the Scriptures and as they observe life. You kids know this.

23:28 Every new step you take in math, every new discipline you learn, that sets the stage for going on into a further discipline. Now you can't learn calculus unless you first of all start with learning your numbers one through nine. And then when you've proceeded from that to simple addition and subtraction and multiplication, each of those new disciplines furnishes you with the tools to go on to the further, the more obtuse, the more difficult discipline. And so it is with the knowledge of life, with the knowledge of the Christian life.

24:05 It's as we are furnished with elementary principles that we are able to advance in our understanding. So then, here is set before us the three purposes of the book of Proverbs to all the people of God in general. First of all, to fill the mind with sound principles, to mold the life by those principles, and to furnish the child of God with greater ability to penetrate the mysteries of life and of godliness. Now, is there anybody here who feels his mind is already sufficiently furnished with sound principles for all of the facets of life?

24:47 Anybody here who feels his life is sufficiently molded by right principles, needs no improvement? Anyone here who has such a high opinion of himself that he feels perfectly adequate to attack any problem in Scripture and in life and doesn't need any more tools? Well, then you can afford to go to sleep and make this the last night to come to these studies. But if I'm talking to some people who feel desperately their need of having their minds more and more molded by the wisdom of God, their lives more and more shaped by the power of that wisdom, and their hearts and spirits more and more furnished to penetrate the truth of God, then I say, join me as we seek to work through this book of profound heavenly wisdom. So much, then, for the first division of our study tonight, the purpose of Proverbs in general to all the people of God. Now, beginning with verse 4, we have the purpose of Proverbs with specific reference to these specific classes of people. We have, first of all, the simple, verse 4, to give prudence to the simple.

Specific Purpose for the Simple: Prudence

26:04 And then we have, secondly, in verse 4, and to the young man, knowledge and discretion, verse 5, that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding. That could be another category, or as you have what's called Hebrew parallelism, it's just a further explanation of the former, and I'm classing the two together. The wise man is the man of understanding. So we have three categories.

26:29 Now, what I want to do with each one of them is, first of all, isolate them and ask the question, who are they? Who is the simple? Second question, what will the book of Proverbs do for such a person? And then make some applications to ourselves.

26:47 So then, the first category, the simple. Who is Solomon talking about when he says the purpose of the Proverbs is to give prudence to the simple? When you use the term of someone, oh, don't be simple, what do you mean? When you say of something, well, he's someone, he's kind of simple, or he's a simpleton.

27:10 What do you mean? Well, generally speaking, you mean the simple person is a person of weak capacities, to say it kindly, shallow understanding. At best, he's the incautious person, rather gullible, and very easily preyed upon by anyone who's seeking prey. Let me give a classic illustration.

27:35 Here's the fellow reared in the deep rural area of our country, maybe the deep south of the Midwest, reared in an area where there's still an awful lot of common grace, where a man's word is as good as his life, people don't sign contracts, they just agree to something, shake hands, and you can count on it. And so this fellow's been reared in that kind of a situation, where everybody trusts everybody, everybody knows one another, everybody has confidence in one another, your word is as good as your name, and that poor chap comes right into New York, see, I don't need to tell you anything more, and he's going to set himself up in business. And so the poor fellow goes, first of all, and tries to make some arrangement about the place of his business, and then about the terms and all the rest. Well, you see, if he comes out of that situation into the dog-eat-dog, unprincipled, godless ethics of New York business, the poor fellow, you look at him, you say, he was so simple. He was a simpleton. He'll end up being stripped, robbed, and left half-dead like the poor Samaritan on the road that our Lord tells about in the parable.

28:50 Well, that's the simple, you see. The simple is the man who is gullible and who is easily preyed upon. Now, the Scripture looks upon the simple person from different perspectives. Sometimes to be simple has no moral connotation.

29:06 You're just a mere babe in spiritual and practical matters. Sometimes there is the constitutionally simple, the person whose capacity of mind is very limited. Sometimes to be simple is to be wicked. You find that in verse 22.

29:23 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? In other words, if you are willfully simple, when God has set wisdom before you and you've refused it, then to be simple is a moral issue. Now, here in verse 4, I believe that the kind of simplicity that Solomon has in mind is the first kind that I mention. Someone who is a babe in spiritual and practical matters.

29:51 Like that poor fellow that comes out of the rural Midwest or the South. There's no moral connotation to his simplicity. It's just that he's a babe in the wily ways of New York business ethics. So, you see, Solomon says that the purpose of writing these books of Proverbs is that such a person, the babe in understanding, the mere novice in general savvy about heavenly wisdom and divine understanding, that the Proverbs will give him prudence.

30:31 So, having considered who is in focus, now we ask the question, what will the book of Proverbs do for the simple? It will give him prudence. Prudence is the capacity to exercise sound and wise judgment in practical matters. That's what prudence is.

30:52 Prudence is that fellow coming out of that rural situation and not believing anything anybody tells him when he comes into the New York situation. You see? Prudence is the ability to act wisely. The capacity to exercise sound judgment in practical matters.

31:12 To use the words of Jesus, prudence is being wise as a serpent while still being harmless as a dove. Now, the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to take the simple, that gullible, that incautious, that person of weak capacities and to furnish him with this great capacity to be prudent. Now, how is this accomplished? Look at Psalm 116 and verse 6.

31:47 Psalm 116 and verse 6. Verse 5, we could back up. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful.

32:04 The Lord preserveth the simple. Ah, but how does he preserve the simple? Well, turn back to Psalm 19.7 and let the psalmist answer his own question or the question we've raised for him.

32:19 Psalm 19.7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. So, you see, it's the testimonies of God that take the simpleton in spiritual matters and make him wise.

32:45 Now, let me say by way of application, one of the marks of spiritual pride is a false assessment of our own need. This very book says, Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And that young man comes out of the country and I know about it and I say, Look, I want to talk with you a little bit and give you a little knowledge. He said, Look, I don't need that.

33:09 I'm of age. I know how to handle myself. I say, All right, Buster, go ahead. He'll come back sooner or later and say, Oh, I wish I'd listened to you.

33:18 His pride went before his destruction. And so it's true of us spiritually. Is there any amongst us who says, Well, that doesn't apply to me. I'm not the simple.

33:29 There's no simplicity about me. I have all the knowledge I need to face all of the circumstances of life and to face them with sound judgment and with discretion. I trust there's no one so foolish, so absolutely ignorant of what you really are, for there's a sense in which all of us are the simple ones. All of us are ignorant, but particularly this has reference to the babes in Christ who are among us.

33:59 May I encourage you to come to the book of Proverbs with the prayer, Lord, take me in my simplicity and through the study of this portion of your word make me a prudent man. Make me a prudent woman. Furnish me with the capacity to exercise sound and wise judgment in practical matters. For nine-tenths of your life is lived in the practical.

34:29 It's not lived out there in those unusual times when you're removed from the nitty-gritty. Your life as a Christian is lived up to the ears in the mundane, in the practical. And what is prudence? The ability to act wisely to my good and to yours.

34:47 To God's glory in the midst of the practical. So then, the first class in the specific groups who are addressed in Proverbs are the simple. Now the second class. To the young man knowledge and discretion.

Specific Purpose for the Young Man: Knowledge and Discretion

35:06 I will go through it the same way. Who is the young man? What will the book of Proverbs do for him? Who is the young man?

35:13 What are his peculiar liabilities? Well, he's the person usually marked by his enthusiasm, his zeal and his drive, and often crippled by hurtful impetuosity and crippling gullibility. I think of the young man like the untamed horse, all full of strength and energy, but all he does is go around putting scars on himself and anybody that gets near him. Have you ever seen one of those untamed horses?

35:40 I've seen them. Full of scars. And you ask, where did these scars come from? They say, well, they came from fights.

35:45 He's always fighting. You show his energy. And then if you get people who got too close to him, they'll show you their scars. Well, that's the aspect of youth that I believe the writer of the Proverbs has in mind.

35:59 Also, it's the young man, the young person who is the peculiar object of the special sins of city life. And one of the unique things about these first nine chapters of Proverbs is that they are couched in the context of city life. Solomon observed what happened to a young man plunged into the midst of the evil companions of city life, the evil influences of city life. And he's tremendously concerned for the young man who with all of this zeal and with all of this energy and drive, and yet with his inexperience and being the peculiar object of satanic attack, that he may fall prey to these subtle influences that would undermine his character. Solomon knew that if the young man was crippled early in life, it was unlikely that he would ever recover fully even if he lived a full life. And so, these Proverbs are directed specifically to the young man. Now, what does Solomon say they will give him?

37:06 To give the young man knowledge and discretion. To give him a mind filled with the facts of how things really are. Here's one who's observed human experience, who has considered and thought through the issues of life, who has been given a special gift of wisdom from God as we read last week in 1 Kings chapter 3. And so, his concern is that the young man may have imparted to him that which only experience and observation generally impart to a man, that is, practical, helpful knowledge of life. And then coupled with that, he says, to give not only knowledge but discretion. And this word discretion means to act with considered and sober deliberation. To act with an intelligent purpose.

38:15 You see, the young man, he has in mind, would by nature have a religious experience that was marked by impulse, imagination or sentiment. But he says, no, I want his life to be marked by the sound practical energy of scriptural truth. So his purpose is to furnish the young man, and I believe by inference the young woman, with knowledge and with discretion. To make him just the opposite of what he would be by nature as a young man.

38:52 So instead of acting by instinct or by the volitive reflexes of his own untamed spirit, he'll learn to act by sound principle. It's a beautiful thing to see a young man with all of his native energies and capacities acting on the principles that generally are only found in a man twice his age. And Solomon said, this is my purpose in writing, to give the young man knowledge and discretion. He doesn't say, I want to give him zeal and enthusiasm.

39:28 He's got that. I want to give him that which will keep him from being destroyed by his zeal and his enthusiasm. I want to give him knowledge and discretion. Now, for all of you who attend this place regularly, I hope there is no question as to my sincere and, I trust, God-given love for young people, babies and all the way on up.

39:51 But I want to say by way of application some things that need to be said. For we live in a day when people are worshipping at the shrine of youthism. Youth sets the styles. Youth determines our music.

40:08 Youth dictates our international policies. Youth is given a hand in shaping the educational perspectives of our great universities. And youth is crying out to have power. Whole segments of society.

40:27 Power to shape and mold unborn generations. Now the Scripture gives full treatment to the fact that God can and has, in unusual circumstances, laid His hand upon young men and women and used them mightily to His glory. It is the Scriptures that tell us of the conquest of a young David over this towering figure of Philistine strength, Goliath. Probably in his early twenties at that time.

40:59 The Bible tells us of that. The Bible tells us of some of the young people whom God has used. But that same Bible contains a doctrine of the perils of youth and the necessity of having respect for and submission to the counsel of the aged. And if anything needs to be thundered out in our generation, this needs to be thundered out within the framework of the church.

41:32 That men and women who have walked with God and whose minds and hearts have been disciplined by the Scriptures through the years, have the right to give counsel to the young. Now I'm not talking about age being sacrosanct simply because of age. If a man has lived ignorant to the Scriptures through the years, all those years have done is to increase his folly and solidify him in his ignorance. But we're talking now from the biblical perspective.

42:07 And from the biblical perspective, Solomon assumes that it is his God-given responsibility to take the place of a teacher to the young and implying that the young will have sense enough to acknowledge their need of his instruction. In a way, you see, he's insulting young people. He's saying they lack knowledge and discretion. Who is he to say that to young people?

42:32 You see? This would be the attitude in our day. But it's not the biblical perspective. Solomon says, young man, you lack knowledge and discretion.

42:43 I want to give it to you. Listen to me. If a young person has half an ounce of spiritual sense, he'll say, oh God, teach me those things through those who've proven your wisdom in the crucible of experience. May I introduce just a biographical note here?

43:02 One of the things that God was pleased to do for me shortly after I was converted as a senior in high school was to give me enough sense to know that if someone had walked with God through the years and had opened his mind to the Scriptures day by day, month after month, and had known what it was to put the promises of God to the test and prove them, that I ought to get around such people. And I made an absolute pest of myself whenever I found anybody with white hairs or no hairs who had been walking with God for years, I made an absolute pest of myself. I just latched onto him like a leech. I went around as it were holding up my cup for any little drops of knowledge, any little drops of experience that would come my way, that would help me as a young man of 18 to get knowledge and to get discretion because I knew they weren't native to youth. Though I was against my own choice, pushed into places of responsibility and leadership, it was never with any idea that I was ready and prepared for such. And oh, how disappointed I was. I shall never forget when I went off to college, I had this idea that I was going to sit at the feet of men in their fifties and sixties who would speak out of years of experience and understanding.

44:26 And that freshman year I had almost all graduate assistants for my teachers, many of whom were much more wet behind the ears than I was. And I remember the crushing disappointment because I felt so painfully as a young believer how desperately I needed that knowledge and discretion which only age and experience could give to me. Oh, I plead with you young ones, you young men and women here tonight, may God give you the grace of humility to acknowledge that knowledge in the biblical sense and discretion are not native to youth, but here sitting at the feet of Solomon, sitting at the feet of Christ to his wisdom and kindness, you may gain that necessary knowledge and discretion that you may live to God's praise. Well, then there's the third and last category, and that's the wise man. The man of understanding. That the wise man may hear and increase in learning and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels.

Specific Purpose for the Wise Man: Increased Learning and Usefulness

45:37 Who is this wise man? This man of understanding. Well, remembering the distinctive perspective of Proverbs that wisdom is a spiritual virtue, this is the godly man in Christ who has walked in the light of verse 7. He's walked in the fear of God.

45:56 He has absorbed the knowledge of the Holy One. His mind and heart and life are no strangers to the lessons of truth and life generally touched on in this book. But now one of the marks of a godly wise man is that he knows that he knows so little. So Solomon is not at all embarrassed to say, all right, there are some wise men amongst you.

46:23 You are not simple. You are not incautious and unlearned in the things of God. You're not the youth who's marked by zeal without knowledge. There are some wise men, he said, into whose hands my writings will fall.

46:39 There are some men of understanding, but Solomon assumes that if they are truly wise and truly understanding, they say with the Apostle Paul, not as though I had already attained, or already made perfect, but I press after. You see this beautifully illustrated in the life of David. He says something in Psalm 119, in the latter part of that psalm, that may sound a little bit like braggadocio, like he's really tooting his own horn. Listen to what he says in Psalm 119, verses 98 to 100.

47:18 My commandments make me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers. That's a pretty broad boast, isn't it? You kids, your tests prove that that's not true of you, doesn't it?

47:36 For thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts. Now is that a boast in the flesh? He says, I have understanding.

47:49 In fact, he said, I'm conscious that my understanding goes beyond men who are simply older than I, because I have put into practice what I've learned. I understand more than the aged, because I've kept thy precepts. I have that experimental knowledge that only comes in a path of obedience. Does that mean he feels he's attained?

48:07 No. Turn back in this same prayer, this same psalm, to verses 18, 33 and 34. Here's this same man. Listen to the language of his humility and teachableness.

48:22 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I'm a sojourner in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the long that it hath unto thine ordinances at all times.

48:40 Why, he sounds now like someone who's just enrolled in the school. Listen to his prayer in verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law.

48:58 No, there's no inconsistency. Conscious that he has attained, as Paul says in Philippians 3, by the same rule that we have already attained, let us walk. It's false humility that says, oh, well, I just don't know anything. Well, God help you if you've been a Christian for 20 years and don't know anything.

49:17 Sure you know something. If you've walked with God, you've learned some lessons. You've learned some of them the hard way. Some of those lessons, you bear the scars in your own spirit for having learned them.

49:31 And in a sense, I believe there are those in this congregation who come in this category. You are wise men and women, men and women of understanding. You may have very limited theoretical knowledge about many things, but you know how to walk with God in the nitty-gritty of life. And you've proven the faithfulness of God and of His promises and of His Son.

49:54 And your life has had something of the fragrance of Christ. Well, is the book of Proverbs too elementary for you? What can it impart to you? Having considered who the wise man is, who the man of understanding is, we come to the second question.

50:09 What will the book of Proverbs do for him? Well, listen to the answer of Solomon. To give to the wise man, find Proverbs again, that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels. Here's the two purposes of Proverbs for the wise man.

50:32 The first purpose is to increase his knowledge. The second purpose is to increase his usefulness. That the wise man may hear and increase in learning. If he comes to the book of Proverbs with a teachable heart, he'll be more fully furnished with right perspectives and sound judgment.

50:52 His own life will be molded in proportion to this increase of knowledge. Look at Proverbs 9 and verse 9. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he'll increase in learning.

51:13 There's no fool like a wise fool. Wise in parenthesis. No fool like the wise fool. As a friend of mine often says, it's bad when a man doesn't know.

51:26 It's worse yet when a man doesn't know that he doesn't know, but it's terrible when a man thinks he knows when he doesn't know. You see, the wise man is the man who has a proper assessment of his own ignorance. And one of the most beautiful spiritual characteristics in a truly spiritual wise person is the childlike attitude of the teachable. I never cease to be amazed at this.

51:56 I've been privileged to meet some of the men who, in our own generation, are called and considered, rightly so, spiritual giants amongst men. But the thing that's impressed me without exception, now I shouldn't say without exception, almost without exception, I can think of one or two exceptions, but by and large, generally speaking, there is this tremendous childlike spirit of teachableness. Let me give you the classic example, one that I shall never forget until I die, and I'll probably remember it in heaven too. Some years ago, three, four now, three years ago, I was privileged to share in the School of Theology, brief, the School of Theology that was sponsored by the Banner of Truth in London, England. And here I, who had owed so much, owed then and still do, to dear Professor Murray, whom I had revered and looked upon, almost if it were warranted, as a sort of an evangelical patron saint. And here I was privileged to share in the ministry there, he had the theological lectures, and I had some expositions in a practical vein to the preachers. And I shall never, never forget when this learned, saintly, experienced man of God, in his late sixties, having taught theology for thirty years, and looked upon by many as perhaps the greatest exegetical theologian since B.B. Warfield.

53:18 How can I forget when, before we parted, he came, he was a short man, and he put his head on my breast, and took my hand, and whispered in my ear, and said, I am the greatest exegetical theologian since B.B. Warfield. And he took my hand and whispered, thank you, brother, for the privilege of sitting at your feet.

53:41 I felt about that big. Big. But I learned something. I learned something.

53:47 That's a true wise man. A true wise man, who's never gotten beyond the place where he feels he has so much to learn, and is willing to learn it from the most unlikely sources. Someone young enough at that time almost to be his grandson. Oh, may God give us that.

54:09 That's a spiritual quality of being. So necessary. And he says, this is what the wise man will get. He will increase in learning.

54:19 So he'll increase his learning, but secondly, he will increase his usefulness. This word, the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels. In the Septuagint, in the Vulgit, which is the Latin translation, it's translated this way, he shall possess government. In other words, the wise man, by subjecting himself to the book of Proverbs, will become more able to impart sound counsel to others.

54:49 As his own well of understanding is filled by the waters of Proverbs, others will come and dip into that well and be benefited. Need I say how desperately the church needs men and women who can impart sound counsel to others. That counsel which comes out from the church is the most powerful counsel that comes out of the experience of their own dealings with God. And now may I again give a word of exhortation and caution.

Caution Against Premature Counseling

55:26 Giving counsel is not the privilege and duty of novices, even those who've read J. Adams' excellent book Competent to Counsel. But reading that book doesn't make you competent to counsel. For the very text of the subject and I refer you to it now, Romans 15 and verse 14 indicates that there are two prerequisites for being a sound counselor to others.

56:03 Romans 15 and verse 14 And I myself also am persuaded of you my brethren that ye yourselves are full of goodness that's a moral spiritual knowledge filled with all knowledge that's the perception the understanding of the judgment able also to admonish one another. Who is an able admonisher? The one who is filled with goodness and filled with soul. The purpose of the book of Proverbs is to take the man who is wise and the man who is wise and to pass on that wisdom and to pass on that understanding to attain unto sound counsels to others. One of the problems I've had to face in the past year with the great influx of so many of you who would qualify basically as young people some of you feel your youth is quickly slipping through your fingers but some of us in whose lives a little bit more has slipped through but some of us have been so anxious to be counselors to others that I have to go around

57:32 mopping up the effects of your counsel and I have actually had to warn some of you when I counsel with you now look don't you listen to anybody else and I haven't liked to do that and I'm not scolding you but I'm just using this text which legitimately forms a basis of exhortation to remind you of the understanding who are in a position of attaining understanding of the sound don't get in over your head and giving advice where you've got absolutely no business to give it for all you can do is share your own ignorance with others and confirm them in their ignorance have the grace and humility to say look your problem is such that I don't believe I can bring to bear upon it sound biblical experience to counsel let's just pray and maybe you better seek someone who can help because it's amazing in some of the very problems where young people have given very pontifical authoritative counsel after I've listened to the problem I've had to sit there shake my head and have to say the most frustrating words for a pastor I don't know the answer to your problem and some of you sit here and know that I've said those words even to some of you I know few things more frustrating in the ministry when people come looking for an answer

59:01 and you have to say if I'm honest I don't have the wisdom to grapple with your problem but it's most frustrating to find someone so much younger in years and experience who can they've got the answer very simple it's very simple all right it's the answer of the simple the simple of verse four will you take my exhortation some of you who've been very ready to give counsel I'm not angry with you I'm just trying to get you to see what is in the book to you I don't know the answer I'm not angry or angry with you I'm just trying to bring you back the answer to your problem that's the wisdom the first thing I've done over the years is to try to find the answer to your problem and the you who are tooAP or tooA man who doesn't know what will come are wise and understanding, you just listen carefully as we go through. And though much of it may not be directed specifically to you, it's going to teach you how to counsel others. This is a book on how to counsel, that the wise may hear and the understanding may attain unto sound counsel. Well then, who's ready to matriculate in the school of

Invitation to the School of Proverbs

60:29 partners? The door is open, and the sign over it says, Come all the simple, the guileless, the untaught, the vulnerable, come and learn prudence. The sign with the invitation says, Come all the young men and women, with your undisciplined zeal and with your inexperience, come and learn knowledge and discretion. Then the invitation says, Come you wise men and men of judgment and understanding, increase your learning, increase your usefulness. Has it missed anyone? I hope not, and I trust you. I trust that by God's grace, we shall all come to the study of this book and realize these purposes, the explicit purposes of the book of Proverbs, realized in our own hearts and in our own minds. Lord willing, next week we're going to look at verses 7 through 9, the two fundamental prerequisites for attaining to true wisdom, the fear of God and submission to God-appointed instructors.

61:38 Amen. Are we pleased to prepare our hearts, instruct our minds, and make us wise with that wisdom which is unto Godliness and everlasting life? Let us pray.