In his sermon, Peter Allison delves into the Book of Proverbs, emphasizing its unique position within wisdom literature. He outlines the primary purpose of Proverbs as a guide to obtaining wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The sermon explains that a proverb is a generalization encapsulated in a pithy statement, meant to be abstracted and applied to various situations. Allison highlights the importance of 'The fear of the Lord' as the foundational element of knowledge and wisdom, equating it with love and carefulness not to do unrighteousness. He further elaborates on the structure of Proverbs, identifying seven distinct parts and collections, predominantly attributed to Solomon but also involving other wise figures. The sermon stresses the need for instruction, both moral and intellectual, and the necessity of integrating wisdom with righteous living. Allison argues against viewing proverbs as non-absolute, insisting on their authoritative role in guiding behavior and understanding. He concludes by encouraging the congregation to seek divine wisdom, akin to Solomon's, through prayer and humility.

This morning our scripture reading is Proverbs chapter 1. I'll read the first seven verses. The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel, To know wisdom and instruction, to receive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Thus far the reading of God's Word May He be praised at its hearing. Almighty Heavenly Father, we ask that we might receive wisdom and instruction and knowledge and understanding this morning as your Word is open to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We are embarking upon a new journey this morning As we begin our study of the Book of Proverbs. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.

The book of Proverbs is very different in its form and its structure than the other books that we have been looking at these past few years. It is part of what we call wisdom literature. And it is written in a different manner, uses different syntax, different structure. And we need to understand it, and like, as we need to understand it, in accordance with those differences as a different form. But this is still the Word of God.

It is the inspired Word of God. And as a part of the Scriptures, this book is not here merely to tell us how to have good relationships and wise and peaceful kingdoms. But this book is here as a part of the Word of God telling us of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Proverbs is a frequently quoted book in the New Testament. What is a proverb?

Since that's what we're going to be studying, the Proverbs of Solomon, what is it? Well, a proverb is developed by the writer, synthesizing a generalization from a number of particulars. And then encapsulating that generalization in a pithy saying or statement around one specific particular. Did you get that process? A proverb is developed by a writer, in this case Solomon, generalizing from a number of particulars.

And then encapsulating that generalization in a very short and pithy statement around one specific particular. And so as an interpreter, as one who is reading these proverbs, we need to abstract that generalization from behind the proverb so that we can then apply it to any number of particular situations in which it validly applies now how do I know that? Did I just make that up? No, no I didn't. We know that because That is the way the Word of God deals with the Proverbs.

That is the way the inspired writers who were moved by the Holy Spirit handled these proverbs or proverbs in general. One of the most striking examples is Paul applying a proverb from Deuteronomy 25 regarding muzzling of oxen as they tread out the grain and applying that to the remuneration of pastors. The proverb in this case in Deuteronomy says you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." And he says, is it oxen that God is concerned about? What is it? That's what the proverb was about.

It was about a very specific particular, an animal treading out the grain. And so Paul asks the question, is it oxen that God is concerned about with that proverb? Or does he say it for our sakes? You see what Paul is doing. He is looking behind the proverb, this pithy saying, encapsulated around one particular example.

And he is extracting a principle, and he is saying God was writing this proverb about oxen for our sakes. He says he answers his own question. Was it written for our sakes? Yes, for our sakes. No doubt about it, he says, it was written.

No doubt. This is written that he who plows should plow in hope, and He who threshes in hope should be partaker of this hope. And he goes on to talk about if he's sown spiritual things in the Corinthians, is it a great thing if he should reap their material things? Who goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit, who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock. And so you see, Paul extracts a principle from that proverb, a general principle about equity and the right of people to partake in a material way from their labor, from the fruit of their labor.

And he tells us that that proverb about oxen was really written for our sakes. And it's about us. And so he gives us that example. Or another example, Proverbs 12, 10, which speaks about love covering a multitude of sins. It's another arrow in the balloon of the idea that the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is somehow about love.

This very idea about love covering a multitude of sins is found in the book of Proverbs and it's applied by Peter to brotherly love. That as we brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ, if we have love for one another, it will cover a multitude of sins. That wasn't the exact context in which the proverb was given. Or in James this proverb is applied to the restoration of those who wander. If you go to somebody and you seek their restoration, you will save their soul from death, and you will cover a multitude of sins.

So that proverb there is applied in a slightly different context. So these Proverbs then are statements of principle. And it is our job to, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, to seek to understand and to distill from a particular proverb about a particular application to distill the principle that God is giving to us that is encapsulated in it. Now some people would say that these proverbs are not absolute laws, or they would say that they are not promises. And they would caution us against looking at these proverbs as absolutes or like a law.

Or they would caution us from looking at these Proverbs as promises. But I have a real problem with that. I really do. And I know there are probably a lot of good people that would talk that way. For example, Proverbs 10 speaks of, it's that a wise son makes That a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother.

A wise son makes a glad father. And They would say, well, it's not a law because there might be a son, maybe a son in Iran, who grew up in a Muslim family and He converts to Christianity. There's wisdom there. As being a wise son, to turn from foolishness, to turn from darkness to light. And yet he doesn't make his father happy.

Certainly, he Makes his father very unhappy. He causes his father great embarrassment in that community. So they might show that as an example of why, you see, this proverb we shouldn't regard it as as a law or or as a promise that if I that if I'm a wise son then my father will be pleased But I don't think that's the way we look at any scripture. I don't think it's a helpful way to look at scripture. Because it, one, it tends to help us to minimize our own fillings.

We can say, well, that's just a proverb. It applies most of the time, but it doesn't apply all the time. And so I'm part of that exception. For example, this is often the case where the proverb, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won't depart from it. That's just a proverb.

It's not a law and it's not a promise. I think that's a danger because as I said it tends to minimize our own failings. It tends to give us an out where we shouldn't have one. I think it tends to minimize or diminish the authority of Scripture If we begin to look at these things as well, they're not laws. They're not absolutes.

They're not promises Well, then what do we do with? Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. What do we do with? For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, with the heart one believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." What do we do with something like that? Somebody says, well, they say well, that's the law that's a promise that's the a and amen in in Jesus Christ But what about but how do you separate these two statements in the Bible How do we know that one is How do we know which statements in the Bible are absolutes and which are not?

We could look at that promise and there are people there who would say, I believe in the Lord, I believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. There are people that could say these things and not turn out to be Christians. There are many people who have made similar statements, who would say that that was true of them, and then apostatize, fall away from the faith. Is it because that word Is just a proverb? Did we just say, well, it's not absolute?

It's not a law? It's generally true? No, we say that is absolutely true. And we find the fault with the person. John says they went out from us because they were not of us.

They didn't believe in their heart. They didn't confess in truth. They may have done it in some outward way, but not in truth. And so when we see a failure with something like that, we put the fault with ourselves and we say, we didn't do something right. We acknowledge that the Word of God is true.

Now, we certainly, and if there's a problem, Then the problem is with us. Now we certainly need to understand, rightly understand, the Word of God. And we need to rightly apply it. That is certainly the case. So for example, God's word says, thou shalt not kill.

But we understand that doesn't mean that there is never a time that we aren't allowed to take the life of another person. God's law commands us to do so, where another person has taken a life, their life is forfeit. So we're just in taking a life in that circumstance, or in defending ourselves. If somebody is seeking to attack us and take our life, The scriptures teach us that we are to defend ourselves. And if somebody breaks into our house in the middle of the night, and we kill them defending our house, there is no guilt of bloodshed in the night and So we understand that we have to rightly apply the law of God we have to we have to understand Its context We have to understand its scope We have to understand specifically about what it is speaking.

And so that is all very true. But I don't think that we can ever say of these Proverbs that well, they're just Proverbs are true Most of the time but not all the time there they're just general principles No, we have to say This is the Word of God and when it's rightly understood and rightly applied it is a law it is Absolute and these are promises that we can live our life by And so with that background then The we come to the book of Proverbs. A book that was written by Solomon, but in a book that's actually highly structured, although a lot of times outlining it can be very difficult. And many times in studying Proverbs, they are studied topically, and that's fine. It's good.

It's a very helpful way to study Proverbs. In other words, we want to look at all that Proverbs have to say about anger, or all that Proverbs have to say about relating to our brother, or all that Proverbs has to say about the relation of husbands and wives, or all that Proverbs has to say about people who shed innocent blood, and so on. It's good to study proverbs that way. But there is a structure to proverbs. And I'd like to just point it out.

It is that there are seven parts to proverbs. There is this part where I'll call part one this first collection of Wisdom and this first part one is from chapter one Through chapter nine and we I'll look at that in a little more detail. The second part, and this is said to be the Proverbs of Solomon, but these are more extended discourses. These are more like lectures, talks. Part two begins with chapter 10 verse 1.

And we know that simply because it begins, 10 verse 1 begins in the same way that the book begins, the Proverbs of Solomon. And then follow these short statements, the real Proverbs, if you will. And that goes on through chapter 22 and verse 16. This is all part two, the Proverbs of Solomon. And then in chapter 22 we find another Statement, another call, verse 17, incline your ear and hear the words of the wise and apply your heart to my knowledge.

And these are, this would be the 30 sayings of the wise. There are 30 sayings. You can count them. They're pretty obvious. If you start looking at them, you'll see that there are 30 sayings.

And they go all the way up through chapter 24 verse 22. These are the 30 sayings of the wise, the third collection if you will in the in Proverbs. And then in verse 23 we have another saying, These things also belong to the wise, and there are, I think, six more Proverbs. And then in verse 25, we have the fifth part of Proverbs, the fifth section, verse 1. It starts again, just like the beginning of the book in chapter 10, these also are the Proverbs of Solomon.

But there's a difference here. These are Proverbs of Solomon that Hezekiah copied down. And so This is a different collection of Proverbs that were collected by Hezekiah and his men, the men of Hezekiah under his leadership. And then that fifth part goes up through chapter 29. So, chapter 29.

And then in chapter 30, we have the sixth part, the words of Agur, the son of Jaca, his utterance, this man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ucal. So here are the proverbs of a different person. These are not Solomon's proverbs, but but a gurus proverbs and His his cover chapter 30 and then in part 7 in chapter 31 we have the words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him. We really have here seven different collections that are put together. The word proverb, for which the book is named, is used to describe Solomon.

But when they're speaking of these other men, the wise and the additional sayings of the wise, and Lemuel and Agur. And then it uses a different word. It uses the word sayings. But we see then seven parts, seven collections that are put together here in the book of Proverbs. Now, in this first part one, we would call this the, what we're looking at this morning, the preamble to this first collection.

The preamble would be verses 1 to 7 and this is the purpose of the book. The very purpose of the book. If you notice, it's almost all one sentence and the English kept it that way. The New King James at least, and I'm sure the King James did. This whole section is all one verse, telling us the purpose of this book.

And we have in beginning in verse 8 and all the way through to chapter 8, we have what we might call a prologue to this book. It's a prologue. It's 12 discourses. It's 10 lectures of a father to his son, and two interludes, in which wisdom is personified. And we will look in more detail at these parts, these discourses, as we go through the book.

But I just want to point out as we begin the this basic structure of the book of Proverbs Proverbs was was Written by pride predominantly by but not entirely by Solomon Solomon was the last king over the unified nation of Israel. And Solomon, you remember, was called the wisest man. The wisest man. God gave Solomon exceeding and great wisdom And largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore we read in 1 Kings 4. Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.

Do you remember the Queen of Sheba, which some believe to be Hapsheput, the Pharaoh of Egypt, came to Solomon and she had heard these wonderful and amazing feats about Solomon, amazing wisdom. And she came for herself to see if it was true and when she was done listening to Solomon, she was just completely overwhelmed. She said, the half has not been told to me. For Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all of Egypt. He was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezraite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahal.

And his fame was in all the surrounding nations. Solomon spoke 3, 000 proverbs, King tells us, and his songs were 1, 005. So we know we don't have all the Proverbs of Solomon. There aren't 3, 000 Proverbs in the book of Proverbs. Although someone has pointed out, and I guess a number of people have noticed that in the second collection of Proverbs, there are 375 Proverbs, which exactly matches the number of Solomon's name given in chapter 10.1.

So in the second collection, which starts in chapter 10 and goes through 2216, so it's probably the largest collection, there's 375 Proverbs, a number that interestingly is the number that's given by Solomon's name. You know what I mean by that. We talk about Roman numerals where letters stand for numbers, and so if you see MDCCCXL, you would know that's 1940. You wouldn't try and read that as a word, you would recognize that. But those are just letters.

And in Hebrew it works the same way. If you take the letters in Solomon's name, it comes out to be 375, which is exactly the number of Proverbs. It's an interesting coincidence. And given the fact that there is this structure in the Old Testament, The writers of the Old Testament did pay attention to the form and the structure. Writing things in acrostics and so on, I think it's an interesting thing to note.

But Solomon... Spoke, Kings tells us, he spoke about trees, he spoke about the cedar trees of Lebanon, he spoke about the hyssops that springs out of the wall, he spoke about animals of birds, of creepy things, of fish, you know, things like oxen treading out grain. He spoke of all these kinds of practical things, but in them is, he encapsulated, in these mundane things of the world around us he encapsulated these principles, this wisdom, knowledge and instruction. And all the men of the Nations from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom came near to hear the wisdom of Solomon This Wisdom Solomon got because he prayed to the Lord. You remember?

Solomon in a dream had a vision and God asked him what he wanted, and he prayed. He asked the Lord for wisdom. He didn't ask him for money and wealth. And the Lord was pleased with that request. And God gave him this wisdom that he had.

It was from God, because all wisdom and knowledge is hid in Christ. But do you know that you too can have this wisdom? James says that if any lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and God will give it without upbraiding, without reproaching us, without saying, Why don't you have wisdom? Why don't you know? He will give it graciously, even as He gave to Solomon.

Because Christ is the greater than Solomon. He's a greater than Solomon. And he is willing and able to give to us wisdom when we ask him for it. This prologue here, these first nine chapters, are to prepare our heart to receive wisdom and instruction. This is to lay the groundwork for the Proverbs.

It's an extended call to come to class. And it's also an extended explanation of the purpose and the necessity of knowing wisdom. And that's something if you're a good teacher, you know, I'm sure Chuck does this. He not only tells the students about the math they need to know, but he wants to tell them why They need to know that and why it's important that they know these things and where they can use these types of things I know that the best teachers I had in college were those who could say well. This is where you use this knowledge You know they could take the differential equation on the blackboard and they could relate it to a spring you know on the car and explain why this particular mathematical principle was important to the motion of a car and to a smooth ride and this is what the this is essentially what the prologue is doing in the book of Proverbs.

It's giving us an explanation of why wisdom is important, and why we ought to listen, and why we ought to gather and hear these Proverbs other Places in Scripture do the same thing Deuteronomy first couple chapters essentially does the same thing prepares the hearts for the law of God and then it gives that law. Or Ephesians, you know, in the first three chapters it lays the foundation, the groundwork, and then it applies that knowledge, that doctrine. But I think another very clear example is Psalm 78 has this beginning call to it in you know, give ear all my people to my law, Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which our fathers have told us." And then it goes on to talk about why we need to listen to this, because we need to pass these things on to our children.

We're not going to hide them from our children. We're going to tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord because of what God did. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, and why should they know them? So that they could arise and declare them to their children, and in other words, the grandchildren, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments and not be like their fathers. There's a call here, a preparation.

Why do you need this Psalm? And this Psalm goes on to recount the history of Israel, all the things that God did for them, drowning the chariots of Pharaoh, the horsemen of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, parting the Jordan, defeating their enemies before them, bringing water from a rock. Why did they need to know all this? Well, the prologue of the Psalm explains that so that you can teach your children these things so that they can obey the Lord. In the same way then this whole prologue of Proverbs has a similar function.

But specifically, this preamble here, just the first seven verses, this opening sentence that tells us the purpose and the reason for this book to know wisdom and instruction to receive to perceive the words of understanding there's two two aspects here that are the given to us as the purpose for this book. One speaks to us in a moral sense and the other speaks to us in what might say an intellectual, a mental sense, to know wisdom and instruction and to perceive the words of understanding. The first is moral, the second is mental. And then verses 3, 4, and 5 develop the moral aspect. Verse 6 then comes back to this mental aspect, and verse 7 summarizes it all in one statement.

To know wisdom. To know wisdom wisdom is mastery under skill understanding expertise it refers to the ability to do things like an auto mechanic has this skill to know how to get difficult parts out of your car and the new ones back in. Or a seamstress, a tailor, has skill to know how to put fabric together in such a way that when it's done it looks like something beautiful as it sits on somebody and not all misshapen. That's expertise there to do that and that is wisdom. Or a computer programmer has expertise to take letters and arrange them in certain ways such that a computer can do an amazing thing.

That's the sense in which it's used in Exodus 28. In Exodus 28, it speaks of men having wisdom to do skillful things. So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom that they may make Aaron's garments. You see, the wisdom, they've been filled with a spirit of wisdom, that's the same word, and this is connected with their expertise to make clothes as tailors. It also can refer to expertise or skill in waging war, technology, or skill in government and administration, or simply plain shrewdness.

This understanding can refer to being able to overcome limitations. I'll give you an example of the breadth of this word. In the Proverbs of Agur, which if you remember our parts, it would be chapter 30, there are said to be four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise." Little things, but are exceedingly wise. They have this wisdom, this expertise, but in this case it's a sense of overcoming a limitation. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer.

They are wise in that they can overcome their lack of strength. They are a people who, the ants, it says they are a people actually, notice that, they are a people. And they're not strong, they lack strength, but they're able to overcome that by preparing their food in the summer, so that they have it in the winter, when their lack of strength would otherwise inhibit them from having the food. Or this rock badger. Our feeble folk, they're not strong, and yet they make their home in the crags.

They're not strong, but their house is defended because they have wisdom. Or the locusts have no king. They lack government. And yet because they have wisdom, they overcome that limitation, and they are able to walk in ordered ranks. Or this spider.

A very weak, whatever it is, something skillfully graphs with its hands and is in King's palaces. Spider or lizard of some sort. See, this is, It says that ants are a people not strong. They prepare their food in summer. Because they have wisdom, they overcome this limitation.

But is this speaking about ants? Or is this speaking about us? Who do not have or are not strong, but who prepare our food in the summer? What is our food? We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So we prepare ourselves with the word of God so that we have it in our heart when that word is scarce. We are a feeble folk, yet they make the rock badgers. And again, it uses the word for people. It says they are people. Is this talking about then rock badgers, or is it talking about us?

Who are defended. Though we aren't strong, Christ is our King and he defends us when we are in him and so forth. So wisdom is a very broad term and it refers predominantly to expertise, to skill. And it says that the purpose of this is to know wisdom, to know wisdom. It's not speaking simply about knowing academically, but it's speaking about having personal knowledge, having something which changes our life.

We don't know wisdom until it changes what we are doing changes the way we live knowing wisdom, but it's also wisdom and Instruction you see wisdom is something that is by itself can be used for good or for evil. Pharaoh called his wise men. It's the same word. It's the adjective. The same word here.

And his wise men were able to duplicate the things that Moses and Aaron did with their rod. But those were not men who had the fear of the Lord. Those were men who used this wisdom in the wrong way. And so we need, and this is coupled here with this second word, instruction. Instruction.

To know wisdom and instruction. And that word is really chastisement or reproof, warning, and sometimes even restraint. To know wisdom and instruction. See, there's an assumption here of waywardness on our part. There's an assumption here that we need to be corrected.

We need righteousness. And that's what's wrapped up in this word instruction instruction It can be verbal and Then it's that word is translated instruction But it can also be corporal and when it's corporal then the word is usually translated discipline, or to disciple. And so the verbal instruction is to prevent acts of folly, the wrong use of wisdom, and to teach us the right use of wisdom the right use of expertise and skill and so verbal instruction is used to prevent acts of folly corporal instruction is used to prevent repetition of folly but they're both a part of instruction verbal and corporal so we could think of it in the New Testament language as those whom the Lord loves, He instructs, He chastens, He inscurges to know wisdom and instruction. Wisdom cannot be possessed without instruction. Righteousness, the right use of expertise, cannot be possessed without instruction, without chastening, to correct us where we go wrong, to correct our moral faults you see this has many many applications right we most probably the most obvious and certainly it's the one here that's most obvious in the book in the language of the book but we'll look more at that next week.

My son here, the instruction of your father. We'll look at how broad that actually is, but it certainly applies to children and their father and mother. And so raising children, we cannot give children, we cannot separate intellectual instruction from doing. We can't separate giving them expertise from giving them instruction, verbal and corporal. In other words, you can't educate without morality.

We're not here to be merchants of knowledge, but rather leading our children and our families and ourselves into conforming our life to the Word of God. So without knowledge we cannot live skillfully, without wisdom and instruction, we cannot live skillfully. And we cannot know with certainty apart from revelation. We cannot live skillfully without knowledge, but we cannot know certainty without revelation. Because all these things, wisdom and knowledge, are hidden in Jesus Christ.

Are hid in Jesus Christ. So moral insight, moral skill to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. In other words, to accept instruction that results in prudent behavior, to do what is right, just, and fair. That's the purpose of this book. As those who are receiving it, It should be causing prudent behavior.

It should be causing us to do what is right, to do what is just, to do what is fair. But it's also to the gullible, to the ignorant, to give prudence to the simple and to the young knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. Let the wise hear and add to their learning. Let the insightful acquire guidance.

That's the purpose of Proverbs. If you're ignorant and simple, it's to give instruction. If you have a measure of wisdom by the grace of God, it is that we might add to it. Because Knowledge of right and wrong is always accompanied and only comes by practice. It's through practice that our senses are trained to discern right from wrong that writer of Hebrews says And that's why wisdom always has to be accompanied by instruction Discipline chastening So that that there is an action that there's a doing of what is wise.

To understand a proverb and an enigma. This is back to the mental aspect in verse 2a, 2b. To receive or to perceive the words of understanding. Then verse 6 elaborates on that. To understand a proverb and an enigma or a proverb which is a parable a proverb Which is a riddle the words of the wise which are which are riddles and Then comes this Summary of the entire book We say this is the theme of the book of Proverbs.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord is a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. It's not something you can really understand by studying parts fear and Lord. Any more than you can understand what a butterfly is by looking at butter and fly.

It happens to be two words that make sense by themselves, but they're not going to lead you to understanding a butterfly. The fear of the Lord is like that. We need to understand it as a unit. The fear of the Lord is a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. Now let's just think about that.

A carefulness not to do unrighteousness. What did Jesus say about love? If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Paul said that love is the fulfillment of the law. To love one another is to keep the law.

And so it's no surprise then that the fear of the Lord has to be understood in a parallel way with the love of God. These two things are equated together in the scriptures, a fear of the Lord and a love of the Lord. After Moses gave the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy to the children of Israel, He cried out, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever. Then he goes on to say in that very well known passage in Deuteronomy 6, this is the commandment and these are the statutes. Which I'm teaching you that you may keep them, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep his statutes and his commandments which I command you and your son and your grandson and what is it that they are to keep how does he sum it up here oh is rule the Lord our God is one Lord you shall Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and all of your strength.

Jesus said this is the first and great commandment. On these two commandments, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor. Hang all the law and the prophets. The fear of the Lord needs to be understood as a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. That arises out of a love of the Lord, out of a desire to serve Him.

It includes two components then, a mental component. That of knowing the law of God. David in two Psalms, Psalm 34 and Psalm 19 says, Ye children come unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Something that can be taught, something that we can study in the Word of God. We can teach it. In fact, we are to raise our children in the fear of the Lord in the fear and nurture of the Lord he see how it puts those two things together the fear and admonition of the Lord it also though involves this emotional notion of fear of love of trust.

We fear the judgments of God and we love His promises. His wrath is bitter. His love is sweet. A child of God humbly bends himself to his Father's law. Humility and fear in that sense are parallel terms.

To humility before the Lord, a bending of ourself, to carefully follow the Word of God. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love, perfectly obeying the law of God casts out fear. Because we do not, we not fear the judgments where there's perfect obedience.

We love the promises. And so John can say, Perfect love casts out fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of expertise. It's the beginning of everything that we do.

Now, there's two senses to the word beginning. It can be beginning in the sense of the start, or it can be this word also means beginning in the sense of the most important part, the principal part. But there's a parallel statement in Proverbs 9. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it comes across the same in English, 9, 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of holding one is understanding. But it's a different Hebrew word. The word beginning is a different Hebrew word. And that different Hebrew word for beginning means the start of. So I think we can, of those two definitions that fit the word here in Proverbs 1 beginning, it's a different Hebrew word, we can choose the first one, that of a beginning, that of the start.

What this is saying as opposed to that which is the principle part. And here's the difference. If fear of the Lord is just the beginning of wisdom in the sense of being the principle part, the main part of it, then you can have wisdom other ways. You know, the fear of the Lord is the main part of it, but there's other forms of wisdom. But that's not the sense in which it's being used here.

The fear of the Lord is the main part of it, but there's other forms of wisdom. But that's not the sense in which it's being used here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom in the sense of it's the start of wisdom. It's first in a temporal sense. It's like the alphabet to language It's like notes to music it is like numbers to arithmetic You can't have words and Communication written communication without letters You can't have music without some notes.

You can't have arithmetic without numbers. So these are the first. We could say that letters, the alphabet, is the beginning of language. It's not something, in the sense that all of language rests upon it. It's not like it's the principal part and that there's some language without letters.

There is no language without letters. And it's not like crawling is the transportation. You could say that crawling is the beginning of transportation. In the beginning, in the sense that I start out with it, and then I move on to better forms of transportation. I can crawl, then I can walk, then I get a bicycle, then I get a car, then I get an airplane, then I get a rocket ship.

That's not that sense, where you don't need to crawl anymore once you can walk. This is the beginning in the sense of foundational. You can't have wisdom without it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The fool says there is no God. He denies the source of all wisdom. It's not just here somebody who doesn't know. This is somebody who hears and rejects. He scorns it.

He hears it and repudiates it. It. Those who repudiate the instruction, and remember what that instruction entails, chastening, corporal and verbal instruction. Those who despise that, those who despise the Word of God are fools. They're fools.

May God give to us wisdom and knowledge and instruction and deliver us from rejecting his words and his commandments and his precepts For in them is life and liberty, and apart from them is death and bondage. That is the truth. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, how often we do despise your word and its commandments and its instruction. And think that we know better or know differently.

Or think That we will escape the judgments that you promise for those who do not follow and fear you. Father, may we be those who have wisdom and not those who are without understanding, who need to be led about with a bit and a bridle, whose backs need to be beaten, that we may walk in a way of righteousness. May we be those who are led by your Spirit, who are indwelt by your Spirit, and who receive instruction and wisdom, which you promised to so freely give to those who ask. Give to us the humility to recognize our own ignorance and to ask wisdom from you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.