Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 1:1-6 (Guidance for Wisdom) (Part 1)

On this book by looking at Ecclesiastes and Job and the Song of Songs. We now come to the Book of Proverbs itself. And I want to begin our exposition by reading the first chapter and the first six verses. So turn with me in your Bibles please, to the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, chapter one. Hear now God's Word at the first verse on through the sixth, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness and justice and equity. To give prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, and thus far the reading of God's word. So we come to the book of Proverbs. And as we read through the book of Proverbs, it will become very apparent, I think, that in our day and age we need a lot more wise guys, a lot more understanding of what wisdom is all about. The ability to apply it. Not wise guys in the usual sense of that, but wise in the way that God understands it. This foolishness abounds all around us. Thus far in our series in general, what wisdom is and how to gain wisdom and how wisdom broadly applies to the basic conditions of life, perplexity, prosperity and sexual love. We have said that wisdom is the skills of godly living necessary to carry out our calling, acquired by those who are in Christ through spiritual reception and understanding of God's Word. Wisdom is not short sighted and wisdom is not rebellious. By contrast, the fool is the man who does not honor God or the direction of God's Word. He's one who is easily seduced. He's one who is self willed. Or he is morally undisciplined and unteachable. Now how do we gain wisdom? To gain wisdom we said we must begin with the fear of the Lord. And wisdom then is supplied by God through regeneration, scripture and prayer. Wisdom calls for seeking the Lord in an obedient spirit. Now how do we apply wisdom to the basic matters of life, the basic conditions of life? What about perplexity? Well, in perplexity, wisdom is God centered. Wisdom has faith in God's wise plan and does not try to find out God's secret purposes. What about in prosperity? The very opposite. In prosperity, wisdom recognizes that God is affirmative toward this world and gives us this worldly good. And yet wisdom recognizes that we can love prosperity so much as to forget what life is all about, so as to be unwilling to be inconvenienced by the demands of God's kingdom, and so as to not have true faith in God's providence. Wisdom therefore acknowledges God for the blessings of prosperity and thanks God for the ability to enjoy that prosperity. And then last Lord's day. Finally, we applied wisdom to the affairs of love and saw there that wisdom confesses the goodness of sexual pleasure and communion, but will not foolishly pursue it outside the holy bonds of marriage. It rejoices in marital sexuality, blessing God for his wisdom in making us and encouraging us to enjoy sexual satisfaction. So that's wisdom. That's how you get wisdom. That's wisdom broadly applied. But you know what we need now? We need more than a general description. We need more than just a basic description of what something does and what it's going to accomplish. What we need now is a detailed and concrete user manual on wisdom. We need concrete directions for gaining and for practicing wisdom. We need a manual that will take us beyond the general description and beyond the broad purposes and come down to the level of a step by step procedure. And that's what we find in the Book of Proverbs. We looked at the Book of Ecclesiastes a couple times in the last few weeks and you might just notice at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes 12, in the ninth verse, we read. And further, because the preacher was wise, he further taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many Proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written uprightly, even words of truth. The man who is wise, be it Solomon or Solomon the ideal, or someone altogether different, the man who is wise, the preacher, as it's presented in the Book of Ecclesiastes, he sets forth many Proverbs, many pithy sayings, many insights into the practical affairs of life that the words of truth might be known. So we come to the Book of Proverbs. Then if we're going to get down to a user manual level, a step by step concrete level of applying wisdom. The first thing I want to tell you about the Book of Proverbs is very simple, is that we need it. We need the Book of Proverbs because knowledge is not enough. And we need the Book of Proverbs. I especially ask this congregation to hear this, because the law of God is not enough. What can you mean by that? First of all knowledge is not enough. We're living in what's called the Atomic Age. The Atomic Age is known for its highly sophisticated aircraft, for instance, for its electronics, for its computers, with its overwhelming number of specialized scholarly studies, for so many doctoral dissertations, I mean, I wish you knew how many doctoral dissertations are written. The bibliographies. Only the bibliographies that list the titles and the authors and the location of these dissertations are so many that they fill shelves on the libraries of our universities. We obviously, in this country, in our society, and at this time, put quite a premium upon knowledge. Indeed, we're the most learned people to have dwelt on the face of the earth throughout human history. There's no doubt about it, in scientific and in mathematical and literary and historical matters. Ancient scholars take Plato as your illustration. Ancient scholars couldn't even pass a college entrance exam today. That's how much things have advanced. Our modern libraries face a crisis of inadequate storage room for all the new books which are published every single year that goes by. You need to be close to this book buying field to understand what I'm talking about. The books in pre print that comes out in multiple volumes this thick have to be redone every year because of the number of books that are either maintained or newly printed, published every year. Brilliant works of art, brilliant medical advances, engineering feats, computer wizardry, what have you. These are no longer grand accomplishments celebrated every few years, celebrated every few decades for our society. They are weekly affairs in the news and we have high educational ideals in this country, great expectations for our school systems. We have compulsory education laws and an overwhelming percentage of high school graduates in our day and age. The colleges are just busting at the seams with students. In a word then, knowledge stuffs our society. We're a knowledgeable people. We have far more knowledge than we can handle. And yet for all of that knowledge, if you read the daily newspaper, if you make your own observations of people all around you, it'll tell you that we're emphatically a world that's in an overwhelming mess. For all of our knowledge, we are in a moral, emotional and social catastrophe. Yes, we've mastered the universe, but we don't know how to live. We can extend human life incredibly, but we can't enjoy the life that's extended. We're a society of educated and intelligent and brilliant fools. Haddon W. Robinson put it this way, and I have to quote him because it's so well put. He says men and women educated to earn a living often don't know anything about handling life at. Alumni from noted universities have mastered information about a narrow slice of life, but couldn't make it out of first grade when it comes to living successfully with family and friends. Let's face it, knowledge is not enough to meet life's problems. We need wisdom, the ability to handle life with skill. That's exactly right. Knowledge is not enough. That's why the book of Proverbs is in the canon of Holy Scripture. Knowledge is not enough. Well, you can learn a great deal of theology from the prophecy of Isaiah and from the book of Romans, and you can learn a lot about living in the details of God's law from the book of Deuteronomy or the book of Romans. But the Bible indicates to us that we need more than just the information about these things. We need more than knowledge. We need wisdom. We need skill. We need an ability to use this. And so Proverbs takes us beyond intelligence and instills in us wisdom, the skill of morally applying our intelligence in a godly and in a successful fashion. And just as intelligence is not enough for us to live a spiritually successful life, so also the law of God is not enough. That may surprise some of you, because you know that I have spent some time writing and debating and publishing and pushing the idea that the law of God is what we need in Christian living. And it certainly is. What I want to point out, though, is that it is not enough simply to know the law of God. We may possess the objective code of behavior, we may have the proper rules of conduct, and still fall completely short of pleasing God. The law of God as an objective code of behavior is not enough. And I'd like to give you three reasons. In the first place, we may have a very precise knowledge of what God requires, a very precise knowledge of what God forbids, and still not comply with his law. You've probably noticed that in your own life, knowing what God wants you to do, knowing what God doesn't want you to do, doesn't keep you from doing it and doesn't make you do it. Ask yourself this question. When David got into trouble with Bathsheba, had David forgotten somehow, just a mental lapse, thou shall not commit adultery? Had that just slipped David's mind? David knew the law of God, but David did not keep the law of God. The law of God was not enough in that case, because he did not have the moral skills for applying it and the willingness to do so. We, we read in our responsive reading this morning Psalm 51, David's penitential prayer after that sin, after his restoration, after his coming to his senses spiritually. And he asked God, renew a right spirit within me, that I might have wisdom in the inward parts. David had knowledge, he did not have wisdom. Secondly, the law of God is not enough because we may have mounds and mounds of information about what the law of God says, says, and we may have that information detailed from point to point and still not be able to discern how to combine the principles of God's law into an adequate application to the troubling problems in our lives. Does that surprise you? I know people who have a very detailed knowledge of the law of God and they have very little ability to discern good and evil. Because it's one thing to write down on a piece of paper. This is what the law requires. This is what the Hebrew means. This is how we would understand this text. And another thing to take that and put it into the, you know, whatever it takes, the grinder here, so that it comes out in your life in some digestible way. Book of Hebrews, chapter 5, 14th verse, says, There are those who do not have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. And there are people who have a detailed knowledge of the law of God, but don't have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. And so when questions come up, we don't know what to do with it. Should I be in business relationship with an unbeliever? Can I be a partner with an unbeliever? Is what I'm feeling right now sinful anger or righteous indignation? We have troubled questions. Situation. People are supposed to be experts in the law of God. Can't seem to agree on. Should the church incorporate with the state? Is it ever right for a Christian to be in a public school system? We can go on and on. Why all the detailed knowledge and no ability to apply it? Because our senses are not exercised to discern good and evil. And a third reason why the law of God is not enough, sadly, is that we may have an intellectual mastery of the deep, detailed laws of Scripture and still miss and still miss the weightier points of the law. Justice, mercy and faith. Matthew 23:23. There's a group of people that many of you are familiar with. They're often called Reconstructionists. I'm often numbered with them, sometimes against them. But you know that they have a reputation, all of them, for emphasizing the law of God and the study of the law of God. God. But you see Reconstructionists who specialize in an intellectual study of the law, but cannot for the life of them learn how to treat each other correctly, cannot for the life of them resolve their conflicts, gain reconciliation, promote peace and humility in their numbers. They aren't wise people, they're brilliant fools. And we all are like that when we have this information that is not being put into practice in our lives. And so you see, we need wisdom. We need wisdom to take our knowledge of God's requirements and put them appropriately into practice throughout our lives. We need moral and spiritual skill to handle God's laws correctly and to let them truly remold our lives, truly discipline our living. And so we need the Book of Proverbs because knowledge isn't enough in our society, and the law of God is not enough in our society. We need to become wise individuals. Now, as we look at the Book of Proverbs, I want you to see secondly, not just the necessity of it, but the kind of genre of literature it is, the kind of book that we have here. Because although I get upset the way people read prophecy and can often be misled because they don't understand the kind of literature it is, it's far easier to be misled when it comes to the Book of Proverbs. You cannot read the Book of Proverbs like you read other books, books of the Bible. Just in case you were dozing off at that point, I don't want you to miss this. You cannot read the Book of Proverbs like you read other books of the Bible. It's not written like other books of the Bible. It doesn't serve the same function as other books of the Bible. It's a different kind of literature than other books of the Bible. And if you try to read through Proverbs in large portions, you're just going to frustrate yourself. You're not going to get the point. It's going to overwhelm you. And so what kind of literature is this? Well, it's called wisdom literature. Wisdom literature. It was the ancient practice among many people to collect sayings of wisdom, Proverbs, pithy insights into life. We do that in our society too. It goes way back. We say, look before you leap, okay? A zinger, a one liner that distills a lot of wisdom, practical affairs of life. Look before you leave, be cautious. Well, that was an ancient practice too, to collect these pithy insights into life. And historians have numerous examples of that practice. Among the neighbors of Israel and especially in the nation of Egypt, such wisdom literature was used and it was collected and it was Shared from the Nile to the Euphrates and throughout Mesopotamia and into the ancient Near East. It was done by primitive tribes and cultured literate societies as well. This was a common practice then, especially in Solomon's age. Now if we look at Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter, verses six to eight, we'll find an interesting preparation for the days of wisdom literature among the Jews. Deuteronomy 4, at the sixth verse, Moses says, keep therefore and do them, referring to all these statutes and ordinances commanded by God. Keep, therefore and do them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples that shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that hath a God so nigh unto them as Jehovah our God is whensoever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that hath statutes and ordinances? So righteousness is all this law which I set before you this day. The wisdom literature of the ancient world wasn't simply little one line zingers that were, you know, passed back and forth between the members of a culture. They were intended to be put on display to people's neighbors. You know the wisdom of this particular tribe. Well, if you are in this tribe, it is said that. And then you hear some of the these zingers, you see, wisdom was something to be shared with others. Wisdom was to be put on display. And God, years before the days of Solomon, says, and this will be your wisdom in the eyes of the nations round about. Let them hear the law of God, let them see it applied. And then they'll stand back and say, wow, what a wise and understanding people. They have a God so near them and so righteous, and statutes so just and equitable. And so the law of God laid a foundation for wisdom in the sight of the nations round about. The pagan neighbors of the Jews were to see their wisdom worked out. We also know that King Solomon, Solomon, who reigned during a time of relative peace and prosperity after his father David, Solomon engaged in international trade relations. We have a number of references we could look up here. We won't do that this morning. But Solomon was, was not an isolationist by any means. Solomon traded with the Egyptians, traded with the tribes roundabout. He got to know their culture. He shared with them the culture of Israel. In First Kings 4:32 we read that Solomon was reputed to have spoken 3,000 proverbs and more than 1,000 songs. This Solomon. You know how wealthy the age was, by the way, the fact that he had that much leisure time, if nothing else. But Solomon became famous for 3,000 proverbs, the vast majority of which have been lost to us. You see the Book of Proverbs, even if it were written completely by Solomon, which it wasn't, the Book of Proverbs only has 915 verses, and not each one of those verses is a separate proverb. And so Solomon had 3,000 of these proverbs. He was well known for this. And this was undoubtedly a time of free interchange of culture and language and wisdom with Israel's neighbors. And interestingly, if you do a detailed study of this, some biblical proverbs resemble insights on life recorded elsewhere. One very famous location for this is the wisdom of Amen, Am Apeh from Egypt. Thirty prophets, proverbs that are found there, 30 chapters of proverbs found there, and many of them almost verbatim what we find in the Bible as well. Now you can argue, did the Egyptians learn it from the Jews? The Jews from the Egyptians. Actually that debate doesn't understand the process. See, this is the sort of thing that was circulating all over the world. Cultures shared their wisdom and their pithy sayings. And whether it originates in Egypt and then is incorporated into the Hebrew canon, or whether it originates with Solomon and then it's copied there, or whether it's a little bit of both, doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Everything that has been preserved and recorded in God's holy Word by the Spirit of God, however it originally occurred to the biblical writer, it doesn't make any difference there. However it comes about. Anything that the Holy Spirit of God records in the Scripture is accounted as the very word of God himself. And thus it doesn't surprise us that there are at least 20 or more allusions to of the Book of Proverbs. In the New Testament it has always been accounted the inspired word of God. But here we have this wisdom sharing going on in the ancient world. That's the kind of book Proverbs is. Let's look a little bit at the structure and the authorship of this book as we're on this subject. Proverbs is a cluster of sayings, but try to outline it. I'll tell you there's no more frustrating task. If you just a seminarian, but send him home and say outline correctly the Book of Proverbs, he won't be able to do it because there isn't an outline. In the Book of Proverbs, there are sections which run somewhat and organize around a theme. You'll find some extended Sections, for instance, about the foolishness of adultery and some on the beauty of wisdom and the need for it. And then you'll find little clusters having to do with financial integrity and little clusters about personal relations. But then they repeat one another. They go back and forth. You cannot outline this because there is no outline. There's no overall arrangement. There's no progression. And that bothers us because we've all been brought up from the days of elementary school to not expect writers to do that. So we think there's something wrong here. Well, what's wrong is our approach to the book. That's what's wrong. This is not a book meant to be outlined. It's not that kind of book. It's not that kind of literature. Remember what I said. Even if you were dozing, the one thing you must get from today's message, you can't read the book of Proverbs the way you read any other literature. Well, who wrote these sayings that we're going to be getting into? Solomon's identified. In the very opening verse it says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. Solomon's also mentioned that at the beginning of chapters 10 and 25. But it would be very, very wrong and over simple to say that he was the author of everything that appears in the book. And I don't say that because I have any higher critical tendencies. I trust you all understand that about your pastor. I say that because the book itself identifies other authors. Look at chapter 30, verse 1, for instance. Proverbs 30, the first verse. There is mention of another author for some of these things. The words of Agur, the son of Jacob, the oracle. Look at chapter 31, verse 1, the words of King Lemuel, the Oracle, which his mother taught him. And if you look at chapter 22, verse 17, you will notice as well. Now that's ISIS. 22:17 is what I said. I better turn to the right place. Incline thine ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge. The wise men of Israel authored some of these as well. Moreover, if you look at the 25th chapter, verse one, we know that some of the proverbs of the time of Solomon, or of Solomon himself, were finally compiled under the auspices of the court of King Hezekiah. These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out. And obviously they had to do some editing work if there were 3,000 that were known by Solomon, and only these get copied out. And this is about 250 years after the time of Solomon. So what I'm getting at is that the Book of Proverbs doesn't have an outline, and the Book of Proverbs doesn't have just one author, probably has a number of authors, wise men. Most of these things probably were tied to Solomon in one way or another. But many men are responsible for what we find in this book. What is the content of the book then? What's the purpose of Proverbs? Well, Proverbs was written very obviously in the midst of an ancient Semitic society. And when we read the Book of Proverbs, we have to take account of that fact. When we see how its wisdom for life is communicated, it's communicated in terms of a society different from our own, in terms of different kinds of commercial interactions, different kind of family arrangements, houses, fields, farms, what have you. And most of the Proverbs we find are domestic. They deal with choices and conduct, the choices and conduct of people in everyday life. Matters of laziness and hard work, matters of dishonesty and integrity, matters of excess, matters of thrill, thrift, borrowing and lending, anger and patience. On and on we see the Proverbs deal with family relationships on a very, very mundane level. Business ethics as well as political justice. And the intent of these Semitic sayings that were passed orally and thought about and reflected on these little pithy sayings. The intent of these Semitic sayings about such mundane affairs of life is to offer timeless, universally applicable guidance for wise behavior and relationships among people. The book of Proverbs, you see, fleshes out the bare bones about wisdom and general affairs that we've already surveyed. The Book of Proverbs helps us in the concrete details of godly living. And thus, at the very beginning, what we read this morning, you see the purpose of the book. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, in justice, in equity, to give prudence to the simple, to the simpleton, you might say to the young man, knowledge and discretion, that the wise man may hear, that he may increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and dark sayings or riddles, if you will. That's why this book has been put here, so that it would take our foolishness and drive it away and increase our ability to understand wise counsel and to deal with people in a wise way, in an equitable way, in a righteous way, way to give to us simpletons some prudence and discernment that we need to increase our learning, that we might attain a sound counsel. Simply put, the Book of Proverbs is offering basic and unchanging principles to guide God's people, to guide them into acceptable and to guide them into successful behavior. The Book of Proverbs was written for you, for me. Because we need spiritual common sense, don't we? All of us are so foolish. We really are. We know so much and we live so poorly. We have so much insight and so little discernment. You know what we all need? We need a lot more practical obedience, a lot more spiritual common sense on how to live, to get along. We need wisdom for the mundane affairs that fill our lives. And the Book of Proverbs is a many faceted application of wisdom for our everyday lives. I'm going to give you some recommended uses for the Book of Proverbs then. Proverbs has been likened to medicine. I think that's pretty good medicine which we need now and then for our good health, but which we could not live on alone. The Book of Proverbs should not be made your spiritual diet on a steady basis any more than medicine should be all that you eat and drink for the rest of your lives. It would be an unbalanced spiritual diet all by itself. But on the other hand, the person who pays no attention to the antidotes, to the pithy sayings, and to the wisdom that is expressed in these respects remarks that person is set up for spiritual sickness. Indeed, we need it like medicine. And when you take medicine, what do you recognize? You recognize, for instance, in a pill, that the medicine is highly concentrated, isn't it like a pill? The sage tidbits of Proverbs are highly concentrated. Spiritual medicine a little is intended to go a long way. Way. When you take your pills in the morning, if you're one like me that's on a prescribed regiment, you don't take them and then take them, and take them and take them. You're supposed to take the pill and let it do its work for 12 hours or a day or six, whatever the prescription says. And then you come back and you take another pill and you let it do its work. And then you take another pill and let it do its work. That's how you read the Book of Proverbs. You take a tip and let it do its work in your life, and then come back and get another one and meditate on it, reflect on it, concentrate on it, let it kind of diffuse its wisdom throughout your life, come back and get another one. And so this analogy to medicine, I think is real helpful. A little is intended to go a long way. And it will not be massive dosages engorging us that will prove helpful. It's rather the measured quantity, quantities which we allow to do their individual work on a regular basis that we need. All of us probably know people that are real good at one liners, zingy comebacks, and it's enjoyable to hear a few of those spicing up our conversation. But how would you like it if you carried on a conversation with a person for 20 minutes and all you got from them is just this real quick, quick, pithy boom, boom, boom, boom. And that's all you got from this person. You know, that's nice every once in a while. But over 20 minutes you'd say this conversation has gotten to be a real drag, a real problem. I no longer am appreciating all this humor and all this help and all this alleged insight. The book of Proverbs is exactly like that. Don't take the book of Proverbs in large dosages. Don't try to carry on a conversation for 2:20 minutes where you're getting one liners. You couldn't do that in ordinary conversation. And you won't be able to do it in reading the book of Proverbs any more than you'll be able to outline it, sustain a conversation with it. And so what I want you to do is to concentrate on and meditate upon and then put into practice each and every one of these pungent insights. Take them like pills, spiritual pills. Don't gorge yourself with a whole bunch of them. Take a pill, let it do its work in your life, and then come back and take another one, maybe take a couple. But don't just, you know, take the whole bottle. And I'll give you a little advice. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. That's about the number of days in a month, give or take on a few months. 31 chapters in Proverbs. And I want to suggest that during the time of our preaching series over Proverbs, which will probably extend some time, why don't you commit yourself to reading just a chapter a day? And so if we do this for six months, you'll read through the book of Proverbs six times. Just take one chapter a day and we'll begin first day, the month of November, and we'll all read together the same chapter every day as a congregation. We'll start talking to each Other about those problems we read, we'll be on the same subject, and not only we'll cover the ground a number of times. In the process of my preaching through the book, I want to suggest you do that. Not just say, oh, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I mean, do it, take it, take it to heart. I'm now prescribing for you. The doctor says you are to read one chapter of Proverbs a day until we get through this series. Please do that and do it in the way that I've suggested. Suggested to you. One last word about how to use the book of Proverbs. Take note of Proverbs 26, the ninth verse. As a thorn that goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. How should you read the book of Proverbs? Well, what happens when a drunkard has a thorn going to his hand? Probably won't even know until the next day that he's got a wound. And so a parable, a proverb, can be very pithy, very pungent, very pointed, and go right into the hand of a person who, if he's a fool, nothing will happen when you take these proverbs. The interesting thing is, to read the book of Proverbs correctly, you need to already have a measure of wisdom, because proverbs have to be handled correctly, too. I want to illustrate real quickly, not from biblical proverbs, but from our own society. We say, don't we? He who hesitates is lost, okay? And so you'll hear that, people. But you see, only a fool would apply that little proverb to every affair of life. Because on the other hand, we say, look before you leap. Well, so which is it? See, the fool says, look before you leap. All the time. All the time, all the time. Look before you leap. Another kind of fool says, no, he who hesitates is lost. He who hesitates is lost. And he doesn't apply anything. But that wisdom comes not just in having these pithy words of wisdom, but in having the wisdom to apply them correctly. And so a parable in the hand of a fool is like a thorn in the hand of a drunkard. If you want to read the book of Proverbs correctly, not only in terms of the literary approach that I've given you, not only in terms of the congregational unity that I have prescribed now, but make sure that you're reading it as a wise person. Where do you get that wisdom? Well, that sends us back to our introductory remarks, doesn't it? Wisdom is the skills of godly living. Wisdom comes from the fear of God, regeneration, prayer, Scripture. Wisdom comes from a heart willing to obey and to be taught. Wisdom is looking at perplexity and trusting that God knows what he's doing in the world. Wisdom comes in looking at prosperity and saying it's only the icing on the cake. Wisdom comes in understanding that all of our love relationships are to be bounded by God's requirements. Start learning wisdom in general, and then when you come to these particular proverbs, you won't take them like a drunken fool. Let's pray. Lord, we ask you to prepare our hearts as we now begin this series in the Book of Proverbs, to truly understand, to appreciate and put into practice the wisdom that you have for us. And there is so much here, Father, we confess that it overwhelms us. So many little pills of spiritual medicine, and we need them all. Lord, help us to take them wisely, to digest them wisely. We pray that they would do their work in our lives. We pray you would keep us true to our commitment to our prescription to read a book, a chapter from this book every day of the month, to stay with that, to concentrate and meditate on those things that we really read. Lord, we pray that above all, these general lessons on wisdom that we've already covered would become not simply answers on a piece of paper for us, but would become living realities in our lives. Teach us to be humble and teachable. Teach us in perplexity, prosperity, and in the affairs of love to react as you would have us to do. And then, Father, help us to come down to this very base basic user level, step by step, and concrete procedures for knowing how to get along with people, how to be successful in life, and above all, how to please you. We pray these things in the name of our wise and discerning Savior, who by his Holy Spirit, inspired every word of this book. Amen. Tape over. At this time.