In the sermon 'The Wisdom of Pursuing Wisdom' by Gary Duff, based on Proverbs 2:1-6, the speaker emphasizes the importance of actively pursuing wisdom, which is equated to pursuing Jesus Christ. The sermon outlines key actions such as receiving, treasuring, inclining, applying, crying out for, and seeking wisdom. Duff shares personal anecdotes, including his family's homeschooling journey and a business named after biblical principles, to underline the lifelong endeavor of growing in biblical wisdom. The sermon stresses that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord and is closely tied to understanding God's Word. The speaker encourages believers to see the Bible as an infinite treasure, more valuable than any worldly wealth, and highlights the need for discipline and diligence in studying and applying God's Word. Duff concludes by urging the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with God through His Word, promising that this pursuit leads to a fuller understanding of Him and His wisdom.

Amen. Praise God. We can cry out to him. And we'll be looking at his word now. Proverbs chapter 2, if you didn't have, there were some notes that I didn't put out there until late maybe.

But as we look at Proverbs chapter 2, verses 1 through 6, We must remember this is the living Word of God. It is all-sufficient, it is mighty, and it is inerrant. So here the Word of God verses 1 through 6. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Father in heaven, we rejoice that we can hear and we can read and learn from your precious word together this morning.

And we bow, rightly we bow before you as our King and ask Lord that you would grant us wisdom to understand and apply your word now, which is our life, and thus grow in our love for you. O Lord, fill us, we pray, with your Spirit. Give us teachable hearts, ready to apply your word. For we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated. Well, I'd like to give a little historical information about our own family here as I begin. So in Nebraska, you have to fill out this form every year if you're in a homeschool. And we really chafe at doing so, but some do and some don't. But when we first came back from Japan in 1992, homeschooling wasn't that accepted or understood.

You know, it was a little, you had to be a little careful. So, okay, we'll fill out this form. Not a big deal. So for all seven of our kids, we had to fill out this form every year. Exactly what we were doing.

And so turns out for the next 20 how many years? We use the same form same curriculum just different date send it off Nobody ever checked us so all that's to say so we came back and we have this form to fill out it says you must have a name, because they consider us private schools. You've got to have a name on the top, or they don't accept it. So we prayed, and we thought, and we were thinking about this passage, actually. We said, well, why don't we call ourselves the wise guys' home school?

You know, sounded great, you know? Because that's what was on our heart. We wanted our children to grow in wisdom and the fear of the Lord. And this passage states that very clearly. That's exactly what we wanted our kids to know.

And so, every day Sherry would begin and would ask, well, what is wisdom? And they'd say, you know, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And they'd answer these questions. That's how they began their school day with this passage in mind and I'm pretty sure they still remember remember doing that and so Dear family and pursuing biblical wisdom One of the main points here maybe the main point here pursuing Biblical wisdom as we pursue an understanding, as we pursue it in the Word of God, Biblically, we are pursuing Jesus. And we must remember, that's our desire, that's our goal.

The word leads us to him. And that is what we wanted our children's education to be about. And so we wanted them to grow in wisdom, not just knowledge, yes, and not just understanding, but in biblical wisdom. And that meant to us then that they would be seeking the Lord that was their desire There would be people who always sought the Lord and in pursuing Jesus Christ. They would be then increasing in wisdom This is the wisdom which is from above in James 1 James 3 I'm sorry and so our first we also had a business and Our first bit we had two small businesses, but the first one was we were selling nice handcrafted products.

But we called it hidden treasures, you know, from this passage. And it turned out our products were so hidden that nobody really bought any. It isn't quite what we designed that. But we wanted to be reminded again, even in this little venture, that we are doing this for the Lord. And we needed wisdom to run this little business.

And so this passage here in Proverbs 2 was written by Solomon. And it was revealed to him to give to his sons, and of course, so that we, praise God, would have this revelation to us that we might grow in wisdom that we might understand what wisdom is and how to be active in the pursuit of wisdom Proverbs is all about being active right and so in fact Proverbs is about growing in wisdom And it is about the application of biblical principles and to grow in our knowledge of the Lord and in our relationship with him. So this morning, my goal is to just encourage, I pray, us all to plant our roots deeper into the word of God, into the heart of God's word, and to treasure it, and so treasure the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we're treasuring the word of God, we will be growing and treasuring our Lord Jesus. So just a little understanding of this passage, The verses from one to five, it's basically a long conditional clause.

It's an if-then clause. And the parts of the conditional parts are verses one and two, and then verses three and four. And then The then part of the conditional statement is verse 5 if you notice on the notes there And I'll be focusing on the verbs which are underlined Focusing on the actions that we are to take if we're going to be growing in biblical wisdom So you can look at those those actions word because pursue you know that the sermon title is the wisdom of pursuing wisdom in other words the wisdom of pursuing Jesus and So it's a pursue is certainly an action So verse 1 my son if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you." Those are the first two action words. So Solomon begins by reminding his son or sons of his role as a father, by imploring them, his son and others around him probably, to receive his words, to receive this revelation from the living God to him, to them, and to accept them, to accept them. This is the beginning of the process, I think, to receive what is taught and not reject it.

So receive means you accept something from someone else and it becomes yours. One way to look at that either temporarily or permanently. So you receive this. And in terms of receiving gifts, right, the giver doesn't usually expect them to be given back, you know. It's like a loan.

We are to keep what has been bestowed God has bestowed his word upon us and we're to be keepers of it and in this case not only to receive and to keep but to treasure To treasure it which is the next action word treasure my commands within you it says so treasuring is something that I think is a whole lot more than receiving so receiving is the beginning and then you treasure you treasure it and that should be lifelong for us right so you're treasuring it more You look at it in a whole different way. This is not certainly not a book, just a book. So you have a whole lot more involvement and desire and ownership when you treasure something, right? You received it, you're thankful for that, And then you realize this is worth a lot. It's an incredible value and and so you hold on to it Right and you fear losing it you you fear forgetting it and you might look at it more Keep it near to you You might talk about it more because it's on your mind and you think about it all the time and it because it's in your heart you hide it in your heart if you can hide it it's in your heart and you guard it also so if you treasure something you don't readily give it up you know you think well this is wonderful this is valuable treasure here And so you cling to it You can picture that cling to it Or you hide it maybe and protect it from being lost or being forgotten You're thankful for it and a wonderful treasure makes you Want more usually and hopefully makes you realize again how much you have so you give you're okay giving some of this treasure to others, sharing this treasure.

You have so much that you can't contain this. And so you don't just keep it to yourself. So you give it It's so much you you you can't keep it in fact So Lord Jesus said is more blessed to give than to receive so may this be a church who keeps giving the word up And we have in the Word of God what is beyond all treasure and beyond all wealth. We have God's own words, the living Word of God given to us, given to us to keep and given to us to give. And we have a treasure in the Word of God that we barely, I believe, comprehend.

If we realize more what a treasure the Word of God is, the commands of the living God, in other words, which are infallible and powerful, then we will do whatever it takes to get more, in a sense. So, it's an infinite treasure. It never stops enriching us either. And the more we get now, the more we will enjoy in heaven. Wow, what a joyful preparation for us.

And in sharing it, we lose nothing. I think many of you have read maybe the biography of Jim Elliot who died in 1955 I think in Ecuador but he wrote in his autobiography, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That's exactly where we are, dear family.

So this is an infinite treasure and I'm gonna read a number of verses from Psalm 119. So Psalm 119 verse 162 says, King David said, I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure. So the word is treasure. How grievous that it can ever be tiresome for us. We don't see it as the treasure that it is.

That most of us have had this treasure available all our lives. And more to be desired are they than gold, the scriptures, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter than also than honey and the honeycomb, Psalm 19. So Job said this in Job 23, this is verse 12, he said, I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. All that he went through. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips.

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. More than my necessary food. So Job treasured God's commands, and food is necessary, right, to exist. But he could forget about his food, but he could not depart from God's Word. In a similar way the Lord said in John chapter 4, my food is to do the will of him who sent me.

And like him we should say my purpose, our purpose is to know and do the will of God, which we can only know through the Word of God. So Jeremiah said this, he was called a weeping prophet, and in the midst of being treated very cruelly by his own people for speaking the truth, what he is commanded to speak, he said to the Lord, your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." So the picture is, it's like he was famished and he ate the word of God, he ate it up. May that be so here. I mean you so love the word that you just can't get enough. You're always hungry for it.

And so may that be so. David said in Psalm 119 again in verse 131, I opened my mouth and I panted for I longed for your commandments. So he panted with desire. That's a desire when an animal is panting, like a very tired and thirsty animal would do. He panted for the word of God, with great desire to have his thirst satisfied, His thirst for the Word of God Question here, I'll ask a few questions here in terms of thinking about application How often do we how you can ask yourself?

How often do I hunger and thirst and pant for the Word of God Would that be a descriptive for you? Do I treasure it in this way? Do I want to always be near the Word of God? The Lord said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So We can live physically with bread, of course, with food.

But we cannot live in the spirit as believers without every word that comes from the mouth of God. So that's partly why we're here. We're here to understand and learn and apply the word of God. And we not only know those blessed things are treasures because the Word shows us what they are. That's how we know what true treasures are.

We don't even know actually until we are converted to or regenerated till our eyes are open what true treasure is. I mean the world talks about treasures in a lot of different ways, but this is the treasure the Word of God and It says in Colossians chapter 2 speaking of the father and also the son In whom in The Father and the Son in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in other words the Word of God points us to brings us to is spoken from it's all related to the Father and the Son and Praise God for his spirit to help us understand so in the parable you know the parable in Matthew 13 Jesus was speaking to his disciples And he said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it You know finding this treasure. He goes and he sells all that he has and he buys that field. Maybe he didn't want the field but he bought the field and he wanted the treasure in it though. He was focused on the treasure.

So because of the joy over this treasure he sold everything he had he brought the field and then he could he could keep it. He gave everything he had for that. So how would you feel if you found treasure buried in a field? Maybe you have, I should ask actually, but you know. You find a field, or you find treasure somewhere.

And how would you feel? Well, parables have one point. You shouldn't stretch it too much beyond the one point. So, but this man knew, I think, that a treasure when he saw it, and he did what he needed to get it. And we know that the disciples did forsake all to follow Jesus, who is the true treasure of the kingdom.

So how much will we give, in other words, to get more of the treasure of God's Word? And I think for most of us, the answer to that might be, well, more time probably. May come down to time. May come down to discipline too. Time given to discipline ourselves to hear to read to study to memorize to meditate on the Word of God it does take time are we giving at that time Proverbs 3 says happy is the man who finds wisdom "'and the man who gains understanding.

"'For her proceeds, ' that is wisdom and understanding, "'her proceeds are better than the profits of silver "'and her gain than fine gold. "'She is more precious than rubies "'and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her all the things you may desire We all have desires And that is the wisdom that points us to the Lord That's what we're talking about happy is the person who finds wisdom like the man in the parable who found a treasure he would give his all for. There's no comparison, dear saint, between anything else of value, anything else you may desire with the treasure of the word of the kingdom, with the wisdom of God, with knowing the Lord Jesus. And there's a video I saw, I don't know how many years ago, and this is, I don't think it was Voice of Martyrs, I can't remember, no, no, it was International Christian Concern, if you ever go to that website. It's all about the persecuted, mostly outside of our country, but, so this is about a group of people in China.

This is some years ago. And they didn't have the physical copy of the Word of God. Somehow they were able to. I remember the picture of the man bringing this box in and their box of Bibles. And he puts it down in the room.

And people were weeping. It isn't just in China that this occurs, right? But this happened to be the one I saw. And I was crying because how do I think, would I do that? You know, a box of Bibles comes in and they're so overjoyed.

What could they do but weep? And I think of, if you asked them at that point, if you had asked them, if there was anything else they desired, more than the word of God, probably they would have said no. And I believe our persecuted brethren know how desperately they do need the word of God and what a treasure it is. And I am personally humbled when I think of this. And I grieve that I don't, I want to, but I don't see the preciousness of the Word of God maybe as they did and as they do so they were desperate for it I I think I take it for granted far too often may the Lord forgive me and cause me to rejoice and give thanks for his wonderful and powerful word.

And I'd like to address the younger ones here briefly. I don't know, maybe everybody here would raise your hand and say, I'm younger. But so to the children here, those kids still living at home. You have received the word from your parents. You have been receiving a treasure, whether you use that word or not.

You have been given treasure upon treasure from your parents and from this church, praise God, for many years. I believe you have accepted it. I met most of you, talked to most of you, and you've been greatly blessed to grow in the hearing of it. But I would ask you to pray that you would also treasure it for yourselves. Certainly your parents are wanting to treasure it.

You see that in them in some way. So pray that you yourself would treasure the Word of God. And that for each of you the Word of God would become the joy and delight of your heart. And that you would accept the responsibility and the calling and admit the blessing that you have as children of the covenant of grace to treasure it. It is your life.

And may you each long for it with all your heart. Moses said in fact Deuteronomy 32 He said verses 46 and 47 set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today Which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law for it is not a futile thing for you but it is your life it's not a futile thing it's not a vain thing at all never it's the farthest thing you can get from being futile it's the living Word of God so the Word of God is not futile it's not vain It is never vain a part of our life So let's each of us really ask the Lord to give us hearts which treasure his commands now That I was setting all we're not going to take as much time on all the other verses So I took more there to establish where we're going. So verse 2 says, then it shows some of the indicators that we do want to receive the Word, that was that first action Word, and we do treasure it at some level. We treasure His commands within us.

Verse 2, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and you apply your heart to understanding. So first we should always, you know, incline our ear to hear when wisdom speaks. Incline your ear. What does that mean? I think this is still the same idiom that we use in our culture that they use.

So you incline your ear, some versions say turn your ear, and it's an expression which means you'll do what it takes again to be able to hear it, right? You want to receive it, so you do what it takes. We have other, we have digital ways to do this, right? So you strain, in other words, to listen. And if that's bothering you over there, you get away from it.

You want to listen to that. You take steps to get your ear so that you can hear. You want to learn. You want to learn what the Lord says. So you pay close attention to learn and grow in wisdom.

And this expression, incline your ear, is often connected in scripture, other scriptures, with the application of the word of God also. You incline it for the purpose of application. Psalm 119, verse 112 says, I have inclined my ear, King David said, I've inclined my ear to, I've inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever to the very end so he knew that I can't just hear it he wanted to like he wanted to hear it but it you must apply it and he said here I inclined my heart he made a vow in a sense to vow to hear the word of God to the very end, to the end of his life. And I remember as a young believer in Lincoln, Nebraska, I was 18 years old, and I remember praying this. And I didn't know what a vow was.

I didn't know how do you make a vow rightly. I hadn't studied the Confession, Chapter 22, which is awesome, by the way, if you don't understand what a vow or an oath is But I just knew that well, this is important And I'm I'm not making this lightly and so I asked the Lord to help me do this to the end of my life. I'm 18, you know, I'm thinking, wow, life's a long way ahead of me. I got all sorts of life ahead of me. So, a lot less now, but he has kept me by his grace, all by his grace.

Psalm 119 verse 36, David asked the Lord to help in this, he said, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness or not to selfish gain. He could have gone that way and he did err of course, but he did say, incline my heart to your testimonies, your word, not to all these other things. And The answer to this prayer will always be that we will be led by the Spirit To go to the Word of God to listen to what the Lord is saying in it consistently. I mean So David was asking God to give him a heart which was inclined to listen to the word to God and obey it. And we must also pray, I believe, that he would give us hearts to incline our ears to his word, which we will then apply.

So again, another question, have you asked the Lord lately something like this, to give you a heart to listen to his word. You must listen to his word if you intend to apply it and thus please the Lord. Now, I'm pretty sure you are a word-centered congregation. But I know I personally need to be reminded like this. You need to be reminded of this.

And praise God, you are every Lord's Day, I'm sure, reminded of this, of being what it means to be a word-centered congregation. Your life is His word. And so let's be bold to ask the Lord to make us children who will listen and obey and give us hearts for his word. And just as it is our privilege as his children to ask for this, it's also our responsibility to take action by faith. Must be by faith.

And praise God, it's the faith he gives. This is a part of what it means to apply our heart to understanding and to seek it in his word now I'm not sure how many times I've done this in my life, but in Psalm 119 You know there are eight verse sections or 22 of those and numerous times in my life pretty much once a year I will really slow down my reading program and I will focus on that for a long time and I'll meditate through those You know, I might take a week on one eight verse section and it's a great blessing because it keeps me reminded of how Delightful the Word of God is It's all about the Word of God and I've done this over the years with in the Navigators which we served with in Japan and other places in the states we with other people and I would go through those eight verse sections and For example a man I'm training or whatever he would read a verse and pray over that, whatever came to his heart, and then I would read the next verse, and we'd do that. This was eight verses.

It was wonderful. It was not a long time, but it was wonderful to do. So I just asked the Lord to give me a deeper love for his word and make me a man who longs for his word and thus for him. I knew who it was going, I wanted him, I wanted to know him. And every time I've done this he has blessed me, he's blessed me and he takes my mustard seed of faith and it gives me greater delight in his word, a hunger for his word, and a thankfulness for his precious word.

Now I've done this, as I mentioned with others, and so it's an possible application. So crying out, sometimes with fasting, that the Lord would give you a greater love for his word and thus for him. That humbles us and it's good for us to be humbled and this honors the Lord and you are certainly praying according to his will if you cry out like that. Verse 3, yes if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. So the yes here is kind of for reinforcement of what he has previously said.

It's like saying amen to what he said and then clarifying it even more. It is an if, This is an if statement, but is the continuing of the so that from from verse 2 Because you receive the words of the inspired speaker and treasure the Lord's commands So we have gone from receiving and treasuring which show this desire for wisdom Then results the results in further actions which help you to attain wisdom and grow in desire for it. So we come to inclining and applying. And now we come to crying out and lifting up your voice. So if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding.

Now you're getting kind of loud here, maybe physically, maybe verbally, but you've raised the bar in a sense. These action words, I believe, are increasing in intensity and desire. You're crying out means you're eager to grow in wisdom, enough to make it known to the Lord certainly and you know, maybe to each other and more than once. So you're steadily crying out or lifting up your voice, not like you're just saying, can I have a little more please? You know, no, it's not that.

It's much more than that. Your whole heart's involved. You're zealous. So Lord told a parable in Luke 18 to emphasize that we ought always to pray and not lose heart and you remember the unjust judge and he gave into the widow because not because her claim was just probably to him, but because he was worn out by her continual coming. Her continual coming.

Brothers and sisters, our God is not like that. Our God hears every cry of his children, and he will answer as a perfect and a loving Heavenly Father would. And so, another question, if you are not growing in discernment and knowledge, have you been crying out for it? And that probably comes out in different ways, but are you crying out for it? Have you verbally cried out in faith to the Lord who loves you for an increase of wisdom, for greater love for His Word.

Psalm 119 again says, let my cry come before you, O Lord, give me understanding according to your Word. So remember you are crying out to the one who wants you to cry out to him, who can fully answer this request. So this is a fervent expression that you trust him to hear you and to act because he loves you. And there's an aspect of crying out and lifting up your voice that relates to, I believe, the asking of others, your dear fellow saints here in the congregation. You can ask one another, help me to grow in the Word, or ask them to pray for you like this.

Ask your dear pastor. He would certainly love to spend time with any of you in the Word of God. So the question would be have you asked someone recently I guess, Possible application. Have you asked someone recently to help you grow in discernment and understanding of the Word of God? Maybe not necessarily in this church, but certainly in this church you have that opportunity.

Have you asked your elder? Have you asked Parents if you can. Have you asked close friends? If you haven't, what stops you from doing that? This is what the body of Christ does, I believe.

Is it busyness that would cause you not to ask? Is it pride? Is it fear? Those aren't adequate reasons to withhold asking, certainly of the Lord and of those He puts you around who can help you in this. This is what He wants you to ask, in which He can supply according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

So the final actions in this passage, in our pursuit of wisdom that you take, because you treasure the commands of the Lord, and you treasure the Lord. Verse four, if you seek her, that is wisdom and understanding, as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures. So first you seek the wisdom of the Lord like silver. And one commentary said you search for it like a prospector panning for gold like an inventor on a treasure hunt. So one way of looking at it.

I think it's much more serious and joyful than that. So in the scriptures, silver and gold are often referred to as the most valuable means of exchange, of storing of wealth, and it still is, of course. It's a valuable commodity today. Some of you might be kicking yourself that you didn't realize that a year ago But you know, it's gone up quite a bit So, you know highly refined silver was sought by those who who could buy it back then as a means of preserving wealth and as a Trustworthy medium of exchange in society then it was recognized by everyone for its value. And so people would seek to acquire it.

They would do a lot to get it and to store it up. The question then is, are you storing up the word of God? So on 1 1911, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. So R.C. Sproul Jr.

Said this, the word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart, but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind, so it needs to get in there. And many of the articles of the Tabernacle and the Temple were made of silver because they were pure, they were beautiful, and on an earthly level, one of the most valuable commodities. But Psalm 12, verse six says, "'The words of the Lord are pure words like silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times so it's purified seven times as pure as they could get it anyway so the dross was removed seven times and the Word of God is way more pure than that so I'm 119 verse 140 your word is very pure therefore your servant loves it. Psalm 119 72, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. So this wisdom of God In his word is far more precious than all the things we desire everything we desire put together Is no comparison to finding the Lord's wisdom Proverbs 16 says verse 16 how much better to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

That's the choice we should make. And so we are to acquire wisdom whenever we can and to be looking for the chances that we are given to get it. You know, in the commodities market, when the price of silver is advantageous, you buy it. And so we can and should pray Psalm 119 verse 18 open my eyes that it might behold wondrous things from your law We should really pray like that at any time Any time we open the word which would pray something like that open my eyes when I in the US and in this church We have extreme freedom, right To grow in wisdom through the Word of God. We are not limited, like many we know around the world.

We have advantages that few in history have had to have the Word of God in our language and many languages that can be even translated for us now from those languages. We are greatly blessed and praise God that by the grace of God the results of these actions here of this pursuit yield more fruit than you can fathom and in fact it yields lasting fruit. What efforts could you possibly expend that would yield more treasure, more lasting treasure, more valuable treasure than than those taken by faith to get the wisdom from above in the Word of God. And all these action words apply to our seeking of the Lord Jesus again. So, if you receive the words of the Lord, if you treasure them, If you incline your ear to the wisdom of the word, if you apply your heart to understanding, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek for wisdom like silver and search for wisdom as for hidden treasures, then, then the result will be, by the grace of God, that you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God What a promise we have been given here So all your effort all the actions you take all the time you spend and all the work you do to get wisdom results first of all in a fuller understanding of the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and will begin it will help you to grasp even more how awesome is our God and how awesome is His wisdom and it is wisdom to fear God Now Henry said those who earnestly seek heavenly wisdom will never complain that they have lost their labor In other words that their labor is in vain They'll never complain about that And the freeness of the gift does not do away with the necessity of our diligence.

The freedom, it's a free gift, praise God. But it does not do away with the necessity of our diligence. It's a free gift, praise God. And we are to be diligent in continuing to pursue it. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

They are so connected that if we grow in wisdom it means, biblicalism, it means also that we are growing in the fear of God. If we are weak in understanding the fear of God, we are lacking in wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Fools despise it. The person who says there is no God, who does not fear him, is rightly called a fool in scripture.

Foolishness and wisdom are opposites and to grow in wisdom is to decrease in foolishness. And to grow in the fear of the Lord, in other words, in awe of His Holiness and his power is to grow in wisdom. So you know you're growing in wisdom when you desire the Lord and you desire his word and you are in awe of both of them. And you know you need to and can cry out for wisdom If you do not have that desire for him and his word Lord Jesus is is wisdom from God He is called the wisdom from God first Corinthians 1 24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God First Corinthians 130 but of him that is God you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God. The Lord Jesus is the source of wisdom because he is wisdom.

And his word is given to make us wise unto salvation and make us mature disciples also. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Again, very common, well known. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Well finally, if you are active, if you are active in pursuing the riches of wisdom, you will find the knowledge of God.

It's promised, which is the true and the eternal treasure. The knowledge of God who is unsearchable without his grace and whom we will be seeking, praise God, for eternity. We're preparing for the continual growth of seeing him in his awe. Romans 11 says, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. And yet in the Spirit we've been clearly commanded to seek it.

Yes, it is beyond. And praise God we have an eternity to rejoice in seeking Him. And what a joy to expend your life and all the energy of your life in the pursuit of the wisdom of God, which is to know the Lord and to grow in the depths of riches that we have in Christ, in which we know through his precious word. In Psalm 27, David said, One thing I have desired of the Lord, he was very focused, that will I seek to behold the beauty of the Lord." That was the driving part of his heart. He wanted to know and experience the beauty of the Lord.

Verse 6 then says, here in Proverbs 2, it tells us Who gives us wisdom? The Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. So in James 1 chapter 5 we are told that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives. He gives abundantly. He gives to all to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him.

So if the Lord, dear family, if the Lord wants to give us wisdom, this kind, If he wants us to ask and he wants to give wisdom liberally and without reproach, we should not ever hesitate to ask, to carry out with these action words, to seek and to knock. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him, to those whom he loves, whom his son died for? And dear saints, if you actively pursue wisdom by his grace, according to his word, you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. You will grow in knowing the Lord Jesus. You'll grow in knowing your King and delighting in him.

And it is wise again to pursue our Lord Jesus in his word and it is worth pursuing him with all that is within you let's pray our Father in heaven we thank you for your goodness and your grace in giving us your precious Word and for sending our Lord Jesus, who is our wisdom. And oh Lord, that we would love you and fear you and delight more in your word and Lord we praise you for your Holy Spirit who enables us to understand and apply your living word Lord give us hearts. We pray to become lovers of your word to treasure Your wisdom that we might understand the fear of the Lord and find more of the knowledge of you For we ask this Lord according to your will Through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.