The Cry of Wisdom: A Call to Life and Blessing

The Cry of Wisdom: A Call to Life and Blessing

Amen. For our Scripture reading this morning, we would like to turn in our Bibles to Proverbs chapter 8. Please turn there with me to Proverbs chapter 8 for our Scripture reading this morning. And when we arrive there, I won't read the entire chapter, but I read some selected verses from this chapter, Proverbs chapter 8, verse number 1 beginning. Death not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice. She standeth in the top of high places, by the way, in the places of the paths. She cryeth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming end of the doors. Until you men, I call and my voice is to the sons of men, our sons of men, O ye simple understand wisdom, and ye fools, be of an understanding heart. Look down in verse number 14, wisdom cries, counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me, King's reign and Princess Decree Justice, by me, Princess Rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches in honor are with me, ye durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, ye than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures. Look down in verse 32, verse 32, we notice there it says, now therefore, harken unto me, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways, hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that hearth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors, for who so findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sineth against me, wrongeth his own soul, all they that hate me love death. And I pray that God will bless the reading.

We were dead in trespasses and sins. If you're a believer here today, you were in the past tense, dead in trespasses and sins, but now we are alive in Christ. We've passed from darkness to light, we've passed from death to life. We were in the past tense alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in us, because of the blindness that was in us. But now we are not ignorant, we are in Christ. We know Him personally. We know the one that we were formerly blinded to, and we see Him and we have a relationship with Him. Colossians 1:21 will say that we were alienated and enemies in our mind by wicked works. So the wicked works were the demonstration of the alienation of our life from God, we were estranged to God. We, as Isaiah would say, everyone has turned to His own way. We've gone astray. We're lost in sin, but when the kindness and love of God and the grace of God appeared to us, not by works of our own righteousness, which we've done, but by His grace we pass from death to life.

Let's turn over to John 5 this morning. We're going to come back to Proverbs, but let's look over to John 5, verse 24. Verily, verily I say unto you, He that hearth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. He that hearth my word, what is wisdom telling us this morning? Hear my counsel, listen to what I'm saying to you. He that hearth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life and not that he's going to work up to receiving everlasting life, but he hath everlasting life. Wow. Well, just as much as it wasn't our wicked works that made us sinners, but it was the wicked works that manifested the fact that we were sinners and we were alienated from the life of God, even so by faith the righteous works, the good deeds that come forth from our life should be the manifestation of the evidence that Christ lives in us, that we are no longer alienated from the life of God in Christ, that we have passed from death to life, that we love, we love God's word because we know that He first loved us and has given us His word. He's called us to repentance. He's called us to faith, not because He hates us, but because He's given us a chance we don't deserve, but because He loves us so much that He laid down His life, gave His Son and Jesus Christ laying down His life for us. To us who believe, this Bible is the word of life. Peter said to whom shall we go? That will have still words of eternal life.

We're also going to turn on how true that is as we look around us today. Whom have I in earth or in heaven beside thee? What do I desire more than the Lord? The truth, as I said before, the word truth comes from the word alathea in the Greek. It simply means the state of not being hidden, the state of being evident, something that is manifest. And God has given us His word, the word of life, that it may be manifest to us. Who He is? What He's done? What He wants? He's given it to us, so that we don't have to remain in ignorance. That's why wisdom personified in our text today is crying out. That's really what we have, we have Bibles everywhere, you know, after the word of God everywhere. And yet in our country anyway, wisdom is crying out, but who's listening? Who have believed our reports as we've read in Isaiah? To whom have the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Well, if we will hear and we'll believe what this word tells us, we will then love what we once hated and we will hate what we once loved. Namely, we will hate sin because God hates sin. We will love righteousness. We thought righteousness was a bondage in the old days, that, you know, those stiff and I don't want to have anything to do with that. But righteous, you know, I notice it's just naturally speaking, even as we age, as we get older, our taste buds change, you know? Well, at least, at least my dad. And things that we couldn't imagine before now, we've come to a certain stage in life and realize, well, that's what they meant when they were saying that. And it's the same, it's not the same, but that's sort of an analogy. We might say, but in the moment of time, the Lord can change that and change the desires and put a new desire in us so that we will want, we'll have a hunger after the things of righteousness. We will want the things that God offers to us in His word.

Sin is a lie. Sin lies. Sin deceives us into thinking that this is going to be good for us when it's not. It's just like sugar candy, you know? It tastes good when it's going down, but then, I notice as I get older, that, you know, the things you used to just put that candy in your mouth, help me wrong, I still eat candy, but it starts having some effects on you that are undesirable as you grow on. Well, sin is going to be that way. And ultimately, it's going to bring about death. Sin will bring forth death in those that continue in it. Those that will refuse, as wisdom said this morning, that refuse not my counsel or something to those words. I don't remember the exact phrase, but the word refuse there. We used to live according to lusts. We said this morning, all this in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. We used to live according to that. But now, we have been delivered from that. We've been delivered by faith.

The problem is in this world, the lust of the flesh. You know, part of that is tied up and we can see it more and more evident now, the love of money being the root of all evil, the root of it. What do we read in 1st John 2:17? We just recited it this morning and the world passes away. We can see it happening right now. Can't we? Can you not see corruption and deterioration of this world? It is falling apart. It is passing away. It is in the process. You can tell when you have somebody in your family that's gone through dementia or they've gone through, you can see they are in the process of passing away. You can see that they are dying. This world is wearing out. This world system is dying. And I believe that even now as we're waiting for the Lord to come back, we can sense those last gasps of breath, if you will. Satan knows that his time is short, even though that statement specifically is reserved for even going into the tribulation period, but he knows. He knows. Even the demons know when Jesus was on this earth that they said, don't torment us before our time. They know. They know. The world is passing away, the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

This present world rejects truth. Romans 1 tells us that it suppresses truth through lusts, through prides. The world is destroying everything that God intended in His order. Look at the family unit. Families are under attack. The home is under attack. Marriage is under attack today through sin, through lust. And when men live in sin, that tears apart everything God intended for us. It rips it apart. It will destroy homes. It will destroy relationships. It will destroy bodies. It will destroy minds. Through addiction. Through so many things, through poisons that people put in their bodies, through addictions to technology. Technology can be a tool for good, but oftentimes it's a tool to perpetuate lust and pride. And it destroys, it tears apart. It tears apart everything that God intended. That's good.

Thank God. Well, we know that as a Christian, I could commit the same sins that I committed when I was in the old life. I can fall into those sins even now. I'm not immune to sin just because I'm a child of God. But thank God that I have passed from death to life and that I don't have to live in those things any longer and I should not be living in those ways. But it's not just a matter of my actions. It's a matter of my thinking. It's a matter of even what we read here, even do it in the world. God, why would I want to do the will of God? Because He saved me. Because He called me with a holy calling and now, and now I am anticipating meeting Him. You know, I didn't get to see Him when He came the first time. I didn't get to meet Him. He came and dwelled among us and we believe the witness of the witnesses, of the apostles that told us that He came and John said, you know, these things I write that your joy may be full. But I'm looking forward to meeting Him in person. And because I'm looking forward and I believe He's coming back and I believe He's going to judge this world and I believe that I will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I want to live for Him. I want to do His will.

We sing that song once I lived for self alone. Now my Lord is on the throne. Not I have, I call my own. I belong to Jesus. Let the world do as it may. I have found a better way. Wisdom speaking here this morning is not a good way. It's not good thinking. And listen. We might either say personified here as a woman calling out anyone who in opposition to the strange woman, wisdom is personified. Come here, listen to me. Turn away from what you're doing and listen to what I'm saying to you. I think we need this picture. I know we need this picture, but I think it's helpful as we look at them this morning. The world with all of the lures. Sometimes people think that if I become a Christian, what am I going to lose out on all these things? What is wisdom saying this morning? Wisdom is saying you have everything to gain.

If you must repent, what is repentance? I gave our children the example, our girls in the Bible class some time ago. I said if Lucas is running towards the road and I say, Lucas, come here and he stops and he turns around and comes back to me, that's a picture of repentance. He heard what I said and he responded to what I said and in the process of turning to me and coming back to me, he turned away from the road which would have probably meant death for him. Now it certainly will mean death for a sinner if we continue in sin, but I'm just saying a picture. I did not call him away from the road because I wanted to rob him of some joy he would experience running around in the road. I called him away from the road because I didn't want him to die in the road. Now thankfully I haven't had to do that. He doesn't even seem to have a desire to go out in the road. But nonetheless, that's what life and repentance and turning to Christ, not of our own wisdom, but in response to the cry of wisdom, we say, I will not refuse that call but I will accept that call. I will believe and turn away from my sins to the Savior. And that's what wisdom is hoping for here. That's what wisdom is calling for.

We notice that there are things in this passage that wisdom is promising. Wisdom is promising. We'll look at that in just a moment. But I notice in Proverbs 6:23, let's look back a page or two here, at Proverbs 6:23. Notice this. It says for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. The reproofs, in other words, don't do that. Do this instead. Those are the way of life. Thank God that I am in the way of life. It's the Bible defines it as the narrow way, Christ. But you know what? These reproofs are for our good. In fact, the devil will give you plenty of comfortable lies, but sometimes truth rubs with a heavy grit. It's a heavy grit sandpaper. It doesn't feel good. It rubs you raw sometimes. It pricks you. It convicts you. And even as Christians, if you're a Christian, if you're a sinner, then you go to the price, then here's a call. Here's a child who's got here. Here is a call. Here's a reproof of instruction. Here, here, that, here are those words and we ought to know as Christians. Everything God has ever done to reprove us has been for our good. He purges us that we might bear more fruit. He wants to bless us.

And if He calls us to repentance about anything in our Christian lives, and He does, it's not, it's not going to hurt us. It's going to be good for us. It's going to bring blessing into our lives. God created life. He sustains life. He redeems lives. He restores life. And, and it's as we turn from our sins, turn from our selfishness, turn from our proud, proud and blessed to Him that we find blessing and we find victory. We find abundance in life. It's through that call and responding to Him that we find greater. He doesn't want us to only have life, but He wants us to have it more abundantly, abundant life. He loves us so much. We've said so many times that He chastens us. Those that He loves, He chastens. If we were without chastisement, then we better check up and say, what's wrong? What's going on here? Are we even a child of God? But when God tells us something is worth, you know, everything else goes out the window. It doesn't matter how I feel. It doesn't matter how much fruit I might have done in the past. It doesn't matter what my peers say. It doesn't matter. Nothing else matters.

All some have tried to compare chapter 8 to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in one sense, yes, it's true that wisdom is Jesus Christ is wisdom personified. I know that through misinterpreting this passage some anti-Trinitarians have had a heyday with trying to say that Jesus Christ was created and all that. Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom. Jesus Christ is our wisdom. He is revealed to us in this word. He's revealed to us in the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament. He says, search the scriptures. The Scripture is for they testify of me. The man who rejects the truth, the uncovering, the discovering of what God wants us to know will find death, you know, in the Old Testament in Isaiah, he would say this people say prophesy to us through things. Tell us to see, we don't want to hear the truth. We want to hear that which makes us comfortable, we don't want to change really. We want to keep going the way we are. That shouldn't be the words of a Christian, should it? No, Lord, though you smite me, I'll trust you. Lord, search me. Lord, try me and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. That should be the words of the Christian.

Thank God one day as it were that He interrupted our sleep of death in that carbon monoxide filled house like that carbon monoxide alarm. And it's going off and saying you need to get up. You need to get out of this house and you're comfortable in here. It feels good. But you're going to die in it. You're going to die in it. Thank God that He loves us enough that He told us the truth. He told us the truth about ourselves. And repentance is not only something that we do at the new birth of where we're born again, but it's an attitude. Lord, Lord, if there be any wicked way in me, cleanse me. Search me. Try me. The Bible commends this spirit in so many ways. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. He will exalt you in due time. We see in the first church in the book of Acts when the Word was preached, great fear came upon every soul. Fear came upon every soul. And we see that there was this confessing even in the scriptures in many places, but we see that there is an application to confess our faults one to another. Pray for one another, James says, that you may be healed. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. As God has already said to search you and try. You see if there be any wicked way in me. And you know, I know I preached in this vein already the other week. I said, well, first of all, if there's a need in our life, we have to see the need. We have to admit the need. Then we have to trust that God, the God who revealed the need to us, will give us the grace to overcome or to meet that need whatever it is. We have to confess it. And then we hope in the Lord that He will give us the strength to have the victory over them.

But what we see is that wisdom here is crying out in the text and saying this, look back with me. Here in Proverbs chapter 8, if you look back there in verse number 17, I love them that love me. And those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are with me. Yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold. Yea, than fine gold. And my revenue than choice silver? I lead in the paths of judgment that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures. You know, part of being able to face the times in which we're living, integral to that, fundamental to being able to see through the deceptions as part of it has to do with us responding to God's word as He speaks to us in our personal lives. As He shows us things in our lives, Daniel, you know, there's this sin of mind that you're committing and you need to confess it. There's this sin of your spirit. What kind of sin could it be bitterness? Could it be wrath? Could it be anger? Could it be pride in the greed, lust of some sort? Maybe we say it's just a little sin. Well, get it under the blood. Could it be a sin of the body? Could it be sin of blood? Could it be the sin of sloth, laziness, fornication? Is there something in my life that ought not to be there?

Is there a sin of the tongue? The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Am I using my words? Is there some words specifically that I've spoken or there's some habit that I have with speaking in such a way that I'm not ministering grace to the hearers, but instead, my words are corrupting. My words are hurting someone. Are there sins of omission in my life? Are there sins of not speaking the truth to individuals when I need to speak up with truth? Is there a sin of not… Yeah, I come in contact with this person on a regular basis and God's opened the door for me to witness to them and I just don't do it. I've omitted in some way. I have failed to seize the opportunity that God put right there in front of me. And Lord, I have need to confess that I have sinned in that. Have I sinned in something that I failed to help someone that I know has a need and I have not… Maybe I've been kind of like in change. You know, the part of peace, the war on the field and yeah, they're not here to those things. I'm not even saying the right words, but I have an act to the pawn. What I know is right and to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And so we know that failing to pray as I ought, read my Bible, studying my Bible, failing to attend this sin among the saints as I ought. And I know I can be there. It's not a providential hindrance. Is there a mission there? Lord, help me. Help me.

You know, and the thing is that when we respond to the Lord, and we agree with Him in repenting of something that He's dealing with us about, it's not so much about just… That's not an end in itself. What happens is He opens the windows of heaven and blesses us in other areas that maybe we're getting frustrated with because God's blessing is not on those things because we haven't responded to Him in this thing. It's all connected. It's all related. Maybe I'm struggling in some relationship in my life because I have some other area in my life that I have not given to the Lord. And He wants to bless me. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. But they shall be filled. They shall be filled. The Lord wants… When we look at God's word, He is constantly promising us abundance, victory, blessing, peace, joy.

So you know, when I would say the NASA program, maybe more so somebody like Elon Musk, if he sends a rocket up in the air and it crashes, he doesn't say, why have that exactly right in this sale? No. He says, there's some reason why that didn't work. There's some reason why that didn't work. And the same thing in our spiritual lives, if we see the lack of God's blessing in something, maybe we need to take inventory and say, Lord, you know what? Maybe where is it? Where is it that I am? And maybe we already know where it is. Maybe we already know where it is. But here we see that wisdom cries and says, essentially lay up spiritual treasures, receive my instruction and not silver in knowledge rather than choice gold of verse 11, for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be desired not to be compared with it, verse 11.

Thank God that we have wisdom still crying today. Wisdom is always waiting to bless, but it is waiting, wisdom and Christ Himself is waiting to bless us more abundantly than we've made that step of faith and say, yes, Lord, I hear what you're saying. Maybe there's something in my life that needs a change and I want to change it to glorify and honor thee and then the resulting blessing will be not only for me, but it will overflow to others. Psalm 23, you know, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of God's word forever. May we be more conscious of wisdom crying out to us every day when we read our Bible, may we not just go through the motions and say, I'll read my Bible. No, may we hear what is being said. May we respond knowing that every time that we respond to God's word and to the voice of wisdom that we will be blessed beyond what we can imagine. Who can tell all the love He will send from above, how happy our hearts will be made when all the altar is waiting.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, thank you for those gathered here today. We do not take it for granted that we know that there maybe not everyone here today is a child of God. Not everyone is a Christian, Lord, and we pray that if you have spoken to some heart today that does not know you personally. We all know about you, Lord, but if there's anyone that doesn't know you personally today, that there would be salvation to come to that heart. Help us to know, help us to see today, Lord, that wisdom, this wisdom being personified here this morning, a parallel to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, is waiting to bless, to bless the repentant heart with life and joy and peace. And even in our lives, we are here today as Christians, Lord. We pray that we would not be the reason or the hindrance to any blessing you want to bestow upon us. Lord, we don't want to stagnate in our Christian lives with that. That is our tendency, Lord, that is our tendency, but help us to not hold back any blessing that you would bestow upon us by failing to make anything right in our lives as you speak to us about it. There may be things, Lord, in our lives that we didn't even realize were there and yet you show them to us through the process of the trials that you bring into our lives, through the testings you reveal in combination with your words speaking to us, you reveal to us this is a need in my life. There is a sin of spirit, there is a sin of mind, sin of body, a sin of volition of will in my life that needs to be rectified and as we humbly admit and confess those things to you, Lord, you draw us closer and, Lord, we can't help but be a blessing when we're close to thee. We can't help but receive the blessing and share the blessing. We need revival in our hearts, Lord, we need your blessing to flow through us and flow to others as well. We ask these things today, we pray, Lord, that you'd meet every need according to your great wisdom in Jesus' name. Amen.