In his sermon titled 'Introduction to Proverbs,' Matthew Holst presents Proverbs as a vital source of wisdom and guidance for faith and life. He emphasizes the current societal crises of authority and knowledge, questioning the sufficiency of God's Word amidst the chaos. Holst highlights the importance of listening to God's voice, especially for young men, as Proverbs provides wisdom, instruction, and guidance in discerning right from wrong. The 'fear of the Lord' is central to gaining knowledge and wisdom, reminding believers of their nature as sinners and their salvation through Christ. Proverbs is portrayed as a comprehensive guide for living a righteous life, addressing various aspects like friendships, wisdom, morality, and relationships. Holst underscores the significance of Christ, who embodies the wisdom of Proverbs, and calls for a deeper understanding and reverence for God. The sermon concludes with a prayer for insight and wisdom through the teachings of Proverbs.

Twenty minutes. That's about half of what I normally preach, so I'll go speedily tonight. Turn in your scriptures please to Proverbs chapter 1. We'll read the first seven verses as an introduction to the Proverbs. If I can give a subtitle to this address, not just introduction to Proverbs, but ask the question, is God's Word sufficient for faith and life?

So Proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 to 7, this is the Word of God. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So we ask ourselves in these times what on earth is going on in our world? What on earth is going on in our country? We're seeing the old ways being not just rewritten but torn up and thrown out of the windows. The established ways, at least that worked in some form or another. We've seen that life has been devalued.

Sexuality has been mangled beyond recognition. Authority now is a dirty word. Authority is the enemy, whether it's in the family, in the church, or in the state. And as a result of these problems, we've seen a number of effects in our society. There's now no longer any general agreement about the fundamentals of life.

No agreement about the fundamentals of how we exist. Secondly, people have grown deaf. I mean, there's a sense in which they've always been deaf, but People have grown profoundly deaf. They can't hear. And if you can't hear, you can't understand, and you'll never have knowledge and never have wisdom.

People think that the place to do business these days is on Twitter or Facebook. People have become wise in their own eyes and they do what is right in their own eyes. And one important effect of all this in our lives is that there is both a crisis of authority and a crisis of knowledge. Who do we believe? Who should we believe?

Here's an example. Who should we believe about COVID? There's a million and one opinions on this disease. Who should we believe? To whom do we listen to?

To whom will you, as Christian men and boys, turn to for knowledge and wisdom, discretion and understanding. There's a crisis of authority in our country, in the world. Some will say you can't know truth. Others will tell you that you can't know my truth. You might know your own truth, but you can't know my truth.

Some tell us unless you are, for example, a woman, you can't speak to women's issues. Unless you're of a certain race, you can't speak to racial issues. Unless you're a homosexual, you cannot speak to homosexual issues. I've got news for you friends Proverbs disagrees with every single one of those ideas. Proverbs profoundly disagrees with those ideas As we just read the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom, to know instruction, understanding words of insight.

It'll give prudence to the simple, knowledge to the youth. That's what we need, the knowledge of God. Proverbs is, as Pastor Scott has said, this is God's Word to us. This is the very Word of the Lord Jesus Christ to you here this night. And so that means you need to stop what you're doing if you're not listening and listen.

Because Christ Himself is speaking to us now. Proverbs tells us about God. It tells us about sin. It tells us about salvation. It tells us about right and wrong, regardless of your life experience.

If you're a Christian here today, no matter how young you might be, you are wiser than the most intelligent, erudite person in this world without Christ. I want you to leave this weekend at least from my three talks, but I think from all of us who are going to speak this weekend to know that in Proverbs you have a sure and certain word from God. A sure and certain word from God about life, about faith, about family, about church, about state, about everything that is going on in this wild and crazy world. Proverbs is a one-stop shop for faith and life. It is a sorting house of wisdom, a library of faith and ethics.

And my task tonight, in the short time we have, is to give you an overview of 31 chapters of Proverbs. What does Proverbs teach us? What are the subject matters that it teaches us? It tells us, as I've said, God's will for faith and life. God's Word is sufficient for faith and for life.

And that's very important to you, because in this world you are subject to millions upon millions of messages from various forms of media, from Facebook, from Twitter, from blogs, from 24-7 news. All the news channels you can must each giving you messages every day. There's messages as you drive down the road, as you drive down the interstate. They're everywhere. But there's one voice above all, especially you young men listen now, one voice above all that you must listen to, that's the voice of God in His word.

And that is what Proverbs is for us. Proverbs will give us wisdom and instruction. Look at verse 4, you young men, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. That's you. Knowledge and discretion.

What could be more important in these days than knowledge and discretion for young people and for Christians? Dad's here today. You'll want to discern, of course, between right and wrong in your life and in the life of your family. That's actually relatively easy. It was Chesterton, I think, who said that wisdom is discerning between what is nearly right and nearly wrong.

That's where Proverbs comes in. You want to lead your family well? You want to serve in your church well? You want to serve in society well? Proverbs will teach you how to do that.

You young men, you're growing up in a difficult, difficult age. Voices competing for your heart. And there's two voices that will compete for your heart. There's the voice out there in the world, the world which wants your soul. Satan wants to grab your heart and your life and squeeze the life out of it, squeeze God and squeeze Christ out of it.

There's a voice out there which goes counter to the voice of Proverbs and yet there's also a voice in here. Even if you're a Christian, there's indwelling sin that wants to do the same thing to you as Satan out there. Sin wants to squeeze the life out of you. And Proverbs is going to teach you to listen. Young men, what's it going to teach you to do?

Say it. Listen. Glad you were listening. Because at least 70 times, 70 times in 30 chapters, we read the word listen or hear. Hear or listen.

Listen to the voice of God in Proverbs. If you've got your Bible, look at Proverbs 1.8. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Verse 10, my son, again, if sinners entice you, there's a call once again. Chapter 2, verse 1, my son if you receive my words.

Chapter 3 verse 1, my son do not forget my teaching. All these my son statements building on the command to hear and to listen. Proverbs says to you, listen. Listen to your parents. Listen to your pastors and elders.

Listen to those whom God has put in authority over you. Listen. Let me say that again. Listen. That's your one thing for tonight, young men.

Listen and hear. Hear the voice of God as he speaks to you. And what does Proverbs speak to us about? The dominant theme which will be spoken of later, at least some ways, is chapter 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, which is, of course, the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Very briefly, the fear of the Lord. We don't want to take the fear out of the fear of the Lord. There ought to be fear, a proper fear in our dealings with God. It's the fear of Yahweh.

That's the name. Lord capitalized in our text. The God who made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob revealed himself as Yahweh, the God of salvation who keeps covenant. Even to this day he keeps covenant. He's doing so now and he will continue to do so.

But we are to live in a relationship of fear to Him. Not fearing Him awfully and terribly as a judge, but understanding who we are by nature. Guilty, vile, and helpless we, as the hymn says. Yet He saved us, has He not? He has saved us under something.

He has delivered us from sin and brought us into life in Christ. That's the context of fear. Fear him who can cast body and soul into hell. And yet he has not done so for you, has he dear Christian? He saved you from it.

And that's why we can live in this relationship of the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is the realization of who we are by nature, hell-bound sinners, and yet by grace we are children of Almighty God. That means the fear of the Lord. We know God as judge and savior, as Lord and Father. Let's move away from this contemptuous and casual view of God.

God is not your buddy. He's not the big guy in the sky. He's not the good Lord watching over me. Of course He's watching over you. He's omniscient.

He sees everything. He knows everything. He's almighty. This fear of the Lord permeates the entire book of Proverbs, turn to chapter 2 and verse 1. My son, if you receive my words, treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding, it goes on and on and on, verse 5, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 12 o'clock as it were on the clock. But as you receive words, as you treasure up commandments, making your ear attentive to wisdom, then you will grow in the fear of the Lord. You will understand the fear of the Lord. There's nothing more important in Proverbs than this principle of the fear of the Lord. What else will Proverbs teach us?

How long have I got Scott? Five minutes? I've got about five minutes I think. Chapter 1 verse 10. It teaches you young men, us all, about friendships.

I'm going to go through a list of things that Proverbs teaches us now. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without reason. My son, verse 15, do not walk with them. Do not make friends with the world.

Moreover it teaches us about the value of wisdom. Chapter 2, verse 11, Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you. It will watch over you. It will protect you.

Being wise will protect you from the folly and disaster of this world. Chapter 2 verse 16, it keeps you from sexual immorality. So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress, with her smooth words. Chapter 2 verse 20, wisdom promises to do good for you. You will walk in the way of good and keep to the paths of righteousness.

Proverbs and wisdom teach us to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Chapter 3 verse 5 and 6, with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight, you what? Your paths, your way that we'll hear of next. Dear friends, you need to know there is only two ways in this world.

There's only two ways presented in Proverbs. It's the way of the wise, the way of the righteous, the way of Christ-likeness, or there is a way which seems right to man, but we know its end is the way of death. There's only two ways. There's Christ's way, or there's your own way. Proverbs 3.27 teaches us about how to be good to our neighbor.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it. Proverbs 4, the first four verses, speaks about generational Christianity being passed down from one generation to another. Proverbs 5.15 teaches us about marriage and faithful relationships in marriage. Proverbs 6 teaches us about hard work. Proverbs 10.3 teaches us about God's protection on the upright.

Proverbs 10.11 teaches us about being truthful and the difference between the truth teller and the one who tells lies. Proverbs 10.12 tells us about how to love people when they offend you. Proverbs 11-1 teaches us about just dealings with people. Proverbs 11-2 teaches us about the danger of pride. Proverbs 11-15 teaches us the importance of hearing.

And Proverbs 13.1 teaches us about wise and foolish sons. We could go on. Proverbs teaches us about anger, about wealth, about poverty, about affliction, about age, about boasting, about commerce, about character, about clothing, about communication, good and evil, wisdom and folly, godly husbands, godly wives, unfaithful husbands, unfaithful wives, and it teaches us much about godly children and on and on and on. That's why I say it's a one-stop shop for faith and ethics, how you are to behave. How you are to behave.

But of course one thing it does, beneath the surface, as we've heard already, it's a reflection of God's law. And when we read Proverbs, at least when I've preached through Proverbs, it has been the most challenging book to preach, not just because of the text, but because of the content. It strips you bare before the Lord and shows you your sin and your great weakness. There's no hiding. There's just no hiding.

There's no getting out of it. So what else does Proverbs teach us? It teaches about the one who became, as Paul says, wisdom for us. It teaches us about Christ. In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ is described as the one in whom all that are hidden, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That is to say Proverbs 1 to 31 is fundamentally about Jesus Christ who lived a life of righteousness. If you search Proverbs, you'll see the punishments that were given to Christ also being given to the fool in Proverbs because our Lord didn't just come and live a good life, did He? He didn't come and live the proverbial life, the wise life. He actually suffered the injury and the punishment of the fool. Not that he was a fool, but by receiving our sins in his body, He went to the cross and faced the end of the fool in Proverbs.

A rod indeed, as it says in Proverbs, was laid across his back. That's why Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 1 that Christ has become for us or to us wisdom. Dear friends, if you're not a Christian here tonight, if you're not a Christian, young or old, it matters not, and you come to Proverbs and thinking, well, this is just going to teach me how to behave, think on your Lord and Savior. Or the Lord and Savior, that He might become your Lord and Savior. That Proverbs reveals to us the will of God for faith and life and we have broken every single Proverb.

And the law which undergirds it. And we are in desperate need of a Savior who lived a life of righteousness that it might be imputed to those who have faith in Him and that His atoning death might remove from each one of us every last sin that we have committed. Full atonement, can it be? The answer is yes. The answer is yes.

Proverbs is the place to go, to learn wisdom, instruction, and salvation. My son, if you receive my words and treasure at my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Let's pray. Oh Lord, how we need that knowledge, how we need that insight. We seek it this weekend as silver and as gold, more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold.

Oh, Lord, be merciful to us, your people, this weekend. And so in our hearts, may your eye diffuse that quickening ray, and may that dungeon alight, and may we awake. For any without you this day, Lord, oh, we cry out for you, cry out for them to you, have mercy, and implant this seed of wisdom, this growing wisdom, and this fear of you within each one of us, we pray in the blessed name of Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.